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| TEA REVIEWS |
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| This page contains my reviews on tea, updated as I try new variants |
| personal, tea, reviews |
| 2025-04-21 - in progress |
After giving up coffee, I became quite obsessed with tea and began to do extensive research and read about the flavors of different varieties. As a recent avid coffee drinker, I didn't think much about the novelty of loose leaf tea and how enjoyable it would be to peruse tea rooms to find the best flavor that matched my preferences. Where I live currently, there is not much in the way of tea. Coffee seems abundant, which is unsurprising because of its ubiquitous character, even in small towns. Tea has taken a back seat somewhat as a means of caffeine consumption, and only after I began my tea obsession, realized that it was an unfortunate situation. I found that I enjoy the process of finding my preferred variety, exploring all its variations depending on geography, and learning about said variety's rich history. Since I was a regular coffee drinker, I tend to like teas that are on the stronger side, but lighter like Darjeeling, and recently I've gained a love of darker roasted Oolong. Green tea comes in third as a supplement that I enjoy to keep from going through my favorites too fast ($$$) and have plenty of it in stock as backup.
FLAVOR PROFILES
Oolong is the middle ground between green and black tea, with a wide range of oxidation levels (10–80%) that give it a complex flavor profile. Depending on how it's processed, oolong can be floral, fruity, creamy, roasted, or even honeyed. Its aroma ranges from floral and fresh to warm and toasty, and it has a medium to full body. What sets oolong apart is its layered taste and often smooth, lingering, sweet finish. It lacks the grassy notes of green tea and the bold maltiness of black tea. Classic oolongs include Tie Guan Yin, which is floral, creamy, and buttery, and Da Hong Pao, which is roasty, mineral-rich, and slightly fruity.
Green tea has a fresh, grassy, and vegetal flavor that can sometimes lean slightly sweet or nutty, especially in Chinese varieties. Japanese green teas often have a seaweed-like, umami quality. The aroma tends to be light and herbaceous, sometimes floral, and the body is usually light to medium. If you brew it correctly—using cooler water and shorter steeping times—green tea can be give you a smoother taste, but it can become astringent or bitter if oversteeped. Sencha from Japan is known for its crisp and slightly sweet taste, and Longjing (Dragon Well) from China, which is smooth, nutty, and toasty.
Black tea is much bolder with deep, rich flavors that can be malty, earthy, sweet, and sometimes fruity or spicy. The aroma is ususally warm and comforting, and the body is medium to full. Although black tea can sometimes contain a hint of bitterness, I prefer not to add milk or sugar, as this can mask the flavor profile and negate the effort of selecting the right tea. Black tea tends to have more tannins than green or oolong, which gives it a slightly drying mouthfeel. It can vary widely depending on the region—Assam from India is robust and malty, while Darjeeling has a lighter, more floral profile with a distinctive muscatel (grape-like) note. Keemun, a Chinese black tea, is often smoky, fruity, and wine-like.
FAVORITES
- oolong
- Tie Guan Yin
- Da Hong Pao
- green
- Dragon Well
- Longjing
- Matcha
- Sencha
- Chun Mee
- Gunpowder
- black
- Darjeeling
- Early Grey
- Assam
- Yunnan
- Ceylon
- Lapsang Souchong
SOURCES
- Moons Coffee and Tea - Albuquerque, NM
- Upton Tea Imports
- Harney & Son's
- Uncle Lee's Tea
- Yunnan Sourcing
METHOD
EQUIPMEMT
For drinking tea, I exclusively use a vintage German stein, found in Massachusetts from an individual seller. During my new obsession with steins, which coincided with my love for tea, I spent weeks searching the internet for the perfect vintage mug. Specifically, I looked for one that maintained the artistic style that steins normally have, but avoided ones with specific themes or wording. The one I found is a smaller stein and has a mug-type shape, which isn't too large to use daily. After many uses, I found that I like the steel lid that can be flipped down to keep the tea from getting cold too fast. The electric kettle is an Aicok, bought from Amazon, and has never given me any issues. The only downside is that there is no temperature control, so for lighter teas, I don't run a full boil and use a meat thermometer to measure the temperature manually. Since I brew 40oz of tea at a time, I use a 1-quart pitcher from Kungroo (used for cold brewing), which has a larger infuser and an airtight lid. Sometimes, I make tea the night before, and in the morning, heat 1 cup at a time on the gas stove. For storage, I use an Oxo airtight pop container.
DAILY PROCESS
My process varies between two different times that I decide to brew tea. Often, I brew a 40oz pitcher of my preferred tea (or whatever I have on hand) the night before (to save time in the morning), let it cool to room temperature, then seal it and place the pitcher in the fridge overnight. In the morning, as soon as I wake up, I pull the pitcher out of the fridge and use a small stove pot to heat one mug's worth of tea, then repeat until I've had two cups. Towards the middle of the day, I switch from hot to cold tea and pour the rest of it in a larger insulated cup over ice. I found that I prefer hot cups of tea in the morning and cold ones at night only.
TEA
BLACK
- House Blend Darjeeling ★★★★☆
- By the taste of my first few cups, this seems to be an autumn flush. The flavor is smooth and earthy and less floral than a spring harvest. My first brew I used too many leaves, which made the taste much too rich and bitter, but once I fine-tuned the amount, a subtle sweetness emerged and maintained while maintaining its boldness. There are some notes of sweetness at the end, which helps with the earthy tones. I wouldn't recommend this one for first-time tea drinkers, but you could lighten it up a bit by using fewer leaves per brew.
GREEN
The most acclaimed Chinese Oolong is the Ti Kuan Yin with its distinctively sweet, orchid-like flavor. This Fine tea is smooth with a delicate fragrance. An exquisite oolong tea from the Fujian province of China produces a fragrant golden yellow liquor with a floral character that's both light and delicate.
- Ti Kuan Yin (Tieguanyin 铁观音): This batch seems to be heavily roasted (traditional style), which gives it a deeper and darker flavor and a light grassy taste, but stays clean. It also typically leaves a long-lasting, pleasant aftertaste ("hui gan" 回甘), which seems to be a floral type of sweetness with earthy undertones.
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