I was going to post a review of three teas, yes THREE in this here blog post. But that isn’t happening. It is so hot here I couldn’t take being in the kitchen any longer. So you get two. Which is still awesome in my book.
A few weeks ago a Google+ follower emailed me to ask if I’d be willing to review some teas. Well, of course! I love tea and I love reviewing it. So I was very excited to get said tea. What arrived a few weeks later was a nice sized sample of White Peony (Bai Mu Dan), Xinyang Green Tea, and a Dan Cong Oolong. I’ll be reviewing the first two today.
Allow me to set the stage…my darling husband is off with his cousins for a weekend of hijinks and who knows what else. So I am taking this opportunity to watch all the girly movies I want, order take-out, and review tea! Exciting I know, but it’s how I like to spend my time. So last night i enjoyed the cool of the bedroom thanks to hubs putting in the A/C unit before he left. Of course last night was also the night all three cats figured out the cat door to the cool bedroom. Then they made a game of it…ALL NIGHT!
Once I finally get to sleep which only seems like 10 minutes the largest crack of thunder hits and I am surprised to find I am not CLINGING to the ceiling fan in our room. This is followed by glorious rain and me running around at 5am closing all the open windows in the house. Needless to say I then slept in until 10am!
Long story short lunch was later today and consisted of left over Chinese Take-out from the night before. So I paired it with the White Peony. First I have to tell you I am not a fan of white teas and no I don’t know why. So I broke out in a cold sweat when I saw this tea in the package. The tea smelled a bit like maybe fresh cut grass or hay. Which is not a bad thing at all. I happen to like the smell of both.
I added a teaspoon of the dry leaf to an infusion basket and gently placed it in my cup to avoid too much spilling into my cup…really hate when that happens. I waiting for my kettle to ding and poured the water over the dry leaf. That’s when the smell of hay really came out to play. I let it steep for almost 2 minutes. I also let it cool for another minute or so, so as not to burn myself.
As you can see I had fun with a little app called picstich. Anyway, the tea did taste a bit earthy to me. But upon trying a few more sips with my leftovers it took on a light floral taste and was pretty enjoyable.
After I stuffed myself on lunch I reached for the green tea from Derek Chew as I recalled some one reviewing the tea on Steepster as the perfect after meal tea. I had tried this the day I got it, but I was at work and brewing it in a very crude manner…not worth mentioning here (a story for another time). This one had a very veggie smell to the dry leaf. Once the water hit it the tea smelled like spinach and I was in tea heaven!
I may have steeped this a little longer than I should have as it tasted a touch bitter. BUT it was still drinkable. As in I drank the whole cup! I really, really like this one. It’s very light and crisp and super refreshing. I think I’ll have to cold brew some this evening.
So yummy!
My only issue is that there was very little information on the bags as far as where the tea was from, when it was harvested, etc. Hopefully that was only due to this being a sample. But there was room for it on the bag. Honestly, that was my only issue.
UPDATE: I did notice that there was in fact a country of origin printed on the bag…looks like I need an eye exam. Derek from Peony TS also let me know that all of the other information I found lacking is posted on the bags when regular sized orders are made…they are not posted when a sample is sent. While I understand why I still think that even a sample should have as much information as possible. Just my two cents.
If you are interested in these teas by all means please check out peonyts.com.
White Peony – 50 grams will run you $11.00 (US)
Xinyang Green – 50 gram will run you $16.50 (US)
Tomorrow or later tonight I will try the Dan Cong Oolong and post something up here as soon as possible. Stay cool everyone!
According to a German saying, the good things always go by three and for the French, never two without three.
Perhaps you would have better eyes if you had reviewed the three of them?