Review: Zhi Tea Cherry Sencha
Cherry Tea, Green Tea, Safflower Tea, Sencha Tea, Zhi Tea No Comments » | "I wish the cherry flavor was a bit more developed... but it definitely grows on the palette with every sip. I give it a thumbs up."
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Zhi Tea’s Cherry Sencha is one of the few fruit-flavored green teas I have tried, as most of the flavored green teas I have tried have tended towards floral or sweet flavors. Zhi Tea describes their tea as “our smooth and lovely organic Sencha tea with natural cherry and safflower”. This tea is pretty simple in that it doesn’t appear to go overboard with ingredients so as to overwhelm the senses. The tea brews up just a shade or two darker than I am accustomed for green teas, but was still far lighter than a black tea. The cherry flavor was very subtle, and was almost more of an afterthought than the central theme of the tea. On the “sniff test” I could barely detect any cherry essence, and on the first few sips, I really couldn’t taste much cherry either. I must admit that I was a bit disappointed, although still appreciated the mellow sencha flavor. But as I continued to drink the tea, I noticed that the cherry was mostly evident in the aftertaste, in which I experienced a mildly acidic tanginess that is quite comparable to the tartness one feels when eating not-quite-ripe cherries. As for the safflowers added to the blend, I really don’t think they added much to the tea other than to make it more visually appealing (which, by the way, they did quite well). Although I do wish that the cherry flavor was a bit more developed, this tea was still very enjoyable, and I found myself immediately brewing a second cup. The sencha base appeared to be high quality and was a very mellow and not overly-vegetal green tea. This tea offers a nice mixture of naturally sweet and mild green tea with just a touch of cherry tartness to produce a cup of tea that, in my opinion, could be enjoyed by green tea fanatics, as well as those new to green tea. This tea gets a thumbs-up from me
— To purchase Zhi Tea Cherry Sencha, or for more specific information on ingredients or the story behind this particular blend, click here to go directly to the manufacturer's web site.
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Vanessa Teaviews.com Reviewer » Read more about this reviewer on Vanessa's profile page. » Find a list of recent posts by Vanessa. |
This tea comes in little rounds which are apparently filled with green tea scented with jasmine and lemon verbena, a.k.a. lemon myrtle, a plant which the box tells me “is believed” to have anti-bacterial and anti-viral properties. Unfortunately, the experience does rather remind me of disinfecting my mouth. It’s hard to see the leaves, which are quite small, inside the little white packets, but the packets have an herby, slightly buttery, very lemony smell.
Class: Green
Primula’s Green Tea with Jasmine blooms are a thing of beauty. Each tea blossom is hand-sewn into a tightly packed ball of tea leaves that, while steeping, opens up to give the appearance of a blossoming flower. Of course, you will want to steep this tea in a clear (ideally glass) vessel, since seeing the blossom open up is the key to appreciating this tea to the fullest. The sample I was given was the “butterfly floret”. The arrangement of tea leaves was really quite complex and very beautiful, featuring a base layer of green tea “petals”, followed by a white bushy flower, then a smaller reddish-pink flower in the middle, and finally topped with what appeared to be small white jasmine flowers. This really was a treat for the eyes and I enjoyed watching the tea slowly uncurl to reveal the many layers of tea leaves. The hand-knit floral arrangement held together remarkable well, even after repreated steepings. Primula offers a nice video showing the evolution of their tea products at 
Class: Green
I remember the day a friend called me just in shock over the discovery that the chai she loved so much had caffeine in it. Her reaction stuck with me, any time we go tea shopping together now i remember her horror over the caffeine she had been drinking unknowingly. Chai in its usual form is a black tea, which means caffeine in case you were wondering. For any chai lover who has issues stomaching or sleeping after caffeine finding a good caffeine free blend of the sweet spicy nectar is essential.
Zhena’s Raspberry Earl Grey is a weak black tea with nice flavoring; the raspberry compliments bergamot much better than I would have imagined. Not great quality tea leaves, but a nice combination for someone looking for a quick, flavored Earl Grey.
While green and white teas are increasing in popularity these days, there are still a great number of us that enjoy a traditional British-style cup of good old black tea with milk and sugar. Yunnan teas (from China’s Yunnan province), with their characteristic peppery flavor, are perfect to satisfy such a craving. From appearance alone, Mighty Leaf’s Yunnan tea impressed me with its large, golden-tipped leaves. On its own, I found this tea lacking the quintessential pepperiness that usually defines Yunnan tea. I found it hard to drink this tea in its pure, unadulterated form, and interestingly, I found it to be simultaneously bland and bitter (even though I only steeped the leaves for 3 minutes). Just a smidgen of sugar made this brew more enjoyable, but I questioned how much the the tea was able to be tasted over the added sugar. This tea seems to easily lend itself to being over-sweetened, resulting in a sugar-water liquid that barely even carries the flavor of tea. Compared to other Yunnan’s I have tried, such as Adagio’s “Yunnan jug”, . While I do intend to finish the rest of my sample (because while the tea isn’t superb, it is certainly not undrinkable), I can’t say that I will be recommending Mighy Leaf’s Yunnan as a “must-have” tea.
Class: Herbal