365 Days of Tea - Day 22: Ceylon Flowery Fannings Extra Special.

This one has a really long name. Ceylon Flowery Fannings Extra Special. I think at some point I'd like to organize a charity event. Tea for tatas

Also tomorrow I'm going on a day trip so I might be reviewing something different, if I can find some interesting tea, but I'll probably end up posting about my adventure even if I don't find any tea.

(I forget to realize that; with the way I take the macro shots, I need to make them as flat as possible otherwise I get a very shallow depth of field.)

So earlier, if you've been following along, we talked about Ceylon tea, and how Ceylon is actually the original name of Sri Lanka. So that being said this tea is from Sri Lanka. Though, I can't really get much information about the rest of the tea, it seems it might be a unique product for Tea At Sea. That might be good, I'm excited to try it out. As you can see it looks like black threads with some orange threads/tips tossed in.

I tried to be a little creative with my flash, but I ended up just making it look alot lighter than it really was. Its actually a shade or two darker than this. I really need to dust my desk. This is considered a type of black tea, so keep that in mind as well.

Smell - It doesn't really carry much of a scent. It mostly sells like foresty roasted leaves. Its very faint and you really have to search for it. That's okay because smell doesn't always mean flavor, or lack thereof. 

Taste - Its very interesting because it tastes sort of like a "soft" black tea, if there is such a thing. It also carries a very delicate, leavey flavor, which is almost forest-like. Tea At Sea is known for its high altitude teas, and it shows in this case. From my experience, teas grown at higher altitudes actually taste more earthy, and raw. I would assume its from the ground having more minerals at higher levels.

Overall - If you really like black teas, or something like oolong or pu'erh, I think you'd be really happy with this tea, too. Its very delicate in flavor, but still lingers on your tongue much like coffee does. It would mix well with cream, sugar, and your favor tea cookies.

Can be found @ 

365 Days of Tea - Day 18: Ceylon Sencha Green Tea.

Blogger hates me and decided to not let me post this last night. I'm considering switching to my own domain in the near future. I contacted teavana because they keep yanking my chain. Guess we'll see where that leads.

Ceylon Sencha Green Tea. Sencha refers to a whole leaf japanese green tea, as opposed to matcha, which is a powdered green tea. (I have some to review at a later date) Ceylon is actually the original name of Sri Lanka. So all that being said, this tea is a whole leaf green tea from Sri Lanka. As you can tell from the images, it looks very leafy, and not rolled or pearled. Its in a very raw state. They are lightly steamed for 20 seconds before they are dried. I suspect that this would enrich it's sweetness as well as mellow the flavor.

Its a very nice light golden color. Fairly typical of tea.

Smell - There almost isn't even a smell. Its very faint. It smells leafy, and natural. I know that sounds odd, but it smells like it came from the  earth. Not chemically or artificial in anyway, like some other teas.

Taste - I don't want to say its a weak green tea, but it is a very mellow tea, and quite smooth. Its a very relaxing, and gentle tea. This is something that could be great paired with a fall lunch, on a rainy day. Its quite leafy in flavor, with a very natural and raw taste.

Overall - Well I can't say it's my favorite green tea, I can say that it is a very good green tea. I'd like to try other versions of sencha green tea, and see what other variations on flavor there is. I think that if you're new to green tea this might be a good start. After I try matcha, I'll compare the two.

(3 and a half out of 5 tea leaves.)

Can be found @