KiwiDelight Send Message

It’s refreshing to have another one of Upton’s African teas after months of running out of my last. The dry leaf aroma smells unpredictably – and pleasantly – of apricot. The instructions suggest to allow the leaves to steep for 3 minutes, but I’ve found that I enjoy the cup more when I let them steep for only 1. In case of the former, the liquor is rusty gold, clear, medium-bodied, and astringent. It’s also quite malty, but so much that I felt I had to add milk and/or sugar. Following the latter steeping parameters, the liquor is truly golden. The malt is much, much lighter, even barely there. A bright muscatel flavor is able to emerge, and it lingers lightly on the tongue in the aftertaste.

I’ve been drinking green and herbal teas for weeks. I feel like I need a break and a good ol’ cozy Chinese black tea. Plus, it’s been chilly, overcast, and rainy here over the past couple days and it will be like that tomorrow. I don’t mind cold but where is the sun? :(

So I broke out Yezi’s Jin Jun Mei. Hands-down, one of my favorite Chinese blacks. The leaves are tiny, slightly twisty, hairy, and a mix of brown and tan (cute little things). I brewed them in Verdant’s test tube steeper, a perfect instrument to become acquainted with a tea’s nose and to smell this one’s wet leaf aroma, which so much like fudge brownies. The liquor is golden, fuzzy, silky, full-bodied, and flavorful; and is full of malt, chocolate, and honey goodness. Overall feel is a hug.

Stephanie was so generous to send me her other sample packet. The experience of this tea is very far from disappointing. The yellow-green dry leaf looks alive – as if they were never snipped from the stem – and its aroma is so full and fresh and vegetal. I can’t count how many times I stuck my nose in the packet before I finally took some leaves out to make some tea!

I brewed this using both Western and dragonwell style, and I very much prefer the latter (partially because dragonwell seems to taste better). The liquor is full-bodied, bright, clean, and refreshing. The flavors are typical (listed below) but – with this dragonwell in particular – are magnified, in that they taste fresher and stronger.

Received this in a swap from Stephanie. Thanks!! :D

I’ve been wanting to try this one for a while. A very good coconut green tea. The dry leaf smells great, a nice balance between the flavors, a light aroma. The liquor is medium-bodied, flavorful, and a little creamy. Unfortunately, the pineapple is somewhat overwhelmed by the coconut.

From the Teeny Tiny TTB.

The dry leaf – medium brown, twisty – smells smokey. I didn’t read this tea’s description until after I finished my cup, so I thought I was tasting some lemon/lime flavoring as well as peach the whole time. Very nice flavoring – strong yet light. It lingers long in the mouth after each sip. I let the liquor cool towards the end. This one tastes good both as hot and cold.

From the Teeny Tiny TTB.

The honeydew flavor is strong and very much resembles actual honeydew, but you can tell that it does smell and taste candy-like and artificial, especially when the liquor has barely cooled off after the brewing (tip – wait another few minutes so that the temperature is just above warm). The base tea – green rooibos – is a good a choice since it seems to be a tea that would cooperate with honeydew the best. I couldn’t taste the rooibos, but that seems like the objective considering a fruit like honeydew, which is delicate. I drank this slowly so that when I came to the last few sips the liquor was cool, and it still tasted nice. I bet this one would be very good for cold-brewing.

From the Teeny Tiny TTB.

Dry leaf: Inch to half inch-sized black leaves, slightly twisted and curled.
Dry leaf aroma: Chocolate, raisins.
Wet leaf aroma: Malt, chocolate.
Liquor: Golden, medium-bodied, clear, flavorful, malty, with hints of chocolate, honey, freshly baked bread.

From the Teeny Tiny TTB.

Came in a tea bag. The mint is very weak, the chocolate flavoring much more so. Even the base tea – red rooibos – didn’t taste that fresh.

From the Teeny Tiny TTB.

Lovely, colorful dry leaf: little curly Laoshan black tea leaves, bergamot pieces, and dark pink rose petals. It was nice to have a tea that actually has bergamot and not any flavor or fragrance – my first time actually. The aroma is quite strong, as if it were shouting BERGAMOT (a positive thing). The dark gold liquor is full-bodied and flavorful: the bergamot balances well with the malt and chocolate from the Laoshan black. Truly, this was such a pleasure to drink. Laoshan black works amazingly in blends. It took my mind off whatever what I was doing it was so good. But I couldn’t taste any rose, otherwise the rating would be higher. If anything the rose petals seem to be there just for aesthetic appreciation.

From the Teeny Tiny Traveling Tea Box.

The base leaf looks very pretty – little black tea leaves, slightly twisted, half dark brown and half golden. Chocolate dominates the dry leaf aroma, but both the chocolate and the orange stand out equally in the wet leaf aroma. Smells just like those orange-shaped chocolates you pound to separate the slices. Yum!

I brewed the leaves twice. The second was much better, taste-wise. The first, while still hot, was bitter, and the chocolate and orange began to appear only after the tea cooled to warm/warm-hot. For the second infusion, I let the leaves brew 7 minutes. After that time, the tea was lukewarm and the flavors and additional ingredients tasted their strongest at this point, particularly the orange zest. Full-bodied, brisk. No marshmallow detected either times.