Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Capital Tea Limited
Tea Description:
Wiry brown leaves with ample golden tips. These leaves produce a smooth and rich tasting tea liquor with a particularly sweet honey-malt flavour. A very well rounded flavour profile and balanced full body makes this an excellent tea to drink with milk for any time of day.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I received a sampling of this tea from a friend. Her experience with the tea wasn’t as positive as my first few sips of this tea seemed to be and I thought at first that the reason may be because of steep time. I find that Assam teas are quite finicky and temperamental. I don’t usually use boiling water for an Assam tea, I go with just slightly under (205°F) and steep the tea for not more than 2 1/2 minutes. If I’m steeping the tea in my Kati tumbler or a teapot, then I go with 2 1/2 minutes. If I’m brewing the tea in my Breville One-Touch, I go with 2 minutes.
The reason for the different brew time in my Breville? Because the tea maker will keep the liquid warmer than the act of heating the water and pouring it into a separate vessel. Even though the temperature change may be very slight, with an Assam it does make a difference.
My first few sips of this tea were pleasant enough. I picked up on sweeter notes of malt as well as a honey-like sweetness and these two flavors melded together in a nice way.
But as I continued to sip, I started to pick up on this bitter note toward mid-sip. It wasn’t that “oops, I oversteeped the tea” sort of bitterness. At first, I thought it was a savory element to contrast with the sweeter notes. However, I noticed that some of the sweetness that I picked up on early on was beginning to wane and the tannic qualities of this tea were taking over.
I don’t think I’ve ever experienced a tea like this, where I would have a positive experience with it at first and as I continued to sip the experience grew less and less enjoyable, but that’s what I’m getting from this. What started out with a pleasant, mild sweetness has become something more like something that’s gone bad. It was fine for the first five sips or so but as I progressed with this cup, I found that the flavors became less sweet and pleasurable and more tannic.
And now that this cup sits in front of me, I can’t really offer any redeeming words about it. I wish I could.
I do thank my friend, though, for sending me the sampling. I do appreciate it.
Keemun Classic 2014 Harvest Black Tea from Capital Tea Limited
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Capital Tea Limited
Tea Description:
Small, even and slender wiry black leaves with a forward classic keemun aroma. This tea produces a strong, rich tasting and full bodied tea liquor with a sweet and subtly smoky aroma and with prominent cocoa flavour notes. Highly recommended!
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I looked forward to trying this Keemun because I’ve enjoyed the other teas that I’ve tried from Capital Tea Limited thus far. Unfortunately, this Classic Keemun leaves me wanting.
There is a strong leathery note that is prominent and up front. As I mentioned on Steepster about this tea, it is almost as though the leather notes want to pull all the focus on them to disguise the fact that this is not a very round tasting tea. It doesn’t have that well-rounded, pleasing flavor that I have come to expect from a top-notch Keemun tea.
I’m not getting a strong cocoa flavor as promised in the above description. Beyond the leathery notes, I do get some notes of chocolate and also a smoky presence. But I wouldn’t call this a “rich tasting” or even a “full-bodied” tea. It’s kind of thin in the flavor department, lacking that round, satisfying taste that I want from a Keemun.
Not my favorite Keemun.
To brew: I placed a bamboo scoop of the leaf in the basket of my Kati Tumbler and added 12 ounces of boiling water and steeped for 3 minutes.
Golden Monkey Superfine Grade – 2014 Harvest from Capital Tea Limited
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Capital Tea Limited
Tea Description:
Young, fine and tender prominently golden tea leaves with an intensely forward aroma. These leaves produce a rich, medium bodied tea liquor with a very smooth and sweet flavour that is full of finesse. This tea has a wonderful depth of flavour and is highly recommended.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Really nice! This Golden Monkey has a rich, full-flavor that I want in my first cup of the day, the kind of tea that will help you get a move on!
I received a sampling of this tea from a friendly sipper on Steepster, which is an excellent community of tea drinkers. I like to call Steepster “Facebook for tea drinkers.” Anyway, I’m so grateful to the community because it allows me the opportunity to try some teas that maybe I wouldn’t have been able to try otherwise.
Like this Golden Monkey, for example! To brew this tea, I poured the sampling I received in the basket of my Kati Tumbler and heated 12 ounces of tea to boiling and let the tea steep for 3 minutes.
The aroma is sweet and chocolaty with notes of smoke, earth and leather. These notes translate to the flavor as well, because that’s exactly what I’m tasting! Notes of earth and leather, with background notes of smoke. There is an overtone of chocolate with a sweet undertone of caramel. Luscious!
It’s a remarkably smooth tea – I’m getting virtually no astringency. In the aftertaste, I experience a very slight dryness, but it is so slight that if I wasn’t focusing on it, I don’t know that I would have noticed it. It’s not bitter. It’s just pleasant deliciousness from start to finish.
Another great tea from this company!
Golden Garden Estate Ceylon OP Black Tea from Capital Tea Limited
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Capital Tea Limited
Tea Description:
Deeply aromatic long black wiry leaves from Sri Lanka’s Ruhuna District. These leaves produce a strong tasting medium to full bodied tea liquor possessing an intense aroma and flavour with notes of malt, chocolate and carob.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Another tea from a new-to-me company. I was introduced to this company by a friend on Steepster. It’s nice to be part of a tea community like Steepster where we can share teas with one another and expand our horizons!
And what a remarkable Ceylon! I generally describe Ceylon teas as “medium-bodied,” and “even-tempered” and usually what I mean by “even tempered” is that it’s a smooth, easy going kind of tea. Nothing all that exceptional. Just kind of “average” really – the kind of tea that is often utilized when creating blends or flavored teas because it has a very even tone to it that isn’t overly aggressive or assertive so the flavors are able to express themselves fully.
But this … there is nothing average about this Ceylon! This is not a “typical” Ceylon in any way, shape or form! In the world of “average” Ceylon teas where the average is “nothing all that exceptional”, this IS the exception!
This tastes more like a Fujian black tea with it’s rich chocolate-y notes and caramel-y undertones. It is more full-bodied than medium-bodied, and it has a nice, round flavor that satisfies all those little taste buds on the palate.
This is pleasantly sweet with its aforementioned caramel-y tones and notes of chocolate (which are actually more like a dark, bittersweet chocolate). It has a rich earthy note with hints of wood. It’s a stronger Ceylon than that typical “medium-bodied” “moderately even-toned” Ceylon. It has a heftier taste and texture.
As the tea cools slightly, I start to pick up on notes of honey, but it’s more of a honeyed caramel than pure honey. Notes of molasses. I like the sweetness of this Ceylon.
And now that the temperature has cooled slightly, I can also pick up on notes of fruit in the background. I taste ripe plum and notes of raisin. Hints of a floral note in the distance that seem to perk up the flavors toward the finish.
Overall, a really nice experience with this first tea that I’ve tried from Capital Tea Limited!