111 Tasting Notes
This tea has been discontinued for a while. But it was the first roasted oolong I ever tried, and I loved it from the very first sip. I heard it wasn’t very popular with Teavana’s customers, at least not where I live… I still remember the surprised look that one of their employees gave me, when I said it was one of my favorites! She was nice enough to give me a hint that it was about to be discontinued, so a few weeks later, I was able to grab a tin for 30% off.
I still have that tin in my cabinet, so I thought I’d try steeping it gongfu style. It was my first attempt at gongfu, but I enjoyed it. The shorter steeping times made for lighter, sweeter infusions. That said, this is still a very toasty oolong, which I love! Smoky roasted flavor, with notes of orchid and honey that become more prominent each time it’s steeped.
I really need to try more roasted oolongs! They’re one of my favorites, and perfect for fall.
This is an older tea in my stash, one I keep forgetting I own. I bought it because I was curious about how it compared to Teavana’s Silver Needle, which I used to drink religiously. They’re made from the same type of white tea (Bai Hao Yin Zhen, I think?), so I expected them to be similar. The pearls aren’t bad, but overall, I think I prefer their unrolled Silver Needle tea.
In the tin, the Silver Yin Zhen Pearls smell sweet and lightly earthy. They seem to have a stronger scent than Teavana’s Silver Needle—but like most unflavored whites I’ve tried, the aroma is pretty subtle. The liquor steeps to a soft yellow color. To me, it doesn’t taste as creamy or as light as the Silver Needle does. Instead, it has notes of hay, and seems a lot sweeter in flavor. The aftertaste also reminded me of green tea. Somewhat vegetal and earthy, with just a hint of dryness.
I’ll have to drink a cup of Teavana’s Silver Needle in the next few days, so I can compare them more closely. For now, though, I think I prefer the subtle creaminess of their unrolled Silver Needle to the pearls. The pearls have a stronger sweetness to them, and while the taste is pleasant, I prefer white tea that isn’t quite as sweet. The Silver Yin Zhen Pearls would be a good option for someone who wants more flavor— though they aren’t cheap, like a lot of Teavana’s teas.
(Note to self: I need to look into trying more Bai Hao Yin Zhen from other companies… I purchased Teavana’s Silver Needle early on in my loose leaf tea journey, but I don’t have much to compare it to. I should expand my knowledge of unflavored white teas!)
This is one of my favorite chai blends! Which is surprising, because it has two tart flavors in it: grapefruit and hibiscus. Normally, I recoil from hibiscus like a vampire from sunlight, and I’m picky about tartness in general (I like citrus, for example, but not certain berries). But in this tea, it’s delicious! Not sour or hard to drink at all, just bright and a little lip-puckering, the way a tart blend should be. It might be because the hibiscus here is a flavored black tea, so the strength of the tea helps to balance out the tartness. But I also think the Rooibos Vanilla Chai was a good choice here. The vanilla adds a creamy note that sweetens the whole blend, and helps to bring out the spices.
I do have to remember to shake the bag before I use it, or I miss all the rooibos bits that have settled at the bottom. Also, like most chai blends, I need to use a lot of tea per cup to taste all the flavors (at least 2 teaspoons per 8 oz, in my experience). I actually forgot to use enough tea this time, so my cup is weaker than I’d like. Still yummy, though!
I’m a little shy about rating teas, but I’m going to go ahead and do it here, because this blend deserves a good score. Definitely my favorite MLP-inspired tea by Natasha N, and one of my favorite custom blends at Adagio Teas in general. (And I’m almost out of it, sadly, so I’m planning to restock soon!) By the way, the three teas used in this custom blend are Hibiscus, Grapefruit Oolong, and Rooibos Vanilla Chai.
Ah, I love this tea! It smells wonderfully sweet in the bag, very fruity. There are little cubes of dried fruit in this blend, along with dark pink peppercorns. When you steep it, you start to smell the pepper a bit more, but the aroma remains mostly fruity. I just wish Lupicia’s site specified which fruits are included in this tea… I know there’s dried mango in here, and I also detect hints of peach and maybe even pineapple. Anyway, it’s delicious! Sweet and tropical with golden fruits and just a hint of husky pepper. Also, the tea base is surprisingly smooth, for a black tea. Not as strong or astringent as the bases in a lot of flavored black teas I’ve tried. Still has the bitter aftertaste of a black tea, though, and the pepper note accentuates this. (It’s perfect for someone like me, who craves those sweet/spicy flavors!) For anyone who wants a sweeter version, I highly recommend adding honey or some other sweetener. It eliminates the bitterness, and really brings out the fruit.
Overall, this is one of my favorite teas from Lupicia! I have to say, I’ve enjoyed all the flavored teas I’ve tried from them. Especially the sweet fruity ones. I even bought a few of the tropical blends for my friends, and they’re all hooked.
By the way, I’m not sure where the description about the monk’s eyelids came from… On the Lupicia USA site, the description for this tea is, “Black tea with refreshing sweet fruit cuts and pink peppers which look like Daruma are added.” Which I thought was really cute!
For anyone who’s curious, daruma are a type of Japanese doll. They’re round and squat, and usually red. They often start out with blank eyes. When you buy one, you’re supposed to draw the pupil in one of their eyes, and make a wish. Then you fill in the other eye when your wish comes true. (They were named after a famous monk called Bodhidharma; it looks like the eyelid reference has to do with some of the folklore surrounding him?) I just wanted to mention that here, because I thought the idea of the peppercorns being tiny daruma dolls was adorable. I’ll have to try brewing a cup around New Year’s… There’s supposed to be a tradition of buying new dolls around that time. (Sort of like New Year’s resolutions, maybe?)
Anyway, I would heartily recommend this tea! Especially to anyone who enjoys fruit-flavored blacks. (Sometimes I open up the bag just to smell the dry leaves… Yum.)
Like I said on my profile, I’m pretty much obsessed with ginger. And this blend does not disappoint! Before it’s steeped, it smells almost like ginger salad dressing, much to my delight (though not sweet at all). After steeping, you can smell more of the pepper in the blend. The taste is dominated by ginger and pepper notes, which give the tea a nice spicy burn on the tongue. I also like the green rooibos— it has less of a medicinal taste to it than red rooibos, so it gives the blend a hint of vegetal sweetness. Make no mistake, though… This is a spicy savory tea, meant for ginger fanatics like myself. No caffeine; it’s great as a digestive aid. It also adds an extra kick to subtler ginger teas, like Sweet Ginger Heat and Gingerbread from DAVIDsTEA, so I often blend it with those.
