Review: Zealong Pure, exclusively from Chicago Tea Garden

Review: Zealong Pure, exclusively from Chicago Tea Garden

I finally had the time to really pay attention to the sample of Zealong Pure that Tony Gebely sent me from Chicago Tea Garden. This is the kind of tea that should be drunk in serene surroundings, like on a patch of grass next to a clear pool of water fed by a trickling fountain. Unfortunately, I drank it to the sounds of the unsupervised children in my apartment building running up and down the stairs screaming and shouting.

Still, I tried to let myself be as serene as possible. I steeped this tea a total of six times. It was fabulous. It is a very, subtle tea, with an under-note that reminded me, very faintly, of cinnamon flavored cactus candy. The taste is barely there, but it is there. I would not have missed this tea for the world. It was almost like drinking delicate flower petals that had been liquified. Amazing.

I drank the tea from the glass in the slide show. I wanted to be able to see the beauty and clarity of the tea as I drank it. I drank each cup of this tea very slowly. It took me about five hours to make and drink each steeping. It was one of the loveliest tea experiences of my life.

Thank you, Tony, for letting me review Zealong. Reviews of the other two are coming soon.

Chicago Tea Garden now has Zealong

This week I finally managed to get the article about Chicago Tea Garden's exclusive on Zealong published on Tea Examiner. The number of topics piling up to be written about seems endless.

Tony Gebely said he is going to send me some tea samples. I can barely wait to try the Zealong. I used to have a real thing for oolong. It was my first loose tea experience on my own. I bought some jasmine oolong in China Town in Los Angeles. I was 15 and with my church group. The other teenagers were really surprised at my purchase. They had bought useful things such as plastic fans and back scratchers.

But I was already in love with tea. I bought the jasmine oolong and a green tea. I loved the way both of them smelled. I had never smelled anything so fresh and natural as that green tea. I can still taste it in my memory. There are probably some official tea cupping words to describe it, but to me it was just green, like the green of nature. I had grown up on black tea, a taste I now recognize as Ceylon tea. I still love that flavor. But the green tea and the jasmine oolong were very exciting to me. It was what started me on a quest to experience as many flavors of tea as I could.

The Zealong will be a new experience. I am trying not to anticipate how it will taste. I cannot help wondering how being grown in New Zealand will affect the flavor and color of the tea. I hope I will know the right words to describe it. I have a good sense of taste and smell, though, and I make up my own descriptions for the tea whether they fit the standard cupping vocabulary or not. I am sure readers will know what I mean even if I do not know the exact proper words.