Whilst I was on holiday recently my brother kindly took receipt of a huge box of tea samples. The amount of tea was large and the variety was equally as massive. This morning, I sat down to watch a favourite episode of Sherlock Holmes, "The Adventure Of the Copper Beeches" and really wanted a cup of tea. When going through the box of samples I stumbled upon this tea. Yes, I will admit I was led by the packaging but I decided to try this very lovely black oolong tea.
Snow Mist tea are a tea company that specialise in wild grown, organic tea. The company, who are based in Taiwan, was founded in 1987. They take a totally ethical approach to tea production, and a holistic one too, working with the delicate ecological system around them to produce a high quality tea. They take a totally natural approach to working the soil, which is vital to the quality of the tea. Reading their website I certainly got the impression that they are as passionate about the environment around them as they are about producing their high quality, special tea's.
I really appreciated their obvious enthusiasm about the products they produce.
The tea that I tasted today was their Premium Black Tea, which is a new oolong tea that the company have started to produce. To look at the unbrewed tea is interesting. It's a long leaved, black tea. My eight year old niece described it as looking like worms but she is currently obsessed with all things creepy crawly so it's not unusual a description for her!
I took a generous amount of tea and popped it into my infuser. I waited for the tea to brew for around six minutes and I have to say the colour of this tea was utterly breathtaking. I was really impressed that I even showed my mum, who isn't into tea at all, and she commented on it's beautiful hue.
Aesthetically, this tea is stunning. It shines and glimmers in the cup and therefore is inviting. Honestly, I couldn't stop looking at this tea it was so lovely.
Upon taking my first sip, I can truly say I fell deeply in love with this tea. It has a sweet, almost peachy taste to it. It's a fairly delicate tea, but makes for a totally satisfying and refreshing cup. It's pleasurable and smooth to drink and warming too. Drinking this could be described as a experience - and one that should be treasured. I believe to fully enjoy this tea you need to unwind whilst drinking. This isn't the sort of tea that deserves to be supped quickly during the early morning rush. It NEEDS to be enjoyed at a slow pace, to drink it any other way gives the tea no credit.
This tea leaves a gentle and pleasant aftertaste in your mouth after you have finished drinking it. It's rather a sweet aftertaste which is lovely.
Within a few minutes of finishing the first cup, I reinfused the leaves a second, a third and a fourth time. The quality of the brew did not diminish with each brewing, but you do need to brew the tea for a little longer the more you have infused the leaves, but that is not unusual when rebrewing leaves.
Never has a tea affected me quite like this one. It's a really rather odd emotion if I'm honest with you. I have fallen in love with other tea's, but this just seems to hit every spot going from the way it looks, to the way it tastes and it's wonderful aroma.
The quality of the tea is amazing which probably is why rebrewing is not a problem. It was a genuine pleasure to taste this tea. Years ago, before I started drinking tea, I never thought tea - which I then viewed as a simple drink -could provide you with such wonderful emotions.
This is a cup of tea that is good for the soul. And I'm very lucky to have been able to treasure it.
I tend to be almost evangelical about tea, which, leaves those closet around me rather baffled. They do not tend to understand what is special about tea. And at times, it's quite lonely being a tea lover! But when one gets the chance to experience such a wonderful drink, I fail to understand how people cannot be like me and just seen tea as something to drink!
And now, I'm reloading the infuser for the fifth cup of this wonderful tea. I'm sitting back and going to enjoy every single sip. Aren't I the lucky one!
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