Invader Zim

Backlogging from Sunday.

This was the biggest reason I wanted to try the Shang sampler and I had such huge hopes for this one. Wild honeysuckle grows along the roadside where I grew up and where my parents still live. I still love to walk down the road and to pick it and taste the sweet nectar.

My dad has a convertible and puts the top down when we go out somewhere in the spring and summer and I always bug him to take the back roads so I can smell all the honeysuckle blooming. It grows everywhere, even along the highways. It is one of my favorite things about spring and early summer.

So, I opened the little sampler bag and smelled a slight sweet floral scent. The wet leaves smelled of sweet hay with a floral note. The taste was sweet hay, slightly floral with a nectar note in the aftertaste. It didn’t jump out and say “Hey! It’s me, Honeysuckle!” it was very subtle, I almost had to look for it. It was a light enough floral that had I not been told it was honeysuckle I may not have guessed it was.

I had too high of expectations for this tea to live up to. I was expecting it to be similar to jasmine teas, to be able to scent and taste the floral notes and go “Yes! That is honeysuckle!” to be blown away. Unfortunately this tea is not that for me.

Even though my expectations were way too high for this, after getting past the fact that I was not going to be blown away by honeysuckle, this was a good white tea with a soft floral note added to it. It was more like the tea picked up the floral notes by growing in close proximity than actually being added to the tea, that’s how soft the floral notes are.

Last tasting note of the day…I can’t take anymore. I feel like my eyeballs are floating and I’ve got quite the caffeine buzz going on causing a slight headache. I can’t remember the last time I drank so many different teas in one day and each tea is being brewed at least 2-3 times. Tea drunk perhaps?

This one intrigued me because it supposedly resembles jasmine. Mmm, jasmine. The dry leaves appear to be mostly curled dark green leaves with some white leaves mixed in. The dry smell took me a while to place. It smells like the black licorice candies you get for Halloween. That put me off a little because I don’t like licorice. The wet leaves smelled like that candy licorice, some sort of citrus note, floral notes and a vegetal note hiding in the corner.

Taste was floral, not jasmine, a lot softer than jasmine, definitely not soapy. There were hints of sweet citrus and grapes and a tingling sensation on the tip of the tongue in the aftertaste. The licorice taste was still there but it wasn’t that icky sticky sweetness in the back of the throat. I didn’t care for it but it wasn’t entirely unpleasant.

The one thing I really noticed about this tea is that it is really calming. I’ve been drinking so much tea that the caffeine is really making me twitchy and giving me a headache. This tea is calming me down even though I’m still very alert and my headache has calmed down to barely noticeable. A nice bonus.

I would rate this tea a bit higher, but that candy licorice is slightly off-putting to me. It’s the only thing I have bad to say about this tea. Other than that it is wonderful.

White tea Shang sample of the mid afternoon. Yes, I realize I’m drinking a lot of tea today and I have become close friends with the restroom because of it. My first jasmine white tea of Shang. This is a nice soft jasmine taste that isn’t overly perfumey. I’m getting a spearmint-like sensation at the tail end of the sip. The aftertaste has a slight drying effect with a hint of sweet hay note. This isn’t my favorite white jasmine tea, but it’s not bad by any means either, just doesn’t really stand out in my opinion.

Edit:
Just a quick side note that I just realized…this is my 100 tasting note!

White tea of the early afternoon. I’m having a ball with these white tea samples! This one confused me dearly because it says white tea yet is says wu-long which I know is another way of spelling oolong…mind blown. I wasn’t quite sure what to do with it so I brewed it like I do any other white teas and I was very much impressed.

The dry leaves are dark brown and slightly curled with some fuzzy white curled leaves mixed in and smelled of apricot and stones. The wet leaves smell more earthy with hay notes…now I’m getting more confused. Taste…o_O sweet hay notes, sweet apricot notes, stone/mineral notes, a very smooth, creamy texture, like butter, yet it remains light. Is this a white tea or an oolong…I get notes from both types.

This tea is as confusing to me as it is delicious.

Another early morning white tea from the Shang sampler. This is divine. Beautiful white fuzzy buds brew up to have lovley cucumber notes, slight sweet fresh hay notes, a nice juicy melon dew texture. This tea is very light and crisp and subtle. The hay notes are one of the prominent notes but it doesn’t overwhelm your mouth and taste buds like other white teas can.

This tea reminds me of the beautiful early morning hours of pre-dawn right before the sun comes up when the sky is starting to lighten but is still nice shades of blue. This is the best Silver Needles I’ve had, it’s just so wonderfully light, crisp and airy.

Today is definitely a white tea day…and lots of it. Tomorrow probably will be too. I drank a sample of Shang’s yesterday and had an inner fight to not drink more samples late into the night. My will power won and I got some decent sleep and immediately started drinking this early this morning.

A lovely white peony that smells like sweet hay like most white teas do. The infusion was nice and light and had a slight sweet smell to it. Taste is what separates this. Sweet hay notes, slightly earthy and robust, and a hint of floral. Usually I get cucumber or melon notes but not a nice earthy robust flavor.

I’m preferring these Fujian white teas over Yunnan just a tad because the Yunnan whites I’ve had typically have some sort of spice/black pepper note and I am not getting any of that in any of these samples so far. Definitely a plus for me.

I finally ordered the sampler package after seeing so many good reviews on here and it arrived today, which is really fast shipping…3 days I think. Anyways, this was the first one I picked out, I want to save the ones I think I’ll like best for later, but I’m not sure how that will go since I’m already having an internal argument of whether or not I should try another sample since it’s getting into the evening and I don’t want to stay awake from caffeine, but I also have nothing to wake up early for tomorrow, and so my dilemma continues!

The actual tea now…dry and wet leaves smell very much like sweet hay. In taste is carries a very sweet note in it that is slightly creamy in texture, like honey. The hay notes are very prominent, fresh and crisp. There is a slight floral note that I cannot quite pinpoint it’s origin.

The one thing that really surprises me about this tea is the sweet, creamy honey notes. It tastes like it was added but I assure I did not add anything to this. I brewed it 175F for about 1 minute in a 12 oz vessel. A delicious sweet white tea, and a good start for the samples!

This is a very pretty tea, tightly rolled green balls with jasmine flowers ans little pieces of orange rind. It doesn’t smell much different than a regular tiequanyin. The extra pieces don’t seem to add much in smell.

Taste starts out floral, orchid and jasmine, but the jasmine is very soft like it’s part of the tea, like the orchid is, and not like a scented tea. There is the buttery texture with a rich mouth-feel lasting into the aftertaste. The orange rind adds a slight citrus note that compliments the floral and creamy notes quite well during the main sip. It also adds a bit of a sparkling quality on the tip of the tongue in the aftertaste. There is also an extra bit of sweetness to it, i might be from the saffron but that’s a wildcard for me.

The oolong is still very predominant and the extra add-ins compliment and enhance the tea.

Cold steeped this time after a comment from Amy-oh. Just enough to make a 12oz mug. I added a little bit of brown sugar to it like I do for all my cold-brews and let it sit overnight.

Drank it first thing this morning and boy was it good. The coconut seems a little sweeter and crisp and the pouchong tastes a little greener. There is still a very distinct creaminess to it but it’s not exactly buttery, it’s more like milk now.

The aftertaste is a little odd, I don’t know how to explain it, but it’s like an acquired taste. The first couple sips I was just like meh, then it wasn’t too bad and I didn’t mind it. It wasn’t astringent or bitter, but something along the same line.

Except for the aftertaste I like this better cold brewed, the flavors seem to pop a little more.

Thank you Teavivre for this sample!

This is my first time with a milk oolong and I’m very glad I get to try it after reading so many good reviews about it. I like green oolongs and was afraid of following the directions by using boiling water on this tea, but I did and the results were surprising good!

Little green balls that smell creamy and floral. Wet they smell very very rich and creamy. The infusion was pale yellow-gold with hints of creamy vegetables. I brewed this gaiwan style. I was too afraid to do it western style with boiling water.

Taste: Cream, creamy, creamy! Creamy taste with a nice creamy texture with some sweetness. Hints of floral notes of orchid taking a backseat to the creaminess but letting themselves be known. There was a slight hint of juiciness, of what I couldn’t pinpoint. The aftertaste was creamy at first then had a sort of drying effect in the mouth.

In later steepings the creamy notes waned a little, and vegetal notes started appearing. The drying effect became a little stronger in the aftertaste as well. It reminds me of a tiequanyin without the heavy mouthfeel and lasting aftertaste. I prefer this over tiequanyin simple because this lacks that super thick, heavy mouthfeel and aftertaste.

Backlogging from last month.

Thank you Teavivre for this sample.

The dry leaves are dark green, long and thing, and smell like dried out seaweed…not the nasty smelling stuff you find on the beach, more like the kind you use for making sushi. The infusion smells of asparagus lightly cooked in salt and butter.

The taste reflects the smell of the infusion: steamed asparagus coated lightly in salt and butter. There are some notes of corn bread with a sweetish aftertaste. This tea I found to be a bit more bold than most green teas I drink yet it contained no bitterness. Thank you Teavivre for letting me try this yummy green tea!

Backlogging from last month.

I’ve been a little slow to updating my notes. This was a sample I had received from Teavivre, thank you. Now, I’ve only had one other Pi Lo Chun before and I didn’t care for it so I decided to try another from a better vendor, so here we are.

The dry leaves are a curled mix of darker green leaves and fuzzy white ones and smell vaguely of the sea. When brewed up the wet leaves have a sweet, smokey vegetal scent to them. The infusion was light and had a hint of smoke to it.

Upon tasting the first infusion I got notes of sweetness, smoke, salt, and vegetal. Kind of reminded me of a savory miso soup, fascinating. As it started to cool a little I started to get roasted/grilled corn notes. As the infusions went on, I got to 5, the corn notes came out a little more but it didn’t really change, but I wasn’t expecting it to either.

This is a decent green tea, unfortunately I don’t care for smokey teas…I’m a wimp when it comes to that and I’m sure Bonnie is going to say something! I’m glad I got to try this and broaden my horizons a bit, but I’m going to refrain from rating this one because of my dislike of smokey teas. Thank you Teavivre for letting me try this!

A generous sample from Azzrian thank you.

I like coconut and I like pouchong, so I couldn’t really have a problem with this one, and I most certainly did not! I can smell the coconut before I even open the bag, this is not a bad thing, I promise! The coconut mellows out a little when steeped, not quite as strong as the initial dry smell. Toasted coconut/coconut macaroons with a buttery texture and hints of vegetal. Absolutely wonderful tea.

The only problem I have with this tea is that most of the teas I have are light and delicate and this one is very potent in smell, so I have to keep this one away from the rest of them. It looks at me all by itself with puppy dog eyes wondering what it has done to be separated from the rest. I always reassure it that it’s because it’s special in a very good way.

Again, thank you Azzrian!

It’s wonderful weather out there today, nice, cool, somewhere in the 50’s…no sarcasm, I really enjoy the cooler weather. So I decided a nice autumn green tea was in store for today. The leaves are dark green, slightly curled and smelled like a lighter version of gunpowder to me. Wet the leaves smelled very creamy, milky and vegetal…kind of like a cream of soup or green beans that have been simmering in milk and butter.

I brewed this gaiwan style 175F starting at 5 seconds. The first and second infusion were incredibly creamy, milk and butter, with hints of green beans and hazelnut. A decent mouthfeel and a nice sweet creamy aftertaste. In the third and fourth steep I had a little bitterness and more green bean flavor. The creaminess wasn’t as strong but was definitely present. I probably could’ve shortened this note and just wrote creamy and been done with it!

I’m surprised how much different this one tastes compared to the Spring harvest. It doesn’t seem like it’s much different, but this one is much more rich and creamy. I have to admit that I much prefer this which surprises me because typically I like floral notes over anything else. This one was just so wonderful though.

Tightly rolled little green balls that smell floral, creamy and of parsley. Wet they smell like greens sautéed in butter. The infusion smells floral and creamy. Brewed this gaiwan style at 208F for about 5-6 seconds after an initial rinse. I always forget how much these little balls open up and I ended up putting in a little too much leaf (I don’t have a scale) and had to take some out for later use.

Initial cup was wonderfully floral and creamy. The next few infusions I could taste lilac and orchid with the tingling mint feeling on the tip of my tongue. As the infusions go on the creaminess got stronger. Around cup 4 I flipped the leaves around and then tasted vanilla and the mouthfeel became stronger. A juiciness came into play around steep number 6 as did the parsley I was smelling earlier. Around #8 the floral notes were gone and the creaminess and parsley notes were stronger as was the mouthfeel.

I stopped for a little and came back to it but after the floral notes completely fade and the mouthfeel becomes really rich with a mouth coating aftertaste with a silky texture. I really love the floral notes with this and how I can pick out actual flowers other than orchid.

Upon opening the bag I see a dark green tea. I get whiffs of a creamy, vegetal tea with a hint of smokiness. Brewed this up gaiwan style at 175F. The wet leaves smell sweet, vegetal and creamy.

Taste reflects the smell. There is first a sweetness that hits your tongue and a wonderful green vegetal taste with a creaminess coating your tongue. At the end of the sip is a slight saltiness with a hint of smokiness.

In later steepings I started to get hints of something else and couldn’t quite put my finger on it (or would that be my tongue?). Searching though other tasting notes I found what I was looking for…walnuts. I believe I found that in Amy Oh’s tasting note.

This tea by no means blew my mind like most Verdant teas do, but it doesn’t mean it’s not a good tea. I just find Verdants green teas to be a little less mind-blowing than their other teas.

What a rainy day. They are saying there is a tornado warning for some counties but nothing too bad other than a little rain and wind. It’s still kind of warm but a lot cooler than it has been the last few days and stocked up on some library books to help pass the dreary day. I wanted to try some of my new green teas from Verdant but I didn’t feel like sitting down and really focusing on tea today, I wanted something I already knew I liked and ended up pulling this off the shelf.

I brewed this in, what I now know is, my Italian mug. Some of the leaves are a little smaller than the holes and quite a bit does get through, but I’m not too worried about it. I love how this is so soft and light with wonderful creamy floral notes and hints of pepper lasting into the aftertaste. Good tea to go with a good book on a wet, overcast day.

Cold brewed this again with some brown sugar. I absolutely love this tea, this is quickly becoming my favorite.

Cold brewed it this time. Still tastes wonderfully fruity and light but there is definitely a tartness that I was expecting, and didn’t get, when I brewed this hot. I added a half of a tablespoon brown sugar (not packed) to about 1 1/2 liters, which is usually enough for me. I feel that it being more tart cold brewed I may need to add a little more sugar, but I’m afraid I’ll make it taste more like juice than cold tea. Either way, it’s a decent tea and makes a decent iced tea, don’t know if I’ll buy more though.

This is my first time drinking a plain Bancha, all others I’ve had are flavored, so I wasn’t really sure what to expect. I open the bag and smell a sweet vegetal tea with a floral hint. I apologize for being vague, but I can’t say exactly what the vegetal or floral notes were. The leaves were a darker green and flat and there were stems mixed in the bag as well. Wet the leaves smelled of cooked spinach with some of the floral notes and a sweetness.

The taste is surprising to me, this is probably because I’ve never had Bancha before. But I’m tasting sencha notes, the sweet, savory, smooth notes of sencha, just not as prominent. There’s a lightly roasted note, a hint of woodiness, and that floral notes that I can’t pinpoint what it is.

As the tea cools the roasted, woody notes become stronger and the sweet, savory notes mellow out more. The aftertaste contains more of the floral notes with some sweetness and a slight astringency. Overall I’m enjoying this tea, not something I would drink everyday, I still prefer sencha over this, but not bad at all. Perhaps I’ll develop more of a taste for this as I drink more.

Backlogging from yesterday since the site was buggered, good to see it’s back up and running well.

It looks like any other Silver Needle tea, long fuzzy buds. These ones turn green the instant you pour hot water on them. Dry you get the slightly sweet hay smell, wet the buds have an additional cucumber note to them.

Taste is sweet hay with cucumber and juicy melon. The juicy melon is more of a texture than a taste and lasts into the aftertaste with a hint of mint feeling. I brewed it up gaiwan style first and the hay notes were very prominent. Then I brewed up more traditional style and I get a much better taste and blend of the notes. I find it so fascinating the difference in taste of the same tea depending on how it’s brewed.

Dark brown long leaves make this hard for measuring but I’m becoming quite apt at eyeballing the measurements. Dry it smells like maple syrup, honey, sandalwood, and orchid. Wet the tea smells of roasted/grilled stone fruit, like peaches, and a spiced chai latte. The infusion is rather light and smells of roasted fruit, honey, and orchid.

Taste, the first sip I get is a sweet roasted fruit with maple syrup or brown sugar drizzled on top, yum. It seems very juicy with a roasted quality and a warm sweetness that I can only describe as real maple syrup.

In the aftertaste I get the floral creamy orchid and a hint of spices like a chai latte. It seems there is a hint of melon but I’m not sure. It’s that juicy quality again but it’s different from the stone fruit I was getting in the main sip. There is also a nice silky texture on the tongue lasting and being more prominent in the aftertaste.

The leaves become more green than brown as I continue steeping and the wet leaves take on a more prominent roasted scent. I still am not detecting any sort of grapefruit notes. Around the third cup the spiciness becomes stronger and the sweetness starts to take a backseat along with the roasted notes. There is still some juiciness to the tea and definitely orchid notes. The orchid notes are now predominantly in the beginning of the sip though. Maple syrup notes are in the middle of the sip and there is a sort of tingling sensation on the tip of the tongue lasting into the aftertaste.

I received this as a sample with my order and I am not rating this one since this tea is not something I would normally drink, not quite to my taste. I can tell this is a wonderful tea, very smooth and complex and even for me not caring for darker teas like this, I would certainly not turn it down if someone offered me a cup.

After having such a wonderful experiment with Verdants Eight Treasures Yabao I decided to redo this one gaiwan style. Now when I first tried this I got a decent amount of saltiness to it and a bit of a metallic aftertaste. Redoing this gaiwan style has made this tea so much better, and for that I am upping the rating.

First I barely detected any saltiness to it and no weird metallic aftertaste..woo! Instead what I got was a nice plum-like fruit notes in the first few steepings, fading as the steepings continued. There was also no astringency at all this time.

About the second infusion I started to get more vegetal notes, reminding me of Dragonwell without the butteriness like so many others. Towards the fourth steeping though, when the fruity notes were barely detectable, a light creaminess did appear, more in the texture than in the taste and it wasn’t buttery.

I think with having such luck in brewing teas gaiwan style and tasting the difference from western style that for now on I shall brew gaiwan syle when I get the chance. It brings out a much better quality in the tea; I am more able to taste the different nuances in a very good way.

Cold brewed this time. I had to, after brewing both traditional and western styles I had to give cold brewing a try. It even says in the description that it’s great iced. So, here we are. Last log of this one for a while since I have very little left of the 1 oz already. I really want to buy more but I’m trying to reign in my spending habits for a little until I get money flowing back in sometime in July. Unfortunately I don’t think I’m going to last another week before I buy more tea, specifically this one! Perhaps 4 oz next time.

So, to the actual review. After such a change in taste brewing it western style yesterday I was very curious as to what todays cold brew would bring. Let me just say it is once again wonderful. The floral notes are there and not overpowering at all, I’m mostly getting rose. The pine notes are more pronounced than the cedar notes but both are taking a bit of a backseat, not that it’s a bad thing. It has a nice creamy texture and I can taste and feel the sparkling qualities again as well. I can taste the grapefruit notes, there is definitely a little bit of tartness, it’s well paired with the sweetness of the tea.

After drinking half of the mug I added a little bit of brown sugar (my go-to sweetener for iced tea) and it tempered the tartness and brought out the sweet notes even more. I can taste the individual notes of rose and jasmine. Hints of the pine and cedar. I can still taste the grapefruit, but it is more pleasant, less tart. The sparkling qualities I can feel on the tip of my tongue at the beginning of the sip and feel it going the whole way to the back of my tongue.

In the aftertaste I get the some grapefruit with some pine and a little bit of cedar. The creaminess, more a texture than a taste, coating my tongue with a little of the sparkling quality hanging onto the sides of my tongue.

Definitely better than yesterdays brewing. I really love this tea, and I don’t see myself waiting too much longer to order more of it!