Category: Review

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Lazy Meadow’s Vanilla Sencha

Vanilla Sencha by Lazy Meadow
Green Tea / Flavoured
$7.00 for 100g

First Impressions

A second tea that I purchase last summer at the PNE from Lazy Meadow (the first being Japanese Treasure, which I reviewed earlier this month). Vanilla Sencha came in similar packaging – simple folded top-bag with a label on the front with some information about the tea.

This tea smells richly of vanilla bean, which I love. Vanilla always makes me think of baked goods (especially cake!), so I was quite drawn to this tea when I first smelled it last summer, and I’m still quite drawn to it now. The green tea base is overwhelmed by the vanilla.

There is no ingredients list on the label, unfortunately, but based on my best guess I would say that Vanilla Sencha consists of sencha green tea and vanilla flavouring. My nose isn’t that adept to determine if it’s artificial or natural flavouring, unfortunately.

Preparation

I steeped Vanilla Sencha using the green tea setting on my Breville IQ Kettle – 175°F (79°C) for an initial steep of 2 minutes.

First Taste

Vanilla Sencha steeps to a beautiful light orange, the aroma from the tea is mostly that of vanilla. It reminds me of baking in the winter (mostly because that’s when I do most of my baking…). The tea itself has a sweetness to it, which I’m attributing to the vanilla, with a very light grassy flavour to it. There’s a touch of umami to it, just a bit of a saltiness that reminds me of seaweed snacks. Overall though, the flavour lends itself to be on the sweet side, due to the flavour of the vanilla.

A Second Cup?

I resteeped Vanilla Sencha once, and found the flavour to be primarily that of the sencha green tea base itself. Unfortunately, the vanilla flavouring and sweetness was lacking in the second steep. I would say that Vanilla Sencha is good for just one steep.

My Overall Impression

I thought that Lazy Meadow’s Vanilla Sencha was just okay. While the aroma of the dry leaf was very inviting, I did enjoy the first steep because of the vanilla notes. Once the vanilla flavouring was all gone, I found the sencha base to be lacking in flavour in comparison to the first steep – especially considering how much I enjoyed the vanilla smell and taste in this green tea blend. I think it’d be a good afternoon tea candidate, since the vanilla notes would play off of the smell of vanilla in the cupcakes and cookies.

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Tea in Texas’ Blue Ambrosia

Blue Ambrosia by Tea in Texas
Black Tea / Flavoured
$10.00USD for 3oz

First Impressions

Blue Ambrosia by Tea in Texas is the third of the Tea in Texas trio of teas that I received for my birthday last year, and when I smelled the dry leaf, I was beginning to think that I had saved the best for last. Blue Ambrosia has this amazingly fruity smell to it. It reminds me a bit of pineapples and mango, so it wasn’t that big of a surprise to read the label on the bag that suggests that it’d be great for an iced tea.

Blue Ambrosia is made up of: black tea, rose blossoms, cornflowers, safflowers, and tropical oils. I do wish that they had included what the tropical oils were, but alas, they did not.

Preparation

The steeping instructions for Blue Ambrosia are to steep in 212°F (100°C) water for 3 to 5 minutes. I opted to steep for 4 minutes.

First Taste

Blue Ambrosia steeps to a dark orange, with a beautiful fruity aroma. When tasting the tea, I found it to be smooth with zero astringency. The flavour of this tea has a sweetness to it, which I attribute to the flowers mostly. The tea is quite tasty, and I enjoyed the fruity flavours. I wish I knew which tropical fruits were represented in this blend, but it does have a great fruit flavour to it with a slight floral flavour.

As an aside, Tea in Texas is accurate in this tea being a great iced tea.

A Second Cup?

I resteeped Blue Ambrosia, and found that while that the floral flavours and sweetness were much stronger in the first resteep of these tea leaves. However, the tropical flavours were quite weak and mostly gone. I’d say that if you enjoy the fruity flavours, then Blue Ambrosia is good for one steep.

My Overall Impression

I loved Tea in Texas’ Blue Ambrosia. I really enjoyed the flavours of this black tea blend. I wish I knew what the fruity flavours lasted more than one steep, because that was one of my favourite aspects of this tea. The shift from fruity to floral still makes this tea tasty though, and I found that Blue Ambrosia had a very sudden shift in flavour and still didn’t need any sweetener added to it to make it a delicious cup of tea.

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GCY Tea’s Tie Guanyin

Tie Guanyin by GCY Tea
Oolong Tea / Straight
300g

This is a review of a tea that I received as a gift from someone who had travelled overseas to Hong Kong.

First Impressions

Tie Guanyin came to me in a long cardboard box. Inside was two cardboard boxes, which each held a sealed foil package of the tea. The extra cardboard box step just makes me think it’s too much packaging, but at least it’s something that can be recycled. Each foil package of tea holds 150g of oolong tea, which makes this whole package a whooping 300g. I love a good oolong, so I was pretty stoked about having so much oolong available to me (on top of what I already have…). That said, all the print on the packaging is in Chinese and my reading skills are minimal, so bear with me on this one!

The dry leaf is a pleasant green with some pops of bright green among the darker shades of green. The aroma from this oolong is primarily that of grass and floral notes. It’s not a very fragrant tea, the aromas are very subtle.

Preparation

The instructions on the side of the packaging suggests to steep in boiling water, up to 5-7 times. I used my Breville IQ Kettle‘s oolong tea setting (90°C/195°F) for an initial steep of 2 minutes.

First Taste

Tie Guanyin steeps to a pale yellow-green, there’s a very mild aroma that comes up from this steeped tea. I would liken it to being a bit grassy, with very light floral. It doesn’t smell like floral perfume, which is a bonus, but the overall aroma is quite light. I found that the flavour is much more vibrant than I expected, especially considering just the fragrance of the tea. There’s some light vegetal and and grassy notes, while there’s a very light sweetness to this tea that reminds me of jasmine flowers.

A Second Cup?

When a tea company suggests that their tea can be resteeped up to 7 times, I always take it as a challenge. I resteeped this oolong a total of 8 times. The colour got consistently darker and more golden yellow, until about the 5th resteep with the same leaves. The flavours did get deeper and more robust with each steep, having more of a creamy, buttery flavour to it as I continued to steep it. Even up to the 7th and 8th resteep, the flavours are strong enough that I think that I could have continued steeping even more.

My Overall Impression

I loved GCY Tea’s Tie Guanyin. It was a surprising flavourful considering how mildly aromatic the dry leaf is. I greatly enjoyed how the flavours got stronger and more complex. The change to a buttery/creamy flavour mixed with the grassy and vegetal from the initial steep were quite welcome, and tasty. I found each steep to be delicious and it’s definitely a tea that can be resteeped over and over again and would recommend having it over a weekend morning and afternoon.

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