Nov 27
Jamie’s Teaview Snapshot
 | "My overall impression of this delightful to look at (and taste) tea is one that is green and lightly vegetal with a lightly roasted flavor featuring hints of charcoal. "
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This is a super looking tea. I would recommend at least checking out the website at California Tea House to get a look at the beautiful hand rolled leaves. The tea is a green tea harvested from Yunnan tea plants in China. The rings are just that, about the size of a delicate pinky ring, but rolled into form from the long tea leaves. A real visual treat.California Tea House recommends using water just under boiling for preparing this tea, which seemed a little hot to me. (I really hesitated to subject these pretty little green rings to such hot water!) But, for my first cup of this tea, I used 185 to 190 degree water and a one teaspoon to eight ounce ratio of water to leaf. I let the tea steep for three minutes. The tea liquor was extra pale, almost a white gold in color.
The taste from this steeping surprised me. The taste was very bright and almost fruity. The scent was somewhat astringent and almost seemed harsh to my nose at first. Tastewise, however, the tea was fresh, bright and really quite mild, with vegetal notes becoming more prominent with some further cooling. Most interesting (and exciting) about this tea was a surprising taste element that I've never really encountered in a green tea before. There is something about this tea that is almost "grilled" in flavor. The taste reminded me of spring veggies skewered and just lightly kissed on a charcoal grill.
Overall, I found my initial impressions of this tea were that I enjoyed the tea but found the appearance more exciting than the taste. I initially rated this tea at around a 6.5 rating, which is "okay, but not great." I wanted to try again with this tea, out of respect for the beautiful shape and my other good taste experiences with offerings from California Tea House. Not only that, the curious "charred" taste of this green tea had really hooked me, interest wise.
I next brewed a cup of tea using one teaspoon of tea to 8 ounces of water but using 165 degree water. I steeped two minutes. I preferred this very much. The flavors in the tea that I'd noticed before came out more clearly and with a pleasant strength. Again, this tea struck me as so unique for the grill-like flavor that popped out at me. I've not tasted anything like it. The flavor is pervasive but also subtle - I don't want to give the impression that drinking this tea is like eating something char-broiled at all. But my overall impressions of this delightful to look at (and taste) tea, is one that is green and lightly vegetal with a lightly roasted flavor featuring hints of charcoal. Overall, this is a very mild green tea that was enjoyable and intriguing on many levels.
— To purchase California Tea House Daughter Ring, 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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