Qi Aerista is probably best known for their “smart” tea brewing system. But they also sell tea!
Their selection is broad and consists exclusively of loose leaf teas including greens and whites and puerh, you get the idea. Go look at the pictures and drool.
So how about this one? The one that started it all for me? It is exactly what they describe. It is lightly roasted, smooth, and sweet, and the flavor starts out light, but the more you drink, the more it builds. There is just enough gentle briskness to keep you reaching for your cup over and over, plus who can resist that building intensity? The first sip was as soft as a sigh but now a roasty, lightly woody taste fills my head.
I had this at breakfast and tasted it before tucking in to my everything bagel with cream cheese. It was so light and smooth, but I knew the bagel was going to overshadow it. Next time I will choose something heavily roasted or a black tea to combat the garlic and onion, and I will reserve this to go with something that is more delicate or just drink it by itself.
This was good enough to make me return and try some of the rock oolongs and maybe that gorgeous Shou Mei, but I really want the adorable Dianhong Pagodas!
Want to Know More About This Tea?
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: Qi Aerista
Description
This tea looks to no longer be availble but click below for teas that are.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
High Mountain Oolong/Qi Aerista
This just might be the first tea I have ever tried from Qi Aerista. More specifically, High Mountain Oolong from Qi Aerista, that is.
First I want to talk about their website. It’s pretty fantastic when it comes to individual information about each one of their teas and products. Very few companies describe the process of each tea to the degree that Qi Aerista did. With this oolong, they said it went thru the traditional process, but went one further to describe it step-by-step which included Plucking, Withering, Bruising, Kill-green/Fixation, Rolling & Shaping, and Drying & Roasting with special emphasis on the ‘bruising’. Bruising is a critical phase as it involves rounds of shaking and resting of the leaves to obtain the right amount oxidation that delivers the optimal flavor and aroma.
Going beyond the process, they told more secrets of this tea including the tea type being a Semi-oxidized Oolong and what other names it could go by which were Xiyan Oolong and West Rock Oolong. Cultivar was listed as Local oolong cultivar and the region it hails from is Dapu County, Guangdong Province, China.
What I find even more exciting is that the age of the plant in which this tea came from was over 60 years old and grew at an altitude of 1250m/4100ft from their April 2017 harvest.
I took about 2 or more teaspoons of this loose leaf and infused for about 3 minutes. It was the perfect cuppa outcome! It offered a gentle roasted flavor but it was also sweet. Smooth, crisp, and a bit nutty on the end sip! A really lovely flavor. I can’t want for another cup! Next time you are looking for a tea to buy or try – make sure you look this one up!
Want to Know More About This Tea?
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: Qi Aerista
Description
This tea is no longer on the website but click below for more information regarding Qi Aerista’s offerings.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Oriental Beauty from Qi Aerista. . . .
Qi Aerista’s Oriental Beauty oolong is so dark I’d probably have thought it was a black tea if I hadn’t been told otherwise by its name.
This tea has a really unique honey-black flavor that comes from, interestingly, its odd chemical makeup. These tea leaves were attacked by a certain kind of bug; so the tea, as a defense, released a chemical to attract its predators. This chemical (or the interaction with the bugs, not sure which) tastes like there’s pollen ground into the rich woodsy earth of the tea. Because it’s a straight black, I’m fairly sure this doesn’t translate into calories. Yessss.
I like this tea a lot. It has a good taste and a cool story. I offer up a thumb pointed to the sky, friends.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: Qi Aerista
Description
This tea is no longer offered on the site but click below for teas that are.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Jasmine Spring Blossom from Qi Aerista
I have been all about floral teas lately and thought it was time for me to check out Qi Aerista’s take on a jasmine green tea. Qi Aerista recently released a tea brewer and also started offering teas as well. After having some pretty delicious floral teas, I was ready to give this blend a go.
Brewed with water prepped at 185 and allowed to brew for about 3 minutes- this tea instantly set the mood with a HUGE burst of floral aromas. And when I say huge, I mean the floral tones are almost overwhelming but I’m one that really digs a floral tea so I tallied forth.
Sat down and enjoyed this tea cuppa after cuppa this afternoon. I wouldn’t say that there was anything that really stood out as amazing on this jasmine spring blossom, but the tea is really good. A solid version of a jasmine green tea for sure. The floral notes are extremely strong and sometimes border on intense but I enjoy that in a tea and would love to brew this tea up as a cold brew for the summer. I bet that is where this tea would shine since you really only get pops of the green tea base here or there.
To give this tea a bit of jazz, I did end up throwing in a bit of butterfly pea flowers and I really enjoyed how the green tea, jasmine, and butterfly pea flower played against each other. Butterfly pea flower has a unique flavor and I really enjoyed how the flavor lent itself to give the jasmine tea a bit of pop.
Just goes to show that even if a tea isn’t something amazing, with just a little of this and a little of that, you can create a marvelous gem!
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Qi Aerista
Description
Naturally floral and refreshingly soothing, this Jasmine green tea came from Fuding City of Fujian Province, China. Young leaves and buds were picked in April 2017 and immediately processed into the base green tea.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
High Mountain Oolong from Qi Aerista. . . . .
This tea is sturdy and sophisticated, like a sweater vest on a college professor who is woke to the kids’ causes. It is tasteful. It is educated. It knows how to reap the health benefits of green tea AND black tea.
There are notes here of plum, stone, moss, and maybe some algae, which I say with utter love and absolutely no derision. It’s earthy and wet and vegetal and a little bit juicy.
It somehow manages to make me feel like I know what’s going on. Like drinking it has made me a better person. Like maybe, very slightly, I have it together.
I do not, just to clarify.
I do not at all.
But the tea is very nice.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: Qi Aerista
Description
Aroma is honey, woody and with a lightly roasted aroma. Flavor is smooth, crisp, with a sweet aftertaste. To dry and enhance flavor profile, the tea leaves underwent a slow roasting process with charcoal for 9 straight hours to produce its characteristic smooth flavors.
This High Mountain Oolong is grown on Xiyan mountain in Dapu county. This beautiful county is known as the Shangri-La of the Hakka world, where Hakka is one of the ethnic subgroups in China.
What makes this cup of High Mountain Oolong incredibly delightful is that these tea plants are grown at high altitude with an age of more than 60 years old
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!