Tea Adventure: Giddapahar China Delight Autumn Flush 2010 from Thunderbolt Tea

Here is the latest “Tea Gang” adventure with:


Giddapahar China Delight (2010 Autumn Flush) from Thunderbolt Tea [More company info]
This is a Straight Tea [About straight teas vs flavored teas.]

Yes, we’ve finally tasted the ultimate sample from 2010 autumn harvest, this one from Giddapahar Tea Garden sent to us by our good buddy Benoy of Thunderbolt Tea. (Later, we’ll be sampling a 2011 tea from this same tea garden.)

Doing the steeping honors this time is yours truly with my buddy Libre Tea Mug doing the supervising (I let him use my official sash to keep him happy). A tea like this is a great tea to steep in that mug, but I just couldn’t resist doing the honors. Benoy is such a great tea guy, and I am quite frankly a bit envious. He gets to zip around on his motorcycle, visiting these tea gardens in the foothills of the Himalayas in the Darjeeling region of northern India. His samples really give this little teapot something to look forward to.

Being another Autumn Flush, the anticipation here is for a fairly strong flavor. No disappointment here. The tea leaves look fully oxidized, so we used boiling water and steeped for 3 minutes for the first infusion, 4 minutes for the second infusion. The first infusion was nutty yet sweet in aroma with a flavor that had a fruity bite but no bitterness or astringency. Happy human faces all around here. The second infusion was lighter in color, aroma, and flavor, and even got a bit bitter, something a touch of your fave sweetener could fix.

Just for grins, I steeped a fresh round for my humans, this time (5 minutes for both the first and second infusions). The first infusion was fabulous, stronger in flavor and aroma, with the sweetish nuttiness combining with fruitiness, and able to take some milk plus a bit of sweetener. For those of you who like your tea this way, your humble host teapot recommends this longer steeping time. The second infusion was too light. You could drink it straight with no problem, but not with milk. It’s a trade off: one stronger infusion or two lighter infusions, just as we’ve mentioned with other teas.

Once the official tasting was done, it was party time. That Libre Tea Mug can sure dance! You should see him do the Charleston. I’m not bad either, though, especially when fueled up with some of this tasty Darjeeling tea!

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: Tropical Mango from The Boston Tea Company

Here is the latest “Tea Gang” adventure with:



Tropical Mango from The Boston Tea Company [More info]

This is a Flavored Tea [About straight teas vs flavored teas.]

No, you’re not seeing double. Yes, this black tea was reviewed here as a chilled tea.

Time to see how this tea tastes hot.

This is a fruity tea, based on black Ceylon tea from Sri Lanka and flavored with sunflower petals and large chunks of dried ripe mango. Just take a look at this sight that greeted me and my humans when we first opened the plastic pouch:

No fannings or dust here but large leaf pieces, and just look at the size of those bits of fruit! No flavoring oil, that means the possibility of a tasty second steep. The aroma was strongly mango, with little tea aroma being detected. Hm… hope that doesn’t mean the tea flavor won’t come through in the cup. Oh, well, on to the steeping.

I, your lovable steeping little teapot, oversaw the entire steeping operation, which was ably handled by Tea Gang member “Belle of the Ball.” The water was heated to a boil, as the vendor recommends. The first steeping was held to 3 minutes (the vendor recommends 3 to 5 minutes), and we’re glad we did. The liquid was a dark reddish brown, with an aroma that was lightly mango-ish and yet with a caramelly/nutty character. The moment of truth, of course, is when my humans take a sip.

My humans report that the flavor was a great balance of fruit and tea, with no bitterness or astringency, even as it cooled. Then, they tried a little with milk and sweetener and were even more pleased, with the flavor being smoothed and the mango coming out more in conjunction with the sweetener.

“Belle” did a second steeping, this time for 4 minutes, and produced a tea that was slightly lighter in color, aroma, and flavor, with less mango taste. Still quite nice in the cup.

This seems to be a tea that can be equally satisfying when served hot or cold. Bravo! “Belle” did a great job, with my supervisory help of course, and I thank her.

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.

Davids Tea ― Rolling with the Tea Gang!

Davids Tea was so excited about the “Tea Gang,” featuring yours truly, that they asked if they could “roll” with us. Sure! We welcome tea vendors to be part of the fun here.

Shown here are three little sample size tins of three green teas that Davids Tea calls their “Orient Express”: Gyokuro Yumashiro, Dragonwell, and Korean Sejak. Tea Gang members shown here are me (your fave little yellow teapot), that little white one-cupper, the Libre Tea steeping mug, the white 4-cupper, and in the back is the newest member “Bruno” from Louisville Stoneware. We’re all ready to roll with reviewing these three teas and lots of others.

Davids Tea’s “Orient Express” Green Tea samples, in their cutey tins, come out of their box to roll with us!

See more info on the company on Tea Time.

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: English Breakfast Blend from Home Discount Store

Here is the latest “Tea Gang” adventure with:



English Breakfast Blend from Home Discount Store. [More info]

This is a Straight Tea [About straight teas vs flavored teas.]

Once again, your lovable and humble yellow teapot is conducting a steeping of another tea and letting you know how it went. The first thing to note here is that Home Discount Store has amazing prices. This tea is about half the price of another English Breakfast Blend tried recently: 8 ounces for $10.66 (versus $9.95 for 4 ounces of the other one).

The leaf pieces are a bit smaller, have an earthy aroma, and steeped up faster and stronger than that other tea. This little teapot is thinking that Assam tea is the basis for this blend and did my best to get it just right for my humans. I steeped the first infusion for only 3 minutes, but on hindsight think it should have gone for 5 minutes as the vendor recommends. At 3 minutes, the steep was dark reddish brown with a malty aroma and a strong and bitter taste but too weak for milk. A bit of sweetener was good in it, though.

The 2nd steep was done for 4 minutes and was weaker. I recommend that you stick with one good strong 5-minute steep if you are the type of human who likes milk in your tea. At the price Home Discount Store charges, you can certainly afford to get just one good steep instead of two mediocre steeps. If you like your tea a bit lighter, try a short 30-second steep that you then toss out and follow up with a couple of 2-minute steeps.

Once the official tasting portion of this adventure was over, my “he” human made pancakes and bacon for he and my “she” human to enjoy. They report that the tea goes well with both!

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: English Breakfast Blend from Persimmon Tree Tea

Here is the latest “Tea Gang” adventure with:


English Breakfast Blend from Persimmon Tree Tea. [More info]

This is a Straight Tea [About straight teas vs flavored teas.]

Your fave little teapot here again, this time with one of the many subtly different English Breakfast Blend teas out there. The folks at Persimmon Tree Tea don’t specify which teas are in this blend, but they certainly did a nice job of selecting the teas to put together. The pieces of tea leaves were fairly large and dark brown, with an aroma that seemed a combination of cocoa with a malty sweetness. It made this little teapot’s lid spin with delight. My humans seemed to like it, too. I had to toot at them to get the water heating.

My stalwart buddy, Tea Cozy, was on hand as usual to assist in this tea adventure. He kept me warm during the steeping.

Since this is a black tea, we heated the water to boiling. The tea tin label recommends 3 to 5 minutes steeping time. We steeped for 3 minutes on the first infusion and were glad we did. The tea steeped up to a beautiful reddish color with an aroma that was slightly smoky and yet malty. There was a slight astringency and edginess to the taste, but it got more smoky as the liquid cooled. A bit of milk and sweetener was very fitting here.

I insisted on doing a second steeping of this tea just to see how it would do. This time, it went for 4 minutes. The liquid was lighter in color, aroma, and taste, and not suited to milk and sweetener. That leads me to conclude that you can satisfy your desire for a lighter tea or for a stronger tea depending on the length of time steeped, true of many teas but not always of breakfast blends, which seem intended to be fairly strongly flavored and able to take milk and sweetener.

The tea is a bit higher priced than other breakfast blends ($9.95 for 4 ounces). I’m not sure if it’s because of the teas used (sometimes Keemuns are in these blends and account for the higher price) or because it’s organic. Sadly, organics raise prices two ways: production costs are higher and harvest amounts are smaller.

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: Castleton China Autumn Delight from Thunderbolt Tea

Here is the latest “Tea Gang” adventure with:


Castleton China Autumn Delight (2010 Autumn Flush) from Thunderbolt Tea [More company info]
This is a Straight Tea [About straight teas vs flavored teas.]

Yes, we’re finally getting to the penultimate sample from 2010 harvest at Castleton sent by our good buddy Benoy of Thunderbolt Tea. (Later, we’ll be sampling a 2011 tea from this same tea garden.)

Doing the steeping honors this time is our lovely floral & butterfly decorated teapot “madam” with her matching teacup (the cup is shy but now and then gets coaxed to pose for us). Like me, this teapot is a 2-cupper, which is just right for trying the tea.

Darjeelings are in a class of their own, with this one being no exception. Usually, when you buy Darjeeling tea from most tea vendors, you are getting a blend from several tea gardens in the Darjeeling area of India and from several flushes (periods of growth). With Thunderbolt Tea and some other tea vendors, you can get a particular tea garden, year, and flush. The downside, of course, is that if you fall in love with that tea, you may not be able to get its equivalent next year since growing conditions won’t be quite the same. Don’t let that stop you, though. These teas are definitely worth trying! And you can count on Benoy to scout out the best of the bunch.

Autumn flushes are the last harvest before the tea plants go dormant in Darjeeling. At their high elevation, Winter comes fast.

So how was this tea? In a word: superb!

From the first whiff when that well-sealed package was opened, the whole Tea Gang knew this was gonna be good. The nutty/fruity around of those large leaf pieces told of the joys to come. The water was boiled and the tea leaves steeped for 3 minutes. When poured into the cup, the liquid had a dark amber color and nutty flavor with a strong fruit finish. My humans were quite pleased!
The second steep was lighter in color, aroma, and taste. That little teapot steeped it in boiling water for 3-1/2 minutes this time. The tea seems still pleasing, but if you want more even infusions, try doing the first one for only 2 minutes instead of 3.

One of my humans tried some of the first infusion with a bit of milk and sweetener (she puts milk in a lot of teas) and swears it was great. I’ll take her word for it!

Even though this exact tea may not be in stock (check the Thunderbolt Tea site to see), keep Castleton in mind for the 2011 Autumn Flush which will be available soon. Well worth it — TOOT!

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: “The Vaughan” (Masala Chai) from Tea and Jazz House

Here is the latest “Tea Gang” adventure with:


“The Vaughan” (Masala Chai) from The Tea and Jazz House [More info] 

This is a Flavored Tea [About straight teas vs flavored teas.]

Yours truly — me, that lovable Little Yellow Teapot — did the steeping honors here for another flavored tea. In the U.S., you humans like to call any tea or herbal that has various spices added to it by the name “chai.” Mary Cali, owner of Tea and Jazz House, gets the name right here, though. First, she names each tea after jazz greats, but the subname here is “masala chai.” Bingo! “Masala” means “spices” and “chai” means “tea.”

The first thing that the Tea Gang members, me included, like to do when sampling a new tea is take a good look at it in dry form. Check this out:

 

Look at the wonderful tea leaf pieces and all those lovely spices (according to Mary’s website, it contains ginger root, cinnamon, cardamom, and natural flavoring). My humans took turns sniffing and getting these goofy smiles on their faces. They loved it!

Time to steep. This is a black tea so boiling water was called for here and a steeping time of 5 minutes. I only steeped once. Too often these flavored teas pale after that first steep, so why bother? The liquid was cloudy amber colored with a strong spice aroma.

Time for the tasting. To help out, twin teacups (and their saucers) volunteered their services. My humans tried some as is and some with milk and sweetener (which is typically added to spiced tea like this). One sip and those goofy smiles returned to their faces. (I’m going to have to sneak a photo of them doing that sometime!) In both versions, they declared a splendid balance of spice and tea flavors, a perfect Autumn tea for sure!

The Tea and Jazz House names their tea blends after jazz greats and assures that the tea has a flavor and character suited to each musician chosen for the honorific. In this case, it’s Sarah Vaughan, known for having “one of the most wondrous voices of the 20th century” with a vocal range from female baritone to mezzo-soprano, something boasted by few singers (Julie Andrews is one).

Mary launched her tea store online recently and has a limited selection at this time. This is certainly one for you spiced chai lovers to try. Stop by her site and let her know you saw our adventure with her lovely tea!

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.

A New “Tea Gang” Member from Louisville Stoneware

The “Tea Gang” has a new member: “Bruno” from Louisville Stoneware!


Bruno is not your dainty bone china or glass teapot. He’s a sturdy stoneware Brooke pattern 6-cupper who arrived in an even sturdier cardboard box with lots of sturdy packing material around it. The folks at Louisville Stoneware apparently put the same quality and attention into shipping as well as the making of their stonewares, assuring they survive the slings and arrows of harried and hurried delivery personnel.

As the leader of the “Tea Gang,” I officially greeted Bruno and once he had been freed from all that packing material. (My humans had to handle the whole unpacking procedure with great care.) You’ll note that Bruno has a yellow lid. He also has some yellow on his handle and the rim of the spout, so he is color coordinated with me.

The other teapots and the Libre Tea steeping mug crowded around. What happened next is what usually happens when a bunch of teawares are gathered into one place: party time!

Before we knew it, a conga line had formed. Bruno, being the largest, was in the lead. We all lined up behind him in order of our size, with one exception: I’m the same capacity as Little Cast Iron Teapot, but I let him go ahead of me in line.

At some point, I guess, we’ll have to get back to the business of trying new teas. But for now … ♪ ♫ gonna dance the conga ♪ ♫ cha cha cha cha cha cha ♪ ♫ !!

Disclaimer: This teaware 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: Peach Dream from The Boston Tea Company

Here is the latest “Tea Gang” adventure with:

Peach Dream from The Boston Tea Company [More info]

This is a Flavored Tea [About straight teas vs flavored teas]

No, you’re not seeing double. Yes, this white tea was reviewed here as a chilled tea.

Time to see how this tea tastes hot.

I, your lovable steeping little teapot, oversaw the entire steeping operation, which was ably handled by Tea Gang member Butterfly Steeping Mug. The vendor says to heat the water to just below boiling. This seems a bit hot for a white tea, but we tried it that way anyway.

The dry tea was composed of big leaf pieces of white tea from the Fujian Province of China with peaches and sunflowers added in. The tea was short steeped on the first round, going only one minute (the vendor recommends 1-3 minutes). That gave a light infusion that was pale peachy in color and flavor. My humans let it cool a bit before taking a taste. They seemed pleased with it and said it had a nice peachy flavor with the sunflowers “tinting” it a bit but not overwhelming it. We did a second steeping that my humans thought was almost as flavorful as the first.

This seems to be a tea that can be equally satisfying when served hot or cold. Bravo!

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: Sylvakandy Estate Orange Pekoe from The English Tea Store

Here is the latest “Tea Gang” adventure with:
 
Sylvakandy Estate Orange Pekoe Ceylon Tea from The English Tea StoreThis is a Straight Tea [About straight teas vs flavored teas]
I, your humble and lovable Little Yellow Teapot, did the honors for a Ceylon black tea from the Sylvakandy Estate and for sale from those wonderful folks at The English Tea Store. This tea is grown at about 3,000 feet above sea level, which makes its flavor quite marvelous. I steeped it carefully for 5 minutes in water heated to boiling. As you can see, my buddy Libre Tea Steeping Mug took my place as supervisor (and insisted on wearing the official sash), so you can be sure all was done correctly.

The dry tea leaves had a wonderful raisiny aroma, like some other Ceylons we have tried. The pieces were large sized, not fannings or dust, and were dark brown or black in color. The liquid was a beautiful ruby brown with a raisiny/malty aroma, the kind that a lot of humans have come to associate with tea (small wonder, since Ceylon black teas are used in many blends). My humans let the liquid cool a bit before trying it and said there was a very slight bitterness but that the flavor was overall rich, raisiny, and malty. They are thinking that a shorter steep time (maybe 4 minutes) would take away that bitterness. Next, they tried the tea with a little milk and sweetener and, judging by the “Ahs” and big smiles on their faces, I’m thinking they liked it. In fact, they said that the taste was smooth and malty (not quite the Assam malty, more sweet).

I did a second steeping of the leaves just to see if more could be gotten out of them — more that was worth drinking, that is. Again, the results were pleasing. The color, flavor, and aroma were lighter (if the first steep had been for only 5 minutes, this one would have been stronger). If you like your tea straight without milk and sweetener, this is great to drink that way. My humans combined this steep with what was left of the first one and had a wonderful, balanced cup of tea. Overall, they seemed please, and keeping my humans happy is my main goal in steeping tea.

Time to introduce you to this sweetheart of a teacup.

She’s not officially part of the Tea Gang. We’re all steepers, and she is too much of a lady to allow tea to be steeped in her (don’t even say the word “teabag” within her earshot or she’ll faint). She is gracious enough, though, to pose for photos, especially when there is such a tasty tea to fill her.

What's All This “Orange Pekoe” Stuff Mean?

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.