Showing posts with label tastings. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tastings. Show all posts

Thursday, April 29, 2010

Top Tools We Rely on for Our Wholesale, Retail, and E-commerce Businesses (cont.)

4. Philips Electric Kettle. Who this said this list had to be about software?

Philips Electric Kettle HD4651We love this lightweight portable and efficient countertop water kettle. While we don't use it in the store, we do use it every day to heat water for our tea tastings. Because the unit is so lightweight and durable, we've used it out of number of off-site functions. We've tried a number of different more modern, stainless steel models, but somehow, even though this is a plastic device, it just fits well on our hands and is easy to use. We don't care much for some of the other designs which are made to look like a traditional kettle you'd put on the stove.

Speaking of that we had one customer who had a relative visiting from out of town and thought the electric kettle was actually a traditional kettle that you would put on the stove. The smell of burning plastic soon engulfed their kitchen.

For those of you who haven't tried an electric kettle before, you've got to give this a try. The water boils so much faster than a gas stove or microwave oven. It's safer. Plus I can easily open the top to view the surface of the water, which allows me the chance to turn the heater off at right time.

Aroma AWK-161 Clar-i-Tea 1.7-Liter Electric Water Kettle and Tea BrewerWe've had this Philips electric kettle for about eight or nine years. We've undoubtedly used it thousands of times. We recently purchased a glass based on the water kettle by Aroma (shown on the right) for my parents. This model is also nice because it's made primarily of glass. I doubt if I'd use the tea strainer but if so it's a nice invitation to make a fresh pot of tea.

So I think about the thousands of teas we've made one a common denominators that we've come to rely on as her electric kettle from Philips.

Sunday, February 28, 2010

Ceylon Super Pekoe

Enjoying the Ceylon Super Pekoe. Very reasonably priced, low astringency, sweet ceylon. I recommend enjoying late morning without milk and without food. It's just a pleasant refresher - not too heavy, yet satisfying.

One of our reviewers writes, "Handsome, glossy, well-finished semi-balled leaf yields a deep, warm baritone flavor redolent of wood and grass." I agree.

The aroma has a hint of malt.

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Comparative Tasting: Jasmine Pearls and Organic Jasmine #4 DZS

We often are asked to recommend jasmine scented green tea from Kopius Teas (http://www.kopiusteas.com/) Our first primary recommendation is Jasmine Pearls. These hand rolled green tea leaves are scented with the essential oils from jasmine flowers. The Organic Jasmine #4 DZS is an organic jasmine scented tea in loose leaf form.

Leaf:

Due to their round shape, Jasmine Pearls are a distinctive staple of any tea menu. To a novice tea drinker, the full natured round ball shaped leaves separates them from anything they've seen before - especially when compared with tea in tea bags.

Organic Jasmine #4 DZS is fairly good size, medium dark leaf and, as expected, led to a darker infusion than the Jasmine Pearls.

Infused Leaf:

The aroma of fresh jasmine offers instand appeal. Jasmine historically has been an excellent complement to green tea. We liked the overall softer aroma of the Jasmine Pearls to the Organic Jasmine #4 DZS.

Fans of Jasmine Pearls will note that a little tea goes a long way, as the leaf slowly unfurls in your cup. This allows one to infuse the leaves multiple times, each infusion imparting a gentle loft of fresh jasmine.

Infusion and Taste:

The Jasmine Pearl imparted a bright, relatively light green infusion, whereas the Organic Jasmine #4 DZS yielded a much darker liquor. You have to be more careful to watch the infusion time of the Organic Jasmine #4 DZS, as longer steep times will overpower the jasmine and produce a stronger astringency that will hinder your appreciation of the jasmine.

These a vastly different teas at different price points. We would recommend the Organic Jasmine #4 DZS for coffee shops, bookstores, and special tea merchants looking for a little more color in an iced jasmine tea. Overall, we think the Jasmine Pearls is a better buy which, even at a higher wholesale price, will enjoy greater turnover rates than the Organic Jasmine #4 DZS.

Jasmine Pearls is also available as an Organic Jasmine Pearl. Later we will include comparative notes with this varietal.

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Comparative Tasting - White Teas

We tasted three Kopius Teas (www.kopiusteas.com) White Teas side by side in a comparative tasting.


Silver Needle 1st Grade

Silver Needle Extra Special

Organic White Bai Mudan Ex Special

Leaf

The Silver Needle 1st Grade features a smaller, younger bud than most I've seen. The contrast of the silvery tips and greener leaf is well balanced.
Silver Needle Extra Special is a more traditional, bolder, larger white needle than the 1st grade. 
Organic Bai Mudan Extra Special. We enjoyed it's smaller, more subtle leaf size than other commercial grades.
All white teas above were very uniform in size, with little breakage or dust.
Infused Leaf / Aroma

Silver Needle Extra Special was not the typical bright green infused leaf we have become familiar with. Both reviewers gave higher marks to the Silver Needle Extra Special for both color and aroma.

Taste

Neither of the Silver Needles were particularly sweet in terms of white teas, but we did enjoy the Silver Needle Extra Special more than the Silver Needle 1st Grade (goes to show we aren't easily swayed by price or appearance). The Extra Special had a cleaner taste profile than the 1st Grade, which had just a very slight hint of a dusty finish.

The Organic Bai Mudan Extra Special was surprisingly good. Excellent plum notes. We recommend a briefer steep time of only 1.5 - 2 minutes.

Conclusions

Ron - "I was pleasantly surprised with the uniformity of the leaf sizes, with all leafs in the set on the smaller side of the scale. Among the three, I enjoyed the Organic Bai Mudan Extra Special the best. When I taste a Bai Mudan, I'm looking for the plum notes, without the heaviness on the palette or overly dark infusion.

Thursday, August 27, 2009

Kopius Teas on Twitter

Today we are officially launching timely communications through Twitter. There is a link from our website, www.kopiusteas.com or you can find us on twitter under "kopiusteas"
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