Rellybob

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Deep breath…Here goes my first puerh!! I am excited! Thanks to Teavivre for the sample!

I snip open the sample packet and take a deep whiff. Very surprising! I was greeted by a wonderful savory, mushroomy, brothy aroma. The anticipation is really building now, I absolutely love mushrooms!
I measure out 4 teaspoons for my 12 oz glass cup and set the water to boil. I rinse for 15 seconds; pour off and steep for one minute.
The liquor smells much like the dry leaves. It is a very dark reddish brown. My mouth is watering!
I take a sip. And another. Right now it’s so hot I can barely stand to sip it but I can’t stop myself. It tastes like it smells- like buttery mushrooms. Actually reminds me of the mushroom onion soup they serve at Japanese Hibachi restaurants. Without the onion.
As it cools I am getting less sautéed mushroom and more earthy mushroom. This is my first earthy tea. Interesting! The more I sip, I like.
Whoa..the next sip the broth factor really amped up. It is salty and nummy! Holy carp, and there’s a savory juiciness that stands up as the aftertaste.
This tea really reminds me of something and I can’t pinpoint it! It reminds me of home, i think. Home cooking in Minnesota..visiting Grandpa and Grandma at the northwest angle..eating Grandpas amazing food outside next to Lake of the Woods..I think I have it. It tastes like my Grandparents’ log cabin smells. And it really reminds me of a wonderful fish soup a Laotian friend made me once. The liquor isn’t fishy tasting, but for some reason it brings me there. I think it’s the saltiness.
2nd steep: 1:45 seconds. It’s pretty similar to the first steep ( which is good) so I am going to try an experiment with sweetener and milk. Which is unusual for me, I almost always drink my tea plain nowadays. …I like it with a bit of raw sugar, the sweetness is more in the aftertaste. Now for the milk..and it’s delicious.
Well, I’m pretty happy. I won’t rate it until I have had the opportunity to try more puerhs. But if you’ve never had puerh before, and you like mushrooms, try this!

Finishing off what I have left. I’ve had a lot more Oolongs and jasmines since I first had this, and I’m interested to see if I still like it so much.
AND…
I don’t. Its still tasty, but now I’m getting the bitter aftertaste others have mentioned with this tea. Combine that with the fact that the jasmine doesn’t have much staying power, and I’m going to have to drop the rating.
I’m still happy I tried this tea. Teavana introduced me to jasmine tea, and loose leaf in general. It does have a nice sweetness on the front of my tongue.

So, what I really wanted was to finish off my sample of Yunnan Jasmine White from Verdant. But then my hoarding mode kicked in..SAVE IT!!! For when you really need it! So, I am trying the Jasmine Phoenix Pearls from Adagio again instead. Because its one of those nights when I just need some jasmine tea.
Last time I followed Adagios directions and I found it incredibly pungent, so this time I followed the standard green tea rules. One minute steep, 175 degrees. And it is MUCH better. I think jasmine should be fragrant and flavorful, but also delicate. This hit the spot tonight. Not as good as the yunnan white, but still a wonderful sleepy time tea. Upping the rating a bit. When treated gently, you can get multiple good infusions out of these pearls. JUST DON’T FOLLOW ADAGIOS DIRECTIONS. :)

Edit: Holy cow this tea is sensitive to temperature and steep time. Second steep I went for close to two minutes and it was a bit bitter. Keep the subsequent steeps short as well as the first one!

I think I like it better iced, as Spoonvonstup suggested. Thank you! It’s still not my favorite, but I will enjoy what I have left.

This tea is beyond good. This is the best jasmine I have tasted. I actually GIGGLED while sipping it. I was expecting greatness, but I wasn’t expecting the wonderful white tea base to come through so much. It’s actually CREAMY. Creamy and jasmine together equals epic win. And there’s more!! This tea is sweet. Stealing from someone else, it reminds me of powdered sugar, plus vanilla. Creamy vanilla jasmine powdered sugar. Da bomb.
Because of my husband-induced limited tea budget( he just doesn’t get tea yet..he’s proving to be difficult to convert lol) I normally would have never ordered this tea. Now, I can’t resist. Thanks, David, for including this as a sample in my last order. Meant with sarcasm. :P No, really, if you like jasmine or even if you don’t like jasmine, try this tea.
As this is a yunnan, I am still getting that linen aftertaste I’ve described before as not enjoying. But I can’t get over this tea. It’s indulgent, luscious, and exquisite.

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This is amazing. Very sweet, and I am absolutely getting the description of bananas and brown sugar. I thought that was a weird description but strangely enough, that’s what it tastes like. I am a sucker for naturally sweet tea, so I am impressed!

Second time I’m trying this and I like it much better. Upping the rating!

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This is different from any tea I have ever tasted. I think I now understand what ‘linen’ means. I am not sure if I like it or not. I don’t hate it but I think this one is going to be a bit of an acquired taste for me. I feel terrible not loving it as much as all the cool kids do. :( I’ve tried it Western style and jingshan style. I will continue messing with steep times to see if my opinion changes. I think the biggest problem I have is that linen taste and mouthfeel..I will leave the rating off for now. Next attempt will be western style but with about half the steep time.

Okay, having tried it the above way I like it much better. Still leaving the rating off until I ‘get’ this one.

My last note on this tea was short and I’m still finding it difficult to describe why I like this tea so much. It’s super smooth, leaves a very pleasant sweetness on my tongue and lasts for several infusions. Zero bitterness. In later infusions there’s some citrus notes. It’s just..good. Maybe someday I’ll be able to get into more detail but at the moment I’m just reveling in oolong goodness.

Edit: dropped the rating just a little bit. I didn’t get as many steeps as I remembered from the first time I had it. Still nummy.

This is one of those teas that lists ‘natural flavoring’ as one of the ingredients. I hate that. At least tell me what it is! Even better, use actual spices! .. I’ve had this tea in my cupboard for a long time. I used to work at Starbucks and by the end of my three years there I was almost completely switched over to tea. Instead of getting a free lb of coffee every week I got a tin of tea. That coffee smell is amazing at first, but after you get home and even your hair soaked up that smell, it’s actually pretty gross. Anyway, this tea is okay. I remember being blown away when I first tried it but now it just seems ‘meh’. Not a whole lot of body, or flavor. And now I can taste the ‘natural flavor’. Makes it taste a bit chemical.
I think the reason this was always so good is because I always drank it in latte form, with piles of whole milk foam and a little vanilla syrup. With whole milk and raw sugar it just isn’t the same. You can make lots of mediocre things taste incredible with some perfectly steamed foam. :D Can you tell making foam was my favorite thing to make and eat at Starbucks? it’s pretty much the only thing I miss.

I like it. It smells better than it tastes; but the taste is still, erm, tasty. The hibiscus is there but I didn’t find it too tart. The flavor I picked up on most, other than the hibiscus, is the clove. It will be a good nighttime tea as it has no caffeine. I have a hard time finding herbal teas that I like so this makes me happy.

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I was so excited to try this. I love both oolong and jasmine, and I especially like it when there’s no added artificial flavoring. Well this tea did not let me down! The only sad thing is this tea is now discontinued. :( I have will have to restrain myself from hoarding what I have so it doesn’t go stale on me; I have a tendency to do that. “This is so good, I need to save it!” and then you wait forever to eat or use it and it’s not good anymore. :P Anyway, on to the tea:

The jasmine undertone is perfectly done here. It accents the oolong’s floral notes but never awkwardly overpowers, altho I can definitely taste it. I can’t, however , taste the other ingredients, but that’s okay. I like it! The oolong itself leaves a wonderful silky coating in the mouth.

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First, THANK YOU to Teavivre for the sample!

I like this very much. I think the ‘milk’ part is more in the mouthfeel and maybe a little in the aroma. The flavor is vegetal, floral, and even a little fruity. The flavors of a good, typical oolong! It changes as it cools, which is one of my favorite things about tea. It tastes so different just a couple minutes later!

Back to the mouthfeel..it absolutely coats your mouth, especially when it’s cooling. The floral notes linger; it’s sweet. That heavy mouthfeel Is just so, so wonderful. Drinking bagged tea I had no idea tea could taste like this!

This is my first Dong Ding, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. The first time I brewed it I followed their directions of two tsps per cup, and I found that to be too strong for me; I was reading other reviews and thinking, I’m not getting any of the lightness they’re talking about. Or much floral, I was mostly getting vegetal. So I tried it with half the leaves and I like it much better! The mouthfeel is still really silky, and I’m getting more of the floral, and maybe even some of the butteriness others have mentioned. This resteeps very well. I am glad I got to try this! The really nice mouthfeel could be addicting!

Thanks to Teavivre for their generous sample sizes! It’s so nice to be able to play around with it a bit to fit personal taste!