Totem Tea

I think it’s safe to say this is a totally new and unique tea experience for us. Had one sample of this and used all 5 grams of it. The dry, rolled leaves didn’t have too assuming of a scent, but as soon as I washed, the roasty, woody, tangy fruit aroma hit. The liquor is a nice medium gold.

The flavor is a bit hard for me to put into words immediately. That tangy flavor is definitely front and center for me, and there’s an interesting spiciness, both in flavor and sensation at the back of my throat. Fruity, floral (but light enough not to put me off), and I can tell there is some char in there, but it seems pretty subtle.

Second steep is nice and robust. A bit more woody with roasted nuts and rounded out by that tangy fruit. I feel like I am getting some camphor notes and, surprisingly, a bit of qi off this, as well.

More roasted nuts in the third steep, with a hint of creaminess on the tail end and a lingering sweetness.

Got a couple more steeps out of this before the day came to an end. I definitely would like to further explore this type of oolong!

Weird, drinking this tea is like tasting an oatmeal cookie. It’s definitely sweet, caramelized, and a hint of dark fruit. Brewed this in a small thick walled gaiwan, the flash and first brew were wasted, but as promised in the site description the 2nd-6th are a joy on the tongue. After 6th steep it levels out to a passable ending with just a hint of sourness.

Butternut, caramel, sesame goodness in a nicely roasted Jin Xuan. Great length, moderate energy, an overall fine tea.

A nice and roasty oolong. The small pebbles of tea are wrapped tight and roasted. I catch whiffs of toasted barley, ripe fruit, and a slight char. I warmed my gaiwan up and slipped a few of these inside. The taste moved into pure roast with a lingering sweetness. I dark heavy wood tone stood in the background. I washed the small rocks and prepared for brewing. The taste was unique and intoxicating. A smooth and full brew of hot apple cider, cinnamon and smoked apples with a touch of cranberry. This was a pronounced taste. The brew is nice and full bodied with nutty aftertaste. The apple tone continued to be pronounced along with some apricot in later steeping. This is a wonderful dark fruited oolong that was nice and filling.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BGFf9S-zGW-/?taken-by=haveteawilltravel

I rolled in thinking I was going to be drinking some green oolong with lots of floral. I missed the “red” in the title of this tea. This oolong is not green!

This tea has some charcoal roast to it, so this is a floral gui fei with peachy, roasty, woodsy, buttery, and honey notes. This tea is certainly meaty to start. The final steeps are excellent with tasting like straight honey.

Full review on Oolong Owl http://oolongowl.com/gui-fei-red-oolong-totem-tea-tea-review/

At first I thought this wasn’t a Ruby 18. It is quite brisk, tannic, sharp, chocolately and woodsy vs somethig more cooling and fruity.

However in the later steepings that Ruby 18 cooling sensation shows up, giving you almost a bittersweet chocolate mint thang going. This black would be liked by many – something more classic black and rich, but also Ruby 18 minty complex.

Full review on Oolong Owl http://oolongowl.com/pacific-northwest-taiwanese-black-tea-comparison/

Sample from CWarren.
Backlog August 8, 2016

I’ve been bad at writing reviews on here as I drink the tea. I’m always preoccupied lately with work, school, adoption stuff, reading, or socializing as I write these in my notebook, for later updates. And after 11 days, here we are, copying down what I had written nearly two weeks ago.

A very nutty tea from the smell and taste. Some sweet floral notes on the tongue as the tea progresses. Slightly malty, but nothing like an Assam. As the tea progresses (steep 11-13), there are pear and/or other fruity notes around the mouth.

A great sadness has occurred, after much debate the Ark tribe on multiplayer is disbanding.We just keep losing too many resources and time to glitches, and new additions to the game have made things so much harder. We used to have a pretty secure base with our xplant turrets, but they tweaked them, meaning living in the swamp with ALL the things that want to kill us has made getting fertilizer a full time job, plus with all the bugs it is just not fun anymore. So we are going to single player, where if we die to a bug and lose everything I can just spawn it back in, the game can go back to being fun I hope.

Today I am looking at the last of the samples I received from Totem Tea, though certainly not the last since there are more of their teas I want to try, presenting Gui Fei Oolong! A classic staple on the blog, as my obsession with bug-bitten teas is well known and I will try any I can get my greedy mitts on. There is something very charming to me about the need for little nibbly bugs, that their presence causes an amino response in the plant that creates a signature taste, the result of a happy accident, as many awesome things are. The aroma of the tea is a three way balance of stewed fruit, roasted nuts, and baking bread. Sweet plums and cherries mix with walnut and pecans with a gentle honey drizzled freshly baked whole grain bread. Definitely can pick out notes of sweet buckwheat, which I always love.

Yowza, that aroma is potent once it has been steeped, strong notes of stewed plums and cherries mix with honey sweet lychees and a touch of dates. Alongside this fruity goodness is walnuts and toasted buckwheat which make sure that the fruity notes are intense without ever being cloying. The liquid is like nectar, plum and lychee with buttery cashew and raw honey, it is very sweet and mouthwatering.

This tea starts light but is nectar sweetness, a gentle mouthfeel and taste, with notes of lychee and cashews. It then moves to cooked plums and grapes with a distant note of spring flowers. With a finish of gentle toasted grains, this tea is much like a fruit pie, sweet and just the right amount of toasty.

I wasted no time chugging that first cup and moving on to the next, and I consider a good sign of Gui Fei when by steep two my tasting notes start to list to the side. The aroma is fruity sweet and toasted grains, a good blend of sweet and roast. The flavor notes of the first steep were still present, but intensified, and with a thick nectar like mouthfeel this tea has gone from wonderful to intense. One of the best aspects of this steep is the afteratste of peaches that lingers for quite a while, eventually ending off in a bit of a starchy grain note.

For the last steep this blog covers somehow manages to be sweeter in aroma, but it still manages to not be cloying, one of the things I love about Gui Fei. Thick and sweet, that is what is really to be taken away from this tea, it is like a fruit cobbler in liquid form, complete with nuts and a bit of crust. Of course three steeps is only the beginning, there is a lot more life in these leaves that keep giving sweet nectar for quite a while.

For blog and photos: http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2016/07/totem-tea-gui-fei-oolong-tea-review.html

Forgot to jump over here and post this one after adding it to the blog. This is a caffeine free herbal. If you are like me that generally means – scroll on to the next review. I will say up front this is different.

Totem Tea says what makes this different from other mulberry leaf teas is this is steam processed like Japanese sencha.

If one of you tea drinkers handed this to me and said, “Here try this green tea.” I would look at it and just except it was a sencha. Flat blades that look very similar. The dry sent is grassy with what reminds me of chaff left over when shucking field corn.

I brewed this per directions at 200 F for 45 seconds. The liquor is green with yellow highlights in the light and an eerie deep green in the shadows. The steeped leaf turns really dark green and crinkly like ruffled parsley.

Here is a quote straight from my blog, “The taste is unique. There is zero bitterness or astringency. It is smooth with almost no bite. The grassy connection to sencha is very present. There is also an ocean seaweed note, and what to me is best described as a hazelnut element. I think the seaweed/hazelnut combination is what Totem is noting as buttery umami.”

Possibly one of the most complex and interesting single ingredient herbals I have tried.

I am vary wary when it comes to aged ginseng oolong, for I have never had a good experience. I prefer fresh ginseng oolong. I remember most of my sessions of aged ginseng oolong ending swiftly and with quite a lot of tea dumping. This tea makes its way to me, and I pushed myself to keep an open mind. I opened the package and was greeted with a heavy medicinal scent. The aroma was sharp and pungent with dried herbs and lemon peel in the background. I warmed up my gaiwan and placed some inside. The scent deepened and spread out with heavy oak and barley tones. A direct hot wood scent wafted up along with a very slight sweetness behind it, which I suspected to be the ginseng. I washed the leaves once and prepared for brewing. The taste began as heavily roasted and mouth numbing. A woody flavor lifted up from the palette and finished with a sweet aftertaste. I could hint at a hops taste. The second sip yielded a well done aftertaste of sweet wood and roasted sugar. The brew yielded some great energy that lasted for good while. The cuppa was smooth yet odd. This is my best experience with aged ginseng tea, but it still was a bit weird. I noticed that ginseng oolong does not age very well at all, which is why the tea is so uncommon; however, this brew aged nicely and was quite good. I was impressed.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BG9s7tPzGVB/?taken-by=haveteawilltravel&hl=en

I might be the only person in the history of gaming who likes scanning planets in Mass Effect 2. In the joint play-through Ben and I are doing, guess who is in charge of scanning the planets, it is just so satisfying to deploy all the probes and deplete a planet’s resources. Really though, I love reading all the little blurbs on the planets, most of them are quite unique bits of world building.

Today I am looking at what I consider to be a truly unique tea, Totem Tea’s Cui Yu Jade GABA. I have had several GABA Oolongs, all of them fairly heavily oxidized (technically they are exposed to a nitrogen rich environment rather than oxygen) and dark, making them more similar to hong shui. This one is green with a gentle roast, giving it that familiar light roast feel but with a slight distinct difference that makes this tea stand out. The aroma of the curled leaves has notes of sesame seeds, buttery cashews, freshly baked bread (specifically sweet farm bread) delicate flowers (the website description is not wrong with the dandelion flowers) and a tiny bit of toasted buckwheat at the finish. It is not an overwhelmingly floral oolong, focusing on the gentle nuttiness and sweetness that usually accompanies a lightly roasted oolong.

Gaiwan time brings out notes of toasted sesame and cashew with a buttery thick quality. Alongside these nutty notes is a distinct dandelion flower jelly, it is sweet with a pollen note that lingers in the nose. There is also a gentle herbaceous and green spinach note that is very light but still present. The liquid is golden in color and aroma, something about the dandelion jelly, pollen, and sesame nuttiness reminds me of sunlight and golden things, so to me it smells gold.

The first steep is unique and light, I think I fell in love after the first sip. Light mouthfeel with a distinct mineral quality blends wonderfully with dandelion flowers and sesame seeds. Specifically the sweet taste of honey sesame seed candies. Towards the end of the sip I pick up notes of toasted rye and buckwheat, with a gentle sweet finish of raw honey and cashews that lingers.

Steep two takes the previously delicate mouthfeel and turns it into thickness, creamy and smooth but very thick. This steep brings out the more green quality of the tea, along with toasted sesame there are notes of buttery cooked cabbage, and a bit of lettuce. There are also gentle notes of dandelion flowers and sesame seeds, both of which linger well into the afterataste.

This is the last steep I write about, but it is not the last steep I enjoyed of this tea, it kept going for quite a while, it was great to keep drinking this tea well into the wee hours. This steep is a perfect balance of nutty sweetness and gentle buttery vegetation notes, neither one overpowers the other. Like before the gentle notes of dandelion flowers and sesame seeds linger well into the aftertaste. Comparing this to other GABAs I have had, I think I like this greener one better, it lacks any of the woody sourness that the darker GABAs can have, plus that dandelion note is fascinating!

For blog and photos: http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2016/07/totem-tea-cui-yu-jade-gaba-tea-review.html

Today is a day of pros and cons, the big pro is I have finally found a curio cabinet! For a whopping $30, beautiful combination of chestnut wood and a light…however, it is missing shelves. I thought it would be a piece of cake to get pieces of wood cut to size at the hardware store. I found the wood I liked and they wouldn’t cut it, turns out cutting along the length of the board is not something the local harware store was interested in doing. So now the quest goes on to find shelf inserts in a price that is within my budget, so far my quest has been not spectacular, but I have high hopes. Soon my cups (and other teapots and such) will have a protected and easy to access home.

The tea I am looking at today is from Totem Tea, their Amber Forest, which has a wonderfully evocative name, like a forest in autumn with dappled sunlight making the woods glow like amber. It is a Jin Xuan (and it is well known my love of this cultivar) but instead of its usual green glory, it is roasted over longan charcoal. I love LOVE roasted oolongs, and Jin Xuan is one that I only rarely get to indulge in. The aroma of the dry leaves is wonderfully nutty, strong notes of toasted sesame and sweet chestnut with a creamy Jin Xuan notes that are familiar. What really pushes this tea over the edge are notes of pistachio, mochi (with a bit of red bean paste too) and cashew butter, those pistachio notes are killer, seriously, nutty notes are one of my favorite aspects of roasted oolongs.

Gaiwan time! The aroma of the soggy leaves is super nutty, lots of cashew, chestnut, pistachios, and of course toasted sesame seeds. It is very sweet, and very autumnal, I might be sniffing this at the wrong time of year, but I am ok with that. The liquid for the first steep is immensely sweet, notes of honey drenched cashews and pistachios with a tiny bit of buttery toast.

Oh wow, the first steep is so sweet and wonderfully nutty! I feel like this is a tea that someone who really likes eating nuts as a main snack would love…and I do eat a ton of nuts. Notes of sesame butter, cashews, honey, and autumn leaf pile are all tangled together with a wonderful creamy quality that was present both in mouthfeel and in taste. It borders on buttery for the beginning, this is a tea I could crave on cold days.

The second steep starts to really bring out the toasted notes, not longer just notes of nuts, now there are notes of gentle char and a touch of toasted grains. It is rich and still quite sweet in the nose. Like the first steep this one starts out wonderfully creamy and nutty, with strong notes of sesame and cashew and an accompaniment of pistachio and chestnut. Alongside the nutty sweet goodness is gentle char and toasted grain heavy bread drizzled in butter, a classic roasted oolong taste that pleases me, the mouthfeel is much creamier on this tea than a lot of other roasted oolongs, probably due to it being Jin Xuan.

The third steep is not much changed from the second, and while there is not much change I can say this, I was able to steep this tea for what seemed like a roasted happy eternity. I was sipping it a night I was unable to sleep, and I can say even though it was hot and I was cranky from the heat, I was in bliss mode because this tea just did not quit. I went through ten steeps before I finally had to call it quits, this tea outlasted me! I love it and must add a large pile of it to my collection, especially for autumn where this tea is going to be guzzled in large quantities.

For blog and photos: http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2016/06/totem-tea-amber-forest-tea-review.html

Ugh, I am not feeling too hot today, ok actually I am too hot (what with it being summer) but that is not my problem. Luckily I feel better than I did an hour or so ago where I did not think I would be up to writing tonight. But, here I am, and glad to be feeling a bit better at that! I tend to get immensely frustrated when my various health woes get in the way of my cognitive function (thanks Fibro-fog, or whatever you are) it is one thing to be in pain, it is quite another to be a walking pile of derp, because then I can’t really do anything and I get very bored.

Today we are looking at a tea of a thousand names (ok really just like five) from a new to me company that has very quickly endeared itself to me by carrying some awesome teas! Ruby 18 (or Red Jade, Sun Moon Lake Tea, Hong Yu…) is a cross between native wild Qingxin and Assamica, and we have the the Taiwan Tea Research and Extension Station to thank for that! This tea is a thing of beauty and a serious favorite of mine, one of the few specific teas that gets its own teapot (Gui Fei and Tangerine Blossom Red being the others) the leaves alone are worthy of admiration, and that is before I get into the sniffing. The aroma of the leaves is pretty intense, strong notes of sassafras, yam, and red pepper combine with cocoa and cinnamon, classic Red Jade notes. What made this one different than the usual was the accompanying notes of okra, dried tomato, cherry, and very very light black licorice. I am in love! Going to spend a while sniffing the leaves, be back later.

After I finally pulled my nose out of the leaves and brewed them, the aroma of the soggy leaves is a classic explosion of sassafras, menthol (it is super weird, smells like menthol but not mint, it blows my mind) cinnamon, and a bit of red pepper, cocoa, yams, and cherries. Smells delicious! The first steep’s aroma is very sweet, like honey drizzled sassafras, cocoa, cherries, and yams with a brisk malty finish.

The first steep is wonderfully smooth, and pleasantly strong without being too strong. I find sometimes with Red Jade you have to have a slightly lighter hand with brewing or it gets really brisk and almost too strong, that did not happen with this tea at all. It starts with robust malt and sassafras notes, then moves to cocoa and cherry with linger well into the finish and aftertaste. They are joined at the finish with sweet, syrupy honey and tangy dried tomatoes. The sweetness sticks around into the aftertaste for quite a while.

For the second steep, the aroma is very sweet and super rich, notes of cocoa, cherries, and malt blend with a gentle sassafras note, or as I describe in my tea notebook, this tea is a little sassy smelling. Somehow this steep manages to be even more rich than the previous one, strong notes of sassafras dance with yams and cherries with a strong cocoa note. Around the middle a strong brown sugar note creeps in and lingers til the end.

Third steep’s aroma is pretty similar to the second, but a stronger note of cherry and malt with an underlying pie crust note that really has me craving cherry pie…and Warrant, but I always want bad 80s (techincally 1990, but come on) music. This steep really ramps up the sassafras and malt, it is wonderful, I never get sick of that note, reminds me of growing up in the south and the wonderful sassafras trees in my backyard. I also noticed a surprisingly fun note that I have never encountered in tea and it took me a minute to nail down, there was just a delicate hint in the middle of strawberry leaf. I got several more steeps out of this tea, I sat with it for quite a while enjoying its depth and was sad when the tea finally called it quits.

For blog and photos: http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2016/06/totem-tea-ruby-18-taiwanese-black-tea.html

Totem Tea sent this my way. As soon as I saw the label I went Ooooo out loud. This is a Sun Moon Lake black tea. If you have had one you know. If not this is a soothing black tea closer to Fujian than Assam in taste but not really. Dry it smells of dry field grass, malt, and fruit. Steeped at one minute it is honey and plums. I also taste caramel and a touch of cocoa. This is followed by a coolness that isn’t a blast to the senses, it is more like a welcome breeze. The winter mint is a felt not tasted, and lingers in the aftertaste. Definitely a nice cup.

Been a while since I’ve posted. I have been battling internet operating at dial up speed and some times less. The provider (satellite internet) hasn’t helped. The problem is a glitch on their end – no really it is. Today I upgraded the firmware on the router and switched anti-virus software. Getting the remnants of the old av off my computers was a lot o fun, not. So by the time I got to tea today I was a frazzled mess.

I opened the sample and at first I caught baked and roasted notes. Second whiff was more of grain accompanied by a sweet fruitiness. Once steeped a wonderful flowery aroma and a warm spiciness appears.

The sip is sweet buttery broth with strong notes of corn. At first I caught a tingly spiciness that I thought was going to turn into briskness but it doesn’t. This just stays incredibly smooth.

This is a subtle green oolong with wonderful taste. just what I needed to destress today.

i received a box of 4 samples for review.

Gui fei is bug bitten kind of oolong.
quoting from Totem tea website:
“Leaf-bitten teas deserve to be in a category of their own. There are several stories about how Gui Fei’s preparation method came to pass, and it appears that the most reliable story is that in 1999 there was an earthquake in central Taiwan and the tea farmers of Fenghuang village were forced to evacuate. Upon returning the farmers noticed that the tea plants had been overrun with cicadas that had nibbled on the leaves and stems. They processed the least damaged leaves and found that an almost magical transformation had occurred. Tea tasted completely different with an intense sweetness.

Shortly after the cicadas had bitten the leaves the plant created more sugars to heal itself. In addition, the leaves began to oxidize while still living on the bush, as opposed to the post-harvest human-assisted oxidation that commonly happens by tossing and rolling the leaves."

Dry leaf smelled so good of roasted nuts.5g 100ml glazed pot 200F
no rinse/30/15/10/15/20 sec etc
This tea is fruity sweet and citrusy too with touch of roasted nuts. Complex, changing with every steep. so delicious and refreshing during heat wave we experiencing now.
I dont recommend to have long steeps as it becomes somewhat bitter and astrigent but short steeps take care of this problem.

https://instagram.com/p/BGFWtbzhwlC/

https://instagram.com/p/BGFaZLTBwu9/

https://instagram.com/p/BGFcPzvBwju/

This is a sample for review.

i received box of samples from Totem Tea. I really like they included samples two of each. its very thoughtful in case I want to try different parameters.

Im quoting from their website. "Taiwan is world renowned for its oolong tea but little is known of its phenomenal Black tea which is often referred to as Sun Moon Lake Black tea due to the location of its growth and production. This black tea is as unique and special as the oolong produced on the special island.

Ruby #18 is relatively new tea cultivar developed in 1999 at the TRES (Taiwan Tea Research and Extension Station) by crossing Assamica with a wild Qing Xin. In the production process the tea is brought to full oxidation, where it develops a rich and sweet brew that has some mi xiang (honey taste) qualities."

The leaf is gorgeous, full, not broken, long and spidery kind
I used my own parameters. and since i have another packet i will try Totem tea parameters next time.
5g 100ml glazed teapot 200F
i dont rinse Taiwanese teas anymore, i find the rinse is so flavorful and hate to throw it
10/10/15/20sec etc
The aroma is intoxicating. the brew is dark reddish amber color.
It is honey sweet with plum notes, raw nuts and unmistakable minty cool freshness, lasting long after ive finished the session. That makes this tea welcoming in a heat of summer.

Thank you so much Totem Tea for the chance to try it, it was very enjoyable morning session

https://instagram.com/p/BGFWtbzhwlC/

https://instagram.com/p/BGJ2ehehwis/

https://instagram.com/p/BGJ5WdAhwpr/

I spent most of the weekend outside working, and this tea called to my gaiwan and I to be brewed. I opened up the package to reveal a chaotic assortment of darkened leaves with thick stems. the leaves were incredibly aromatic with a sweet scent of crisp pears, oats, honey, barley, and a smooth graham cracker. This was a unique and enticing aroma. I warmed up my gaiwan and placed a handful inside. The scent deepened to a warm grass base with sweet raisins and light mineral aroma mixture. I sat and enjoyed this array of scents for some time. I washed the leaves once and prepared for brewing.. The flavor began with a full body. I tasted a nice vegetle base with a smooth spring grass sharpness. A sweet sensation flowed over my palette and progressed into an almost creme tone. This lulling sensation was followed by a light fruitiness and some buttery tones. This brew was quite good, and it was a fully encompassing experience. The brew lightened up in later steeping and moved into the grassier and sharper tones. This tea is quite good, and it would do well for a daily drinker.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BF_fu46zGYp/?taken-by=haveteawilltravel