Lately I have been trying some of Adagio sample sizes of their flavors so I decided to make a series of post going over their vast tea selection. Most of all the teas I will be reviewing can be used to make your own custom blends. I hope my reviews help you choose which teas you want to use to mix your very own tea creations! Continue reading
Tea: Hand Picked Autumn Tieguanyin
Company: Verdant Tea
I was meaning to do a more in-depth review of this fine tea, but I am out of time for it. Verdant Tea has it on clearance at just $4.20 an ounce! Ok, on to the review.
So far out of all the oolongs that I have tried, my least favorite is non-roasted or un-aged Tieguanyin. I mean they taste good with there buttery greens and floral flavors, I just a little boring. However, this tea is different. It was processed in such a way that it while having those classic flavors it has a nice tangy gram flavor to it. It adds a lot of depth to it. I recommend brewing it in 6oz of water for western style; the flavor is way stronger.
So if you always drink Tieguanyin, want to try something new, or can’t resist a sale I highly recommend checking this tea out. I would hurry though. Last I checked there was only 4 pounds left.
Have you ever wished you could taste fresh picked tea? Well now you can! Verdant tea is currently working during there trip to china to bring you fresh from the field hand picked tea. The two teas that they have up for pre-order right now is the famous Mrs. Li’s Shi Feng Dragonwell Green Tea and Hand Picked Early Spring Tieguanyin.
There is also a great article with David (founder of Verdant Tea) interviewing Mrs. Li’s Shifeng about her Dragonwell tea. You can it read it here.
P.S. if you are already part of the monthly tea subscription with Verdant Tea you will be receiving the Dragonwell green tea for the month of May.
Today I decided to do a review for one of DAVIDs TEA. The tea I made was Quangzhou Milk Oolong; I have no idea how to say it. I received this as a sample with an order from them. I have had a few green oolongs before, but not a milk one. With that being said this was quit a wonderful tea, but first rant time.
When I looked at the steeping instructions on my sample packet, I was shocked at the steeping instructions. It wanted me to use almost boiling water ans steep it for 4-7 minuets. That is way to long to steep a green oolong; or most teas n general. I thought that maybe it was just cause it was a sample packet the instructions might not be accurate since they tend to be standard. However, when I went to their site it was the same instructions. GAH! I HATE IT WHEN TEA COMPANIES POST BAD STEEP TIMES! It’s like when you get bagged green tea and they want you to pour boiling water over it. From what I have seen, for green oolongs you want the temp to be around 190F and you want to use soft water (not tap). I also find that the leaves open up better if you put them in after you put water in your brewing vessel.
Anyways with that aside and using my own steeping times, and a tad more leaf I found that this made a really great cup. It was supper creamy and sweet I didn’t even need sweetener It wasn’t really vegital flavor either. It was just buttery and sweet with light notes of orchid. My only thing with this tea is that it wasn’t very strong but on some days it is nice to drink a nice light tea that is sweet and creamy on it’s own.
Overall it was a very enjoyable tea, and for the price and the many steeps that you can get from it (I think I went to 5?) it’s a good buy. The only bad thing is that I wish it was a bit more complex, but still very good.
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Brewing Specifics
Tunes 'N' Tea 