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Teakan’s Margaret’s Hope Darjeeling

Margaret’s Hope Darjeeling by Teakan
Black Tea / Straight
$30.00 for 70g

Margaret’s Hope Darjeeling is one of five teas from Teakan’s Tea Exploration Kit (Volume 2) and makes up 15g of the 70g of looseleaf tea in this curated collection.

First Impressions

Margaret’s Hope Darjeeling comes in a sealed, resealable kraft paper pouch. The label is the minimalistic style that I’ve come to know and love from Teakan. I have to admit, I do appreciate the not-so-flashy packaging from time to time because it really allows for the tea to shine instead of me being overly impressed by something fancy. For those curious like I was, I did look up Margaret’s Hope, and it’s a tea estate in Darjeeling. The name comes from the original owner’s daughter, who passed away after a visit on her way back to England. Margaret’s Hope Tea Estate is also the location where the labourers of the West Bengal’s tea industry first organized in 1955 to protest against low wages and unfair working conditions.

Margaret’s Hope Darjeeling has some deep, dark brown leaves with some pops of cream mixed in. This straight black tea is from Darjeeling, West Bengal, India and is the 2nd flush (second harvest) of 2018. There’s something heavy about the aroma of the dry leaf – earthy, sweet, grassy. A perplexing and intriguing blend of aromas all around. The leaves are on the shorter side, a bit wiry with a light twist.

Preparation

Teakan recommends steeping Margaret’s Hope Darjeeling in 85°F (185°F) for 2 to 3 minutes. I followed the steeping instructions and did an initial steep of 3 minutes.

First Taste

Margaret’s Hope Darjeeling steeps to a bright golden orange. The aroma of the tea is very similar to the dry leaf – more earthy and sweet than grassy, but the grassy aroma is in the background. The texture of this tea is nice – there’s a thickened mouthfeel to the tea that just allows everything to really coat the inside of your mouth. The flavour is pleasantly sweet, with a hint of astringency that rests with the grassy notes while the earthiness is more forward and really just tickles the taste buds throughout each sip. Just a pleasant to sip cup of tea.

I didn’t add anything to Margaret’s Hope Darjeeling as I felt that the flavour really stood well by itself. I do, however, feel like this would be an excellent tea to mix with some sweetener or cream, if you were so inclined.

A Second Cup?

I resteeped Margaret’s Hope Darjeeling twice (three steeps total), adding an additional 30 seconds for each subsequent steep. I found that the initial steep was the most flavourful, but I didn’t have any issues with the slightly less flavour in the other two steeps. It was still very enjoyable cups of tea, so I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend resteeping this black tea.

My Overall Impression

I loved Teakan’s Margaret’s Hope Darjeeling. I felt like this black tea just made for a nice cup of tea. It has a pleasant mix of flavours that were all well balanced together and did a decent job with being resteeped. It has a nice texture to it and was just easy to drink with just enough of a punch of caffeine that I could see this easily being had in the wee hours of the morning when waking up before a day shift, or anyone who needs to pull an all-nighter for school.

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Naoki Matcha’s Ujitawara Special

Ujitawara Special by Naoki Matcha
Green Tea (Matcha) / Straight
$24.99USD for 20g

Naoki Matcha has provided me with Ujitawara Special for the purposes of writing an honest review.

First Impressions

Ujitawara Special came to me from Naoki Matcha in a sealed, resealable pouch. It’s described as being part of their Masters Collection and being a ceremonial grade matcha. This particular blend of matcha is from Uji, Kyoto, Japan. I was quite pleased to get the chance to try this because I’m always wanting to explain my knowledge of matcha and I feel like every experience comes with something new.

The aroma of Ujitawara Special is a mix of grassy and watercress to me. The colour is an amazingly vibrant green that just looks very fresh and inviting – like someone just plucked new leaves off a plant and ground it up in front of me. Giving the tasting cup a small shake and most of the clumps that came out of the packaging that way just fell apart.

Preparation

Naoki Matcha didn’t have specific instructions for Ujitawara Special, but their website does have a lot of information on how to prepare matcha.

What I opted to do: heat water to the lowest setting on my variable temperature kettle (the green tea setting 175°F/79°C), sifted Ujitawara Special into my bowl, whisked with a bamboo whisk (in an M or W motion), and then topped up with a bit more water. I had this one straight.

First Taste

Ujitawara Special has an interesting flavour that was hard for me to pinpoint at first. There was the froth from the top of the matcha first, so that was just a bit bubbly. Then followed umami flavour, grassy notes, and then almost a sweet floral that was just kissed the taste buds before it was gone. It has a nice smoothness to it that makes it pretty pleasant to drink.

A Second Cup?

As with all matcha, there are no second steeps.

My Overall Impression

I loved Naoki Matcha’s Ujitawara Special. It was a treat to experience and drink from start to finish. The vibrancy of colour, to that subtle grassy and watercress aroma to the deep green whisked up matcha and just how it easy it was to drink definitely made for a pleasant matcha experience. I had this one straight (so not as my usual matcha latte), and you could certainly opt to do that with this as well, it just might make for an expensive matcha latte given the price – but a good quality matcha will usually run you at least $1 per gram, and if you want to drink a really nice matcha latte, shouldn’t you be using something good?

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

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DavidsTea’s Sheng Pu’erh

Sheng Pu’erh by DavidsTea
Pu’erh Tea / Straight
$10.98 for 50g

First Impressions

Sheng Pu’erh is not a tea that I would have necessarily picked out for myself a few years ago, but 2020 is a year of confusion, mystery, and Michelle trying new things. Because why not? Sheng Pu’erh comes in a very familiar silver pouch from DavidsTea – sealed and resealable. It is a larger bag than you’ll usually find 50g of tea in, which lends me to believe that it’ll be an airy tea and just a very ‘light’ tea overall.

The leaves of Sheng Pu’erh are lightly twisted and have a range of colours from dark brown to a reddish brown colour to even a cream colour for the leaves that show some feathery bits to it. Sheng Pu’erh consists only of sheng pu’erh tea from Yunnan Province, China. The aroma is a mix of earthy and roasted nuttiness. I found out from the DavidsTea website that their Sheng Pu’erh is only a year old, so there’s still room for improvement on the tea itself if you allow it to age.

For those new to pu’erh, there’s two basic types: sheng and shou. Sheng is raw while shou is ripe – sheng is less processed and shou is more processed. I’m still not too familiar to the ins and outs of pu’erh tea and I don’t even remotely pretend to be an expert on it – but I’m in the process of learning! More on that later…

Preparation

DavidsTea recommends steeping Sheng Pu’erh in 95°C (200°F) water for 4 to 5 minutes. I opted to do a quick rinse of the leaves first with the same temperature water before doing a steep time of 4 minutes.

A quick rinse is just like it sounds: pour the heated water over the leaves in the tea pot, and immediately pour it out before it really gets a chance to steep. Then continue the steeping process as normal. Rinsing helps to ‘wake up’ pu’erh tea leaves a little bit, and is a common technique when starting a steep of pu’erh leaves.

First Taste

Sheng Pu’erh steeps to a light golden yellow. The aroma is slightly smoky, earthy, and something that reminds me of mushrooms. It has a nice slightly thickened texture, and is a smooth sip. The flavour stays the same throughout the sip, and it just has a bit of a gentle mouthfeel that allows the flavour to coat in the inside of your mouth without an lingering aftertaste.

A Second Cup?

I resteeped Sheng Pu’erh four times (five steeps total), and added an additional 30 seconds for each subsequent steep. The leaves really opened up from the dried state and you can see the texture in the full leaves after they opened up after all the steeps. The flavour does deepen as you go and remains fairly faithful to the initial steep. It does get a bit more earthy and the smoky notes lessen with the subsequent steeps.

My Overall Impression

I loved DavidsTea’s Sheng Pu’erh. I found it to be a very pleasant cup of tea, and it really reminds me of a pu’erh that you might get with dimsum at a restaurant (I miss dimsum!). There’s a nice earthiness to it that isn’t overpoweringly robust, and the texture of the tea is just smooth. I would liken this to being a good introductory pu’erh because it’s not over the top in flavour, but it doesn’t lack in flavour either. There’s nothing particularly offensive about it, which I can sometimes find fault in for other pu’erh teas, but just makes for a decent, standard cup of pu’erh (which isn’t to say that as a bad thing, but it makes a nice introduction, and I kind of wish that this had been one of my introductory pu’erh teas myself when I first started branching out).

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