Amy oh

This was part of a Kusmi Russian tea sampler we got. My boyfriend loves Earl Grey/bergamot blends so he likes them a little bit better than I do, I find them to be a bit perfume-y. The orange is very nice in this blend though. Might be better with a scone. ;-)

Out of all the things that I purchased from Verdant recently, this was the one I was most curious to try. I am always on the lookout for nice herbal teas especially ones that don’t have hibiscus in them (I am not a huge fan).

This did not steep up bright pink so I wonder if I should have let it steep longer – I did mine about 3 minutes. The roses definitely smell wonderful when you open up the bag. It is flowery for sure but the licorice adds in a bit of sweetness, while the elderberry provides some fruit/tart and the cinnamon rounds everything out pretty well. I was also thinking this might be nice blended with something else like a formosa oolong or an oriental beauty. Very flavorful and relaxing tea for the evening time.

Geez, it got really cold and windy in San Francisco today and this is really hitting the spot and helping me to warm up, it’s also nice with a bit of orange peel tossed in. :)

2/4 of Upton’s basic darjeeling sampler

Well evidently B.O.P. stands for broken orange pekoe and when you look at the leaves they are chopped up very fine and are various colors of brown and light green. This has a very familiar “tea” smell for those of us who grew up with the cheap orange pekoe tea that’s readily available in teabags.

I steeped this for 2 minutes with around 200F degree water, I did not want to go up to boiling. It brews up to be a lovely dark orange color. I am drinking this without milk or sugar and it’s very light and smooth, a bit like an oolong and this stage. I am enjoying the mild flavor with a touch of briskness. Thankfully it is also light on the astringency but you do get a bit of tannin in the finish, it is not bothering me too much. I think this would make a good iced tea also. A good value for the price. I am not sure I’ll need to order more of this particular tea but I will certainly enjoy the little tin I have.

Wow – this is great. It’s a delicious white peony!

Part of a 3 part sampler I got from the Tao of Tea. When I opened the can I was surprised to see so many of my leaves were still very green looking.

I did a bunch of steeps in the gaiwan at around 170 F. It is lightly honey-sweet and nutty with just a hint of something herby in the nose. Not that floral but definitely delicious. I would love to get some more of this but I wonder if this is the same tea in the picture? Curious…… Another winner from the Tao of Tea. :)

In full disclosure I am not a huge fan of jasmine tea but after reading everyone’s tasting notes I was hoping this would be the one to convert me and it would have me doing backflips and sighing with delight like everyone else.

I drank a bunch of this last night and I’m having some more this afternoon. I’ve finally pinpointed what my beef is with jasmine tea. Although I love the smell I find it very drying and it also seems to upset my stomach and that is just a bit unpleasant. I didn’t tank it in the ratings because it isn’t Verdant’s fault I don’t like jasmine, I probably should have stuck with something else.

But onto other subjects. This is very clean and nice, I think the jasmine goes really well with this particular white. I’ve tried steeping this a few different ways and my favorite is to steep it in the gaiwan at a lower water temp, I believe I’ve been using around 160 F – 170 F. That seems to bring out the natural sweetness of the white a little bit which is helping me deal with the jasmine.

I went and bought some bulk herbs and flowers and I threw a few rose petals in it which is also nice but I somehow want to go make a bath oil with it now… lol!

this is so delicious this afternoon… light and buttery, a bit nutty and sweet. so refreshing! See my previous notes.

I found this one just okay – for one thing if you use boiling water it becomes very bitter and undrinkable. So I am learning more about assams and darjeelings lately and I steeped this one for 4 minutes at round 200 F and it is better.

This has a very pleasant cocoa nose and for me the flavor is predominately fruity with a big tannin kick at the end. I did wish a bit for some more malt and it still seems bitter to me even at the lower temp. I’ve had a few other assams that I liked much better so I figure it’s the tea (and not me) It will be finished off eventually with some soymilk and stuff added to it, but if anyone would like to try it please let me know. :)

Part of the Upton Imports Darjeeling Sampler I purchased recently since I am trying to broaden my horizons. :)

I steeped this for 3 minutes with boiling per the instructions on the tin. I am finding it to be very fragrant with the spicy notes and it is a nice medium amber color. It has a lot of fruit but also a lot of tannins so pungent is definitely the word of the day and I’m not sure I’m truly a fan of this although it is growing on me a bit the more I sit here and sip on it.

Like some other people I had purchased this with the intention of mixing it with other teas, I thought it would be great with some dragonwell green tea and maybe a pu’erh.

I really love ginger and always have, aside from the flavor it’s a great medicinal root, good for colds, digestion and just generally warming up in cold or damp weather.

I decided to steep this up on its’ own with an infuser mug and around 2 minutes with boiling water. The ginger is not as strong as I thought it would be, it’s well balanced with the saffron, the orange and the fennel. It is pretty intense and spicy but definitely it matches the description and is as good as I was hoping it would be! It also gets a few bonus points for versatility…

note: I tried it again with some dragonwell green tea and that combo ROCKS! =)

okay I got a slew of new stuff from Verdant, pretty soon I’ll have tried every tea in their entire line… lol

I like pu-erh tea but I also like pu-erh blends, especially with fruit so I thought I’d check this one out. I steeped this one in my infuser mug at around 200F for 3 minutes.

This is really nice! It has many layers of intriguing flavor. The pu-erh is dark and earthy, the orange and elderberry are tart and fruity, and the ginger and galangal add a nice spicy kick. This will definitely warm you up. With the first steep I felt like the ginger really overpowers the cup but I didn’t mind as I really like ginger.

On the second steep the spiciness is starting to retreat and the pu-erh is coming out a lot more. I couldn’t help myself, I had to try it with soymilk. Yummy! Definitely check this out if you’re an adventurous sort of person that likes spices and fruit…

yum, another sample from the Rare Tea Republic. This time it’s an Assam.

I steeped this for 3 minutes at 200 F with an infuser ball and am drinking out of a glass irish coffee mug – guess what? It works great for tea too! ;-)

This tea brews up to be a beautiful dark reddish color. It’s a delicious assam. Normally I would take these with milk but today I am trying without. The thing that predominately hits your nose and your mouth upon tasting is MALT, glorious MALT! Then you get chocolate followed by a bit of fruitiness with a bit of tannins in the finish. A very good assam indeed. I think I prefer this with milk (or in my case, soy milk) but it is quite delicious.

mmmm. I discovered when brewed properly, this is a fragrant floral tea with jammy notes and a touch of vanilla. It is very delicious like a fine wine! I don’t know about the aftertaste though, for me it’s very astringent. I had to take some points off for that but if that doesn’t bother you check this one out!

another one bites the dust… this I am not too sad to see go, it’s okay but a little sweet for me

Sipdown! The last of this is gone for now but I will get more eventually. I highly recommend it!

This is definitely a nice and interesting white tea, it’a bit more vegetal than floral and I’m picking up some spice and a lingering bit of smoke here but it’s still very light. I like it fine but it’s probably the least favorite of my three white teas I’ve tried from the RtR line. I know this is a boring tasting note but I’m not feeling that inspired, perhaps some more extended tastings in the gaiwan will yield a better result.

I did one steep in the infuser mug for 190 F for 3 minutes and then a resteep at around 160F for three minutes.

These days I mostly gravitate towards japanese green tea but this quite an excellent Chinese green tea.

When I first tried steeping this I think I left some soap in my cup because I got a mouthful of dish soap and green tea – bleah!

When I finally got rid of my soap I steeped this at around 190F for 2 minutes per the instructions on the package. I just noticed another thing I like about Upton tea is they put the date on the bag of when the order was processed so at least you will know roughly how long you’ve had it.

When these leaves are steeped they are curly and turn shades of green and brown. It yields an amber liquor with a nice floral nose. The taste is nutty with a bit of spicy note. I can see why this is described as a green tea that has some of the flavors of black. It’s pretty unique, at least to me. I’m sure I will have no problems finishing this off. Mellow and earthy. If you’re not a fan of “grassy” green tea you would like this one… it also resteeps quite nicely.

ooh! I had to break down and buy this after so many posts from JoonSusanna and others about it, I really wanted to try it.

I used water at about 205 and steeped this for around 4 minutes. The tin recommends 3 minutes but I lost track of time. I really like this a lot! It’s very robust and malty and yes, it does have a slight bit of “briskness”. I’m drinking this with soymilk and this has transformed the flavor into something caramely… I’m not sure if I could ever drink this plain, it’s pretty intense and BOLD. Of course I could also try lowering the steeping time which would probably help.

It’s one of those teas that reminds me of coffee. This is going to be great for foggy mornings or whenever I need a boost. Tasty! Yum!

No notes yet.

I’m finishing this sample up today… it’s a nice fruity flowery oolong mix. :))

I’ve never had a green tea from Nepal before – evidently this is my week to try all things from Nepal and so far I am loving it!

This was steeped for 4 minutes at around 180 F according to the package instructions. I’m totally with LIberTeas on this one, it’s a very unique green! Definitely lemon-y and vegetal with a bit of astringency but thankfully not bitter… I would describe it as clean and zippy. I then decided to resteep the leaves at around 160F for 3 minutes. It got a lot lighter and more delicate so I was for sure more a fan of the first steep. Very cool!

hmm. So I guess I have some mixed feelings about this one. My first steep was at 4 minutes with boiling water and I should have known that was too hot because the package says 190 F. It got too bitter and astringent for me. I am used to treating darjeelings more or less like a black tea but I think I need to start treating them more like oolongs. My mistake for sure.

So in my second steep, it got steeped more like a green tea for 3 minutes with around 160 F. Now I’m getting some more pleasant apricot jam like notes in addition to floral & vanilla. But yeah the astringency is still lurking there. I might need to start all over again with this one or perhaps this is a gateway into a learning experience that I might want to avoid first flush darjeelings in the future? I suspect it needs a more delicate tasting perhaps in the gaiwan. Stay tuned…

This came in a small tin as part of a white tea gift set I got from Amazon.com with a gift certificate someone gave me. It comes in a nice little wooden box covered with plexiglass which is a nice touch.

I drank this at work so it was steeped in an infuser mug. I tried to follow the instructions pretty well, they said 190 F for 3 minutes. I also did a second steep at about the same temp for 2 minutes. I’d like to try steeping this at a lower temp too.

I was pretty happy about this tea – as far as white teas I’ve tried it is more on the vegetal side and very nutty. The flavor profile said chestnut but I actually felt it was more like macadamia nut, nutty with a bit if butter. I didn’t pick up on the smoke but I did think it was a little “salty” – smoked salt? I dunno. There also just seemed to be a marine type of quality going on with this… a bit seaweedy perhaps? In any case it was very flavorful and delicious. I never knew there were so many different types of white teas – they are fast becoming an obsession!

Oh, yay! I have this back in stock. I got 3 tins of this with an Amazon.com gift certificate so you know I must really love it. The best rooibos chai I’ve ever had and a perfect dessert drink. I upped the rating because it makes me so happy.