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Sunny M’s Formosa Beauty

Formosa Beauty by Sunny M
Oolong Tea / Straight
$18.00 for 20g

Sunny M has provided me with Formosa Beauty for the purposes of writing an honest review.

First Impressions

Formosa Beauty comes in a sealed, resealable gold foil pouch that has the bonus of a little one-way valve in the packaging. What I like about this one-way valve is that you can push out all of the air from the bag after you reseal it, which helps keep the tea from getting stale – pretty neat feature!

The packaging has labels on the front and back. So it describes Formosa Beauty as being handpicked, leaf hopper bitten, it’s a hybrid ea (called Taiwan No. 12) from the Charm of Hearts tea estate from Taiwan. It’s a direct trade tea which means that Sunny M gets it directly from the tea estate itself – which I think it’s pretty awesome. It is really nice to be able to get all the information that you consume, and it’s something that unfortunately you don’t get from a lot of tea available in grocery stores that are more easily accessible.

Formosa Beauty is a roasted tea with no additives or additional ingredients. The leaves are a lovely mix of brown and deep reddish brown, all bunched up. There are some nice honey floral note from the dry leaf that is inviting.

Preparation

With no steeping instructions on the packaging, I went over to the Sunny M website to find out what I could find. Sunny M recommends steeping Formosa Beauty in 85-95°C (185-203°F) for 4-6 minutes. I opted to use 93°C (200°F) water and did an initial steep for 5 minutes.

First Taste

Formosa Beauty steeps to a golden yellow – just look at that colour! It’s got a nice sweet floral aroma to it, and the flavour? There’s a thicken mouthfeel to the steeped tea, coupled with a sweet, honeyed sweetness and strong floral notes – but not so strong that you feel like you’re drinking a bouquet.

A Second Cup?

I resteeped Formosa Beauty five times, adding an additional 30 seconds of steep time for each subsequent steep. I found that the flavour remained fairly true to the initial steep, with a more subdued floral flavour with each steep, but still balancing well against the sweetness that’s naturally coming from the tea leaves.

My Overall Impression

I loved Sunny M’s Formosa Beauty. I’m a sucker for an oolong that’s got some great flavour and resteeps well, and Formosa Beauty ticks those boxes for me. At almost a dollar per gram, it’s not one of the cheapest teas that I’ve ever reviewed, but it has a lovely quality to it that allows you to resteep it over and over again, which really enables you to get all of that flavour out of those handpicked leaves – which is just economically smart practice when you’ve got an expensive tea! Bonus, it even tastes good too (which helps justify that price tag). The sweet floral notes are just delicious and would make for a good cup of tea both hot or iced – and iced oolong in the summer is just tasty!

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The Chinese Tea Shop’s 1990’s Loose Leaf Pu’erh Tea (Ripe/Shou)

1990’s Loose Leaf Pu’erh Tea (Ripe/Shou) by The Chinese Tea Shop
Pu’erh Tea / Straight
$38.00 for 50g

First Impressions

This 1990’s Loose Leaf Pu’erh Tea (Ripe/Shou) was a 2020 Vancouver Tea Festival purchase (and March feels so long ago now, especially when I consider that the tea festival happened the weekend prior to a pandemic being declared – a lot has happened since that weekend). This was really an on-a-whim purchase after having a chat with The Chinese Tea Shop’s owner, Daniel. Every year, I end up talking to him about tea and he’s a wealth of information (so is his shop’s website!). The 1990’s Loose Leaf Pu’erh Tea was a recommendation made by him, and I was easily persuaded to give it a try.

1990’s Loose Leaf Pu’erh Tea (Ripe/Shou) is a straight pu’erh tea, from the Yunnan, Xishuang Banna Region of China. The ripe/shou vs raw/shang categories of pu’erh will be discussed another day. The loose leaf tea comes in a plastic resealable pouch that has a clear front and white back and a simple label with not a lot of information – the product page on The Chinese Tea Shop’s website definitely has more. The leaves themselves are a dark reddish brown colour and there’s an aroma to the leaves that reminds me of figs and apricots.

Preparation

No steeping instructions on the packaging, but as per the website, The Chinese Tea Shop recommends 95-100°C (203-212°F) water for steeping pu’erh, and also the gongfu method of steeping. I’m still unpacking from my move, so I used a western style tea pot instead and steeped for 90 seconds using 100°C water.

First Taste

1990’s Loose Leaf Pu’erh Tea (Ripe/Shou) steeps to a deep, deep reddish brown colour. The aroma of the steeped tea mimics the flavour of the tea really well – I get a lot of earthy and malty notes, sweet fig and apricot flavours, and there’s a thickened mouthfeel to the tea itself. It’s very smooth though, with no bitterness detected.

A Second Cup?

I resteeped 1990’s Loose Leaf Pu’erh Tea (Ripe/Shou) six times (seven steeps total with the same leaves), and added an additional 15 seconds for each subsequent steep. The flavour remained consistent throughout, I found that the sweet fig and apricot flavours began to wane a bit by the third resteep, but was still detectable by the sixth resteep.

My Overall Impression

I loved The Chinese Tea Shop’s 1990’s Loose Leaf Pu’erh Tea (Ripe/Shou). The balance of flavours in this tea make for a tasty cup of tea, and I’m happy that the leaves resteep so well, especially since it’s not a particularly inexpensive tea. My best pro-tip to share when you’ve got an expensive tea is to always resteep it (unless you didn’t like it) and get all that flavour out of the leaves before green binning it. I found this pu’erh to be really easy to drink and I found the malty part balanced really well against the sweet fig and apricot flavours that I found in there.

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Dessert by Deb’s Lemongrass Milk Pudding

Lemongrass Milk Pudding by Dessert by Deb
Green Tea / Flavoured
$6.00 for 25g

First Impressions

I got Lemongrass Milk Pudding as part of my subscription box from Dessert by Deb (the March-April box). The tea itself came in a clear plastic resealable pouch, so I can see all the ingredients inside. Lemongrass Milk Pudding is part of the Garden Tea Party collection.

This green tea blend has a beautiful dry leaf ,especially with the aroma. Lemongrass Milk Pudding consists of certified organic: jasmine green tea, sencha, lemongrass, coconut, toasted coconut, and ginger. The aroma of the dry leaf is primarily the toasted coconut, lemongrass, and some floral creamy notes. Surprisingly, I don’t really smell the ginger at all – but because it’s at the end of the ingredients list, I don’t expect it to be a majority player in the blend.

Preparation

Because this is a sample pouch, there were no steeping instructions. But I was able to easily find information on the Dessert by Deb website. Dessert by Deb recommends steeping Lemongrass Milk Pudding in 200°F (93°C) water for 5-6 minutes. I opted to do an initial steep for 5 minutes at the recommended water temperature.

First Taste

Lemongrass Milk Pudding steeps to a beautiful golden yellow. There’s some beautiful aromas from this steeped green tea – I get the aroma of lemongrass, vanilla, cream, and floral notes. It’s really quite pleasant. The tea itself is smooth, and none of the flavours are overpowering the other one. I get that sweetness, floral, vanilla, buttery cream, and lemongrass flavour all at once and it’s really quite pleasant. It’s a really delicate feeling tea because it’s just a pretty and decadent feeling tea.

A Second Cup?

I resteeped Lemongrass Milk Pudding twice, adding an additional 30 seconds for each subsequent steep. I found it did pretty decent with each steep, and the balance of flavours got a bit more towards the floral sweetness as I resteeped it, which I quite enjoyed.

My Overall Impression

I loved Dessert by Deb’s Lemongrass Milk Pudding. The balance of flavours was just so well done with this blend that has two green teas as its base. I found the mix of flavours to be pleasant and delicate feeling, and it just makes for a really feminine feel in how delicate and feminine it feels. I think that’s in part with the floral notes from the jasmine green tea and the garden party feel to it. I could definitely picture myself serving Lemongrass Milk Pudding at an afternoon tea party and seeing it be well received.

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