Batrachoid

I was really disappointed here as we just got a pint of Luna & Larry’s Cherry Amaretto coconut ice cream just to pair with this. I can summarize it as cough syrup poured over an other wise decent, if overly tart, ingredients list. May re-make this one with just real cherries in it?

Thanks to Tea Forte for their sampler! I must mention the great packaging, which isas relaxing as the tea. Very nice.
I can see why this one gets top billing; of all of them it’s my favorite. It really tastes like dried apricot, and feels well rounded by the rooibos, much to my surprise. Not too sweet and fruity floral like chamoile. I can only imagine how great this would be iced. Without caffeine or a need for eye popping sugar, I would call this the perfect summer sunset tea.

Morning, friendly shopkeeper! Yes, another refill of tuocha…
Discontinued?
But-but-this is my mother’s favorite tea. How am I going to tell her?
Where am I going to hide when she finds out we only have half a jar?!

This is one of my favorite silver needles to date. It takes a long time to make as at least ten minutes are needed to admire the the thin, clean leaves, the closest to real needles I’ve ever seen. They have no hair and tinkle like crystal in glass or ball bearings in their tin. It can only be summarized as futuristic. The dry smell has a promising fruity aroma that reminds me of plums.
It steeps up a remarkable compromise of savory the first steep with the sweeter fruity taste emerging a bit more on the second steep. It can go with everything and loves a good nonfiction book. I’m glad I can get ths one in bulk now.

No notes yet.

This is a great balence of smoke and classic Chinese red tea. Both amicably sit in the cup trading small talk while one does their everyday business. I’ve been breezing through this laid back lapsang which is fine since it’s so cheap. The steeping smell is intoxicating; it make me want to try it for cooking…

I must admit I picked this one up for the tin as much as the theraputic benefits. This is the softest lemon verbena I’ve purchased and the leaves are much less crushed than from bulk sales or online orders. It adds a visual layer to brewing an herbal restorative. Very nice.

This is a surprising yin zhen I’ve been looking foard to trying. Steeping it smells amazingly floral, even across the room! I expected it to be too sweet from the aroma but it’s quite bright and citrusy. And extremely smooth. Perfect for post matcha rehydration. Thanks to Tealicious for the sample!

Post matcha baicha: aborted. Rose chocolate matching cup of citrusy comfort: acquired. Perfect morning off acomplished.

And as a bonus I get to admire the rose sticker on my tin. =) Thanks again JacqulineM!

I found an interesting chocolate bar that scremed “matcha match!” the second I saw it: Rightously Raw’s Maqui Rose Truffle bar. Especially since it’s made with raspberry powder, rosehip powder, Himalayan pink salt, rose powder…Tons of tart red, basically, like Madegascan chocolate. Shiki is the natural match ( given what’s on hand).

Whoo! The chocolate was almost too tart, like a rosehip truffle. Though trying this matcha as koicha out of curiousity made it mellow with the grain and grassness.!
Maeda-en now has “Universal/usucha” and “Ceremony” grades but at a slight price difference which made me think there isn’t much of a difference. Since this came out as wheat sweet and fairly smooth, I think it’s safe to say the universal suffices.

Especially since it now has an amazing raw truffle bar to harmonize with. =)

Thanks to Tealicious for the sample! This was a very nice nutty dragonwell. This is nice change from the raw nut note of most dragonwells; the flavors in this one are surprisingly toasted walnut and cashew. A little like Ti Kwan Yin, almost. The entire sample bag held up to three six ounce steeps, though I don’t think I got the steeping times quite right. Fortunately, this dragonwell is forgiving.

I have to laugh that I found out a friend on Steepster just got her sample of this while i was making it. Tea in tandem it seems! This is the first time I’m trying three steeps of Rabbit tea mixed into my big blue bai mu dan cup. It’s still amazing and creates a sort of sunflower caramel taste. I think I like them seperate, though.

This is the perfect tea for the last week of damp, cool mornings of spring. This has great chestnut, toast, and walnut overtones. This is very smooth and savory, best brewed light, strong steeps make the flavors harsh and uunhappy. The leaves are gorgous and true to their name: the dark cracks in some of the light green leaves look like dragon scales. Hopefully I’l be able to sneak a few more cups out of this one before the family stops fighting over who gets the tin!

This still pairs great with Madegascan chocoate. Madécasse’s line especially.
Tastes the same in almond smoothies too.
I guess I’ll keep some around. No rating change.

I should’ve logged this a while ago. Thanks to the DJBooth for swapping!
This is a great lapsang for the smoke factor over the tea base. This is so good with coconut milk. I had it with some chickpea miso for the one of the best miso shiru recipes I know. Sadly I’m almost out. I hopefully the lapsang on the way will be as much as a culinary delight.

No notes yet.

This is really refreshing and the yin zhen is great but I’m distracted by the mental image of a tea sorting magnet putting the lilac in a seperate cup to be appriciated on its own. I can tolerate it for the discovery of a savory yin zhen.

The packaging changed for this matcha so I guessed Maeda-en changed the blend too. I don’t have any old to compare side by side but the usucha from this batch (with “Universal Quality” under “matcha” ) seems a little duller and rougher. It’s bright green and has the same grain and grass notes I remember. Larger lower quality batch for a growing market? I’ll have to check. Still very good for the price.

When I was little my mother put me in a daycare that cornered the market on scratch and sniff paraphernalia, including faerie stickers of various fruit like chemicals with a frilly “strawberry” sprite that often wound up on the plaque of the boy’s restroom.

That is exactly what this tea tastes like. Combined with the radioactive pink color that stained my mug through three scrubbings, this tea would be a perfect tie in for a breast cancer fundraiser, an amusing tea you’d only buy once for the experience of drinking a scratch and sniff sticker.

Finally breaking my sample out! Thank you Naomi. =)
Very nice and refreshing. The pinapple and pear in this work far better than I’d expect and the Chinese tea base is well balenced for smoothness. For a Floridian frog, this is just the tea I’d pick for refreshing iced tea but it’s so amazing hot. Ooh, I need to order this!

This was another tea I was foolish enough to smell in the store after the budget was already gone. With my mother. On mother’s day.
Instant obligatory impulse buy.
It’s based in decent looking silver needle and smells like fresh lilac and hay, quite harmonious. But this blend has major identity issues. The silver needle base and lilac are completely seperate. The yin zhen is, oddly, quite savory and almost like honeysuckle and mushroom soup. The lilac is, well, lilac, fresh and floral. I can’t decide if I like this or not. The tea and flowers are good but they just cry out to be seperated. The maternal unit loves it so I’ve got plenty of chances to decide.

Hmm, my stash of this is getting a bit dark. It’s my fault; I know I’m too stuck on Mu Tan to warrent large Yin Zhen purchases. There’s a surprising lime taste gradually taking over the general “fruity berry” note. It’s not bad but it’s not what I want when I make silver needle.

Yay! All moved into my new apartment! Just a few boxes of books and the washer to move. Afternoon koicha is permissable. =)
Today’s matcha came out with more seaweed than chocolate than usual. I’m fairly certan the water was a little cooler than usual. I’ll have to remember to keep the temperature up if I want a bowl of cocoa crisps for breakfast.

Finished off my tin of this and the big bear of local honey for lunch. It comes out with a lot of birch and smoke notes with this new kind (White Mountain Apiary). Maybe I can get a new tin while there’s still fresh peaches…