Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Zen Tea
Tea Description:
Tart and tangy cranberries meet the rich sweetness of ripe mangos. Sweet, invigorating and exceptional!
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Oh YUM! This Cranberry Mango Green Tea from Zen Tea is oh-so-delicious!
The contrast between the cranberry and mango is fantastic! This cup is at once sweet, tart, fruity, and of course, mildly invigorating with a lovely green tea lushness that I’m finding absolutely captivating.
I recommend letting this tea cool just a minute or two after pouring the cup, when it’s still right from the teapot hot, the flavors seemed to be hiding. But after a minute or two, the flavors really POPPED!
I’m loving the fruit flavor here. This tastes like authentic cranberry and mango – its not that artificial, chemical kind of fruit taste that some teas possess. The mango tastes sweet and juicy, like a fresh, ripe mango! Pair that with the robust tartness of the cranberry and BAM! You have a really delightful combination of fruits that work amazingly well together. Mango and cranberry are two flavors I wouldn’t have ordinarily thought of combining, but they work astonishingly well together!
And the green tea is not hidden in this blend either. The Chinese green tea tastes sweet, a little creamy (as if it were “kissed” with just a touch of butter) and slightly vegetative. I wouldn’t call it a grassy vegetative taste, more like the taste of steamed vegetables … but, a very mild vegetable … and the taste is very subtle. If you’re one who tends to shy away from green teas because of the sometimes aggressive vegetative taste … I’d recommend trying this one. The vegetative taste here is delicate.
This is really good – one that I’ll want to stock up on when it gets warm out … it’s going to make an AWESOMELY refreshing iced tea!
Sencha Superior Uji from Zen Tea Life
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green, Sencha
Where to Buy: Zen Tea Life
Tea Description:
Sencha is the most commonly enjoyed variety of Japanese green tea. Sencha contains more of the beneficial nutrient Catechin than other green teas, because it is grown in full sunlight, thus it becomes yellow-green in color. Sencha tastes gently astringent and smells wonderfully fresh. Sencha is harvested three or four times a year. But with each harvest, the tea becomes slightly lower in quality. This is why the first flush, or Ichiban Cha, is the best. All of our Sencha products are made exclusively from Ichiban Cha. You will certainly be delighted with the fine and generously harmonized flavor of our Sencha.
Ingredients: Sencha, Matcha, Brown Rice, Puffed Corn.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
The cup steeps into a clear, nearly neon green color. Its bright and cheery, and just what the doctor ordered on a foggy dreary day!
The flavor of this tea is deliciously green, vegetal, sweet, nutty, and fresh.
As described there is a light astringency to the cup but it does not become bitter if brewed correctly.
The directions say to use 1 to 2 teaspoons so I split the difference going 1.5 teaspoons however I am feeling I could have saved some leaf and went with just one. It is a strong tasting tea, not too strong, just strong enough that you don’t need as much leaf as you could use unless you want your sencha to really punch you in the face.
There is a wonderful fresh cut grass after taste that I adore! It lingers just like beautiful clean crisp blades of summer grass from a full lush lawn.
There is a nuttiness to the tea as well which is another of my favorite flavor notes. The matcha in the tea is noticeable in flavor but does not leave matcha “dust” in the bottom of your cup. This brings me to the following: One thing that does confuse me is that on the ingredients listing it says there is puffed rice, matcha, sencha of course, and brown rice, yet in the leaf itself I see none of this so it must be somehow mixed in here perfectly so it is not detected in the dry leaf. To the naked eye it looks simply like a beautiful deep green sencha. Or the labeling on my sample may be incorrect. Regardless, I can taste the flavor notes listed on the ingredients, I just can’t see them. What the label infers to me is a genmaicha.
What one can’t be confused about however is that this particular tea, is delicious.
Phoenix Pearl Black Tea from Zen Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Zen Tea
Tea Description:
Hailing from the Yunnan province, this Phoenix Pearl is naturally sweet and smooth with a touch of earthiness. Comprised of only the highest quality leaves and buds, expertly rolled into a pearl-like shape. Subtle cocoa notes whisper gently as each pearl unfurls delivering a superior tea experience not to be missed. Recomended to steep 2-3 times for different nuances of flavor.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Oh, my! I am loving this tea! It is so rich and creamy and incredibly decadent!
But I’m getting ahead of myself.
The leaves were a little surprising for me, because generally, when I think of “Pearl” black teas, I think of leaves that are very dark (black!) that have been rolled up into near perfect pearl shapes. These leaves are a bit lighter in color, more like a chocolate-y brown rather than a black color, and some of the leaves are tipped in gold. And they aren’t rolled into careful little pearls. They look a little more like disheveled knots rather than pearls. Nothing wrong with that, of course, just my observations based upon what I’ve experienced in the past with teas called “black pearl” teas and this Phoenix Pearl Black Tea from Zen Tea.
The little knots, when dry, possess very little discernible fragrance, I do note some earthiness to the scent but not much else. Once brewed, the aroma of the liquid has a slightly earthy, rich, almost chocolate-y note.
The flavor is superb! Rich and chocolate-y, these are the most profound flavors of the cup – from the very first sip to the last. I note caramel-y tones in the undercurrent, earthiness in the background, flavors that remind me of leather and even a touch of woodsy flavor. This is one of those teas that once you start drinking, you don’t want to stop, and you want more the minute you finish the cup! It has a very pleasing texture to it, it feels full and smooth on the palate, and there is some, but not a lot, of astringency to the sip. The aftertaste is sweet, reminding me of raw sugar.
I REALLY like this tea a lot. It’s one of those MUST TRY teas for those who truly love tea.
Toffee Dream from Zen Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: White
Where to Buy: Zen Tea
Tea Description:
Gives mild white sweet accent with toffee. Must try teas for white tea lovers.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Yum! Toffee!
This is really a lovely blend. I don’t think I’ve had a white tea flavored with toffee before, and these two elements go together surprisingly well.
The white tea is gentle and sweet, with a mild, fresh taste that is reminiscent of the taste that is in the air after the hay and alfalfa fields have been cut. (Yes, I lived on a ranch in my youth) The tea tastes light and airy, with a note of vegetation and a hint of hay. The warm notes of the hay together with the sweet notes of the toffee is a very interesting flavor. It’s almost smoky, but it’s a very mellow smoked note. Perhaps toasty is a better way to describe this flavor, with subtle wisps of smoke, like the flavor you might get if you were to roast nuts over an open campfire.
Which leads me to the nutty flavor that I taste. It is a deep, delicious nutty tone, which makes me think of the center of a toffee candy bar, you know how there are bits of nuts in that toffee? Yes, that’s what I taste: delicious, cruncy roast nuts! It goes perfectly with the sweet, caramelized toffee flavor.
This is a very cozy tasting tea, something you’d want to curl up and sip on a cold autumn afternoon (like today!) I like that it offers a pleasing sweetness – no additions needed – and I like the mellow attitude of this tea. A sweet, gentle indulgence!
Curled Dragon Silver Tip from Zen Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Zen Tea
Tea Description:
A most amazing tea – even just to look at. The name refers to the unusual and striking shape and color of the leaves, which are rolled into complex, tightly-curled dragon-like shapes with a silvery color. Curled Dragon Silver Tips is an extremely well-made tea, and a good example of the high level of hand-work. Even before infusion, the aroma of this tea is heavenly! Infused, it produces a complex, sweet and somewhat floral liquor. There are no edges and no astringency. Entirely handmade, it is a must have for green tea lovers.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
This has to be one of the most beautiful teas I’ve ever seen. The leaves are so tiny and frail looking, and have been shaped into itty-bitty dragon-like curls. Each tiny leaf is an absolutely stunning work of art! These leaves look as though they could be a white tea because of their pale green color and the tiniest little silvery fuzz that covers them.
The color of the liquid is almost as beautiful as the dry leaf. It is the palest shade of green, mixed with a translucent, golden alabaster. So breathtakingly gorgeous! Again, this tea looks as though it could be the highest quality white tea, rather than a green.
And all of this would mean very little if the tea was not also stunning. But it is, indeed, amazingly good. The texture reminds me just a bit of champagne, how it dances lightly over the tongue in an almost effervescent way until it settles in and offers a soft, smooth mouthfeel that lightly coats the palate.
The overall delicateness of this tea is also rather reminiscent of a fine white tea. The flavor is light and crisp with a sweet taste. It doesn’t taste strongly vegetative at all, in fact, this tea is one of the lighter, more delicate tasting green teas I’ve encountered. It features flavors that are sweeter and mellower than the typical vegetative tones that I notice with green teas that can be somewhat sharp. This is softer … like a very mild tasting, young artichoke heart. Not the ones that have been processed and pickled in a brine. But the fresh artichoke that has been steamed until tender and smooth like butter, with a flavor to match. Yeah, that’s what I taste now.
By mid-cup, I find that the vegetative notes have developed somewhat. They are still remarkably smooth and buttery, as there is not a sharp edge to this cup whatsoever. But, it has become much more green tea-like now that the tea has cooled slightly and I’ve been drinking it a little while. But it remains delicate. There is no astringency, no bitterness… nothing at all that might be construed as off-putting. It is just simply delicious.