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Sencha of the morning here. This is not a personal favorite of mine, but it came in a Lupicia Happy bag I got last year so I’ve been trying to drink it. Some mornings just seem like they were made for sencha. This is a little on the strong side for me, lots of grassy notes but if you keep the steeping time to around 30 seconds it’s better that way.

Sample sipdown of the morning…

This is a nice tea — especially for Adagio — who haven’t impressed me too much in the past with their quality (sorry just had to say it). I’m getting some nice cocoa notes here along with a bit of malt. Very mild, no too much astringency. A decent Chinese tea but not something I will need to stock up on at any point in the future.

Sample sipdown of the afternoon. My tastebuds are finally getting back to normal and the numbness is wearing off.

Wuyi oolongs are my absolute favorite type of oolong. I don’t drink them nearly as much as I should, and I have no idea why. It was nice to revisit this today, I had several steeps in my yixing teapot . The aroma is like burnt caramel and the flavor is reminiscent of roasted plums. I really get into roasted teas as I’m also a fan of houijcha. Something about them seems so warming and cozy.

It’s so easy to procrastinate on Steepster but I really must sit down and get my homework finished for writing class!

I’m back from the dentist. After having four fillings done my mouth is still numb!

It’s difficult to taste anything so why am I writing a tea tasting note? I will chalk it up to boredom and procrastination. I’ll write a better tasting note for this once I am back to normal. I can’t believe I haven’t written anything about it before now!

This is a good every day tea green tea. It’s flavorful with lots of vegetal notes especially artichoke. this is perking me up a bit after having my mouth assaulted earlier. ;-)

Tea of the morning here. Thanks to Carol Who for this sample that I’ve been meaning to try.

I steeped this entire sample for 3 minutes in a 20 oz. teapot. What I had was around the equivalent of 6 or 7 pearls. Eh, this stuff is okay. It certainly got some dismal reviews from others but I don’t mind it that much. It seems to be a bit on the side of brisk and winey for me, which is strange for a tea you’d think is Chinese. To me this tastes a bit more like an Indian tea. I thought it was better with some soymilk added. Now I feel like I’m getting a bit of chocolate notes. I’ve definitely has better dragon pearls but this wasn’t terrible in my opinion.

I’m NOT looking forward to my morning. I have to visit the dentist and I’m getting 4 fillings worked on. They told me to eat a good breakfast because my entire mouth will be numb for hours afterwards. I guess I will be having a smoothie for lunch… lol

This evening I was looking through my shu (shoe) box and noticed I still have a lot of these flavored puerhs I purchased from Nature’s tea Leaf. This seemed like a good one to revisit after tonight’s dinner, which was pinto bean and avocado tacos with vegan queso. I don’t think they drink much puerh in Mexico, but maybe it will be good for my digestion.

I remember liking this before. You can see bits of dried orange in the tea, which would seem to indicate this is a natural blend or mostly so. The tart juiciness of the orange is a nice compliment to the dark earthiness of the puerh. Because I am weird, I decided to add some soymilk to this and now it tastes like an orange creamsicle. Not bad… I really need to be drinking more of this. I should remember to stick some dried ginger in it next time around.

I thought I’d try this one iced today as it’s been languishing in my cupboard for a while now. When I first tried this I enjoyed it more, but now I am finding it to be REALLY tart. I added some sugar to it and thought it was better that way. I don’t think this will be a repurchase for me, I find the hibiscus just really overpowers and it’s giving me a stomach ache. Hopefully I will find a way to finish this off or bequeath it to someone.

Tea of the afternoon here. I’m not always a huge mint fan — but when I am craving it — nothing else will do. It’s a beautiful sunny day here. the highlight of my day was having lunch at the samovar tea Lounge. I had a dragonwell with my paleolithic tea service. I regret that choice because the kale that came with it really obscured the taste of the dragonwell.

Note to self: drink dragonwells alone or with really bland food.

Now I’m at home and wanted something simple and refreshing. This is a good and basic mint tea. I like it plain or with a bit of sugar sometimes. It also makes a good mixer for other things, especially white tea, green tea, and other herbals. A basic peppermint tisane is definitely a useful thing to have around.

Tea of the morning here. I went out for cocktails and dinner with a friend of mine last night and this morning I’m feeling a little bit hungover, ooof. I wanted something with caffeine but something on the lighter side. This is a lovely Assam which has such nice, gentle sweet potato notes. It’s good with soymilk today… I would definitely like to get some more of this someday. This is a sipdown for me.

Hopefully some tea will revive me as I’m going to the Haight Ashbury Street fair later!

Tea of the afternoon here. I wonder if houjicha has significantly fewer health benefits than regular green tea due to the roasting process. I couldn’t find any more information about that by doing a quick Google search; if anyone knows, please enlighten me.

Anyway houjicha is a great afternoon tea for me and this variety by Maeda-en is fairly good. I’ve had a few other houijchas that seem slightly sweeter but I’m enjoying it today. It’s also good with soymilk.