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From Tiffany a while ago, thanks very much! I had this tea yesterday, so this note won’t be great. It’s a middle of the road earl. Sadly so, as it looks like a great quality black tea leaf. I’m not sure if it’s worth saying it has silver tips though… I only see one or two of those sickles in my sample pouch. The bergamot used here is just okay. Not my favorite, not terrible. Maybe hints of grapefruit. Always happy to try all the Earls!
Album: Buck Meek – Haunted Mountain
Song: Paradise – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RdRqZTLce4
Bonus Song: Haunted Mountain – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iv8uI2VXppA
TeaTiff TTB. Whoa. I went into this tasting note knowing nothing. The aroma is intense with apple. We love apples up here in Minnesota. Our UofM has done a lot of research etc on apples. This one reminds me though of a Fuji apple with a slight hint of red delicious and a bit of golden delicious. Muted olive greens mixed with muted browns. Maybe not the prettiest leaf but the aroma makes up for that. I’m not sure of how old this sample is so I know that will take into account some of the old notes I am getting but they aren’t terrible. But overall, I’d say the flavor isn’t anything too exciting. It is mellow. Earthy with different apple notes and a small hint of barnyard. The wet aroma is somewhat vexing. Reminds me of some Indian black teas with bready and raisin notes. The mouthfeel is smooth.
TeaTiff TTB
A nice mix of dark chocolate colored leaf and golden fuzzy buds and is mostly tightly twisted. Woody aroma. The wet leaf becomes a muted milk chocolate with green olives mixed in. The smell is a pile of fall leaves long since forgotten. Very dark liquor color. Opaque, deep golden brown. That is a punch in the face. If you like a tea that will talk sweetly to you while it’s warming up and then utterly wreck you to make sure you are walking out the door in top form, you’ve found a good one. Brisk yet smooth. Astringent with its pinky pointed. There is a bit of cream and a side of cedar wood balanced smoothly with an old decaying tree.
A toasty dancong. Leaves gave off a roasted, sugary smell, the first cup sort of reminds me of a Taiwanese dongding but sweeter and with some more orchid, second cup after has more mineral. The dancong aroma, that winey quality isn’t particularly strong with this one. Hydrated leaves are roughly 1 – 1.5 in long.
The tea is good and they lowered the price of this dancong. I bought 2 oz for $23.04.
sold for $16.36/2 oz
https://www.teasource.com/products/honey-flower-dan-cong-oolong-tea-1?variant=46949204984120
I’m drinking this with milk and sugar, and it’s pretty well-balanced and tasty! It has a medium level of bergamot, and the combination of teas makes this one taste a little softer and extra floral. I only had about 1.5 teaspoons full from a previous TTB, but I enjoyed it!
A fruity black tea. Dry leaves smells like sweet potato. The tea has a playdough-like scent, floral, fairly tart with a liquorice flavor. Not terrible for the price.
edit: The tea got significantly better after weeks of opening it, the playdough smell went away and the malty, flowery flavors started to show up. Changing the score from 83 to 88.
sold for $9.60/4oz
Inkling Advent Day 24. This is heading toward bitterness, so next time I’ll certainly give it a shorter steep. The flavor really does taste like chestnuts, plus that slightly harsh black tea. I’m enjoying it sweetened with milk, but it may be a little simplistic for me to want to purchase for myself. And as always, I wouldn’t mind the flavor being even stronger. I like the nuttiness though.
Inkling Advent Day 22. This one smells so creamy and nice! It doesn’t taste as strong as it smells, but the cream/vanilla flavor is quite pleasant, if a little artificial. There’s also a bit of pepperiness randomly. I’m conflicted about this one because I do enjoy the cream a lot, but I feel like it needs to be paired with something like bergamot or something else.
Inkling Advent Day 18. Hot, I can taste apple plus the plantlike tea base, with a bit of sweetness that’s meant to be the candy. I feel like the candy and the apple mix better cold, and the base tea is still quite present, but it has a nicer quality. This one feels a bit sophisticated and mild, but nice.
Inkling Advent Day 16. I wasn’t sure what to expect from this one, and I couldn’t find it with a quick search online. I can’t tell what the flavor is – maybe lightly floral or fruity? I can’t tell. It’s not as smooth or delicious or heavily flavored as I prefer, but it was decent both warm without milk and cold with milk.
my all-time favorite tea. great value, buttery, cashew, floral, minerality, and such a warm taste. the sweetness and slight bitterness balance perfectly. great for quite a few steeps. if i had to pick one tea to drink forever, it would be this one. it’s so complex yet so enjoyable.
Flavors: Butter, Cashew, Floral, Mineral
Preparation
intense and rich experience. feels like drinking warm liquid caramel and peach jelly and chocolate. on the second steep it thins out and is easier to drink. it’s the tea i drink when i wish i had a latte.
Flavors: Candied Fruit, Caramel, Chocolate, Peach
Preparation
Delicious. So buttery, sweet and flowery. It’s like a croissant and a beautiful bouquet. it tastes like a jasmine green but better. i am always delighted at how much the leaves bloom and expand in a tieguanyin!
its also delicious iced.
Flavors: Butter, Floral, Sweet, Warm Grass
Preparation
an incredibly reliable, simple hojicha. this is my go-to for when i’m showing a friend my tea cupboard and i want to give them a flavor theyve probably never tried in tea. and so cheap, too. i always have a bag of this around.
Flavors: Campfire, Sweet, Warm Grass, Toasty, Woody
Preparation
Best iced tea i have ever had. don’t bother with it hot. makes a great cold brew too – cold brew in a french press or with a big bag. i cant wait for it to be summer again so i can make this.
Flavors: Fruity, Honey, Wildflowers
Preparation
The pickiest, snarkiest green tea I ever attempted to get along with—an Assam green—came from Teasource. The temp had to be exactly adjusted to the one-one hundredth of a degree and the time within .001 millisecond to keep from being so bitter it’d take the skin off your tongue. I never did get it right.
So my expectations were kinda low with this sample.
Steeped it at the office, so I couldn’t be too exacting, but with steaming rather than boiling water and a 3 minute steep, the base came out tasting like green tea should taste. Ditto with the mango. The AC is still flaky, so I put it immediately on ice and it’s pretty pleasant!
I’ve tried this several times and it never compares well to Mandala’s big red robe, or Lapsang Souchon. This tea is just mildly woody and smoky and I’m left wanting more. I’ll finish the smallish bag I have and then go hunting in my cupboard for the better version. It’s in the ‘save for later’ or ‘break in case of emergency’ section of the cupboard.
I’m not sure what possessed past me to buy a 2oz bag of puerh tuo chas, when I don’t even really like unblended puerh. But I did, and now I have to drink through that fact…
It’s still raining here, so at least it seems appropriate for the weather. I placed one tuo cha to steep in 350ml of 205F water, and just left it there for about ten minutes before straining.
There is a strong leather aroma from the steeped tea that is quite pleasant — I’ve been working on a project in our local special archives collection, the Idaho and Pacific Northwest History Room, and it reminds me of that old book smell, though smokier, and with a bit of a peppery spice.
Tastes pretty good, too! The earthiness is rich and deep rather than the dirt/potting soil taste I usually get. There is a bit of a wet rock/plant taste, but again, it’s very smooth and not that “swampy/marshy” sort of taste. And the leather/smoke/pepper flavor is so strong that it really gives it some dimension.
Pretty impressive for cheap tuos.
Flavors: Earth, Leather, Pepper, Smoke, Smooth, Spices, Wet Moss, Wet Rocks
Preparation
Playing in the archives sounds like fun! I am the unlikely custodian (it has absolutely nothing to do with my job description) of a history of our school district originally written longhand by a sweet octogenarian retired history teacher. I helped transcribe his work back in the ‘90s (he researched us clear back to the 1890’s) and have managed to keep the electronic files viable, but with too many more Windows mutations, I’m afraid we’ll lose them, so I’m in the process of actually printing out hard copies and sharing them with some other staff members so that they aren’t lost once I’m no longer there.
Oh good, a puerh you like! See, I feel like puerh is usually an acquired taste for most. I also love to drink puerh on rainy days and old book smell. :D