CanadaGood Tea, Rather Pale
I picked up a bag today at a gift-shop near the local hotsprings, this is a good quality jasmine tea. My only critique is that the infusion is rather weak/pale. You'll want to use a fairly large amount of leaves to brew a cup, compared to similar jasmine pearls. Appearance: 4/5 Fairly standard appearance for jasmine pearls, earthy green-browns and silver-greens without any concerning colours. Once unfurled, young leaves on long soft twigs are revealed, probably a bit more twig than ideal. The tea infuses very pale, between this and the small leaves I think it's somewhere inbetween a green and white tea. Aroma: 5/5 The aroma of the the tea when opening the bag is very floral, with a heady Jasmine fragrance that carries over to the brewed tea. The quality foil bag keeps the delicate aroma in, unlike some jasmines shipped in wax bags, from other brands which shall not be named. Flavour: 4/5 The tea is good quality with very little astringency and practically no bitterness. While it is a fairly weak infusion compared to similar jasmines, it doesn't have any harsh notes either.
VIRTUE Tea
Thanks Sascha for the amazing detailed feedback.
CanadaBeautiful pearls with exceptional taste!
This is the best green tea I've had and I've tried many teas before this!! My entire family is hooked to this tea and they typically don't like other green teas. This tea has a beautiful jasmine aroma that is perfect to start your morning or calm your nerves on a strenuous day. Apart from the aroma, the taste is just exceptional. I also really enjoy watching the pearls unfold and expand as they steep.
VIRTUE Tea
Thank you for taking the time to give us such an exceptional review!! It so wonderful to hear that our product is being enjoyed and that the quality is apparent in the experience!!
CanadaNice
This is a lovely jasmine green tea.
CanadaDelicious
I'm thrilled to find a legitimate jasmine green tea with the perfect balance of jasmine. It's delightful. I love that this is a local business and delivery was right to my door :) Thank you
CanadaFantastic company and lovely teas; I just need to get a hobby
I will preface by saying that VirtueTEA has been an absolute joy to buy from-- their small team really knows their stuff! I am not ashamed to admit I now do a majority of my tea-shopping here, opting for large bulk-ish orders easily in the couple hundreds of CA$, and I don't intend to stop anytime soon. High-quality loose-leaf teas abound, I've yet to be truly disappointed by any of my purchases. Imagine my joy then, when I found that the same company also offers jasmine pearls at a steal of a price (CA$65.00/250g at the time of writing) for my absolute favourite kind of tea. And while I cannot deny that for western-style brewing (and by extension, most likely the majority of Canadian consumers) these pearls produce a smooth, bitter-free, aromatic cup time and again, they at the same time leave something to be desired in my gong fu ventures. My experience with these particular pearls matches those of some cheaper varieties-- retaining an intoxicating floral scent and jasmine flavour for a good first and second infusion, before depreciating into a pretty standard green tea (which is still quite yummy, in the case of these pearls!) From my experience, this is usually due to the way the pearl was fragranced-- i.e, an artificial scent or flavour may have been substituted in at some point. This may, however, explain the more reasonable price (my 'gold standard' pearls run upwards of CA$120/200g, but retain their flavour noticeably longer.) Regardless, I aboslutely recommend them in good faith knowing that VirtueTEA is a brilliant supplier of pretty well every other loose leaf tea, and that the majority of people spend their free time doing more productive things than playing with teas. And did I mention that this price is a steal?