LENA

Having a quick cup before I leave the office for the year!!! I really love this tea although it’s not the most holiday minded. It is very pleasing to the stomach and I love the super roasted taste. It also shares a coffee-like quality in the bitterness. I also think it tastes like a puffed wheat cereal as some other reviews noted. I’m interested in trying this iced, but I think I’ll wait for a little warmer weather before I do so.

I hope everyone has a lovely, joy-filled holiday! Take care and see you on Steepster in the new year! :)

My love of all things roasted and toasted has lead me to a tin of this tea. The look of the dry “leaves” was a little startling after spending the last year looking at quality tea leaves. Of course I know what Houjicha consists of…but still, the tea is pretty ratty looking to say the least. The tin contained mostly ragged leaf fragments and a good portion of sticks and stems. It smells kind of like a puffed cereal…and roasted tree bark. Houjicha has an interesting, comforting flavor to me. It’s one of those teas that seem so simple and plain but the taste ends up being complex and reassuring.

I’ve had this tea both hot and cold and both are lovely in their own way. The hot tea made my stomach feel nice and warm and settled. I can totally see why it would be used as a digestive aid. Houjicha has that tummy-friendly feeling as well as a unique roasted, nutty flavor. Not medicinal…but helpful and tasty. When the tea was chilled it had a nice mix of nuttiness, deep malt and a lingering sweetness. I must say that I’m a fan. And it’s technically green tea…not my usual oolongs or black teas. Yay! I can’t wait to try other Houjichas, but for the time being, this suits me just fine.

I’ve been on a little tea hiatus as of late. Well, kinda sort of. I’ve been super busy with my new craft projects and of course my regular 9 to 5. More like 7:30-4:30, but I digress. This morning I needed a hot cup of goodness to wrap my sore hands around. I’ve recently been working on a really big stained glass project, and my hands are worn out. The little cuts are one thing, but the amount of pressure you have to put on your fingertips is currently what’s getting to me.

Anyway, on to the tea. It’s nothing flashy, but I’m ok with that. The roasted flavor is mild and pleasing. I’m picking up earthy and mineral-y qualities. I also taste a little note of wood over the earthiness. It’s nothing at all like the woody taste of rooibos, but more of a “leaves and bark” taste. :) There is a slight puckering of astringency, but overall very simple and balanced. Nothing too complex or in your face, just a basic oolong. I’ll be re-steeping a few times and hopefully finishing up this sample. Easy does it.

The holiday madness will soon begin.

I swear this tea tastes different every time I drink it. This time I tasted notes of leather, spicy tobacco, smoke and minerals. It wasn’t unpleasant…just different from the last time I made a cup. Admittedly, I steeped the heck out it. Probably a good 8 minutes at least. It was dark! I’m sure it would have been better if I could have focused a little more on tea and less on being pulled 10 different directions at the office. I used boiling water again, since it had such nice results last time. I’m off to make another cup of this ever evolving tea. But this time I’ll use my tea timer!

Weak lemon water. Not horrid-tasting but lacking so much flavor, I’d rather just drink a glass of water. I’m a big fan of lemongrass, but this must only have a tiny sprinkle. Blah.

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YUM YUM YUM! I was not expecting such a delicious oolong. I have a feeling that this tea could provide a lot of diversity in taste. Since I had such yummy results using boiling water with Samovar’s Wuyi Dark Roast, I went straight for the boiling water first. Apparently it was a good idea. I love it! I think the boiling water intensifies the roasted flavor. The liquor is dark amber. The taste is smooth and certainly robust…very flavorful for a dark oolong. The roasted notes are very prominent. I’m also picking up soba and a light sweetness like mild honey. There is also an earthy stoutness. I think if this tea was steeped at a lower temp and time, that it would yield a much different result. Milder and perhaps a little sweeter with heightened notes of orchid. I’ll have to play around with it. As it stands now, this is a power packed oolong…and great for breakfast.

Thank you TeaEqualsBliss for such a fantastic sample! :)

I can’t say that I’m a fan. The vanilla smell is barely present and smells artificial. (The vanilla smell was stronger as the tea cooled.) The vanilla in the taste is very subdued and only present in the background. It’s just ok. I steeped for the recommended 4 minutes. While the flavor of the tea is light to me, I think steeping longer would yield a very bitter cup. I should have added milk and sugar to help doctor it up. Oh well. It’s better than no tea at all. This wasn’t bad…just “meh”.

I mentioned in a past tasting note that this tea reminds me of tasting honeysuckle with my Grandfather. It’s a really great memory…one of the countless memories I have of him. I lost him this Saturday, so I’m drinking this tea and thinking of him.

Mmmm! I love it! This is a great everyday tea.

It’s still super hot (over 90 degrees) in the afternoon, but our mornings and nights in Tennessee are starting to cool down. One of my favorite things to do is to sit out on my back deck on a cooler morning and drink my tea while reading a book. I can already see myself clad in a hoodie and yoga capris drinking this tea in the aforementioned scenario. Probably barefoot. Yep, I think that sounds about wonderful.

This tea is everything that has been mentioned before. Very malty and raisin-y. I’m drinking the tea without any additives, but the idea of adding brown sugar is appealing. I wouldn’t add too much because the tea is already naturally mild and slightly sweet. I’m not picking up any bitterness at all. Overall, this is a very pleasant cup and I look forward to a few more steeps.

And yes, I just added Hong Jing Luo to my shopping list.

I’m back from my Low Country vacation. I spent the last nine days eating some of the most wonderful foods and relishing in architectural and natural beauty. I even found a few tea shops. We started in Savannah, GA, then on to Charleston, SC and finally Murrells Inlet, SC. I’m very excited to try some of my new tea finds, but first I have some samples to sample.

This tea threw me for a loop. Just from judging the dry leaves and the smell, I thought this was going to be too green of an oolong for me. The dark green leaves were tightly rolled and smelled lightly vegetal with an underlying roasted note. The look and smell made me question my purchase, as I tend to stay away from green oolongs. The first steep didn’t quite unfurl all of the tea, so I knew I was in for multiple infusions for sure.

After tasting, my previous judgments went right out the window. This isn’t a dark roasted tea…more of a light roast on the verge of “almost medium”. The nutty flavor is there and I swear I taste a little sweet cinnamon-y note right before the aftertaste kicks in. This only happened on the first two infusions when the tea was screaming hot…not after it cooled. The description mentioned notes of sobacha and Houjicha (both of which I love), but I think these flavors are reserved for darker roasted teas. The tea finishes sweetly and with a slight pucker of astringency. The sweetness in the smell and taste remind me of orchid and honey although subdued. The more infusions, the sweeter and more astringent the tea becomes. The roasty toasty taste vanishes. This would be a good starter tea for those that like greener oolongs but wish to venture into darker and roasted oolongs.

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This is great for tea on the run.

I thought it would be a typical black tea in a teabag…bitter, overly flavored, cloying. Not so! I’m happily surprised. The sides and string of the tea sachet look crocheted. It’s very cute. The tea itself is naturally sweet and perfume-y. The orange and vanilla yield a smooth and creamy taste. The aftertaste is very creamy! The orange flavor is very mellow, not sour at all…but kind of artificial. Other reviews note that this tea reminds them of Earl Grey and I have to agree. The tea seemed a little too light for me to add milk and sugar but it’s fine on its own. It’s won’t knock your socks off but it’s better than no tea at all.

Well, it turns out that I really needed to follow the instructions on the packaging. I’ve been playing around with this tea at my office with minimal results on the “tasty meter”. It turns out that this oolong truly needs the boiling water to make it sing. Previous efforts yielded decent yet average results in the 70-75 range. Kind of bland…not what I expect from Samovar. The tea tasted more like charcoal than “roasted”. The phrase, “Taste the meat, not the heat” comes to mind. No matter how long I steeped, I ended up with blasé charcoal water.

Boiling water made all the difference.

Everything about the tea improved. The smell, the taste, the color of the liquor…all drastically heightened. The liquor is darker, the taste more complex. Now Samovar’s description is making sense. Earthy (I’m guessing this is where the peat notes come in), nutty (especially in the aroma), light barley…but more charcoal-y in my opinion. Much more robust! Now we’re talking! Sometimes it pays to follow the instructions.
But not always. :)

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It’s everything I ask for in a tea.

Perfect and delicious. How do they do it?

Flavorful and complex but so easy to drink…on a daily basis.

No more typing. I’m going to focus on the tea and drink, drink, drink.

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I’ve been looking forward to trying this tea for quite some time.

It’s a little underwhelming to be honest. The leaves smell sugary; like catching a whiff of butterscotch candy. The flavors are light but prevalent. The oolong base is just ok. It could have used a little more oomph. I wish they would have used a slightly darker oolong. Sugar and caramel flavors on top of a light to medium roasted oolong would have been divine. I bet it would taste like a toasty crème brulee. Mmm.

This is a decent tea, but it didn’t knock my socks off. Maybe I played it up too much in my head. Big thanks to Ricky for letting me sample it! My wallet just gave a sigh of relief.

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I’ve found a green tea that I like!!! Actually, I really like it! I picked this up at the Whole Foods in Winston Salem, NC. I’ve been working in NC since Monday morning and just got back today. Yay!

I was upset that Whole Foods didn’t have Ito En’s Golden Oolong (my favorite of theirs) and picked this out purely due to the “roasted” aspect. I’m not a green tea lover. I’ve tried to like it. I want to like it. But I just…don’t. I will say that I enjoy green tea blends. But frankly, the components in the “blend” usually mask most of the green tea flavor. Samovar’s Moorish Mint comes to mind. I love that blend…and it contains green tea. But do I taste it? No, not really. I’ve found that if I think of straight up green tea as a broth or veggie soup of some sort, I can usually finish most of the cup. I’m just not into the vegetal taste.

Anyway, I was brave and picked up this Green Hoji. It doesn’t taste like a typical green tea at all. Very roasted, coffee notes…no vegetal taste at all. It smells like burnt peanuts…and I mean that in the best of ways. It also smells and tasted kind of like that puffed wheat breakfast cereal. There is a bitterness, but it’s not an over-steeped type of bitterness. It works for the tea. It’s rich, dark roasted, peanutty, puffed wheat goodness. As far as bottled teas go, this one is a real winner.

I’ll be sure to seek out roasted green teas in the future.

This tea is all about the malt.

The leaves are pretty…like little black and gold threads. The dry leaves have a very potent smell. Sharp and malty. The smell is so powerful; I backed off the steeping time a little because I thought the tea would be too strong.

The initial taste is very flavorful, but all malt. Then, somehow, it disappears and the tea is just…tea. One second “malt explosion”…the next second “plain, regular tea”. There isn’t any of the chewy, caramel or raisin-y qualities that I somewhat expected. This is a perfect example of a tea that “needs more cowbell”. It’s a good tea. It’s just missing a little something extra to make it stand out. Hunan Black Buds is too thin…barely “medium bodied” in my opinion. I don’t think this tea could ever be bitter, no matter how long you steeped it. Big points for that. I’ll continue to play around with the parameters and see what happens. This isn’t a tea failure; it’s just a little disappointing.

Monday morning tea success!

And much needed too! My office Bigwig will soon be arriving. You know the type, right? The Bigwig lives in a totally different state and has no idea how to do your job, yet is in charge of “suggesting” and then implementing their ideas on how to do your job better. Of course their “suggestions” only add to the number of steps you already take to do the exact same thing…thus causing a major pain in your butt and making you wish you could transport them back to their office…or better yet, some awful frozen tundra of doom? Yeah, I thought so.

So, how about this tea? :)

My first whiff of the liquor resulted in mostly roasty toasty notes, but also a light fruit smell. I’m not quite sure what type of fruit it is, but it’s juicy smelling. That’s right…juicy smelling. That same juicy note comes over in the taste as well, albeit in the aftertaste. The taste progression goes a little something like this: roasty toasty, mineral-y, OOLONG, juicy. The juicy effect actually made my mouth water. Crazyness. I’ve never had a roasted oolong quite like this one. It’s quite delicious. I’m glad I ordered a large tin. Nom nom nom!

More H&S to come!

In honor of today’s Steepster Select, I’m drinking a cup of Dancong Aria. I honestly didn’t know that I had any until I noticed the “in cupboard” icon lit up. Oh cool…tea that I don’t remember buying. A sure sign of owning way too much leaf! :)

Dancong Aria is…different. It has a natural sweetness but also slips into a dryness like a white wine. There is sharpness to the smell and taste that I do not care for. Maybe it’s the notes of orchid? It’s just…“ok” in my book. sips Man, that astringency is killer. Dancong Aria is not smooth. I’ll just put this back into my “to be swapped” drawer.

On a happier note, I love reading all of the interviews for Adagio’s Roots Campaign. I wish more companies would do this. The tea tastes a little better if you know the story and people behind it.

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