Review: Sencha Organic Tea by ThéTeeTea, Switzerland

I was told is quite difficult to get organically grown teas from Asia...maybe there's a good business idea there somewhere. I came to this tea via a surprising discovery on TheTeeTea's Symphonie tea, surprising because it turns out their Symphonie mix is a flavoured tea and (worse!) a fruity one. However I liked it enough to seek out the house and try the Sencha which is the base of Symphonie.

The success with Symphonie and Sencha, then led me to re-visit LongJing (Dragonswell), which I found I had now developed a taste for.

Sencha BIO, Japan [Green, Grassy] *** $$$     by TheTeeTea, CH

The leaves smelled grassy and are quite crumbly, especially when compared to LongJing or other chinese greens. 

Attention:This tea is VERY sensitive to water temp, do not use boiling water, make sure to cool to around 80C or the tea will be bitter.

Similar teas: Dragonswell, Reserve de Sichuan

Review: Napal Malum by Dogan & Acer

Nepal Malum, Nepal [Black] *** $$    by Dogan & Acer, Vienna, AT

High altitude black tea from Nepal, not too different from 
Darjeeling

Similar teas: Kashmir Tee, Nilgiri

Review: Pai Mu Tan by Yumchaa

I picked up a 50g packet of Pai Mu Tan on a recent trip to London and bought it at the Yumchaa teahouse, 
drank it continuously for a few weeks. Yum!  

Then it ran out and I regretted the decision to leave a good dose of the tea at my friend's place in London. 
Cry!

Pai Mu Tan, China [White, Floral] ***** $$$           by Yumchaa, UK 

Other Names: 白牡丹, Bai Mu Dan, white peony, 

The leaves are really colourful and both the taste and

smell was very unlike my only other white tea experience

Silver Needle. 
First Brew: can be quite subtle unless you give it a long 

enough brew, first taste is smooth

Second Brew: the floral notes really start to open up on 

this brew

Simliar teas: Chinese florals

Review: Reserve de Sichuan by TEKOE

The tea guy in Lausanne train station asked if I wanted sugar with this, and when I told him 

"certainly not"!  To which he replied, he would not have given it to me anyway! 

Ahh...I love tea dictators, especially when its for the benefit of the consumer.

Reserve de Sichaun [Green, Grassy]  *****  $$$$$          by Tekoe, CH 




This a high quality harvest which I can assume comes from Sichuan.

The leaf looks and smells like LongJing (Dragonswell) and smells also not unlike

pure Sencha. The tea really lives up to its quality and is a joy to drink...something

like LongJing in its taste but without any of its sharpness and instead is quite silky. Colour looked pale straw/brown, it was a bit difficult to judge in a lime green cup, similar to the colour of later brews of Silver Needle.




Similar teas: Dragonswell, Sencha

Review: Pu'erh Ozyimadias

To accompany the classic puerh, my friend also brought me this little box of tricks. As much as I love my 

push button teamaker and tea leaves, sometimes its nice to have a tea bag for tea on the go. Mostly its a 

treat as its not easy to find great tea in a bag.

Puerh ozyimandias, China [Black, floral]  ***


This bag makes a dark earthy puerh with a lovely floral 

nose and can be reused about twice if you really want.

I didn't quite like this tea that much at first but it 

definitely grew on me.  

Similar teas: Puerh, floral black teas

Review: Pu'erh

Puerh, China [Black] ****



is tea was brought by chinese friend, further details appreciated. This is my first

real foray into Puerh, which like LongJing I didn't like when I first tasted Puerhs in

San Fran. This cake is really densely packed, I had to get a friend to break it up for

 me, the tea smells of earth and has a dark black colour. 



First brew: Brewing a very modest quantity of leaf for a relatively short time gives a tar black tea that packs a punch. Nice warming quality in the abdomen area after drinking it. I find it both a fortifying and comforting tea. 

Subsequent brews: Pretty much the same, after around the 4th brew the colour gets lighter (looks like normal black tea) and its time to ditch the leaves.



Similar: DaHongPao 1990



Update: About 2 years later I finished this Pu-erh cake and it kept its flavor very well.

Review: Mystery Black Tea

I sent my friend Alessandra to China with a little shopping list of teas to get for me while she was there. She went into one shop where the lady was impressed by her tea list and/or her attempts to shop with next to zero knowledge of mandarin that she threw in a sample of this tea. We have no idea what it is.

Mystery Black Tea, China [Black], *** 

First brew: quite astringent, bitter  - a little like DaHongPao 

but without its subtler flavours. Light brown-golden colour even

 on long brewing

Second brew: less long, milder and more flavorful

Similar teas: DaHongPao, Aroma Red Robe

Under Starters Order....

aka Me and Chinese Tea

My love affair with green and chinese teas began in 2010 when I found myself on holiday in San Francisco's Chinatown. My companion and I were looking for a tea house to try out some teas. We wandered into Vital leaf tea and were treated to the trademark style of Kenny, surely one of the quarters most idiosyncratic sellers. 

I left after some hours with a lot of tea and a lot more knowledge. The first teas I sampled and liked were oolongs and in particular Te Guan Yin (Iron Goddess), I also left with some basic black tea (Aroma Red Jacket) and basic green tea (Thousand Mile). 

When I first tried LongJing (Dragon's Well) in San Fran I did not like it but I later developed a palate for it. This blog speaks to my journey with high quality teas since the trip to SF, written from a beginner-amateur perspective...hopefully others will find it useful and I'm particularly interested in other opinions and suggestions on teas. Please take note of my preferences and biases when reading my reviews. 

Things to you need to know

CONFESSION: I really hate fruit teas and many of the mixes that are popular in tea stalls. Especially if there are many flavours in a tea mix, black tea mixes seem particularly prone to this. Apologies to all fruity tea lovers out there but you wont find many reviews here on fruity teas or blends...there are simply too many flavours going on for me to enjoy them!

CLAIMER:I have no affiliation with any tea company or vendor mentioned on this blog, should this change I will state it clearly here.