Tag: Grand Tea

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Grand Tea’s Organic Jin Xuan White Tea

Organic Jin Xuan White Tea by Grand Tea
White Tea / Straight
$29.00HKD for 25g

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Grand Tea has provided me with Organic Jin Xuan White Tea for the purposes of providing an honest review.

First Impressions

I love a good white tea, which is why I was happy when Grand Tea sent me some of their Organic Jin Xuan White Tea to try! For those that don’t know, white tea is the most minimally processed tea there is available. The extent of processing white tea is essentially picking it, letting it dry out, and applying a minimal amount of heat.

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Organic Jin Xuan White Tea is a beautiful straight white tea. The leaves aren’t rolled or squished in any way at all, and you can really see the details in the leaves when laying them out. The leaves are a mix of green and brown, which is nice to see. The dry leaves have a very light floral aroma to them, which is quite inviting.

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Preparation

Grand Tea didn’t have any steeping instructions on their product page. My initial steep of Organic Jin Xuan White Tea was in 85°C (185°F) water for 2 minutes.

First Taste

Organic Jin Xuan White Tea steeps to be quite clear, it’s barely pigmented at all after the initial steep. The fragrance from this tea is a mixture of floral and buttercream, Organic Jin Xuan White Tea definitely has some sweet notes to it. I found when I sipped it, I was pleasantly greeted with a smooth, creamy tea. Despite how clear the tea appears, it has a nice smoothness to it as I sip my cup. The floral notes are a bit milder than jasmine, I can’t quite place what the flower is. The buttercream taste to it adds to the creaminess of the tea and lends itself to the buttery flavour of this tea. Despite buttercream being a fairly ‘heavy’ flavour, I found that the white tea did have a bit of lightness to it overall.

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A Second Cup?

I resteeped Organic Jin Xuan White Tea seven times, adding an extra 30 seconds per additional steep. I found that the tea remained smooth and creamy throughout all of the subsequent steeps, and the the floral-buttercream taste stayed fairly true throughout. The flavours were deepest on the first resteeep, and slowly began to fade out throughout all the steeps. Overall, I found that the idea did quite well and would recommend resteeping it to get the best value from the tea leaves.

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My Overall Impression

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I loved Grand Tea’s Organic Jin Xuan White Tea. I do love a white tea that can hold up to being resteeped, and thankfully this one does beautifully with being resteeped. The floral and creamy notes to this straight white tea are delicious and easily enjoyable. I’d definitely recommend resteeping this tea, and the sweetness of this tea might lend itself well to contrasting with a savoury breakfast or to amplify the sugar in a sweet dessert.

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

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Grand Tea’s Yixing Black Tea

Yixing Black Tea by Grand Tea
Black Tea / Straight
$28.00HKD for 25g

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Grand Tea has provided me with Yixing Black Tea for the purposes of providing an honest review.

First Impressions

Black teas are one of my favourite teas to have in the morning before I head off to work or just to start off my day. They just tend to put a bit more pep into my step whenever I need a bit more motivation or energy to go and do things. Luckily, Grand Tea sent me a sample of Yixing Black Tea (Yixing Souchong Black Tea on their website).

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This straight black tea comes from the Jiangsu Province of China. The dry leaf has a subtle aroma to it that reminds me of dried apricots.

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Preparation

There were no steeping instructions for Yixing Black Tea on the Grand Tea website, so I followed my usual steeping time for a black tea: Steep in 100°C (212°F) water for 4 minutes.

First Taste

Yixing Black Tea steeps to a golden orange colour, it’s quite beautiful. The tea itself has a soft aroma to it, there’s a mild honey smell and a subtle fragrance that reminds me of roasted cashews. There’s a slight nutty flavour to this straight black tea. The mild honey smell lends itself well to this tea because there’s just a touch of a sweetness to the tea that makes it quite palatable.

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A Second Cup?

I resteeped Yixing Black Tea three additional times, and added 30 seconds per subsequent steep. I found that the cashew flavour got a bit stronger as the honeyed sweetness faded into the background. By the third resteep, I found the tea to be a bit watery so I would suggest a maximum of two resteeps for this tea before the flavours get too weak.

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My Overall Impression

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I liked Grand Tea’s Yixing Black Tea. I enjoyed the different flavours in this tea – the roasted cashews/nutty flavour with the honey sweetness. I do wish that the sweetness held on better with each resteep though, as that was one of the nicest parts of the flavour profile for me. It performs well when being resteeped, which is nice if you want to have this tea again and again during the day. Due to the sweetness in the initial steep, I think this tea would do well paired with either dessert or breakfast.

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

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2017 Autumn Tea Round Up

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It’s been remarkably warm around here earlier this week, but I’m ready for autumn full on with the crisp leaves underfoot and it being the perfect weather for hot cups of tea and hand knits. Last year around this time, I shared of my favourite teas for the autumn and while I still love all of those, I thought I’d share five different teas that I’m heavily relying on this autumn as the weather gets cooler and I’m more in the mood for snuggling up under a quilt than going for a stroll along the water.

Out of DavidsTea’s Chai collection for the early autumn, I’m crushing on their S’mores Chai and love it at a latte over plain. A lot of stores have sold out of this one, so if you’re wanting to get your hands on some S’mores Chai, I’d recommend visiting your local shop earlier rather than later.

Grand Tea’s Premium Pearl Jasmine makes the list because I love jasmine green teas and this is one that I’ve found myself reaching for repeatedly the last few weeks. It makes such a great cup of tea and when I (accidentally!) leave it a bit too long, it’s still great cold.

For a more ‘normal’ Chai, I’ve been drinking Chai from The Virginia Tea Company and loving every moment of it. It makes for a nice cozy cup of tea with the lovely warming properties of cinnamon and ginger – delicious!

I caved and bought a tin of DavidsTea’s Cardamom French Toast lately and have been greatly enjoying it as a latte. When I take it to work, I’ve been steeping it at home and then adding milk later at work. It helps cool it down (since my travel mug keeps tea way too hot!) and I can instantly enjoy it.

For the days that I’ve actually been at home, I’ve been enjoying Oollo Tea’s Cuiruan High Mountain Oolong. A delight for my taste buds, for sure! It makes for a great at-home tea because of how many times I can manage to resteep this tea and still enjoy it. It’s been a joy to have when I’m at home and just to have throughout the day.

What has been some of your favourite teas to have so far this autumn? (And if you’re in the southern hemisphere, what are you having during your spring?) Share with me below in the comments!