Tribute Tea Company

I got in 5 hours of practice yesterday!
And I survived, whew!
I’m so glad to have my callouses back, & although I have to be careful not to end up with over-use issues in my arms, it just feels good to be able to work like that. There is still a lot to do by Friday, so today will be a mix of practice sessions interspersed with yoga stretches, tai chi, & tea.

I’m starting it off with this cup of toasty oats & cinnamon, then brekkie, then we’re off!

I’m enjoying a delicious cup of this tea, along with a deliciously relaxing Sunday morning.
Toasty, malty, nice tongue tingle, a little spice, a rich resinous feel, a sweet aftertaste.
Kind of like having a bowl of oatmeal, drizzled with bee pollen, cinnamon, & honey, & a piece of toast.
Now for breakfast…

It’s been awhile since I drank this tea…like 3 years ago.
The occasion was awesome: My Tea Sister, Sil, was in St. Louis on some kind of business, and we got a chance to hang out! She came to my house & we drank a ridiculous amount of tea, including this one. And we both wrote reviews. And we went out for Vietnamese food. In those days I was much more active on Steepster, sharing tea trades with a bunch of people, joining one tea club after another, getting in on Traveling Tea boxes, including the BBBB (the badass bitches black box), which was a box Sil, TastyBrew, and I sent over and over to one another, with mostly black teas. I miss that box!! Ah, it feels so good to reminisce…
On with the tea…
Confession: I’m not really a huge fan of most Dancongs. It seems like they tend towards bitterness too easily. Maybe they’re just a little too fussy for me, or something. But as far as this one goes, it’s a pleasant brew.

I tried it 2 different ways: First, per the suggestions on the package, I went with the following formula: 5G + 8ox @194F X 1min. Resteep at 2 min. That resulted in a tangy grapefruitish brew, with toastiness and florals as well.

However my preferred method is:
9g in Gaiwan + 208F X 6sec. Add 3 – 4 sec to each additional resteep…more or less
I’ve been sipping this all afternoon, and each round starts out a little bitter, and then sweet. The flavors are fruity, rich and tangy, with heady incense-like florals, but the really exciting thing about this tea is the way it makes your mouth feel, like electricity is running through every tastebud on your tongue. That’s the sort of thing I do love about certain teas, and of course, that electricity spreads to give an awesome tea buzz and overall feel-good sensation. And there’s also the after-aroma, wherein after you take a sip, you can still feel the aroma lingering in your sinuses. I also want to mention the aroma of the wet leaf, which is juicy and peachy and also incense-like. Here’s a link to the company.

https://tributeteacompany.com/collections/loose-tea-oolong/products/phoenix-orchid-oolong-fenghuang-dancong

We’ve had a couple of steeps of this one.
Mi Lan Xiang always reminds me of grapefruit, with a little floral laced in.
That’s really all I can think of to say, LOL. Hopefully Sil has more insight into this one.

drinking tea with terri! woot woot!

um…distracted by tea snooping and such (and yes guys…terri’s cupboard IS really full) this is decent enough but it’s not really up my alley, which we know, which is also why we decided to share a cup rather than me taking some home! i hereby call this the terri grapefruit tea. there’s a story there…but for now.. OFF TO THE TEA SHOP!

One more tea from Brett at Tribute Tea (in Chicago). Thanks!
I do enjoy occasional florals, jasmine being one of them.
Like the other teas I received from Tribute, the leaf appears to be of excellent quality, & care has been taken to maintain a lovely appearance.
This is a very nice jasmine tea, naturally scented, & tasty.

This is another sample from Brett @ Tribute Tea, which BTW is in Chicago, not to be confused with another company of the same name in Seattle
http://tributeteacompany.com
This is a lovely sweet cup of yum! Kind of buttery, caramel corn & yellow flowers.
The sweet aftertaste lingers, with an almost apricot mouth.
All of the teas I’ve tried from Tribute have been tasty & of excellent quality.

Another tea from Brett at Tribute Tea, thank you!
I haven’t been drinking that much oolong lately. I blame this on being busy. Oolong is a tea I prefer to drink when I have time to relax, so I drank a cup of this in the bathtub.
This is a pleasantly sweet one, with a fruity essence & a wonderful aroma :)

Here I am…back at my house.
I’d rather be hanging out in my PJs, but I got stuff I have to do, so I came home to do some of it, while Tony went to shoot a little pool with friends (I haven’t shot pool in months, my pool cue has probably disowned me by now, along with my Harley…)

Brett, the owner of Tribute Tea, graciously sent me samples of several of his teas awhile back…much farther back than I want to admit…I’m so behind on things…

I’ve put off drinking the white tea samples he sent, mainly cuz I just don’t drink white tea that much. It’s not even that I don’t like white tea, although I have been known to describe white teas as bland, milk toast, & other words that imply tasteless & boring in the past. The truth is, I have developed more of a taste for white tea, but it’s still near the lowest end of my totem pole of teas I want to drink. The only things lower than white are rooibos, followed by artificially flavored things.

That makes it sound like I would give white tea a low rating, but this is about taste preference, not quality of the leaf itself, & since I don’t actually rate teas anymore, it’s irrelevant. The truth is, I will always choose a black tea first, but I will occasionally want something different, & on rare occasions I actually want white tea.

This tea:
First off, I can tell that it is of wonderful quality, because it smells awesome, like a super clean barn, newly packed with freshly baled straw. It smells clean, fresh, green, refreshing, & even a little tart.
Next, the leaf material is beautifully intact, & visually it reminds me of freshly dried clover. Very clean & fluffy. White teas such as this one are fragile, & you can end up with a lot of ‘dust’. That’s not the case here at all. I can tell great care was taken with these leaves.
Parameters: I used the entire 5G sample in my test tube steeper at 190F for 1 minutes, with a resteep at 2 minutes. The liquor is a beautiful rich gold. Usually I go with shorter steeps, but lately I’ve been giving whites a bit longer, & I admit, the results makes me happier.
Flavor: Clean & crisp, like white linens, like spring. There is a slight astringency & a tad of mildly bitter cucumber mouthfeel. This tea is refreshing, savory, with a sweet tart quality like apricot.
The 2nd steep also features a creaminess, a little malt, & a green veggie kind of taste, kind of like long beans, with their green & floral flavor.

Brett, thanks for sharing with me, & my apologies for taking so long to sample this!

This one gave me a wonderful surprise toward the end that I hope repeats on subsequent tries. I used a gaiwan 1Tbsp/190°/30/60/90. The dry nose had a bit of fresh mown grass to it, but the first wet odor struck me as seaweed, but also lightly toasted, and with something sweet in the background (raisins maybe? or apricot?). The brew was very pale (did I understeep?), just barely sweet, and with a soft lingering finish. Second steep was slightly darker, not sweet and just a bit tannic, but still has some apricot in there somewhere. The final steep threw me for a loop when I came over a bit lemony. No idea where that came from, but it sure was nice.

Ahhhhh – how true. Today’s tea of choice was a delicious little number I picked up from tributeteacompany.com called “green smile” (or, more precisely, “hari muskan”) from the Nilgiri Hills region of India. My first impression was the fragrance of ripe, sweet apricots when I opened the pouch. It brews into a pale yellow/green color and is subtle but completely enjoyable. And, not to ruin it for you, but, the leaves are hand rolled to resemble actual smiles. I don’t see it on tribute tea company’s website any more but if you want to try this tea, you might want to email them to see if more will be arriving.

I drank this on Monday, before I realized that steepster was out of commission, & although I didn’t take notes, I’ll do my best to share my experience, because Brett was generous enough to send me a sample, for which I’m grateful.

I do enjoy Da Hong Pao teas, & although this one is a lighter roast than what I tend to go for, it’s a lovely cup of fruitiness, perfectly sweet & fragrant with the aroma of apricot & apple, & with a beautiful clean & fresh kind of aroma, almost crisp, like a sweet tart apple.
Thanks Brett!

First tea of the day at Tony’s house. Honey, maltomeal, milk chocolate. It’s a gentle kind of creamy cup .

I’ve said it before, & I’m sure I’ll probably say it again: I’m a sucker for novelty tea shapes!
So there! Pearls, cakes, twists, brooms, tuochas, flowers….my eye delights in them all.
Of course, if they don’t deliver in the flavor department, they get pushed off to the side.
Or given away to friends who aren’t as picky as I am, because they will enjoy them.

And this one is delicious. My previous attempts were made with a sample, trying a few different parameters, & that sample is gone. So I ordered more, & today we’re going gongfu, baby! Yeah!
5G + beautiful 4oz or so yixing (rinse) X 15/30/45 sec/1/1.5/2/3 min etc
I drank the 1st steeping by itself with my adorable little yixing cups & pitcher, then combined the rest of them in a mug in pairs while I was fixing breakfast.
Although I enjoy watching these spring snails unfurl, without a doubt, this is my favorite way to enjoy this tea. Everytime I open the tiny teapot, the leaves have expanded & are posing, like a series of photos. The texture is creamy, the aroma is honey, maltomeal, & milk chocolate. My mouth is tingly & I got a nice morning tea buzz to enjoy with my breakfast (after I finish drinking the tea).

A wonderful start to my busy day!

This is a lovely bi luo chun style black tea, very golden, nicely rolled up into the classic spring snail form. For my first cup, I steeped a tsp for a minute, which was weak. I sampled it again at 3 minutes, & ended up giving it a full 5 minutes. The resulting tea was tasty, like a pale milk chocolate, a little honey, & pastry. I’m also getting that flavor that translates to coriander for me, commonly found in ‘Beauty’ teas.

I gave it a 2nd try, this time using 2 tsp for 3 minutes. The flavors are basically the same, with a little more pastry, a little more honey, etc. This is a pleasant & gentle tea, nicely refined & sweet. I kind of wish, in retrospect, that I had dumped the entire sample into a Gaiwan & given it the gongfu treatment, but I wanted to save some of it for my dear Sil, and so this is a sipdown. Tea Sister, I’ve officially started a new box for you :)

First off, thanks to Brett for sharing a sample of this tea with me.
The leaves are rolled up tightly & are of a chocolate brown, with a warm honey aroma that is very enticing. After steeping, the tea reminded me of honey nut cherrios, creating a mildly sweet & comforting cup, with a hint of cinnamon. The leaves are slow to unfurl, & resteep on & on. Once they open, they are beautiful, dark, & their aroma is like cinnamon & vanilla, &…well…honey nut cherrios!

I don’t think I’ve ever met a tea from Fujian Province that I haven’t enjoyed, & this one is no exception! I enjoy Rou Gui Oolongs, with their sweet cinnamon & caramelized sugar flavor, & this is a nice one, with a slight hint of charcoal in the background.
1 T in 8oz @ 200, for 2 minutes, enjoying this first cup & looking forward to re-steeps.
Thanks Brett for sending a sample! You’re awesome!

This is really a fun tea, especially as I introduce it to new tea drinkers or those that have never seen it before… Not only is it curly and “snail-looking”, but it’s also orange and has notes of malty chocolate. It’s a great way to introduce Yunnan blacks to those that LOVE Indian leaves.

So anyway, I really like the aesthetics and could go on and on about how it unravels and the leaves are consistent and the cup is a deep orange, instead of the heavily oxidized reddish color…. BUT, we’re here to drink tea, so lets talk flavor:

Yunnan teas are well known for their chocolatey, malty, mocha flavors… This leave is no different. I definitely got a lingering hint of honey and perhaps another sweet note, caramel and/or dried fruits. None of these are overpowering or dominant, so it’s nice to find balance here. I was able to steep several times (5-6 in a medium sized gaiwan) and noticed that a gradual shift to grains and less sweetness ensued.

Really a pleasure to sip overall and I think that it’s worth revisiting the fact that the appearance for new tea drinkers will blow minds! A beautiful takeaway from the famous green tea, Bi Luo Chun, of Jiangsu Province, for those that don’t know…

Attention Jasmine lovers!! If you crave the soothing flavor of jasmine blossom, you’re going to love this silver needle/jasmine combo… I’m not really a big scented tea drinker, but the unmistakable scent and flavor of jasmine is very nostalgic for me. It takes me back to my early tea discovering days in Hong Kong, when I would travel with a small pouch of ever-convenient jasmine pearls, soaking in the culture and exploring tea houses in search of something new…

The notable point that I would like to make about this tea is its lack of astringency, especially compared to the more common Jasmine Pearl green tea, which is often slightly bitter. When sipping the green variety, I often find myself wrestling with the dichotomy of the jasmine — which I love — with the bitterness of a base green tea — which I do not love… Some people enjoy the bite of astringency though, so that is just my personal opinion.

In this case, the jasmine comes through very clearly… Truthfully, it’s hard to even taste the silver needle white tea, which is a shame, but who cares!

I tried this before and found that shorter infusions are better for extending the infusion potential (# of times) of this leaf. Jasmine releases quite quickly, so 30sec – 1min for the first 2-3 infusions is fine, with longer infusions following that.

A unique bouquet almost bursts with so many flavors, it’s difficult to narrow down exactly what is being tasted… The obvious notes include various types of honey — I taste buckwheat, tupelo, wildflower, but I’m quite certain that my honey palate is hardly delicate enough to make those claims, but anyway..

When I asked a grower why the process of producing Gui Fei went so deep into the summer, he answered quickly… “Oh, well of course, because we have to wait for the bug bite.” I thought that was hilarious. Wait what? The bug bite?? Was he joking? No. The “bug bite” he was referring to was the invasion of green leafhoppers, which alter the chemical composition of the leaf, and apparently impart its unique flavor profile.

Also, I usually give it a rinse and then jump in with 20-30 second infusions, noting that the 2nd and 3rd infusion result in a unusually thick liquor which is sweet and carries a fairly impressive hui gan… Later infusions, say 4-6 will bring more floral and spicy notes, but the sweet fruits lay off a bit.. Also, the leaves don’t seem to want to unfurl, so I’d add 15-30 seconds in subsequent infusions beyond the 3rd.

So all in all, its an oddly addicting oolong, and highly unique, so please try and let me know what type of tasting notes you are able to pull out, curious to hear!