Rumpus Parable

No notes yet.

Actually, the more I drink this the more I think I may buy it. It truly is a nicely balanced tea.

Sweet and floral scent. The jasmine is present without being overwhelming, like some jasmine scented teas.

Taste-wise, this seems nicely balanced. Again the jasmine is not overwhelming and the white tea can be found in the flavor. There is a slight sweetness to it that is found in many whites, so far IME. It leaves the mouth watering a bit.

Another flavored tea I find I like in this set of samples. I doubt I’d buy it, but I’m glad I tried it. It gives me new hope in jasmine scented teas.

I accidentally made this with a little more tea than usual and a little too little water… so we’ll see how this goes.

The scent is very pleasant, a touch of sweet peach and a barely-there spice from the ginger. Cannot pick up the black tea’s scent other than as a solidity to the over-all smell.

The taste is very good, and I’m not one to usually like flavored teas. The black tea is not strong, it just holds the complete flavor together. The ginger makes for a vague spiciness along the mid tongue while the peach gives just a hint of balancing fruit tones.

No particular flavor stands out on this, rather they mix and balance very pleasantly. I’m glad the Steeper Select club sent me this as it’s one I wouldn’t have otherwise tried.

The scent of this is delicious. Honey and something elusive.

The flavor is very, very different from the smell. It is intensely floral almost to the point of tasting like perfume… there’s a slight acrid tone to it. None of the sweetness of the smell transfers over. The finish isn’t particularly pleasant.

It’s one I’m tempted to add Agave Nectar to, to sweeten it, and I rarely ever add anything to my tea. Not big on this one at all.

Very light scent. Has a honey note to it, light roasted tones.

Wow, the flavor of this has a lot of honey to it. It has a light toasted flavor through the back of the mouth and throat, with the honey through the middle of the tongue and mouth.

As it cools, the toasty/roasted flavor comes out stronger but the honey stays through the finish.

The finish has a lot of burnt taste to it as it gets cooler. The honey is still in the foreground during the sip, though. I wouldn’t think this to make a good iced tea.

Nice tea.

This one doesn’t have a strong scent at all.

The taste has a slight honey sweetness in the front and middleof the throat, with a roasted flavor in the back. It has only the mildest hint of “standard oolong flavor”.

This is a very sippable tea and I think my favorite of China Cha Dao’s so far.

This has a nice scent to it. Larger than the 2011 Da Hong Pao. It has the Oolong toasty scent with a teensy tiny bit of clover sweetness.

The taste also strikes me as stronger. A dark “Oolong flavor” with a taste of charcoal on the back of the tongue. An almost unnoticeable sweetness at the tip of the tongue now and then.

While I tend to like the darker and stronger Oolongs, this one isn’t for me. Nice tasting and definitely recommendable to others, but too much charcoal for my preferences.

This time made a new batch as per instructions.

Scent is much the same except I’m getting citrus from it.

The tea actually seems a little watery this time. The apple-cinnamon is still the main flavor and on the front of the tongue. There is a tart berry-ness in the back of the mouth when swallowing. The tiniest bit of floral notes come out around the sides of the mouth mid-sip and linger in the finish.

I like it better the way I made it before.

I didn’t make this per instructions given here as I made it before I came to this page and the bag didn’t have them on it.

The scent is all the things listed together: fruity, spicy, and floral. A bit of apple-cinnamon mixed with perfume mixed with a bit of sweetness.

The taste is light to medium in body. The apple-cinnamon is the main flavor but it’s not intense at all, really very light. There’s a tartness in the middle of the tongue. It has a short finish.

This is a flavored tea where the flavor is truly in the tea, not just smelled or hinted at. It is definitely a white and the other flavors are gentle in it. I like it and look forward to future cups, not sure if it’s a buyer or not. Maybe. We’ll see how I feel after this bit of it is gone.

Second steeping is better than the first. Taste is rounder and more mouth-filling. There is a touch of charcoal in it now, roasted seed/nut flavor has come up more.

Berry and sweetness are basically gone. This steep is a darker, richer one.

Oh and as it cools the flavor changes nicely, too. It’s becoming a touch floral and the texture is more chewy seeming. It also seems a bit darker in taste, too.

The scent is a rich and deep “oolong smell”, along with a barest hint of wood to it.

The taste is nicely roasted… it has a woodstove kind of taste to it. Lightly and not overwhelming, very nice. There is a slight sweetness to this, but it is very, very, very barely there. It’s more a thought than a taste.

There’s also something very barely fruity about this on the tip of the tongue when swallowing, but I can’t place what it is… maybe raspberry or blackberry.

I like this and would have it again. I’ll have to see what I think in the next couple steepings and on a second batch altogether, but this might be a buyer.

A thank you to RachanaC for sending this sample to me in trade!

This smelled good -that Pezy lemongrass smell that’s so yummy. But, the taste wasn’t great, in my opinion. I didn’t do more than take about 3 sips and decided I didn’t want to finish it. It didn’t particularly taste like lemon or lemongrass, it had something about it that when tasting just put me off straight away.

This has a semi-strong scent that is sort of “standard oolong” -nutty/seedy with a barely-there honey tone.

Tasting it, this one’s a little weird but in a good way. It has a good sized flavor, brown (maybe walnutty) taste around the back of the tongue, a typical oolong flavor in the center of the tongue and a slight clover sweetness. It also has a strong “something” that is good but I can’t describe.

Conclusions: I like it but doubt I’d buy it. It’s good, I’m glad I got to try it, but it’s not a wow-er. I look forward to trying the other samples as this one makes me think it’s possible there’s a “buyer” in there.

Oh, and I must add the they are very generous samples. Enough for a few cups, unlike some sample-senders, which is great as it can take me a few cups to really decide on a tea. Sometimes a second or third cup will take something from “meh” to “gotta have” or vice versa. These samples are enough to really explore the tea.

First steep: very green with a sweetness

Secod steep: a muddiness is coming out now. It tales like a muddy grass yard smells.

Third: it’s become lighter. A barely-there “generic tea” taste as the finish and sthe muddiness has turned to gravel dust.

So far I’d say this is a good tea but not a favorite in pu-erhs, for me.

This has a strong, sweet fragrance from a few feet away. It does indeed have a strong dairy scent, but I can’t place just of what sort.

The taste is sweet like cream and the mouthfeel is silky and filling. A bit like yogurt, without the tartness of the cultures in it.

This is such an unusual tea to me; I’ve not had a milk oolong before. Very weird and good.

Second steeping: the coffee scent translates some to the taste, now. Not strong or overwhelming at all, just as an aspect of the over-all flavor.

I bought this after loving another Sakura Sencha and being out of it, I decided to try this one.

I’m not going to rate this numerically yet because I need to tinker with temps and times, clearly.

So far I haven’t gotten it right. Because what I’m getting is truly not good. It’s so far been a rather unpleasant acrid green flavor. None of the rich green and sakura flavor I was getting from my other one… nor any of the lovely buttery mouthfeel… Just mediciney yuck.

It got better as went into the third steeping and dropped the temp down to 150F, so I’m hopeful that all I need to do is fiddle with this one a bit.

This has a strong coffee/cocoa scent that is very surprising.

The flavor is very… I don’t know. I can’t find the right words for it.

It’s sweet, but not your standard tip-of-the-tongue sweet… rather the sweet seems to be a round softness through the sides and back of the mouth when sipping.

It’s green without be green… I can’t locate any grassy, vegetable, or standard “green tea flavor”. But still, it’s lightly there on the side of the tongue at the end of the sip and swallow.

There’s almost a berry component up through the nose mid-sip. And maybe some hay in the ending, too.

This is a very strange one, I can’t describe it accurately as the taste is just so odd. Good, but odd.

Will need a few more cups, probably, before I decide if I like it well enough to buy.

First infusion: pretty muddy tasting. Really, it tasted like muddy creeks smell like. It wasn’t horrible, though -just weird to taste that so strong in a tea. It smelled and lightly tasted of fish. Got no sweetness from it.

Second infusion: Still smells and tastes a bit fishy/muddy. But this steep is much milder, with a bit of a pleasant but not quite sweet finish. I’m liking this more, we’ll see how the other steepings go.

No notes yet.

First, the little “stars” this tea is formed into are both beautiful and adorable. So much fun.

The steeped scent is very sweet in a berry sort of way with a touch of green.

When sipped hot, it has a coating berry taste along the back of the tongue and throat. Very distinct, very enjoyable. There is also a buttery mouthfeel behind the lips.

This actually reminds me some of the Sakura Sencha I recently had… the sencha buttery fullness in that tea.

This is one that loses it’s lovely “oomph” as it cools, best drunk while nice and comfortably hot.

The dry smells very fruity and good. The steeped tisane smells tarter… like goji and lemon with a faint hint of melon -so it’s smelling pleasantly like its ingredients. Good so far!

Brewed as prescribed, this is another tisane that comes across as a bit watery. It is pleasantly and lightly tart, with a citrusy-berry flavor that lingers a little.

It’s another for trades, for me. I don’t care for it enough to have any more but could see how someone into tisanes might like it.