White Symphony

Tea: White Symphony
Vendor: Adagio Teas
Price: $6.00 / oz
Vendor Description: An exquisite version of the White Peony variety, a delicate tea made from tea buds collected and withered prior to opening. It offers a preponderance of unopened leaf buds that create a pale yellow, light bodied, yet complex cup with hints of honeydew and a faint floral sweetness. If you enjoy the soothing flavor of our 'White A' Cappella' tea, we invite you to savor this more refined version.

Leaf: This tea appears like a mix of a silver needle and a Bai Mu Dan. It has both buds and developed leaf. The leaf is very fluffy and light and gives off a very strong white tea aroma.

1st Infusion Parameters: 5g, 5 oz, 180F, 7 min

1st Infusion: The infusion has a very dark yellow color, its almost a light brown hue. The aroma is thick and malty. It is heavy and very reminiscent of a strong Bai Mu Dan with just hints of a lighter silver needle aroma. The flavor is best described as being purely smooth. The initial flavor is very bold and strong. It is very bold and long lasting. It starts at the tip of the tongue and tapers the flavor slowly back down the tongue. It is thick with a richness that is almost like a melting milk chocolate bar. There is no bitterness or astringency, and it almost hints at a zuchini bread flavor of zuchini. It also has a nice hint of sweetness in your mouth after you finish your sip.

Rating: 8/10

Conclusion: This tea is good. I ended up trying this at a long steep for only a single steep. It produced a rich flavorful cup, but it feels like a blend between a silver needle and a white peony. Personally I like the notion that if I want a silver needle, i'll have a silver needle, if I want a white peony, i'll have a white peony. I don't really see a reason why I would want the blend of the two. If you look at this from the standpoint of being a high grade white peony, it's a bit expensive. This might be a good starter tea for someone looking into white teas. It offers a bit of both worlds without sacrifing the other.

Awacha

Tea: Awacha
Source: Japan

About This Tea: This tea was a sample from Alex over at Another Tea Blog. This tea was labeled as Awacha, from Shikoku. Neither of us really knew what type of tea this entailed or much more details about it.

Leaf: The leaf for this tea had browner older woodier stems in it than most Japanese green teas. The leaf was rather flat, but not as much as say a dragonwell tea. The color had two main components to it, a lighter green color and a nice dark green leaf color. There was not much of an aroma from this tea and it seemed rather dry.

1st Infusion Parameters: 5g, 50z, 1 min, 185F

1st Infusion: The infusion had a very yellow color to it. The tea gave off a very bancha like sharp aroma. The flavor matched the bancha flavor with a hint of mellowness to it. There was a ligth bitterness on the backend of the flavor and no astringency.

2nd Infusion Parameters: 185F, 30s

2nd Infusion: This infusion was again yellow in color, but it was a much stronger, bolder, darker shade of yellow than the first infusion. The flavor was much heavier and richer. The strength of the tea hinted toward a strong almost metallic taste.

Rating: 4/10

Conclusion: We didn't know much about this tea aside from it's name. Based on it's flavor profile it feels like a slight variation on a bancha. Most of the charactersistics are shared with bancha, but the stems were a bit unusual for one. Granted this is not enough to exclude it from possibly being one. Without pricing it would be hard to say how good of a value this tea would be, or even where to go to get some. With that said though, the flavor of this tea was somewhat mundane and I wouldn't go out of my way to go hunt some of this down.

Kuradashi Sencha

Tea: Kuradashi Sencha
Vendor: Hibiki-An
Source: Uji, Japan

About this tea: This tea was a limited time offering from Hibiki-an. Kuradashi Sencha is an intentionally aged sencha. Normally the aged tea is a gyokuro producing a Kuradashi Gyokuro. Instead with this tea it was an aged sencha. The sencha was aged for 18 months in a storehouse.

Leaf: The leaf for this tea had a rich uniform dark green color to it. Most of the leaves were good sized leaves and there was almost now powder to it. This suggests that this is probably a chumushi style sencha. There was an interesting woody light aroma to this tea leaf.

1st Infusion Parameters: 5g, 5 oz, 170F, 1 min

1st Infusion: The tea has a light green hue with a hint of yellow to it. The aroma feels smooth and balanced. The flavor is exactly matching the aroma, smooth and balanced. It is mild with no bitterness or astringency. It is slightly sweet, but the main aspect that comes to mind when tasting is how smooth of a sencha this feels.

2nd Infusion Parametsrs: 170F, 1 min

2nd Infusion: This is a darker and murkier yellow hue this time. The leaves have expanded nice and fully. The aroma is very sweet and mellow. There is a hint of woodiness similar to a kukicha, but more refined and mellow. There is a light bitterness paired with a rich sencha flavor. It provides a very smooth flavor again that is well balanced with the bitterness. There is a heavy flavor in the mid-end portion of the flavor.

Rating: 10/10

Conclusion: When the kuradashi sencha first was released on their website I was dubious as to if this was something that created an interesting product or if it was just a ploy to sell more tea. It turns out this is quite the interesting product indeed. The aging process seems to produce a very mellow flavor out of the tea, and this causes the tea to be very smooth and mellow. I very much enjoyed this tea and look forward to it again next year.

Emerald Needle

Tea: Emerald Needle
Vendor: Adagio Teas
Price: $18.00 / 4oz
Vendor Description: Sweet young buds, not quite open, make up the leaves of this fine tea. The pale yellow liquor releases a softly vegetal yet floral aroma. Delicate and light, this tea refreshes with the fruity-floral character of a dewy spring morning.

Leaf: The leaf for this tea reminds me of Meng Ding Huang Ya. It is only the buds like in a silver needle, but is not covered with fuzzy hairs like the silver needle. There are a few hairs on the buds, but it has mostly a smooth appearance. The shape and texture of the leaves gives it an almost fluid motion when moved around in the bowl, as opposed to the dustball motion of silver needle.

1st Infusion Parameters: 5g, 5 oz, 3 min, 185F

1st Infusion: This tea produces a surprisingly brown colored infusion. The leaf is much lighter shade of green once it has been infused. The tea has a very sweet and floral aroma to it. The flavor is crisp with a medium sense of bitterness. It has an almost sublime light fluffliness to it that paired with the crisp flavor and medium bitterness gives it a very lofty clean feeling.

2nd Infusion Parameters: 185F, 1 min

2nd Infusion: This infusion still had a light brown color to it. The flavor was light and sweet with a light sense of astringency. This infusion felt very smooth

Rating: 5/10

Conclusion: This tea is a rather unique tea. It straddles the borders of green tea / white tea / yellow tea expectations for me. It's not particularly potent for it's weight like the Yunnan Noir was, but it is not prohibitvely expensive either. This is a tea that if you are a fan of the style you would probably enjoy, but in general it's nothing to write home about.

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.

Yunnan Noir

Tea: Yunnan Noir
Vendor: Adagio Teas
Price: $13.00 / 5 oz.
Source: Yunnan, China
Vendor Description: Yunnan is a region in China known for growing large-leaf tea. High mountains covered by mist, clean water and rich soil form ideal growing conditions and contribute to the unique flavor of Yunnan black tea. Our Yunnan Noir is a hand-rolled version of this famous variety, with tightly rolled leaves into a "black snail" shape. The aroma is sweet with hints of honey and fruit. To the palate it is red wine-like with notes of fruit and cocoa and reveals an intense depth of character with each beguiling sip.

Leaf: The leaf is small and tightly rolled. The colors blend into a mixture of black and gold leaf. The rolling is not uniform, but very much reminds me of the rolling for an oolong. The leaves produce a rich black aroma that reminds me of yunnan gold. (Being from the same area that is not surprising)

1st Infusion Parameters: 5g, 5 oz, 5 min, 208F

1st Infusion: The large leaf opened up quite nicely. It resulted in a rich red/brown coffee colored infusion. If I had to describe this tea in a word that it is Dark. The aroma is rich and deep, but very subdued. The rich black flavor is paired with an uncharacteristic light bitterness. There is a light sense of astringency paired with the very smooth flavor of this tea.

Rating: 8/10

Conclusion: This tea produces a lot of flavor out of the 5g I used for the tea. Cutting this down to less than half would most likely still produce a wonderful cup of tea. Given the price this is hardly an expensive tea at all. Given the rich flavor and lack of bitterness in a 5 minute steep this would be an excellent beginner's tea.

Chocolate Chai

Tea: Chocolate Chai
Vendor: Wegman's Food Markets
Price: $26.99 / lb

Leaf: This tea had large chocolate chips in it along with pieces of coconut. The leaf seemed larger than that of the Masala Chai. The mixture has a very sweet aroma to it.

Mixture:
4 oz water
4 oz milk
1 tsp honey
1tsp leaf mixture

Infusion: This infusion gave off a warm milky cinnamon aroma. It was very sweet smelling with a chocolaty brown color. There are small flakes which float to the top. The flavor is just as it looks, it is light and chocolaty. It reminds me of a light mix of hot chocolate. The coconut flavor blends in quite well with the chocolate and gives a very enjoyable sense of sweetness.

Rating: 5/10

Conclusion: If you are looking for a warm chai drink this is a good one. Especially good if you are a chocolate fan. What I didn't really like about this tea though is that that all of the additives to this are really hiding any tea flavor that would have been there to begin with. Between the milk, honey, chocolate and coconut I didn't really notice any tea flavoring. But if you don't mind that about your chai, then this may be a good one for you.

O-buku-cha

Tea: O-buku-cha
Vendor: Ippodo
Price: 500 Yen / 100g
Source: Japan
Vendor Description: Bringing good luck for the New Year

The O-buku-cha tradition began over 10 centuries ago, during the Heian period.

In 951, a serious epidemic swept through Kyoto. In an effort to relieve the suffering, Buddhist priest Kuya distributed tea to those in need. It has been said that to share in these virtues, Emperor Murakami ushered in the New Year with a special cup of tea.

Since then, it has become a Japanese tradition to drink O-buku-cha (literally, great happiness tea ) during the New Years season. The O-buku-cha offered by each tea shop differs depending on the shop. At IPPODO, we are pleased to offer a special time-limited, high-grade genmaicha as our O-buku-cha. Packaged in the traditional festive colors of red and white, we hope that our O-buku-cha will bring renewed health and happiness to you and your loved ones.

Leaf: This tea consists of mostly larger thin pieces. There is a light amount of rice, some stems and some flatter leaf mixed in as well.

1st Infusion Parameters: 5g, 185F, 5 oz, 90s

1st Infusion: This infusion had a yellow green hue to it. The aroma was very crisp with hints of the rice aroma. The aroma reminded me very much of a pure bancha with a crisp almost stinging aroma to it. There are hints of a sencha like sweetness in the aroma as well. The flavor has a definite bancha bitterness and tang to it. This is paired with a light rice flavor and a noticeable starchiness. The tea finishes with a light sense of astringency and a clean and refreshing feeling.

2nd Infusion Parameters: 185F, No steeping time, immediate pour.

2nd Infusion: This time the infusion was a lighter green color with a yellow brightness to it. The aroma was sweeter and had a more mellow starchiness to it. The flavor was definitive bancha flavoring, with a light almost metallic taste to it. It seemed to have an astringency which was primarily on the sides of the mouth.

Rating: 3/10

Conclusion: This tea isn't bad for the price. The problem is that the price to ship this over from Japan is quite significant. I'm curious to see how this tea stacks up against their regular genmaicha. I don't consider this to be a particularly great genmaicha, but it is acceptable at it's price. I was somewhat hoping for a genmai based with sencha rather than bancha when I read the description of this tea.

Aracha

Tea: Aracha

About This Tea: This tea was a sample of aracha provided to me by another fellow tea drinker. Aracha is a normally temporary form of Japanese green tea. After harvesting and initial processing tea is stored in cold storage as aracha. Aracha is stored in cold storage until it is needed and then removed, refired, and sorted. Because it is unsorted aracha contains all of the assorted grades and forms of Japanese green tea found. This includes mecha, kukicha, and sencha.

Leaf: In this tea there is everything from small powdery bits to long thin needles. This tea has a very dark green color and the leaf has a nice shiny polished appearance to it. There is a noticeable mix of stems and small particles included.

1st Infusion Parameters: 5g, 5oz, 1min, 180F

1st Infusion: This tea had a yellow green color with a light murkiness to it. The aroma was very mixed with a light and sweet aroma to it. There was a very unusual flavor to this tea, it is apparent that there are multiple forms of tea. The flavor is a long lived flavor. The front end of the tea has a light bitterness to it, followed by a very noticeable woody flavor similar to a kukicha. It also has a very thick midsection and no astringency on the end.

2nd Infusion Parameters: 180F, 45s

2nd Infusion: This infusion had a light brown hue to it. The infusion was somewhat murky. This infusion had a very different flavor profile to it. There was a bitterness in the middle and a light lingering flavor on the back end. There was a light sense of astringency at the end.

Rating: 3/10

Conclusion: There is a very good reason why tea is sorted, the flavor of aracha is very muddled and complicated. In the different infusions flavor characteristics of different teas were present. If the different components of aracha were singers, drinking pure aracha would be akin to a choir each trying to sing their solo at the same time. Individually fantastic, but unsorted it is confused and muddled.

Tarte Au Poire

Tea: Tarte Au Poire - 8521
Vendor: Lupicia USA
Vendor Description: This sweetly scented Japanese green tea will remind you of a freshly baked pear tart.

About This Tea: This tea is one of the seasonal Christmas teas offered by Lupicia. It is no longer available from the website.

Leaf: The leaf for this tea is a sencha/bancha looking leaf mixed with some radiant blue flowers. The aroma to this tea is quite amazing, it reminds me of a freshly baked pie crust. There is a combination of a sweet and starchy aroma. The sweetness portion of the aroma reminds me greatly of canned pears.

1st Infusion Parameters: 5g, 5 oz, 208F, 2 min

1st Infusion: The infused tea does not have quite the fruity aroma as the dry leaf does. The infusion has a yellow-brown hue to it. The front end has a very strong and noticeable pear flavor. In the middle it transitions into a medium bitterness paired with a starchy flavor. The bitterness is a very characteristic bancha tanginess. There is not much of a pear flavor like I was expecting, I was imagining something akin to canned pears. The end of the tea finishes with a light astringency.

Rating: 4/10

Conclusion: While the flavor was moderately enjoyable, it felt like a bit of a letdown from the aroma of the leaf before infusion. While the pear offered a strong sweetness at the beginning of the flavor, the pear and tea flavors failed to pair well together and each represented their own sides. The starchiness in the aroma also seemed to disappear.