Haku Tea’s Spring Ripples | Tea Review

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I was drawn to Haku Tea’s booth at the Toronto Tea Festival because of its Discovery Box. The box had had four teas at random and the mystery was too fun to pass up. This was one of the oolongs in my box!

Description: “Orchid, wildflower honey, bright”

Instructions: 4g tea / 100ml | 90° C water | 15 seconds + 5 seconds | reuse leaves 3 to 4 times

Review: This was my first time coming across Haku Tea at the Toronto Tea Festival. I liked that the booth had a minimal aesthetic and the discovery box had a clean design. Inside the small cardboard box were four teas: Spring Ripple, Misty Mountain, Midnight Amber, and Iron Goddess. I want to taste the teas from light to dark roast! I appreciated that the packaging also had QR codes that linked directly to the page for the tea.

Each tea came with 6 to 8 grams of tea. When reviewing teas for the blog, I like tasting them a few times to ensure I have a clear grasp. Since there were only 6 grams, I decided to use the tiny tea technique! I learned this from Sooz (Being Tea) during a recent monthly tasting box session. The intent is to brew a small amount of tea using less leaf and water. I looked through my teaware and found a small cup that could hold 50ml of water and a gaiwan lid that sat snuggly over the cup. I used 2 grams of tea for two sessions. As I had under 2 grams of tea remaining, I used 1 gram of tea for my last session.

As noted on the Haku Tea website, this is a Pouchong tea, also known as Baochong. The name is in reference to the processing method where the tea is wrapped in paper during the staging tea. However, this is not commonly done anymore. The leaf was lightly fermented and gently roasted.

The dry leaves in the tea bag smelled like chrysanthemums and roses. Some of the dark green dry leaves were rolled whereas others were slightly long and twisted.

Pre-warmed “gaiwan”: After adding the dry tea leaves to the warmed the “gaiwan,” the tea imparted a sweet orchid, chrysanthemums, and a toasted smell.

Infusion 1 (15 seconds): The quick infusion developed a pale yellow-coloured liquor with a floral and grassy smell. The flavour was similar to the aroma with the addition of a nutty/roasted taste at the end of the sip. The liquor left a lingering floral note on the tongue and was drying at the back of the throat.

Infusion 2 (20 seconds): The liquor was slightly cloudy and darker yellow with a grassy smell. The vegetal taste was stronger in comparison to the first infusion where the floral note was dominant. There was sweetness at the tip of the tongue. The leaves were half opened.

Infusion 3 (25 seconds): While the clear dark yellow liquor had a faint floral smell, the flavour started to wane and was vegetal.

Infusion 4 (30 seconds): Despite it being the 4th infusion, the tea had a mild spinach flavour and bitterness at the end of the sip.

The wet leaves smelled floral, toasted, mineral and of cooked peas and spinach. The jade coloured leaves had fully unfurled and some of the dark green leaves were broken and some had red edges.

This was a lovely lightly roasted green tea with a fitting name! I could taste the “greenness” and its floral and vegetal nature and reminded me of spring. I tasted the tea during Taniya (YogaTeaPoetry) and Traci’s (Tea Infusiast) International Women’s Day Celebration with Tea and Poetry! It was fitting since I met both of them at the Toronto Tea Festival and this was a nice soothing tea! This is nice for anyone who enjoys more floral and vegetal tasting teas or likes lightly roasted oolongs from Taiwan. I am excited to try more teas from Haku Tea (3.5/5 rating).

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