Cultivate Tea

Gongfu!

After getting home this weekend I steeped up the this white tea along with some of the teaware I picked up this past week for a soft, gentle session to ease into the weekend! This Shou Mei has jasmine flowers compressed right into it, so I did expect the notes of jasmine to be a little bit stronger. Though, upon inspection of my sample I didn’t see a ton of flowers pressed into the pieces. However, the sweet floral notes of this semi-wild tea are quite beautifully soft and fragile. Despite their gentle dance on the palate, there’s still a sort of lushness to the tea both in it’s velvety mouthfeel and the creamed honey notes that seem to get deeper with each steep. Even though the jasmine shifted into a more generic floral note after the first half of the session, it did take a while for the tea itself to begin tapering off – making this a really rich and gratifying way to ease into the rest of the day!!

Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/CtCK3cyuP3K/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4lxhQqMm4k

TeaTiff Traveling Tea Box | No. 29

I wasn’t sure starting out if this was a black tea or a honeybush tea processed as a black tea. Is that a thing? Anyway, it definitely tastes like a black tea. Maybe a little lighter in flavor. I’m enjoying it very much as it cools. A slight chocolate flavor is coming through now.

TeaTiff Traveling Tea Box | No. 13

A really lovely rose tea with a flavorful lapsang base. These two work really well together.

TTB Review #56: If you’ve been following my TTB reviews, you’ll know that I’ve had a very volatile experience with “honey” teas. Fortunately, this one seems to have done it right. Definitely getting floral notes, but less orchid and more jasmine, maybe even a little rose. I appreciate this tea for restoring my faith in honey.

TTB Review #39: Meh. Nothing noteworthy. Doesn’t have the typical strength associated with a black tea. Sweet notes come through but ultimately fail to turn this into anything unique.

TTB Review #38: Curious things going on here. The “pulpy” nature of this tea was a little off-putting at first but it really didn’t bother me once I started drinking. Probably the best way to steep this was to have strained it, but I’m lazy and use a simple infuser which allowed many pieces to float freely in my cup. Getting some umami notes which is nice. Makes me think of being outside on a warm spring day with a cool breeze carrying forth the smell of freshly cut grass.

TTB Review #23: I don’t have much to say on this one. It was fine. Acceptable. Average. Nothing special, nothing to write home about, and nothing to really complain about either (aside from its blandness, perhaps).

TTB Review #19: Hooray, a rose tea with actual rose flavor! Still not as prominent as I would have liked but at least I can actually taste its presence. Numi continues to be my favorite rose tea, I await the day that something takes its place as my number one.

TTB Review #1: Earthy and woody, almost like a liquid tree but in a good way. The overall flavor is somewhat bitter but there are some sweet undertones that I can’t quite place – almost similar to liquorish, but again not quite. Overall a unique and enjoyable tea, though I probably wouldn’t buy it for myself.

This is so exciting. I love Japanese green teas but when I looked at the dark green coloring of the leaf I knew this one was going to be something special. The koi kyusu is coming out for this one. The dry leaf smells so good. fresh, clean, grassy, and somewhat sweet. Asparagus. Smooth. Fresh asparagus. Umami. So smooth! The wet aroma reminds me of cooked spinach. Within the first minute is the best steep time maybe within the first 30 seconds. Thank you Valhallow for this sample.

Recently did a blind tasting of two different sencha. Both were meh. This one puts them to major shame. The aroma, the flavor, the everything is better about this one. The dry leaf is thin and needle-like. Exactly what you see in the picture. The wet leaf aroma is full of umami, bits of miso, an interesting creaminess, and bits of sweet grass. The mouth feel is smooth with no astringency. The overall flavor is fresh grass, umami, and some vegetal hints.

Nice fruity aroma on this one. Stone fruits and gardenia and a hint of Rainbow Stripe gum. Also slight minerality but mainly florals and fruitiness. The wet-infusing aroma brings me straight back to Kaua’i. A sunny day right after it rains at the farmers market. The flavor is less floral and fruity and much more mineral. Wet rocks, granite, and something mineral I can’t quite put my finger on. IF you enjoy minerality definitely give this one a try.

Side-by-side matcha tasting. I’m pitting this one against Bird & Blend. I knew the moment I opened the tins which was the winner but since you are here for the ride let’s drag out the answer like a recipe with a life story in front of it. Open opening the package of Cultivate I was greeted with fairly nicely green-colored powder and a slightly chocolate, slightly frozen parmesan smell. Which from what I’ve learned means that it’s a higher grade matcha but it may have been sitting out in un-proper conditions. The flavor is heavy in umami. Smooth mouthfeel with very little grit, despite my lack of siting and terrible whisking. I am drinking this thick so it’s quite a punch to the face Bits of seaweed and light hay notes as well. I drank this one first assuming the other wasn’t going to be too bad. I was wrong and now I need to go put something else in my mouth.

First time trying and brewing burdock root, at least as it’s own thing.

Preparation: Western
Tasting Note: I’ve noticed I am starting to enjoy straight or single ingredient teas and herbals more as I get more practiced (or older?). I know definitely as a kid, I would have loathed this because it had a radish’s pepperiness and not at all sugary sweet. As an adult, I definitely enjoy the earthy pepperiness and is a nice more savory, root vegetable herbal.

Since this is my first time trying burdock singularly, I can’t say how it stands up against others but since the root was harvested in February 2022 and it still smells very aromatic, I suspect this is decently good one.

Sipdown theme: Japanese Tea

Not a sip down yet but I will be working toward it this month.

Preparation: Straight
Tasting Note: This is certainly a grassy, bold matcha. I tried it straight this time but maybe I would see how if fairs as a latte. It wasn’t as smoothly, silky textured as the previous Cultivate tea matcha I had, which was “Seihou” I think. So it had a tiny bit of grit which puts it a little lower on my scale. I also prefer sweet vegetal, floral, citrus, creamy or nutty matcha profiles so this is not hitting the mark for me right now. The color of the matcha was pretty vivid still. Again, it seems that the aluminum sealed tin cans really do a good job of keeping the tea fresh over time. I am impressed this tea was in my cabinet unopened for over a year and the tea still looks vividly green.

Side note: It is my first year purchasing Tea advents and I think I may need to come up with a creative way to drink them. I bought two matcha one and two loose leaf ones and I think that is probably waaay too much caffeinated tea for me in one day for 24 days. Maybe I will save two of them for January? Or start them early, if I get them in November *(No spoilers I promise, to keep my notes offline until their official release).

Sipdown theme: Vegetal tea (In progress)

Preparation: Straight and with a whisk
Tasting note: So before opened this matcha, I noticed in the bottom of the tin it said best by sept 30th, 2022. I had bought this last year around this time and was expecting dull, green matcha when I opened it. I was pleasantly surprised. It was still a very vivid green. The tin was originally sealed with one of those peel back lids (like some tuna cans have), so that really must have saved the quality over this year. Now that i have opened the can, I am trying to have matcha everyday until it is gone.

Anyways, this slowly becoming one of my favorite savory matchas. It has a really distinct sesame nuttiness and is very creamy. It foams up a lot easier than some matchas too. I like that the sesame-nuttiness balances out the bitterness nicely. It is a pretty pricey matcha but considering how long it lasted sealed and that it is still nuanced enough to drink straight everytime so far, I think it has been worth the money for me.

Side note: We are finally going to visit Japan (hopefully er of 2023)! Cities that we will be in is still TBD but I think so far the group has agreed upon Osaka as a stop on our trip. If anyone has any tea house/tea shop reccomendations in Osaka, feel free to comment or DM me. Will keep you’ll updated when we soldify other locations. :)

The problem with having two places to store tea is that the one that is further away won’t be looked at as much. This is a sample, thanks Vallhallow, I can’t believe I didn’t see it before but it was probably because I repackaged it right away. The minerality is amazing. The flavor, the mouthfeel, and even the aroma both wet and dry. It is like a wet granite rock drying in the sun. But it also has some unique fruit notes. And a slight lemony but also a brightness with tropical floral notes. There is a bit of astringency but nothing like a black tea.

Tightly twisted leaf. Medium and some large sized. Raw pu erh…. Man, I don’t know. The shengs just aren’t doing it for me. I will keep trying them to see how my palate develops for them over the years but I feel like I licked pavement and then stuck a very herbaceous decoration in my mouth. Oh boy. And if you let it go too long that astringency will floor you. More so like a green than a black. Here’s to eternal youth. does a snoopy blarg I saw dub thee: TEA OF CLEANSING my stomach. I won’t rate this simply because I really don’t know what I would put. It is not a bad tea, just not my taste.

If Tuxedo Mask from Sailor Moon had a favorite tea this would be it. Beautiful and rich with intense rose aroma and flavor but subtle with wonderfully balancing woodsy tones. They are using an unsmoked Lapsang for this one. The finish is very nice. Slightly creamy with a dry woodsy flavor.

Split pea soup. Holy. Brothy. Moley. So brothy. The mouthfeel is so filling. And asparagus tips. This would make a great base for soup. The dry leaf is covered in silvery hairs. So pretty. Soft. Looks like mainly buds and first leaves. With the second steep the pea soup has toned down a bit. You also find summer grasses nd a bit of astringency but only slightly.

Tea for Jenny.
This cup is dedicated to you Jenny. You were my babysitter. I hope I didn’t give you a hard time. We never interacted much beyond that and seeing you down the street. But you were a kind and gentle soul. May you rest well.

A fine cup of tea, though I wanted to like it more than I actually did. The pear is just sort of lacking, even for a baked profile that should in theory have less of that upfront juiciness. The allspice was very pleasant and warming, though, and the oolong itself has a lovely gentle toasty and nutty flavour that leans into the whole baked goods sort of vibe the tea gives off. Yeah… Just needs more pear.

I found myself wishing this blend was a little bit more pear forward, but I can’t argue with the fact it definitely tasted more like a nice baked pear that something juicy and fresh or very floral leaning. The subtle notes of clove were really pleasant, and I liked just how much of the greener and slightly floral and slightly nutty oolong flavour actually still came through!

Whenever I see purple in a tea name it always makes me think of the ‘new’ Kenyan cultivar. Speaking of which can we all agree that the Kenyan purple tea is NOT a type but a cultivar, like Sencha. Anyway, it is interesting that we so easily receive, brew, and drink tribute teas such as these when they used to be consumed by royalty. It is a crisp brew, not very astringent but crisp like a fall morning Bits of farm notes and summer grasses. But to be honest, I’d rather have a Bai Mu Dan, I feel that this one just doesn’t offer much. It could also be that I had a terrible nights sleep and feel grumpy. So I will revisit this one at another point.

Note → From vallhallow.