Category: Review

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Teakan’s Ana’s Green

Ana’s Green by Teakan
Green Tea / Straight
$30.00 for 60g

Ana’s Green is part of Teakan’s Volume 4 Exploration Kit, a collection of five single origin teas. Ana’s Green makes up 15g of the 60g kit.

First Impressions

Rounding out the last tea in the Volume 4 Exploration Kit is Ana’s Green – a first flush green tea from Maipokhari, Ilam, Nepal. The tea comes in a sealed, resealable kraft paper pouch with a minimalistic white and black label. I’ve probably only had a handful of opportunities to taste single origin teas from Nepal, so it’s always a treat to get to do so.

The leaves are beautiful. Tightly coiled, twisted, and a blend of shades of green as you can see. There’s fuzziness to the lighter leaves, and it’s just a brilliant mixture of greens from pale creamy green to a deep hunter green. The aroma of the leaves is vegetal – it reminds me primarily of dark green vegetables like spinach, gailan, and broccoli.

Preparation

Teakan recommends steeping Ana’s Green in 75°C (167°F) water for a steep of 1 minute (western style) or 15 seconds (gongfu style). I opted to follow the steeping instructions and did an initial steep of 1 minute before pouring a cup of tea.

First Taste

Ana’s Green steeps to a bright yellow after the one minute steep. Just look at the brilliant colour! It reminds me of a liquid sunshine, and it has a beautiful vegetal aroma. The sweetness comes through in each sip, with a stark vegetal flavour that reminds me of dark green vegetables – just a hint of bitterness at the tail end of each sip but I do find it quite enjoyable. It adds something to the mouthfeel and I find that the tea has a thickened mouthfeel to it.

A Second Cup?

Resteeping Ana’s Green was a delight. I did five resteeps with the same leaves (six steeps total), adding an additional 30 seconds for each subsequent steep. The leaves open up an remarkable amount, and the uniformity of the green colour of the unfurled leaves is beautiful. The flavour remains vegetal with sweetness, and the bitterness goes away by the second resteep.

My Overall Impression

I loved Teakan’s Ana’s Green. This Nepalese green tea does a beautiful job of being resteeped, and has a wonderful colour and delightful flavour throughout each resteep. I found it to be pleasant to drink, and smooth. It does have a nice bitterness to it, that I actually enjoyed it as it balanced well with the sweetness that was naturally found in the tea.

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DavidsTea’s Hibiscus Splash

Hibiscus Splash by DavidsTea
Fruit Infusion / Flavoured
$8.98 for 50g

First Impressions

Never quite done with iced teas, am I? This is a fruity infusion from DavidsTea with a bright yellow label across a sealed, resealable pouch. This was part of an online order that I made and was included as a free gift with purchase. Luckily, it wasn’t one that I had tried before I decided it would make a good option to review.

Hibiscus Splash consists of: apple pieces, candied pineapple, hibiscus blossoms, natural flavouring, fig slices, rose pepper, cranberries, cornflower blossoms, and stevia extract. The aroma of the dry leaf is primarily pineapple and figs, with hints of fruitiness throughout the background. It’s a nice fruity blend, and makes me want an iced tea.

Preparation

DavidsTea recommends steeping Hibiscus Splash in 95°C (200°F) water for over 5 minutes. I opted to do an initial steep with the recommended water temperature for 7 minutes.

First Taste

Hibiscus Splash steeps to a bright red, most likely thanks to the hibiscus blossoms in the blend. The flavour reminds me a lot of a fruit punch or mixed fruit juice box. It has a distinctly cherry quality to it, and it has the tartness from the hibiscus. There’s a nice sweetness to it, which I suspect is due to the apple, candied pineapple, and stevia. It does have a touch of an aftertaste with it with the stevia, but the cherry flavour is much stronger than the other flavours.

A Second Cup?

I attempted to resteep Hibiscus Splash, but found that it didn’t resteep well. The initial steep has a lovely flavour, but the subsequent steep did not and was fairly void of strong flavours.

My Overall Impression

I liked DavidsTea’s Hibiscus Splash. The flavour reminds me a lot of a fruit punch, with a strong cherry flavour. It has a good flavour for the initial steep, but it was definitely meant for one steep only.  The cherry flavouring is strong, and the fruit infusion does steep well. I’m not partial to cherry, unfortunately, but I think that cherry fans would enjoy it considerably more than I did – especially iced.

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Teakan’s Ya Shi Xiang, Phoenix Dancong

Ya Shi Xiang, Phoenix Dancong by Teakan
Oolong Tea / Straight
$30.00 for 60g

Ya Shi Xiang, Phoenix Dancong is part of Teakan’s Volume 4 Exploration Kit, a collection of five single origin teas. Ya Shi Xiang, Phoenix Dancong makes up 10g of the 60g kit.

First Impressions

Ya Shi Xiang directly translates to duck shit – and is surprisingly not smelling of poop if you know what the name translates to. Phoenix Dancong is a bit of a more forgiving name, that is for sure! This particular Ya Shi Xiang comes in a sealed, resealable kraft paper pouch with a white and black label across the front and back. To be specific, this oolong was harvested in spring of 2021 from Wudong, Guangdong, China.

The dry leaves are long, slightly wiry with a light twist. The colour of the leaves are a deep brown, with light pops of tan and lighter brown throughout. The aroma of the leaves is floral and sweet, nothing at all like the name suggests, with hints of what reminds me of the smell right after a rainfall.

Preparation

Teakan recommends steeping Ya Shi Xiang in 95°C (203°F) for 2 minutes (western style) or 98°C (208°F) for 5 seconds (gongfu style). I opted to steep western style, due to ease on my part.

First Taste

Ya Shi Xiang steeps to a clear light golden yellow after the 2 minute steep. The aroma of the steeped tea is mostly floral with hints of fresh rain and wet moss like you get when going for a walk through the forest, and it’s pleasant to the nose to be sure. The tea itself has a smooth texture, sweet, floral with very light nuttiness at the tail end of each sip. It has a thickened mouth texture but pleasantly smooth and easy to drink.

A Second Cup?

Ya Shi Xiang resteeps nicely – I did six resteeps of the same leaves (seven steeps total) – and added an additional 30 seconds for each subsequent steep. The leaves open beautifully – look at those lovely green leaves! The flavour gets a bit deeper for the first two resteeps, and then slowly begins to wane in flavour intensity, but I do enjoy each resteep thoroughly.

My Overall Impression

I loved Teakan’s Ya Shi Xiang, Phoenix Dancong. The tea resteeps beautifully, and has a lovely floral flavour with each steep. The flavour remains fairly consistent with each steep, and lends itself to a really tasty cup of tea – despite of what the name of the tea is! I even had a cup of it cold (due to leaving it too long), and really enjoyed it as well – so there’s that.

Curious about the cup rating system? Click here to learn more.