This is the feed of all reviews of teas from Imperial Tea Garden on RateTea.http://ratetea.com/brand/imperial-tea-garden/251/http://ratetea.com/review/2500/http://ratetea.com/review/2500/Fri, 07 Jun 2013 16:10:09 ESTI was really impressed with Imperial Tea Garden's Hunan green teas. This tea though, did not impress me. This did not taste like a dragon well. Aroma grassy but also quite smokey--a quality I never encounter in true, high-quality dragon well. Toasty, but with more bite, less smoothness. Not quite as bad as some tea I've seen labelled as dragon well, but among the worse examples that I actually finished a cup of. It's also expensive relative to how good I thought it was--which wasn't very good. ...http://ratetea.com/review/1625/http://ratetea.com/review/1625/Sat, 24 Mar 2012 09:37:45 ESTThis tea is good, but not very notable. I added cream and sugar. http://ratetea.com/review/1624/http://ratetea.com/review/1624/Fri, 23 Mar 2012 10:37:28 ESTThis tea tastes really good. It's not very strong. I don't know why I like it this much. I added cream and sugar. http://ratetea.com/review/1616/http://ratetea.com/review/1616/Mon, 19 Mar 2012 13:18:13 ESTBroken-leaf, fairly dark. More bite than a typical bai hao oolong; more black-tea like. Fairly strong roast, some woody tones, only a hint of fruitiness. I like this more than most Chinese oolongs in its price range and of a similarly dark roast, but in the end I'd rather pay a little more for whole-leaf oolong. Enjoyable and quite inexpensive. But not my favorite oolong.http://ratetea.com/review/1615/http://ratetea.com/review/1615/Mon, 19 Mar 2012 13:08:06 ESTThis tea is interesting. It has a kind of sweet, malty flavor. It has a kind of smoky aroma. I like it more than other oolong teas I've had, but I don't tend to like them a whole lot. I added cream and sugar. http://ratetea.com/review/1513/http://ratetea.com/review/1513/Wed, 04 Jan 2012 09:02:08 ESTAfter being impressed by a number of teas from Imperial Tea Garden, this one disappointed me a lot. I've experimented a lot with brewing, and it just seems flat and bland. The leaf is mostly broken and the dry leaf has a dusty, twiggy aroma. I experimented brewing in several ways. This tea holds up to making at least two infusions, western style, but neither steeping particularly impressed me. I also tried one longer infusion, and I experimented with the amount of leaf, but I decided I just don't th...http://ratetea.com/review/1511/http://ratetea.com/review/1511/Mon, 02 Jan 2012 13:19:31 ESTThis is not the sort of tea I tend to like, but I loved this one, which I think is a testimony to its quality. I tend to like stronger-tasting teas with more bitterness. But I enjoyed this tea greatly. Visually, the loose-leaf of this tea looks more like a Bai Hao or Oriental Beauty oolong than other Chinese oolongs. It also looks a lot like a Darjeeling, with thin, wiry leaves, and ochre-colored tips. However, the flavor of the brewed cup is totally unlike these teas. Both in terms of appearance a...http://ratetea.com/review/1484/http://ratetea.com/review/1484/Wed, 14 Dec 2011 12:56:44 ESTAnother delightful, fascinating, and unusual tea from Imperial Tea Garden. The dry leaf is exclusively tips, slightly twisted, and shows white downy hairs. Its aroma is airy and light, but it smells a bit like tobacco, and has toasty, grassy tones too, with a hint of camphor. The description of this tea confused me, it claims it is a mao feng green tea but it neither looks nor smells remotely like any other mao feng I've tried. This tea was more similar to Moon Swirl White Tip from the same company...http://ratetea.com/review/1469/http://ratetea.com/review/1469/Wed, 07 Dec 2011 13:51:05 ESTLeaf looks like a silver needle white tea with leaves on the smallish side, but with a much deeper golden yellow color. Brewed, the aroma is very unlike other silver needle teas, and much stronger. Aroma is predominately toasty, nutty and woody, strongly reminiscent of hojicha, especially roasted kukicha, with a toasty and twiggy taste. Also reminds me a lot of a good, roasted Wuyi oolong or some heavy-roasted Tie Guan Yin. However, unlike these teas, this tea had a hint of the melony and vegetal ton...http://ratetea.com/review/1468/http://ratetea.com/review/1468/Mon, 05 Dec 2011 13:20:30 ESTA fascinating green tea completely unlike anything I've ever sampled before, although admittedly, it's my first tea from Hunan province so that may explain the novelty for me. The tightly-rolled tea looks almost oolong-like, rather unlike Bi-luo chun or gunpowder green tea, but upon brewing, it unfurls to look more like other tippy spring-harvest Chinese green teas. Aroma is complex and has strong melon tones and a hint of camphor in the finish, like some Yunnan teas, but without any of the edginess of...http://ratetea.com/review/1393/http://ratetea.com/review/1393/Fri, 21 Oct 2011 11:00:35 ESTThis has a pleasant light flavor. I enjoyed it.http://ratetea.com/review/1387/http://ratetea.com/review/1387/Tue, 18 Oct 2011 12:31:14 ESTThis tea resembles a good mao feng green tea: it has long, flat, slightly curved leaves, and a taste reminiscent of other Mao Feng that I've had. The leaves are a bit narrower and more needle-like in appearance than most mao feng. The first time I brewed this tea, it did not leave much of an impression on me. I upped the brewing temperature a little higher than I would normally use for green tea and it came out delightfully: full-bodied and flavorful, even using a modest amount of leaf. Slightly toas...http://ratetea.com/review/1350/http://ratetea.com/review/1350/Tue, 27 Sep 2011 13:11:14 ESTI'm not a big fan of the silver needle style of tea, but I am beginning to distinguish between different ones to a degree. From looking at the leaf, this is unambiguously a silver needle tea, but interestingly, the aroma of the brewed tea is much more like white peony tea. The appearance of the leaf, both dry and brewed, is very similar to the 2 doves silver needle sample from Imperial Tea Garden, but this tea is actually quite different. Like most silver needle tea, I found this one very slow to in...http://ratetea.com/review/1349/http://ratetea.com/review/1349/Tue, 27 Sep 2011 07:40:36 ESTI want to preface this review by saying that I tend not to be a huge fan of silver needle tea in general; I prefer darker, more full-bodied white teas. I tend to always think that silver needle is overpriced. Silvery-white leaves brew a darkish colored cup, especially dark for a silver needle. Used leaves show a pale green color with olive edges. Compared to other silver needle teas I've tried, this tea is a lot less floral, but has more crisp, herbaceous tones. The aroma suggests celery, but not ...http://ratetea.com/review/1347/http://ratetea.com/review/1347/Mon, 26 Sep 2011 11:02:27 ESTThis was an interesting tea; I find the idea of blending oolongs from Sri Lanka and India to be intriguing. The leaf is mostly larger pieces of broken-leaf tea, and has a mix of different colors, including mostly darker but some greenish leaf. It also includes jasmine petals, although they seemed possibly more ornamental. Unfortunately, in the first infusion, the orange flavoring overpowers the base tea. The dominant flavor is orange peel, candy like, but muted, without the sweetness. It's slightly ...http://ratetea.com/review/1271/http://ratetea.com/review/1271/Wed, 17 Aug 2011 09:41:22 ESTAfter enjoying a number of teas I have sampled from Imperial Tea Garden, this tea disappointed me. The dry leaf is somewhat interesting looking. You need to use quite a lot of leaf, however, to bring out much flavor. But even using much more leaf than I normally would, it's still bland. I recommend brewing with hotter water than most people do for white tea. This brings out a bolder flavor and more of the toasty qualities. There's a very light suggestion of melon in the aroma, and some tones su...http://ratetea.com/review/1264/http://ratetea.com/review/1264/Wed, 10 Aug 2011 08:12:05 ESTThis was an interesting tea, recognizable as white tea, and more like Silver Needle in style than any other style of white tea, but still unlike any other white teas I've tried. I've tried brewing this tea several different ways. With a briefer infusion and lower-temperature water, it brews a pale amber with a slight pinkish hue. Surprisingly unlike silver needle teas from other regions. The aroma is subtle, but very complex; floral, almost orchid-like, honey-like, also fruity, a faint hint of autumn...http://ratetea.com/review/1257/http://ratetea.com/review/1257/Wed, 03 Aug 2011 08:51:33 ESTThis is one of those elusive teas that I am often searching for, with a Darjeeling-like character but packing more of a punch. Aroma Darjeeling-like, with a strong fruity, muscatel quality. A tad more cooling and less warming than a Darjeeling. Slightly fresher tones. Dark color but relatively light body. Very smooth flavor, a little bit dusty. Brews a rich, bronze-colored cup. Reminds me somewhat of the Himalayan blends from Upton Tea Imports. This tea struck me as slightly strange the first t...http://ratetea.com/review/1238/http://ratetea.com/review/1238/Mon, 18 Jul 2011 08:35:20 ESTGreener character, with an aroma that is simultaneously smoky, woody, and floral. Flavor surprisingly clear and clean. However, aftertaste is muddled and slightly more smoky than I like. Medium-bodied. I find it less fruity than the description suggests, and less than a number of other oolongs. When Se Chung oolongs have this sort of smoky character, I want them to have a bit more woody tones or more roast to them. This one struck me as being too much like a chun mee green tea, but without the bite...http://ratetea.com/review/1229/http://ratetea.com/review/1229/Mon, 11 Jul 2011 13:05:27 ESTThis is a classic, high-quality Yunnan red. Dry leaf contains some golden tips, more than the picture on the website suggests. Rich, malty, and with the characteristic aroma of Yunnan black teas. Fruity tones. Very full-bodied and rich, but smooth. Pleasing and not too tannic, much smoother than typical among teas of this strength and body. Very reasonable price for a tea of this quality. I also tried making iced tea from this tea, and it was quite delicious iced too. The fruity qualities I f...