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First review.

I was sitting at the bar at Happy Lucky’s and Andy slipped me a shot of this tea. My life passed before my eyes in a moment…(maybe longer) and every tea thing I knew about unflavored tea CHANGED (hear the drumbeat) right then! I had NO idea that you could taste Bahddah (butter) and popcorn and a bit of floral with all it’s sweetness in a tea. No idea that leaves smelling and looking like fresh spinach cooked in butter could produce tea that is so remarkable. Who knew? I bought 1 ounce of precious tea but find that you can resteep many times without the tea getting weak. I have to be careful not to steep too long or the tea gets overly vegital tasting.
This is a wonderful addition to the tea cupboard and opened me to trying Oolongs and other unflavored Tea!

Second tasting…the leaves dried while I was busy doing other things and here in Colorado it’s in the 70’s and the air is quite dry all the time. I’m so surprised at how large the leaves are! Really big! I have one of those safe plastic large 20oz dishwasher safe insulated cups that my silicon steeper just fits in perfectly…has a lid and I used for multiple steepings…easy to transfer leaves from pot to this method and also portable. Anyway…a 2 minute steep was plenty long for a supurb brew. Oh this is lightly sweet and buttery good. Slight orchid…very very slight….not nutty like nuts but like brown rice. Maybe a reason why people may like this is that it’s like rosotto… that buttery, nutty rice flavor. Well… today this is what it tastes like to me.

A fantastic Oolong. I am so greatful that my local tea people have tastings or I would never have known this kind of tea existed. What a pleasure!

Tasting note from my 7 year old grandson Micah. The tea leaves smell like chicken and smoke. The tea tastes good and not like the wet tea leaves. It tastes like a cookie…like the caramel candy you gave me today grandma.
Note from Grandma: I think this is pretty spot on! Micah knows how to clean and devein shrimp, prep veggies and likes my butter garlic with breadcrumbs brussel sprouts! We went to a Greek Taverna last night and he got to break a plate “OPA”!

Thanks to Ian for this generous sample. I took a pain pill for my tooth extraction so that I can truly enjoy myself!!! OK. First the story and then the review. Some of you know I moved from Silicon Valley to Colorado. Well growing up in Santa Clara County (Silicon Valley) it used to be the Prune Capitol of the World. Yes, total agriculture…apricots, vineyards, etc. UNTIL…well you know what…HP, Apple and everything else. I ended up living in the last remaining agricultural pocket which grows Mushrooms. Here is where the Puerh comes in. That pocket is the town of Morgan Hill and gets a bit stinky (the Coastal fog mixes with the smell and creates stink fog…) from Mushrooms but the Mushrooms are really really good. This 1999 Puerh reminds me of the earthy raw Crimini Mushrooms before you dust them off (actually the dirt is sterile so you never have to worry). If you smell them and take a bite as is…well this is what the Puerh flavor is like. Mulch dirt and Crimini Mushrooms raw. The taste is not fishy but quite nice. Rich like a light broth. My preference is to make a latte with Puerhs which is what I ended up doing. To my delight, the earthiness was not buried. I think this is a good Puerh. (This sounds stupid but true the next town over from Morgan Hill is Gilroy…home of the Gilroy Garlic Festival…so if you can imagine garlic fog…yes…garlic FOG! tasty!).

First Review and thank you to Teavivre and Angel for this fine sample (ample sample)!
What a spectacularly beautiful tea! I used a double glass cup so that I could see the color of this tea and WOW! The tone is golden amber lit by firelight. I didn’t read the reviews on this tea so that I could form my own thoughts on it. Caramel was my first opinion..very light..with a little buttery pie crust taste(I used to bake pie for contests so I know crust!). There is a smidge of vegital but not a green note…more like a yellow wax bean or raw sweet potato when you cut it (not a yam). I never would have sipped this even a year ago and snapped my fingers and announced…“Ah now this is a good Chinese black tea!” For all I knew black tea would be …eh…dark…and bitter…and in a bag! ergh! This is fit for a Queen…and I suppose that sans an abusive ex-husband…I’ve become a Queen! I quite like my new TEA life and I quite like this tea for sure! 3min steep did it for me!

First review. Thank you again Teavivre for the beautifully packaged sample. This was the second tea that I shared with my granddaughter Megan today after watching Amadeus. I didn’t let her have a smell of the wet tea leaves…just the pour which was a steep of 3 minutes. She could not believe the flavor! “This is incredible…what is this”! I laughed and explained and asked what she tasted. It’s floral, buttery, popcorn. Then I had her smell the beautiful green wet tea leaves. “Spinach grandma! How could that smell make such a different tasting tea”? And that’s part of the magic isn’t it. The chameleon character of some tea…smells like one thing tastes like something else…huh we all know what that’s like don’t we. And we love that surprise too. This gem of a high quality A+ tea is so smooth a luscous. The flavor so well balanced that no one nuance outshines another. I found myself looking at the bottom of my cup like an addict ready to dip my finger in to grab for the last drop. Fortunately I can resteep many times without denigration. This is a keeper tea!

First review. My grandaughter Megan (16 years old) is on Spring break and came over to watch Amadeus on my big screen tv. We’re buddies…she’s a composer and has a concert choral piece coming up (previously she’s had orchestral pieces). Anyway…I made us this great pu erh and she flipped for it. Such a whoop of “Wow grandma what is this stuff”! I was delighted! The rich chocolatey creamy flavor with a little strawberry but not too much. The earthiness of the pu erh is subtle and not fishy. So nice. We had a second steep and she asked for some loose tea in a bag to take to school next week. She was so blown over with what flavor good tea can deliver.
*A few days later I bought Megan a portable 12 oz. steeper… double walled glass sipper with a retractable stainless basket and gave her some of this tea to take to school which made her very happy indeed!

Another tea I have not had in awhile. I shared this yesterday with my grandaughter Schey (18) while showing her Steepster and how all you lovely people review tea! She loved Santa’s Secret…the little candy canes, the minty flavor. I forgot what I was doing and let it steep about 12 minutes!!! It did not get bitter!!!! Wowzer! Unbelievable! This is one delicious minty welcome to Christmas any time of the year tea. I still love it and it was fun to share with my sweet Schey. I’ve got 6 grandkids to share tea with.

Had not tasted this in awhile. So refreshing to have this wonderful berry blend. I’m supposed to have a more room temp tea with my oral surgery…ugh…so having some tepid tea’s sounded unappetizing. This on a rather warm Winter day did sound good. Even cool and sweetened it has the character of the liquor that is left in the bowl of blackberries lightly sugered for dessert. Imagine the fresh flavor when you pick up the bowl when noone is looking and slurp it down. That’s how fresh this tea tastes and how spot on the berry flavor is. I really like this tea. Can’t wait for summer to create some recipes with Bear Trap!

First review. Thank you BTVSGal for the sample (I’ve ordered some from DavidsTea). The aroma is cream brulee with a hint of rum…not much rum…a whisper. Man-oh-man good! And I did the unthinkable…you know you do it…I’m not the only one who does things that you’re not supposed to do when you are a “tea person” in good standing with the “tea” community…but, I confess I used…ITALIAN SWEET CREAM creamer in the tea. OK I said it. Artificial creamer! And, it tasted GOOD! like real cream brulee! Good grief! Maybe I’m just still sick. I slept most of the day because I had a tooth pulled and I was carrying my tea tray…kicked the coffee table and broke my toes. I so needed dessert! This was so good I’ll do it again. But I admit that plain or doctored up this tea is really good.

First review. I’ve learned my lesson with Pu erh’s and did a very quick rinse when I smelled the tell-tale fishy smell on the dry fine bark-like minced tea. Glad I did too…because even though the smell was faintly there the taste was not present on a 3 minute steep. As I do with Pu erh, I took a sip without anything added which was just dull and then added cream and sugar. Mocha and nice but still too weak for me. Let it go another minute and a half…ah…better…dark and rich like coffee and oh my word! You know that fishy taste…well it did present itself for a split second and then it morphed into a tea leaf flavor like it’s supposed to do. Leafy tea with some acid and no heavy vegital flavor and mocha as a bonus. A Pu erh hat trick! No flavor added or needed. I think people who gag on Pu erh could handle this and it might be the right introduction. Do have as a latte and add cookies or a bagel!