KittyLovesTea

In raw form this tea is incredibly sticky and the honey glaze is very noticeable. The Oolong balls are dark and medium green in colour and they have a sweet and toasted but also floral scent.

Using my Gongfu teapot for this Tie Guan Yin with the hope to bring out the honey flavour in full.

Once steeped this tea is brown/yellow in colour and has a sweet and toasted honey aroma. Like a slice of honey loaf cake or honeyed cereal (been eating a lot of that recently and it reminds me very much of it).

Flavour is green and floral at first before the sweet honey melts everything into one super smooth and silky tone. It isn’t over the top sweet but compared to the average Tie Guan Yin it’s much sweeter and smoother and less thick and floral/woody. It’s honeyed without being pure honey is what I was trying to say. For a first steep it’s very nice.

The second steep shows a thicker toasted scent and more floral flavour. Honey is still present but not as sweet as the previous steep, partly because the thickness of the other Oolong flavours has grown. Still very nice, not sure if I prefer the first or second steep the most so far.

Side Note – The Oolong has now fully opened, from being what looked like a small 7g lot of balls to filling half my Gongfu teapot with large pieces of broken down leaves. The leaves themselves look very good quality ie no stems, discolouration.

My third steep is more floral then previously but less toasted so the sweetness is once again more noticeable. It still has a fair amount of flavour which is very pleasing and if you really wanted you could probably get another steep or two quite easily.

Overall I really enjoyed this tea, it was my first time trying any form of honey soaked tea and I can now say that in this case it worked very well. I browsed the Teavivre website in the interest of adding some to my ongoing cart but unfortunately it doesn’t look as if they sell this one any more. :(

In raw form this tea is dark brown, thin, very long and has a leather, dried fruit scent. Sweet but with dark under tones. I can see quite a few leaf stems.

Once steeped the tea soup is light brown in colour and has a sweet but dark, fruity, wooden aroma.

Flavour is similar to it’s scent. Fruity highs of currant and thick, strong lows of wood and leather. So far it’s very smooth and honeyed.

The second steep is musky but still very wooden and sweet. Thicker this time and more robust but not enough to be bitter.

Third steep is still sweet and wooden and stronger in flavour than I expected. Also still curranty and smooth.

Overall it’s a nice, wooden and sweet Oolong with dark fruit tones. I usually prefer greener Oolongs personally but my husband really enjoyed this. It wouldn’t be something I would stock again for myself but may get the odd sample for my husband. :)

No notes yet.

I have tried the non Organic version of this tea from Teavivre a while ago and remember it being a nice black tea but not one of my personal favourites. When it comes to black tea I love malty and fruity teas such as Dian Hong and while the original Bailin Gongfu came half way towards the perfect tea it left out a few things. Perhaps the Organic version will be more to my taste.

Raw leaves are dark brown with a few golden tips mixed in for colour. In form they are long and thin with a slight curl. They have a sweet but wooden scent.

Once steeped the tea is dark red in colour and has a malted, wooden aroma. It has sweetness and depth but also smells like cocoa nib.

Flavour is mild in comparison to it’s aroma. Fresh and sweet like caramel and cocoa with wooden and malted clean tasting tones. Very smooth and silky in texture and light in the after taste.

The second steep sweeter and more wooden. Much lighter altogether in tone but still showing caramel smoothness.

Overall it’s smoother than I remember and much sweeter. Not something I would stock ahead of my Yunnan Gold Tips but still pretty darn tasty.

I went sample crazy a few months ago and this is one chosen at random from my large stash. Funnily enough it’s a green tea which matches my current cravings.

The raw leaves are a beautiful vivid green colour. They are long and thin and also (for the most part) straight. Looks to be of very nice quality.

Still raw they have a thick grassy fragrance that is sweet and ever so slightly floral. I think the floral scent is very similar to orchid.

Once steeped the tea is light yellow in colour and has a light, very sweet and floral scent with hints of leafy, green vegetables.

Flavour is sweet and gentle with high fresh pea and orchid flower notes. Also grassy, vegetal and a little toasty.

Second steep is buttery and lighter, more floral but keeping it’s toasted quality.

Overall I really like this tea, it’s fresh, sweet and very vegetal but also has a unique quality about it. Another green tea added to my ongoing Teavivre cart. :)

Drinking some of this today at work and decided it’s the perfect green tea to leave here. It’s gotten some interest so far but mostly from people asking if they are real snails…DOH!

They re steep rather well so an infuser can do 3 cups with good flavour.

This tea is nice but nothing special so I will probably not replace it.

These are so beautiful ^_ pic.twitter.com/I3N2eGEjMw

I didn’t know what to expect but as I opened the sample sachet lots of white/yellow chrysanthemum flowers came tumbling out as if by magic. They are whole flowers too that have been dried and preserved. They have a sweet, floral and herby scent.

The loose flower petals sink straight away and then the flowers themselves start to slowly sink as they absorb the water. Very peaceful to watch.

Once steeped this tea is very light yellow and smells very herbal. I can’t narrow it down other than to say general herbal fragrance.

Flavour is light and sweet with a slight herbal after taste which matches the smell. Very refreshing and pleasant.

The second steep is much sweeter and floral and less herbal. So elegant and beautiful.

Very happy I found these, placing another order for some more.

Long live chrysanthemum tea.

Thank you Angel for this sample. :)

Since I have been on a green tea bender this appeals to me very much and it’s another sample for me to drink up.

In raw form the leaves are very thin, long, curly and dark green. They have a beautiful thick, vegetal scent much like kale mixed with peony and a dash of grass. Similar to Bi Luo Chun.

Being steeped in my Gongfu teapot three times for 1 minute, 2 minutes and 3 minutes.

Once steeped this is yellow in colour and has a sweet floral and spinach aroma.

In flavour this is floral, grassy, thick, kelpy, sweet and very vegetal. It’s a little astringent and perfume like but now the leaves have been woken up it should vanish over the next steeps.

Yes the second steep is smoother and a little sweeter. Very nice :)

Overall it’s fresh and good quality, well worth a try for strong green tea lovers.

I was thinking of re stocking Bi Luo Chun but this is a very close competitor. :)

That’s the last of this tea gone, I remember trading it away but made sure I left myself one teapots worth of tea left and today is the day I drink it. Bi Luo Chun gives me a major caffeine rush and makes me tea drunk.

It has such a beautiful, strong flavour. Like grass, seaweed, cabbage, broccoli and brussle sprouts all rolled into one. Very vegetal and thick with a hint of perfume and flowers but remaining green and grassy fresh.
Delicious!

This tastes much better this morning once brewed in my Gongfu Teapot. Using ‘1 minute, 2 minutes and 3 minutes’ steeping times it has a much stronger taste and brings forward more grass, cabbage and butter.

I still have yet to use the glass method of brewing Dragonwell, has anyone tried it? Notice any difference?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kff7OxaWhM

I have a lot of White Peony on my shelves from different companies because it’s my favourite white tea and it’s high time I started to drink it up. From Adagio I only have a 9g sample to try.

I was disappointed to see that my leaves are no where near as fresh and green as they are in this picture. Instead they are brown and almost completely broken down, dry and brittle. There are some silver tips amongst them but also a lot of twigs/stems. It has a strong peony scent that is very thick.

Once steeped the tea is amber in colour and has a mild sweet floral aroma. Flavour wise it’s nutty, woody, floral and sweet. It’s not as bad as I thought it would be but it’s by no means good quality. It lacks any real peony flavour, it’s not as sweet or delicious as it should be.

I’m glad I only bought a sample pack of this. I think I will stick with Teavivre and NothingButTea when it comes to White Peony.

More green tea please. I’m not usually a fan of Dragonwell, usually a bit too dry and perfumey for me. But if I have it then I might as well drink it..or at least try it.

The leaves are crisp to the touch with green/light green combination of coloured leaves. Some have a yellow tinge to them so not the best of quality. They have a strong floral perfumey scent, like a very strong peony.

Once steeped this tea is yellow in colour with a delicate, soft and sweet floral scent.

Flavour is quite gentle, more so than I remember. Grass, honey and peony are the three main flavours I can detect, all in subtle form to create a very refreshing green tea. The dryness and perfume after taste is at a minimum also. Maybe I can also say it’s vegetal in a cabbage sort of way.

The quality is acceptable but I was hoping this tea would be better.

Another pot of tea please and more fruit. I’m loving the fruit teas today. My stomach is a little off today so a caffeine free fruit tea has to be a winner right now.

This blend is mostly Rooibos with a large pinch of lemongrass mixed amongst it. I only see a couple of tiny raspberry pieces and something light yellow like perhaps lemon rind? So far it’s not looking as fruity as I had hoped for. Scent is quite fruity and sweet but the lemon dominates the raspberry.

Once steeped this tea is coppery in colour and has a sweet and very thick Rooibos scent. No real fruit scent to speak of.

There is supposed to be raspberry in this? I can’t taste any at all. It tastes like plain Rooibos with a hint (a very very delicate hint) of citrus fruit. I can’t explain the flavour of Rooibos other than it has an ‘ick’ factor about it, some chemical/weird flavour amidst a light and sweet tea. In other words a Rooibos fan might love this tea but for me it lacks flavour.

Time for another pot of tea me thinks and I have happily acquired a fair stock of Davids Teas thanks to you wonderful Steepsterites. Perhaps it’s time I use a few of the smaller samples up, after all there is no time like the present. So they say anyway.

This blend has a lot of lovely blueberries, small but whole and very sweet smelling. So much so that it really does have a blueberry jam essence about it. :) Yummy.

As soon as I poured the water onto the mixture a strong aroma of blueberry came drifting up, it smells incredible! Exactly like blueberry jam. What does jam smell like? Well I don’t really know… thickly fruity and sweet?

Once steeped the tea is brown in colour and still has the same delicious blueberry jam aroma. Based on the smell alone I imagined the tea would be a red/purple colour but oh well.

Flavour is thick, fruity, sweet and oh so good! It’s blueberry, it looks like blueberries, it smells like blueberries and it tastes like blueberries. What more could you want from a blueberry tea?

The black tea is at the perfect balance for this blend, it’s not strong but you can taste a subtle earthy somewhat wooden taste but only for a second or two. The stevia balances that out I imagine and leaves you wish the sweet goodness of blueberries.

Simply delicious!!!

So much work, so little time. At least that’s what it looks like for me today. But hey I’m working from home today so I have access to my entire tea cupboard so I can drink tea and whistle while I work.

This tea consists of small, thin and twisted black tea leaves with a scattering of yellow marigold petals. I think most blends from 52Teas have marigold petals in, or the ones I have tried that are black based have anyway.

It has a sweet and dark toffee like smell, not quite butterscotch. The black tea is quite strong and woody which tones down the sweetness quite a bit.

Tea is golden brown in colour with a sweet cinder toffee scent, similar to butterscotch but just not quite right. Flavour is honey sweet and malted with a creamy and slight chemical taste like vodka but not as sharp. The ‘butterscotch’ is not as strong as I would have liked and the more I drink the stronger the black tea base is becoming. So much so that the second cup is more woody, leathery and much less sweet.

This calls for action, stevia sweetener to the rescue!!! Much better. The black tea has been toned down and replaced the wood and leather with sweet sugary goodness. Still picking up more of a light toffee flavour though rather than butterscotch but it’s a nice pot of tea. Plus it has bought me some good luck, at the start I said I have a lot of work to do…well the website I needed to work on is having a technical glitch that needs to be fixed before I can do my work so my day just became free. Good = I can now play Skyrim. Bad = No work, no pay.

Goodbye Goji Pop :( This is my last pot of you.

You kept me warm and quenched my thirst tonight while I play Skyrim. So it’s like finishing you off in style.

May God bless teas with melon in them.

I have been craving green tea as of late but unflavoured green tea instead of my usual favourite jasmine flavoured greens. I’m sorry to hear that Infussion is closing down (if they haven’t fully already) but I have a stack of their teas here that will keep me busy for a while.

The Long Zhu balls are cute and have some silver tips to them and the quality looks good. They have a thick grassy and floral scent.

Tea is burnt yellow in colour and has a toasted grass scent. Quite strong similar to it’s raw state.

Flavour is grassy and crisp clean with hints of flowers, toast, honey and broccoli. Altogether it creates many different layers that all blend into one refreshing and delicate cup of tea. It’s very similar to my Jasmine Pearls but just literally has less of the jasmine flavour but all of the green tea goodness.

Yummy yummy yummy green tea in my tummy = me to go :D

One of the many Tea Moments blends that I have had for a while but never got around to trying..until now that is. My husband chose this one at random from my cupboard which is good for him because he loves apple tea.

The blend doesn’t look special in terms of quality but it was only a cheap tea, something I thought was worth trying for an every day tea. The Sencha is dark green with a fair amount of twigs while the chamomile is completely dry and almost brown in colour. As for the apple they are small pieces that are very dry and a little rubbery. it smells like grassy cinnamon which is actually quite nice.

Once steeped the tea is orange in colour with a sweet and spicy apple aroma.

Flavour is light and quite refreshing with sweet apple and spicy cinnamon tones but also a kind of clove coolness. Also picking up a little bit of a floral mist.

Overall it’s alright and I will experiment with stronger steepings and also cold steeping. For now it’s drinkable but unfortunately this blend is nothing special.

Thank you very much NofarS for this sample.

After my manic cupboard searching which was made much easier thanks to yesterdays cleaning I came across this Darjeeling sample. Just what I have been looking for.

The leaves are crisp and pungent with thick floral and perfumey musk tones. Certainly one of the strongest Darjeelings that I have sniffed.

Once steeped the tea is light brown and orange in colour and has a musky floral and fruity aroma.

Flavour is delicate in terms of flowers and fruit but thick on wood and musk. It is very perfumey with some dryness but light enough to still be refreshing. It also has a slightly sour tang but it quickly subsides. I actually brewed this one a little weaker than I usually would based primarily on it’s very strong raw scent. I’m glad I did because the levels are ok, it’s not as floral as I was hoping for but nice by all accounts.

I am still on the hunt for the perfect Darjeeling….

I’m craving some Darjeeling to match this warm weather and all I can find is this white Darjeeling from Canton. I think it will do, the birds outside are singing and all I want to do is drink tea and listen to them.

Other than a crisp floral scent this tea has little else in the way of aroma, the leaves are also very pale and considerably smaller in size than the other Arya Darjeelings I have tried before..could be because this is white and the packet says rare/hard to get hold of.

Once steeped the tea smells a little spicy and fruity, something I was truly not expecting.

In flavour this tea is delicious! Soft, sweet, creamy, spicy, floral and fruity. A whole lot going on but in a mild way. When I say spicy I mean cinnamon spicy and the creaminess has a vanilla hue about it. It tastes like a flavoured tea and not at all like a natural tea let a lone a Darjeeling.

Colour me impressed.

That’s the last of this sample now from my Holiday Cheer gift box. I’m thinking about what I can do with the cute little tin that’s left over. It’s only large enough for 5 teabags but perhaps I can keep matcha in them and re label the tin. That’s the best I can think of so far.

I did my food shopping earlier and filled my fridge completely with fresh fruit, salad and veg so tonight I plan on doing a salad bowl with some fresh bread for dinner. We (me and my husband) also went walking with my parents and their three dogs which was nice, I just need to get out of the house and get used to leaving the cats on their own for a couple of hours. Since Ebony died I am on alert mode 24/7 and I really just need to relax.

Tired and achey from the walk I have a slice of Christmas come early with this Candy Cane tea and a few pink wafer biscuits as an extra treat. :) Hold on to the little things because it’s those things that get you through the day.

No notes yet.

No notes yet.

Probably my last pot of tea before bed. I got the ‘Adagio Holiday Cheer’ gift set from my husband for Christmas and since we have been drinking bagged tea all day (for a change) it made sense to try a sample from the set. I let my husband pick a tin at random and he chose Candy Apple which sounds very good. I can’t remember the last time I actually had a candy apple/toffee apple.

The pyramid bags are rather clear and I can note finely chopped black tea with a few pieces of dry apple in each. Not quite how I imagined it would taste but alrighty then. The bags have a sweet and slightly spicy (cinnamon?) apple scent. Score :) I just checked the back of the tin and it does say cinnamon.

Once steeped the tea is dark brown in colour with a sweet and fruity scent, not quite candy/toffee apple but more like apple pie. That could be because of the cinnamon, I have never had a candy/toffee apple with cinnamon on/in it before and I cannot see why they have included it in the ingredients.

In flavour this has a strong black tea base which counters a lot of the sweet toffee flavour and the apple is being over taken by the cinnamon. So it’s malty, smoky, spicy and a little fruity.

Oh Adagio, this is far from candy apple. Seriously, why the cinnamon? It’s similar to the previous tea I drank (Dilmah – peppermint and English toffee) in that the black base is just too strong and it ruins the flavours that you would expect it to have.

I’m not saying it’s undrinkable, I can finish the bags that I have…but it’s just not what it says it is in my opinion. Such a shame.