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From the Unflavored Traveling Tea Box.

Brewed using Western style. 4 (WOW THESE ARE REALLY BIG) pearls for 12 oz.

Before and after they were infused, the peals smelled of cocoa and malt. The liquor is full-bodied, bold, and amazingly rich with a very bitter dark chocolate taste, underneath which is an earthy note – the kind of earth that is moist after a long thunderstorm has recently passed. The aftertaste so uncannily resembles dark chocolate that I could have sworn I’d just eaten some.

From the Unflavored Traveling Tea Box.

Brewed Western style. The dry leaf aroma smells of maple syrup and caramel, and the wet leaf aroma of chocolate. I intended to use only 8oz of water but overestimated by 100% (I had just woken up….). I thought that the taste would be watered down, and to put in another teaspoon of leaf. But this tea is flexible. The liquor – orange, medium-bodied, and clear – is still flavorful with malt and bitter dark chocolate. It also has a spicy aftertaste, a little like ginger snap cookies. Delicious morning cup!

Cheri sent me this from the TEAlephone. It’s a pretty good chocolate rooibos tea, especially paired with a chocolately dessert. The chocolate flavoring is strong enough to leak out of the baggie and outdo the woody base. It also has a roasted, borderline burnt, quality after the tea’s cooled a bit.

My last sample from Green Terrace Teas.

Method: gongfu session with gaiwan. 5 second rinse. Steeping times: 5, 5, 10, 15, 20, 30, 45, 60.

The aroma of the dry leaf is like a freshly baked pie with an unusual mix of fruits, which I picked out in the following order: plums, Granny Smith apples, lemons, limes, and orange rinds. The wet leaf aroma is sweet with just a hint of tartness, and is dominated by plums and apples. It’s as if the leaves were asserting, “I’m a FRUIT.” Speaking of the leaves themselves, they’re surprisingly smaller, and their colors are interesting and lovely when they’re completely unrolled. Many of them are army green with rusted red patches.

By golly, what a liquor! The color of white grape juice, it is smooth, medium-bodied, bright, and energetic. I can taste every fruity note I got a whiff of and even a hint of lavender. And it’s so incredibly sweet that the sweetness clings for minutes and minutes after the last sip of each cup.

This tea is one of those that gets one thinking, “Is this really tea??” Wow, so sweet. Very fruit. I am happy to have saved this one for last. I’ve never had a Gui Fei oolong before let alone even heard of it, and although I have no other Gui Fei’s to compare this one to, I still think it’s amazing. I just finished the last infusion at this moment and I feel energized!! A final and a very big thank you to Green Terrace Teas!

Thank you so much for sending me a generous sample of this, Green Terrace Teas.

Method: Gongfu session with gaiwan. 2 second rinse. Steeping times: 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 45, 60.

The dry leaf aroma naturally smells roasted, and I also caught candied caramel. After the rinse, the aroma drastically changed – toasted rice, kale, grilled zucchini, and – after the leaves aired in the bowl a bit – banana chips. The wet leaf aroma was different following the fifth infusion: a mixed juice, or maybe fruit salad, with strawberry, banana, and blueberry.

The liquor throughout the session was light gold and full-bodied, and had a wonderfully silky smooth texture. This is one of those teas you just have to let sit in your mouth. There are mostly notes of cooked dark green vegetables, notably collard greens and kale. Underneath these notes was a fruity sweetness – specifically banana at some point. Towards the end of session, when the leaves were beginning to give, the fruit disappeared and a floral quality took over.

This is my first Dong Ding oolong ever. I’ve had very good experience with it. I tend to be most affected by an oolong between the second and fourth infusions, during which, for this one, I felt like one of Dali’s melted clocks (I originally thought melted chocolate but that brings up a totally different taste when one thinks of roasted vegetables). My rating is based not on my experience – rather, lack of experience – with Dong Ding but instead on my overall impression with this individual one.

It smells amazing! Yummy mint, coconut, and chocolate. Smells exactly like a Thin Mint cookie. Unfortunately the flavors don’t transform well into the tea itself. I can taste the chocolate and the base tea – quite a bold black tea, too – but not the mint and coconut, whether it’s piping hot or warm.

Thank you, Green Terrace Teas, for a sample!

Gongfu method. Two 5 second rinses. Steeping intervals 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 45, 60.

The dry leaf is wonderful: beautifully rolled, lovely shade of green and brown. Its aroma has a summer air feel in that it’s both floral (lavender, peony, day lilies ) and grassy. The wet leaf aroma is intensely more vegetal, and also creamy and buttery. I could also smell squash.

At the first infusion the leaves have barely unrolled. The liquor has a very pale yellow color. It’s overall feel is medium-bodied and clear, and has sweet corn and floral notes. Second infusion aroma of the wet leaf smells of plum and rhubarb. The liquor itself is full-bodied and flavorful, even more buttery and creamy, and only a little floral. By the third infusion, the leaves have really begun to unfurl. The color of the liquor has turned to neon yellow (against a white porcelain cup). Again, creamy and floral. No more buttery note. I could taste spring, as if I were sitting on my front steps one sunny afternoon and breathing in the early blooming flowers.

The 4th, 5th, and 6th infusions – in which the leaves are totally open – are similar – clear in texture, floral, with a fruity aftertaste. The seventh infusion is still floral, but smooth. I narrowed down the aftertaste to peach. Lastly is eighth infusion, in which the leaves now begin yield a weaker floral note.

This tea sighed “Aaaaah spring!” throughout the session. It’s my first Ali Shan oolong and am delighted at that!

Very pretty and colorful dry leaf. And it has such a powerful citrus nose – there are lots of chunks of lemon and lime! I thought that the tea itself would likewise be as strong, but, strangely, it wasn’t. I let the leaves steep 8 minutes when I hot-brewed. The rooibos at least tastes good, and citrus always works well with rooibos. But even though I can taste the citrus it’s underwhelming. Cold-brewed (2 tsp, 16 oz, 18 hours), it’s even weaker. Kind of medicine-like too (the flavors, not the rooibos). I prefer this one hot-brewed. A nice relaxing late-night tea.

Thank you, Teavivre, for this sample!

I do like to drink tea with jasmine, but only every so often (at least a month in between) because it’s a scent and taste that I don’t want to become accustomed to it. I prefer to experience it as if I were having the first time. That said, this one heck of a jasmine green tea. The dry leaf smells freshly of jasmine and other flowers in full bloom. I felt like a honey bee enticed by nectar. The jasmine intensifies once the leaves haves steeped. There is something else in the aroma but I can’t put my finger on it. Freshly baked pastry with coconut or pineapple? Melon? The liquor is medium-bodied, the jasmine flavor light. Very pleasant.

The leaves are pretty and delicate. The dry leaf aroma is sweet and beany, and the color of the leaf is a muted slightly blueish green. Meanwhile, the wet leaf aroma is more vegetable and bitter, like a Japanese green, and the color of the leaf has become asparagus green, making these little eyebrows look like fresh vegetables, a little alive. Each infusion (1, 2, 3) yields a creamy and full-bodied liquor with notes of sweet uncooked beans. These notes don’t last long unfortunately – they turn somewhat flat after I let the liquor stay in my mouth for more than five or so seconds. But, with the finish, the transformation gets better. It tastes like cooked string beans and is a little astringent. Not a complex tea, but still enjoyable, especially on a mild summer day like today.