Tag: Teavana

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Teavana’s Monkey Picked Oolong

Monkey Picked Oolong by Teavana
Oolong Tea / Straight
$24.98 for 2oz

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First Impressions

The only reason why I have Monkey Picked Oolong is because I had a Starbucks/Teavana reward to use (let’s not talk about my love for overly sweet but delicious Chai lattes, okay?), because at $25 for 2oz this is a fairly expensive tea. That said, the dry leaf smells interesting – there’s a very faint floral aroma that mingles with the smell of the tea. It smells a lot like a green tea, which shouldn’t be surprising as it is a green oolong. The only ingredient in this tea is the oolong itself.

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Teavana spins a nice little story about this tea, of trained monkeys that help with the harvest. From what I read on the internet, this is meant to be one of the highest grades of oolong available. Knowing this rather raises my expectation for the tea because that means it should be really good and it should resteep fairly well (and multiple times).

Preparation

For oolong teas, Teavana recommends steeping in 90°F (195°F) water for 3 minutes. I steeped for closer to 2 minutes.

First Taste

Monkey Picked Oolong steeps to a beautiful golden colour, it’s perfectly clear and it smells amazingly floral. It’s not an overwhelming fragrance though, it’s very light but it smells nice. Taking a sip of Monkey Picked Oolong, I can almost see why it costs so much. It has a taste that is almost sweet, it has some floral notes to the tea with quite a deep vegetal taste to the tea overall. I think it’s quite nice. There are no hints of bitterness, it’s a very pleasant cup of tea. I couldn’t resist steeping the leaves again to see how it would do for one more steep.

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A Second Cup?

Monkey Picked Oolong steeps very well for a second round. The colour is still a beautiful golden yellow and it tastes a little bit different. The floral taste is a bit stronger, and there’s a bit of a nutty flavour at the end of each sip that’s new and quite interesting. Monkey Picked Oolong did well for steeps 3 and 4, and was a watery afterthought for cup 5.

My Overall Impression

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I loved Teavana’s Monkey Picked Oolong. It’s a beautiful colour, beautiful taste, and does fairly well for a few steepings – which takes a bit of the sting out from the high price. While I love it and would love to keep a stock of it in my tea stash forever, I think it’s more of a ‘treating myself’ tea given the high price. I’ll definitely get it again with the free Starbucks/Teavana rewards because that definitely takes the sting out of the price tag! I almost wish I didn’t find it really good, because then I wouldn’t be tempted to get more. If you’re unsure of giving it a try, I would definitely recommend getting it for free if you can or seeing if they’re sampling it in store.

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Teavana’s Jasmine Silver Needle

Jasmine Silver Needle by Teavana
White Tea / Flavoured
$19.98 for 2oz

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First Impressions

Jasmine Silver Needle smells amazing. Like the many other jasmine teas, it has a delicate floral scent. The tea leaves themselves are long and, as expected with silver needle tea, the leaves have the downy texture that is visible in the light. It’s a really pretty tea overall, and I quite like the look of it. In comparison to a lower quality jasmine tea, the Jasmine Silver Needle appears to be high quality and a true silver needle tea.

The ingredients are fairly simple, Teavana’s website states that the tea is made of: White tea scented with jasmine blossoms.

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Preparation

Teavana recommends steeping Jasmine Silver Needle in 79°C (175°F) water for 4-5 minutes. I opted to steep for closer to 4 minutes.

First Taste

Jasmine Silver Needle steeps to a light yellow colour, and it has an interesting fragrance to the tea itself. There is the floral jasmine scent, but then there’s also a little bit of a vegetal smell that reminds me a bit of cut grass. On first sip, the Jasmine Silver Needle is interesting. It does have a great floral taste, but it’s quite overwhelming compared to the actual tea itself. The actual vegetal tastes of the tea itself are lost and the majority of what I can experience when drinking this tea is the jasmine – a lot of jasmine. The tea itself is quite enjoyable – it’s smooth with a slight mouthfeel quality to it and it’s a very enjoyable cup of tea.

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A Second Cup?

On second steeping, it’s very similar to the first cup. The floral aroma and taste of the jasmine continues to overwhelm the silver needle.

My Overall Impression

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I thought that Teavana’s Jasmine Silver Needle was just okay. If I were to compare it to other jasmine teas, it would hold its own because it does really well in the jasmine part of it. But as a silver needle tea, it needs a lot of work. That isn’t to say that the tea isn’t good, because it is. It’s a very good jasmine tea that I find really good. But as a silver needle it falls short of expectations because the natural flavour and aroma of the silver needle tea is overpowered by the jasmine flowers. At the price that it’s at, it’s an overpriced jasmine tea. I’d drink it again, but I wouldn’t stock it in my stash – there’s better (and cheaper!) jasmine teas around.

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Teavana’s Jasmine Dragon Phoenix Pearls

Jasmine Dragon Phoenix Pearls by Teavana
Green Tea / Flavoured
$14.98 for 2oz

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First Impressions

This is a tea that I got from my sister, which she got from the Starbucks-Teavana rewards program as a perk from being an avid Starbucks patron. Jasmine Dragon Phoenix Pearls are rather cute! They’re small rolled pearls of tea leaves that come packaged in a standard Teavana bag with wire tabs closure. The smell is amazing – as a fan of jasmine, the floral scent is very inviting. If you’re not into jasmine-scented teas, this would not be a tea for you.

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Jasmine Dragon Phoenix Pearls isn’t a tea complicated by a long list of ingredients, it consists of green tea that has been scented with jasmine blossoms. The page for this tea on the Teavana website boasts that the tea pearls are made up of three leaves each, and hand rolled – as all pearls are. The scent that the dry leaf gives of is floral with a hint of sweetness that I find many jasmine scented teas often have.

Preparation

Teavana recommends steeping Jasmine Dragon Phoenix Pearls in 79°C (175°F) water for 2 minutes (Teavana’s website states 3 minutes for recommended steeping time).

First Taste

I steeped 6 pearls in the water for about 2 minutes. This tea steeps a very pale colour, it is almost as if the tea is tinted a little bit of a yellow. It has a beautiful light, clean, floral scent. Jasmine Dragon Phoenix Pearls has a light, sweet taste to it. The jasmine provides a nice floral taste, the tea itself is quite nice. It’s smooth, no bitterness at all, it has a very subtle flavour that isn’t too aromatic as some jasmine teas can be. It’s very pleasant and makes for a nice cup of tea. (Also, if you leave the cup for too long, it’s quite pleasant cold too!)

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A Second Cup?

Jasmine Dragon Phoenix Pearls steeps for a second time fairly well – the flavour is still very good and matches up with the first cup. On the third steep, tea begins to lose some flavour and is more like flavoured water.

My Overall Impression

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I loved Teavana’s Jasmine Dragon Phoenix Pearls. On the surface, it seems like such a simplistic tea, but the taste of this jasmine green tea is delicious. It’s subtle, understated, and smells of jasmine but isn’t overwhelming. I quite loved each cup of this tea I had because it’s delightful. Because the aroma and taste of this tea isn’t particularly strong or commanding, it’s nice to have with a snack of some sort as it doesn’t distract from what you’re eating.

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