#gongfu cha

Totealy contacted me about reviewing their tea and they sent some delectable samples!

I steeped this lightly roasted oolong at 195F starting with 15 sec infusions, working my way up.

Zushan Spring is a lightly roasted oolong from Taiwan, a spring harvest tea from a garden at 1700ft. This tea starts off with a strong bold flavor of toasted nut, bark and misted grass transitioning to a delicately sweet floral flavor reminiscent of honeysuckle. The combination of these flavors contrast but provide a beautiful story as you resteep and drink in all the angles this leaf has to offer.

I thoroughly enjoyed this tea and I just love how different oolongs can range depending on their processing. If you are looking for a roasted oolong but not something that is too smokey, I highly recommend this which you can find here.

If you have any questions comments or concerns please feel free to send me a PM! Want to decide which tea I review next? Don’t hesitate to ask!

xoxo

Jordan

In Nature teas contacted me on my instagram to review a tea from them!

They sent me one of my favorite kinds of tea which is milk oolong. I was confused by the name when I saw it but once I smelled the tea I instantly knew it was milk oolong and google helped confirm that. 

I heated up my kettle to 195F - using 5.5g of leaf I steeped it for 15 seconds initially.

I love watching the leaf unfurl in my pot. BTW This is a brand new tea pot from Bitter leaf teas. it’s 110ml and it pours really fast! Absolutely love it.

Look at that golden color! Beautiful <3

Time for my thoughts. This tea has a light buttery flavor kind of like popcorn mixed with some hints of caramel. It really starts to shine around the 3rd steeping and around the 6th it tapers off. I always love milk oolongs for their creamy-ness and overall sweetness they can bring, it’s like having desert without the calories! My only gripe about this tea is when it steeped there was quite a bit of sediment sitting at the bottom of the cup so I strongly recommend using a fine filter with it. Some of the leaves were broken and I found a few stems but overall it didn’t affect the taste of this tea. If you are looking to try milk oolong but don’t want to pay the steep price a lot of companies have this one is very affordable! Almost 8$ for 50g (2~ ounces) AND SURPRISE! They sent me a discount code for my followers which is like OMG? Hello? Why don’t more companies do this? For 20% off of their teas be sure to use the code Jordan20 !!! Or don’t, I do not get anything out of it, I just find it awesome that you have the chance to get a 20% discount if you liked this review and want some of the tea! In Nature teas is a UK based company so I highly recommend getting some if you are in the UK especially! 

ALSO! I launched my blogger website for dedicated tea reviews! If you prefer that platform - be sure to check it out here!

Be sure to follow my instagram! @tea_tography

If you have any questions comments or concerns please feel free to send me a PM! Want to decide which tea I review next? Don’t hesitate to ask!

xoxo

Jordan

Mad Monk Tea is an adorable tea shop in San Diego, it’s right next to the coast and the owners are super knowledgeable! 

While my ship was docked in SD, I managed to get time to go over there and I stayed for hours! The owner taught me so many things (like proper pronunciation of certain tea works, like yixing, it’s pronounced like yee sheing), he also taught me about grandpa style brewing - I left that shop with about 70$ worth of tea. 

Moving on to this tea. Dong Ding is a Taiwanese oolong - as you can see, it’s rolled - but the rolled leaf is so big! The aroma is sweet and hay like but the taste is nutty with hints of pear. I’ve tried a handful of other dong ding oolongs, but this one packs the biggest punch. I still savor this - steeping it with a 60ml gaiwan. Unfortunately they don’t sell this tea on their website, but they  don’t sell much of anything online. If you are in San Diego, California, I super recommend visiting them!

Be sure to follow my instagram! @tea_tography

If you have any questions comments or concerns please feel free to send me a PM! Want to decide which tea I review next? Don’t hesitate to ask!

xoxo

Jordan

Teavivre was gracious enough to send me several samples to try and review. 

I started with a black tea (since I’m not a huge fan usually) this tea smells smokey with notes of malt. 

I steeped this tea eastern style but in a rather large pot (250ml)

So how does it taste? I pick up smokey malt notes with a more lingering sweet potato and floral. Ever since I started drinking black tea gongfu style, I’ve really started to appreciate what it has to offer. I feel like western just comes out overpowering and bitter. I can see Keemun being a go to tea if I want something a little more energizing in the morning. This also makes a lovely addition for dreary cold afternoons when you want something to warm you up inside and out, its woodsy like qualities make it a great tea to have in front of the fireplace with a good book.