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17 Tasting Notes
I keep coming back to this herbal tea. It’s a regular, and I drink it in quantity. Very reasonably priced.
Exceptionally good for how cheap it is! This is a strong, edgy Assam with good complexity. Loose-leaf with large pieces of broken leaves. I picked up a pound of it at a local middle-eastern store for $6.15, and I love it.
Dry leaf is incredibly fruity, but the tea is not. Instead, it’s malty, deep, and somewhat tannic. Assam-like, but with less edge. I really like this tea, especially given how strong it is.
This is not my favorite white peony. It tends to be on the lighter and more floral side, both colorwise and aroma / flavor-wise. What’s interesting is that today, I drank a cup brewed from some of the broken leaves that had fallen to the bottom of the bag. It was a little darker tasting, but I didn’t find it particularly enjoyable. An unremarkable tea. Upton has some fantastic shou mei, such as ZW23. I strongly prefer to drink that.
This was the first holy basil I sampled, and I loved it. Since then, I’ve tried holy basil from a number of other companies, and also tried Upton’s green leaf (BH06), but I strongly prefer this one. It’s warm and balanced, rich, complex. Aroma is balanced, and mostly of spice. I also find this herbal tea to be very relaxing.
This tea has a surprising amount of bite for a pu-erh of this age.
I tried brewing this tea different ways (varying the steeping time and leaf amount) and it had a similar overall character, only the strength varied, and less than one might expect.
Earthy, but with a fresh, herbaceous quality in the aroma, that I find is unusual in teas of this age.
I think this tea is very reasonably priced, given its quality and the fact that the leaves go a long way and are good for many infusions.
Clear cup but full-bodied. Aroma is dominantly woody, with some fruity and floral tones, and a hint of skunkiness. The aroma is more reminiscent of more oxidized teas, even black tea, than is common for most oolongs this light.
Good for multiple infusions, even with a long infusion time and less leaf. I like using fairly hot water.
First infusion is fruitier, like apricots. Second is more woody, skunky, and herbaceous. All infusions have a fair amount of bitterness, which I find pleasant.
This was the first loose tea I tried from Foojoy and I liked it quite a lot. Full-bodied but with a delicate flavor, aroma is grassy with a hint of toastiness. I’ve found keeping the brewing temperature lower is important; the aroma becomes unpleasant if it’s too hot, even though the tea does not become too bitter.
I thought I’d dislike this tea based on the name (my prejudice showing!) but I was pleasantly surprised. Cocoa-like, creamy, balanced. Really exquisite, if you ask me! If you like cocoa, you will likely love this one. The pu-erh is noticeable, but this tea might be appreciated even by people who are not a fan of pu-erh’s unique aroma.
This tea can easily make two infusions…try twice the time for the second cup!
My favorite Earl Grey that I’ve tried in a teabag. Bold bergamot presence, clean and refreshing overall quality, rich tea aroma but smooth flavor. I love it!
This tasted more like a creamsickle than a tea. The aroma is mostly vanilla with some orange, with a hint of spices. I can see how some people would really enjoy it, but it’s not my thing. There’s not enough tea presence for me…it is dominated by the flavoring.
Brews a deep orange color. Fresh, light, and clean, a bit fruity, grassy / straw-like, and with a suggestion of a seafood-like quality. Less earthy and less sour than red rooibos.
I recommend a very long steeping time. I like this one a lot.
This is my favorite tea from Upton and among my favorite of all teas. It’s so reasonably-priced relative to how complex and interesting it is. The aroma has woody tones, a hint of skunkiness, and at times seems a bit like a red wine. It has a pleasant bite to it, and the aroma is more than a bit unusual. Although I liked it the first time I tried it, it has grown on me a great deal.
This tea can be brewed many different ways, and I always brew it for multiple infusions. I think connoisseurs of oolongs would do well to try this one…in my opinion it ranks among the best of the greener oolongs.
One of my favorite green teas. Very complex, grassy, sharp, clean, rich. Very reasonably priced given the quality.
This is one of my favorite herbal teas. It’s a little like lemongrass without lemon; grassy but unlike a grassy green teas. Fresh, clean, light, and crisp. I prefer this to red rooibos very strongly; it lacks a certain objectionable quality in the aroma of the red tea.
Compared with other Jasmines, this was much less floral, and the aroma was mostly of tea, not Jasmine. The tea was very smooth like a pouchong, with a hint of sweetness. Expensive, but not a bad deal given that there’s a generous amount of leaf in the bag, and the tea proved to be usable for two infusions, although the second infusion tasted exclusively like green tea, not Jasmine.
