Heyes

This tea brews very consistently. I won’t be changing my various ratings. One thing I will say is that I accidentally used boiling water on my third resteep today, and left it in for over 4 minutes. Rather than being bitter/astringent/foul as would be the case with most teas in my experience, it was smooth creamy and even more yummy. Carry on.

This is the last rating under my old scheme.
Tasty, just discovered that the amount of tea to use in my new tea cup is less straightforward than I had previously thought. In this case I used two teaspoons to achieve the suggested “generous teaspoon”. The taste is mellow and dirt-like, maybe a muddy version of the frontal bright Darjeelings. The astringency is coming out, but that’s due to oversteeping and cooling. Good for a rainy mild day like today.

I am still at a loss to describe that “white tea” tea flavor. Much like Darjeeling has its special flavor, the white also has its own special flavor. It’s kind of creamy and it kind of reminds me of the taste in the air around a wood-shop when fresh hardwoods are being cut. Maybe “resiny” is the right word, but it has a light somehow lumber like taste. It’s a, shall we say, delicate flavor though. Better for mid morning or even evening. Yes it can be resteeped, and several times, but it is just a much mellower kind of tea than what I would start my day with. Something like a cruising speed type tea, but not something to turn over your engine if you know what I mean.

I couldn’t be precise with the temp as my thermometer is on the fritz (and in the waste bag now), but the water was definitely in the 165-180 range.

I drank this last night, had to have something right away from my quarterly tea restock. Definitely much less hearty than my usual Assam, but not a wilting flower of a tea at all. Raisiny, earthy (but like dry earth, not loamy soil). Nice flavor. I’ll do another note when I’ve tasted it again.

This is my first white tea, and I am told by my very friendly tea monger… fine, my very friendly loose leaf seller, that this is a great traditional white tea. I was careful to follow steeping and temp directions as well as I could, but I had to eyeball the amount of tea. That being said:

The liquor was vanishingly clear, but the aroma was intriguing. Again this may be my wild imagination, but it had an almost animal smell to it, like a small musky rabbit. Anyway, it wasn’t a strong smell, and it wasn’t unpleasant. It’s hard for me to describe the flavor, and I will attempt it after a few more tries through the week. That being said it’s a good flavor! As it cooled in the cup it became downright sweet.

Not much of a review I know, but it was a wonderful cup, and I can’t wait to enjoy steeping it for the rest of the day!

This rating is more about the method of brewing than the tea itself. I used my new tea cup, which can be found here:

http://www.teatrekker.com/shop/chinese-red-porcelain-steeping-cup/

Along with a perfect teaspoon from teavana.

I think i really got the flavor and the body out of the tea just right. I even measured the water temp.

Well, this feels like sacrilege. A tea grown in the U.S. of A.? And from the south? Well I suppose the climate is good enough for rice. Well how does it taste? I would say it’s a bit mild, hints of nuttiness like almond. It doesn’t have much of its own sweetness. It’s okay. Nothing special, but worth giving a few more tries (since it was a gift) I’d be interested in buying whole leaf and trying it loose someday.

It’s certainly better than any number of bagged teas though.

I put milk and sugar in it.

Iced today, to celebrate the first day where the warmth of the sun overpowered the chill in the air. No sweetener, no milk, just poured hot over ice in a steel water bottle. Sharp, bitter, delicious.

So, what, I went to a new tea monger and you didn’t think I would get a little bit of everything? Sure, it was hard to find the tea among the the “delightful mixtures” at Teavana, and it’s pretty clear they want to sell you with their accouterments, but they have some good teas. This tea, this one is okay.

The pearls have an almost cloying sweet raisin, leather, barnyard smell to them. A smell and taste profile those of you who’ve read my reviews before know that I like quite well in my black teas. The pearls themselves have a really nice feel in the hand and are very attractive in appearance.

The brew is kinda okay. The scent profile didn’t transfer over quite true, but it has a nice natural sweetness with some of the barnyard leather. Almost a dry hay smell, but only the kind you get from a hayloft. A little bitter at the end, a little sediment on the tongue, but definitely an enjoyable tea. Also a light mouth feel.

I’m just now taking my last sips from my mug and I swear I taste cinnamon or clove, something in that kind of range.

Good for a midday cup.

Well it’s the morning after. I peeked a glance at my new glass within glass (kwisatz haderach) tumbler and the MPO was still there. 8:03 a.m., and time for a fourth steep. By now the liquor has taken on a brownish color, and the mouth feel has become creamier. Still, mostly what I taste is bitter and mineral, but the fault for that lies in nor running the water long enough.

All in al it does well to reach a fourth steep a day later, and this hasn’t been the fairest most scientific review process for this tea.

Yes, fine, I went to Teavana. So be it. And yes, I had to gently get into it with the sales clerk. I knew what I wanted, I did not want to mix my teas with their delightful selections, and no, I did not need to buy TEAVANA brand tins.

Okay rant over.

This is a pretty damned good Oolong for a store in a mall. A really nice finish at the middle and back of the tongue. Tastes like spring, just before the first lawn mowing. Seriously, it has that warm almost yellowish smell of thawing grass. The second and third steep are of course better than the first. The leaves have an interesting crinkle in them as they bloom, reminds me of the look of raw kale. Nice reddening at the edge of the leaves.

if you like your Oolongs on the greener side this is a good pick.

Still, I don’t think I can afford Teavana’s price, and the next time I’m in the mood I’ll check my usual haunt.

Composty earthy tones underneath the “Darjeeling” taste. Not an extremely front of the mouth experience, but still face puckering. having it with whole milk and mesquite honey, but it is still quite bitter. And the buzz? Quick and fierce, like a hammer in the heart. Good stuff for the morning.

This tea is available where I do my regular food shopping so I occasionally pick it up. As has been remarked upon by other tasters it is an usually strong tea flavorwise so I usually cut the quantity of leaves down by 1/3 or even 1/2. It has a spinachy taste, more the dark green vegetal taste than the bright springy green. It makes a swampy green liquor, reminds one of something Yoda might drink on a cold Dagoba night. It leaves a lot of sediment in the cup, but it’s hulky-green color often hides this sediment until the last sips remain. The flavor changes little when it cools or is cold, so it is a good and thrifty all purpose tea. It is easily made, tolerates wide range of temp. The leaves are broad enough to prepare without filters or mesh or any of those tools. It takes lemon very well, and if you make simple syrups it takes a ginger syrup very well.

Well it’s been a while since I’ve updated my tea log. Mostly because it’s been a while since I’ve had a new tea to drink. But in the interest of keeping up a vibrant community presence…

Blech. This whole box of tea has been really distasteful. No floral, no tobacco, no nothing. Just stale, and old. It’ll have to do for now though…

So I finally got myself some new teas, and this is the first batch. It’s kind of funny, because now I realize two things about this. One, I have long been making my tea with about 25 extra milliliters per cup, and two I completely misbrewed this cup. Still it was a wonderful happy accident. I brewed this tea at ten seconds for my first and current cup, having read the instructions for a different tea. YET! This tea came alive in what should have only been the “rinse” steeping. Full body already, very pale yellow/brown color to the liquor, and a taste that reminds me of the smell of fallen leaves in autumn. No, seriously, it has that wet earthy kind of flavor. Granted this is a misbrew, technically, it is really delicious. As I’m tasting it even now there is something almost sorrel-like at the back of the tongue. I can’t wait to drink more of this today.

When i purchased this I requested that full front assault experience. Yeah, this is a tea to be careful with. It’s a great Darjeeling flavor, but it turns quickly. If made over strong, or let to get cool, this tea will pack a serious right hook into your jaw with that bitter (or is it astringent?) flavor. Also, this is a whizz-bang tea – that is to say the buzz is fast-acting and lasts long, but also has a bit of a crash not unlike office-coffee.

Sugar and honey (esp mesquite in my opinion) add a sweetness that only takes off the edge a little. A little milk is nice too.

Rich, fruity, everything you want in an Assam. Well, everything I want in an Assam. Nice rich reddish brown liquor, takes milk and sugar nicely. Might even suggest cream, but that’s only because it’s finally a reasonable temperature outside (44 degrees F).

I received this tea as part of a gift set and I am very surprised by it’s quality. Maybe it’s because I’ve been low on black tea lately, but I don’t think so. It has a real tobacco/raisin flavor that I can’t recall tasting in bagged black tea. I made this tea for the purposes of making iced tea, and drank it both hot and iced. It was definitely enjoyable both ways!

I made this tea as an iced tea today, and it is awesome. I made it a little stronger that normal, let it steep for four minutes, and then put it in a thermos (like device) that was full of ice. Very very delicious!

Wow. So rating this tea while sick was an aesthetic misstep. This tea has a really nice lemon-ginger flavor/aroma. I had some last night to help pass the last hour at work and it was so enjoyable I immediately had a second mugful. Still not as good as actually infusing ginger and lemon into hot water, but nice for a non-caffeine pick me up.

So I think I’m getting the hang of this batch of Darjeeling. Short steep time, allow the drink to cool slightly, then drink relatively quickly before the tea completely cools. Also I seem to be having more success in getting a better flavor and less astringency when I make a larger pot (at 600 ml of water and 6 rough teaspoons of tea in my large french press) I still prefer the second flush.

Today I brewed a larger pot of this, for to share with my darling wife, and I let it steep a little longer than I had previously. As is generally the case I find larger pots of tea tend to have a deeper, fuller flavor and mouth feel, and such was the case. I got a hint of caramel or raisiny smell. The taste is still pretty much that really good “basic black” tea flavor that describes itself. A little milk, a little sugar, and we have tea power. Shall we go to the brain?

It’s what’s in the cup.
Sugar really ruins the flavor.
Three steeps seems to be the useful limit.

Still nasty. Sometimes I wonder if this particular batch was made with rancid bergamot. The bergamot is overpowering, and deeply unpleasant.