Today I’ll be sampling two teas today – a green and a black from Gorreana Tea Estate, Sao Miguel Island, The Azores, the oldest tea estate in Europe. Both teas are from What-Cha, online tea seller.
I had a classmate from the Azores who talked quite a bit about life there (and brought food from the portuegese bakery, yum!). I had no idea Azores had tea, but then Hawaii grows some awesome tea so I bet Azores would have great tea too.
Tasting of What-Cha’s Azores Encosta de Bruma Premium Green Tea
The dry leaf of Azores Encosta de Bruma Premium Green Tea is really fragrant sweet fruity scent. The leaf has a low saturated green color to it with a few olive twists.
I steeped my tea with 175F filtered water for 2 minutes and ended up with a chamomile yellow tea with a faint fruity scent.
Azores Encosta de Bruma Premium Green Tea sips in with a moderate flavor intensity, stronger than what I was expecting for a green tea. Azores Encosta de Bruma Premium Green Tea flavor starts with a smooth texture with lots of nectarine notes and a little straw notes. At first I felt this green will be more on the robust side than delicate but then finishes off with a light delicate finish. This green isn’t grassy or that vegetal either. After each sip I get a light amount of dryness that hits the back of the throat and a delicious lingering apricot flavor. That apricot flavor is mind blowing! How does this full on taste like apricot? I actually like this more than some peach apricot tea blends!
I could see Azores Encosta de Bruma Premium Green Tea being an interesting candidate iced or cold brewed but I’m going to squirrel away this one. I was having one of those drool while I drink this tea moment.
Resteep: I did a 3.5 minute reinfusion of the tea leaves. A successful resteep! Azores Encosta de Bruma Premium Green Tea flavor is similar to the first steeping bit is lighter, a bit more acidic and more dry (4/10). Still plenty of nectarine apricot flavor.
Tasting of What-Cha’s Azores Shade Grown Orange Pekoe Ponta Branca Black Tea
Azores Shade Grown Orange Pekoe Ponta Branca Black Tea dry leaf has attractive wiry black leaves with some reddish brown tips.
I steeped my tea for 2.5 minutes in 200F filtered water. Azores Shade Grown Orange Pekoe Ponta Branca Black Tea steeped to to be a reddish brown cup with a very fragrant creamy floral like scent.
In contrast to the Azores green tea I had earlier, Azores Shade Grown Orange Pekoe Ponta Branca Black Tea sips in light with a light creamy texture. The flavor blooms with some red wood, vanilla, and fruit salad taste – the kind of fruit salad with the diced peaches, pears and random green grape. The sip progresses to a dry brisk and heavy sweet finish. Azores Shade Grown Orange Pekoe Ponta Branca Black Tea is quite dry, 6/10 on the Astringency meter, and has that classic pekoe black flavor at the end. As the tea cools it has a more woodsy flavor.
Comments
It seemed the two Azores teas are opposites staring either heavy or delicate, but both teas being quite flavorful and fruity. Both teas are unique with the Azores Encosta de Bruma Premium Green Tea being nicely stone-fruity in flavor and Azores Shade Grown Orange Pekoe Ponta Branca Black Tea being delicate.
I greatly enjoyed Azores Encosta de Bruma Premium Green Tea and I highly recommend it to green tea lovers, or tea blend drinkers wanting to bridge into unflavored teas. As much as I do love tea blends, it is impressive how a tea without any flavor added can taste like what other blends try and taste like! Azores Shade Grown Orange Pekoe Ponta Branca Black tea would be a fine tea to mix up your morning or afternoon tea – I can see adding milk would be good but best on its own to enjoy the delicate nature of this tea.
What-Cha carries 4 other Azores Teas, and you can get the whole set to try them all. Time to get all international and try teas from all over the world!
(tea provided for review)
