Melissa

Alright, I historically do not like green tea. Just wanted to warn you.

Now, I’m hopeful with the scent. There is a oolong element to this that gives me hope.
Taste though is still very vegal. I have to say, it’s tame enough that I don’t hate it. I’ll drink the rest of what I brewed. It hasn’t won me over to green tea though.

Hi again! I can’t get this page at work. I’ll blame the firewall for my lack of posting :)
So, I’ve got 3 more samples left. Here is one of them.
Strong mint scent. It smells light and minty when brewed but strong at the same time… It’s kind of contradictory but that’s what it’s like to me.
Taste wise… There is mint- combo of mints- again light but strong at the same time. The mint is much fresher and more natural tasting then most mint flavored things.
Nice fresh after taste.
The tea flavor underneath is very mild.
Oh, and for the rating scales. I give up. Perhaps I’ll come up with something and start for the next tea but so far, they are rather random and don’t relate to the other teas I’ve tasted as I can’t remember how each tea compares to each other…

In the airport my choices were McDonald’s for tea or this tea at a coffee stand. I went for this :) Not too disappointed. I wouldn’t by the tea in a store but one of the better teas I’ve gotten out. The flavor has a good balance. I usually find earl grey’s are too strong or lack flavor but this one doesn’t have either problem.

Tried this on the plane to Florida. Not bad for a plane. It’s pretty good hot. Good jasmine flavor without too much bitterness. As it cools though there is a bitter quality that comes out.

I’ve been very busy lately at the hospital and haven’t had time to write about teas or even have much more then a tea bag on the go. Anyway. I’m post call today and got off pretty early in the am so I had a chance to have some tea. I’m coming to the end of my samples and here is this one.

I was wary of this tea. I like chai but my prior taste of a pu-erh was not so pleasant. This looks just like the pu-erh but smells like a combo of the fishy pu-erh and chai. Overall, the chai taste is dominante. There may be a slight earthy taste under it. As it cools, the pu-erh seems to come out more. Overall, it is a pleasant tea. I doubt I’d have it often but every now and then it would be nice.

Ok, so I finally had time to get back to tea tasting.
Unfortunatly, I don’t much care for this one. I’m still new at the different tea varieties so maybe it’s that I’m not fond of ceylon. To me this tastes closer to coffee then other teas. (and I really don’t like coffee). I do get the “fertile rainforest” tastes but I don’t care for it. I tried it plain and then with cream and sugar but this follows the trend for me that adding sugar and milk doesn’t help me with teas I don’t like plain. Anyway, not for me. I’m curious though if it’s just because I don’t like ceylon as everyone is saying this is the best ceylon…

When I first poured the water and smelt the leaves… wow! It reminded me of those mints you get after dinner that are soft and have a layer of chocolate. It is morning but still that smell made me smile and pepped me up. The mint taste isn’t as strong which I think is good (especially at this hour of the morning) It is the dominate taste for me though. I can also taste the vanilla blending in. Very faintly in the background is the tea taste where I really only taste the black.

So this tea was perfect for this morning although I don’t really see it becoming one of my staples. We’ll have to see if I start to crave it. Now off to work.

I’m down to my last few Golden Moon samples and had stepped away from it for a bit but I’m back to them :) It’s really hot today and I just wasn’t in the mood for my usual teas. I wanted something lighter.
This hits the spot. The jasmine is very refreshing. The taste is light rather then overbearing. The scent is also refreshing. If you want a hot tea on a hot day, I think this one hits the spot.

Edit: I did a second steep and there is a oolong buttery scent that surprised me a bit (pleasant surprise). It’s also in the taste as well. Cool- first taste is jasmine, second is oolong. Very fun.

For me the pre-brew scent is odd. It’s what I would expect if coffee and green tea mated and had a baby. The green is much stronger when brewed.
Warning to others, I’m not a green tea fan and didn’t realize what this was until I brewed it since my packaging is in Chinese. My rating will be lower then someone who enjoys green teas more.
Anyway, the flavor is pretty much green tea. It does taste fresher and crisper then some other green teas that I’ve had.

This was an impulse buy the other day. I’ve been craving Lapsang for a while now and saw this at the store. Score!
Very much enjoyed this smokey tea :)

I picked up a 6 tea sampler from the China pavilion in Disney. This is my first. The scent is very welcoming. It’s black tea with a sweet quality and a touch of a musky just rained scent. I’ve never been to China but interestingly, when I smell it, I think of China.
To the taste, it is sweet but more of an organic sweet. I hate sweet tea but this is fine. It almost tastes like they were gentler in the processing and more of the natural tea flavors are present. It’s really hard to describe this taste. I feel like it’s familiar but not all at the same time.
It is clean and crisp. I would recommend giving this a try. I find it very refreshing. I don’t think there is much in it to offend any taste buds and I picked it up for pretty cheap so if you are considering this tea, give it a shot. I have a few more brews left before my sample of it runs out so I’ll make my reorder choice after that. At that point I guess I’ll learn if you can buy this online or I have to wait until my next trip to pick up more. There aren’t any chinatowns in my area.

This one was also on an airplane (bagged variety). It was better then the Royal variety and better then the Earl Grey Tazo. I think if I had some fresh leaf of this one it might be pretty good.

Another tea I had during vacation, this one at a hotel. It was a disappointment. I usually enjoy Earl Grey but this one was all smell and no flavor. Drinkable, but that is about all.

I had a bag of this on my recent flight from Florida. Much improvement from what the airlines use to give. Overall though, I found this tea a bit basic. Not bad but nothing special. I added some cream to add a bit more dimension. I’m not sure how old the airline bags are so that could be a problem but this isn’t something I’d choose for myself.

This one smells of butter and out doors.
Mmm, very smooth. I taste the buttery oolong and a small bit of burnt sugar. There may be a vegal element but it is way back. I think I can pick up a nutty quality at the very beginning of a sip. This is a great tea.

(Oh and random other note, this is my first full day in my new apartment. I graduated med. school on Friday)

Back to the tea, as it cools a bit, the vegal comes forward some and the buttery/nutty goes backward. It’s still smooth but not as much so.

The second cup is similar to the first but with a touch more vegal.
Third steep is again similar but less flavor. Next steep I’ll do 2 minutes. The vegal taste has backed off again a bit.
The fourth steep smells much more vegal. There is still a bit of buttery/nutty but the vegal is stepping forward accompanied by a touch of bitterness. I’m thinking this might be my last steep of this one. I really like this tea though. Perhaps my favorite Oolong

I logged this one pretty early on and have learned more about teas since then so I thought I’d log it again. I have gone from loving this tea, to being disappointed after discovering pure Lapsang and craving that, to appreciating this tea again. I’ve begun tasting the different dimensions of this tea. The Lapsang is pretty easy to pull out but the Darjeeling and Keemun are there too. For the last two, I can detect 2 other teas presence but right now I’m still unable to definitely say “yes, that it the Darjeeling or Yes, that is the Keemun”. I did want to note a discovery I had with this tea. It seems to be possible, depending on the steeping process, to make one of the teas come out more strongly. A couple days ago I brewed this and was impatient so used water a touch under boiling and brewed for 2 minutes. The Lapsang was stronger. Today I used boiling water and brewed about 3 minutes (I was busy when the timer went off) and one of the others is stronger (still can’t separate them very well yet). I remember always liking this tea better with shorter steeps. I think because the Lapsang came out more. Interesting… I’d really like to learn to differentiate Keemun and Darjeeling better though.

The leafs smell like Japanese green tea. I don’t like Japanese green tea. As the tea cools a touch I can smell the buttery quality coming over the green.
Taste… It’s not that strong for sure. I get the usual oolong taste, there is a element of the green sitting over it. So far not bad but nothing special… As the tea cools though, the green comes out stronger.

Second steep is the same as the first for me.
Oolong always grows on me, it starts at the first cup as annoying me this the similarity to green but the other elements always win me over.

My local Chinese place gives this out with carry out orders. It’s pretty much the classic Chinese restaurant tea. Very nice with my sweet and sour chicken. :)

This tea is different today. I’m not sure what I did. It has more of a vegal smell (thankfully that hasn’t appeared too much in the taste…) Hmmm.

I had this again yesterday with a friend. It is truly an great afternoon tea. Both of us enjoyed the dimensions and quality of this tea.

Well that’s weird, the sent is more of grass. I was expecting a sent of ginger… I choose this tea today since my stomach is a little off.

Ok, where is the ginger? The taste of ginger that I’ve come to expect in anything labeled ginger is not here. (Now, I don’t really care for the taste of ginger anyway but how do I know it will work if I don’t taste it…)

This is a very mild tea. There is a hint of grass but otherwise, I’m just getting white tea. Although as it cools, the scent of ginger is there, ever so slight.

Oh, there is the ginger in the aftertaste, very much not strong. I have to say, if this tea works as well as the intense ginger ones at calming a stomach, I prefer this!

Wow, the second brew is so different. It smells distinctly of ginger and has a stronger ginger taste.

I just got my shipment of this tea today and am so excited. I love it just as much as I loved the sample :)

This is a delayed post so it will be quite short.
This tea was neither good nor bad. It tasted and smelt to me just as all the other jasmine teas I’ve had did. I’m not a huge fan of Jasmine after being exposed to some teas I like far better but at one point I loved it. For me, there are flavors I like better so this is only an occasional drink.

I’m down to about 10 teas left from the sampler and that makes me sad, I’ve been enjoying this journey.
This tea smells strongly of vanilla with a hint of jasmine. The flavor is more balanced. It’s really quite fun. The taste you get just as the tea is about to hit your mouth is fun too.
As it cools some, it’s almost the the flavors switch spots. The scent is stronger jasmine and the taste is stronger vanilla.
For me, this isn’t a serious tea, it’s a fun tea.