Infussion

Sipdown! Thanks again to Raritea.

The aroma of this one is misleading… even with a properly timed infusion, I was getting a bit of a metallic too old/oversteeped aroma. But it’s not present in the flavour at all. I recall that happening last time too, even though in that case I had oversteeped it. But again, not present in the flavour (or maybe it was a bit, but less than the aroma indicated).

Anyhow! A tasty dragonwell. I do so adore dragonwell.

Backlog:

I was pretty disappointed when I attempted to access the Infussion website and could not … did this company go kaput already? That would really be a shame because I really have enjoyed the teas that I’ve had from them.

This is a really delightful green tea. Sweet, clean tasting, vegetative, with a really delicious crispness that is invigorating.

Here is my full-length review: http://sororiteasisters.com/2013/02/14/lin-yun-green-tea-from-infussion/

Oops, accidental oversteep. And then I forgot about it until this morning. But then I drank it anyhow! And it was good and nutty. I should have requested free samples from Infussion when I had the chance. Sigh. Thanks to Raritea for this one!

Good Lord! I this one is SO NOT for me! It smells, looks, AND Tastes like Pencil shavings! BLAH!

VERY bitter, too!

Sorry!
Terrible!

I drank this last week thanks at the lovehly Heidi!’s house.
It was a very drinkable tea – with may supposed health benifits. I got some strong vanilla notes. It also smelled nice. Not the most memorable cup but an enjoyable drink. I have been hard in infussion in my reviews but this product i really did enjoy.

o my being scared to try this i almost forgot i had this sample in my kitchen. Well i’m curious because it is suppose to be very healthy but… if i read the other reviews its going to be a strange thing to drink. Anyway i’m thanking infussion.eu for those 3 samples from there where 2 i really really liked!

I’m opening the package and i see dark brown berry’s. They are pretty big and smell strange. Using 2 teaspoon off leaf for my rather big infuser with boiling water and i’m letting it sit there for 10min like suggested…

The color of my brew is a yellowish light brown like substance and smells funny! The drink while still very hot tastes sour like expected but its not that bad like i expected. Its a bit like lemon juice bit then again its no lemon juice! I’m surprised. i’m comparing this to gini or a tonic you drink on a hot summer day…

Then again its not something i love, but for anyone willing to try this very weird and strange sounding berry. I really would say try a sample!

Inocuous Tea, with vanilla hints- tastes exactly like the water from boiling reeds to make baskets. (I used to weave baskets and you have t boil the reed to soften it- when you hold the reed in your mouth while weaving, it tastes EXACTLY like this!) Medicinal benefits suggested and I am curious. If candida is a cause of hunger and craving for sweet foods, would this anti-fungal tea cut that craving and help you lose weight. If in fact this is so- what a great tea this would be cuz it is super easy to drink- wayyyyy easier than the berries and the Catauba stuff we tried earlier. I’m not a doctor and am making no claims myself, just passing on what I have read and intuitively put together myself. This seems harmless in daily small doese and worth a try. All I’m saying. Steep 10 minutes.

I really enjoy yunnan black teas. HOWEVER, for some reason this tea tastes unsettling. The flavor is VERY fungal. I mean this is drinking a mossy mushroom sandwich, however in this sandwich instead of bread it tastes like there were portabello’s. I was able to try a sample of this from my friend Heidi!. We tried it rinsed, unrinsed, a variety of times, and tempuratures but no matter what I did it still tasted like mushrooms. Sorry infussion, we have a few more to try from y our lineup…I’m sure I’ll like something else…Next up on the list from infussion…Lapacho.

Really Excellent. Light, pleasant, citrus without pucker, jasmine hints, no sour, no bitter, light color, pleasant hay- delicate but very nice. I can imagine getting a hankering for this often just to focus and relax. Smells fresh- good- not pungent in the least. I left the tea in the cup the entire time I drank it and it never got too strong.

This is a new genre of tea for me completely. It tastes like seaweed and spinach. Mellow and soft, it is not unpleasant but certainly new. It does not need anything to supplement it- I think this is a taste you acquire, I have not succeeded yet, it is just culturally very new and I will have to keep trying it and see if it sticks. Smells like warm seaweed, not overly strong, but not like anything else I have ever tasted in tea. Funky.

This is wild stuff. It has many benefits supposedly, I cannot say yay or ney on that but it is so different it is intriguing. To me it is really sour, I can suck on lemons and enjoy the flavor plain, so maybe this is just perfect for me- but I like it. in a weird, unique way. I believe you are to steep it 10 whole minutes.

Backlog:

LOVED this stuff! I found it a little unusual to be looking at these perfectly shaped pearls and not smell the distinct jasmine note that I expect when I see green pearls, but I got over it, especially after trying the tea. It is a really refreshing cup of tea. Vegetative and very pure tasting. Very enjoyable.

Here is my full-length review: http://sororiteasisters.com/2013/02/01/long-zhu-from-infussion/

First of all, big thank you to Infussion for sending out free samples. I probably never would have gotten out of my comfort zone enough to try matcha otherwise.

Now, I’m going to hold off on rating it because I’m not sure I made it right. I tossed the four gram sample into a water bottle with two cups of water and some honey and shook it up. Took a sip, didn’t like it. Went to class, came back, tried it again and down the whole bottle in about two seconds. So I really don’t know about that. XD

Overall I’m sure this is an excellent matcha for the experienced matcha taster. The quality seems to be pretty high (and heavens knows it tasted better than the starbucks green tea frappachino. Though I think the syrup starbucks uses is to blame for that one.) But really, I have no idea what I’m doing. =,D

I still have the ceremonial grade, so I’m going to have to try and make that one properly. XD

This is from the here is hoping traveling teabox.

This dry infusion looks like a fibrous root. It almost looks like the shavings I used as a child for my gerbils. The dry root like infusion has a cedar smell.

Once steeped it is deceptively rosy in color. It looks pretty. However, at first sniff it is bitter and goes into my sinus cavity much like a vapor rub. A deep sniff of this makes me wince. There are notes of chlorine and wood in the smell.

I researched information about this herb online and found out that the fruit from this tree is not edible. I am not surprised. This root is barely edible…err…drinkable.

The flavor is hard to discern. I can say that it is VERY bitter. It puckers the edges of my tongue.

While I am rating this tea 0 the entertainment factor as I sipped it with a friend is 100. We had fun drinking this, reading about its supposed benefits and having a laugh.

Thank you Tea Sipper for putting the teabox together. I may not like this tisane but I appreciated the opportunity to try it and (comically) give it a review.

This tea is from the here is hoping traveling teabox.

This tea may have health benefits. But it is gross.

The infusion is a light yellow color.

There is no tea in this infusion nor is there anything resembling leaves. It is just dry peppercorn looking berries.

The dry berries smell like cedar chips and vinegar. I am not joking. This is repugnant and fierce. I can appreciate that infussion.eu is trying to spread chinese herbal medicine and know that there are interesting supposed benefits. However, you REALLLLLLY need to want the benefits in order to choke this down.

The prominent note is SOUR. It gets under your tongue with a ZING! (And not a good zing.) It is very vinegar and dill tasting. Perhaps you could use this to make pickles!

I am glad I got to taste this but will stay away from this herb in the future. If you are going to try this herb please be aware that it gets more pungent as the cup cools.

I finished the sample from the traveling tea box – but I do hope that others can try this and let me know if I am crazy in my taste!

Note: I was googling the various health claims on this tea and found that this tea is not suggested for people who are pregnant. I am not a dr, however, I am just relaying what I read on the interwebs.

I so wanted to like this one. I was pretty excited when I saw it in the Traveling Tea Box since most notes I saw on it mentioned that it smelled and tasted like cedar chips. Call me crazy but that sounds appealing!

I am praying that I either overleafed (over….barked?) this or steeped it for too long (ten minutes) because it was beyond bitter. Just… undrinkable. Literally. I took one sip and had to pour the cup down the drain. :( I’m definitely going to give this another shot because a cedar-flavored herb seems like it would be great for blending.

As the leaf appears somewhat broken up I really can’t point fingers since I’m familiar with brittle nature of Bai Mu Dan. With the usual hues of green and brown that White Peony bears I can detect only few white tips.

The infusion is somewhat thick with subtle and almost faint notes of butter, sweet sap and hay on hot summer day. Although it’s a pleasing cup to me it misses some richness and complexity to make it a keeper.
On the other hand, price seems really fair, so my guess is that it could fit in for a gulper tea, hot or iced/cold brewed, so I might turn around when the summer comes. If I ever decide to experiment with tea flavoring I’ll use this one as a base for sure.

1 tbsp for 375 ml

Floral. Sweet note- reminds me of chamomile sweetness. Hint of seaweed note in background.

Dry, the leaves smell buttery and grassy.

Brewed, the tea smells grassy – like a typical sencha. Taste wise, this tea was very light, mellow, and, well, weak. I have tried a minimum of 6 different methods of preparing this and still end up with a very similar cup.

SIPDOWN!

Thanks Raritea for this sample :) Another straight tea I really wanted to try since I’ve had a few flavoured blends with bai mudan. This is a really nice tea, though i much prefer it as a base tea in a blend. This isn’t too vegetal, which is really nice. it’s also a delicate tea that is quite refreshing.

Loose
Appearance: olive grey green sencha lead
Aroma when Dry: grassy, smooth, sweet (eastern) light, hint of floral
After water is first poured: creamy, buttery, vegital, sweet
At end of first steep: creamy, vegital, sweet
Tea liquor:
At end of first steep: clear
Staple? Type yes
Preferred time of day: any
Taste:
At first ?: smooth, velvety, mineral notes, light vegital
As it cools?: notes flatten, get juicy vegital, soupy
Additives used (milk, honey, sugar etc)? No
Lingers? Hints of buttery vegital notes

Loose
Appearance: long green leaf
Aroma when Dry: heavy vegital,
After water is first poured: burnt spinach
At end of first steep: cream spinach
Tea liquor:
At end of first steep: light green
Staple? Type No
Preferred time of day: any
Taste:
At first?: spinach, peas
As it cools?: tea deepens, gets sweeter,asparagus notes surface cloying
Additives used (milk, honey, sugar etc)? No
Lingers? Yes, with cloying heavy vegital notes

I managed to completely botch my first cup of this under the impression that white tea needed a longer steep than average. Naturally the result was quite disappointing. Fortunately after looking at the other reviews I made a second cup with a much shorter steep time and can fairly review this tea.

It’s a pretty decent bai mudan. The mouthfeel is quite smooth and buttery. The taste is more vegetal for me than floral, but my mouth might be a bit too conditioned to floral teas that have actual flowers in them. There is a slight honey taste at the very end of the sip. Not bad by any means, but I definitely prefer Infussion’s Sencha to this.

Made a tasting note before, but i’m updating this a bit because i’m going true my sample at a pretty fast rate over the last week!

Don’t know why but this week i didn’t drink a single black tea, and usually those are the once i drink the most! White and green this week and most off the evenings i’m craving the more robust light malty tasting bai mudan… going to buy this when my sample runs dry!