Royal Phoenix

Tea: Royal Phoenix
Vendor: Tao of Tea
Price: $8.75 / 2.5 oz
Source: Guangdong Province, China
Vendor Description: In some areas of the Phoenix Mountains in Guangdong province, China, there are wild tea plants that remain a source for some of the best oolong teas in the world. Leaves from these old tea trees are prized for the flavor and full body. Making Royal Phoenix oolong invloves precise rolling and baking techniques to fully develop a toasty texture, fragrant aroma and taste similar to nectarines and peaches.

Leaf: The leaf for this tea is a dark brown – black leaf. The leaf is somewhat smaller than other Phoenix oolongs. The leaf is somewhat broken.

1^st Infusion Parameters: 5g, 208F, 45s, 5oz, 5s rinse

1^st Infusion: The tea has a lightly sweet aroma to it. It somewhat reminds me of a greener oolong. It has a light golden brown hue to it. It has a clear transparency to it. The aroma is sharp with woody tones to it. The flavor has a sharp almost soapy characteristic to it. It also has a medium bitterness to it, which is rather strong for a first infusion. There is no astringency and the flavor is overall somewhat weak.

2^nd Infusion Parameters: 45s, 208F

2^nd Infusion: This infusion has the same muddled woody aroma to it. It has a very sharp feeling on the tongue. The flavor is overall the same as the first infusion.

Rating: 1/10

Conclusion: This was a rather disappointing tea. For a phoenix aroma it doesn’t have the same characteristic floral characteristic to the aroma. The flavor was too sharp and bitter for a first infusion, and the flavor felt very muddled and confused. It’s not a very good flavor overall and it feels too harsh.

Organic Sencha

Tea: Organic Sencha
Vendor: Plymouth Tea
Price: $12.50 / 4 oz
Vendor Description: An organically grown superfine grade of Sencha. It has an intense fresh vegetal bouquet and a dry ending. The organic method of raising these bushes seems to intensify all the qualities of Sencha that make it a regular choice of green tea lovers.

Leaf: The leaf for this tea is a very matte colored dry leaf. There is a fair amount of brown specs and stem pieces to this tea. These are somewhat indicative of bancha, but this tea was labeled as a sencha. The leaves are quite veiny and have lots of brown stems. Most of the leaf is chopped up and in small pieces

1st Infusion Parameters: 2.5g, 2.5 oz, 185F, 90s

1st Infusion: This tea was quite foul. The color was a yellowish hue and no particular aroma. The tea tastes somewhat chemical like in flavor. It feels like it was a flavored bancha, but there is no flavoring. I couldn't even finish the 2.5 oz of this cup.

Rating: 1/10

Conclusion: This tea was probably the worst sencha I have ever tasted. In all rights there is no reason to ever get this. I can't think of any redeeming qualities to this tea. Unfortunately my rating scale is 1-10 so it gets a 1. It almost gives othe 1 rated teas a bad name. Thank you to Jessica at Authoritea for providing this sample though.

The Way of Tea: The Sublime Art of Oriental Tea Drinking

Book: The Way of Tea: The Sublime Art of Oriental Tea Drinking.

This was another introduction to tea level book. I thought that this book might be a nice insight into Gong-fu brewing with some interesting details, I was wrong. I'm surprised that this book was ever published. Looking at the credentials of the author it is written by a Feng Shui / Tai Chi master. He doesn't have any particular credentials to be a source on tea aside from being steeped in chinese cultural heritage. This is apparent in this book because of the differences between most used spellings / classifications. For instance he classifies teas under: White, Yellow, Light Green, Green, Red, Black, and Flower. Oolongs are referenced in the Light Green section, and what I believe may be Puerh is referred to as Polee, is under green teas. While most people don't use this classification system, I don't deny it's possible validity, but as an introductory book I think it would confuse people more than teach. Since most tea vendors use a different classification system than this one in the book.

Other oddities I noticed in this book were reference to Jixing purple clay pots, which I took to refer to yixing. I could understand that this may just be a different romanification of the word, but considering the uniformity of the vernacular used and yixing being a more accepted spelling that this could be confusing.

There is a section on gong fu brewing which is nicely illustrated, but it only covers the topic in the broadest of terms and simplest of brewing methods.

The thing that surprised me the most about this book is that considering the subtitle (The Sublime Art of Oriental Tea Drinking) it really only makes any reference to Gong Fu brewing. Gaiwans are referenced, but never by name. There is only a cursory mention of the existence of matcha preparation as a side note. No mention of brewing of any Japanese or any other style of tea is mentioned. (I find this important given the title referring to it as Oriental and not Chinese specifically).

Rating: 1/10

Conclusion: This book would most likely confuse most readers rather than educate them on anything. The author does not seem to have much reason for credibility, but rather feels like this is written mostly based on whatever oral stories they could remember. The spellings are rather different than many regularly used, and almost look like different words. I suggest sticking to a more mainstream introductory book.

First Flush Darjeeling

Tea: First Flush Darjeeling
Vendor: Tao of Tea
Price: $10.00 / Chestlet (~3-4 oz)
Source: Darjeeling, India
Vendor Description: A delicate First Flush Darjeeling packaged in a miniature, wooden tea-chest. To this day, teas from India are packaged in large, foil-lined wooden chests that must be broken or pried open to remove the tea. On this mini-chest, the top is removable and can be re-used for storing tea or other items.

Leaf: The leaf for this tea is nicely sized Darjeeling leaves, there was not much of an aroma to the leaves though. The color was a bit on the darker side for Darjeeling black teas, with some light silver and green bits showing through.

1st Infusion Parameters: 5g, 5 oz, 185F, 4 min

1st Infusion: This tea came out iwth a nice floral aroma. It was floral yet thick and sweet. The tea had a rich brown hue to it. The flavor felt a bit muddled, it was rough to find distinct flavors in it, yet I kept finding a hint of a soapiness in the flavor. The flavor was dominated though by a strong bitterness. There was a long lingering aftertaste which piggybacked on the bitterness.

Rating: 1/10

Conclusion:I really was not a fan of this tea. The light character of a Darjeeling was overpowered by bitterness in this case. It wasn't a very enjoyable cup of tea and is not a very characteristic Darjeeling. I did try this tea later with lower temperatures and shorter infusion times, but I could not shake the taste of soapiness with this tea.

Hojicha

Tea: Hojicha
Vendor: Dragonwater
Price: $14.25 / 4 oz.
Source: Japan
Vendor Description: Japanese green tea made from roasted Bancha leaves. Produces a golden cup with a smooth, nutty taste.

Leaf: This is a very uneven hojicha. The size and shapes of the leaf do not stay very uniform. There is a lot of broken leaf and a fair amount of dust. The aroma is not very similar to most hojicha that I have tried.

1st Infusion: The tea has a very dark brown color, not as red as many of the other hojicha that i have tried. The aroma is very dull and heavily roasted. The flavor is shallow and shorte lived. It is difficult to taste much of the flavor in this as it is very weak.

2nd Infusion: The flavor is best described as being dusty. It is very short lived and very dull and flat.

Rating: 1/10

Conclusion: This is probably the worst hojicha that I have run across yet. The price is not particularly great either. It seems like a more expensive hojicha, but fails to deliver the flavor of one.

Liquid Jade

Tea: Liquid Jade
Vendor: Tao of Tea
Price: $17.50 / 3.0 oz
Source: Uji, Japan

Powder: The color of this matcha is much duller than most of the other matchas that I have tried. Given the relatively low price of this matcha I wasn't expecting much more than a cooking grade/ingredient matcha.

Infusion: The made matcha had a darker green color than most of the other matcha that I have had. This went along with the expectation based on the color of the powder itself. The flavor of this matcha was not very much like other matcha that I have had. It was lightly bitter with a medium sense of astringency. It just didn't seem very good. I was more impressed by the minute matcha from Lupicia than this. It reminded me more of a thick powdered sencha than a matcha.

Rating: 1/10

Conclusion: As I expected this was pretty much just an ingredient grade matcha that shouldn't relaly be used to drink as a regular matcha. The price isn't horrible if you are looking for a cooking matcha, and it comes with a nice tin.

Kukicha

Tea: Kukicha (Organic)
Vendor: Lamyx
Price:$14.95 / 1.5 oz.
Vendor Description: These are the delicate stems of the tea leaves. A light, grassy brew of exceptional quality.

Leaf: The leaf for this tea was a very lightly colored, very pale green kukicha. It seemed very atypical for a green kukicha.

1st Infusion: There was a light murkiness to this tea, it was a light yellow color with shades of brown. It gave off a very light aroma. The flavor was not a very traditional kukicha flavor, it has hints of lemongrass and other unusual flavors for a kukicha. There was a slight tanginess to the flavor and no bitterness. It did however have a light sense of astringnecy. All in all the flavor was very mellow and very hard to pin down to specific flavors.

2nd Infusion: This infusion had the same odd nondescript flavor as the first infusion. Aside from that it seemed weaker and very unusual. It didn't seem much like other green kukichas that I have had before.

Rating: 1/10

Conclusion: At nearly 10 dollars an ouce this tea seems very expensive for a very odd flavor. Normally a kukicha is a much more cost consicous tea, considering it is made primarily of the stems of the tea rather than the more sought after leaf. There were an assortment of flavors going on in this tea, most of which I could not identify.

Organic Sencha

Tea: 100% Organic Sencha
Vendor: Tao of Tea
Price: $2.25 / oz.
Vendor Description: A Japanese-style Sencha grown organically in China.

About this tea: It seemed unusual that a vendor would openly admit that a sencha they offered was not from Japan, but a Chinese imitation. Curiosity (and price) got the best of me and I tried out this tea.

Leaf: The leaf for this tea has a very light green color and the appearance reminded me a lot of bancha with it's flat leaves and noticeable veins and leaf size. Even based on just looking at this tea it didn't really appear to be a normal sencha.

1st Infusion: This tea had a very bancha like aroma to it. The flavor had a medium sense of bitterness and a very flat taste to it. The infusion was yellow in color and had no sense of astringency to it.

2nd Infusion: This tea had a very yellow color this time and a very coarse flavor to it.

Rating: 1/10

Conclusion: This tea wasn't very enjoyable. I had a strong feeling that this would be somewhat bad, so I wasn't shocked by this. This tea reminded me a lot of the Miyakawa Hatsuzumi Shincha that I had a while ago. Both were rather disappointing teas and not worth trying. If you're thinking of trying a sencha from Tao of Tea, get at least the shinrikyu.

Mikawaya Hatsuzumi Shincha

Tea: Mikawaya Hatsuzumi Shincha
Vendor: Mitsuwa
Price: $8.39 / 6oz.

Leaf: The leaf for this tea was a very uneven shape. It was not particularly even or uniform. Much of the leaf looked pressed like a Long Jing. There was a wide variety of sizes from very small leaves to rather large leaves. As a whole the tea had a very matte color to it.

1st Infusion: The tea was quite murky for a first infusion. It gave off an almost woody aroma. The flavor reminded me of a bancha with a slight sweet kick at the end. It finished with a light sense of astringency. The flavor was very light bodied and had a bitterness that was unlike normal sencha.

2nd Infusion: The color was still murky, but this time it had a more yellow-brown color to it. The flavor was bitter and flat.

Rating: 1/10

Conclusion: I picked up this tea mostly out of curiosity. Most shincha that I picked up was exclusive and very high quality. This tea went to show me what the other end of the spectrum could be like. Just because something is a shincha does not mean that it is going to be a good tea.

Genmaicha

Tea: Genmaicha
Vendor: Dragonwater Tea
Price: $6.00 / 4oz.
Source: Japan
Vendor Description: Genmai-cha Tea. A famous blend of Japanese green tea and brown rice.

This is a specialty Japanese green tea that is blended with fire-toasted rice. A good grade Japan sencha is blended with the toasted rice. The fresh vegetative character of the green tea is imparted on the cup but it is tempered with the bakey-like character of the rice. There is a natural sweetness and almost chewy character to the finish of this tea. During the firing of the rice, it is not uncommon for rice to ‘pop’ not unlike popcorn, hence the pet name ‘popcorn-tea’

Legend has it that during the 1400’s an important samurai warlord in Hakone on the Izu Peninsula of Honshu Island (the Izu Peninsula is near the Shizuoka area) was having tea in the morning discussing a battle strategy with his patrol leaders. A servant by the name of Genamai was serving hot tea to the group. Leaning over to give tea to the warlord, rice that he had surreptitiously taken for a morning snack fell out of his pocket into the steaming hot tea. Some popped upon hitting the hot tea. The warlord was incensed, jumped up brandishing his samurai sword he promptly cut of Genamai’s head in one fell swoop. He then sat down to continue the meeting. Despite the fact that the tea had been tarnished he drank it anyway. The flavor was very unique and he enjoyed it tremendously. In honor of poor Genamai he pronounced that this rice and tea be served every morning and be called ‘Genmaicha’ (cha being the name of ‘tea’ in Japanese).

Leaf: The leaf for this genmai had quite a bit of rice in it. The aroma of the leaf was not very appealing though it had a sense of staleness to it.

1st Infusion: The first infusion had a very typical genmaicha aroma to it. It had an almost overpowering rice aroma as well. The tea was a light yellow green color. The flavor of the tea was almost overwhelmed by the rice, it wasn't a very good balance. Most of the flavor of the tea itself was masked by the rice flavor. There was a light crispness, to it.

2nd Infusion: The second infusion was darker yellow in color. This time matching the color the flavor was heavier on the rice flavor. It was bitter, like the flavor of burnt rice. The flavor felt empty with just a hint of astringency on the back end.

Rating: 1/10

Conclusion: I did not particularly enjoy this tea. The flavor was overly dominated by the rice flavor, almost as though they thought they could make the tea better by adding more rice. Stale flavored rice at that. If they were going to go that far, why not just go so far as just remove the tea altogether and make a beverage using just rice. There are much better genmaicha teas out there.

Dragonwell

Tea: Dragonwell (Organic)
Vendor: Dragonwater Tea
Price: $24.60 / 4 oz.
Source: Zhejiang, China
Vendor Description: This entirely handmade, organic, superior-grade green tea is the most famous of China's Fifty Famous Teas.

Dragonwell (Organic) Tea. This entirely handmade, organic, superior-grade green tea is the most famous of China's Fifty Famous Teas. USDA organic.

Produced in the small Chinese village of Lung Ching (Dragon Well) west of the famous West Lake in Zhejiang province, this tea is known for its "four uniques": its green color, mellow taste, aroma, and beautiful shape. It has long been celebrated in both prose and poem, including mention by Lu Yu himself in Cha Jing (Classic of Tea) and famed Tang dynasty poet Su Dongpo.

One of the true congou teas, this one requires great gongfu, or skilled discipline, to harvest and create. Only the most tender buds and leaf are plucked by skilled fingers. They are then pan-fried in woks at carefully controlled temperatures to give the leaf its flat, dark green appearance. No other processing occurs.

Produces a yellowish-green cup with a slightly sweet, fresh flavor and a famous lingering aftertaste.

Leaf: The leaf for this tea was very dark in color with a significant amount of broken leaves. The leaves were not evenly pressed down. The quality of the firing job was not as good as that of the Just4Tea Dragonwell. The dark color had more brown hues to it than green which was a bit surprising.

1st Infusion: This dragonwell was quite different than the others that I have tried. The aroma was significantly weaker, and reminded me somewhat of the roasted aroma of a Japanese green tea, like a Hojicha. The tea has a very light and smooth flavor to it, much lighter than the other Dragonwells that I have tried. The light flavor has a very unusual feeling to it as the tea is medium bodied and fills the mouth with this light flavor to a certain degree. Most of the more full bodied teas I have tried as of late have had a heavier flavor to be carried, but this carries a light flavor throughout the mouth. To pair with the light flavor though is no bitterness or astringency. At first I had thought that I might have under steeped this tea, although upon inspection of the used leaves they were almost completely opened. So far though this is the only dragonwell not to give me a headache. The flavor that I seem to associate with dragonwell was only slightly present in this tea.

Rating: 1/10

Conclusion: I'm not really sure who would do well by this tea. It is relatively expensive and there are much better dragonwells out there. I was really unimpressed by this tea.

Sencha

Tea: Sencha
Vendor: Dragonwater Tea
Price: $8.50 / 4 oz.
Source: Japan
Vendor Description: Sencha Tea. Fine grade Japanese green tea yielding a smooth, aromatic cup.

I felt obligated to try out this tea from Dragonwater having tried the Sencha Extra Fine. I wasn't exactly expecting much from this tea using price as a general guideline. At less than half of the price of the Sencha Extra Fine it seemed like this wouldn't be that spectacular of a tea.

The tea leaves had a disappointing yellowish hue to them. The color of the leaves made the tea look old and not that appealing. Having been trying a lot of more vibrant greens and bolder colors, to switch to something looking like this for a sencha was a bit disappointing.

The first infusion had an unappealing openness to the flavor. If I had to put the flavor into a word it would be empty. While the tea had the normal sencha flavor, it lacked body and a voice. It was almost like the sencha flavor was there for the sake of being there, not for the sake of a delicious cup of tea. There was no bitterness associated with it, but where normally a sencha would have a bitterness there was nothing. The flavor was light and smooth, like a Chinese green would be, but without the strength and nuance. There was a very light sense of astringency paired with this, but nothing that you would really notice.

I tried a second infusion and this was a bit stranger. The tea liquor had become golden yellow in color, with no hint of being green. The flavor was stronger, but this time it felt more of just being bitter. The sencha flavor was weaker, and replaced with more bitterness.

Rating: 1/10

Conclusion: This is a case where I believe very much that you should not try to save money on buying lower end tea. This is more appropriate of a name being flavored water instead of tea. The flavor was lacking and disappointing. The appearance was plain. This tea could barely hold it's first infusion, let alone produce a decent second.

Sencha

Tea: Sencha
Vendor: Teavana
Price: $4.80 / 2 oz.
Source: Japan
Vendor Description: A high quality, everyday tea from Japan. Flat, dark green leaves with a sweet aroma and taste. Low in caffeine. High content of vitamin C.

Recently I had the opportunity to visit a Teavana store. This was my first time visiting a Teavana and to be honest I was not that impressed. The selection of teas was not that large, with only a handful of each class of tea present. Tea yet to be purchased is stored in very large high containers, so anytime they open them to present the aroma to a customer or to remove some tea for purchase a large amount of tea is exposed to new air for oxidation. The tea purchased is packaged into paper bags very similar to the kind you use when you buy loose coffee at the grocery store. A stark contrast to the resealable bags of some vendors or the small mylar bags of Lupicia. The one impressive aspect of the Teavana store though was their selection of cups and teapots. They have a very good selection of different teacups.

The tea itself has a slighly grassy scent to it which is paired with a equal flavor at the beginning of the taste of the tea. This is followed by a long lasting bitterness, which due to the duration, just doesn't quite seem apt for the term of a bite. This is finally finished off with a mild astringent flavor.

Rating: 1/10

Conclusion: This tea is expectedly unremarkable. It is a somewhat poor representation of a sencha, and I have actually had better tea from a grocery store. The price is rather expensive for what it is. I don't recommend this tea for anyone looking to enjoy a sencha.