Stephanie

Just a quick blurb before dinner:

Oh my god, this is cocoa tea!! Everything about this tea is cocoa-ish—from the dry leaves, to the brewed aroma, to the taste! It’s like bittersweet, malty cocoa. Gosh, how many times can I say “cocoa” in this note? But that’s the best thing I can compare this to. It’s smooth, slightly smoky cocoa. Please get this if cocoa (or chocolate) is your love!

I chose as my dessert tea tonight because I haven’t had it in awhile. I’ve amassed so many teas to sample since I first got this that it has fallen to the wayside. Poor neglected tea!

This is still yummy, but the overall flavor seems thinner and less robust than I remember. The cinnamon seems to have eaten up the raisin-y plummy taste! But that’s okay—I love cinnamon.

I may need to double up on the leaf next time to get more of the “raisin toast” flavor.

The fragrance of the dry leaves is wonderful!! A very creamy, rich jasmine tempered with the sweetest of vanillas. Once steeped, the scent deepens into a steamy, candied, hothouse orchid.

The taste is a pale version of the delicious scent. There is a sweetness with just a wisp of jasmine. The vanilla is apparent in the aftertaste—a syrupy tropical vanilla.

For me, this rates high because I’m in love with the aroma! It’s intoxicating. The tea itself is good—just remember to breath in deep with each sip—then it becomes extraordinary.

Hmm, the brewed scent is almost like sugared celery. I’ve never actually had celery with sugar—but it’s a fresh, stalky, sweet green aroma I’m sensing (strange for a black tea, I know). The sweetness deepens a little and gets toastier, upon cooldown. The vanilla has a soft and baked quality, but the flavor is faint. The black tea base is very mild and only slightly tannic.

This tea is fine. Nothing too extraordinary. An acceptable vanilla black tea.

A good choice for the conservative black tea drinker thinking to venture out unto flavored territory.

Savoring Jackee’s sweetness again, this morning. I wonder if this is a blend of Keemun teas or just a single estate or varietal? Something about this is special. I never knew I could appreciate a seemingly simple black tea as much as this! My eyes have been opened to the possibilities! I am currently in frantic acquisition mode ordering more Keemun teas to compare against this gold standard.

Very light green liquid. Aroma is reminiscent of freshly steamed spinach, overlaid with a mist of white flowers—like gardenias? Tastes like its scent—but more buttery? Hints of cream, even. As the liquid cools, the taste seems “thicker” — almost starchier — and richer flavors seem to appear — like newly boiled garbanzo beans and peas!

Interesting tea! I detected more flavors than I thought I would. A creamy medley of savory greens. I’m kind of hungry for some veggies now!

Edited to add: The white floral component really shines through, on the second steeping. It seems like the “veggie-ness” fades and becomes infused with gardenia petals!

On my second steeping (and as it cools), this takes on more and more of an orange-y taste. Not so much of a bergamot-citrus, but just indistinctly citrus. I wish I can distinguish the subtleties of the different black teas that were blended in here, but I can’t right now. My mind has decided to zone in on just the citrus!

I’m obsessed with Jackee.

I’m not particularly sensitive to caffeine, so I can safely enjoy Jackee in the evenings. It’s perfect, because evenings—the best evenings— are an introspective, contemplative time for me and Jackee serves as a good companion. Tonight, he mainly evokes antique pine bookcases, rows and rows of them. They are filled with with Old World books and scrolls (of course).

And I am in their midst, overwhelmed…..eating a sugared biscuit.

Appearance: Deep orange amber liquor. The leaves are long, dark and whole, when they’ve unfurled. A few are still attached to their twigs!

Scent: Nuts and brown maple leaves. Roasted chestnuts? A slight sprinkling of sugar.

Taste: Yum!! Definitely like roasted chestnuts! Simultaneously woodsy, leafy and sweet—like steamed sticky rice wrapped in banana leaves. A scattering of golden raisins?

Last Thoughts: I love it! I really enjoy the roasted, toasted quality intermingling with the sweet leafy-ness. I’m intrigued by the oolongs I’ve tried so far. I want to try more!
I just realized that I’m picking up nearly the same tastes as the Sugar Caramel Oolong! But this seems more “brown” than “green”—more cooked than fresh. They are both different yet similar. It’s an oolong thing, I guess. :)

Yummy blueberries!

I felt like having something fresh and fruity and this was perfect.
The unbrewed leaves are predominantly scented of gorgeous fresh blueberries. When brewed, the freshness turns stewed and baked—like warm blueberry muffins. The green tea is subtle and adds a slight grassiness. I’m envisioning a picnic of blueberry muffins under a tree on a grassy knoll in the springtime. There is a floral note—but it’s not strong and somehow enhances the fruitiness.

Oh I see a couple round blueberries bobbing about in the water! I forgot there was actual real fruit in here. It’s almost like I dropped fresh berries in myself—they’ve definitely plumped up from their original dessicated state.

I’ve kept the leaves steeping in my travel mug—so the overall taste is strong and astringent. But I still like it!

Edited to add: On the second steeping (or, in this case, topping off my mug with more hot water), the jasmine really comes out to play! The aroma is of lovely, creamy jasmine petals floating in a blueberry compote.

Have a bit of insomnia so I’m trying out this tea.

It’s what you’d expect from chamomile and lavender. The chamomile is apple-y and the lavender is herbally pungent—I’m reminded very strongly of rosemary chicken!

The two flavors are very distinct and very potent. I feel like I’m drinking a fresh bowl of potpourri! Like a lavender sachet. But I mean this in a good way—it’s not a stale, icky, dusty bowl of potpourri. It’s potpourri that’s been freshly picked and a bit sundried.

I may have brewed this too strong—2 heaping teaspoons in 12oz. with boiling water. My mug is practically filled with the tea/herbs.

(would you like some water with your herbs?)

I think I’m babbling now—must’ve kicked in!

Some quick impressions (typed up between stolen moments at work):

Scent: Faintly like fresh hay and green leaves. Some sweetness.
Taste: Sweet and refreshing!! Very root-like with some fresh green earth. This has been steeping for awhile in my travel mug, so the taste is a bit toasty too.

I really like this tea—I like its sweet earthy green-ness. And it looks strangely cool also—like little dusty green pebbles of tea. They stay predominantly pebble-y while brewing too, with just a couple here and there gaining the courage to unfurl.

On the second steeping, this smells like a snickerdoodle cookie—a very cinnamony snickerdoodle.

The good thing is is that this can be steeped for a very long time without bitterness! But I would say that the flavor only lasts up to three steeps. And beyond that, it tastes only like warm sugar water.

No notes yet.

I treat this tea with such irreverance, I’m almost afraid I might hurt its feelings! :)

But no matter how casually this matcha prepared, it stays delicious! Like today, for example, I tossed the tin in my bag and went to work. Once at work, I scooped out a plastic teaspoonful of the powder, threw it in my travel mug and filled it with hot water from the office water cooler. Then I put the lid on and shook it all up.

After allowing it a few minutes to cool, the end result is smooth, creamy, bittersweet green tea goodness! Everything I love about matcha is still here in spades. Yum!

Even from my limited experience, this seems like a very good assam. I only have one tea of the same type to compare it too and that is A&D’s Thomas Sampson.

This seems lighter bodied than TS. But the scent is very similar—malty and Guinness-like…a bit biscuity. The color is a deep, very reddish amber. The taste is all malt, slightly sweet and bready—but very astringent and drying in the mouth.

I like it, it’s very good to have with a heavy meal—but I’m not sure I would choose this over A&D’s assam, for some reason. Although, wouldn’t it be funny if they both came from the same estate?

Today, along with the usual pu’erh-type oceanic-like earthiness, I’m detecting some sweetness. A “clear” sweet — like plain white sugar that was just dissolved in hot water with no chance to caramelize. I’m sensing this on my second steeping.

How interesting to get salt-water taffy from a pu’erh!

I’m enjoying another mug of this fine tea and basking in my newfound love for Jackee.

I know this is old news to everyone else (and I am clueless sometimes) but I just realized, on my own , that this is Keemun tea! Just like Thomas is an Assam. I knew their names were significant—A&D is so clever with words. :)

So I’ve been reading up on keemun tea. And thought I’d save this little snippet of information for myself (found on thenibble.com’s tea glossary):
“Keemun: A fine grade of black China Congou tea produced in the Anhui province in central China, typically hand rolled and fired. [It]….is smooth and medium-bodied with notes of fresh pine and brown sugar.”

And such a fine specimen of keemun Jackee is!

Appearance: Brews up very dark—a deep, rich amber.

Scent: Hints of cocoa and malt with a berry-ish edge.

Taste: Surprisingly mild. Not much of the “bite” that I expected from a “robust breakfast tea”. Slight astringency.
(Reads the GM label) —No hazelnuts. Maybe a bit of prune and cherry. There is an underlying honey-sweetness reminiscent of A&D’s Jackee Muntz!
(Adds a touch of milk, per GM’s recommendation) —hmm, I taste only milky black tea. The subtle nuances of flavor have been drowned out by milkiness. May have been too much milk. But the astringency is gone (of course).

Overall, this is a serviceable breakfast tea. A black tea that will not “scare” anyone. Very likeable, pleasant and mellow.

Yum…I’m liking this tea more and more! Even with no special steeping procedure (I just threw about a teaspoon and a half in my travel mug and poured in boiling water) the taste is mild, woodsy, slightly smoky and sweet! Not overtly bitter or astringent. Very pleasant.

Jackee Muntz, I think I love you more than Thomas! At least for now. ;)

I wanted an “Earl Grey Latte”, so I added a good amount of milk to this but, for some reason, it made the flavor taste artificial and “tinny” (especially the vanilla). Maybe I should’ve brewed it stronger by adding more leaf? I already used 2 1/2 teaspoons in a tall mug (maybe 10 oz).

Lowering the scale a bit on this one. I think I oversteeped it or something because the rose flavor was just a little too overpowering for me, this time.

But maybe my tastes have changed.

I steeped this strong and for a very long time (like 10 minutes!), added some cream and it was yummy! Like a smoky, cocoa-cinnamon tea latte.

Used up the last of my tin and added some matcha. Tasted a bit too thin, vegetal and decidedly un-toasty. It’s like the best part of each tea was “cancelled out” instead of enhanced. Maybe there’s an art to creating a proper “Genmaicha Matcha-Iri” than just tossing the two together.