Dinosara

The first time I tried this tea I thought the dry leaf smelled like molasses covered grains. This time when I stuck my nose in, I got the impression of chocolate extract or a chocolate liqueur… basically the distilled essence of chocolate. I love that the leaf on this tea is so long and twisted and way more whole leaf than you usually see in a flavored tea.

Mmm, this blend is sooo delicious. The blend of the chocolate and the base tea is just fantastic. The chocolate flavor is intense but in no way does it steamroll over the tea base; no, it just brings out the chocolatey notes in it, and caramel and honey notes definitely come out to support the chocolate flavor. It reminds me of eating a chocolate caramel, kind of. Or the scent of being in a city with a chocolate factory. It’s different enough from a hot cocoa or chocolate bar that it doesn’t seem like watery cocoa. This is probably my favorite straight chocolate tea so far, and it’s definitely going on my must have list!

This is a sample I hadn’t even opened yet… I still have a number from thepuriTea to try. I thought it would be nice to go back to a TGY after a myriad of other green oolongs recently. The dry leaf on this one smells very green leafy, like grass and alfalfa hay, without much other dimension to it. Fortunately once steeped the aroma really develops; it’s very floral, magnolia-ish.

I was pleasantly surprised by this one; honestly I wasn’t expecting much based on other reviews and my experiences so far with their oolongs, so I guess it worked out. It’s definitely floral, but I do get some nice buttery, honey-y notes in it. Granted, they’re pretty light, but they’re there. They definitely come out more as it cools way down. Not my fave TGY, but an enjoyable cup of tea all the same.

I got this tea a while ago in my envelope-o’-tea from TeaEqualsBliss. Thanks! When I looked this one up I was surprised to see that Golden Lily is also known as Jin Xuan, which in turn is also known sometimes as “milk” oolong. I have tried two Jin Xuans from Tea from Taiwan, so I’m really interested in how this one turns out!

The dry leaf smells like a fairly straightforward floral green oolong. Steeped, the aroma is pretty different than anything else I’ve come across… there’s some high top note I can’t quite place. It’s almost fruity, but not quite. The tea also has a fresh “green” scent to it, and some low, almost hiding nutty notes. I didn’t quite know what to make of this tea at first, but I think I like it! It’s not quite what I was expecting, I guess. It’s a bit floral, a bit buttery, a bit nutty, a bit vegetal. I get some honey-ish notes as well. They all come together in a way that kind of reminds me of Gardens of Anxi from Verdant Teas. I think I might drop the steep time to 2 minutes next time to see how it fares because there’s a hint of overcooked tea leaf in here. Otherwise it’s pretty tasty! It’s also pretty different from the two Jin Xuans I tried from Tea from Taiwan, and I like this one better. Thanks so much TeaEqualsBliss, I’m glad I got to try this one!

I wanted to try and expunge some old samples this morning, but most of my samples are really contain more than one cup (so there won’t be any expunging today I don’t think). This one is like the sample that never ends! I think I still have more than one cup left after using tea for this one.

Well, it’s still a pretty tasty tea. Chocolate and coconut; now I’m wondering how this compares to Harney’s new(ish) Soho Blend, which is also chocolate and coconut. Also, as my mind is wandering while drinking this tea I am thinking about how it would taste with a pinch of almond tea in it… kind of like almond joy in a cup! That should be a way to enliven my next cup. I enjoy this tea but it’s not something I reach for; I certainly don’t crave it, hence it’s taking forever for me to get through the sample!

Man, I think I still didn’t get enough leaf with this tea. This cup is tasty but very light. I steeped it for 3 minutes because after 2 it just seemed way too light, and it’s clearly a tea that is pretty forgiving as far as steep times go because it has no hint of bitterness or overcooking. Maybe I’ll have to break down and actually weigh this one to make sure I’m getting enough leaf in.

Here’s my celebratory Year of the Dragon tea! I have to remember not to over-tea myself on this one, which is hard not to do because it lasts for so many steeps. And it’s so delicious it’s hard to stop drinking it!

Happy Year of the Dragon! Maybe I’ll celebrate with some Jasmine Dragon Pearls later today. But right now I need a tea to really perk me up because I am feeling mega blah this morning. Nasty, rainy weather, nonstop sneezing… I want to go back to bed. But I’m at work, so that’s not happening. :P

I can really smell all the citrus fruits in the dry leaf today… orange and grapefruit and lemon, along with the bergamot and creamy vanilla. I’m assessing this one to order with my groupon for this company to fill the current Earl Grey Cream hole in my cupboard. Ok, it’s not quite hole yet because I still have a small amount of my Earl Grey Cream from ESP Emporium, which I enjoy, but I might like this one better.

This is a really nice Earl Grey Cream. Citrusy and creamy, no bitterness or astringency. This would probably be a good one to keep around.

Had this one this morning with milk and maple syrup to sweeten. Almost all my maple syrup collected at the bottom of the pot so the last cup was really sweet! I’m afraid I didn’t get a ton of pancake flavor from this even sweetened, but it was at least a tasty pot of tea.

First snowstorm of the season! And only the second snow we’ve had at all… pretty abnormal for this time of year in NY. I like the snow so I am pleased it has decided to show up this winter. Also it means tons of birds at our bird feeders! It’s been relatively warm up to this point, and lots of other food was available so it was slow going. Not today!

I made this one with milk and sugar, which is just about the only way I can drink 52teas blacks. Now I get lots of pumpkin flavor and a little spice. No cheesecake flavor to speak of, really. Still, I will definitely be able to drink the rest of this tea like this.

The first time I had this tea I was sick with a stuffed up nose but I just couldn’t wait to try it. It wasn’t that long ago, but I still don’t remember it very clearly, so I’m excited to try it again now. I’ve been craving a creamy oolong lately, so hopefully this will fill that.

Now that I can properly smell it… the steeped tea smells coconutty in a fruity way. There is a creamy buttery note, as well as a toasted nutty note as well. It’s got a little bit of a popcorny—scratch that, kettle corny—aroma to it as well. Flavor wise it’s pretty tasty, and I stick by my original note that this is pretty fruity, with a creamy, smooth coconut background that lingers. I think this time it’s creamier than before (I have to make myself wait until these cool down a fair bit so I get the most out of them), and the mouthfeel is smooth and lovely. Overall this is really very delicious, but I’m not sure quite where it fits into my hypothetical standard panel cupboard. It lies somewhere between Golden Moon’s Coconut Pouchong and ATR’s Milk Oolong, but those are two teas that I totally adore, and I’m not sure I need one that fits in between them. Still, I will enjoy this sample for now especially since I have neither of the above mentioned teas in stock and I said I wouldn’t buy any tea in the next couple of months!

I think this may actually be the last un-tested tea of my high-altitude sample pack from Naivetea. Woah, progress! This has been great because I feel like I know a little more about different types of green oolongs, though I have a ton more to learn. My goal is to have a decent sense of the most popular types of green oolong and which ones I like most before I go to China in late March, knowing that when I get there I will likely be overwhelmed in varieties I’ve never heard of. :)

The dry leaf smells green and vegetal and a hint floral. Steeped, the florals come out more and are joined by a light creamy/buttery aroma. The flavor is a nice balanced between fresh green leafy notes and soft florals. There is the slightest hint of sweetness toward the end of the sip which gets stronger as the tea cools. There is maybe the slightest hint of butteriness in the flavor, but this is really a much more fresh, green floral tea than some others.

I do admit that it’s difficult for me to keep all these Li Shan/A Li Shan/Shan Lin Shi green oolongs separate in my mind! They are all very tasty but none of them has really stuck out as spectacular to me. Maybe I’m a more of a Tieguanyin kind of girl. :) I have some others to try from thepuriTea, so my oolong journey is far from over.

I usually don’t drink green tea in the morning, but this isn’t your regular green tea… this is jasmine pearls blended with maté. I recently had a groupon-style deal for Sanctuary T that was expiring, so I went shopping to figure out what teas to buy. They offer samples for a few of their teas, but none that I was really interested in, so I had to go for a couple of 2oz teas. They had a number that sounded interesting until I took a closer look and realized that I had tried a bunch of them under different names from other companies. This was one that I had never seen anywhere else before and it appealed to me.

The dry leaf smells minty and green, with a hint of jasmine underneath. I think that maté can smell a bit minty, and it definitely reminds me of my recent travels to Argentina. The tea came without a temp for steeping, but I used a green tea temp because of the jasmine pearls. Also, I don’t know how hot the water is that Argentinians usually use for their maté, but I’m pretty sure it’s not actually boiling (at least, it wasn’t for one girl I stayed with). I steeped it for 1.5 min (based on their 1-2min recommendation), but I’m pretty sure I’d be happy with 2 minutes.

The tea smells more jasminey after steeping, though not overwhelming. Still green minty and that herbaceous maté aroma. It’s pretty faithful to that in the taste as well, though the jasmine is just a hint. Looking in my infuser it looks like the jasmine pearls didn’t get much chance to expand, so I guess I’ll be resteeping this one! The flavors remind me of an Argentinian herbal tea I brough back with me (not a maté blend), actually. It’s not a combination that I would expect to like, but it’s pleasant and I do really like it.

Second steep was a tiny bit hotter (180°F) and for 3 minutes. The jasmine pearls are really unfurling now. It’s decent but I liked the first steep better; there seems like there’s less flavor in this one. I think using these parameters for the first steep might yield my perfect cup of this tea.

This is the last of my infused oolong sampler from Naivetea that I have yet to try, though I do have a few of the high-mountain ones left. I put this one off at first because I remembered not being totally taken with the aroma of the dry leaf, but then when I just smelled it now the scent was a strong, lovely floral. I’m not super familiar with osmanthus as a flower, though I’ve had a few different osmanthus oolongs that I believe I’ve enjoyed. I feel like they all taste pretty different, though, so I never know what to expect.

They weren’t kidding about the intense osmanthus aroma. Steeped, this tea is incredibly floral to the point of being perfumy. There’s a slightly buttery vegetal aroma hiding somewhere underneath those flowers, but it’s being swamped! The level of florals reminds me of the Rose Violet Calendula Oolong. The flavor of the tea is slightly sweet and super floral. Wow, it’s even a little strong in the florals for me, and that’s saying something. I feel like I am drinking a bouquet, or perhaps even some osmanthus perfume. After reading Amy oh’s tasting note for this, I’m thinking that this is one that definitely needs multiple, short steeps. One long steep brought out so much osmanthus that the rest was kind of overwhelmed. As it cools, the florals calm down a little (or maybe I’m just getting desensatized to them), but it’s not so perfumy. I’m defintiely tasting more sweet, buttery, creamy notes. Not my fave from the pack by a long shot, but I think once I get my oolong gongfu set up, it will be a great tea for that.

ETA: I’m starting to wonder if somehow my samples of the floral oolongs were more heavily scented than others have tried… all these tasting notes talking about light osmanthus, hah! The Rose Violet Calendula oolong seemed stronger than I had before, as well. Odd!

Tea #2 of the Tea from Taiwan Jin Xuan (milk oolong) sampler. This is an all natural, no flavoring whatsoever milk oolong, although based on my experiences with the “flavored” one of this pack I am not really expecting this to remind me of a milk oolong.

This time I threw the entire package in my mug, which is a little more leaf than I would normally use, but I realized I wouldn’t really be able to get another cup out of the sample with the leftovers. To compensate I steeped it for 2 minutes instead of my usual 3, and I don’t think it came out too strong. It does have a slightly milky, slightly buttery aroma to it, but that definitely doesn’t come through in the flavor. The first thing I think of when I take a sip is a big pile of sauted spinach. It’s very vegetal, and some florals come out in the tail end of the sip, but not many. Honestly, this is really not the oolong for me. But they can’t all be the tea for me, otherwise my cupboard would explode!

I just got a new infusing basket in the mail last night, and I couldn’t wait to try it out! I use a Tea Forte Kati Cup for 90% of my tea, but the handle on the infuser basket for it broke off a while ago, so I’ve had to pry the basket out with the tip of a dull knife at the end of each tasting, and sometimes it’s really hot! Finally I broke down and ordered a new ForLife infuser basket (this one: http://preview.tinyurl.com/7we6l5v) that is kind of a tall, narrow, use-it-in-any-mug deal with a nice sturdy handle. I’m also excited that since it’s a ForLife the holes are way smaller than the metal screen of the basket I had before, so that should mean less bits in my tea now.

This is a pretty decent tea to try it out with because the leaf is CTC and very small. And indeed, only the finest of tea dust escaped the basket. This tea is just amazing to me because it totally doesn’t look like much, with it’s tiny little pieces of leaf, but it is so tasty. Last time I brewed it for some unknown time because I forgot to start the timer, but I think I could actually brew it for longer and not get bitterness because this time it seems a tiny bit weak. Still, I love the combination of flavors (bergamot, jasmine and red currant), and when I run out I will probably have to make a blend myself since it is unlikely I will find it again. But for now I have a pretty decent sized tin that will likely last me a while, yay!

Ah, white tea, my old nemesis. Hah, not really, but still, I haven’t had a ton of luck with white teas in the past. Not that I have brewed white teas that I’ve actively disliked or couldn’t finish the cup, but I have always been a bit disappointed. But this is a tea that a lot of people who say they have had problems with white teas have liked, so I am interested to try it.

To me the dry leaf smells a bit like alfalfa hay. The leaves are fluffy and I used about 2.5 perfect teaspoons in my 12oz cup, though of course the fluffy leaves mean probably less leaf ended up in there, but hopefully it was a decent amount. Steeped, the scent of the tea reminds me of fresh-cut grass, and a bit of cooked vegetables. This is definitely a smooth, relaxing, and pleasant tea. The flavors are light but distinct; a little grassy/hay-like, a tiny bit floral, and a very smooth mouthfeel. Am I a white tea convert? Maybe not quite, but at least now I “get” more of what it’s all about. Thanks again to Angel Chen & Teavivre for the sample! (Finally, one of my boxes of samples that I got over the last couple of months is all tasted! I am running far behind on trying my new teas…)

I used the rest of my sample of this for my lunch-time cold brew. It made a really nice cup of iced tea; very jasminey but not overwhelming. As much as I missed the golden buds flavors in the hot tea, I really didn’t get any here… it was hard to tell I was even drinking a jasmine black as opposed to a green, even. Somewhat surprising! Still, it was a tasty cup of tea.

I can honestly say that I haven’t been bowled over by my samples from thepuriTea like I was expecting to be. However, I had yet to try this tea. See, thepuriTea is the source of what is still my very favorite passion fruit black tea; none of the others I’ve tried have really compared. And apparently, there mango black is just as good.

The dry leaf smells like dried mangoes. There aren’t any dried mangoes in the blend or anything, and it’s nice to smell a fruit flavored tea that doesn’t smell like fruit candy, but rather the fruit itself. The addition of hot water has turned the dried fruit to fresh, because the steeped tea smells like a lovely, ripe mango. Not one I would get in the grocery store here in NY, but rather one I would get from a market in Africa. Turns out that I brewed this one a little hotter than I brewed the Passion Fruit Black for some reason, but this tea still turned out super smooth without a hint of bitterness. The mango flavor is juicy and lightly tart without being too tart, and the black tea base adds to the honeyed, lovely taste. Totally awesome. Even if I find no other teas from thepuriTea to buy, these will always have to be in my cupboard.

So a little while ago I was going through old discussion threads about milk oolongs and I saw the Tea from Taiwan Jin Xuan (milk oolong) sample pack discussed. As I have found out most milk oolongs are “flavored” by subjecting the growing plants to various things, but because this is done on the growing end of things almost all places that sell milk oolongs don’t mention it, if they know. Personally I don’t really think of that as “flavoring” in a normal sense since it’s all done while the plant is growing, nor do I have a problem with flavoring tea anyway. I was curious about the difference, though, and this pack has samples that you can actually compare. It has three milk oolongs: two that are all-natural, no flavoring added at any point, and one that is flavored. This is the flavored one.

The dry leaf does smell nicely creamy, slightly fruity, with a hint of greenish florals… in short, not unexpected. The steeped tea builds on those, with more florals and a definite buttery note. If I breathe in really deep I get a distinct vegetal note. At no point does this tea smell like acutal milk or sweetened condensed milk, which some people say is a tip-off that it’s been flavored. This is clearly a very lightly flavored one, so I’m interested to see how the unflavored ones compare. I can tell it’s a milk oolong from the aroma, but you could have fooled me by the taste. I probably steamrolled over the nuances in flavor by brewing it western style, but that’s how I brew all my oolongs. It’s fresh, green, vegetal and a bit buttery. I don’t really get a creaminess from this… actually almost the opposite as it’s a hint astringent. There is certainly none of the light sweetness you find in some oolongs (whether they’re natural or not!). I was honestly expecting a bit more from this one, and certainly expecting something a bit different. Oh well, it’s still pretty tasty.

This did turn out nicely when cold-steeped. The mango and passion flavors were much more juicy and tasty than in the hot steep, and it all melded better. I only have a smidgen of this tea left, which I will probably toss in a combination cold steep at some point.

I thought I was doing bad as far as getting around to trying my samples from Teavivre, but it turns out there are only two I hadn’t tried, and this is one of them. This was yet another green tea that I requested for furthering my tea education since I know next to nothing about different types of green teas.

The dry leaf is full of fluffy, squiggly leaves. The aroma of it is a little offputting, at least for what I look for in a tea, because it’s very savory and brothy. It really reminds me of miso broth you might get at a sushi restaurant. Steeped, it’s still a bit brothy but more vegetal, and some distinct nutty tones have come out as well. It smells a little less like a bowl of soup, which is good (in my mind at least!). The flavor is definitely light, and I feel like I’m “tasting” the aroma more than the tea itself. It’s got that grainy/miso-y flavor to it, followed by a vegetal note that ends up being a touch sharp toward the end. A very interesting tea, but not one of my favorite greens from the box. Thank you again to Angel Chen and Teavivre for giving me the chance to sample it!

I have so many samples from thepuriTea that I haven’t tried yet! This is one of them, my first jasmine black. I’ve always been intrigued by jasmine blacks, and I do tend to love yunnan golden buds, so I was glad when this one came back into stock right around the same time as the milk oolong, just in time for black friday.

The dry leaf on this one smells pretty much just jasminey; I can’t really detect the golden buds underneath. The directions called for a longer steep time than I usually use with black teas, but I bumped my usual 3 minutes up a bit just to see how it goes. The tea steeped up pretty dark and has a lovely jasmine aroma underlain by a slightly chocolatey, slightly toasty black tea scent. It’s a very nice tea, though not anything that blows me away. The jasmine is nice and fresh and not perfumy, but I’m wishing for a more robust golden yunnan flavor. I’ve recently had a few flavored golden yunnans, and I want more of the chocolatey, caramelly flavor in this one. I think I’ll also drop back to my usual 3 minutes, because while it’s not bitter or anything, it is a bit astringent (which they claim is the jasmine in the description, but I’ve never found jasmine astringent) and I think I’ll like it a little better steeped shorter.

Before I made this order from Ovation I tried a sample of their blueberry Earl Grey, and I enjoyed it even though I’m not a big fan of blueberry flavored things. But I was pleased with the Earl Grey part of it (and that the blueberry tasted pretty authentic), so I decided to go ahead and order this one. The dry leaf is chock full of dried raspberries, orange peel, and a scattering of flower petals, and it smells awesome. A nice blend of bright, citrusy bergamot and juicy raspberry.

The steeped tea has that black-tea-blend aroma that I can’t quite pick apart but find a lot of places. Assam-y, I think. Not my favorite, but it doesn’t always mean a flavor that isn’t good to me. There’s also the bergamot and a warmer raspberry aroma as well. I’m going to hold of rating this one as well (and tasting the rest of my teas) because I do think that these blends need time to settle and mature since they were fresh-blended to order. I’m not getting a lot of strong flavors out of this cup, and they all seem a bit muddled. There’s some astringency with a citrus note behind it, and maybe some raspberry, but they are kind of lost. I definitely can’t figure out this tea base… I don’t like Assams but I felt ok ordering more black-tea-base teas from them because my sample of Blueberry Earl Grey wasn’t bitter or astringent to me, but brewed in a similar way this tea is both. Maybe it will mellow more, but maybe it won’t and it will mean I might have to write off black teas at Ovation because the base and I don’t get along.

Ah, rose and jasmine. This tea really reminds me of another tea I’ve had before, but I can’t figure out what. I think most of the jasmine and rose teas I’ve had have also had other things in them, and none of them have been green and/or white teas. Oh well, one thing’s for sure… this is really tasty. I’m always a little hesitant about white teas because I haven’t had too much success with them before, plus this tea was made up of long, twisted leaves combined with big rosebuds, which made portioning it out with a teaspoon difficult. The directions called for 2-4 minutes of steep time, so I went in the middle.

Even with all this uncertainty, it turned out awesome. Rose is really the main flavor here, but the jasmine is no slouch. I do think that rose is naturally a bit more forward of a flavor than jasmine, so it seems the strongest. They combine together very well, though, along with a nice fresh, green background. It’s a very floral tea, and it’s a very successful one. I might just have to keep this one around!