CharlotteZero

This was my cup of the morning. I meant to reach for the Margaret’s Hope FF, but put this one into my teapot instead. The infuser was still damp from being washed, so I couldn’t put the leaves back. I was hoping I would like this tea better the second time drinking it…

I had this first thing in the morning. It has a bigger, bolder flavor than the other Dilmah single estate teas I’ve tried so far. There’s not much to say about this one, but it’s good.

Thank you, ToiToi, for giving me the opportunity to try this tea!

The dry leaves had a very sweet smell. The mouthfeel was really smooth. I could smell some cherry, sandalwood, light florals. It left a mint-like cooling sensation and closed up the back of my throat a little bit (not drying, but a tightening). For as green as this tea is, it has some strong tannins! I was actually disappointed that the flavor of the tea wasn’t more interesting. The aftertaste was very weak.

This is a really good tea, but I couldn’t see myself preparing this as a traditional chai masala. I would not add sweetener to this, because it is already very sweet.

No notes yet.

This is another tea that I temporarily forgot I owned. :-/ I think, however, that sometimes my forgetfulness is a blessing. It makes it so that I am often pleasantly surprised!

Backlog from yesterday: This the only Oriental Beauty that I’ve had, and I am really enjoying it. It has a lot of characteristics of my favorite oolongs, but it seems much more resistant to being messed up by the likes of me. I make tea “wrongfu” style. Anyhow, this makes a really good cup!

This is pretty good. It is smooth and very sweet- highly drinkable. It is kind of malty, muscatel, and a bit musky. It isn’t a super-crisp and refreshing Darjeeling. I keep hoping to find another Darjeeling that will stand up to the super-spicy food that I like to eat. This is good, but this isn’t it.

Azzrian’s tasting notes made this sound so good that I had to brew this tonight!

I did no rinse for this, and the first steeping (5 seconds) was my favorite. I did smell the banana strongest in this steeping and maybe some other kind of fruit smell, but I can’t say what.

In the second steeping (7 seconds), more roasted nutty aromas and flavors are came out, also caramel.

My third steeping was a 3 minute steep. It was pretty awful. The tannins became way too strong. All I could taste was strong caramel and the bitter tannins. This cup also made my throat very dry.

I need to use more patience and moderation in my brewing. If I’m going to brew western style, I need to learn to use less leaf, and when I brew gongfu style, I need to learn to have the patience to do 10 or more steepings. There are just too many teas to enjoy and not enough time!

Having this mixed with Original Vanilla Almond Breeze this morning with a Dagoba “Beaucoup Berries” bar for breakfast. Life is good.

First, thank you ToiToi for this tea!

I brought a teabag of this with me to breakfast this morning, but the water I was given was not very hot. This resulted in a weak, slightly sour and fishy cup. I wanted to give it a fair review, so I brewed another cup this evening.

Many people said that this reminded them of a Darjeeling, and this in certain ways this was true for me too. It was brisk and woodsy but it did not have any floral or muscatel notes at all as far as I could tell. It had a little bit of unidentified citrus zest to it as well, but maybe this was more of a texture I was picking up on- the tannins are strong, but they don’t dry my throat as much as they cling to my tongue and roof of my mouth. There is a sweet aspect which almost tastes like skim milk was added.

What a difference the water temperature made! I really enjoyed this second cup!

I’m sure this will sound familiar to many Steepsters…

I had completely forgotten that I owned this tea. I only found this when I was going through my black teas last night because there are now too many to fit on the shelf that I devoted to them. I now have one shelf for Chinese black teas one for those grown elsewhere.

I am really excited to find this because I have two samples of Jin Jun Mei from The Mandarin’s Tea Room and I wanted something to compare them to.

This is a really good tea, but I wish I knew what foods to pair it with. I ate a piece of chocolate with this and it just didn’t go well at all. I’m going to try to pair this with something savory next time.

I brewed this alongside the original tonight, and I can’t decide which I prefer. As I was first drinking this, I was finding it harder and harder to go back and taste the original. I almost decided to stop brewing the original so I could just enjoy this. But in later steepings, my preferences reversed.

The original is bolder and more dark-chocolatey to me. This one is smoother and more subtle. The only more unusual note I pick up is that of mashed sweet potatoes. I’m looking forward to drinking this one again.

I’m backlogging this one from yesterday.

I’d been avoiding trying this sample for a while now because it’s a “chai”. I spent a few weeks in January experimenting with my own chai masala blends and getting headaches, as far as I remember, every time I drank one. I never get headaches, and it’s still puzzling to me what was going on.

First, I’ll say that this did not give me a headache. Even though for the second steep I poured the boiling water into my gaiwan and promptly walked away and forgot about it.

This is a really good chai, and I hope they bring this one back! While their chai spice is good, I think they also should carry a chai for people like me who are often too lazy/intimidated to make a decision about which tea to blend said spice with…

First, thank you ToiToi for this sample!

I’m backlogging this one. This is a nice black tea. It was very “clean” in that there were no unpleasant notes. I did find that it lacked flavor. I tried and failed to brew a strong 4 oz cup with this.

I decided to brew up this tea today since I was about to pack up the rest to give away/swap. I read so many of the reviews complain that this tea was flavorless. I went a little overboard to compensate and used about two teaspoons for a 4 oz vessel.

The tea is fine. I like it more as it cools. I brewed this in a tiny glass teapot so I could watch it unfurl. At first it was fun watching as the pearls bob and then sink down to the bottom as they begun to unravel. Later, they seemed like an ugly expanding sea creature from a horror movie. I’m feeling pretty un-Zen tonight…

What teas would be appropriate for a John Waters movie marathon?

I don’t drink a lot of flavored tea now, but growing up we always had Celestial Seasoning’s Sleepy time stocked in the cupboard. I can’t help but make the connection here with the minty-chamomile flavor. If I reorder this, I’m going to label the canister “Wakey Time”. And, yes, I’m aware that I am the only person who thinks I’m funny…

I’m actually shocked at how much I like this, because I am usually someone who is about 100% camellia sinensis, but this is a great blend.

Thank you to Courtney for this sample!

The dry leaves smelled really buttery. This was cause for some concern. For whatever reason, I think of milk oolongs like Chardonnay. And I was worried that this one was going to be the equivalent of an over-oaked butter bomb…But it wasn’t.

I liked this tea pretty well. It is extremely creamy and sweet with a hint of floral. Milk oolongs usually smell like peaches and cream to me. This one really only had peaches in the aftertaste, and that same kind of aftertaste that actual peaches leave (a little bit acidic or something).

Ok. I haven’t tried this one yet, but my dog likes it. I dropped a few leaves on the floor when I opened the tin to smell it, and he ate them! He has never done this with other teas.

It smells pretty great. When I have one of my rare cravings for Earl Grey, this will be the one I go to.

I think I am reviewing the same tea as the others. This is from the 2012 harvest, and was purchased from the Republic of Tea website, as the Rare Tea Republic site no longer exists.

I wrote a nice long review of this, and then Steepster had one of its issues. I’m not going to rewrite it all. I will say that this is a good tea for sitting back and watching the wheels…

My family is Irish, so I grew up drinking Assam-heavy blends. My mother’s family emigrated from Ireland when she was an adolescent. My father’s side of the family has been here longer, but they may be even bigger tea drinkers. I have a cousin on his side who just turned a year old, and he already takes a cup Barry’s in his bottle both in the morning and at night. “Decaf at night, of course!” defends my aunt, but let’s not get into whether or not this is child abuse…

Anyway, my point was that I love Assam, and this one is now one of my favorites. It’s a little less sweet than the Assams I tend to like most. This one’s strength lies in, well, it’s heartiness and strength. A great cup!

Oh yeah! I am really enjoying my Canton Tea Company club membership. I’m only two infusions in on this one. I love a good a heavily-roasted TGY, and I am really impressed with this ones complexity.

Maybe I’ll add more to this note later.

The scent of the dry leaves is heavenly. I was enjoying their smell so much so that I almost didn’t want to brew it- it is sweet and fresh like the finest jasmine perfume and not cloying at all.

The wet leaf also smells great. I smell the jasmine, some pleasant vegetal note (I’m almost entirely pulling this out of my asterisk, but I will say bok choy), and (seriously) banana cream pie.

This tea is pretty amazing. I have been brewing it and tasting it since last night and it has been smooth and delicate the whole time. The flavor has been lasting and it hasn’t been getting bitter or astringent.

I made more of this to compare to the Subtle Roast Zheng Shan Xiao Zhong from Verdant Tea’s Reserve Club.

This tea is very sweet and easy to drink. It has a a much more subtle smokiness than the Verdant offering, and the leaves are smaller and more tightly rolled. I have to admit that I like this tea much better.