Author: Michelle

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Grand Tea’s Nan Jing Yu Hua Cha

Nan Jing Yu Hua Cha by Grand Tea
Green Tea / Straight
$63.00HKD for 25g

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Grand Tea has provided me with Nan Jing Yu Hua Cha for the purposes of providing an honest review. I received this product at no charge to me and received no other compensation.

First Impressions

Nan Jing Yu Hua Cha is a tea from the city of Nan Jing (also angelcized as Nanking), in the Jiangsu provice. Yu Hua Cha translates to Rain Flower Tea. The tea itself have a thin needle appearance, and you can see the downy feathers on these tea leaves – it’s so pretty! There’s a very subtle sweet smell to tea leaves, it’s light and floral. There’s a beautiful colour to the tea leaves, it’s nice. According to Grand Tea’s product page for Nan Jing Yu Hua Cha, this tea was first produced in 1958, which makes it fairly young in the grand scheme of things with tea’s rich history in China.

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Preparation

Grand Tea recommends steeping Nan Jing Yu Hua Cha in 70-80°C (158-176°F) water for 1 minute. I steeped it in 80°C/175°F for 1 minute.

First Taste

Nan Jing Yu Hua Cha Steeps to a pale green-yellow, it’s very clear. The smell of the tea is slightly salty, and when I tasted it I found that sweet floral that I noticed in the dry leaf. The sweet and salty combination is light, the salty doesn’t overpower the sweet. The light floral taste is nice – the general balance of the sweet, salty, and floral, makes is a very refreshing tea.

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A Second Cup?

As a straight green tea, I wanted to see how Nan Jing Yu Hua Cha would do with resteeping. I resteeped it six times (adding an extra 30 seconds per resteep). I found that the flavours became stronger and floral flavours were strongest for the third steep. The fourth and fifth resteep had similar flavours to earlier steeps, the sixth resteep was the lowest in flavour so I would recommend resteep Nan Jing Yu Hua Cha up to five times.

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My Overall Impression

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I loved Grand Tea’s Nan Jing Yu Hua Cha. The salty-sweet floral taste of this tea is really quite nice. I love that it holds up to resteeping so well – six steeps total! I almost feel like the tea could be renamed ocean rainflower and it’d be more accurate, since there’s the salty quality to it. The refreshing flavours of this tea are nice to enjoy, and I’d definitely recommend steeping this one again and again. Because it’s so light, it’d go well with sweets or savouries.

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Oollo Tea’s Red Jade Black Tea

Red Jade Black Tea by Oollo Tea
Black Tea / Straight
$10.00 for 25g

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Oollo Tea has provided me with Red Jade Black Tea for the purposes of providing an honest review. I received this product at no charge to me and received no other compensation.

First Impressions

One of the sample packets I got from Oollo Tea back in November 2016, this their Red Jade Black Tea. The tea leaves are long and wiry with how they are twisted together. The leaves themselves are dark, and when I opened up the bag the first thing I smelled was plums. There’s the sweet smell of plums mixed in with raisins. It’s an intriguing mix of fruit flavours, and it’s got my interest piqued.

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Red Jade Black Tea is a straight black tea, consisting of tea from Yuchi, Nantou, Taiwan.

Preparation

Oollo Tea recommends steeping in 90-95°C (194-203°F) water for 1-4 minutes. For those who’ve read my previous reviews before, you know how much I rely on my Breville IQ Kettle for the perfect temperature water – I used the Oolong setting (91°C/195°F) and did an initial steep of 2 minutes.

First Taste

Red Jade Black Tea steeps to a really pretty light golden orange – it reminds me a lot of the orange found in sunsets (which then makes me think of summer and how we’ve been having a lot of snow here…). There’s a nice plum and raisin aroma that comes from the tea when I smell it after it has steeped. On first sip, the first thing I taste is the taste of the plums and raisins. Then comes just a slight astringency at the end of sip that is met with a cool minty taste. As I continue to sip this tea, I find notes of warming cinnamon spice flavour, that really balances well with the sweetness of the plums. The minty flavour isn’t as prominent as the cinnamon, but it does make for quite the variation in flavour in the same cup of tea. Overall, I really like that this is a full-bodied tea, it has a great mouthfeel to it without being oily, and there’s a complex blend of flavours that makes it really fun to drink.

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A Second Cup?

The packaging suggested that I could steep this tea three times, so of course I did just that. I added an additional 30 seconds per subsequent resteep. I found that the tea has very similar flavours in steeps 2 and 3, but found that the plum flavour is far more pronounced in steeps 2 and 3 than the flavour of raisins.

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My Overall Impression

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I loved Oollo Tea’s Red Jade Black Tea. What I thought was going to be a fairly straightforward black tea ended up being this delicious roller coaster of flavour. From the beginning to the end, each sip takes you on this crazy journey that starts off with the warming flavour of cinnamon and ends off with a cool bit of mint. It might be the most complex and interesting black tea that I’ve ever had the pleasure of steeping. And all the while, the notes of plum and raisin hang in there to balance out the warming and cooling flavours. It’s just plain delicious.

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The Key of Tea’s Signature Chai

Signature Chai by The Key of Tea
Black Tea / Flavoured
$8.50USD for 2oz

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The Key of Tea has provided me with Signature Chai for the purposes of providing an honest review. I received this product at no charge to me and received no other compensation.

First Impressions

I was contacted by Claire, the owner of The Key of Tea, wondering if I’d be interested in trying out some organic hand crafted tea blends and the answer was (and is always) yes. This is the first of three reviews of teas from The Key of Tea, I received samples of each one. My tea samples arrived in sealed plastic bags, this is not the same as the commercial packaging used by The Key of Tea, but Claire was nice enough to include a photo of her retail packaging for me to share:

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Signature Chai is a black tea blend that has a very strong ginger, cinnamon, peppermint and peppercorn aromas in the dry leaf. It smells delicious and has the right level of spices in the dry leaf that I would expect for any kind of chai. Signature Chai consists of: black tea, cinnamon, fennel, ginger, peppermint, cloves, peppercorn, cardamom, and coriander.

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Preparation

There weren’t any preparation recommendations on the sample or on the website, I used my trusty Breville IQ Kettle‘s black tea setting (100°C/212°F) and steeped Signature Chai for an initial steep of 4 minutes.

First Taste

Signature Chai steeps to a nice medium orange colour, there’s very strong smells of cinnamon and ginger that just waft up from my tea cup. It’s a very inviting smell. On first taste of Signature Chai, I can definitely taste the cinnamon and the ginger in the tea blend – both ingredients have great warming qualities and I like that about them. There’s a rather light freshness in each sip of tea, which I attribute to the peppermint even though I can’t really taste anything overly minty in this tea. The freshness is a welcome counterbalance to the warming qualities of the ginger and cinnamon in the blend. Unfortunately, while I could smell the peppercorn in the dry leaf of this Signature Chai, I find that I can’t really taste the peppercorn – perhaps it would come across more in the tea’s flavours if they had been crushed or ground prior to being put into the mix. There’s a gingery aftertaste to this blend that is surprising, as it did help me to open up the sinuses a bit as it was a bit strong (but not off-putting in the slightest).

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A Second Cup?

I resteeped Signature Chai an additional two times, adding 30 seconds per subsequent steep. I found that the flavours noted in the initial steep hold up well throughout all of the steeps. This tea does do well with the addition of sugar and milk, so don’t hesitate to mix it up a little bit and make to your liking.

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My Overall Impression

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I liked The Key of Tea’s Signature Chai. The warming qualities of the ginger and cinnamon are great, and I really like the addition of peppermint in a chai blend – I don’t think I’ve ever had that before and it’s actually quite refreshing. I do wish that the peppercorns came across more in the steeped tea, I think it would be a very different flavour if they had been crushed or ground instead of being whole peppercorns (although it is prettier to look at when they’re whole). Overall, Signature Chai is delicious and I think it has a good balance of flavours, I just wish that the peppercorns were present in the flavour profile of the steeped tea.

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