Tea Adventure: “Jasmine Ancient Beauty” from Persimmon Tree Tea

Here is the latest “Tea Gang” adventure with:


“Jasmine Ancient Beauty” from Persimmon Tree Tea.[More company info]This is a Flavored Tea [About straight teas vs flavored teas.]

Yes, another flavored tea. Jasmines, though, are a really special category and have been around a long, long time. Most we’ve tried in this household have been green teas, but this is an oolong. I supervised the steeping while my cohort Little One Cupper steeped the tea.

Prepare your noses, humans, for a floral burst when you pop the lid off the tea tin. But it won’t overwhelm you. The processors of this tea have managed to tone down the jasmine aroma enough so that it is very evident but doesn’t knock you over. It might be the tea used here, a lovely oolong of indeterminate origin. Oolongs are teas that are not fully oxidized (the process that turns the leaves from green to black) and range from lightly oxidized to heavily oxidized. This one is about in the middle:

The vendor recommends water heated to 195 F and a 3-5 minute steeping. Little One Cupper stayed with 3 minutes per steep. This being an oolong, multiple steeps were very doable. The liquid was a lovely honey color but also had a honey-like quality under that jasmine floral top coat. It was smooth tasting, too, and one of the more enjoyable jasmines my humans have tried (some have been too strongly floral). It really is a bit sad, though, to watch my humans quibbling over who will get the last cupful. Sigh!

Disclaimer: This tea was provided by the company named. However, any opinions concerning this tea and the company are always strictly objective.

© 2012 A.C. Cargill photos and text – All rights reserved. No copying, posting on other sites, or other uses allowed without written permission of the copyright holder.

Tea Adventure: Royal Yunnan from Tea Licious

Here is the latest “Tea Gang” adventure with:


Royal Yunnan from Tea Licious[More company info]This is a Straight Tea [About straight teas vs flavored teas.]

This time it’s a classic tea from the Yunnan Province of China. A black tea, something that is relatively new from that region. This little teapot insisted on doing the steeping honors, since I am the founder and head of this gang of teapots, cups, etc. (all dedicated to tea adventures).

This traditional black tea is picked in early Spring when tea plants are budding with the new year's growth. These buds when oxidized turn gold instead of black, and the tea has a rich flavor that is good both black or with a little milk (and some sweetener if you wish. This one from Tea Licious lives up to that reputation. The dry leaves emitted an aroma that reminded my humans of the rich fruitiness of dates and yet had a floral quality.

I steeped twice in boiling water for 4 minutes. The first one had a slightly astringent yet smoky/caramelly flavor that tickled my spout and made my humans “Ooh!” and “Aah!” A bit of milk and sweetener took away that hint of astringency and smoothed the flavor but did not smother it. My humans thought the flavor had a bit of Earl Greyness to it in a floral way. The second steeping was lighter but still flavorful. A third steeping is a definite possibility, making this tea a real bargain!

When posing for the photo above, I didn’t realize that Little Red Teapot was lurking behind my cozy. He had wanted to steep this tea and was probably waiting his chance to usurp me in the role of steeper. I’m going to have to give him a good talking to.

Meanwhile, try some of this wonderful tea. I’m thinking the folks in the Salt Lake City, Utah, area lost something special when the Tea Licious store closed, but you humans everywhere can still enjoy these teas by ordering from her online.

Disclaimer: This tea was provided by the company named. However, any opinions concerning this tea and the company are always strictly objective.

© 2012 A.C. Cargill photos and text – All rights reserved. No copying, posting on other sites, or other uses allowed without written permission of the copyright holder.

Tea Adventure: “Corazon de Melon” from Teajay

Here is the latest “Tea Gang” adventure with:


Corazon de Melon from Teajay[More company info]This is a Flavored Tea [About straight teas vs flavored teas.]

This little teapot freely acknowledges the popularity of flavored teas. This popularity leads to the rise of various tea vendors adding tons of “stuff” to their teas, instead of letting those teas speak for themselves. A lot of tea drinkers seem to be totally deaf to the language of teas anyway, and so when the teas speak, they are not heard or are not understood.

Teajay is trying to give teas a musical voice while at the same time drowning them out by adding a mélange of flavorings. This little teapot got some samples, opened the package, and immediately smelled this one (sadly, the little bags were not sealed and so were not airtight). I must confess that the aroma of the melon was quite enticing and so encouraged my humans to try the tea right away. Did the tea get to sing? Read on to find out.

This tea is Chinese oolong with honey melon, guava pieces, barberries, tea flowers and sunflowers (per the vendor’s web site). Quite a combo, and the flavorings are presented in big chunks, not dabbled on as oils. (Presenting flavorings in this chunky form has come to be fairly iffy: better for multiple infusions, yet hard to get an even distribution per pot or cupful, and some larger elements such as whole peppercorns not imparting the extent of flavor they would if ground up.) The melon aroma dominates and is quite appealing. Time to steep and see how this mixture does in the teacup.

We followed the vendor’s label and heated water to 90 C and then steeping for 1 minute for the first infusion and 1½ minutes for the second infusion. The steeping was done by Tea Gang member Little One Cup while I supervised. The results were pretty much as expected.

The melon speaks loud and clear and totally drowns out the milky oolong as well as the other ingredients. No guava flavor. Not sure what barberries should taste like. Sunflower petals were just there but added no flavor element. The oolong was one of the greener kind (that is, more lightly oxidized) and consisted of fairly large leaf pieces but emitted a flavor like a piano without strings.

My guess is that on its own this oolong would have been quite nice. My humans stopped at two infusions, even though the leaves could have born another round. The fruit flavoring was too overpowering in the cup, as much so as it was enticing in the dry mix.

As always, I and my humans recognize that for those of you who enjoy fruity teas, you will find this a pleasant cupful. Also, we appreciate that company founder Selen Mostyn is trying to do something different, as are a number of smaller tea vendors out there working busily to create their own line of signature flavored teas. Our best wishes to them all.

Meanwhile, we have more samples from Teajay to try, and they are a bit tamer in their flavorings, so we have high hopes.

Disclaimer: This tea was provided by the company named. However, any opinions concerning this tea and the company are always strictly objective.

© 2011 A.C. Cargill photos and text – All rights reserved. No copying, posting on other sites, or other uses allowed without written permission of the copyright holder.

Tea Adventure: Gen Maicha from Tea Licious

Here is the latest “Tea Gang” adventure with:



Gen Maicha from Tea Licious[More company info]This is a Flavored Tea [About straight teas vs flavored teas.]

Time for this little teapot and his humans to take a bow – a Japanese bow of greeting – for this time our tea adventure is a real Japanese treat. I was going to ask Tea Gang member Little Japanese teapot to steep this, but I took one whiff of the dry tea in the pouch, with its richly roasty/grassy aroma, and claimed the honor for myself! (It’s good to be gang leader.)

Starting with bancha (an inexpensive, low quality green tea drunk everyday in Japan), Tea Licious then added the traditional roasted rice. One difference here from other versions we’ve tried is that it has a lot more popped rice kernels.

Water heated to 185° F will steep this tea without cooking it (something that can make the tea taste too spinachy). The steeping time recommended is 4 to 6 minutes. We did only 4 minutes for the first steep and 4½ minutes for the second steep. Both seemed more than ample, and you might want to cut back to 3 and 3½ minutes for the first and second steeps respectively. A third steep is iffy. My humans didn’t want to.

The liquid was a lovely golden color with a wonderful grassy/toasty aroma and flavor, fairly typical for this tea style. The second steep had less of the grassy teaness, which was a bit disappointing and the reason my humans did not want me to do a third steeping. They were quite pleased anyway. Another very suitable version of this popular style of Japanese green tea.

Disclaimer: This tea was provided by the company named. However, any opinions concerning this tea and the company are always strictly objective.

© 2012 A.C. Cargill photos and text – All rights reserved. No copying, posting on other sites, or other uses allowed without written permission of the copyright holder.

Tea Adventure: “The Monk” (Black Tea) from Tea and Jazz House

Here is the latest “Tea Gang” adventure with:


“The Armstrong” (Black Tea) from The Tea and Jazz House [More company info]This is a Flavored Tea [About straight teas vs flavored teas.]

No Gregorian chants, tea lovers. The Monk being honored here with this tea is jazz great Thelonius Monk, known for his unorthodox style of playing. In recognition of this totally individual and unique approach to jazz, the Tea Gang and I acquiesced to Libre Tea Steeping Mug to do the job here. He’s a pretty no-muss, no-fuss tea steeper, so things were simple. And his clear glass and poly body allowed my humans some visual entertainment during the steeping.

Here he is at the start of the steep:

And here is the resulting liquid, served up in a very special and jazzy teacup:

Enough showing off there, Steeping Mug. Time to give readers some info on the tea itself.

This is a black tea with lots (and I mean LOTS) of other stuff added in. The vendor’s web site lists the additions as: cranberry, orange peel, apple, papaya, pineapple, apricot, almond, rose hips, cinnamon, rose petals, cornflowers, and flavoring. As you can see, the tea takes a real backseat here, with the majority of the content being the fruits and other stuff. The aroma of the dry mix is mostly cinnamony and orangy. The large fruit pieces made getting an even distribution in each spoonful that went into the steeping mug tricky, but with my careful guidance, my humans managed it.

We boiled the water and steeped for 4 minutes. I tooted a merry tune while my humans gazed at the pieces floating up, then settling down as they absorbed more water and got heavier. That Steeping Mug puts on quite a show! And the strainer made pouring the tea out into that jazzy teacup a snap. As for the liquid, it was dominated by the cinnamon and orange peel with only a touch of the other fruits coming through and virtually no tea flavor. Not necessarily a bad thing for you cinnamon lovers out there. Try it with a bit of milk and sweetener. My humans said it was very dessert-like with the fruit flavors coming through more.

Check Mary’s site frequently for new flavors and site features. While there, take a few minutes to listen to her music. Tea and jazz. A flavorful combination.

Disclaimer: This tea was provided by the company named. However, any opinions concerning this tea and the company are always strictly objective.

© 2011 A.C. Cargill photos and text – All rights reserved. No copying, posting on other sites, or other uses allowed without written permission of the copyright holder.