John Grebe

Wow this has to be the best Chai tea that I have ever had. Personally I’ve never really liked Masala styel Chai as it always seemed too spicy to me. This Thai Chai has a much lighter and smoother taste to it which is wonderful plain. The lemongrass and coconut adds enough sweetness and creamy smoothness to make the tea able to stand on its own which I find to be quite rare among flavored teas to which generally demand sugar to be added in order for the flavor to taste right. For the second half of the cup I did an experiment and added some of the rock sugar sample that I had to the tea and I think the added sugar actually hindered more than improved the taste of the tea as it dulled the edges of the spices that were in the tea a bit too much to the point that I don’t even want to find out what a splash of milk would do to the tea.

Not too much to be overly impressed by in this Dayi ripe puerh brick. A typical ripe puerh with a slightly malty taste to it. Well suited as a cheaper everyday casual drinking ripe puerh, that falls into the good upper middle range but falls short of the exceptional upper end ripe puerh.

I’ll admit that going into this that I had a slight bias against the cake as my experience with Rongzhen has been mixed. Sure their ripe puerh cakes were not bad but they were not really that good compared to others that I had either, just a safe midrange cake. The brew of this one was different as it is the best Rongzhen puerh that I’ve had yet. It has a sweet mellow taste as one would expect from a Menghai area ripe puerh. Yet what impresses me the most with this sample is that despite being under a year old for a ripe puerh there is not even a trace of any off factory odors or flavors. I just looked up the price for a whole cake and it was $12.98 which makes it a rare gem among the cheaper ripe puerh cakes in my opinion.

Another single brew sized sample which makes it harder to review with a single try in a gaiwan. This one has a smooth mellow and certain richness that can one can expect to find in a good gongting ripe puerh. Not a casual brewing ripe puerh as this is one of the ones that it is possible to overbrew.

Hopefully my brewing came out all right as this was a free sample which contained a little less leaf than I would use to brew it in my gaiwan. Overall a nice light and sweet tasting ripe puerh with a smooth finish. If anything if somebody had a complaint about this tea is would be of it being a bit on the plain side as the other way of putting the light, sweet and no off taste. Either way it is an easy drinking casual ripe puerh that if I did not already have so much puerh on hand I might consider buying as an everyday puerh.

A box of Dragon Well teabags came as a free gift thrown in with my last order of Ten Ren loose teas. Like before Ten Ren teabags hold up to being a lot better than one would expect for a teabag to the point of beating some cheap loose tea. The Dragon Well has a nice sweet medium green tea taste without any signs of bitterness or smoke. While I do not see myself paying money for this, it is good enough that I will probably drink it as a travel tea instead of giving it away.

A very nice clean tasting puerh without any off tastes that comes off as both slightly malty and sweet with a bit of smoothness at the same time. It would indeed make a nice everyday tea as it is both well balanced and simple enough to make it a good easy drinking puerh that mixes well with multitasking at one’s desk.

Orange puerh is one of the few flavored teas that I still drink where I break up the orange peel that it was packed into and brew it with the tea leaves. The result is a sweet ripe puerh with heavy citrus flavor, which results in a very enjoyable casual drinking ripe puerh.

A nice ripe puerh which I think the description of balanced is right on. A little on the earthy or maybe woody side in a good way would likely be its most unique taste factor. Gave lots of fairly consistent infusions with good holding power for a ripe puerh and overall a good everyday puerh with a more unique taste.

Name pretty much describes it right as a milky oolong with a smooth creamy taste. Works out well with short gaiwan infusions but it has more limited brews than most green oolongs as it takes a turn for the bad once the milk flavoring is gone.

Brewed gongfu in a gaiwan. Smooth and mellow ripe puerh but with a tad of earthiness in it even after a double rinse. Quality wise is hard to say as while it is better than the vast majority of cheap bricks and cakes out there it falls short of the premium quality mini-cake that it seems to imitate put out by Menghai.

I think Stash Chamomile is the best Chamomile that I have had to date. In terms of how chamomile teas go I would describe this one as being lighter smooth and sweet with a slightly less intense floral taste as others. It is amazing in how much of a difference there can be in dried chamomile flowers from one brand to another.

I know a 2010 ripe puerh is a bit young to be drinking but I am greatly impressed at this quality and how it compares to a 2009 tuocha of the same label. This tea has no trace of any wo dui odor and off tastes in the brew and has a equally clean test to it. The only real notable difference from the 2009 version is that the smoothness is not as strong so I wonder if smoothness tends to develop more with age in ripe puerh. Anyway a great tea at half the price as the 2009 version which might be just as good as the 2009 version is now come 2012.

A wonderful clean and smooth puerh with a bit of maltiness. I would say this one has a medium fermentation level that is darker than most ripe puerh in the growing trend of lighter fermentation levels. Just watch out and pay attention to your time and tea to water ratio as this is a ripe puerh that can be overbrewed with less than ideal results if you do not take care.

A very smooth and slightly silky ripe puerh without any trace of undesirable off tastes or earthiness. Although once again the idea of a mini-cake that can easily be broken up into mini-bricks for brewing has less than desired results as the mini bricks are still too big to brew whole without breaking up first and the paper inner ticket is a pain to deal with when the brick is scored into mini blocks.

While I never tried Sleepytime and Sleepytime Extra side-by-side the taste difference is minimal as it does not come off as any difference in the cup. But watch out as a single cup of Sleeptime Extra is much quicker acting than two cups of Sleeptime, so I would only recommend drinking this if you are ready to go to sleep very soon.

Ten Ren’s Special Pouchong pretty much tastes like a darker green tea to me. Gets a bit better reinfusions than most green teas and is easier to brew as a very green oolong. Although it is enjoyable to drink I do not think I will be reordering more when I finish what I have.

I am not sure about if adding vanilla to Sleepytime improves it or not. It is still good but the vanilla smooths over the overall flavor which makes the rest of the herbs harder to taste, although it also adds a bit of sweetness into the mix.

The tea is good but the packaging was not the best. At first glance a mini-brick that is scored to be easily broken down into 9 mini bricks for easy brewing sounds like a good idea. The problem was the inner ticket was a pain to get out but luckily was close to the surface that it wasn’t too bad. For the actual tea be sure to break up the mini brick a bit or at least into 3 thinner layers before brewing as it is too thick to break apart right on its own when brewing. The actual tea is good, especially for a generic factory that tries to copy off of Menghai. The brewed tea is clean with no earthy off tastes and has a lighter mellow brew. Overall this shu puerh is better than most but not good enough to be considered an upper end premium quality puerh.

This has to be one of the best dark Ti Kuan Yin teas that I’ve had yet. A good mellow roast taste with a very smooth texture to the brew with a sweet finish. While I was initially hesitant to order this one from the “nice tin” and low price of only $15 for 300g I am glad that I did as this is rightly one of their most popular TKY products based upon its quality alone with its value and fancy packaging that makes it suitable for gift giving a nice bonus.

This Tung Ting comes off to me as being wonderfully in the middle in how it is darker than any green oolong that I have had before but is still lighter than a dark oolong, with a darker golden yellow brew. When gaiwan brewed with short infusions the tea produces fairly consistent brews with a smooth sweet taste that has a pleasant lack of an overwhelmingly floral taste.

A very nice blend of chamomile, spearmint and lemon grass that I find enjoyable and this is coming from a person who is not that fond of flavored teas. Personally I think it is the spearmint that sets it apart or at least for me as I heavily lean toward sweeter spearmint over its stronger peppermint counterpart. The chamomile is a nice herb to help unwind with closer to bed time and the lemon grass and spearmint add some nice flavor and extra sweetness as a sugar-free alternative to honey.

This is a wonderful example of a dark higher postfermentation level ripe puerh which is becoming less common in the growing trend of lighter shu puerh. This one is very smooth with a light malty mellowness that makes it very enjoyable to drink.

Be careful about brewing this one too strong because when it is brewed strong it comes out as a soso disappointment for a Dayi ripe puerh. When brewed lighter it produces a much better and enjoyable brew that has a light smooth mouth feel with a bit of maltiness in the mellow background. A good Dayi puerh overall but not the best, so keep in mind just because a puerh cake is a commemorative cake does not mean that it will be better quality than a standard one. It might just cost more because it is a special limited edition cake with a special wrapper around it.