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Hm, looks like I had this before, but never got around to writing a note for it. Anyway, better late than never, right? (Speaking of late, this is a backlog from a few days ago.)

I got this tea as a sample from an order from Verdant a while back. I already tried some a few months ago, I guess, but I don’t really remember it, heh. Anyway, I brewed this gongfu style, since I didn’t have very much of it left. I wrote some notes that I could make sense of and read back when I was writing it. Now it kind of looks like a gigantic jumble of scribbles on a small notepad. Time for some deciphering!

Dry leaf: Sweet, roasty-ish? Kind of reminds me of a lighter version of Big Red Robe or something.

Steep 1: Very mineral-y with a sparkling/light mouthfeel at the end. Sort of numbing on the tongue. Smell reminds me of my uncle’s house (my uncle is a huge tea lover).

Steep 2: Definitely still very mineral-y. Lightly fruity aftertaste that lingers in the throat/nose.

Steep 3: Mineral fades. Fruit notes more prominent. Kind of ‘juicy’, if that makes any sense?

I stopped taking notes after that, since I think I was lured away from my tea with the promise of chocolate peanut butter cookies made by my suitemates. :)

Yum! This tastes very much like a slightly buttery rootbeer.

I was in the mood for a somewhat butterier version of this, so I added a bit of Buttered Rum from DavidsTea this time around.

I can’t wait for winter to come so I can drink this and watch the snow fall!

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Back at school and reunited with part of my tea collection, hooray! I spent most of my summer helping my family move to another state, then going abroad on an excavation. So, for most of the summer, I’ve been mostly internet-less and tea-less. Other than that, though, it’s been an amazing summer!

Anyway, I decided to kick off another semester of tea drinking/reviewing with an oolong, since I seem to really like oolongs. I may be a bit out of practise with tea tasting/reviewing, heh. Hope I get back into the swing of this quickly. Thanks for this sample, Angel and Teavivre!

Upon opening the pouch, I could already smell some roastiness with the dry leaves. I brewed this in a mug, with short steep times.

1st steep: Very strong, toasted scent. Hint of sweetness, almost as if there was some type of honey in there.

2nd steep: Toastedness fading a bit, now with more chocolatey hints. Still some honeylike sweetness of sorts.

3rd steep: Still a slightly toasty flavour. Chocolate has disappeared, and it’s more mineral-y. Dry aftertaste. I can’t pick up on anything else though, possibly because I just got back from being caught in the rain without an umbrella and my nose is being odd.

Overall, a pleasant oolong. I might consider having some of my suitemates try this, especially since they tend to find most unflavoured/unsweetened teas to taste like hot water.

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Backlog from last night.

During my first steep of this, when I took out the tea strainer from my mug, I thought to myself, “Gosh, this looks so clear. Did I steep it wrong? I don’t think it’s ready yet.” But, I caught a whiff of something from the mug, which convinced me to take a sip.

Reading Verdant’s description of this tea gave me an idea of what the tea was like, but I still had no clue what I was tasting in my first few sips. At first, I thought I could taste some pine-iness, which was followed by a slight spiciness, joined with some sweetness, which lingered in the aftertaste. I was blown away by the complexities in what I was expecting would be a very watery/light tea.

With later steepings, the spiciness fades a bit, but the pine-iness remains. The sweetness changes from a rock candy-like sweet to a slightly marshmallow-y sweet.

As I was drinking this, I almost felt as if I were walking through a forest in New England. I wonder what would happen if I were to brew some pu-erh alongside this— I could get the earthy smell of a forest in the spring after some rain, along with the pine smell of the trees. A pine forest in my dorm room!

Yum! Very nice and slightly sweet. Rich vanilla flavour with a hint of caramel. I’m normally not a fan of vanilla (got the 5-satchet sampler on a whim in an order I placed not too long ago), so I was pleasantly surprised to discover that I rather like this tea. I think this would go quite well with a berry pie or something of the sort.

I got this as a sample with my order from TeaVivre. The tea tastes light and floral, with a hint of sweetness that reminds me of wildflower honey lingering in the aftertaste. Very refreshing.

Just got this in the mail today and made a cup of this tea to bring with me on my way to class. Steeped, it has a very sweet, grape-y aroma, sort of tastes like grape juice (more like grape-flavoured fruit snacks or something), and is slightly astringent. Being under the drinking age at the moment, I’ve never had Merlot wine, so someone else will have to do the comparing (I honestly got the tea because I was curious about the freeze-dried grapes!). Overall, I think I like it, but I’ll have to try this again some other time without being distracted by note-taking to give a proper rating.

I’m getting mildly irritated at all of the papers that I’ve been writing/need to write, so I’m taking a short (well, maybe long-ish) tea break as I take notes on this and watch a bit of Mad Men. I got a sample of this in my first order from Verdant, tried it once Western-style, but didn’t really enjoy it. This time, I’m trying this out Gongfu style.

Dry leaf aroma: Sweet, almost chocolate-y. It reminds me of some sweet snack or dessert I had at some point in my life, but I can’t quite put my finger on it.

First infusion: Tea liquor has a golden hue. Light, slightly sweet, wheaty flavour. Creamy?

Second infusion: Maltier than the first infusion, and I’m definitely beginning to taste something honeylike. At one point I thought I could taste a spice that has a light ‘bite’ to it— cinnamon? Pepper?

Third infusion: Still wheaty, as if I had taken a bite out of fresh wheat bread. Ah, there it is. A little peppery. The creaminess/butteriness is fading.

Fourth infusion: Steeped this a bit longer than I intended to, whoops. Still quite malty, but the honey isn’t as prominent as it was in previous steeps. The creaminess is now mostly gone and has been replaced with a (slightly tingly?) peppery taste. And on that pleasant note, I think I’m going to head back to writing.

This + a splash of half and half + a bit of sugar = delicious!

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Yum! Basically tastes like a hot liquid version of mint chocolate chip ice cream.

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Backlogging from several days ago. Amazingly complex tea— floral, buttery, and reminds me of freshly mown grass. Sweet, sugary aftertaste. Will steep and write a more detailed note once I have time.