The 3:15 PM brand teas are bagged, not loose. But the bags are much larger than usual in order to accomodate both tea leaves and the milk powder that’s included. The dry aroma is slightly sweet, but toasty. I wouldn’t smell too hard though, as you’re likely to end up with milk powder in your nose.

When brewing I like to leave the bag in an infuser. It helps to keep clean up simpler. The bagged material produces a Khaki colored liquor which is completely opaque. The resulting aroma is fairly identical to that from the unused bag: slightly sweet and toasty.

The flavor is one which I think would appeal to coffee drinkers everywhere. It’s roasty and creamy with hints of sweetener (because it contains refined sugar). While there’s a notable drying of the palate, the roasty taste sticks around through a very long tail and leaves you yearning for more.

I recommend this tea to coffee drinkers everywhere, fans of honey or sweetener in their tea and fans of milk tea.

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Monday is Teahouse/Tea Room, Accessory and Brand Review Day!

It’s been a week since the end of the World Tea Expo in Las Vegas and I’m still a little heady from the experience. Here’s a recap of my time at the Expo and my takeaway from the event.

Like most people, I don’t work in the tea industry. I make my living doing something else. For me it’s in technology in one form or another (I get around). For others it might be banking or retail work. Regardless of our backgrounds we all have limits on the time we can spend away from the office. You can imagine the general level trepidation I had in spending half my yearly vacation allotment (not to mention the monetary costs) to attend this industry only event almost an entire continent away!

Let me start by stating that Las Vegas has never been my kind of town. No offense to those who enjoy it. I’m not one for gambling, unless I’m starting a business… which is a gamble all its own. And while I can certainly get into pretty lights… all the sex advertising is overkill for me. So Vegas is clearly a bit absurd for me. But I follow the tea… and there the tea went.

Although the expo started on Saturday, I spent Thursday travelling to Vegas. This would give me time to rest up before the expo and explore the town a bit more than I’d had on my only previous visit to Vegas. I spent Friday walking up and down the strip photographing the architecture and window shopping in the stores. There’s plenty to see, even if you’re not out for the gambling or the gratuitous nudity everywhere.

Friday night I picked up my badge and packet for the expo to avoid the morning lines. I missed the opening ceremonies Saturday morning… something I’ve never really enjoyed much at other gatherings. I hear there was a very good breakfast there, and that would have been appreciated versus the $9.70 I ended up paying for a bowl of fruit and some yogurt at the Red White & Blue restaurant in the Mandalay Bay hotel where the expo was held.

Right off the bat I had a session Saturday morning. The first was held by James Norwood Pratt on the Myths & Legends of Tea. Of the six sessions I had at this year’s expo this was probably my favorite. Mr. Norwood clearly and entertainingly discussed the real world drawbacks of concentrating too heavily on the oft complicated and confusing (not to mention long and growing) list of health benefits of tea. Also covering modern societies’ general loss of the ability to tell and listen to stories, Mr. Pratt was captivating and educating all at once. If you have the opportunity to read one of his myriad of books, I highly recommend it.

Also on Saturday I had a panel called “Educating Your Customer,” hosted by Michael Harney of Harney & Sons. If you frequent this site you’ll note a number of Harney & Sons reviews here for both hot and iced teas. After Mr. Pratt’s amazing presentation I had very high standards for this followup. However, as much as I admire Mr. Harney and what he and his family’s company have done for the industry over the years, he needs some improvement in the presentation skills arena. Looking past lots of “umms” and “ahhs” flowing through the presentation, Michael Harney gave a good presentation discussing the intricacies of staff training and engaging customers in their education process.

I hit the show floor after this and spent a whole lot of time (6+ hours) networking and meeting people. I’m a bit of a talker, so I got stuck at several booths discussing their teas, company histories and other things along the way. You would think so much time would have allowed me to meet lots of people, but I don’t think I even finished a full row of booths on Saturday out of the seven or eight total rows.

I ended up visiting with ITI (International Tea Importers) right through the door, then moving on to the Harney & Sons booth and speaking with both Michael and John Harney. Both gentlement are uniquely and fantastically knowledgeable about tea and I had been very much looking forward to interacting with them. I also ran into Tea Escapade, another blogger, while at this booth.

I also met with Rona Tison of ITO EN and learned they have been recycling their used plastic bottles and used tea leaves to make other goods. While I found making their business cards of these materials to be a natural extension of things… they also fashion pens, park benches and vending machines out of the plastics and tea leaves! Completely fascinating!

Saturday evening brought the World Tea Championships out. Far and away Rishi Tea took the most awards… walking away with NINE (9) first place wins and numerous runner up positions across multiple categories. I was most excited to see a relative newcommer with Puripan taking away a win. I’ve long been upset at the seemingly clear bias against Korean teas in the industry. I’m very excited to these teas to receive recognition!

Saturday brought many new relationships into my life… but Sunday and Monday were yet to come. Visit back next Monday for a recap of the final two days of my time at the World Tea Expo (WTE).

Help a good cause: CharityWater.org

Monday is Teahouse/Tea Room, Accessory and Brand Review Day!

This is the first book review here on Tea-Guy and I’ve got to say, I was impressed! I hope I can do many more book reviews here and relate just how informative, captivating and illustrative the works are. Let me know what you think!

Quick Info
Rating	4/5
Title	The Harney & Sons Guide to Tea
Publisher	Penguin Press
Author	Michael Harney
Pages	214
Price	$25.95 USD

By now you might realize that Harney & Sons is one of my favorite tea brands. I’ve covered quite a few of their teas here already and you’re assuredly going to see more. That being said, I approached this book with a clear mind and very little “fan boy” mentality, and believe I’ve come up with a review from a book I was ecstatic to pick up.

The neat thing about “The Harney & Sons Guide to Tea” is how Michael Harney chose to take you on the journey through the tea process. While most tea related books I’ve encountered certainly try to move from least processed to most processed teas, as one would for a tasting, Michael Harney uniquely ushers you along. Providing multiple examples from each category, breaking them down with expert tasting notes, and providing suggested pairings are just a few of the features of this book I really liked.

In addition to the relatively unique progression from White to Greens to Oolongs and Blacks… the Harney book includes further breakdows for larger categories. Greens are broken into Chinese Greens and Japanese Greens while Blacks are broken into Darjeelings, Assams, Nilgiri’s and British Legacy Teas.

With this more granular breakdown Michael Harney makes it easy for a relative newbie to tea to get up to speed. He discusses the nuanced history of tea, the intricate production processes and a great deal of his experiences rounding up some of the best teas in the world over the past twenty years.

I can’t stress enough the value of walking through a real tea tasting (like a wine tasting, but for tea) step by step. This book provides the ultimate in that endeavor and I would quickly recommend it for anyone looking to learn to train the palette to be more discerning of minute flavor differences between similar teas.

Michael Harney recommends tasting the teas in each chapter in order, and trying at least two at a time (to help traing your palette). I would deffinitely reiterate this recommendation.

Look for a future walk-through for tea tasting to be posted here on Tea-Guy.

Help a good cause: CharityWater.org

Wednesday is Green Tea, White Tea, Rooibos, Oolong and Tisane (Herbal) Review Day!

For the uninitiated, Hoji-cha  (Houjicha) is a roasted Japanese green tea. Earthy in flavor and relaxing to drink it’s a great tea for a late meal or snack.

Quick Info
FAB* Rating	3/2/2
Company	Yamamotoyama
Blend Name	Hoji-cha
Blend Base	Green Tea
Country of Origin	Japan
Package Type	Tea Bags
Price per Package	$4.99 USD via Amazon
Quantity	25 Tea Bags
*Flavor, Aroma, Boldness

The flavor of Yamamotoyama’s (Yama moto Yama) Hoji-cha plays with the tongue. Light, earthy and not too bold, it’s comforting but begs you to drink just a little more. You can taste the carbon from the roasting in every hot sip. I couldn’t expect anything less from an established Japanese brand.

The aroma from Hoji-cha is something unique. Reminiscent of burning leaves it conjures mental images of camp fires and relaxing with friends. Things I remember fondly from earlier in my youth.

Yamamotoyama’s blend is lighter than most, crafting a subtler play on the palette. Definitely enjoyable.

However, for as much praise as I can give this blend of Hoji-cha, nothing in particular stands out to me about it. I wouldn’t consider it memorable or particularly classic. It is true I’ve never been wholly impressed by Hoji-cha’s in general. But I’ve always given teas a fair sip even if they’re not my favorite. All told though, with this blend, I could take it or leave it and there wouldn’t be any regret.