Paru Tea Bar

Cold Brew!

Fuck me, this is good. I still don’t get a ton of lemon but the lychee is blowing my mind with how juicy, succulent and floral it is – like fresh and sticky lychee juices mixed with this honeyed black tea that’s also very sweet and rich, but with body and weight to it. It’s so refreshing and layered and summery. Hello instant summer favourite!

I was sold that I needed to try this tea as soon as I saw lychee – it’s a weak spot for me and it sounded heavenly paired with lemon! The smell of the dry leaf is pretty intoxicating: fruit forward dewy lychee with a fragrant floral undertone and sweet honeyed black tea. So, so, so fresh!!

The steeped cup is simultaneously straight forward and complex in its flavour delivery; I felt, as I sipped, like I was opening up a Russian nesting doll with these layers of delicious flavours. First and foremost, and to my own delight, the most prominant flavour, which I would call the outer layer of this nesting doll, is the lychee. The whole tea feels saturated in sticky, sweet lychee juices with their sweet perfumed floral undertones and coating sweeping juiciness across the palate. What a lychee flavour!

The next layer is probably actually the wild Yunnan black tea base – despite the richness of the lychee it manages to have a still strong presence in the cup. The full bodied and almost starchy mouthfeel actually gives another layer of richness to the tea that feels differentiated from the rich fruity flavours, and the notes of honey and malt with golden toasty and carmelized yam undertones are so interesting and in contrast to the fruit notes that they just make each other so much more dynamic.

The final layer is the lemon, and this for me is the lightest of the three key elements by far. It’s more an undertone and lingering flavour after the sip, and it has a little sweetness but mostly is reminiscent of the classic “unsweet” lemon black tea profile you see across the South – more static and just a little pithy. I like that, because if it was overly acidic I think it would taint the black tea’s beauty and if it was sweet then combined with the lychee I think that would be cloying.

With each tea I try from this company I get more and more excited for the next one – they seem to have such a strong understanding of how to pair these incredible flavours with their tea bases in a way that makes the flavours of the featured ingredients and the natural notes of the tea really stand out and pop. It’s a solid understanding of flavour composition and looking at and tasting each blend I feel like I can see the artistry and craftmanship that’s gone into each one. These teas were created with love and passion and it makes me SO excited!!

Hot cuppa from earlier in the week. It was a pleasant mug though I found the yuzu notes just a little bit on the lighter side, with more of the peppery and pithy elements of the citrus coming out over the brightness/sweetness. Strong notes of fennel, clove, and ginger as well with an earthier backend of the sip following the more brisk and licorice-y body.

Sipped earlier in the week.

Something about this cup came out just a tiny but sulpher-like in taste, but not in an off putting way. Mostly I got clove and fennel but with a more brisk, tannic black tea and hints of black pepper. Those tannins and the peppery were such a nice compliment to the hint of more pithy yuzu. Really meshes those flavours together quite cohesively. Sometimes I wish the yuzu was a bit brighter and more acidic because I think the added pop of flavour would really take this from a solid tea to a superb one. However, it also wouldn’t be as nuanced, and the nuance adds a sophistication that I also appreciate.

Not gonna be a long tasting note because I found this cup super consistent to the first one I had a few months ago, and I wrote a pretty long/thorough tasting note back then. Just emphasizing how beautiful the tea leaf is and that I really appreciate the subtle/light yuzu peppery and pithy citrus taste a lot. It’s just very delicate and authentic. Plus, eating the strips of candied yuzu post steep!? Oh hell yes! Great tea snack.

Recently stumbled upon this company and was so fascinated by the uniqueness of their blends, both in visual and composition, that I just had to order! The shipping turn around was really fast, but word to the wise (and of course not the company’s fault) but ordering here to Montreal I got REALLY dinged on import fees – over $100 for my $200 order, which I think is the most I’ve ever been charged…

That said, I’ve been really impressed with the few teas from my order I’ve tried so far! This is definitely one of the most visually stunning and unique looking teas I’ve seen in quite a while – the long strips of candied yuzu are really something else and it’s insanely hard to not pull them out of the blend to snack on. Okay, full disclosure, I may have done this to one of them – it was so tasty.

Steeped, this is a pretty peppery tasting chai – but that’s not surprising. In addition to the spice mix itself, I find yuzu is already sort of naturally peppery. In fact, that’s part of why I think the concept for this tea is so brilliant in the first place – it’s a fun juxtaposition of flavour that’s grounded in some subtle shared flavour notes. The taste is pleasantly warming with clear notes of ginger and clove, with the sweetness of the fennel without having a licorice-y taste. The yuzu is subtle and presents as a nice pithy citrus undertone. Very nuanced, complex and tasty!

Photo: https://www.instagram.com/p/CPGYmkWAaAM/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nyh47sThvs&ab_channel=IZZYCAMINAIZZYCAMINA

Sipdown! (21 | 298)

My friend Heather from Instagram sent me a sample of this out of the blue, just because she thought I would enjoy it. Wasn’t that so sweet of her? :3

It’s a mix of wakoucha, “Formosa oolong”, and Okinawan black sugar. There’s quite a lot of sugar too, so I was a bit nervous about trying it since I don’t generally sweeten my teas. And it was a bit sweet, but luckily not over-the-top. The combination of tea was quite mellow and smooth, with hay, bread, autumn leaf, and honey notes. The sugar itself had a lovely molasses flavor, of course.

It’s not something I would drink often as it is sweeter than I would prefer. I bet it would make a lovely iced milk tea though! And it would be fun to have on-hand just to have a cup every once in a while, especially in the fall.

P.S. – I tried to Google what the actual name is for the type of oolong I often see called “Formosa oolong”, but didn’t have much luck. Does anyone know if there’s an original/Taiwanese name for it? It’s a generic oxidized unrolled oolong. I don’t think it’s roasted?

https://www.instagram.com/p/CO6lI9DAruS/