Uniquity

I got a sample of this one with my last Teavivre order as it sounds like the sort of thing I would enjoy. The beau and I steeped it up this afternoon and I was pretty enticed by the aroma. Hello cocoa! I love a good natural cocoa note. The beau finds it smells earthy which I can understand, but for me it’s cocoa all the way in the dry smell.

Rather than doing this in the gaiwan as I usually would, we’re doing this western style as this has been the weekend of tea, relaxing and video games. I’ve been playing Alice Madness Returns while the beau alternates between Silent Hill Downpour and R.U.S.E. I’ve also gotten halfway through the newest Carlos Ruiz Zafon book today (Prisoner of Heaven) and I am LOVING it. It’s nice to have a weekend of our favourite things after the hustle and bustle of December.

Back to the tea! Steeped 2.5 minutes, I have an incredibly fragrant cuppa. It smells like bakers chocolate or even just cocoa powder. I am not a dark chocolate person but I LOVE cocoa notes in tea. The depth of the smell is impressive, it seems extremely rich.

First sips are smooth and rich, not as bold as the aroma had led me to believe but still an excellent quality black tea. I still get cocoa but I’m not picking out anything else at the moment. It’s bold without being bitter and has a sweet smoothness at the end of the sip. This is a great infusion and I think I can probably get a couple more out of this sample. When I do another Teavivre order, I think this one will be on there. Very nice!

I’d like to brew it side-by-side with Bailin Gongfu and see if they are as similar as my memory leads me to believe. I have been stocking the Bailin but this may be better…

This is one I received in my box o’ tea from Liberteas via teatra.de a year or so back. As is frequently the case with me, my eyes were bigger than my stomache and I’ve only made a small dent in the bounty of tea she provided. Looking for a black tea this afternoon I stumbled across this one and the aroma appealed to me. I’ve only ever had one or two other adagio teas and I remember the black tea base to be very finicky so this got a precise 2.5 minutes, just in case.

The dry aroma put me in mind of caramel or vanilla, which fits with the flavourings this has (rum and cream, I believe?) Anyway, very appetizing aroma in the dry leaf whcih translates well to the steeped liquor. Deep brown and with similarly caramel/cream aroma. There’s an aspect to the steeped scent that makes me think this might get bitter, hopefully that doesn’t come through. From afar the cup puts off an aroma of burnt sugar, almost reminiscent of a creme brulee.

First sips yield a strong breakfast tea taste – not bitter but certainly bold. I’m not much of a ‘breakfast tea’ person as they tend to feature the bolder black teas that I don’t yet appreciate, but this one is muted a bit by the sugary flavours I am getting. I wouldn’t call it cream, but there is a sweetness that presents at the end. There is some distinct maltiness going on here, they might be Indian teas? I am starting to get some bitterness as I get deeper in the cup, this is one that would benefit from a slight stir of honey, I think. I don’t like to add anything to my teas but this one is so bold I think it needs it

Half a straw of grapefruit agave later, I have a much nicer cup though I have definitely changed the composition. I find agave to be super sweet and that is definitely present now, the cream has been smothered by the flavoured agave. The bitterness/maltiness are more bearable but it is still astringent with my tongue feeling dry after sipping.

While this tea isn’t exactly my thing, it is pretty nice and I am infinitely grateful to have tried it. Plus it gave me an excuse to use the grapefruit agave in something other than matcha. :)

As an aside, I’ve been drinking all my tea lately in my Japanese Latte Mugs from Davids Tea which I absolutely love. The first time Davids had them it was $50 for the 4 so I admired them from afar but they came back in the fall/winter for onlr $20 for the set. Yay! I think they’re absolutely wonderful

Not sure when I bought this one but the beau and I are brewing it up today. At first I thought it was an herbal, but apparently there is a bit of white tea in there somewhere. Tea is the 5th ingredient listed though, so it can’t be much! For Davids to charge $11.75/50 g for a glorified herbal is kind of outrageous, and helps explain why I only bought 10 grams. I like Davids in general but that is just ridiculous.

All 10 of those grams steeped in our pot for about 4 minutes in 90 degree water. The resulting brew is pink from the hibby and rosehips though the aroma is sweet, like the brown sugar crust on an apple crisp. I’m not necessarily picking up rhubarb or strawberry in the aroma, but crumble is there for sure. That’s actually pretty impressive. I’m picking up some serious cinnamon which is worrying but this blend also has rock sugar in it so I am hoping the cinnamon, hibby and sugar balance each other out.

This smells much better than the strawberry rhubarb parfait from Davids that I had over Christmas…The cost is still bothering me, but the smell is divine. First sips are sweetened cinnamon, hint of fruit and then smooth sugar, like I’m eating rock candy. Well, I guess I kind of am. There is a build-uip of sweetness and pastry which I really like but I’m not getting the fruit like I might hope. I love strawberries and always want strawberrty tea to hit me over the head. This doesn’t do that, but it does a very good sweet fruity crumble. I’m not picking up any white tea, but that’s to be expected with the ingredients this has.

In the end I definitely can’t get over the cost (for shame!) but this is really nice. Flavour is a 70 – 75 but cost to flavour is closer to a 30. Glad to have tried it but I definitely won’t be getting more.

As the cup cools the hibby starts taking over so I shall take my leave and finish the rest of the cup. The beau is playing the God of War Ascension demo and I am considering some Just Dance 4 when he is finished. I love the dancy games, but this one is really rocking my socks. I have goals to accomplish, I love that sort of thing!

Enjoying some of the remains of this sample which was generously supplied by SimplyJenW many moons ago. I remember really liking it and hoarding the remains for some sort of good tea apocalypse. Steeped, the liquor is a light orange, I’m surprised at how light it is, actualy. The aroma is very bold with a strong cocoa note and a sense of bitterness, but that could be the cocoa I’m picking up on.

First sips yield a bold rich cocoa that quickly morphs into a sweet note with a hint of spice in there. Cinnamon is my first thought, as it so frequently is. It’s like I am drinking three distinct things but they are coming through in that order. This is even more remarkable than my memory of it led me to believe. I am getting absolutely no bitterness and not any discernible astringency, just cocoa, something sweet and something cinnamon. Fantastic!

I just looked this up on the Harney site and though it is definitely a delicious tea I was surprised at the price. $20 for 2 oz is about $20 for 50 grams – it is definitely good, but that price is unbelievable. For $10/ounce I would probably rather pick up some Verdant Tea but I am really glad to have this sample still. Thanks again SimplyJen!

I was digging through some samples at home and brought a number of them in to work to finish up (eventually). This is one I got from Bulk Barn over a year ago but it still smells of juicy black currants despite poor packaging. I’m impressed! I also did a naughty thing yesterday and ordered some Black Currant from Tea Forte with a coworker so I was really jonesing for some currants! I’ve only ever had currant flavoured things and I’ve never seen, smelled or tasted a real currant but this tea when brewed still smells just like those Simpkins Black Durrant Drops that I loooove. I understand currants to be more of a UK thing? They don’t seem very popular here in North America.

Anyway, the tea! As I say, the aroma is like the candies though the taste has muted with the passing of time and bad storage. I’m also picking up a weird note that seems to have seeped through the whole basket from some other tea. That’s disappointing, but to be expected. While I remember this tea as very juicy and flavourful it is now an echo of that. Oh well, my fault. I will enjoy the remainder and eagerly look forward to the Tea Forte Black Currant which I hope will be lovely!

Seems I am re-enjoying a number of teas lately that I haven’t had in +/- a year. I really need to keep busting my stash…I’ve busted enough so far that I want to buy more but it’s totally not practical. Thank heavens winter is upon us. It’s tea drinking season in Canada!!

The beau and I brewed a pot of this tonight to enjoy while unpacking after returning home from 11 days of family and Christmas vacation. While there were some tough moments (our car was wrecked, the beau got walking pneumonia and of course the obligatory awkward family moments) it was an excellent set of visits. I miss my family a lot, and I rarely get to see my Mum and brothers on that side so visiting is huge for me. Of course, this is why we finally got a car and then that got ruined, but if nothing else I will see them all in less than five months for our wedding!

Anyway, the tea. It’s a servicable monk’s blend. There is some bitterness that creeps up on it, so I steep it 2.5 to 3 minutes and it comes out well. There is some sweetness and almost a sense of cream but it doesn’t really come through. The liquor is a bit thinner than the other Monk’s Blend I have but it’s still really nice. The black tea could be a bit more present but since that is the likely source of bitterness I don’t mind it hiding. I’m not really sure what constitutes a Monk’s Blend – this is definitely something to look into. Later. :) For now, it’s back to doing sudoku while the beau plays Silent Hill Downpour. I keep wanting to turn the volume down and he isn’t even at the scary parts yet. I’m a wimp!

EDIT to add: I just re-read my tasting note from last year. It’s weird how I get different impressions at different times. Today I get bitterness and wish for more cream/depth where last time it was the opposite. Still no pomegranate though..

After a surprising number of cups my twenty gram sample is almost entirely gone and I am left with a slightly higher opinion than when I started. I am not one to add sugar or milk to my tea but 1/8 teaspoon of sugar really knocks out the sense of bitterness and astringency that this cup can develop when you are not looking. The black tea flavour is relatively familiar and puts me in mind of my fathers beloved bagged teas. More muscat would make a huge improvement but this is a cheap(ish) second flush so I guess I might be asking a bit much of this one. When I am drinking it I don’t feel the need to restock but when I am just thinking about it I can’t decide for sure. I think what I really want to do is get 100 grams of Wild Yunnan Black as I was hoping I get some for Christmas but I didn’t. Alas. :)

Totally passable bagged tea. Actually for an apple tea it is pretty darn good. I am alway on the lookout for a good apple tea but it is an endless quest. There is a taste of dust from the cinnamon and I get some paper feel from the bag but it is better than many. It puts me in mind if their apple cider but with a but more spice and way less sugar. Still looking forward to going home to my real tea but this stuff will see me through.

Finally had some of this one over the holidays. I remember it being creamy and vaguely fruity but not identifiably strawberry or rhubarb. For once, the tart was really well balanced and worked well for the rhubarb impression. I’ll do a further note when I have t next. For now it’s generic and drinkable but nothing to write home about. It did ease the pain of having my new (to us) car be totalled when a guy on a cell phone rear ended us with enough force to pancake us into another vehicle. We had it for only three weeks and are still waiting to hear from the adjuster if they will even try repairing it. It’s a 2000 so we’re quite worried they won’t even though it WAS in excellent shape. Mostly we are just grateful to be okay. Happy holidays and best wishes for a better 2013 for all!

This is one of the straight blacks from Davids that I was always hesitant about, largely because of the size of the leaf. That and it always smelled a bit more bold than I might prefer. Luckily, a colleague of mine is entering the wonderful world of loose leaf and shared a bit of this with me so I can finally try it out. Thank you!

Steeped it for about 3 minutes (my standard for blacks) and it smells very much like the bagged teas of my youth. My Dad was a Red Rose drinker (with a tonne of milk and sugar) and it reminds me of that. It smells bold but not necessarily astringent. First sips confirm the thoughts I got from the smell. This is bold and strong, a step up from traditional bagged teas but not the sort of loose leaf I would drink a lot of. This is very hearty and would stand up to flavouring, milk and sugar very well but isn’t really for me. I prefer my honeyed Chinese blacks with cocoa and sweetness in every sip. That said, this is a little sweet and not at all bitter but it’s too vigorous for me! : )

Okay, finally trying my puerh sample from Teavivre. Thank you Angel! I have only encountered puerh a few times before and I didn’t like it – the aroma was always fishy and I couldn’t get over it. I understand that to mean that the puerh was of low quality and lately I’ve been wanting to try some better stuff, so here I am. I also have one from Peony Tea that I hope to try soon. The tuocha (henceforth to be known as the bird’s nest) is adorable and has an aroma that reminds me of hamster cages – not pee or poo but sawdust and maybe the grains that I used to feed Jake. (We had a hamster who died a few years ago, he has a very fond place in my heart. The smell of this actually makes me miss him).

I did a thirty second rinse to awaken the leaves, and hopefully rinse away anything that I might find particularly yucky. :) Surprisingly, the bird’s nest basically crumbled. My gaiwan is full of small pieces of tea leaves, it almost looks like ground coffee. I didn’t really expect that.

First official steep went for 1 minute and yielded a DARK liquor. It truly puts me in mind of coffee, that is not something I’ve had in tea before. I am predominantly a black tea drinker and puerh seemed like the next step for me. My tea pet (a pair of feet) are getting a really good bath today! Anyway, the first steep smells like a barn to me, old wet wood and damp hay/sawdust. It smells like cows and horses coming in from the rain with damp hides – while this description may sound unappealing, there is something comforting about it too. I don’t necessarily want to drink it, but the aroma is very familiar. There is no fish at all, but just damp nature – wood, earth, animals, cloth. Interesting. The taste matches the smell astonishingly closely. Still no fish, but strong earthiness, very natural and organic. Strong without being bitter, and not like any tea I have had before. I like this, but it’s way out of my comfort zone. It doesn’t even taste like tea as I know it. I would like a bit of sweetness here, a honey note to offset the earthiness. I don’t even know if puerh HAS honey notes!

Second steep went for 1.5 minutes, yielding an even darker brew than the first time. it’s almost black! Are we sure this isn’t coffee? The leaves are so small that a bunch escaped the lid of my gaiwan. It may be silly, but I hate leaves in my cup. The aroma this time is very similar than the first. Initially it seemed a bit muted but then I got a strong hit of leather, like I’m in a shop filled with freshly worked boots. While I LOVE the smell of leather (I was a biker baby, I had leather jacket, chaps, all that good stuff) I feel a little weird about drinking it. Bravely, I persevere and am rewarded with a better brew than before. The taste is very similar to the first steep but more palatable. The edga has been taken off the earthiness and I am getting something more like the tea I know and love. There is some sweetness here that I appreciate, though there is also a hint of bitterness. It’s strange that both of those notes can be present where they weren’t before. I’ll finish this one quickly, I fear it may be becoming bitter because of the leaves that slipped into my cup. I almost expect a bit of spice, cinnamon or nutmeg but I get nothing like that. This remains very organic, tasting entirely of the earth. This is definitely better than the first, for me.

Third steep went for 2.5 minutes (whoops!) and yielded a much lighter cup. This time I am enjoying a deep amber. maybe the extra time was a wise accident. The aroma has gone back to hamster cage, wet sawdust and maybe even garden mulch. As I’ve said before, very earthy. The taste is a muted version of the aroma, no bitterness but not any sweetness either. I think I am getting close to the end of my run with this bird’s nest. The beau says this one is by far the best, while I am not sure. The boldness of the second steep was remarkable, but this one comes across as drinkable. I am starting to get a cumulative hint of bitterness which is clouding my judgment of this one.

I’m going for a fourth steep of 3 minutes. I’m too lazy to get up and re-heat the water so it has probably cooled quite a bit at this point, but the extra time seems to balance that out. This liquor is considerably lighter than the others and has very little aroma. There is a whiff of barn animals, but that’s about it. The flavour is similarly weakened. I’ve reached the end, I think. I do prefer my pu a little lighter (for now) so the second and third steeps were the best for me, but they were all enjoyable.

All in all, puerh is definitely not an everyday tea for me, but this bird’s nest has taken away a lot of my fear. There is hope for me in the world of pu! : ) As for the rating, since I have little experience with puerh, I will just go with how drinkable it is for me and perhaps adjust up or down as I try more. Since previous puerh blends were undrinkable for me, this rating is actually really high!

Well, I guess the first day of the 2012 12 Teas of Christmas is as good a day as any to finish up the last of my samples from the 2011 batch! I must admit, I would prefer to drink the cotton candy with the rest of you – this one scares the pants off me. Steeped, this smells BITTER. Aggressively so, like all the tannins in the world have joined together in my cup to attack my taste buds and make me frown. I am coaching myself that it is okay to try it..just take a sip..it’s only tea, it can’t hurt you!

Underneath the bitter malty death smell, I get a hint of something sweet and cinnamon-y, almost like snickerdoodles. Weiiiird. First sips are surprising yet again. I’m not getting any bitterness at all, but I still get the sweetness I was briefly smelling earlier. There is a bit of an oil slick on the top of my cup that’s freaking me out and I can feel the bitterness accumulating as the cup cools and as I continue sipping, but there is no popcorn or butter anywhere to be found.

For this one, I’ll definitely chalk it up to being an old sample and leave off the rating. There’s not really any flavour here to rate anyway, other than (not my fave kind of) black tea. I might toss the last bit of my sample and just call it a day on this one. The 12 Teas were a heck of a ride. While 52Teas are rarely my favourite blends, a few of them were absolutely spectacular and made up for the rest. Who knows, maybe next year I’ll join in again? :)

Lemon win! Here is another I have liberated from the back of my cupboard and taken to work for a bit. This is a sweet lemon, there isn’t much by way of rind or sourness here which I appreciate. I see chunks of peel in the tin and I am impressed that they aren’t contributing to a pinch-faced sour brew, instead I get a sweet lightly lemony flavour with an authentic cream element. I’ve only had lemon meringue rather than cream pie, but this stuff is good!

I have been a hardcore fan-girl of this one since I first got it from Davids about 2.5 years ago. I was broken-hearted every summer when it did not return and I stock-piled all I could from the store and swaps. As a result, I still have 3/4 of a tin of it, which I found at the back of the cupboard lounging by the Extra Bold Masala Chai.

Steeping it up today, I long for the joy I have known this tea to bring – minty, limey, sweet with proper tea underneath it all. Heaven, yes? Well, apparently over the course of my tea journey, rooibos has become less palatable to me. This tea happens to contain a lot of rooibos, and it is giving it a sour smell. Uck. Sometimes I wish my tea tastes never changed at all.

Over-coming the sour rooibos smell, the first sips are mild. Way too mild. Wait, there is something building on the back of the tongue. It is sweet and creamy, almost like vanilla with a hint of lime. None of that sour rooibos smell in the taste but the aroma is really off-putting. As I sip more the mint comes out stronger and the tea is a supporting cast, accentuating the aromas I already described. This is one that has an accumulating taste, becoming stronger as I drink. Heaven!

While the smell is really gross, the taste really does deliver as well as it did for me a few years ago. Hallelujah! This remains one of my favourite flavoured teas and while I would prefer to add a bit more tea (maybe a light ceylon or a sweet chinese black) and cut back on the rooibos, I still love it. I will leave the rating this high as it has delivered consistently for so long. Mmm..

Re-visiting this, more than a year later. To avoid smell contamination I had put my bag into an empty tin and promptly lost it at the back of the cupboard. I remember it being bitter and over-bearing, so I’m steeping it in slightly cooled water for about 2.5 minutes. I’m using a tea-sac as there’s no way this could go in my strainer. I have raw sugar on hand to sweeten as necessary – I’m prepared, right?

First sips are spicy and bitter, puts me in mind of gingerbread men, I’m picking up ginger/nutmeg/cinnamon spices. A bit of sugar later, and I’ve got a cup that’s more bitter. What? Okay, let’s add more sugar…Well, it’s sweeter. It’s too sweet, actually. It’s covering up any potential flavour. This tea has always been finicky for me. Weirdly, I get a tonne of astringency underneath the sugar so it didn’t even work. If anyone has expert tips on making this one work, I’d love to hear them. I wish I had honey at work as that might have helped more, but alas..

EDIT to add: I don’t like milk, which is why I didn’t do the obvious and add milk to it. I can stand a little bit in my tea but it needs to be very small otherwise blech!

I’ve had this one a couple times now but I seem to forget to log it! For me, it comes out a bit more bitter than I would like so I tend to add honey to it to balance that out. I don’t like adding sweetener to my tea but the honey really rounds it out and adds enough sweetness that I think JAM. The blueberry is really strong in this one, reminds me of tart boiled blueberry sauce and with the honey it really does become jam for me. I won’t be re-stocking but I won’t suffer to finish it. Pretty good!

This is one from the box of teas I bought from LiberTeas a year or so ago. As I think we all know by now, I’m not even remotely punctual in my tea-drinking but I get around to everything at one point or another. Dry, this has a jammy smell, very sweet and berry-ish without being able to name a specific aroma.

Steeped, I have a shockingly orange liquor with a relatively simple black tea smell but a delicious and complex taste. It’s tea, yes, but that berry/fruit/jam aroma I got from the dry leaf has translated beautifully into the steeped taste. I am not sure what muscat smells/tastes like but I like to hope that it is the ‘jamminess.’ I get a sense of bitterness that never fully develops, and quickly fades out to the sweet fruit I’m enjoying.

The leaves in my pouch are a bit more ragged than I might prefer, but they are large enough to avoid undue astringency, so they’re good enough. This is actually a pretty good tea – I know almost nothing about darjeelings so I don’t know if this is a good example of what they are or is a bit lower quality, either way it’s pretty tasty!

Finished this up this morning – still got some seriously dominant dill pickle smell (and taste this time!) but it was much more drinkable than the first. I’m not sure if I over or under-steeped it, but it was vastly improved. Rating improved slightly for better second attempt. The bai mu dan was very hidden for this cup as well which I appreciated. Not so much ginger either, so it was very bizarre but I honestly liked it better. Oh what weird taste buds I have!

Finally trying the second scariest tea from last year’s 12 Teas of Christmas – Pancake Black. (That leaves me with Buttered Popcorn. Shudder). The dry aroma has something sweet about it, but it’s more brown sugar than maple. I know it’ll be bitter because that’s how the old tea base was and I swear I can smell that in the dry leaf. I’m not picking up on much more than those two notes, at the mo.

After a 2.5 minute steep, I have a bitter smelling brew. I still get a sense of that sweetness but the bitterness is dominating the aroma. I am willing to sweeten this if necessary, but I don’t like to sweeten my tea if I can help it. The tea should stand on it’s own, ideally. Nothing saying pancake in the aroma, but this IS an old sample and there is properly a lack of quality from the time and storage.

First sips are not bad. There is a sweetness right off the bat that is more like Aunt Jemima’s butter syrup than maple syrup but it’s actually pretty nice. I am not picking up on the bitterness like I expected and that sweetness is really lingering. Still no pancake, but I’m digging the ‘butter flavoured syrup’ vibe. My grandmother’s table always has that stuff and real maple syrup so I’ve become pretty clear on the difference. When I want syrup, I want the real stuff but there is a fond place in my heart for the fake. Especially if you pair it with boxed pancake mix – pancakes from scratch need strawberry jam or real syrup but I love the lazy stuff too!

Basically, this tea makes me want pancakes now… Thumbs up for sweetness, down for lack of pancake flavour. I’ll give this a solid middle of the road rating – it wasn’t nearly as scary as it seemed! I’m not sweetening it, but if I had steeped it any longer I would have had to. Whew!

I have saved the ones I am most afraid of for last (from last year’s 12 Teas of Christmas) – Ginger Ale White tea, Pancake Breakfast and Buttered Popcorn. The thought of them makes my tummy go queasy. White tea makes me nauseous and the other two just sound revolting in tea form. I won’t even eat buttered popcorn jelly bellies! Anyway, obviously this sample has been kicking around a while so take this with a grain of salt.

The dry aroma is reminiscent of dill pickle popcorn seasoning. Wait a minute, what? Yep. Dill pickle seasoning. Weiiiird. I found this sample to be smaller than the others so I am pushing it to get two cups. Hopefully I have enough in there to make a well flavoured cup. Steeped in a T-Sac for about four minutes, this is lacking in flavor. Thinking I should have just used the whole sample rather than trying to get two cups.

Steeped aroma is non-existent, maybe a whiff of something tea-like. That’s pushing it though. The flavour is a smidge of ginger followed by sweet white tea. So far it’s not upsetting my tummy, but it’s not doing anything good for me. Not much of a taste or smell so it’s hard to judge. For me, this is not a winner but I am not a fan of white tea as it is, so it would be harder to win me over. I think a bit more ginger strength would really help here – the best ginger ales are potently ginger with less sugar, at least for me! : ) I can drink this, but mostly just for the merits of a warm drink on a cool day. The windchill this morning was -18!!

EDIT to add that this one only gets worse as it cools. While I did over-steep it a bit in my attempt to couch some flavours out I am just getting some over-powering lower quality bai mu dan. My leaves were pretty broken up and I am getting some bitterness from that, which is not my thing.

Second EDIT: Bergamot. Of course. That’s what’s making it so dusty and dry. I can barely get a hint of it, so my sample must really have suffered from the passing of time.

Finishing this sample up today, I still get a bit more spice than I would expect. Brown sugar remains at the fore but isn’t enough on it’s own to cut the bitter base tea. Milk is absent but there is a wisp of chocolate at the back of the sip. This still isn’t an accurately flavoured tea but is nice enough on it’s own. I love the brown sugar flavour and wish that the bitterness wasn’t taking over. Close to good, but not quite.

Another from last year’s 12Teas of Christmas. The aroma is white tea (duh) with a hint of pink lemonade under it all if you smell it closely. I’m not a big fan of white tea, it can turn my stomach at times and I have an automatic worry of that happening every time I drink it. This one is not smelling great for me and I specifically have had trouble with 52Teas’ Bai Mu Dan a couple of times now. However, I persevere!

I cooled the water for about five minutes as I am at work and then steeped it for 4 to 5 minutes. This particular sample didn’t quite yield 2 cups worth of tea but I tried to split it evenly, hopefully the bit of extra time will help encourage more flavour from the leaves as the smell was quite mild initially.

The steeped aroma is a hint of something tart (lemon myrtle!) and a slighter wisp of candied strawberry. Nice, but unassuming. Appealing though! First sips are extremely mild in the way that white teas is, but I do get a hint of the flavours I smelled earlier. There is a bit more lemon than anything else, and that’s okay. It’s certainly not the in-your-face flavour of lemonade, but it is pleasant enough. It puts me in mind of Neo-Citran, but much more pleasant.

The strawberry flavour remains illusive for me here, which is a bit of a disappointment. Strawberry is one of my favourite flavours when done right, but I find it very hard to accurately replicate in tea. This one glosses right over the strawberry and focuses on the lemonade. That’s okay, but since the title suggests some yummy berries, I’m a bit disappointed. This is drinkable though mild – but not special either. A middle-of-the-road sort of tea, for me!

EDIT to add that as it cools, it is much stronger in flavour. I am sending the last bit of my sample home to do a cold steep with. MUCH better cold!

Now that my Teavivre order has arrived (huzzah!) I feel I can safely finish the samples that I have had for ages. Scarily, I ordered 100 grams of the Bailin Gongfu and Also the Black Pearls… despite only having tried them once! What?! My memory is so faulty at the best of times.

This poor sample was a bit crushed from kicking around so long so I expect a bit more malt and bitterness from the broken leaves. The steeped aroma is powerful. It is malty and yeasty and rich, it embodies dark cocoa and rich rye bread. Wow, rye bread is perfect actually. I should get myself some rye flour and make a loaf.

Anyway, the taste of this steeping is just as powerful as the smell. I used the full 7 g sample in my 12 oz Perfect Tea Mug, steeped about 3 minutes and it is intense. The liquor is dark and the tea is delicious. I’m not quite as taken with it as I was that first time (probably because I have had a tea like this a few times now) but this is just so brazen. This tea does not hide itself, flaws or otherwise. It is the “look at me, I’m GORGEOUS!” of teas. (Please picture John Lithgow saying that from his role as Dock Solomon on 3rd Rock from the Sun!)

For me, this has an earthiness and intensity that I don’t frequently find in tea, it actually does a good job of mimicking a roasted oolong, sort of like a couple Big Red Robe’s I’ve enjoyed. Perhaps it would be better to say that they mimic this tea, but that’s semantics.

This is tremendous and very special. Not a mindless tea, but one to be savoured. I think I could win over some non-tea drinkers with this baby. Mwah!

Finished my sample today – I had forgotten that it is basically ground tea and spices. Ugh. Threw some in my T-Sac and steeped as long as I dared (2 or 3 minutes). The smell is kind of yucky, very much like an old bagged chai, which it essentially is so that makes sense. Still no caramel or vanilla and boy would I like it if they appeared. There is a smell, almost like melted marshmallows roasting over a fire. The marshmallow business actually smells kinds good, but it’s lost in what smells like very bitter tea.

I just had some grapes so the first few sips aren’t necessarily accurate but they aren’t as bad as I expected either. I just get spice. Cinnamon at the end of the sip, like I ate powdered cinnamon. I also get ginger and nutmeg, but probably because those are the only spices I am very familiar with. It is bold and in your face, and definitely lacking vanilla or caramel. This is not a favourite and I don’t understand why my tastes are SO different from everyone else on this one. Even when I first tried it last December I hated it. Maybe my sample was a joke?

The only reason I’m drinking this cup is to warm up – and the only reason I can stand to keep drinking it is because of the T-Sac and short steep. Blech.