The Spring Cherry (Full Leaf) Quest

[Woots]

For the last couple of years I have been drinking premium teas from a company called "The republic of tea" (I hope I am not speaking heresy here). It was the only premium brand I could find in my grocery stores and I liked it way better then other teas like Tazo. They seemed to have very sophisticated blends and a great branding (also very high prices)

At any rate among my favorite blends they made was something called
"Spring Cherry" Click for a link to their website: http://preview.tinyurl.com/5fe8kl
The teabags of their spring cherry are a mix of green and white tea and other herbs. It also seems to vary from their full leaf recipe.

• Our tea bag offering contains Japanese sencha green tea leaves scented with cherry essence and blended with peony flowers and white paklum blossoms (downy, white tea buds).

So after the last 2 years of drinking higher end tea bag teas I decided to step up my new found hobby to the next level and start investing in loose teas and expand my horizons outside of the republic of teas borders.

I recently decided to buy myself a full 1 pound of Spring Cherry full leaf from Republic of Tea as a little graduation present to myself (which I received last night). I did of course buy lots of teas from Adagio and Teavana as well.

So I brew up my 1st cup of "full leaf" spring cherry and instantly I can tell this tea doesn't taste ANYTHING like the tea bag version of the tea. Which is insanely disappointing to me (not to mention that's like 40-50 bucks down the drain). I went back to the site and I noticed the recipe for the full lead tea is different then the tea bag version

• Our full leaf offering contains Japanese sencha green tea leaves scented with cherry essence and blended with rose petals and white paklum blossoms(downy, white tea buds).

They basically swapped out peony flowers for rose petals. I know peony leaves are used as white tea. However, I can't believe that the flowers of the peony could make such a huge difference in aroma and flavor. I mean after all roses are aromatic and sweet smelling too.

I would love to replicate this blend with adagios signature do it yourself blend but they only permit 3 blends items at a time and do not allow you to select sencha. Not to mention I have no idea the % values of each to distribute. Peony Leaves, random green tea (not sencha since its not allowed) and real cherry... is the closest I can create and it still lacks the 4th ingredient of flowers for aroma. Also, white paklum blossoms is also not available on adagio.

Anyone have any advice to put this tea to good use (brewing techniques to bring out the high aroma I am used to?).. or additional tea/herbs that I could add to make it more aromatic (the tea bag version you could smell across the room... in a good way)... It just seems like the full leaf version lost all its aroma and flavor. Is this common for all full leaf blends to be different from the tea bag blends for most vendors? I would hate to see all this tea go to waste for the price. I am using the utilitea with green tea setting to brew this up.. and one spoon worth of buds. Advice or help is appreciated. I suppose my next step is to double the amount of tea.. possibly triple.

[Pentox]

How much water are you using with your 1 spoon worth of leaf?

I think you are confusing the use of peony flowers with the white tea known as white peony. White Peony, aka Bai Mu Dan, is not made from Peony. It's made from the same plant as all other tea.

As far as the difference in leaf to teabag, teabags often contain smaller particles of the mix for faster infusion. It also tends to alter the flavor, hence why most of us tend toward leaf tea.

TRoT isn't so much heresy, so much as an accepted gateway tea company. Most people will find something else, something better and then look back on their TRoT days and laugh. Personally I wouldn't label it as a "premium brand".

There are also quite a few other vendors who offer Sakura(Cherry) sencha teas. They are primarily a seasonal tea though, and the season for them is april-may time. So I would somewhat expect that your tea may simply be old, hence a difference in flavor.

[Chip]

+1. I think Pentox said everything I would have.

RoT was my gateway tea as it was for many here. For one reason or another, they fail to retain loyal customer following, at least among TeaChatters. Perhaps the gimmicky aspect of their marketing that was once attractive, wears thin quickly. Or the fact that there is much better tea out there that costs less. IMHO.

[Woots]

Glad to see im not alone with having RoT being a gateway to the real tea world... nice to be in similar company. After this experience and experimenting with their full leaf teas vs some of adagios so far... I am beginning to think RoT doesn't hold up as a quality tea company. Their full leaf teas seem all dried out and of poor quality (poor storage I suppose).

As to the amount of tea I am using is as follows (also preparation I used)

1 spoon of tea (I also tried 2 spoons earlier)
water (just short of boiling) green tea setting on ultilitea kettle
3 minute steep time (gaiwan style)
amount of water = "min" level on the utilitea (about a mugs worth?)

The flavor is bitter and non aromatic... almost gives me a stomach ache to finish. This is nothing like the tea bag version they had of the same blend. Which I could never get enough of.

[kymidwife]

Seems like 3 min. is a really long steep time for this type of tea. I have some cherry green from Adagio and I had the best luck with it at about 170 for a minute or so... but your mileage may vary. So far, a good rule of thumb with loose leaf green tea seems to be... if it tastes bad/bitter/unflavorful... go cooler and shorter until you find that sweet spot.

Sarah

[Chip]

LOL, I knew I had to leave them when their canister for a green tea said, boiling water poured over leaves. I was new to tea and could not believe anyone would like this resulting BITTER brew.

Then customer service "confirmed" this statement.

NEXT...

[Pentox]

1 spoon of tea (I also tried 2 spoons earlier)
water (just short of boiling) green tea setting on ultilitea kettle
3 minute steep time (gaiwan style)
amount of water = "min" level on the utilitea (about a mugs worth?)

I'm guessing you're using a normal coffee mug? Those tend to be around 10-12oz. My general rule of thumb for trying out a new tea is to start at 1g/oz. For some teas this tends to be a bit too much and you can taste the difference, but other times it's right on the money. Since i'm guessing you don't have a scale yet, if your tea is rather tightly packed, i.e. smaller pieces where they behave more in a liquid manner than a tangled clump, I would say a teaspoon is probably around 3g. (Think how granulated sugar acts as opposed to say alfalfa sprouts.) Less dense teas it's much harder to gauge.

[edkrueger]

This teashop I believe has it. I've tried it and loved it. There are very few blossoms, so that aroma is slightly affected, but the taste not as much. You will have to call them to order if they have it its not in the online store.
https://www.thepathoftea.com/index.htm

[Woots]

Ty I will check that site out