Dinosara

I kind of hate that this tea is so good. I’m having the last of my sample today, which means an investment if I want more (which I will). For some reason I craved it today; well, it was this one or Golden Moon’s Coconut Pouchong, which I don’t have any of. Guess I’ll be resteeping the heck out of this one…

Not your typical Christmas tea! But it just might be a nice one for thinking of warmer times when it’s cold out. It’s just so bright and cheery! I love the jasmine in combination with the mango/passion in this one. This is also a black/green blend that really works. Some people might be missing some of the black tea notes, especially when brewed a this temperature, but I’m cool with them laying low in the flavor.

This afternoon is our departmental holiday party (yay!) but that means I have a lot of work to get done this morning before it starts (boo). So I chose a tea I wouldn’t have to think about too much. Bonus points for holiday-ness! I really forgot how sweet this one is. And it’s almost more clove-y than cinnamon-y. I don’t crave spice blends a lot these days, but this one is a really great one for the upcoming winter.

Love this tea so much. I brewed a cup, had a few sips, and then got distracted in conversation for half an hour so it cooled down to lukewarm. It is still so delicious… it’s like drinking jasmine honey. Mmmm.

When I was putting my Naivetea order together I almost went ahead and ordered 2oz of some oolongs I was sure I would love (passion fruit, lychee) instead of the infused sampler pack, but I really wanted to try this tea so I went for the sampler instead. Plus as much as I may want it, I don’t really need that much oolong in my stash right now.

I read that this had a grapefruity aroma/flavor, and that’s certainly what I smell from the dry leaf, but it also reminds me of some other less common (in the US at least) citrus fruits that I occasionally find in the grocery store. Pretty sure I’ve never found yuzu though! The steeped tea smells incredibly sweet-butter-creamy with a hefty dose of florals. I don’t get so much of the the citrusy yuzu in the aroma now.

Flavor-wise, this is another top notch tea from Naivetea. This is definitely the most subtle of the flavored teas that I’ve tried; the grapefruit/yuzu citrus notes are hard to distinguish and seem to blend into all the other flavors of the tea. They do seem to give the tea a certain something that just makes it taste a bit different, though. Otherwise, the tea is a little buttery, a little vegetal, and a little sweet, with big floral notes. All around a very nice tea.

Definitely love this one. I think the golden buds base is just a fantastic match for the citrusy bergamot. Lately I feel like I’ve been running up against black tea bases for flavored teas that are at best uninteresting and at worst taste bad. I would love it if more tea bases were like this one!

I wasn’t feeling an oolong this afternoon so I decided to dig out my big box of MBSC samples and try something I hadn’t had before. Of course this one jumped out at me as fairly seasonally appropriate. It is getting chillier, though overall it’s not really as cold as might expect for this time of year.

The smell of the dried leaf on this one is very orangey/appley, and surprisingly not very spicy. The steeped tea actually takes on the aroma of mulled cider, with a little black tea added in (actually that gives me a fantastic idea… black tea in the mulling spices for cider!). It actually smells really good, but I worry that I’ll get disappointed expecting mulled cider taste, especially the sweetness.

Wow, I really really like this one! Even though right before I take a sip it seems like I’m going to be drinking mulled cider, and afterward it’s clearly not. The actual flavor is similar enough to mulled cider yet different enough that I’m not disappointed. And the big apple chunks in the blend do lend a light appley sweetness to the tea. The spices in this are not individually distinct in the flavor but definitely add up to a nice blend, and I think that adds to the mulled cider feeling. I think I get a faint hint of rose in the aftertaste, but it is barely there.

I haven’t been super impressed by the blends I’ve gotten from MBSC not because they were bad, but rather because they just weren’t fantastic and I’ve been drinking some really fantastic teas lately. Also their black tea base was a little meh, which I can tell is the case here as well, but there’s enough other things going on here that it’s not as distracting. I do wish this blend had a higher quality tea base, because it’s one of my favorite “winter” blends I’ve had so far. It should be called Spiced Apple Cider!

This is another green tea that I requested from Teavivre with my samples based on its description so that I could broaden my tea horizons. So thanks again to Teavivre for providing me with these!

The dry leaf has that kind of “green tea” scent that I associate with a standard green tea. The leaves are fairly long and twisted but they also are relatively curly so they pack fairly well and I think my measurement of them should be fairly accurate. They are dark green when dry but after steeping they have turned a very bright yellow green, and the liquor is a medium yellow color. The steeped tea smells really good, and not like I would associate with a green tea. The description mentions chestnuts, and I definitely am getting the kind of nutty aroma I might associate with them. Also maybe roasted sweet corn? It is a scent that is familiar but that I’m having trouble placing. As it cools a definite buttered cooked veggie aroma is coming more forward.

I definitely get sweet, nutty, buttery, cooked vegetable notes in the flavor as well. It’s a hint bitter, so I’m wondering if I used a tad too much leaf (or maybe I should have done a 1 minute steep). Either way, it’s not too bad and I definitely love the other flavors going on. This one actually has the same combination of flavors that add up to a cookie-type note like I experienced with Verdant’s Jingshan green (in a blend), which is totally unexpected for me but I really like it. If I can figure out my optimal steeping parameters for this tea I might just fall in love.

I just finished putting all my french teas into brand new tea tins, so I grabbed this one to have this morning while it was out. I really do love the combination of aromas in this tea with the citrus/bergamot, strong vanilla and floral jasmine. However, I have found that the combination of vanilla and jasmine, which sounds awesome, just tastes a bit odd to me. It’s not so odd here as in Golden Moon’s vanilla jasmine tea, possibly because it’s tempered by the bergamot and orange.

Also I can’t seem to make this tea not bitter, which again makes me wonder if it’s Mariage Freres’ black tea base that I just can’t deal with. This is a black/green blend, which are usually tricky anyway, but I brewed it basically like a green this time and it’s still slightly bitter to me. Then sometimes I think it’s just that vanilla jasmine combo that is giving it an off, bitterish flavor. Whatever it is, I’m not sure that these type of blends are really for me, even though I do love the idea of them.

After an afternoon of jasmine tea I didn’t really feel like another floral or somewhat floral tea; I wanted something nutty or sweet or… caramelly. Yup, that works. Now I’m finishing off my sample of this tea.

The fact that this one has a medium-roasted formosa base gives it that nutty, appley flavor that I’m really coming to appreciate. This one isn’t so appley as apple-skin, actually, and I do think I’m getting chestnuts this time, though I’m not super familiar with the flavor of chestnuts. And then over everything a caramelized-sugar flavor. I’m really enjoying this one and I bumped it up a few notches. I don’t know if it’s a rebuy (maybe if it came in quantities less than almost 4oz), but it’s a possibility if I’m already ordering other things.

Back to floral teas, eh? I am very excited to try this one because I loooove jasmine pearls. My favorite so far has been Harney & Sons, but I honestly haven’t gotten to try too many different ones (which is partly because I am so pleased with Harney’s I don’t seek them elsewhere). Thanks to Teavivre, I get to try these pearls!

And it seems like I’m in for a treat; when I opened the package I was greeted by the most amazing jasmine aroma. Seriously honeysuckle aroma there, and rich, heady florals like sticking your head into a jasmine bush in full bloom. Yum. The liquor steeped to a pale golden yellow color, and it retains that honeysuckle-jasmine aroma, though in a more subdued way. There’s also something different about this jasmine aroma that I can’t quite articulate. Let me try: most jasmine seems “high” and “bright” in the aroma, like the equivalent of a soprano voice, but this jasmine has some serious “low” and “dark” notes in the aroma, like the equivalent of an alto or tenor, in addition to the usual high and bright notes that really make it a lush experience.

I was writing all that about the aroma, but it holds true for the flavor as well. The soprano notes are present right at the front of the sip, while the tenor notes grow at the tail end and in the aftertaste. The jasmine is lovely and fresh, and not overpowering or perfumy at all. I always look for a natural sweetness in the tea that reminds me of eating honeysuckle nectar, and it is lightly present here (especially as the tea cools), but not as much as I would have expected. Still, these are top notch jasmine pearls, and at just over $3/oz, they seem to be a bargain for the quality.

Added note: I had three extremely flavorful and tasty steeps (12oz each) of this tea before I got jasmined out. This tea definitely keeps going strong!

Winter really does put me in a spicy tea mood, I guess. All this summer and fall I’ve gotten really into green oolongs and floral teas, which is pretty much the exact opposite of a spicy black. This offering is another thanks to maisonlula. It’s another in the orange-and-spice genre of teas, and this time the spices are ginger and cinnamon, both of which I can smell distinctly in the dry tea along with the orange. There’s supposed to be some vanilla as well, but it’s not obvious in the dry leaf.

Steeped, the tea smells very gingery… I haven’t yet had a ginger black tea (most of my ginger teas come in the form of lemon-ginger greens), so I am intrigued. It definitely smells very spicy. The flavor is less spicy than I would have expected. I can taste the ginger, but I don’t really get a bite from it or anything. Unfortunately a bitterness from the tea base here seems to overwhelm other flavors besides the ginger/cinnamon notes. Even then, I would wish for those notes to be stronger. This may be a tea that is a good candidate for taking home to drink with additions so I can brew it really strong and still drink it.

I got a small sample of this tea with my order from ZenTea, and I was pretty sure I’d want to drink it with milk and sugar because it smelled quite spicy. Actually I might not have had any issue with drinking this straight, but I decided I wanted to have this fairly Christmasy tea (cinnamon, clove and orange, which is standard Christmas-tea fare) with additions anyway.

The spice bend is pretty nice with both cinnamon and clove distinguishable and robust but without being overpowering. The orange isn’t super strong and instead just adds a light fruity note, which is fine because it keeps this tea as one focused on the spice, instead of one focused on the orange. The black tea base seems pleasant enough and it is certainly a major player in the flavor. Overall a pleasant spiced black tea and a nice holiday cup of tea.

Of course I’ve wanted to try this one for a while now, so I was glad when it came back in stock after being out of stock for so long, and even more glad when I got a fantastic deal on samples on cyber monday. I finally got airtight pouches that I can put this tea in after I open my sample pack, so I was finally able to break into this one. A lot of people really love this tea, so my expectations are high!

The dry tea smells much like other milk oolongs I’ve tried, with that buttery, creamy, slightly caramely, condensed milk aroma. I have to admit that I’m busy and was distracted drinking this one, so maybe it wasn’t the best conditions for a review, but also it kind of says something that I was able to somewhat distractedly drink this one. I wasn’t wowed. The flavors are a little weak, so I’m wondering if a steep temp closer to what I usually use for oolongs (~195°F), or a longer steep time would improve it. What’s there is nice… a little buttery, a little peachy-creamy, with a nice sweet taste, but I just can’t really get excited about it. It doesn’t blow me away like I was expecting. I have a decent sized sample, so maybe another time.

This is another tea from my swap with The DJBooth, and another Teavana tea for me to try. Thanks so much!

I often find that almond “cookie” teas like this aren’t nearly as almondy as I would like. Of course, I want super intense almond flavor, so it’s not to be unexpected, but a lot of times all I taste is cinnamon or other spices and not enough almond despite the slivers in the tea. I don’t know if my expectations are slightly different or if the blend of this tea is a bit better than others I’ve had, but I’m really enjoying this one. I feel like it has a nice balance of almond, which is present but not at marzipan-grade intensity, and the cinnamon-cookie flavors. The black tea base is a little meh; especially as it cools I’m getting a hint of bitterness right at the front of the sip but then it goes away, so I’m not quite sure what is going on. Still, a very enjoyable cup of tea.

It’s been quite an up-and-down day, and certainly a busy one without time to stop for tea yet. I’ve been at work all day and I am just now sitting down at my computer at 4pm. Crazy! Anyway, I wanted a tea I knew I would love, but I wanted something new. I also wanted an oolong, and luckily I have a boatload of new oolongs to try still. This tea is kind of a compromise between old and new because I’m pretty sure I’ve had it before from Butiki Tea (how many rose violet calendula oolongs could there be?), but this is from my Naivetea sampler pack.

The dry leaf smells fantastic. It’s a lush, thick combination of florals, which of course I love. Rose and jasmine are the two most common florals for tea, yet they are so infrequently put together. It seems like it’s because of the rose=black and jasmine=green dicotomy… well leave it to an oolong to bring them together. I love the combination, which really comes out in the aroma of the steeped tea. I’m not as familiar with the individual aromas of violet and calendula (though I know violet a little better than calendula), but they definitely add to the thick floral aroma.

If you don’t love floral teas, do not even try this one. I am a floral nut, so I love it, but this particular cup borders on perfumy even for me. I know! Maybe shorter steeps or a rinse would yield less strong florals, but I don’t mind of course. This tea does have that light natural sweetness to it that I love as well. Whenever I’m in the mood to drink a bouquet of flowers, this is the tea to go for.

Hey, it’s my first Teavana tea! This one comes to me thanks to The DJBooth. Teavana has a number of blends and such that I think sound tasty, but I’ve also read so many negative things about the shopping experience in store that I’ve never gone to the Teavana that’s 30 minutes away from me. I mean, I’ve thought about it, but it isn’t really in an area I frequent so it would kind of have to be a special trip. And you can’t buy samples. You get the picture. Anyway, I get to try this one now!

The dry leaf smells pretty chocolatey, but the steeped tea smells much more roasted nutty/coconutty. There’s a toasted-grain aroma in there that I recognize from some of the dark Wuyi Mountain oolongs I’ve tried. The chocolate definitely comes back to the front in the flavor, and the tea is intriguingly sweet. It reminds me a bit of the chocolate/coconut black tea I had from Praise Tea, though obviously with a lighter base. I find that a medium-bodied formosa oolong base like this has can often add an almost appley note to a tea, and I’m actually getting it from this tea as well. As others have mentioned, I don’t taste any distinct ginger or rose notes in this cup. Overall I’m really enjoying this, and while I may not run out to buy more when I’m done, Teavana has definitely made a good first impression.

I don’t know why, but I still get nervous about pu-erhs. I’ve actually never had a bad experience with one—actually just the opposite with one, which I love—but all the same I worry that I will really dislike them based on stories I’ve read. Angel Chen offered to send me the plain ripened pu-erh in a sample but I opted for this rose one instead because I love rose-flavored things and even if this isn’t very rose flavored it was less intimidating. I also don’t have any kind of gong-fu setup, which I feel like I would prefer for most pu-erhs.

Anyway, I’m trying this one today! The little tuocha is cute witha small rose bud set in the bottom of it, and it smells earthy and a tiny bit fishy. I gave it a quick rinse and then steeped to the specified instructions on the package. The tuocha almost completely fell apart in that time, though there is a little lump in the center of my strainer still. The liquor is exceedingly dark brown, and it smells really earthy like a carpet of dried pine needles in the woods.

The flavor I’m getting while still very hot is that oaky, woody, a little sawdusty flavor I tasted in one of the other pu-erhs I’ve tried before. I read K S’s tasting note for this one that says leather, and when I think about it, yeah, it is a bit leathery. Really it’s a flavor/aroma that is deeply ingrained in my olfactory memory, the smell of wood stalls and fresh shavings and leather equiptment that comes from spending most of your childhood in horse stables. That’s not to say that this pu-erh actually smells or tastes like a stable, but rather a few individual components… luckily they’re pretty innocuous ones. There’s also a light sweetness that plays on the tongue toward the end of the sip. No rose here. It’s an interesting flavor, and not one I would want all the time, but very drinkable without any of those off-putting flavors and aromas that can sometimes show up in pu-erhs.

I used up the last of my sample of this one in a cold brew. I do love a cold brewed Earl Grey because I think it really brings out the citrusy flavors of bergamot and of course covers a multitude of sins in blends. This was a tasty blend to start with, but the cold steep really brought out the bergamot as an equal player to the orange. Quite a lovely cup with the two flavors nicely balanced.

The weather is yucky and not very wintery, so I thought this autumnal tea might be appropriate today. I got this in a swap from maisonlula, and I am excited to try some more teas from this tea shop, which I visited when I was in London last spring.

I’m not sure of everything that’s in this tea, but I think there may have been some aroma cross-contamination between it and some of the spicier teas also in the package. The steeped tea smells like a cinnamony, Christmasy spice tea, but that does not carry over to the taste. There I get some tart berry flavors and a smooth, heavy marzipanny almond that coats that mouth and takes over the aftertaste. It’s a little like Harney’s Boston if you added a variety of berries instead of just cranberry. There is a hint of spice in the taste that I’m not sure if it is intentional or not, but it’s not unpleasant. The black tea base isn’t as smooth or rich as the one Harney uses for Boston, but it’s not bitter and it doesn’t really impede my enjoyment. Overall a pretty tasty tea!

I’m not huge on unflavored black teas, but I didn’t turn down this one when it was offered as a sample from Teavivre (thanks again!). I do think that Yunnan “golden” teas tend to be some of my favorite blacks to drink plain. When I opened the package on this one my first whiff was definitely the dried sweet potato note others have gotten, and then a malty black tea. I was surprised at the low steep temp for this one, but I stuck with it. The steeped tea smells really malty with a hint of brightness. Like an Assam, which others have mentioned, though that is somewhat disconcerting to me as I tend to not like Assams.

But! I needn’t have worried. What a tea. Those sweet potatoes show up again in the flavor, this time like really good sweet potato french fries… and I love sweet potato fries! The flavor is actually really different than what I expect when I smell the tea. Besides the baked/fried sweet potato, I get caramel notes and some roasty notes as well. All around a really tasty black tea… I think it’s my only unflavored black to crack 90!

Wow, I’m the first one to log this tea? Along with the infused tea sampler set I got black friday weekend, I also ordered the high altitude sampler set because the teas sounded interesting but were not teas I’d ever had before. So this is my first A Li Shan/Ali Shan Oolong! Obviously the only thing I have to compare it to is the Tieguanyins I’ve had, but I do have an Ali Shan sample from thepuriTea to try later as well.

Steeped the western way… all these oolongs do make me want a gaiwan, though. The dry leaf on this one smelled the most floral of all the high altitude set, so I decided to try it first (yup, I’m a floral junkie). The steeped tea smells really really good. That warm, buttery, sweet, floral aroma… yum.

Mm, I’m enjoying this one. Nicely floral, nicely sweet, nicely leafy/vegetal. I’m afraid I’m not really able to pick out subtle differences of this varietal compared to other green oolongs, but maybe if I had them back to back. I also feel like though my western-style brew is delicious, I’m missing out on the subtle flavors that change from short steeping to short steeping. In any case, this is a really delicious tea, and I can say I definitely also enjoy Ali Shans!

It’s always fun to get tea in the mail when you forgot it was coming to you… such is the case with my envelope of teas from TeaEqualsBliss that came last night! Thanks so much for the jam-packed envelope. This was one of the samples that was included and I decided to jump right in and try it this morning.

The dry leaf on this one smells like cherries, but like actual cherry fruit, not cherry flavoring. Whew! I’m really not a fan of cherry flavoring (like in cherry candy), but I do like the fresh fruit. It reminds me of a french “four red fruits” tea, probably because cherry is often one of the red fruits in those blends. After steeping it has a tart cherry aroma backed up by a brightish black tea base. I don’t get much almond except perhaps as a slightly nutty light note to the aroma.

The flavor is very subdued and pleasant. This isn’t an in-your-face flavored tea. A bit tart cherry, a smooth black tea base, and there’s the nutty almond flavor, blooming in the aftertaste. I would like it if there was a bit more almond flavor to this, since I am an almond freak, but I do really like that the cherry tastes nice and natural.

I’ve had Lavender Earl Greys and I’ve had Green Earl Greys, but I’ve never had a Green Lavender Earl Grey. Given my good experiences with Verdant’s Alchemy line so far, and my interest in various Earl Greys including those of the lavender persuasion, I had to ask for a sample of this one with my latest order. Thanks, David, I’m excited to try it!

The dry leaf smells pretty lavendery with some greenish teaish scents and is that some bergamot? The bergamot isn’t really the main player in the aroma of the dry leaf. I steeped this according to the directions for the base tea (Jingshan green) and the resulting cup smells very intriguing. Lavender, yes, but with a warm, almost cookie-ish aroma. Well that was a surprise. Again, I can’t really pick out the bergamot in the scent. The flavor is intriguing and unexpected. Lavender is the most forward flavor in this tea, but overall it is very light and delicate with a faint sweetness. It is somewhat bright, but more “crisp” than anything else. I’m afraid I don’t actually taste the bergamot nor the lemongrass. I am very much enjoying this cup of tea, but what it’s really making me want is a cup of this tea unflavored, and perhaps to see it in a straight Green Earl Grey blend sans lavender. From reading tasting notes of the base tea, I feel like the lavender, light as it is in this blend (seriously the least obtrusive I’ve ever had in a tea), is steamrolling over the other flavors a bit.