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Disclaimer: Please excuse me while I have a mini pity party!

I’m broken!!! :(
Or atleast my taste buds are. I thought it was related to something else, but my apparent lack of drive to consume bucket fulls of tea lately is caused by a health problem that I already knew about, but have been working out how to fix.
I have Dysgeusia, partial loss or alteration of taste sensors :(:(:(
Soooo… since I need to fix the problem anyhow, I’ve decided to make a concerted effort to stay away from caffeine. I mean, I claimed to be doing that before, but now… well I don’t really have a choice! my body has made it for me xsighsx
Chocolate, malty teas, roasty toasty teas, delicate teas… they’re all bland!! The horror!
I’ve been distraught over it all day.
I have a few pu-erh samples that I’ll try but once those are rated, I’m banned for six weeks! I’m not sure I can handle it :s
So it looks like I’ll be taking a bit of a break from this place. yeah, I’ll stop in and rate an herbal tea every now and then but it really isn’t the same!!
Oh well, my wallet could use a break anyhow.
end rant

So… this tea?
I added no sugar, and yet it was very flavourful. Woodsy almost but not in a biting sour way (how I sometimes find green rooibos). Otherwise, it didn’t make much of an impression on me but don’t let that stop you! I fully admit that I can’t taste much for the moment… so I haven’t got much else to say on the topic
It was interesting but I won’t be running out to buy more anytime soon. Too bad, I’m on the hunt for a tisane to love while I’m on break.

So apparently my sudden change in tea preference extends to white tea as well. My once favoured tea is now strawberry flavoured water to me :(
I’ll leave the rating as is. Maybe one day I’ll figure this out…

Another lovely tea! again with the lightness… but I am now wondering how much better this would be with a proper Gawain or Asian style teapot?
So the tea… (yep, I stopped yammering on!)
When the cup was hot, I got the slightest bit of smokiness, more on the inhale than in the flavour, or maybe both but it was so quick that I barely caught it.
The base is nice and round with a hint of sweetness and a bit of a sweeter, drying finish. Now that the cup is cooling, I can see that it’s sort of a clay-like dry sensation… Did you ever eat clay as a kid? well I did it as an adult! not very bright huh. (it was a Bentonite cleanse- you don’t wanna know!)
Now, I wouldn’t say this is earthy, though you could say that clay is earth. It’s just that, well, I’ve always associated pu-erh with more of a dirt taste.
Would I buy this? I think so. I like it. I don’t love it, and again I’m still dealing with this dang bug. I have atleast two more spoonfuls left (I’d say cups but that would confuse those who resteep) so maybe it will grow on me. Of course, if this does even part of what that aforementioned cleanse was supposed to do, then heck yah I’d buy it. I wonder… hmmm. xShrugsx
Overall, I like this much more than the tea I sampled the other day though, so yay for that!
More big thanks to Jerry Ma for sending me this sample!!

Oh and for the record, I am shocked that I really am enjoying these teas. I’ve had some iffy experiences with pu-erhs and these samples have really turned my opinion around! :)

Edit: Second steep is just as good!! A little more intense on the clay when it cools.

I don’t think I used enough leaf! this is so weak… on the first steep it came out as I would expect a seventh or eighth steeping to be.
Then again, I’m a little under the weather so probably can’t taste the subtle notes all that well.
From what I can taste, the pu-erh is very mild, a little earthy, but not fishy at all. There is a mild sweetness that I’m getting but that could be my cold (when I’m sick, I can’t taste spices but everything has a sugary tinge to it)
Oh and I added a tiny bit of white sugar to bring that out. Ok so I know I said in another post that there was only one perk to being sick, but I guess this is more a flip side of not being able to taste spices haha.
Anyhow, I won’t rate this now… I’d rather give a proper review when I can trust my senses more :)
(though I’d rate this particular tea experience an 83)

Thank you Jerry Ma, this is indeed quite lovely!

This was much better than I expected! The chocolate and orange come out really nicely, and not in an overwhelming, fake way. I did add some agave to bring out the flavour a bit but next time I think I’ll add less? One day I’ll try it with milk as well though it’s quite creamy on it’s own.
I got Jerry Ma’s pu-erh samples in the mail today!! I’m giddy ;P
However, I still have this incessant “cold” bug harassing me… and I put that in quotations because it is the slowest moving bug I have ever had! Holy jeeze! (started thinking I may be getting sick last Thursday and I didn’t run a fever until Monday/Tuesday)
Also, I haven’t had the sniffles at all… which I’ve always had with a bug… I’m just confused! Though now I am coughing a little (see what I mean? you’d think I’d have been doing that on Tuesday right?!)
Anyhow, sorry for that tangent. My point is that the sample teas might not be something I can savour while sick :(
Regardless of that, this tea… it rocks!

I had the most amazing tea experience today!!
I must have brewed everything in precisely the right quanity/temp etc because this came out perfectly toasty, milky, floral… just how I love my oolongs. and then, for the first time EVER I made it to SIX steeps!! and each one was just as strong as the previous one! well, except maybe the first, which in my experience is never the best.
Anyhow, on the last steep I got distracted by something and oversteeped it(it was still amazing of course), so couldn’t really try for a seventh cup, not to mention I had already stayed behind at work (20 min) to indulge in my sixth! am I sad or what…
Well, I have maybe one more spoonful of this delightful tea left, and then maybe if I am lucky, a small one after that.
I am in such a good mood… but also still really tired from a long week!
Thankyou again QuiltGuppy!! you are a tea goddess to behold :)

What has gotten into me today?! After that terrible experience with this morning’s tea, I could not stop thinking about a hot cuppa EXOTICA. and it was epic :)
It tastes like Thai food. SO good. (spicy, nutty, cinnamony yumminess)
Mind you, I highly suspect this is one that I will have to crave before making a cuppa… not like many of my other teas that I reach for regularly. Also, I’m still a tad unwell so who knows if that made things taste differently? I mean I did see cloves in the ingredients (ick).

More of the same… I couldn’t even finish one cup. I tried a second steep and that was even worse :(
it started out ok but by the time it cooled down it was just terrible. Le double sigh

buttery? yes. grassy? a little. unique? yeah, I’ll give it that…
However all of these things are overshadowed by the fact that this is yet another green tea which makes me nauseous :(
I couldn’t even finish a second steep…
—funny, the teas that I expect will be ok are not, and vice versa. le sigh

backlog!
So I had the flu… (I think? it was an odd one if it was) and this tea made it allll better. Oh yes it did!!!
On any normal day, I despise ginger. It is my food nemesis! It taints anything it touches… (except gingerbread cookies. Who doesn’t love those?!)
…But when I’m sick? well yeee haw! I love it!!
I consider it the only perk of being sick… all the teas I can’t tolerate for fear of drowning my palate in the pungent biting root are suddenly my best friend! and then it makes me better?!
Oh and my fear of pu-erh? Yeah, when I’m sick, that’s gone to…

now, I’ll never have the courage to try this when I’m a healthy human, so my rating is based on my flu-meter :)
Oh yah the tea…
So it was not as gingery as I expected, and I did need to add some honey so that the pu-erh didn’t come through so bitter… but I was really surprised about the creamy aspect that revealed itself as the cup cooled. Mmmmm.
I hope they don’t ever get rid of this one. I don’t get sick often enough to warrant buying any, but I’m so glad to know it’s around just in case!