Rakkasan Tea Company

Oh, man! That dry aroma is stellar! It has unique sweet notes. And light grassy notes. Sweetgrass and star fruit. Was not expecting that when I first opened the package. The wet leaf also has a sweet note to it. The flavor is great. I feel like it has improved since I last tried it. Very vegetal. Fresh cooked asparagus. A hearty vegetable tomato sauce. Marine. Bits of unsalted seaweed. Smooth mouthfeel. Deeper vegetal notes with longer steep and slight spiciness that reminds me of black pepper. The second steep has more tomato sauce notes. Lots of asparagus still with fewer marine notes. And a slight minerality.

Good ole English Breakfast. Hits the spot when you need it to. This one is nice and brisk with a bit of astringency but also has a smoothness to it. Great woody notes and a bit of earth. Would go well with milk but I wouldn’t add sugar unless you really need it.

The dry aroma has notes of a wood workshop and desert woods. I find it slightly difficult to fully taste tea when I’ve got canker sores but I’m going to do my best. This is light for a woody tea. Would not work well with milk like an Assam. I mean, you could try but the resin and cracked, brittle wood notes would definitely disappear. If you are looking for a punchy black tea maybe look for something else but try this one regardless for it’s subtle qualities. I’ve uncovered another piece of the aroma as I’ve been sitting here reading Defiance. The wet leaf reminds me of those tiny drops of chocolate chip oatmeal raisin cookies that get kind of burnt as they cook on the pan with the cookies.

A wonderful aroma is emitted from the dry leaf. Woodsy. Cleansing. Has the body of a tea from India but the smooth presence of Yunnan. Dark brown with lots of golden strands. The wet aroma has notes of sweet honey, decaying wood,
Flavor: Woody. Deep woods. Coniferous and deciduous forest. Slight grapefruit? Malt o meal and slight malt. Smooth mouthfeel with little astringency.

The first thing to pique my interest in this tea was the appearance of the dry leaf. Some of the longest leaves I have ever seen for tea. It has that fermented taste of a sheng with rich earthy notes. Very smooth mouthfeel. Somewhat bready. A few honey notes, but it’s not the sweet honey many know, it’s closer to a Manuka honey. The astringency starts to come out past one minute. Reminds me of some Ceylon greens with a slight metallic note. An interesting spicy note happens at 3 mins and above. It’s somewhat hard to describe. The wet leaf aroma is a bit fishy with seaweed and fish market notes. The liquor smells of slight miso, umami, and seaweed. With more time I could see this one developing some very interesting complexity. I will store this and see if it will produce some different notes.

H’mong Kings was a Rakkasan favorite of mine for a long time. But then I tried this one, which is similar, but honestly, I think this is even better. This is a fantastic tea. Everyone has different palates and you may not like it as much as I but you need to give it at least 2 – 3 tries. This is now my new favorite Rakkasan tea.

Dry Leaf Aroma: Slightly smoky. Dry wood. Dried Pine.
Wet Leaf Aroma: Wet rainforest floor. Smoked wood chips.
Liquor Aroma: Miso soup, vegetal, slight seaweed, woody
Flavor: Vegetal. Smoky. Asparagus. Slight umami. Slightly bitter.
Mouthfeel: Smooth

Can’t believe I haven’t added a tasting note for this tea yet. I love it. Right from the moment you open the bag and are greeted with tiny hairs covering the interior you know it’s going to be good. The dry leaf is a mix of mainly curled and twisted leaves along with a few stems. A mixture of muted shades of green and those adorable silvery hairs. The dry aroma will whisk you away straight to Vietnam where you can taste their woks and the food they eat but all done subtly. The wet leaf aroma is much more in your face. Steamed asparagus, stone fruit, and a minerality that transfers to your palate as you smell it. The flavor is vegetal, steamed green beans, woody, green wood, and minerality that leaves you feeling slightly like you licked a rock.

My preference is for loose tea. It will always be better. But sometimes the convenience of a teabag is nice. I ordered this curious as to how they would fair against other competitors in the tea bag business. It is a nice pyramid sachet. The aroma from the bag comes through nicely but the outer bag doesn’t allow anything to permeate it, which is perfect. A woody aroma with a hint of red berries. The flavor is quite nice. Reminiscent of a China congou with the slightly malty and milk touches but also brisk and awakening like a Ceylon. I confess I accidentally broke the tea bag. So I am steeping this loose instead of in the bag

TTB 2022
Wow this tea is tasty. Its got an edge to it like a good IPA beer, but a nice tobacco and nut finish. I’m comparing it in my mind to the kenya tea I have from S&V and this one seems more flavorful and slightly harsher. I used to have a bagged tea from Kenya that I could get in a British import store in Houston, but that has long been out of my cupboard. This black loose leaf would compare well to that bagged tea, maybe they were grown nearby.
The Rakkasan website looks interesting, and I may need to purchase a sampler pack for a taste test to share with my dad.
Thanks for sharing in the TTB, I’ve enjoyed this one.

I had forgotten how much I love Steepster and the community here. Thank you to all who are friends here. We may not know each other personally but I appreciate you nonetheless. Okay. Now that I’ve gotten all sappy it’s time to review this sipdown that is also the finale to this tea I’ve had for too long. I love coconut. I love black tea. So it truly does make for a good mix, especially with the volcanic notes you get from the Andean soil but it’s just never been one that I’ve seemed to drink above others. It does make a good latte though.

An interesting concept. A new take on ‘teabags’. The one downside is that they packaged it in plastic. If they could find a solution to this one thing then I think they have found themselves a dynamic and eco friendly replacement for the tea bag. As for the tea the taste is good but does not get nearly strong enough for milk / sugar and when it does reach that optimal point for milk I feel like our fast paced counterparts will have forgotten their cuppa. Based on the size of the leaves I would guess these are 3 or 4 leaves. The flavor is earthy with lighter wood notes.

Skysamurai’s TTB Thank you!
So, a pure black tea. It’s from Rwanda, a country I had never tea before. Or did I and just don’t recall?
Tea #7
Dry leaf is broken, but some bigger pieces are there now and then. I used one, a little more heaped teaspoon and I have used a big fillable tea bag. Steeped for suggested 3-3.5 minutes and I am pretty sure about the timing as I have been watching the biathlon in meantime. What a shame for my country.

The tea itself, when dry, have a quite uncommon bitterness. I am not sure what is the reason for that, but reminds me a cheap tobacco and partially Lipton Yellow Label (does it count as a tea?).

Brewed it tastes pretty much light, but the flavours are pretty much alright. Smooth, lightly roasty, autumn leaves. Nice amount of astringency/bitterness and level of malt is low as well, but clearly noticeable. Certainly far from finest teas I had before, but not the worst either. I think my expectations were maybe too high, but it is a great tea if you want a caffeine boost, but without much flavours to find. It is pretty much straight-forward cup.

A sipdown! (M: 3, Y: 23)
I was trying so hard to like this tea, but I could not. It is somehow too floral to me, mostly the rose… cloying rose soap taste for me.

My last 5 grams I used western and probably due to my long steep (and hot, boiling), it was weaker in those notes. But instead it turned out somehow… unamusing — vegetal. But it wasn’t anything particular, just a strong vegetal note.

Finally I have decided to gongfu this tea and it suits another sipdown prompt — A tea that is hard to pronounce or spell, however I have 10 grams left… but I will try my best to finish this tea from SkySamurai during January.

I have used 7 grams for my 125 ml gaiwan. Dry leaf aroma is hard to notice for me, but after rinse, the leaves have aroma of tobacco, red fruits and little floral of herbs to me.

1st steep I decided to make 15 seconds long, and delivers woody — oak maybe, notes. There is a little of the herbal notes, a bit hoppy aftertaste, but as well quite drying and sadly I do not notice “a spicy, full-bodied oolong tea” as their website statement.

2nd steep was 20 seconds long; aroma changes a bit — it’s more tobacco, woody notes are stronger, but mouthfeel isn’t that good. It’s very drying and again, not spicy for me. Also, it is very short mouthfeel, it fades very quickly.

Note: I highly support estate support of local community, mentioned on the website. I hope it’s true.

As it cooled down a bit, it went a bit bitter, leaving unpleasant mouthfeel as well.

3rd steep, again 20 seconds. Woody notes faded, tobacco is stronger. Drying mouthfeel again, with bitter and a bit rough aftertaste.

4th steep, 30 seconds. While the wet leaves smell quite floral, it doesn’t transfer to liquor aroma at all. That’s tobacco with red fruits, as well flavours are similar. Shamefully, the drying mouthfeel makes my experience that unpleasant, I don’t want to drink it much fast and I have to force myself to drink it a bit. Studying about inflation, unemployment, transport economics… doesn’t help much.

5th steep, 45 seconds. If something surprised me with this teep, it was the colour of the brewed tea. It was very light and pale, like it was steeped for very short time. And sadly, it is present in taste as well, it was weak brew, finally with some spices… but very drying, though again it fades so quickly.

I made a several other steeps with better or worse qualites, but overall this tea haven’t impressed me. I am glad I have only 10 grams left and I can finish it fairly quickly.

Skysamurai’s TTB Thank you!
A nepalase oolong sounds interesting. Prepared western, as I had no mood to gongfu. 1 heaped teaspoon in basket and 300 ml cup.

Tea #5

So yup. Finally I took out plain tea. And after drinking it, I need to re-visit this one.

The aroma of dry leaf is interesting. Very floral — rose, with its peppery note that it can have sometimes. I tried my best to match their steeping parameters saying 190°F, however, I haven’t measured it.

Steeped for rather short though, only about 3 minutes — they suggest 4-5.

In taste all the aroma disappeared into lightly vegetal, stonefruits aroma and taste and pretty mouthcoating feeling. It was somehow simple and maybe too much easydrinking considering oolongs. I have been hoping for more.

It was simple afternoon drink. I won’t rate so far.

2021 Homemade Advent Calendar Swap – Day 21
From Skysamurai.

Clove-heavy chai blends are my favorite, so I was happy to see that the website mentions clove in the description. I don’t taste it though, unfortunately. it’s a good chai, but it’s not anything remarkable.

2021 Homemade Advent Calendar Swap – Day 10
From Skysamurai.

I tend to like chocolaty black teas the best, the darker and richer the better. This one’s lighter than I would have liked. To be fair, I made the cup and left it sitting on the counter for a few hours before I got around to reheating and drinking it. I’ll save my rating for now. I have plenty of servings left, so I can try again and give this tea a proper review.

Decent black tea

This tea is lacking something that I like in my tea, and I haven’t quite figured out what. I know I wanted brighter notes in it, so I added juniper berries and fresh orange peel and that helped with whatever I found it was lacking. It’s one of a friend’s favorite teas, and I shall be happy to drink it when I visit her, but I don’t need to keep it in my cabinet.

Brewed according to the instructions, I found it unexceptional and somewhat overly mild. In a gaiwan, it had a very odd, slightly toasty taste – almost like genmaicha, but milder and possibly less complex. It reminds me vividly of the breakfast cereal puffed rice.

The leaves are slightly more broken than I think is ideal, but that seems to be typical of tea from this particular farm. Not prone to bitterness, which is surprising for broken green tea. It has a slightly roasted flavour with notes of caramel, and no particular sweetness. I actually prefer it Western-style over gongfu; it comes out milder, but a bit more complex.

This one runs the gamut of flavours. It takes a while to open up. Early steeps are fruity, growing more tart, then slightly yammy, and at last very floral and almost reminiscent of perfume. It’s interesting, but none of the flavours stood out as great examples of their type for me. Possibly a good choice for days when you’re not sure what tea you want!