Zen Tea Ceylon Ratnaupra

Outsides:  This Ceylon Ratnaurpa is just ceylon tea and nothing else.  I brewed a teaspoon of it at near boiling water for 3 minutes and I'd recommend tasting it after 3 minutes to see if you like it and let it steep a few seconds longer if you want a stronger flavor.  The color is kind of a medium reddish brown and it smells very clean and a bit spicy with a note of breakfast tea.

Insides:  First off, this tea is going to be a bit more bitter than other types.  That's just the nature of it and I think the term used for this is a brisk taste.  This has a bit of a bready malty taste to it which reminds me a bit of wheat beer.  The body is less than the Darjeeling but still very full.  This has a nice aftertaste as well, a bit malty and a bit floral but actually sweet compared to the overall bitterness of the tea.

Overall:  It's good, but I'm glad I did this experiment because I found out that Ceylon is not my favorite black tea.  I still recommend getting a sample of something like this just to find out how much you like Ceylon versus other tea.

My Rating:  Try it!

Zen Tea is a Canadian Tea retailer that specializes in mid to high quality tea.

Zen Tea Yerba Mate

Yerba Mate is extremely fitting for Christmas Eve.  It's a relative to a holly plant, is often shared by people in South American as they sit around a gourd and drink from metal straws called a bombilla (my source here), and has a stimulating effect on heartrate much like caffeine does.  Mate is also supposed to contain vitamins and minerals, so theoretically, it's healthier than coffee (but that can be said about a lot of things).  Anyway, I need this today so let's drink.

Outsides:  Yerba mate is just yerba mate, and I don't have a gourd so I guess my authenticity is out the door.  I got it in Zen Tea's sample size and have to say, this is a pretty good size and can easily make 10-15 cups of this.  One thing I did wrong was that I used near boiling water when apparently (from Wikipedia and not the directions on the packet), you're supposed to use hot water and not boiling, but I let it sit for about 5 minutes (1.5 teaspoons in 8 oz).  The color is greener than a typical herbal blend but still that same shade of yellow.  It smells like a light green tea.

Insides:  Well, it's not bitter so that's good.  This drink has a medium to light body with a sweet and slightly planty flavor (kinda like green tea).  Another thing is that this yerba mate seems to be very mild in flavor, especially compaired to something like coffee or energy drinks.  I went and added some sugar to see if any new flavors would be brought out and with that, this drink tastes like the Dilmah Ceylon Green Tea or Lipton Pure Leaf Green tea.  I like it and am curious to try some of the fruit flavors.

Overall:  If you don't like coffee or energy drinks but still want to get your caffeine in somehow, try this out. 

My Rating:  Try it in general.  I'm probably going to get some from Prestogeorge, but Zen Tea still has a decent price on this.

Zen Tea is a Canadian Tea retailer specializing in mid to high quality tea and has a wide variety of teas around the world.  

Zen Tea's Darjeeling Margaret's Hope Second Flush FTGFOP1 Organic

Yes, that is the full name and yes, it's a bit overwhelming but this is actually more of a personal project than just me writing whether I like a tea or not.  It starts with a question.  What is the difference between this tea and that tea, whether it just be a different type of tea like green versus oolong or a different region that the tea is grown, like Ceylon versus Darjeeling or maybe the difference between good quality tea and poor quality tea?  You can read how they taste on blogs (like mine) but it just isn't the same as actually tasting it.  It was a slippery slope to this, going from Big Lots tea bags to loose-leaf flavored teas to reading about these different origins and extremely detailed teas to finally just getting a bunch of samples and trying a bunch of high quality teas.  I picked Zen Tea for 2 reasons:  The teas I have tried from them have been of a pretty high quality in terms of ingredients and they were having a 50 percent off sale, so I got about 18 teas (some sample and some big sizes) for $35.  But ultimately, I want to know what a good quality Darjeeling, Keemun, Ceylon, etc. tastes like and that's what I'm doing now.

 

Outsides:   I know there's something you guys want to know and that's what FTGFOP1 means.  Well, here's an answer but the short version is high-quality, unbroken leaves.  Darjeeling is a mountain range in India where tea is grown and honestly, I have no idea of Margaret's hope means anything.  I brewed about a tespoon for three minutes in 8 oz of boiling water.  The color is the golden amber color while the smell is fruity with almost a hint of honey to it.

Insides:  The tea is extremely smooth with a medium body and very little astringency.  It's sweet, with a warm, nutty note to the flavor and a fruity aftertaste as well as a hint of floral.  So far, this is sweeter than the Assams and Ceylons I've tried, but closer to Ceylon in body but reminds me more of the Assam in flavor.  The flavor is bright and crisp and I'm sure you can drink this iced (it's definately mild enough to drink without sugar or milk).  Honestly, it's taking a bit of self-restraint not chugging the thing.

Overall:  For all of the high-quality teas, I'm going to say try because everyone should figure out what they like, but I really like this one

My Rating:  Buy it!  It's very good!

Zen Tea is a Canadian Tea Retailer that specializes in mid to high quality teas.  The sample size was normally $2.20 but I got it half-off.  Also, apparently this wasn't the most expensive one, but it's still very good.

Zen Tea BaihaoYinzhen (White Hair Silver Needle)

My Zen Tea order came today and I have to say, the gift box was IMPRESSIVE.  I was expecting 1 oz of tea per tin but I was really wrong and it’s clearly about 3 so for those people that managed to get the half-priced gift set, you are getting one steal of a deal.  I picked the white tea gift set which included this one, Toffee Dream and Tear of Peony.  Silver Needle is a rare, expensive white tea with supposedly a delicate taste and I’m really excited to try such a delicacy.  Hell, I almost think this tea is too good for me :(.

Outsides:  I love the long tealeaves, although I think I need a different infuser or a gaiwan.  The tea is a light yellow green with long leaves that smells fresh and floral.  I don’t normally comment on the texture, but these leaves feel soft and young, but they are dry (I ate a few).   I brewed this at a pretty low temperature, about 70 degrees Celsius, and put about a tablespoon and a half in the infuser and let it sit for about 2 and a half minutes.  The tea is almost colorless and has that same fresh floral scent to it.  It reminds me of the beginnings of spring and life, with dew falling off the fresh leaves, which is a pretty existential thing to think of when describing the smell of tea.

Insides:  The flavor of this is so delicate and pure, like the spirit of spring.  It has an extremely smooth body with top notes of fresh florals and vegetation with a slight mossy base note.  This is not a chugging tea like so many of my cheap green teas, but an uplifting sipping tea when you want to feel the life of spring go through you.  It’s really quite beautiful and doesn’t need sugar but would probably be lovely chilled, but not freezing.

Overall:  A bit pricy but something everyone should experience at least once.  Take advantage of this during Zen Tea’s half-off sale if you can.

My Rating:  Buy it!

Zen Tea is a relatively new online tea vender that seems to specialize in higher quality tea moreso than vendors like Adagio.