Beautiful Taiwan Tea Company: Red Jade (Black Tea)

Beautiful Taiwan Tea Company: Red Jade 

Black Tea

Rating 5/5

Order: on their website here or help them kickstart their company

Today I was excited when I heard a knock on the door and it was the postman with a package from Beautiful Taiwan. I was told I was going to be mailed free samples after I had crossed paths with the founder of the company on reddit. I opened the package and I was presented with beautiful gold packets of loose leaf tea:

Gorgeous presentation of the little packages of tea, the gold adds a nice touch. When I opened the Red Jade bag, I was seriously impressed. The leaves were HUGE. The bigger the leaves, the longer you can steep them and also they are indicative of a better quality tea. Have a look:

Now do you see what I mean? These are hands down the biggest tea leaves I've ever encountered. I put them in my tea pot and brewed it for 5 minutes. It came out looking beautiful with a golden syrup colored finish:

Okay, let's get down to business. I gave this cuppa a solid 5/5 rating because of many factors. First off, the leaves are giant which means high quality. For example, if you were looking for basil leaves at the store and you saw tiny ones in a spice mill or full bodied basil leaves in a pouch, which one would you rather use to cook? Why drink tea with tiny ground tea leaves when you can drink it with giant, flavor bursting tea leaves. Second, the taste. It is light, with a creamy finish. The aroma has notes of caramel and it has very low astringency (very smooth). To finish it off, the tea's packaging was lovely and really minimalist. I'm a sucker for minimalism. There are 4 other teas I was given by Beautiful Taiwan Tea Company, and I will be reviewing them slowly but surely as the year goes on. Want me to review your tea? Contact: leahknadeau@gmail.com