Rakkasan Tea Company

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!

The leaves smell amazing, dry or wet. The scent initially comes across like strawberry, but after a moment it’s possibly to detect the individual notes of pear, guava, and what is apparently soursop (which smells like pineapple). Brewed Western-style without sugar, it’s not great; to be fair, I don’t usually like unsweetened fruit tea blends. With sugar, it’s excellent – one of my favourite fruit teas.

This is a very nice tea – my favourite so far of the green tea sampler pack from this company! It was unexpectedly sweet when brewed in a gaiwan. It has some caramel flavour, and possibly mango? I brewed it according to the instructions as well, and the results were similar, with a vaguely roasty taste as well. The flavour profile is not what I’d expect from a green tea, but not in a bad way at all. A surprising tea, and definitely enjoyable.

Brewed according to the instructions on the package, I found this tea very mild. I tried brewing it gongfu, which produced a very astringent tea reminiscent of ‘gunpowder green.’ I got a lot of steeps out of it, but none of them were terribly good. It was best Japanese style, but still not my favourite – very bitter, a tad nutty, a tad vegetal. It tasted like a slightly more complex gunpowder green.

This tea was not great as I first tried it, brewed grandpa style – it had a kind of generic, light, flower and overripe fruit taste. It was better done gong fu, with an odd wet-leather smell and a more savoury, balanced taste. Still not fantastic in my opinion, but much more drinkable.

It’s quite a strong Earl Grey. As usual with Earl Greys, the bergamot flavour makes it difficult to adequately judge the quality of the tea leaves, but structurally they’re fine – whole and medium-sized. Earl Greys are not really my thing, admittedly (I only have this one because it came as part of a sampler pack), but as far as I can tell this is a nice one, with a stronger, fresher taste than many others.

A very juicy tea. It has flavours of apricot and rose, leaning more floral in later steeps. Despite the fruit notes, it’s more savoury than sweet. The scent and aroma are both very floral and very strong.

SkySamurai’s mystery advent tea #5 backlog from 12/18
Looks like a green today!  Healthwise, I feel like I could use a green tea.  These winters always make me feel physically terrible.  Honestly, I’ve been trying to align some of these mystery teas with what I know of Teavivre teas… I suppose Teavivre is the shop I’d have most knowledge of plain teas from.  They have so many varieties of green tea though, it would be tough to narrow down.  But I think Teavivre has a green tea like this, just from looking at it.  Very twisted fuzzy leaves in various shades of pale green. The scent of the dry leaf isn’t great or spectacular — it’s an odd fragrance.  The scent of the steeped leaves is like corn chowder with tomato soup somehow.  The flavor is lovely – sweet, creamed corn, also a bit nutty.  The second steep wasn’t as great… not as much flavor. My guess: mao feng green!  Was I correct? NO.  I’ve never heard of this one either!   It’s a green from Vietnam. Interesting – I have probably only tried a couple of Vietnam greens.
Steep #1 // 1 1/2 teaspoons // 39 minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep
Steep #2 // 35 minutes after boiling // 3 min

A pleasantly smooth tea with a wet texture and a slightly yammy, roasty taste. Brewed in a mug, it’s not hugely exceptional, but definitely stands out from bog-standard black tea. Brewed gongfu, the flavours are similar, but more expansive, and slightly fruity at the end. The leaves are whole.

Visually, this is a very beautiful tea. The flavour is mild, sweetish, with a light taste of overripe fruit. The scent is hard to identify. Later steeps are tarter and slightly astringent, which in the case of this tea improves the taste.

Had this again… It really is very good. It’s a solid, very normal black tea, and oftentimes that’s exactly what I’m looking for as I start my workday. This and Rukeri Black, from the same company, are probably my favourite ‘standard’ black teas, and I go through both rather faster than some of the more interesting, unusual teas in my cupboard.

This is a very well-balanced black tea that shows some complexity even with Western-style brewing, which can sometimes lead to more muddled flavours. The aftertaste is briskly bitter, while the main flavour is warming, a tad malty, and very full. It’s nice.

Western style, this was pretty much a normal black tea, with a slightly bitter aftertaste of a sort I didn’t particularly like. Tried it gongfu style and it was not great. The leaves are coarsely chopped – not crushed or chopped finely, as for a teabag, but they still release flavour and caffeine faster than whole leaves would.

Quite floral, with a faint overripe fruit taste. The aftertaste and texture are odd; while the initial flavour is just slightly bitter, the aftertaste is heavily tannic. The initial texture is smooth and wet, but changes to a dry tannic sensation. The leaves are long and whole.

These leaves are small and whole. The taste is full, floral, and very slightly fruity; it has more of a fruit scent. The aroma is very floral. A pretty nice tea overall! Brewed in a gaiwan, it has an almost resinous note in later steeps.

Exceedingly floral! Strong taste and aroma of roses; it’s almost like a Turkish delight without the sweetness. Definitely one of the better teas from the black tea sampler set I ordered from this company. There’s some cocoa taste as well, especially in later steeps, as the rose flavour fades a bit.

There’s a taste here I can’t quite identify. Is it acorn squash? It reminds me of a holiday meal, and has an almost caramelized edge. The smell is the same way. The aroma is faint, and matches the taste and scent.

This is a very savoury tea. The way the leaves were processed releases taste and caffeine faster than whole leaves do, I think, but it does not lead them to behave like cut leaves. There’s a deep bitterness that lingers on the tongue, but also some autumn leaf and honey taste, and a fair amount of malt.

I’m not entirely sure what to make of it, honestly. It’s slightly milder steeped Western-style than in gongfu, but that odd bitterness is still present. It isn’t the tannic bitterness one often gets with black tea. At any rate, despite being slightly puzzled by it, I like this tea.

This tea smells like a good cigar. The leaves are whole, somewhat varied in darkness of brown colour. It has a sweetish aroma and tastes kind of tobacco-ish as well, but juicier. The texture is slightly thicker than usual for a black/red tea. I like it! It’s definitely more complex than I’d expect from a breakfast tea (as those usually focus on strength), and better balanced than I’d expect from a blended tea.

2024 Tasting: Dry leaf: Gorgeous. Tightly twisted. Mainly dark brown with cascading swirls of golden fuzzy buds. Dry aroma: Slightly tomato soupy with herbs. Freshly ripped bark from… aspen? I really don’t want to have to rip bark off of trees. Maybe I’ll go on an aroma adventure in the woods and freak people out by stepping off the path to sniff random trees. Flavor: Woody. Creamy. Cacao. Wet leaf: Slightly musty. Wet bark and leaves.

2019 First tasting:
Wet wood. Like a walk in the forest. Picking up a soggy branch and tearing the bark off.
Sweet subtle notes of brown sugar.

This tea grows near Darjeeling and shows some of the unique characteristics of the terroir. It is a fuzzy tea which leaves are processed to end up being mixed dark chocolate brown and golden “light brown”. The fuzz is very akin to the fuzz found on a peach. It’s all over the inside of the tin; probably one of the strangest things I’ve seen. Even the golden leaves display a strange fur like appearance. Golden retriever tea. Still having much difficulty with this site… Really wish someone else would take it over.

This was my first Vietnamese tea & I loved it. It’s a lovely everyday tea.

I’ll admit I was incredibly ignorant of the tea-making history of Laos, but this beautiful black from Rakkasan has been an eye-opener in more ways than one.

This tea is woodsy, full-bodied and has an incredibly smooth mouthfeel. It’s reminiscent of an Irish Breakfast tea without that astringent bite at the end and there are notes that remind me of decomposing late-autumn leaves and something that makes me think of mushrooms (though it’s certainly not any flavor in particular).

This feels like a tea you should sip while leafing through a leather-bound book…probably while studying for law school or med school or something equally stressful and prone to creating good in the world.

(and on a personal note it’s heartening to hear that the company “imports solely from carefully selected estates in post-conflict countries as a way to promote peace and economic growth.”)

When you spend a good penny on tea you really want it to taste like heaven is in your mouth. Unfortunately, this pretty penny tea just isn’t doing that for me. When I first opened the lid I was hit with a medicinal aroma. Not at all what I was expecting. Then again I’ve never smelled a Lotus flower so I had no idea of what to expect; just assumed it would have that sweet floralness to it like Jasmine. The green base has a somewhat roasty flavor to it that blends really well with the lotus flavor but for the most part is overpowered by the lotus.

Thanks Skysamurai for sending me a sample of this tea! The dry leaf aroma is quite floral and dry. In the preheated pot, the leaves smell a bit more fruity. Wet leaf has similar qualitites, but I also get a bit of pine and tree bark.

Liquor texture is quite thick for a green tea. Taste-wise, it is a balanced tea. I get similar impressions as with some chinese white teas, but the taste is more robust. There are some fruity, vegetal and nutty notes (mostly in the finish) with some hay/herbal aspects as well. I didn’t really notice any grassy ones though.