BlueKittyMeow

I’ll add my vote to the “this smells… interesting” camp. To me, it is kind of like fish rolled in graham crackers. Not like… old fish and not fishy in the way that pu erh can be, just like I walked into a fish market. Pu erh makes me feel like I’m on Canal Street in New York when they hose the sidewalks down from the fish cleaning. This is more like a costal fish market in Massachusetts. … plus graham crackers.
The color is absolutely gorgeous – the closest to gold I have ever gotten in a cup of tea.

The taste is rather baffling to me because I can’t identify the flavors. Very very very velvety and smooth, fairly buttery with the vegetal notes hiding behind something that isn’t quite orchid flavor. This has some green characteristics in terms of the astringency and the nature of the vegetal flavors.

I really like this and I do consider myself a tea snob. I am so picky I am really almost down to just a few teas that I think are great, and yet I really like this. So are we tea snobs that like this, or tea snobs that hate it? Or perhaps this is just a really divisive tea!

At any rate, I had a splitting sinus headache, so this was just perfect for today. I don’t know how tranquilized I feel but I am really sensitive to everything, so I’ll have to update this if I feel any significant effects!

This is good – it manages to be creamy and fruity at the same time.
Otherwise it’s fairly unremarkable. I don’t really know what to say about this tea. Pleasant but eminently forgettable.
I know this is a short note, but that’s all I really have as a reaction!

Holy Hibiscus, Batman!
I happen to like hibiscus. A lot. And I think there is too much hibiscus in here. In fact, I really didn’t taste much else.
If I’m in the mood for something bitter and fruity I will actually make this again, but that said, it’s not at the top of my list.

The loose leaves smell like a weird jolly rancher candy with chocolate. All sorts of candy like fruits with that mocha undertone.
The chocolate notes really came out after brewing. The (phantom) chocolate scent is foremost but underneath is something interesting. It is sweet and fruity but earthy and a little wrong smelling – I think it’s a strawberry scent. I like it, it’s a little musky and wild.
I really don’t care for the taste of this. It was bitter from the fruit (I brewed it at 165 for 3 minutes rather than 4) and just not my cuppa. At least it didn’t taste like a jolly rancher…

This isn’t a full tasting note, I’ll have to come back and write down all the notes in this, but I have to remember just how much I loved this.
It was rich, the leaves were fresh and wonderful with incredible life. The brewed tea was engaging and smooth and really perfect.
I drank this watching the third presidential debate, so I really wasn’t focused on the tea, but it was wonderful, I plan on being decadent and making this my everyday morning tea for a while :)

This was my first real experiment with pu erh where I know what it is (young sheng). I admit I am pu erh ignorant and have been hit or miss about them, so the odyssey continues. I don’t tend to find them offensive I just tend to find them lacking in flavor or having cardboard elements.
This tea came in nuggets, but they were excellent looking – whole long leaves pressed together rather than the little broken pieces I have seen before. It came apart fairly easily and smelled great. Almost musty in a way, but musty like a garden shed in mottled shade – something fresh and deep, yet green.

This is like nothing I have ever tasted before.

It is almost floral, as though I am mouthing a damp garden in the rain with earthy notes taking over. These dry and come to the front as leaves of an old book. This one is a really synesthetic experience for me.
Mmm. And it fades into a sweetness at the end… perhaps from some kind of bourbon candy or … no, it is like an amaretto, a deep smoky amaretto, mixed with a harder liquor. Don’t misunderstand, there is no bite, just a smokey sweet aftertaste.

I think I’m in love. A tea that is damp gardens and old books on a rainy day with a dash of an amber sweetness? I couldn’t ask for anything else.
Thank you, Amanda for including this in the box you sent!!

My third (okay, fourth) matcha of the day because I have decided never to sleep again.
WOOOO!
Okay, so this was great. At first, I thought it was overpowering in terms of the spices, but after I added milk and sugar it really tasted like pumpkin pie.
And now I can stay up all night considering that fact.

This was great! I made it in a milk base. Actually when I opened the package, I was kind of turned off because this smelled so much like… cheese.
Thankfully when I mixed it up, it tasted more like cheesecake rather than just cheese. I added a little sugar which rounded it out.
I really liked it on the white tea base as well.

I guess I’m in a green tea mood (it seems to go well with creative projects. Good green tea that is!)
First infusion:
This has a nice umami kind of nature to the scent of the liquor. The flavor is pretty light and bright with a little bit of astringency. I can see where other people would get a citrus flavor – to me there is an element of orange or lemon rind or zest that I think makes the astringency seem more forward than it is.
There’s an interesting sweet fruit-like aftertaste.
Second infusion: Went to a bonfire, got completely distracted, so I can’t comment. I’ll have to brew this again to see if the flavor changes!

This was my first flavored matcha (thanks, Rachel!) :)
I made this with water but added a little bit of cream as I usually drink my matcha with a milk base.
This was really good! I still have a great aftertaste of caramel and I’ve been done for a while. I like how the caramel flavor works with the nuttiness of the matcha flavor.

I think I’m not a huge fan of oxidized oolong teas. They just don’t seem like “real” oolongs to my tastes. This one has a nice caramell-y malty kind of flavor but it falls much closer to a black for the mood I was in.
I’m getting metal aftertaste flavors on this tea.
While I didn’t care for this much, it was exactly like it was described – If you like more roasty oolongs this might be for you.

I didn’t really taste anything but the honeybush in here. This wasn’t bad by any stretch but for some reason I just didn’t taste any of the other flavors. I used a heaping teaspoon, but I’m thinking two would have been better.

Trying green tea again today… the leaves smelled great.
And hurray, I like it! Oooh complex and interesting.
A nice fresh green flavor upfront that fades into a tin aftertaste that makes the green taste like something mixed with petrichor.
It is slightly creamy, I’m thinking of creamed green beans? There is a great back of throat feel that lingers in a buttery creamy way. This tea is really like having a great bowl of vegetables on a rainy day.
I feel like the more tasting notes I make the more permission I give myself to be incredibly associative. It’s helpful to me to look back at, probably not too helpful to everyone else though!
Listening to Stranger in Moscow which is one of my favorite “rainy day” songs – perfect compliment.

I’m brewing this western style so I can enjoy it while video editing without being too distracted. Woohoo multitasking!
I didn’t get much scent from the leaves, but the brewed tea has a definite fishy odor. I’ve learned not to judge tea too much on the scent though.
The flavor was actually pretty minimal. On my second steeping I went a little long but didn’t really see an improvement.
I don’t know about this tea. It’s another tea that I’ve tried recently that has been just mediocre. But I haven;t found a perfect pu-erh for a long time.

Brewed gongfu style. I used around 4 tsp for my 6-8 oz mug. The leaves were long and spindly so difficult to measure, I ended up basically eyeballing it.
The leaves smelled chocolatey with an interesting green flavor underneath it. For some reason the scent makes me think of a front porch around the 4th of July in a little town near a river #synesthesia.
The liquor was great smelling – deep, molasses-y and chocolatey.
The flavor is surprisingly spicy and deep. I get great flavors of molasses and earth. There is a tiny salty coppery aftertaste.
To sum up the first infusion: Dirt and Blood. And I mean that in the best possible way.

Wow, I think I just bit into a chrysanthemum! Everyone talks about how they get a floral taste from oolongs and I usually get a strong butter flavor.
This though… wow serious flowers. And super interesting to me is that afterwards I do get a butter flavor but with a neat salt aftertaste. Surprising finish, really nice.
If I judged this by the initial flavor I would be kind of meh about it, but the twist, like the end of an Agatha Christie mystery is just too neat to ignore.
Thanks for the sample Teavivre! This one is a fun one :)

This was a free sample from Zen Tea Life – thank you!
I am exactly in the mood for genmaimatcha right now (I love finally having a variety of teas for just this reason!)
I really like this version of genmaimatcha. It is nicely nutty and the matcha is pretty smooth and fresh in this blend.

This was a free sample from Teavivre – thank you!
I brewed 4 “pearls” which, by the way, are adorable. I love the tactile way they rattle around in the tin.
I brewed this a little longer than I meant to, I was administering frozen pea first aid to my sister, but I caught it in time for it to be fine.
The liquor smells sweet and caramelly. The flavor of the tea black is a little sour for my taste, I think this is a tea I add milk too. I get malty flavors and a little bit of a nice… graham cracker taste? weird but good.
I want to try brewing this shorter again, but definitely fine how I brewed it!

This smells like chocolate with a little bit of brandy.
This tea has some of the “sparkling” feeling to it. It has a spiciness that lingers on for a long time after drinking, almost a white pepper kind of zing.
There is a nice smokiness that underlines the brandy type flavor.

I’m reviewing the keureg cup version of the tea.
Sorry, I’m going to spike the rating of this tea here – I have to say that I like it.
Objectively, it’s a pretty poor tea, it’s mostly a hibiscus flavor. That said… it reminds me of drinking tea years ago. It is incredibly comforting, actually.
I ran the keureg empty twice to make sure as little coffee flavor would come through as possible.

Yay, a green tea I have liked!
I got this as a free sample from Zen Tea Life (thank you!) and just brewed it up today – I haven’t really been in a green tea mood for a long time.
I used a little bit more leaf and a little cooler temperature than called for and steeped on the short side because I’m cautious with green teas now.
And… I like it! It is nutty, with a little bit of walnut like astringency but just the right amount. I get hints of almonds, green beans, and a little bit of butteriness at the end.
I’m rather relieved – I think I’ve broken through my green tea aversion now.

I keep thinking I’ve reviewed this tea and I keep being wrong! So here it finally is.
The bottom line for me is that I like this much better than Adagio’s other oolongs. That said, it is not anywhere near my top oolongs. I do like it enough to keep drinking it, but it is forgettable enough that I can’t remember I’ve tried it!

I’ve been saving my Verdant teas for a special occasion. I have been so busy, so unable to turn my mind off, I know I can’t appreciate them.
I decided to kind of take today off, after I fell asleep midday and kind of burned out. So tonight is a night to relax, watch the Daily Show, and drink this tea.
The leaves are adorable they are like something from a woodworker’s bench, little curls of tea, spiraling like wood planeings.
Brewed up for the first infusion, this smells refreshingly interesting. I’m not usually a fan of green teas, but I keep trying. This smells nice – a little bit buttery, a little floral, as if you could eat the creamy sweet scent of gardenias.
I’m picturing a summer porch where wisteria grows (I think there was a children’s book about a porch of wisteria that was guarded by a cat? I’m picturing the cover illustration here), in the summer. The porch rails are painted white but chipping off in places. The wisteria and the latticework cast mottled shadows in the creamy light. A wickerwork basket of green beans sits on a white wicker chair with a flowered cushion. A couple of small yellow flowers sit scattered upon the beans. The afternoon is redolent of half remembered snippets of hiding in gazebos and dreaming under bushes. Seriously. I’m getting a very defined synesthetic image from this.
The flavor was interesting. It was very vegetal, with an artichoke like back of throat feel. I honestly think I just don’t care for green tea that much. I found it nice but not very complex, certainly not living up to the aroma or some of the other Verdant teas I have tasted.
That said, I did make three infusions and enjoyed them, but I did find the flavor profile fairly one dimensional.

The leaves smell wonderful – my first impression is high sweet sugary notes of cream and sugar cane. Delicious.
The liquor is much lighter than I expected and has a wonderful creamy milky oolong scent.
The taste of this is different from the other milky oolongs I have tried. It has a really really nice creaminess and a wonderful, exquisit aftertaste. The main flavor profile has a funny kind of bite along with it, almost along the lines of something fermented (which I guess milk oolongs are?) I had never gotten that from any of the other milk oolongs I have tried. It’s an element I’m not sure if I care for entirely, but I like it enough that I’m proceeding to the second steep, so that says something!
The second steep was a little mellower. I upped the steep time to three minutes. The milky flavor was still there and there was less of the bite I had been getting.
I think this is my favorite milk oolong so far!