Chado Tea is originally a tea room (Chado Tea Room) that due to the current pandemic circumstances, has switched totally to being an online tea store. They started in 1990 with one location and has now expanded into four different locations in California. They provide premium teas for consumers and apparently, a wonderful high-tea experience that I really want to visit and experience one day. Their tea stock includes 300 different teas and blends spanning from all across the world. They sent me two of these teas, Guava Blooming Tea and Darjeeling 3911, as well as a code for my readers. By using “DANIELLE20”, you can get 20% off of your order (I do not make a commission off of this code).
Guava Blooming Tea: Right away, I noticed a wonderful and fruity aroma coming from the teapot. Once I tasted the tea, I believe that I might have used too much water for this tea. The taste was quite light, but had a fruity undertone to it. It was very smooth and lovely, but did not overly wow me yet. I was waiting for a little bit more. I will be redoing this tea in a smaller container and see how that fairs.
The second time, I did it in my small pitcher. The lovely guava fruity taste really shined through when brewing in a smaller quantity. There were no hints of bitterness in it (which surprised me because I had to drag it outside with me to take pictures adding a few more minutes of brew time), and it was not overly astringent or mouth-watering either. I did not know how much I really enjoy blooming teas until this moment. The aroma was also just as wonderful when the tea is a bit more potent.
Ingredients: Green Tea with Guava Flavor
Darjeeling 3911: The aroma of this tea was tanniny but slightly lighter than normal black tea. The taste was slightly astringent with me feeling a little jolt on my tongue with each sip. It did taste a bit tanniny but with possible slight floral notes. There was something about this tea that even though I have consumed it maybe 7 times since receiving it while in various moods, I cannot quite determine all of the notes and complexities of the tea. That did slightly frustrate me, but I had to get out of the mindset and instead focused on my body and how it was impacted. As I sipped the tea, I felt quite calm and warmed. I could feel the tea enter my body and relax through, while also feeling a slow pulse of energy originating from the tea. I have made this countless times since receiving it, but it always comes out as a bit astringent. It is possible that I may either need to cut my brew time or add some almond milk to try and cut that astringency.
Ingredients: First Flush Darjeeling House Blend
Price: For the Guava Blooming Tea, it is $17.96 for 2 oz of tea and $35.90 for the 4 oz (which is what is pictured in the top photo). For the Darjeeling tea, it is $18.70 for 4 oz of loose leaf tea. At first thought, I was thinking that this was a bit expensive, but after evaluating the amount of tea that I actually received, I think this tea is fairly priced. Blooming teas can be quite expensive on other websites, and the amount of Darjeeling that I received will last me quite some time. By using the code “DANIELLE20”, you can get 20% off of your next purchase if you want to try these teas.
Packaging: The packaging was fairly standard. I believe that this tea room normally is filling up these pouches from containers of tea in a physical location, which makes a standard pouch make more sense as they can do a customized label depending on the order. I could not smell the aroma of the tea through the bag, which was a good sign of the air-tightness of the packaging.
Sourcing: On the website, teas can be divided by country of origin. While it is not explicitly stated on the product page, it can be found via a bit of digging. The Darjeeling tea comes from India and the Guava Blooming tea was marked as Blended in America. A little bit more transparency would be lovely, but an easy start would be adding the ingredient list and origin on the product page.
I hope you enjoyed this review, it was honestly a joy to make. I always am quite interested in how these tea rooms are continuing to find ways to function semi-normally. I really cannot wait for things to return a bit back to normal (what is normal though?) and I can start visiting my local tea shops again. Happy Brewing!
-Danielle