Mi Lan Dan Cong Oolong from Canton Tea Co.

mi_lan_dan_cong_oolong_teaTea Information:

Leaf Type:  Oolong

Where to Buy:  Canton Tea Co.

Tea Description:

Dan Cong is the champagne of oolong tea: ripe with intense fruit and sweetness. The first time people taste this tea they are astonished by the arresting honey and floral notes – all completely natural. The tender leaves are thoroughly fermented and baked to produce a rich liquor bursting with peach, lychee, honey and orchid flavours. Grown on a plantation on the lower slopes of Wu Dong Mountain, Chao Zhou, this high-grade Chinese tea can be enjoyed through multiple infusions.

Learn more about this tea here.

Taster’s Review:

I so adore this Mi Lan Dan Cong Oolong from Canton Tea Co.!  It has a delightful honeyed flavor with notes of flower and lychee fruit.

The description above suggests notes of peach and yes, I definitely do taste peach but I also find myself tasting plum-y notes too.  Like hints of sweet and sour from a ripe plum. I taste distinct floral notes – orchid! – and I love the way the orchid melds with the fruit notes and the sweet, honey taste.

The flavors all come together so smoothly – seamlessly.  It’s sweet with the contrasting sour notes.  It’s nicely round with very little astringency and no bitterness.  Just very, very beautiful to sip.

Later infusions offered even smoother flavors – the sharpness of the Lychee notes have softened somewhat now and melded with the other fruit flavors, creating a sort of unique fruit taste that’s a little Lychee, a little peach and a little plum.  I’m picking up on fewer sour notes now, just a hint here and there.

But the cup is still delightfully sweet and honey-esque.

I’d recommend this tea to any tea lover looking for an exceptional tea experience!  This tea delivers!

Green Dragon from Canton Tea Co.

green_dragonTea Information:

Leaf Type:  Green

Where to Buy:  Canton Tea Co.

Tea Description:

Blended for us by Rare Tea Hunter, Phil Mumby, this is a base of China Green Sencha given a full makeover with the citrus kick of lemon zest, lemongrass, lemon oil – and ginger. The combination of the fresh, green grass sencha notes, the lemony flavour and the warming ginger is completed by the subtlest hint of liquorice root to give a lingering sweetness.

Learn more about this tea here.

Taster’s Review:

Yum!  When Canton Tea Co.asked me to try their new Green Dragon – I was excited!  I’ve been really impressed with the quality of teas that I’ve tried from Canton and I love the combination of lemon and ginger – so I was sure that I’d enjoy this new blend of theirs.

And I do!  The lemony notes are tart with just enough sweetness to them to keep me from puckering when I take a sip.  The warmth from the ginger is mild.  And the licorice root is barely noticeable – even those who don’t typically like licorice root would probably enjoy this because the licorice root doesn’t really stand out as an obvious flavor.  It’s more like a hint of sweetness toward the tail.

The Chinese Sencha is a sweet, fresh taste with a hint of grassy flavor.  It has a pleasant creaminess to it, light and buttery.  I like the way this buttery quality melds with the lemon-y notes, creating an almost lemon custard type of experience with each sip.  It’s very smooth.

As I continue to sip, the warmth from the ginger builds slightly in the back of the throat.  It never gets really warm though.  It’s a very mild, gentle peppery note that offers contrast to the creaminess of the tea and the tangy lemon notes.

A really lovely tea – it’s a delightful summertime tea that tastes great as a hot tea or a refreshing iced tea!

Canton Assam Black Tea from Canton Tea Co.

canton_assamTea Information:

Leaf Type:  Black

Where to Buy:  Canton Tea Co.

Tea Description:

We have waited a long time to bring in our own house Assam. Now we have one to shout about and have made it a Canton signature tea. It is a blend of two, high grade, Khongea Estate teas – one of which has just won the North American Tea Championships in the Assam category. That’s how good it is. The family-owned estate is known to us and we are delighted to be working closely with them. Do what Assam is made to do and steep the leaves for several minutes to get a really good, strong, dark liquor that is smooth and rich with notes of fruit. Not heavily malty, but brisk and full-bodied making it a classic breakfast tea which works well with milk. As with all of our teas, it can also be brewed light and quick and enjoyed it without milk. The golden tips you can see in the dry leaf is the higher grade CL.GFBOP: Clonal Golden Flowery Broken Orange Pekoe.

Learn more about this tea here.

Taster’s Review:

I don’t think that Assam teas are actually my favorite type of black tea but I can’t deny that when I find an Assam tea in my stash of teas to try, I’m a happy sipper.  Assam teas may not be my favorite, but a good Assam tea is certainly always welcome in my teacup – I love that rich, robust, malty flavor that it provides.

And this Canton Assam Black Tea from Canton Tea Co. has what I typically look for in an Assam tea, although it is a little different than what I would normally expect.

This Assam is a bit smoother than I’m typically used to in an Assam – it isn’t quite as astringent.  But the trade-in for that is that it does lack a little bit of the strong, hefty body that I usually expect from an Assam.  It’s not quite as strong or sturdy as a typical Assam – although this would still make a great breakfast tea.  It’s still a robust, bold tea – but it’s a little lighter and smoother than what you might be expecting from an Assam.

It’s also not quite as malty as I usually expect.  There is still malty notes here and hints of caramel.  It’s still pleasantly sweet.  But, I’m getting more sweetness from a stone fruit (plum) note than I am from caramel or malt.  I also taste hints of raisin that are quite nice.

It’s still a full-bodied tea – it’s just not quite as rugged as I usually experience with an Assam.  But that’s OK – it’s still really good and it reaffirms for me just why I get excited when I am offered a new-to-me Assam to try.

I like that I can try a tea and have an idea of what to expect and get something a little different than I expected.  That’s one of the great things about tea and why I encourage people to try different teas!  Even if you’ve tried Assam teas in the past (and this applies to any other type of tea as well) – and even if that experience wasn’t all of what you wanted, you shouldn’t give up on Assam.  Try new teas and you might just find one that you not only like, but LOVE!  It’s a journey well worth taking when you find that tea that becomes your new favorite.

So if you’re looking for a new Assam to try – you should consider this one!  It’s lovely!

Sugarcane Black Tea from Canton Tea Co.

sugarcaneblackTea Information:

Leaf Type:  Black

Where to Buy:  Canton Tea Co.

Tea Description:

This black tea is wilted and then fired briefly in Yunnan red cane sugar (an unprocessed sugar similar to muscavado). The tea maker learned the sugar technique from a Fujian tea master in Wuyi, and brought it back to Yunnan to make it his own. Just a small amount of sugar is used in the firing process, it is mixed with water and added to the wilted tea leaves during the frying stage of the processing, giving the brewed tea a pleasingly balanced sweetness. Having proved popular with both Tea Club customers and Canton staff, we had to bring this tea into our collection.

Learn more about this tea here.

Taster’s Review:

The name of this tea attracted me to it right away – Sugarcane Black Tea.  Just the sound of it sounds like it’s going to make my sweet tooth very happy.  So, when Canton Tea Co. sent me a sampling of it, I was very excited to try it!

I read a little bit about the process this tea undergoes to earn the name “Sugarcane Black” – apparently, the tea varietal used here is Zheng shan xiao zhong which is the same tea that is smoked to become Lapsang Souchong.  But instead of smoking this tea…

… freshly picked tea is wilted and then briefly fried in tropical Yunnan muscovado style (un-processed) red sugar. The sugar is mixed with water, and used sparingly in the frying process of the leaves …

To brew this tea, I used my Kati Tumbler.  I measured a bamboo scoop of the curly leaves into the basket of my Kati and added 12 ounces of boiling water to the tumbler.  Then I let it steep for 3 minutes.  The tea brews up lighter in color than I expected.  Lapsang Souchong tea tends to be very dark, but this is a color that is somewhere between amber and light copper.

The flavor is delightful!  The sweetness imparted onto this tea from the processing described above is delicate – this isn’t too sweet.  There’s a nice balance between sweet, sugary notes and the natural fruit and floral notes from the tea.  It’s very mellow and pleasant.

There is an overall lightness to this cup – it’s not a hefty or robust type of tea.  This isn’t the tea you’d want to grab for that first cup of the day.  Instead, this is the kind of tea that you’d want to share with guests or enjoy on a quiet afternoon when you can curl up and simply relax and take in the joy of this tea!

Really nice.  A rather unique tea – certainly something that I’d recommend to all those who enjoy something a little different.

Yunnan Gold Pearls Tea from Canton Tea Co.

gold yunnan pearlsTea Information:

Leaf Type:  Black

Where to Buy:  Canton Tea Co.

Tea Description:

These attractively gold-flecked, marble-sized black tea pearls have been hand-rolled from high-grade Yunnan Gold leaf tea into perfectly compressed spheres. They make a delicously smooth, medium-bodied brew. Each pearl weighs around one gram, so use just two or three in a small teapot. Made in Fen Qing, in Yunnan, they are ideal at work or on holiday.

Learn more about this tea here.

Taster’s Review:

I’ve been reviewing tea for a long time and while my time as a tea reviewer is about to come to an end (but I’ll talk more about that later!), in the years that I’ve been reviewing tea, one thing that has never gotten old for me is receiving a package of tea in the mail.  There are few things that elicit as much joy for me as receiving a parcel of tea.

And my excitement was doubled when I opened my package from Canton Tea Co. and found that it included a sampling of their Yunnan Gold Pearls!  I love pearl teas as it is, but I have a special fondness for black pearls because – well, I guess because they’re awesome!

The flavor that comes from black pearl teas like this one is outstanding.  Sweet and smooth.  No bitterness and very little astringency.  It has a heartiness to it which surprised me given how short a time I steeped the pearls.  Some malt notes as well as notes of cacao and caramel.  I taste a distinct note of stone fruit as well.  Quite yummy!

I steeped my first infusion of the pearls for just 2 minutes and the cup is incredibly smooth and very flavorful.  It surprises me just how much flavor it has after steeping for 2 minutes.  The pearls had not completely unfurled so you know I’m going to resteep!

My second infusion was even more flavorful than the first – which is quite unusual when it comes to most black teas!  But not with these Yunnan Gold Pearls!  The flavor is still rich and flavorful.  I’m tasting more notes of  earth this time around and lovely hints of peppery spice.  I still get those lovely notes of caramel and cacao and a beautiful malty tone.

Truly a treasure, these Yunnan Gold Pearls!