Drink the Leaf | Golden Monkey

It’s great to be back after a long break from marTEA.com.  I’m starting back with Drink the Leaf’s Organic Golden Monkey.   First of all, I’m a huge fan of most teas from the Yunnan Province.  The classic copper colored lush tea leaves are always something I look forward to.  To me, Organic Golden Monkey (Panyong Wang) is a hearty tea.  It’s a filling/satisfying tea.  I enjoy an almost earthy/sweet flavor coming from the tea.  Drink the Leaf describes the tea as having a cocoa flavor to it. I do detect the cocoa vibe, but I’m more intrigued by the balance of flavors.  This tea has something for everyone.  If you have a sweet tooth, sure you’ll pick-up on the cocoa notes of the tea.  I pick-up on the scent and flavor of a sweet smelling forest. The taste and scent reminds me of a solid mix of fresh air, flourishing vegetation, and fresh spring water.  At times, I can taste a faint pepper-like flavor.  I guess that is the beauty of a tea like this, it’s flavors are subject to interpretation.

Visit Drink the Leaf

marTEA

Drink the Leaf | Organic Hong Tao Mao Feng

I started sampling tea from Drink the Leaf this week, and I have to say I started out with a winner.  This organic black tea has a wiry and long shape to its dried tea leaf.  There is a natural sweetness to the dried product that makes it very enticing.  I steeped the tea according to the recommended directions of 1.5 tsp/200°F/3 min.  The tea retains its sweet scent that rises from the steam after it is steeped.  The flavor had a rustic component to it that made it enjoyable for me.  It had a very warming nature to it.  You get a slight earthiness mixed with a natural sweetness in every drink.  At times, I could detect a nutty flavor when the tea was at its hottest temperature.  As the tea cools, the rustic flavors mellow and the sweet notes shine through with just a delightful and lasting classic black tea flavor.  I really enjoyed this tea.  It has a good mix of character, but it really is a relaxing black tea.  The flavors are mellow enough to calm yet pronounced enough to keep it interesting  The combination of the nose and flavor makes for a very pleasant tea drinking experience.

Drink the Leaf describes the tea as: “Keemun grown in the Anhui Province, near a high mountain lake. The dry leaf is black and golden. The color of this tea is one of my favorites in our selection- like a “red peach” but with a darker amber hue. The aroma is great, but the flavor is the key to this tea. Medium to full, with caramel and honey notes,and a long finish. Enjoy this tea- a new discovery for us.”

Visit Drink the Leaf

marTEA

Drink the Leaf is located in Napa, California.  Yes, that’s a tea company located in the famous wine-producing region.  I was very fortunate to try a few of their teas (marTEA blogs: Drink the Leaf).  The teas were fresh, flavorful, and packaged well.  For those of us that drink a lot of tea, packaging and storage is a key component to our satisfaction.

Over the past two weeks, I’ve been enjoying drinktheleaf.com’s Jade Oolong.  This tea had a very balanced flavor and scent.  The Oolong has a fresh-green flavor with a light sweetness and floral (lilac) hint. The scent of the dry tea literally takes me on a journey to the Fujian province of China.  It may sound over-the-top, but the scent of a good Oolong is magical.  I try to use an aroma cup when drinking Oolong to savor the scent that lingers from the tea.  The dry tea has a vibrant blue-green color (Jade Green). This particular Oolong unfurls to reveal a healthy dark-green tea leaf. To prepare the Oolong, I allowed boiling water to cool slightly and gave the leaves a 10 second wash before steeping the tea for about 3 minutes.  I typically steeped the leaves twice per sitting.  Any more than two steepings and the flavor and scent really started to be lost.

Visit Drink the Leaf

marTEA

Royal Golden Yunnan is a rustic black tea that I thoroughly enjoy. I feel like I should be sitting around a campfire enjoying this tea on an expedition of some uncharted territory.  It’s great to drink something that immediately takes you somewhere in your mind.  It’s a peaceful tea mixed with adventure.  The scent of the dry tea leaves reminds me of a mix between tea and tobacco.  Royal Golden Yunnan has a very intense traditional Yunnan black tea flavor with an earthy accent, faint smokiness, and a light note of  cocoa.  The tea has attitude and that’s what I’m always looking for in a tea.  The complex flavors help me concentrate and center myself by focusing on the tea.  It’s amazing how peacful drinking tea can be when you actually stop and pay attention to what you are doing. You’ll be taken on a journey of flavors as the tea warms your body and calms your mind.  The Yunnan Province is well-known for it’s superb teas and great tea traditions.  Drink the Leaf continues the tradition by offering an excellent variety of Yunnan tea.

Drink the Leaf describes the tea as: An attractive tea in all aspects: dried, steeped, and most importantly, flavor. The golden tips once steeped display a dark molasses color. Malt and honey with a slight smokiness aroma lead to a robust and full tea. Nice smooth finish persists with hints of cocoa.

Visit Drink the Leaf

marTEA

I recently had the opportunity to try drinktheleaf.com’s Kawane Sencha.  Japanese green tea is an absolute treasure to drink, and Drink the Leaf’s Kawane Sencha is no exception.  In fact, this is one of the best Senchas I’ve tried.  It has a sweet vegetal flavor to it that immediately demands your attention.  This is the kind of tea that you sip and then just smile.  The dry tea leaves have a distinct needle-like shape (common characteristic of Sencha) with a dark green color, and they are longer than other Senchas offered by many other tea brands.  This tea is an absolute pleasure from start to finish.  The scent throughout the steeping process is mesmerizing.  The fresh green aroma helps to build the excitement as you wait to taste the tea.  Kawane Sencha is the kind of tea I want to share with someone special. Sharing a tea of this caliber shows that you are a true giver because it’s really easy to want to drink it all yourself.

Drink the Leaf describes the tea as: A beautiful dark forest green liqueur, vibrant aromas of fresh cut grass, delicate clean flavors that are rich and smooth. Hints of nuts, grass, and seaweed take you to a bright finish. Kawane is located on the upper Oi River in Japan; ideal conditions for growing tea.

Visit Drink the Leaf

marTEA