Chicago Tea Garden

I think this one is pretty good, but I think it depends on the palate. It does smell just like sticky rice, though in taste, it is mildly pu erh. It is probably one of the lighter pu erh infusions I have had before. I think this could be a really nice tea when you want something with a bit of body, but not overwhelming. This one comes from Incendiare and she has it when we was sick, and I think that is a good time to have it, though for me tonight, it is a cooler night, so it has just the right body and depth.

It is pretty unremarkable in flavour, because it it rather plain, but it is still tasty. I know that sounds contrasting, but I just mean that there isn’t a wow factor, just a nice and simple yum factor..but I don’t think I would go out and buy this for regular use. I wouldn’t mind haveing a few of the tuochas around though, do those rare occasions where I want something simple and tasty like this.

I had one piece from the Traveling Tea Box Pass B, which I think is stuck at the moment! Anyhow, this is a good tea! It smells like sticky rice, and it almost tastes like it too! It is green and crumbly when steeped. I removed the first steep like I usually do with pu-erh, and I drank the next one. I would have done more steeps if I had more time, but I didn’t. It is a mild tasting pu-erh for sure. It is light and brews a pale yellow green color. There is some rice taste to this green pu-erh with slight astringency towards the end of a sip. I am glad to have tried this interesting and new-to-me tea!

I have already had a couple of Zealong teas and enjoyed them very much. I was going through a samples basket and saw this package still sealed, and it must be ancient! I think it came from Quiltguppy, and I really miss her! She introduced me to some amazing teas.

I had this as an “after Sunday-brekkie” tea. I was up at 5:30 cooking for the chickens and tending them, then took their eggs and made a nice breakfast to share with hubby, and afterward we sat on the sofa drinking this. It is cloudy, drizzly, and chilly, so it was an especially welcome cup today!

Even though this is an old sample, the tea tastes quite good. I think it must have been an eleven on a scale of one to ten when it was fresh. There is a lot of that rock or mineral flavor that oolongs often have, a wonderful floral/fruity aroma, and smooth smooth smooth! We did about five or six steeps.

Tea friend Sandy here on Steepster actually went to tea at the plantation where this was grown! Maybe she will chime in with that experience for us!

okay I KNOW I logged this one atleast once. Not fair, now that it’s gone weak and stale… I can’t accurately describe what it tastes like. Vegetal, sweet, very light. That’s about it!
Too bad this is another sipdown. Thanks QuiltGuppy for the sample. I miss you!!

Thank you QueenofTarts for sharing this with me. After having read so many good reviews of this I needed to try it. When I first opened the bag I was reminded of the Cornfield Shu Tuocha but once I unwrapped the little guy it was definitely rice aroma.

After rinsing it, I brewed this gaiwan style (5 oz) with a 5 second steep with boiling water. The color was really light, and the leaves were green. I tasted of rice, kind of reminded of genmaicha, but that may only be because of the rice and nothing more. The taste was really light, closer to watered down actually.

I handed it over to my husband and asked him if he wanted to try it. The look he gives me says that he doesn’t want to but he does anyway, he knows I’ll quite pestering him once he tries it. I didn’t tell him what kind it was or what to expect, just handed him a cup of tea. The first thing he said was “meh” but that’s what he always says. Then he said it tasted like rice, the kind you get at an Asian restaurant. I was impressed and told him that was indeed what it was supposed to taste like!

So, since the first steep was watered down, the second steep I kept at boiling but upped the steep to 12 seconds. Too much time, it was bitter and I ended up tossing the cup, way to bitter. The whole tuocha feel apart on this steep and may have been factor to why it was so bitter.

Third steep. I went back down to a 5 second steep, this time I didn’t preheat the gaiwan and left the water at 200*F instead of boiling. Still to bitter, metallic tasting even. Again I dumped this cup.

Fourth steep. I didn’t preheat the gaiwan and steeped for 5 seconds with water temp at 176*F. Since there’s so much leaf and the leaves are green and all my cups have been bitter I thought treating it as a green tea would help. The verdict? I need to wash out my mouth. I think the bitterness and metallic flavor is having adverse side effects and skewing my taste at the moment. Not quite as bitter and metallic but it’s still there.

I’m going to stop with this one for now since it’s frustrating me and give it another try later. I’m going to leave the rating off it for now since I’m fairly certain that it’s due to my error that this tea is not tasting as it should.

I tried.

It smells like popcorn to me, super buttery. I was excited to try it. But all I taste is metallic. I lowered the water temperature (started @ 205), I gave it a rinse, I don’t think this one and I are going to be friends and that makes me sad because it smells great. I’m also not a fan of how they fall apart, makes any sort of steeping rather difficult with little bits getting through even a strainer. I’d try a bit more (sweetening, whatever else I see from notes) but I am just so turned off it right now because metallic tastes and I will never ever be okay together.

OKAY you know how when you have something sitting there and you absolutely must conquer it? 4th try of steeping I finally got something I like. 30 seconds is far, far too long for me, but it works now. Didn’t bother to pay attention to the water temp though, but this time there isn’t a metallic taste, but delicious toasted rice.

I think it’s the herb in here giving me that metallic flavor, because I still get tinges of it in the aftertaste, and now I can tell that it has to be coming from it. Because now as it’s cooling it’s coming back. Argh.

This is a tea I had my eye on for quite a while, and then I almost missed out on getting to try it at all! Thanks to The Purrfect Cup I was able to share this with my puerh-loving friend tonight!

First, the unique presentation is awesome! I guess I didn’t stick my nose right on this, but I didn’t get any fishy aroma. Maybe these have aged enough now for that to have dissipated. I put the leaves and the “lid” of the orange in my little gong fu pot. I did a quick rinse and then a short steep of just over thirty seconds.

Tasty! The orange flavor has definitely mingled with the tea, and this is a lightly earthy puerh to me, not very horsey and not fishy. The orange peel flavor is quite a nice accent. We made five steeps so far, and we are really enjoying this! Thank you, TPC, for the generous sample!

Sandy says she just bought some of this on the west coast, so I will try to find out where we can obtain more!

First Yunnan sample I picked out for the husband. Cute snails, he thought they were creepy. We brewed a small amount, 8 oz which is perfect for our two 4 oz cups. I did a quick rinse then a one minute steep with slightly below boiling water, which is lucky really as I didn’t have the steeping parameters but knew my husband didn’t like super short steeps but I didn’t want to risk a long one so I planned on doing three infusions at 1, 2 and 3 mins each.

I probably could have used more leaf but the first infusion came out smooth, light and with a hint of honey sweetness. Husband said it was nice, but there was nothing remarkable about it and he definitely didn’t get vanilla, I figured it would come through in a later infusion.

So I rebrewed and my husband and I had the same reaction, we wanted to scrape our tongues to get rid of the feeling on them. I wouldn’t call it bitter, but it was an odd kind of astringent, it felt cool and the taste was pretty mild. Now I don’t care much for second steeps on most teas and the husband doesn’t like rein fusing British blends because of this similar feeling it yields. So while he ordinarily chalks it up to the quality or just the nature of black teas, I promised the third infusion would be better.

Not so, it had a little bit of a buttery mouthfeel but it turned dry and was bland. I experimented with a short steep to see if the tea had anything left to give, but no. Me thinks I abused it and shall treat what is left of it more kindly. I’m excited for him to try Verdant’s Yunnan blacks, but we both realized tonight was not the night.

I salvaged the tea leaves after I excitedly spilled them all over the kitchen counter. I couldn’t wait to try this tea!

First Steep: I’m honestly not tasting too much with this one. It’s a little bit floral, but very light. Hopefully the flavor improves with each infusion!

Second Steep: Grassy and slightly sweet. The floral notes linger on the tongue at the end of the sip.

Third Steep: Flavors are a bit bolder this time. Still sweet and vegetal.

Overall, I feel like I need a bit more time with this tea to get a good grip on what I’m tasting. I will rate next time I have another cup.

It has been a few weeks since I’ve done more than dip a toe into the Steepster pool. It’s been kinda rough – first a week-long visit to the in-laws, which really was nice… well, until I came down with the stomach flu. So battled that and after a week, I finally start feeling better and my kitty (who was 20 and I got when she was just a few months old) passed away. So yeah. Rough month lately.

For a while I wasn’t really branching out beyond CTG’s Keemun and Adagio’s Yunnan Golden Curls because I just couldn’t deal with thinking about new tea. But now things are better (which my computer corrected to butterfish???) now and I finally no longer feel like I’m wandering around in a fog. So it is time to start having a little tea fun.

I’m not really a big dancong fan, but I’m trying to develop an appreciate for the not-so-green oolongs. Thus, I got a little sample of this one.

It’s lovely. Creamy and sweet on the front end, fruity and honeyed on the back. The smell and taste bring to mind pouchong and milk oolongs, which is big mark in the plus column for me. Of the few dancongs I’ve had, I don’t think it’s going too far to say that this is probably the best one I’ve had. The others have seem too mild and delicate and soft. Pretty, yes. But faint, no matter how much leaf I used. This one has a good, noticeable taste that I don’t feel I need to concentrate hard just to taste. And the taste? Well, I’ve already mentioned it is lovely. It brings to mind tropical beaches and lush jungle and farmers markets (the peachy aspect, you know).

But it has helped me realize something: I don’t think I will ever love dancongs. The flavor? DELIGHTFUL! I made several oohs and ahhs while drinking this. But I think this type of tea just consistently has a bit of a drying aspect to it and that’s just not what I tend to go for in teas, especially ones that have such delightfully decadent front ends. I don’t think it is drying enough to be considered astringent, but it is drying enough to make me smack my lips together a bit after each sip to reline my mouth with saliva (which does bring out a lovely aftertaste in my mouth – very stone fruity and sweet – but still). And I just tend to go more for cuddly teas than refreshing ones.

That being said, I think for those more inclined to want refreshing or bright aspects to their tea, this one is pretty stellar.

(Oh, and PS – not giving this one a numerical rating because I can’t quite figure where it would fit – the dryness of the tea just makes me unenthusiastic about it but the flavor is deserving of massive enthusiasm. So yeah, torn.)

I got my sample in, so here’s my notes and thoughts. The initial smell is a mix between okra still on the branch and super glue. I’m not going to lie, the smell of the leaves and first steep made me want to vomit. The initial taste also made me want to vomit (sorry… I know), but I also don’t like “green foods”. Because of the reviews, I couldn’t give it up… I wanted to see where it’d take me. The first steep was gross, and I hated every moment of it, so I’ll just skip to the second steep (third including the wash) for the review. So from here on, I’m going to forget everything else about the tea and pretend it’s my first sip ;)…

The following is a composite break-down of one sip

Initial: Very thin… crisp. This is far from bold in every way. Don’t take this the wrong way- it’s still VERY flavorful. I would say that if I had to name any faults in the initial taste it’d be that it’s TOO fresh (is this actually possible!?)… but it may be that it’s just not oxidized to my preference.

Apex: I feel the apex is a bit anticlimactic. Did I say anticlimactic? I think I meant that the “Initial” taste was so “in your face” that it can only go down-hill. There is a buttery taste that parabolas itself into the picture. It’s a welcome addition to the flavor.

Lingering Taste: The oddest thing happens right here. The flavors seem to split up. The low-notes are a very obvious oolong that’s VERY pleasant. The high-notes are something I’d compare to a wad of grass and is repulsive. With these combined tastes you have this weird effect of a pretty descent and unusual linger. One part of me really does want to say it taste bad, but with the good? I just can’t. It’s like walking on a very very scary trail on a stormy day… surrounded by bare shaking trees with the wind howling and random animal sounds in the distance…….. but then out of nowhere a beam of light breaks through the clouds and lights up the most beautiful flower you’ve ever seen- for this split moment you forget about everything else…. it’s so beautiful and you want that moment to last forever. Yeah it’s a lot like that lol.

Final Exhale: Right back to square one. Sweet green okra smell and taste. It’s a nonchalant reminder of the loves and hates that I just experienced.

I can’t deny that this is the most unusual tea that I’ve ever tasted. It’s epic in a literal sense, and I can’t say that I enjoy it or hate it or anything. It’s almost an experience really… like reading a story. I wish I could say that I hate it so I’d never have to taste some of it’s notes again, but I also want to say that I love it more than any other tea because of the wonderful notes it showed me. I don’t feel like I should rate it based on everything I’ve tasted… if I did it’d be about half way because I’d want to rate it a 100 and a 1 at the same time lol. Take that how you want. I do think that being a supertaster has drastically affected my thoughts on the sweeter greener high-notes, so if you like green foods and teas, then I’d definitely recommend this tea in a heartbeat.

Outside of flavor and aroma, I feel I should comment on the quality. These leaves are TOP-NOTCH. They opened up at least 500% of the initial size with no loose stems or dust. I made this tea in my 4oz yixing and had absolutely no rogue dust or particles- I think that says a lot.

I just couldn’t get my sample tuocha to work for me. I rinsed the leaves and then played with infusion times for three infusions but it was either very light and dull or bitter. The jasmine was nice and I think this might have potential, so I’m glad I have more to try with. I think I need to try working on my pu-erh appreciation, though. This felt odd and briney when it hit my mouth for the first time. My interest is peaked again, though, and I have a few different pu-erhs to try out.

Of all the delicate, champagne-y colored oolongs I’ve tried, this is by far the sweetest. Has a really nice, pale steeped color and feels smooth in your mouth. (And if I say it tastes like sweet satin sheets K S had better not laugh at me.)

Definitely too light for anything but a quiet afternoon, but perfect in a silent Sunday afternoon house. (Sort of. My head is still echoing from a morning full of 10-year-olds at church. Today’s deep philosophical question: What would happen if Lady Gaga came to our church and what would she wear?)

When I took my first sniff, I got so much sweet-vanilla-cream scent I was afraid something else had scented it. (It was in a little zip-lock sample; my storage facilities at Shabby House aren’t the greatest.)

I think this tea has some of the biggest leaves, steeped, I’ve ever seen. And the creamy-sweet wasn’t an accident … that’s just the nature of this stuff. Still pretty astringent (cream and pucker are an odd combination, eh?) but really, really good! I have to apologize because my care packages have gotten a little mixed…OK, a lot jumbled…but my thanks to the kind donor! (Doulton, I think!)

I broke the orange open and steeped 1 tsp of leaves with a bit of peel for 30 sec in about 6 oz boiling water. I forgot to rinse it, and it smelled a bit too funky to drink so I discarded that steep, and went straight to steep #2 (also 30 sec.) Much better! There’s a slightly funky scent overtop, but mostly it’s just earthy with a hint of, well, decomposing hay? Maybe I should just call that “malty”…?

It’s drinkable, but not my favorite thing ever. I was hoping for a bit more orange scent or flavor. Next time I will add more peel and see where that gets me. I’m tempted to add a bit of honey to see what it bring out, but I’m sure there are some pu-erh purists that will jump all over me…