Tasting Tuesday: Teas From Lumbini Tea Company, Part One

A little while ago, I was contacted by Lumbini Tea Valley, who offered me some samples for tasting. When they arrived, I was surprised by the variety, so I’ve decided to do the tastings a few at a time. Today, I’m going to share my notes on the fanciest of the teas I was sent: the Manjary Handcrafted tea flowers, the Silver Needles, and the Golden Tips.

Manjary Handcrafted

These are whole black tea leaves that have been hand-tied into beautiful little rosettes. I steeped them in gaiwan, using 2.4 grams in a 120-ml gaiwan, with boiling water. The first steeping was for thirty seconds, after which I was greeted with a pinkish-amber liquor that was surprisingly sweet. I got notes of wildflower honey, with a malty-raisin aroma on the wet leaf.

The second steeping, also for thirty seconds, revealed a smoky aroma on the wet leaf and roses on the gaiwan lid. The flavor had a mellow chocolate sweetness with a little dried fruit, like prune or date. The third steeping, for one minute, had the rosettes starting to unroll a bit, and revealed flavors of dried fruit and a little black pepper. By the fourth steeping, which went for two minutes, the leaves had thoroughly unrolled and the flavor had faded. The spent leaves were large, as you can see above, with a very uniform dark brown color.

Silver Needle and Golden Tips

These two teas I decided to steep side-by-side. I’ve been enjoying side-by-side steepings in my mini-gaiwans, which are 60 ml each and work well for this kind of tasting. They were also fun during my recent tea gathering with friends. Also, the samples I was sent were rather small, so a smaller sized vessel was perfect to ensure I got the most out of my leaves. For each tea, I used one gram of leaves in a 60-ml gaiwan with water at 190F, rinsed briefly and then steeped for 30 seconds, one minute, two minutes, and three minutes.

The dry aroma of the Silver was peach and jasmine, with a little menthol, while the rinsed leaf had aromas of smoke and mugwort. The dry aroma of the Gold was spruce and cypress with a smoke aroma on the rinsed leaf. The first steeping revealed a floral aroma and jasmine flavor from the Silver and a fruity aroma and honey-sweet flavor from the Gold. The second steeping, the Silver was floral and peachy while the Gold had flavors of honey and apricot. By the fourth steeping, both had given up most of their flavor.

Stay tuned in coming weeks to hear my thoughts on the rest of the samples I received from Lumbini Tea Valley!

NB: I was sent these samples free of charge from Lumbini Tea Company in exchange for giving my honest thoughts about them. For more information about my tea tasting posts, read why I’ve switched from reviewing to tasting notes. Please contact me if you are interested in collaboration or sponsorship.

Tea Review: Adagio Teas Jasmine Phoenix Pearls

Earlier this month I had a birthday and one thing that people know I will always appreciate for my birthday is tea. Because my mother knows me very well, she got me a pack of jasmine tea because I love jasmine. I don’t tend to drink a lot of flavored teas, with the notable exception of traditional flavors — so Earl Grey, the occasional masala chai, and floral-scented green and oolong teas. And rolled jasmine green tea is a particular favorite.

Adagio Teas is probably the way I first got really into loose-leaf tea. I do remember visiting Teavana when one opened in a nearby shopping mall, but instead of buying there, I went home and opened up our newfangled internet machine to search “The ‘Web” for a way to find even more high-quality teas. I stumbled upon Adagio and first learned the joys of loose leaf tea. These Jasmine Phoenix-Dragon Pearls might have even been in my first order because I found the name romantic and lovely, and even as a teenager preferred deep floral scents to the typical light scents favored by my peers.

But since then, I’ve moved beyond the one-stop shopping experience of Adagio Teas, so they don’t often feature in my rotation when I decide what to review. So because it seems appropriate for early spring, I thought I’d add some florals to my tea reviews. You know, for spring.

The Adagio Teas Jasmine Phoenix (also called Dragon) Pearls are described as hand-rolled young tea leaves and buds, scented with jasmine. They are delicate and pretty to look at, with some variation in the color of the leaf, as well as a few white jasmine buds sprinkled in to enhance the look of the dry tea. When they steep, you can watch them unfurl into small leaves. The jasmine scent, particularly of the first infusion, is heady, and I find that it does best when it’s steeped for about a minute at first, and then as little as possible on subsequent infusions, until the strength of the tea settles down a bit.

The brewed tea, if not allowed to oversteep, is luscious and almost sweet-tasting. It smells heavily of jasmine, but also of the vegetal notes of good-quality Chinese green tea. While the first steeping will always have the strongest flavoring for any scented tea, this tea maintains a respectable jasmine punch for several steepings, although as you go on, you’ll find the qualities of the green tea coming through more and more. While Chinese green teas are not my favorite, this is a lovely example of one.

Adagio Teas is known in the tea community for being a bit overpriced for their quality, but there are a great place for someone who is new to tea to go and learn a bit about loose leaf teas before diving into sourcing teas more directly. Their website is visually pleasing and provides good information and reviews to help you choose a tea. And the fact that they offer small samples of almost all their teas is a fantastic bonus.

NB: I was not paid or encouraged to write this review. While the tea in question was a gift, it was not a gift from the company. All thoughts are my own. Read more about my sponsorship and review policies here.