Category: Review

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Tea in Texas’ Texas Twist

Texas Twist by Tea in Texas
Black Tea / Flavoured
$10.00USD for 2.0oz

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First Impressions

Texas Twist was a birthday gift that I received last year as part of a trio of teas from Tea in Texas (the first was published in December of Prairie Green). Like the previous review I did of a Tea in Texas tea, the loose leaf tea came to me in a resealable black bag that has the information about the tea printed on the label.

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The tea itself consists of: black tea, orange peels, citrus oils, cinnamon sticks, and spices. The aroma from the dry leaf is quite strongly of orange and cinnamon, the citrus aroma is bright (perhaps due to the addition of the citrus oils?) and is quite inviting. The label on this tea describes it as a best-selling tea blend for the company, so I’m quite eager to try it.

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Preparation

Tea in Texas recommends steeping Texas Twist in 212°F (100°C) water for 3 to 5 minutes. I opted for my initial steep to be 3 minutes.

First Taste

Texas Twist steeps to a deep orange, the aroma that wafts up from the tea as I pour from my teapot to teacup is primarily that of orange. The citrus aroma is strong in this black tea blend, which I can appreciate. There’s the underlying aromas of spices and cinnamon, I still can’t quite pick out which spices there are in this blend, but it smells good.

When I sipped Texas Twist for the first thing, I was surprised at how sweet the tea is. Sugar isn’t listed on the ingredients list, so I’m chalking it up as part of just the combination of ingredients that are present in this black tea blend. I taste oranges, and cinnamon, and whatever spices are present in Texas Twist have an enjoyable warming quality to it. It reminds me a bit of the warming qualities that ginger has, but I don’t believe that I taste ginger in this tea. The black tea base lends a nice strength behind the tea, with a robustness and maltiness that reminds me of breakfast tea.

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I did allow a cup of Texas Twist to cool to room temperature to try it, but found that I enjoyed this tea hot better than cooled.

A Second Cup?

Texas Twist is a black tea blend, so of course I had to try resteeping it. I wound up resteeping Texas Twist a total of three times (four steeps total with the same leaves). I increased the length of steeping time by 30 seconds for each additional resteep. For the first resteep, I found that the tea tasted pretty much the same as the initial steep, with perhaps being a little lighter in orange flavour but the sweetness was still the same. The second resteep was a bit weaker, while the third resteep was the weakest (and the least tasty). I think that Texas Twist does well for two resteeps (three steeps total).

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My Overall Impression

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I loved Tea in Texas’ Texas Twist. I always like when a tea blend can be resteeped, and Texas Twist fits into that category quite nicely. The natural sweetness that I found in this citrus black tea blend was enjoyable with a great warming quality to it. It has a nice strong black tea base to it that handles resteeping well. I wish that the product label (or the product page) had listed the spices – so if you have any allergies, I would recommend contacting Tea in Texas for more information.

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The Chinese Tea Shop’s 2006 High Mountain Shou Mei

2006 High Mountain Shou Mei by The Chinese Tea Shop
White Tea / Straight
$11.95 for 25g

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First Impressions

It’s another one of my Vancouver Tea Festival purchases, finally making its way to One More Steep. This tea comes from The Chinese Tea Shop, which is a fantastic tea shop located in Vancouver, British Columbia. I picked this one out because it just smelled so good.

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This is the 2006 High Mountain Shou Mei, which is a straight white tea. The packaging is fairly simplistic, primarily showcasing the tea itself. As you can see, the tea is primarily whole dried leaves. There is some broken tea leaves throughout – I’m not sure how much of that is because of how I had it stored (squished between other teas). The aroma that comes from the dry leaf is primarily floral, with a light sweetness to it.

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Preparation

The Chinese Tea Shop has so much information on their website regarding tea culture, and steeping tea. For this white tea, I opted to do an initial steep at 175°F (80°C) for 2 minutes. If I’m not too familiar with a type of white or green tea, I try to keep the water temperature as low as possible and do short steeps, this helps to prevent astringency and bitterness!

First Taste

High Mountain Shou Mei steeps to a fairly pale yellow for the initial steep. I found that the aroma from this white tea to be quite floral, with a slight fruity undertone that reminds me of apples. When drinking High Mountain Shou Mei, I found it to be smooth, with a sweetness that I wasn’t expecting. I could taste the floral and fruity (definitely apple!) notes, but there was a sweetness that was present. It wasn’t overwhelmingly sweet, it was just enough to highlight the fruity flavours and accents the gentle apple flavour that I get from this tea.

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A Second Cup?

I resteeped High Mountain Shou Mei six times (seven times total), adding an extra 30 seconds for each subsequent steep. Shou Mei got to be a deeper, darker golden yellow with each steep, the colour peaked at the third resteep. I found that the flavours got stronger as the colour got deeper. After the third resteep, the colour and flavour began to fade, but was still palatable by the last resteep.

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My Overall Impression

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I loved The Chinese Tea Shop’s 2006 High Mountain Shou Mei. This straight white tea was a delight to have over the course for a long morning tea session (which is apparently what I do when I wake up at 5am not on purpose). I loved tasting this tea over and over again, it resteeps so well and has such a great flavour. The apple-y sweetness was nicely balanced with the floral notes, I just love the natural flavours of this tea. This tea can be on the pricey side (although cost per gram goes down if you buy a larger quantity), but the quality is so high that I think you can definitely get your money’s worth out of each steep, especially if you push it to its limits like I do with multiple steeps.

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Oollo Tea’s Alishan Milky Oolong Tea

Alishan Milky Oolong Tea by Oollo Tea
Oolong Tea / Straight

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First Impressions

I got this Alishan Milky Oolong Tea from Oollo Tea from the Vancouver Tea Festival in 2016. I can’t remember how much I paid for it, but I can’t imagine that it was greater than $15.00 for the 30g package. It was a limited release, which is why I bought it (and also why I can’t find it on the Oollo Tea website at this time). It got tucked away in my tea stash and I recently came across it again, which is why I haven’t tried it before now (whoops).

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That said… The tea came in a vacuum sealed gold foil packet that came in a simple manila envelope. The tea itself consists of tightly compressed/rolled tea leaves. The colours are primarily a gradient from an olive to a dark green. The floral aroma from this tea is light and there’s a subtle sweetness behind it.

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Preparation

I steeped Alishan Milky Oolong Tea at 85C (185F) for 2 minutes for the initial steep.

First Taste

Alishan Milky Oolong Tea steeps to a light yellow after an initial steep of two minutes. I found that the aroma that came up from the tea was floral, but it wasn’t overwhelmingly perfumed – it’s a subtle floral aroma. I found the tea to be smooth – no bitterness, no astringency. I found it to have a creamy texture, with a very light buttery flavour that lingers at the end of each sip.

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I set aside some of this tea and had it cold and found it to taste a bit sweeter, which was a nice treat.

A Second Cup?

I resteeped Alishan Milky Oolong Tea a total of six resteeps (seven steeps total), and I found the colour deepened as I did more steeps, and began to lighten by resteep #4. The buttery flavours got stronger as the tea became more of a golden yellow, and I found that the floral sweetness stayed pretty much the same throughout all of the steeps.

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My Overall Impression

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I loved Oollo Tea’s Alishan Milky Oolong Tea. I wish I had remembered it in my tea stash a bit earlier so I could still find more information about it! That said, this oolong meets all my expectations for a milky oolong. I found it to be tasty, and the flavours got better with each steep as the colour became darker. I really enjoyed drinking this, and I think it would be great to have over a lazy rainy weekend afternoon.

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