Mark T. Wendell

OMG: This morning I realized that I only have enough of this one for two more cups. Gotta order more or I will go into withdrawal. ;-)

Always a great morning cup. Love it!!!

A cool foggy morning, waiting for the sun to shine and enjoying a gut-warming cup of one of my faves. My new favorite band, The Futurebirds streaming on Spotify and the kids off with my wife for an hour—a bit of calm plucked from what promises to be a busy afternoon of yard maintenance.

When I look on my tea app this is the number one tea that I drink. Whatever I drink, I always come back to this one. It is an excellent Darjeeling. I have had a number of others: more expensive but not better, some too brisk for a Darjeeling, but this one really has qualities and price that make it the one I always reach for.

This one has been on my shelf for a while forgotten for the moment. I usually drink black tea with a little sugar and no milk or cream. I tried another tea in the morning with half and half so I decided in the afternoon to give this a try with half and half. I found that I like it a lot better that way. It reminds me of a Russian Caravan type tea. It has that Lapsang Soochong slight smoky flavor. It is very smooth and with cream and sugar it was very enjoyable.

The smell of wood smoke ignites some primal pavlovian need inside of me, especially on this bone-chilling day. The beautiful red hue of this tea begs for a glass mug and the deep, mellow taste never disappoints. This will always be a part of my inner circle of teas.

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this is a GOOD jasmine tea!

i put a couple of pearls in my tiny cup and steeped for about a minute and it had unfurled!

jasmine scent is good-strong, not overpowering
jasmine taste is good-strong too. there was an almost imperceptible bitter aftertaste, will have to steep for a shorter time, maybe? still it fared better than the other jasmine i had steeped earlier and gave up on hot-steeping. the other jasmine also had that slight bitter after taste even after cold-steeping :(

this is my first jasmine pearl though so no points of comparison but this is the best jasmine i’ve had! haha

one time, i will have to steep at the same time as my other jasmines.

will update this upon re-steep <3

update: the 2nd steep normalized the flavor and i liked it the best. was able to steep about a couple times more of this goodness :)

Oh hey, this was actually on my shopping list! It caught my eye again on the SWAPs board, thank you momo for sending this to me. I find it amusing that three of the five people reviewing this tea (not including myself) passed it on to each other until it came to me over the last two years. Which explains why as soon as I brewed it I got a familiar odor that I have a very hard time describing but comes from teas that have been passed along or perhaps been in plastic bags too long, no matter if they are green, oolong or black. Sigh.

The dry leaf smells better than the wet, the second infusion is better than the first (which I had to toss, so lets just consider it a rinse shall we?) and the tea tastes much better cool than it does hot or warm. If I let it go cold I get a nice powder sugar/tree lichen/mushroom taste/feel that lingers on the tongue and that’s about the only nice thing I can say. I get “mellow brew”, but not the full body or bouquet, there’s a bit of spice and the weird age notes are sharp at times. ::shurg::

Tis not Keemun and has lost the majority of it’s former Formosa oolong mojo that other tea drinkers took note of. So Taiwanese Assam: win, Formosa Keemun: loose. Could be the age but I’m unlikely to acquire a new batch. I also don’t know it this was fine cut to begin with or if I just got the dusty bottom of a bag of full leaf, but tis something to consider. Oh well, thanks for letting me try it momo. The good news? I have two Keemun’s from Butiki to try!

Thanks TeaEqualsBliss! I’m still trying to get through all of my samples. I’ve been having a mini sip down/cleaning party.
This is such a lovely smoked tea. Lapsang always reminds me of camping and campfires. Mm :) not a super smoked flavor, but still has nice flavor to it. Thanks again!

This is definitely a nice tea for a rainy afternoon/early evening.

I admit I do not crave it often, but I love it when the weather is cold and rainy! And I’m happy the heat is starting to come on in my building. Can you say… brrrr?

Backlogging from yesterday.
What a way to start the new year.
We arose to temps dipping to 10 below outside and our oil heater had quit during the night.
The house was freezing.
Hubby went out to fix it (yes, the problem was outside in lines or something)
He bundled up and went to grab the door knob and it shattered and fell apart in his hand!
No, we do not use glass door knobs and no my husband is not the Hulk.
So, we both looked at each other shocked and now there was a gaping round hole in our door allowing the evil cold in.
We shoved a rag in the door and went out and I huddled around an electric heater in the house.
After a bit, I decided that I would start some laundry because the dryer would help heat up the house.
SO, tossed laundry in the washing machine and then decided to shower and get ready for the day.
THEN, while in the shower, the washing machine water backs up into the tub.
The water keeps coming, so I have to shut off the shower water and huddle on a ledge with a towel around me, shivering and of course, shampoo in my hair (nothing ever happens just after you rinsed your hair, does it?)
Finally, the water went down and I was able to shower.
SO, my whole point that this was just our first hour of New Years Day!
I needed a good tea to counteract this craziness.
I opened up my tea sample drawer and grabbed this and dumped the rest of it that was left in my tea infuser (about a teaspoon and half).
I needed its wonderful strength yet, polite gentleman like qualities to give me courage for the rest of the day.
Whew! Thank you Amy Oh and Thank you Hu Kwa.
Read previous note for on this tea.
Oh, and Happy New Year…I guess.

I found this tea in Baltimore and couldn’t resist picking it up.

It is brisk but not bitter, I am drinking mine with milk so I think that helps with the briskness. It isn’t my favorite Ceylon but is still pretty good. Slightly woody and earthy. I did try sipping on it plain and it was okay that way but I think I prefer it with soymilk. I also forgot how long I steeped this for so it got pretty strong, might try and steep a little less time in the future because it probably lost a lot of its subtlety.

Thank you Amy Oh for giving me the chance to try this tea.
What a elegant Lapsang Souchong!
The dry leaves smell of fine quality black tea and smoke.
Then when the water flows over the leaves, emerges this deep smoke.
If this tea were a Man, it would be a Gentleman, with some royal blood, yet totally is rocking a 5 o’clock shadow. Ahem, Anywho!
I have found since I started drinking LS’s, that each one has a bit different level of smoke, even a style of smoke.
Some LS’s are almost rough, others have a honey note, while others are not heavily smoked.
This tea is smoky, but the fine quality black tea shines through as well.
In fact, the first note I taste is the rich black tea, then the lovely smoke hits your tongue.
This tea is a delight to drink.
I also enjoyed reading about its rich history in my Mark T. Wendell catalog.
Thanks again, Amy Oh!

A pleasantly delicious tea and a first time trying this brand and blend of tea; good quality teas, you can tell in the taste.

I am not too familiar with this type of blend, but I expected a heartier flavor profile. It is very tasty but not what I thought it would be; I was expecting a smokier taste, not as much as Lapsang Souchong but at least contributing to the flavor. This Russian Caravan is smooth…actually, this is all I can say about it, there is really no depth or complexity to it. I am aware that this type of blend does have some Lapsong Souchong blended in for flavor and intrigue, but the only time you taste smokiness is in the aftertaste and then it’s only a whisper on the palate. When drinking, Russian Caravan is somewhat malty, again, not as much as drinking Assam alone but noticeable.

Not a hearty tea however, a good afternoon tea.

Would I recommend this blend, yes…for the afternoon or when you don’t feel like a heavy, malty blend. I would like to try this same blend from other vendors for comparison.

I would say try this for something different, quiet and refined.

When I want an earthy but light tea I go right for this. It’s not as floral or light as I like my greens but it gets the job done without being too understated. Eating some plain jasmine rice with this tea is an excellent, simple meal.

So this tea, cold brewed? DELICIOUS! Sadly this is also a sipdown but this is a really enjoyable cold brewed tea. I’ll have to look into getting another similar rooibos sometime for those hot summer days. But for now this is just a great refreshing cold brew – with just a splash of sweetner to bring out the orange :)

Alrighty, I’ve waited far too long to review this tea.

Being Whispering Pines, there’s a lotta smokeyness in my teas. Clearly I enjoy smokey teas :)

This is a daily thing. I wake up and I make a 7oz cup of this, steeping 1tsp of leaves for 5.5 minutes, and it’s beautiful.

So smooth and intoxicating. This is the high-school crush that you couldn’t keep your eyes off of. A homecoming bonfire love story in every sip. You can barely breathe before you want another kiss of this beautiful love. I find perfection in her sweet breath meeting my lips and the heat of her smooth body makes me never want to let go.

I may be offering this soon. Would anyone be interested? Great prices, as always. :)

Thanks TeaEqualsBliss!

I’ve had a pretty full day, going to the allergist, mailing stuff, picking up a prescription, eating a $10 lunch (!!! never again), buying a couple dresses for my Halloween costume to only find I might have an even better dress at home already, and then learning that if you walk around Goodwill with a hockey stick, people get the hell out of your way! That’s for my boyfriend’s costume, not me, don’t think it works with a dress. I’m gonna be a Bond girl gone zombie.

And then best of all someone bought SIX lip balms from me, someone I don’t even know!!! YAY the ads work! So that was thrilling.

Now it is tea time. I should have probably got out a regular keemun since I’ve been wanting one for days, and the other day I had one that was more like lapsang because it wasn’t made properly (not by me!). This looks a lot like a Taiwanese oolong instead.

I steeped it in my gaiwan, 3 steeps of 15 seconds, 20 seconds, and 25 seconds and put all those steeps in one mug.

This is…weird.

It doesn’t taste like Keemun at all, it tastes like a roasted oolong. And when it comes to Taiwanese oolongs, I’m just not a fan of those types. Baked wood chips. That’s all I get. I think I’m going to add honey to it.

It’s such a pretty color though. I wish I could paint with it.

Well, honey makes it better but it’s still not my type of flavor underneath it all. I wish I could get into it but I just can’t.

This tea is excellent with milk as well as plain, I’ve discovered today. I keep expecting this tea to be more smokey-tasting than it is because the scent is full-on BBQ à la lapsang souchong. Luckily the other teas in this blend seem to dampen it down a little.

Goodness this is good! I love yellow tea! Thank you LiberTEAS for sending me some!
I am going to have to add this to my TO GET list as well!
A perfect example of yellow tea for those who may want to venture into yellows or anyone who is already a fan!
Sweet, buttery but not too buttery, creamy, slightly vegetal but not like a green, even a slight candy like flavor when cooled.
Full review on the 21st here: http://sororiteasisters.com/

Tea of the morning here, a nice standard black which is meant to be an afternoon tea, but is also good for the morning.

I also did a new blog post about tea and painting at the Zen Center if anyone wants to read it:
http://sanfrantea.teatra.de/2012/10/09/sumi-e-at-the-san-francisco-zen-center/

I can be an incredibly hard sell on green teas (they’re often a touch too bitter for my taste), but this one is mild, fresh, sweet, and agreeable. It also ices beautifully.

So another sample from indigobloom who may have incidently gotten this from Liberteas, but I can’t say for certain, there’s just a note on the package which leads me to believe so :) This is a really nice tea. It reminds me of…wait I think i figured it out while having that thought. I’m pretty sure this is similar to african red bush with a bit more orange but i’m sure i’ll second guess myself on that one forever.

Anyway, this tea doesn’t knock your socks off or anything like that but if you like orange and are ok with rooibos, it’s not too bad a tea :)