Kittenna

Drank some of this on Saturday, but sadly only one cup. It was very delicious! Sweet and vegetal. Same parameters as last time, so I don’t know what was different; no bitterness this time. Delicious!

Mmmmm, delicious! Sadly I didn’t finish my travel mug of this one, or get to re-steep the leaves, due to… “circumstances”, but what I did drink was quite delicious. Glad I nabbed a packet of this one! I quite like marshmallow root in tea.

Huuuh. Strange, I should already have a note for this tea. Anyways, this is a backlog from Saturday morning, when I made a nice cold almond milk latte sweetened with maple syrup for my drive out of town. It was great until my stomach started hurting; perhaps a strong matcha latte on an empty stomach wasn’t the best idea! It was delicious though. Proper note to follow in the eventuality that I get my crap together and have time for such a thing.

Hmmm, I think this is what Azzrian sent me… (Thanks!)

This is sadly not a cup of tea for me, really. I’m 95% certain there’s hibiscus in it due to the colour and tartness (although it’s manageable), and I’m pretty sure there’s red rooibos giving off a medicinal taste. I am getting a fruity flavour, but it’s quite masked by the tart hibiscus that it’s difficult to distinguish. This one might actually be rather nice sweetened, and it’s not terrible as I’m drinking it, but there are other teas I’d prefer to have.

Finishing up the last of this one (sent by Azzrian) today as I have other incarnations of it sitting around in my stash. It is seriously absolutely delicious, and possibly one of my favourite tisanes. It just occurred to me that I had probably wanted to compare it to DavidsTea’s Forever Nuts directly, but oops, I guess that isn’t happening. Oh well!

Thanks for sending me some of this, Azzrian!

Probably too late at night for this (oops), but oh well. It smelled delicious and I wanted to try some! I didn’t rinse this one as I figured I might lose the flavouring if I did.

The aroma is sweet and toffee-like, with just a hint of pu’erh fishiness. Completely tolerable though, and quite yummy-smelling!

The flavour is rich with delicious toffee, complemented by a pu’erh base that is dark and earthy and perhaps the slightest bit fishy. A strange but surprisingly delicious combination! I will definitely be having this one again, and thoroughly enjoying it!

Thanks for letting me try a bit of this one, Azzrian!

I’ve been pretty bad about paying attention while drinking new teas lately – so many distractions! Tonight my roommate was practicing a presentation for tomorrow on me, and I drank the whole cup before I had realized. Whoops.

All I remember is that it tasted like a light version of the Silver Buds Yabao, which I’ve previously had, but with a bit of a jasminey/floral flavour as well. It was actually quite pleasant to drink. I didn’t really taste the goji berries, or anything else, but as I said, my attention was directed elsewhere! We’ll see where the second cup leads!

Haha, I thought I had previously reviewed this one, but apparently not! Excellent! I’m super distracted right now because oh my gosh, I am dating the sweetest boy ever and am currently over the moon. Or on Cloud 9. Sooo Jade Cloud kinda seemed appropriate, haha.

Anyhow, this is another one I drank through rather quickly, but it had a tasty vegetal beany flavour (kind of like Verdant’s Laoshan green?) and I’m looking forward to the second infusion, which I need to make ASAP as all five cups of tea sitting next to me are currently empty.

Thanks for passing this along, Alphakitty! This is definitely my sort of green tea, so I’m going to thoroughly enjoy finishing up my sample :D

ETA: Second infusion, 4 min at 180F and in about half the water, definitely not nearly as tasty, but still drinkable. Wouldn’t try for a third. This seems quite common in western-brewed greens like this though – I should try more leaf/shorter infusions (not quite gong fu, but more like 30s instead of 3min.) Also, note to self, I used 1.5 tsp/8 oz. for this one.

Ehm… I drank through this cup quite quickly as I’m writing an email and it was just sitting there…

Nobody else has written a tasting note on this one, so I don’t know if I’m the only one making this association, but the flavour of this tea totally reminded me of pot. Not that I have any experience whatsoever, but… that is the overwhelming association I made. Perhaps slightly influenced by smelling that deliciously intoxicating (read: vile) aroma while running earlier tonight.

Anyways, I enjoyed it regardless, so thanks for the sample Alphakitty! I’d like to know what you thought of it :)

Couldn’t find a listing for this one, Lynne-tea, so I made one! Let me know if this is in the wrong place.

So I stumbled across a milk oolong in my pile from Lynne-tea, and as I haven’t had one in a while, it sounded very appetizing to brew some up… soooo I did!

The cup smells incredibly caramelly (like Milk-fuls?) and delicious, and the flavour is similar, leaving the mouth with an intense caramelized milk flavour after swallowing. Heavenly. I have no idea if this one is “flavoured” or not, but it’s lovely. Milk oolongs are so wonderful :D

Thanks so much, Lynne-tea!

I was craving a dark oolong tonight (it seems my preferences have shifted from green teas to dark oolongs recently), and chose this one to brew up as I have a whole ounce of it and hadn’t yet touched it! Given my previous failures with Verdant dancongs, I kind of went with my own parameters, which would be a loose tbsp of leaf (the leaves are so incredibly wiry!), which was likely only a gram or two at most, in 8 oz. water. With no rinse, as I only do that for pu’erh.

The first infusion, for 25s at 205F, looked light but out of lingering fear, I pulled the infuser basket out anyways. Turns out I could have left it in longer, but the result was a light, deliciously fruity/woody dark oolong with intense peachy notes appearing in the aftertaste. I think an additional 10 seconds or so would have made this even better (alternately, a bit more leaf). I don’t have time to get into more of what I’m tasting, but this is delicious and exactly what I was craving, and my cup is almost gone!

The leaves smelled absolutely delicious post-infusion, a complex mixture of aromas I couldn’t place but am dying to try and tease out of this tea! The aroma was so strong, I feel like the leaves could last for far more infusions than I’ll make it to (which tonight is two, hopefully more tomorrow).

Second infusion (35s, 200F) loses some of the fruitiness and becomes a bit more woody, but I almost want to say I’m tasting a bit of fig? Again, the flavour would have been better with more leaf/a longer infusion, but this is delicious regardless!

Definitely a good choice on this one tonight (also on ordering 1 oz. of it!)

Seriously, this is better than Dulce & Banana. Why why why was this discontinued :( Absolutely delicious and creamy. I must like loose leaf chamomile or something.

Mmm, smoky tea! Probably a bad idea to have a black tea at night, but oh well. Thanks Lynne-tea for sending me a sample of this one so I don’t have to buy 2 oz. to try it out!

The aroma is fairly generically smoky, like a nice campfire. Nothing unexpected. Perhaps not as strong as the straight lapsang souchong Indigobloom sent me, but still fairly potent. The flavour is much less smoky though, and actually quite pleasant! I’m getting a bit of sweetness at the end of the sip, which is surprising, along with some delicious maltiness. I don’t think I’d previously encountered a smoky tea that was actually enjoyable to drink straight, but this one is! The smokiness is just so light in the flavour, not sharp and biting and scratchy down my throat, that I’m quite enjoying this. A tea to keep on the shortlist for a time when I run out of smoky teas and want to pick one up!

Ok! Time to try this out! I need something nice and relaxing this evening. Trying to get back on a regular schedule. By some miracle, it’s only 11pm! Exciting. Anyways, thanks to Lynne-tea for letting me try one of these! After the one I tried from Amy oh, I was super excited to try more :D

The aroma is that same lovely sticky rice aroma (and that’s pretty much all I can identify), and it intensifies pretty quickly when the hot water hits the tuocha! I did a ~10 second rinse with boiling water, and then 2 30-second infusions. The first was absolutely delicious, and left a lingering sweet flavour in my mouth, while the second tastes fairly similar but a bit too strong/oversteeped, as there’s some bitterness. Next time I try this it will be with a regular infuser basket, so I don’t have to worry so much about overinfusion due to the time it takes to pour the tea out (which may have been a factor here).

One thing I should note is that using my little glass teapot was not ideal for this tea, as the strainer let quite a bit through, and I had to strain the tea again after pouring it out.

Thanks again, Lynne-tea! This was just what I was wanting to try right now, and I’m happy that Amanda put some up to offer so I can have a little stash of them :D It’s not my favourite tea, but it’s interesting and soothing and something I will crave once in a while.

Attempted a caramel apple matcha latte this evening, and way overdid it on the apple, so much so that I couldn’t taste the caramel at all! Even when I added an additional teaspoon of it. I also may have made the latte extremely strong, so it was a little bit bitter and in need of agave. So, next time I’ll be trying it with a pinch of apple matcha and a load of caramel!

Lynne-tea – is this what you sent me? It was in a little red package, so I’m not entirely sure.

Anyways, when I opened up the little vacuum-sealed package of this tea, I was surprised to see that the leaves looked somewhat crushed! I had been hoping to use my little glass teapot, but its strainer would let the leaf pieces through easily, so I had to use an infuser instead. I don’t know if this was a consequence of mailing or not, but oh well! Still smelled deliciously green/vegetal.

I haven’t had a TGY in a while for whatever reason, and I definitely have missed them, as I just sniffed this one and nearly swooned! Hahaha. Buttery/vegetal/delicious. The first sip unfortunately screams ‘under-infused’, so it’s a little weaker than it could have been. I was worried about oversteeping because of the broken leaf, but apparently that was unnecessary. The flavour is smooth, a bit buttery, and “green”, but not too strong on the latter element. It isn’t really particularly floral to me, although I could see someone saying it is. Just a tasty cup of tea. I do think I like Verdant’s more, but this one is quite tasty as well. Looking forward to more infusions tomorrow!

ETA: Second infusion, accidently for 4.5 minutes, is still quite tasty and pleasant. Less bitterness than the second infusion from my sticky rice tuocha, and a lovely oolong aftertaste. Almost a touch too “green” for me right now though, but still good.

Thanks to Lynne-tea for sending me a sample of this one!

The dry tea smells strongly of a chocolatey sort of ginger; brewed up I’m smelling chocolate and ginger and something else I can’t place my finger on. Which makes me uncertain as to whether I actually like the aroma or not.

The flavour of this one is quite interesting. Initially, I taste the ginger, which is at a perfect level for me (apparent and burns the throat a bit on the way down, but not overpowering), and then the chocolatey-cocoa flavours take over. I think the “odd” flavour might be the spicing, and again, I’m not sure if I like it. To me, this is coming off as a bit of a different take on a spicy hot chocolate. I can’t say that it’s entirely successful, as something in the blend is coming off a little strangely to me, but it’s an interesting idea! Chocolate ginger tea! My mom would be all over this sort of thing as she loves dark chocolate-covered ginger :)

Although the dry tea smelled much like DavidsTea’s Kiwi’s Big Adventure, with yummy-smelling fruity kiwi chunks, I’m getting virtually zero flavour from the brewed-up tea. I used 1.5 tsp of leaf at ~81C for 2.5 minutes, and all I’m getting is a vaguely fruity water. :( I guess I will try the re-steep for a bit longer period of time, but I don’t have high hopes. I can’t even really taste the green tea. Oh well. Thanks anyhow, Amanda!

I have been painfully absent from Steepster lately, and really miss everyone/need to catch up on tasting notes! Yet I am so busy. :( On the plus side, had a date on Friday night and it went well (I think)! :P

Anyways, time to launch into my samples from Lynne-tea! I’m so sorry it took so long for me to get to them – things just kept arriving, and since I took the envelopes on vacation, they ended up at the bottom of the tea stash I took with me and have yet to unpack. Good lord I have a lot of tea O.o This is the first one up tonight/this morning! I’m in an oolong mood, and jasmine seemed appropriate as well, so I went for it!

I can’t really tell what the dry tea smells like – the exterior of the baggie has been contaminated with other smells, so it’s kind of flavoured-tea-ish. The tea, however, once brewed smells like a toasty sort of jasmine. I know there are goji berries in there, but I’m not really getting any aroma from them.

I must say, this is definitely an interesting take on a jasmine tea, as the darker oolong lends some really interesting toasty notes that mix with the jasmine flavour, grounding it a bit moreso than with a lighter green/white tea which I’m more accustomed to tasting jasmine in. (Are there jasmine blacks??) Actually, what it reminds me most of is the jasmine tea that is served at my favourite Chinese restaurant, when the tea has been sitting and oversteeping for a while. Although this brew is only verging on being oversteeped. As well, I can taste just a hint of sour-fruity goji berry, but it’s not a prominent flavour.

Though interesting, I don’t think this is a tea I’d purchase for myself. I rarely select jasmine teas to drink, and I found that the pairing of white tea and jasmine is what really works for me, so I’d probably choose that if given the choice! The inclusion of goji berries here, though interesting, didn’t have enough impact for me. Anyhow, thanks for the sample, lynne-tea!

Another sample from Amanda :) And happily, another sipdown as this was a one-cup sample. Pseudo-progress, yes.

Although I couldn’t really get any aroma from the dry tea, the instant the water hit this I was blown away with a delicious grapey aroma. Nom. The tea is very much that artificial concord-y grape juice flavour, with a bit of white tea lurking in the background. Tasty, but not a tea I need in my cupboard, as I have a lovely Grape Oolong from Butiki already, and grape is not a flavour I tend to seek out often.

Thanks again Amanda!

Second attempt at Sun & Cloud Mist! Very successful. Two minutes produced a nice lack of bitterness/astringency, unlike last time, so I can really taste the creamy lemoniness. It’s really very tasty, and I’m quite enjoying it. I think the marshmallow root adds a really wonderful sort of creaminess that pairs perfectly with the lemon, which isn’t as in-your-face as in most lemony blends, which is perfect. This does taste much like a lemon pudding my mom would make, which I think is kind of meringue-like in that it’s quite fluffy and creamy (probably made with egg whites). I can now confidently rate this one highly!

I am going to have to try this one iced; I think it could be delicious, even though I haven’t been the biggest fan of iced greens aside from H&S’s Tokyo & Bangkok.

Thanks to Amanda for this sample!

I’m glad you only sent me a cup of this, because all I’m tasting is a peppermint tea, with a nice creamy/something else aftertaste. Perhaps my steep time wasn’t optimal or something, I don’t know. Can’t really taste the green tea. Oh wait… I think the aftertaste is the laoshan base + creaminess, actually. Which is nice, but this is far, far too pepperminty for me. Which I expected, but wanted to try anyways, because I’m like that. This probably is deserving of a mid 80s rating, if I liked peppermint, but I don’t, so I’m not rating it :P

This one looked so delicious I couldn’t resist buying up one of the last packages of it! Or rather, having Amanda buy it up for me :)

The smell is rather heavenly – sweet, malty and toffee-ish. Reminiscent of other 52teas that I enjoy. The flavour is similar – a nice malty black with the above flavours coming out, especially at the end of the sip. I’m not really tasting cashew, but this tea does taste a little nutty, and much like a chocolate turtle. Would probably be even better sweetened, but I’m happy to drink it as is, not knowing of the deliciousness that would result in me sweetening all my teas!

I’m happy I got a pack of this one; need to compare it to things like Pot O’ Gold now to determine a winner. Not that either is available to purchase, just for personal curiousity :)

Not going to lie, I’ve been dying to try this one for a while, so when I found out Awkward Soul had some to swap…. !! So glad I managed to nab some! :D

This one smells pretty delicious both dry and steeped. Creamy and delicious. Steeped, it gets a peachy sort of aroma as well.

Ohhhhh goodness. This is super delicious. Tastes just. Like. Buttercream. But less cloying! Sweet, coconutty, creamy is what I’m getting, plus a flavour that reminds me of Dulce & Banana and must be the chamomile(?) Delicious creamy/caramelly/butterscotchy aftertaste. Ahhhhh, I wish this was still available!! Anyone have any spare Buttercream they want to be rid of???? :D

Thank you so incredibly much, Awkward Soul! At the very least, my curiousity has been satisfied and I can understand the hype about this blend! On the downside, I only get about 2 more cups of it, but I will live :) I feel like I should also compare this to Whisky White before it’s all gone… I have a strange feeling they may have similar flavours.

ETA: Re-steep is really yummy too. I do quite like this one, why is it gone :(