Auggy

So I didn’t exactly have a metric ton’s worth of luck the last time I made this puppy up so I thought I’d give it another go and use the hubby as a guinea pig to see if his tastes agreed with the tea more than mine. I also decided to brew this like a regular black even though there’s obviously other goodies in there. I could say it was something like I was experimenting to see what flavors I wanted to pull out of the tea, but in all honestly, the Zojirushi was set on 208, so I just used that. Apparently when I get lots of sleep, my mind is even groggier than when I get very little sleep.

This cup is actually more successful. But that’s only been on sips 2+. Sip one, things hit me why I wasn’t a big fan. Good brisk start to the sip, watery bland finish. That’s what did it for me the other time I had this – the taste at the end of the sip. It tastes raw and weak and thin. So I got that this time, made a face, then put the cup down for a bit while I checked out the flurry of activity that happened on here while I was asleep.

Letting it sit seems to have been beneficial in some ways since the raw, thin flavor is now gone from the sip but now there is a hint of bitterness right at the tail. It’s not unpleasant though, so I’m cool with it (others might not like it though). Fortunately, I’m drinking this out of my new 15oz mug so I can let the tea sit for a while without it getting cold. Which means to me, I’m only going to enjoy this tea in large quantities, when I can let it sit long enough to make that end taste transition but still remain a bit hot.

Still not a favorite tea or something that I’ll have to get in the future but definitely a more successful steep for me this time around. Gave the rating a nudge upwards as a thank you. The husband is quite enjoying his cup, though, saying it reminds him of a good morning coffee that he would actually like (neither of us are big coffee fans). He even went so far as to ask if it had Darjeeling and Keemun in it. I’d probably guess so and that helped me with that bitter flavor I get at the end – Darjeeling. Not sure what the raw, green flavor at the end previously was though, but now that I’ve let my mug cool a little too much while discussing Calibre sorting with the husband, I seem to be getting a little of that rawness back.

The husband also stated that he was a bit torn on this tea because it is awesome but borders on being a touch bitter at some times. He even went so far as to give it a low 5/5 stars. Which for him is huge. So yeah, apparently I’m the freak that doesn’t enjoy this tea.

Oh well.

Just finished watching District 9 and thought it was time to change up the tea I was drinking. I realized I haven’t had this in a while (and I’ve only had it once) so I pulled it out. It smells a lot more floral than I remember. Taste-wise, it’s odd. A little tart, a little floral. When I take a big sip, I get a raw, sharp green veggie taste (hello artichoke) and the aftertaste is slightly vinegar-y. The front taste of each sip is also odd. Almost a powdery floral taste. Very weird and this one bit of taste just doesn’t really go for me.

So yeah, dropping the score on this one just a little. It’s odd and go Adagio for attempting the weirdness because you never know until you try, right? This isn’t a great tea, but if I was in a weird mood, I think this would fit pretty well. Not a tea to drink when looking for a lot of subtlety because it isn’t a subtle tea and if you look too hard, you end up with powdery floral. But hey, want a green to smack you around just a little bit and give you something unexpected? This would do it!

Wanted something better than my last tea so I thought this one had good promise. The dry leaves smell a little musty/woody and they feel so freakin’ velvety. I actually held on to one just to pet it. So soft! I passed it on to the husband and he agreed with the soft furry of the leaf then ate it and said it tasted like fresh green beans.

The brewed tea has a similar green bean note. This is a note that I’ve gotten and hated in other white teas (that and soy beans), but that’s because it is an overcooked taste. This one isn’t like that. It’s missing the crisp snap but otherwise brings to mind the taste experience of munching on fresh peas with my granny when I should have been helping shell them. It’s got that type of summery sweetness and fresh green veggie taste going on.

It’s also remarkably cuddly. I mean, this is a good comfort tea. The woody/nutty under note gives it that delightful, “good tea to snuggle with” taste and the fresh, summery sweetness (which I’m guessing is the honeysuckle and peach notes but I’m not adept enough to pick those up as more than anything than general sweet summer) gives it a light and refreshing, happy feel.

This tea is awesome. And will be lovely to sip as I watch the Mythbuster’s MacGyver episode. Awesomeness all over the place.

I just finished watching a Modern Marvels show on tea ( http://bit.ly/11xMMn ). The History Channel is so cool. Anyway, it made me want something more on the green end of the tea spectrum so I rooted around in my samples and pulled out this one.

Okay, this bag? Has like the most minuscule amount of tea ever. One gram. One. For the way I make tea, this isn’t even half a cup. Even using Western style brewing, this isn’t even half a cup. Shame on you, Golden Moon. That’s pathetic.

I went ahead a brewed up a full cup of this but I’m honestly not expecting much. The resulting tea is less pale than I expected but the taste… Initially all I could taste was hot water and Splenda. I did not, however, add Splenda to this. It just tasted like I did (and while they say it doesn’t, Splenda totally has a taste). As it cooled, the Splenda taste became a bit like… well, something a little more flavored than Splenda but I can’t get enough of the taste to figure it out. Maybe honeyed soybean water. Which is probably the chrysanthemum (the honey taste) and the white tea (soybean water). The chrysanthemum dominates but the white tea pokes out more if I slurp but slurping also brings out a weird vegetal bitterness.

The more this cools, the more actual taste I get but I’m underwhelmed. The aftertaste I’m left with once my cup is done is that of Splenda-ed soybean water. So perhaps it is a good thing that I had such a tiny amount of leaf in my sample packet. Because I don’t think I’d like this taste at all if it were more intense. At the same time, maybe if there were more leaf, I’d get more depth to the flavors and not be left with a Splenda-like aftertaste.

I did a second steep of this one (@3mins) to see if I could find anything like what others have found (or anything at all redeeming) and all I got was soybean water with a little Splenda. I decided I didn’t need to experience another whole cup of that and poured it out. My rating is based on the first steep.

Need tea before my brain can work. Grabbed this one because I am finding I enjoy trying different breakfast blends. No clue why but I do.

Can’t really get any smell off the dry leaves. I mean, they smell like something but I can’t identify what. My nose is a bit stuffy so I’m not going to fault the tea on that one. The brewed tea smells very… tea-like. A little sweet, a little… nutty and earthy maybe?

The taste is smooth and rich but not overly distinct. A little heavy feeling, but not in a clunky way because the overall feel of the tea is smooth and silky. So more like a heavy satin than anything unpleasant. I really enjoy the feel of this, actually. Solid and hearty but not rough.

No bitterness, no real astringency (just a tiny dryness at the end maybe), the nutty flavor seems to be the most distinct. I seem to get a hint of my beloved cardboard every so often but it’s not very strong so I might be imagining it or hoping for it.

Overall, a good tea, I think. Not super-special or flavorful but I really loved the heavy feel of it, especially since it was coupled with a nice smoothness – no rough bitterness or astringency that seems to come from heavier bodied teas. I’m not sure if I’ll have to get some, but I kind of wish I had a lot more in my pantry to slowly go through. If that makes any sense. So probably not one I have to go out and buy RIGHT NOW but when I order from Tavalon, I bet I’ll get some of this.

I also made the husband a cup. He likes it quite a lot saying that it seems to give different tastes with each sip – sometimes it is like a heavy Irish breakfast and others like a smooth black. He’s finding a bit of bitterness/astringency on the very tail of the sip that he says keeps it from becoming a 5 star tea for him, but it’s a 4/5 for sure.

ETA: Had the second steep of this (@6:30) with some fairly strong, butterscotch-y cheese and crackers and it held up well. Even though it had a thinner body that the first steep, the flavor was still nice and strong enough to combat stinky cheese.

Lots of lemongrass. I’m anticipating something very lemongrass-y. But this smells nice.

I’m surprised – the taste isn’t overwhelmingly lemon/citrus. The smell certainly is but not the taste. The main flavor is sweet, fresh and light, but there is a nice, comforting mellow note running underneath the citrus-y and fresh lemongrass that has to be the green tea. It makes a light, refreshing tea have a little more depth. Quiet enjoyable.

I wanted another cup of tea but didn’t really want to resteep the Ceylon King so I pulled this one out. I’ll probably have a steep or two of this and switch to something non-black for the rest of the day. I actually had to go rinse my mouth out after the first steep because I was getting some taste of bitterness from the Ceylon still. But once I’m all rinsed out, this tea is back to the yummy sweet and lightly earthy taste I know and enjoy. Not getting much peppery out of it except at the very end of a sip, there’s a slight prickly warmth left on my tongue. A nice fallback plan of a black tea.

ETA: The husband is having some too and I’m not sure if he has before so I asked him what he thought. His response: “At first I think fish and then melon.” Weird!

The dry leaves smell a bit like fruit-intensive trail mix. Not like juicy, fresh fruit, but like dried/preserved fruit, but with a little bready or cookie-like back note.

Pouring the tea into cups, there seemed to be a nutty smell going on but as it cools in my cup a becomes a bit more ‘default tea’-like but with notes of dried fruit. Also, there’s a whiff of dryness that brings to mind wine. Not that this smells like wine but there is a dry feeling to the smell that seems similar.

Taste-wise, it’s… not all that special. It’s smooth with a touch of odd astringency. I say odd because it feels simultaneously dry and sweetly wet. Ultimately the dry astringency wins over the sweet and ends up as the final taste/feel left in my mouth after a swallow. Slurping seems to increase and mix the astringency and wetness, making it wetly bitter, like off nuts from the holiday nut bowl.

Ultimately that wet bitterness makes me unhappy so I’m not a big fan of this tea. It’s not horrible but it’s not good and there’s no special taste in the tea to counteract the end wet bitterness. I’ll have to try it with milk to see if that gets rid of the bitterness because I think without the bitterness, it might be okay if still plain. A ringing endorsement, I know.

Gave the husband a cup too and he thought that it wasn’t up to the standard of some of the previous Ceylons he’s had but he thought it was pretty good. When I asked for more detail, he said that he honestly didn’t remember that much about it even though he had just finished the last swallow less than two minutes before. So yeah, not an overly special tea. That’s too bad.

My first tea of 2010. Go me. No specific reason for having this one. Just because I can.

This smells nice. Fresh, citrus-y, lavender-y and a little… sweetly spicy (probably the lavender again?). The taste doesn’t quite come across to me as rich as the smell. The lavender is more pronounced and the citrus not quite as juicy as I’d like. There is a little tingle left on the tip of my tongue that matches up to the sweet spicy smell. I do enjoy that.

The overall taste is smooth and a little sweet but a nice, warming finish. I might have enjoyed this brewed longer for a more robust taste, though. But I think the lavender will always hold it back just a little for me. Don’t get me wrong, I like lavender EGs, but I think they do best to gentle a not-so-good EG. Have a bad EG? It’s gross. Have a bad EG with lavender? Suddenly it is much better.

I think I would have liked to see what Golden Moon could have done with a straight EG. But at the same time, the few sips of EG I had at the London Tea Room (stolen from the husband) were really what I wanted in an EG. Strong bergamot with a juicy, fresh taste. And this one just seems a little pale in comparison to the memory of that one. That being said, this is a pretty good EG. If I had a tin of this, I don’t think I’d have any problems drinking it up. But it’s not the fresh-squeezed-EG taste that I’m really wanting.

I did have enough for the husband to have his own cup. He is a fan, he says. He also compared it to the EG he had at the London Tea Room (which was Rishi) but says this one is sweeter and has a hint less citrus. That’s probably because of the softening factor of the lavender. Anyway, I think he’d be happy if we had a tin of this laying around.

I had a nap earlier, which means my brain is pretty worthless right now. Decided to have some of my GM samples in the ever popular endeavor of cleaning out my tea pantry so I can order some tea.

This smells pretty. Sweet. Nectar-y maybe? Not floral, but sweet and not really fruity but maybe not… thick enough to be nectar. Faint honey? Something. Eh. It smells good.

Brewing, it smells a little musty, dry and sweet. Not bad. Not concerning. Seems nice. It’s very light in my cup and I can’t really get much smell from it. But sipping it is quite nice. Sweet with a little of the musty taste that I smelled when in the pot. As it cools, the sweet musty taste turns mostly just sweet with maybe a hint of hay or something… . No briny taste, no real vegetal taste. Just delicate sweetness and flavor. This makes me think of a sweeter version of Rishi’s Snow Buds. But softer and less like a green (which is ironic because this is considered a green and Snow Buds is considered a white but there you go).

Anyway, good stuff. Like it a lot. Sweet, delicate, gentle but flavorful. I’m a fan.

Got to leave work early today – yay! It’s cold and raining (thankfully not snowing) so I thought this afternoon would be a great time to put on my snow leopard fleece pants, put a heating pad on my stomach and have some tea. I pulled out my GM sampler and another basket (that I’ve dubbed the takgoti sampler) intending to leaf through the lovely teas and eventually settle on one. But this one was right on top, hand raise, screaming “PICK ME! PICK ME!”

So I did.

The dry leaves smell like barbecue sauce – the good stuff that I loved when I could still eat the darn stuff. While steeping, a meatier flavor comes up. Like smoked brisket. Once it has brewed up, though, I get more of a we-just-sprayed-down-the-campfire-before-bed smell. That’s a little… worrying. But I shall continue!

Okay, who cares about the smell. Because the taste is lovely. Not quiet as sweet at GM’s but smoother and mellower. More of a smoked tea than a smoky tea taste. Don’t get me wrong – this isn’t a pale, light flavored tea! It’s just that the smoke flavor is embedded into the tea. Like when you put a ham in the smoker for about 6 hours or more. The smoke taste isn’t overwhelming, but it’s in every square inch of taste.

Last night with the Marco Polo, the whole slurping and inhaling with the tea behind my teeth thing was really interesting so I thought I’d try it again. And holy monkeys. As soon as I stop inhaling to close my mouth and swallow, it’s like a big ole mouthful of smoke. But it’s not bad – I kind of like it! I think because it really really tastes like the smell of my dad smoking a brisket.

This one is bolder than GM’s, I think. Also, it’s not as sweet. This is much smoother than ROT’s though (which I don’t find to be overly difficult). It’s kind of a toss up for me between this one and GM’s. This one has a very true-to-life taste which I really appreciate (so for those of you that want to drink something that tastes like smoked brisket…) and an overall heartier taste. GM’s is sweeter with a good taste and a nice development but not quite as beautifully rounded in taste. I think this one might be the better tea, but I think that the added sweetness to GM’s make that one the favored tea for me personally.

takgoti was trying to pressure me into buying a new wallet but when I stood strong, she settled for forcing me to try this tea. ahem Right.

She did send this tea to me though so yay for takgoti! And I can’t stop sniffing this because it smells so. Freakin. Good. Creamy and red-fruity and sweet and rich. Before I knew what it was, I couldn’t quite figure out if it was cherry or strawberry or grenadine that I was smelling – just something red-fruity and creamy. Once I found out what it was, I only learned that it was most likely none of those. But it still smells similar. So I’m having some in my strawberry cup in honor of the unnamed red fruits in this tea.

As I poured hot water over the leaf, I was able to fully identify what it smelled like to me. Strawberry syrup. No, no, not strawberry syrup. Strawberry topping. On a cheesecake. The husband is a cheesecake master and he has made some homemade topping before for one of his vanilla cheesecakes. That’s what this smells like. It makes my mouth water.

There’s no way the taste can match the smell. No way. So I’m a little scared to take my first sip, not wanting to be disappointed… And I’m actually not disappointed! This is different from the smell – it doesn’t have the strong creamy, rich vanilla note. But the berry note is spot on. Sort of like eating the strawberry cheesecake and then having a bite that is just one of the strawberries from the topping with no cheesecake or significant amount of syrup. It’s not as sweet or as decadent as the previous bites (or in this case, the smell) but it’s still really good and yummy.

The berry flavoring is very smooth and natural tasting. No nasty aftertaste here. And it leaves a bit of fresh-berry-ish-tart on the roof of my mouth after a swallow. Part of me wonders how this would be with a little sugar or milk and another part of me is scared that it would be way too rich. But that’s not to say that this tea needs to be sweeter. Because it’s got a good berry-style sweet thing going on that I would hate to mess with. It’s got a nice body to it – not a light, thin feeling tea. Not super-thick for me, but respectable.

And my cup is empty. That was fast. I might have been a bit enthusiastic in my sipping. But what can I say? This tea is good!

ETA: Second steep @5:30. The flavor is lighter but remarkably consistent with the first steep. Maybe a little cleaner tasting? But not by much. Still very nicely fruity. And zero bitterness so I imagine it could go even longer without oversteeping.

#2: And just because I was curious, third steep @ 9mins. Okay, the flavor is fairly weak now but surprisingly true to the first steep still with still no bitterness. I think a 4th steep might be pushing it a bit (unless I steeped it for 20mins or something).

Actually bumping up the rating of this tea just a wee bit today. I took this one with me on my morning commute, so I added about a quarter teaspoon of sugar and half a teaspoon of milk (for 12oz) just to keep off any potential bitterness that might develop from sitting in an insulated mug for half an hour. I honestly don’t think it needed even those minor additions because there was no hint of ick or even real astringency even on my last sip. This tea held up really well as a tumbler tea and I appreciate that.

As Kat suggested a bit ago, I took my tumbler lid off about half way through. It didn’t cause a significant change to the tea, but enough of one that I enjoyed it more lid-less. There was an almost tart fruity scent to it that taste-wise came across as a similar-to-Darjeeling brightness with the lid off and that made the tea a little more interesting. I’m thinking that’s what the previously tasted spiciness changes into with a little milk. I still got an enjoyable clean cardboard taste – I’m becoming quite fond of that taste.

This isn’t exactly a special tea or anything, but it’s a pretty good one. More of an “I don’t know what to have so I’ll have this one” tea instead of an “ooh, this looks good and I’m kind of craving it” tea. But it’s good (and necessary) for me to have some good, solid teas I can fall back on when nothing seems to spark my interest and for that reason, I could see this one becoming something I want to keep on hand.

And honestly, I find the brewing interesting. It brews up disturbingly dark but it’s fun to watch the little tea grounds run around in my pot. I still think of post-horked cat food when I see the wet leaves though.

Half milk, half water, some sugar, some tea. Not quite boiling. As it first started warming up, it smelled like a cross between Chinese food and some unknown holiday dessert that I can’t place. As it gets closer to boiling I’m getting more dessert and less Chinese food (which is probably good but the former was intriguing). I also think I dropped something on the stove because I also smell a little burning. Oops. Hmm, I think that dessert-like taste is like a Christmas cookie. Cinnamon-y and sugar-cookie-bake-y.

Doesn’t taste cookie-like though. Or if it does, I want some of those cookies. I wish I could pick out all the tastes, but I can’t. But it’s warm and spicy and sweet from something that isn’t just my added sugar. And I can’t stop drinking it. This is insanely addictive.

I’m getting really tired of this white… stuff falling from the sky. I don’t do winter. The weather outside, however, is the epitome of winter. I am not pleased.

To protest, I’m having this tea. I’ll admit, I wanted to try this tea just because it was grown in Hawaii. Not only am I a sucker for anything orange, I’m a sucker for Hawaii. I thought it’d probably be a little roastier than what I’d prefer based on a quick glance at the description, but eh. It was grown in Hawaii so I’ll try it anyway just to say I have. And then I smelled the dry leaf.

Ooooh. Ooooh, nice. I have recently come to the realization that pouchongs / baozhongs are probably my favorite type of tea. And that’s what this smells like. But… bolder. Darker. More… Hawaiian. I have a feeling I will like this one.

Smelling it while it is brewing, it continues to smell richer and darker. Pouring it into the cup, I get the fresh, green smell of pouchong overlaid with something dark and warm, exotic and almost spicy. The tea color is a clear, light, yellow-green that really is quite lovely.

Oh this is good. Much darker tasting than an actual pouchong. Warm and sweet, it seems to have an almost candied ginger hint in the tail and there’s a fresh taste left in my mouth after I swallow.

Ugh, I put a lotion sampler on and it smells like chicken sausage and it’s interfering with my tea! I keep trying to delve deeper and end up ‘finding’ the chicken sausage! AUGH! I’ve washed the lotion off (or tried to) but now I just smell like soapy chicken sausage.

Chicken sausage being excluded for the moment, this tea reminds me of Tao of Tea’s Neela. Which is weird because I didn’t like Neela at all but I like this. The Neela tasted a bit raw and rough. This has a similar taste but tweaked just enough where it comes across as fresh and clean. There is a similar smoothness and lightness of flavor but it works in this tea because of the lovely little things going on under that thin, clear surface. Ginger and honey and some darker fruity something or other (and chicken sausage… sigh).

I will admit, I’m drinking this pretty slowly because I can’t just swallow it. I have to slowly move it around in my mouth, taste it fully. There’s just so much going on but at the same time, the notes are delicate. As it cools, the base taste of the tea reminds me more and more of a pouchong but more flavors seem to pop up. This is really lovely and I’d like it even if it weren’t Hawaiian.

I reserve the right to increase this rating when I no longer smell like chicken sausage.

ETA: The second steep is much less chicken sausage and the flavor that was hinting around before, coming out in a few different way, has finally moved to the forefront. When we were in Maui, there were all these thick, almost rubbery, pine cone looking, colorful flowers all over the place. I want to say they were called soap plants or shampoo blossoms or something like that because of the nectar the oozed out when they were squeezed. Anyway, that is the flavor I’m getting.

This is a tea that benefits from being a little cooler so the flavors pop a bit more. But with a little sugar, I think this is a yummy dessert tea. Yes, it gives me a bit of a funky aftertaste, but I think that’s countered by the fact that it has sprinkles. Sprinkles, people.

Which is good because sprinkles make me happy and it is supposed to snow again today which makes me very sad. So I must focus on the sprinkles.

I should have used a bit more leaf – I only used 3.5g for my 6oz – so this isn’t as strong as before. But this tea is still so good. Clean, sweet and fresh tasting. The tastes makes me picture lush green hills, a cloudless sky and temperate weather with a slightly cool breeze. Delightful.

A pretty tea both visually (love the little balled up leaves) and taste-wise (mmm). Soft with a good jasmine taste that melds effortlessly into the taste of the tea. Beautiful.

Quick rinse then brewed. The smell is very sweet – very much the sweet hay smell I seem to get from pu-erhs. It’s pretty potent, in fact. Maybe a little too strong for the not good mood I’m in right now though. But as it cools a little it seems less… syrupy sweet hay and more dry sweet hay and not as potent so I could be okay with this today. We’ll see.

Sipping and wow. This is nothing like the smell. I mean, it is, but I was expecting something thick and (maybe too) sweet and glaze-like. And it’s not. There’s an initial sweetness but it isn’t heavy and then there’s a warm taste that gives it a hint of spice and then the sweetness falls off – not so much that it is bitter or tart – to something more earthy. I can’t get the espresso or chocolate taste from Samovar’s notes but that’s okay. This is sweet without being syrupy. Rich without being heavy. Smooth without being boring. This is very good for a pu-erh.

I’m attempting simultaneously to be productive and relax today. The relaxation part is where this tea comes in. A smooth, comforting tea that is dark and strongly flavored, but not stout – perfect for relaxing. But not too sure about how it’ll mesh with the productivity portion of today’s program.

Last night was on of the first nights in quite some time that I’ve gotten a good night’s sleep. Because of that, I don’t need a comfort tea this morning so I brought this one out for a few reasons. 1) Because the husband loves grenadine so I thought he might enjoy this. 2) Because I want to see how it is with zero sugar and milk. And 3) I still can’t reconcile the fact that grenadine is pomegranate.

I love pomegranates. The husband does not. However, we tend to go through those giant bottles of grenadine fairly rapidly – and I never use the stuff. I suppose though, once something is so processed that there is no actual fruit in the syrup, it no longer tastes like what it is supposed to come from. But that still doesn’t prevent my mind from saying that grenadine is fake cherry, even though I now know it is wrong.

So aside from the flavorings of this tea messing with my head, what else can I say about this tea? Without sugar and milk, it’s not really super-sweet. There’s no bitterness or anything – it’s just not as sweet as I was expecting. And the grenadine flavor comes through more on the front smell when I sip and the aftertaste once I swallow. It doesn’t really show up in the middle that much. I can’t specifically taste the vanilla, but I imagine the lack of an edge I feel to the tea is due to the vanilla addition. The flavors are strong but not smack-you-in-the-face strong – but at the same time, not a whole lot of just ‘tea’ taste going on.

I put a tiny bit of sugar in the second half of my cup and while it didn’t really increase the sweetness that much, it seems to bring out the grenadine flavoring and makes the overall taste of the tea taste lighter, somehow. I think I might prefer it with that little bit of sugar.

The dry leaf smells like honeydew rind. Distinctly melon but not very juicy or as sweet as the meat of the fruit. Brewed, the tea smells more like very ripe cantaloupe.

Taste wise, it’s very melon-y on the front and transitions to a sweet nectar taste at the end. It’s very sweet. I mean very. Melon and nectar. There’s not a lot of depth to the flavor as both tastes are pretty high and sweet. Honestly, I think it may be a little too much for me. At the same time though, as this cools, it’s less super-melon and more… buttered melon. Melted butter instead of creamy solid butter.

I can get behind the buttered melon thing, but the initial hot taste of melon and nectar is just too sweet for me. Maybe if paired with a darker tasting white tea, this would be more my thing as the melon flavor is very nice. But ultimately, too overpoweringly sweet for me.

I don’t like licorice. At all. It’s evil. Oddly enough, I don’t anticipate liking this tea. But I’m a glutton for punishment so we’ll give it a quick go.

The dry leaves smell horrid – exactly like licorice. The juice smells like someone dropped a licorice candy in my tea to dissolve. Those bastards. It’s not as strong as the dry leaf but still smells like licorice so it’s icky.

But oh my gosh. The taste is… good! What the what what? There’s a faint sweetness and a little hint of licorice but not actually licorice. Not icky licorice. A sweetness that lightly melds with the (silver needle-tasting?) white tea giving it an almost dark nectar-y, somewhat floral taste.

I’m really really shocked at how delicious this is. I don’t know if this needs to go on the ‘to buy’ list but it has potential. Sadly, I only had enough leaf for one cup but I’ll see how the resteep goes. Because this was really quite yummy!

ETA: The second steep was more licorice tasting but not in a bad way. It was more identifiable but without the cloying… stickiness that I associate with licorice. Really surprising how good this one was.

The leaves are so pretty. Dark and almost velvety looking. And they smell like cocoa? Of course, I just ate some clementines so my hands smell like them and that could be throwing things off.

The tea itself smells like it has been sweetened with honey. It smells light and fruity and sweet. And wow. The taste is… like maple or cane syrup. The end tastes just like raw sugar. This is really sweet and almost rich. I was so surprised that I called the husband in to make him taste. After one sip he gave me a shocked look and grabbed the cup back to have another sip. He said that it tasted like there was cream in it. After another sip, I’d have to agree. The smoothness gives it the feeling that it has been spiked with a little milk.

This is really good. All sorts of sweet, natural tastes combining into one yummy tea. This is probably going on my ‘to order’ list!