Kittenna

Roommate and I finished off the tiny last bit of her sample today.

First infusion (1.5min, 74C)
Tasty aroma like boiled veggies. Fresh peas was my thought? It’s very light tasting and vegetal. Similar to my favourite Treasuregreen Silver.

Second infusion (2.5min, 76C)
A bit sweeter and less vegetal, but still with that boiled veggie tasty. Yummy. The aroma is much lighter.

Haven’t gone to a third yet. Probably won’t tonight. It’s a good tea but I don’t think it’s worth the price.

ETA: Third infusion (the morning after) doesn’t have much flavour. I seem to recall it lost flavour quickly last time too. Perhaps I should have reduced the amount of water.

Another sample from LiberTEAS! Thank you!

Clearly I’m not so good at this work thing.

Anyhow, the smell of the dry tea is really just of chai spicing. Nothing particularly special, although it does smell good. I’m excited to see the white chocolate chips in the bag, though!

Steeped, I’m definitely still smelling spices, but one in particular is overwhelming the rest. I’m not exactly sure which it is though. I can definitely smell black pepper… perhaps it’s just the combination of that with the other spices that is throwing me a bit. Ok, mixed it up a tad and it now smells more like a standard chai (or what I’m used to, anyhow). Interesting – I think I can smell some citrus? Or something that smells citrusey. And definitely cloves as well, although it’s thankfully not overpowering.

Eek. I do not think this is a tea that’s meant to be consumed straight. It is too heavily spiced! Consequently it is bitter and… not all that great. Luckily, I have my travel TImolino here, so into it goes the chai, to be taken home and milked/sweetened. I do think this will be tasty once it has some milk and sugar, but right now it is too potent for me! Updates to come.

ETA: Tasty loaded with milk and sugar. I get the creamy notes this way (moreso than a regular chai). I’ll have to re-review later.

I’m pretty much dying at the heavenly scent emanating from my cup right now. The tea smells amazing, a very authentic coconut smell, both dry and steeped. It reminds me of fresh coconut.

The taste is very coconutty, almost a dry, nearly-toasted sort of flavour. I can taste just a hint of oolong at the end of the sip. I would like it to be more present.

This is definitely as coconutty, if not moreso, than I was hoping/expecting. I like it, but I think I’d have to be in the mood for it. If I ever make a Golden Moon Tea order, I suspect this will be on it. I really want to add a couple chunks of candied pineapple and a bit of sweetener to this to try and make a pina colada oolong tea. I think it would be delicious…

ETA: Er, I got a bit excited and forgot to send a huge thank you to LiberTEAS for this sample, which I had been dying to try ever since I heard about it!!

ETA again: Second infusion was good too, oolongy aftertaste, and less coconut, but still toasted. I sampled a leaf out of curiousity, and there was still toasty coconut flavour in it, so I suspect I could have gotten a nice third cup, but left work at that time to retrieve my car (which I had forgotten entirely at the shop all day!)

This really could have used some sugar today. In spite of there supposedly being rock sugar in the blend, it is one of the least sweet teas I’ve had. I drank it anyways though!

(Ack! Thought I had reviewed this one properly already, but apparently not. Basically it smells like strawberry baked goods, but the taste is lacking. Even with a 6 minute infusion, I didn’t taste the white tea.)

ETA: Second infusion, with half as much water, and I didn’t record the time/temp: smells delicious, and exactly like the crisp from the apple crisp my friend and I made for Easter. No joke; EXACTLY the same smell. Surprisingly, it tastes a heck of a lot better now too! It is completely cooled, but I’m actually getting appley/strawberry crisp flavours from it. It actually tastes like crisp in a mug! Damn, I wish I had recorded what I did. I steeped it for quite a while, probably over 5 minutes, and I think the temp was actually just under 94C? So I don’t know if it’s using half the water, or having left the tea ball sitting out overnight that is making this taste so much better. I don’t think it’s the cooling – the first time I had it, it had no flavour when it cooled, IIRC. Which was why I didn’t rate it.

Anyways, I’m excited that I got some flavour out of this one! No more sadness about having a 50g bag, and this will no longer be a tea I want to get rid of! There’s something to be said for persistence, I suppose :)

Finishing off a second infusion of this one (my friend had the first). It’s a bit too weak for me, although I can taste hints of mango in the aftertaste. I’m actually wondering if my taste buds are off a tad right now, because I seem to think every single tea I have brewed is weak and a little hot water-tasting. Oh well.

This time, I’m using the sample from LiberTEAS to see how it compares to that from Amanda.

To start, the tea looks different. There are flower(?) pieces, and petals that were definitely not in the other sample. It smells similarly good though, both in dry and steeped form. This version may smell a touch better, but I did enjoy the scent of the not-so-nice tasting cup either.

Tasting this, I’m fairly certain that Amanda got a dud batch!! No soapy flavour whatsoever, but instead a malty black tea with vanilla. Yum! I did taste this flavour in the other sample, but it was masked by that soapiness. A little weak, but I realize that I brewed it in a larger mug than usual and neglected to compensate for that in terms of dry tea. There’s a touch of astringency, so I think that increasing infusion time would lead to Bad Things. I will have to try this again a bit stronger, but this definitely bumps up the rating a fair bit. It’s too weak to hit the list of favourites yet though.

LiberTEAS – was the sample you gave me from the Christmas Sampler or a separately purchased pouch? Did anyone else notice a soapy flavour in their tea from the Christmas Sampler? I’m just curious. Seems a shame that some people may not have experienced the true flavours of this tea.

ETA: Second infusion good as well, also for 3 minutes. Quick note – the cup I left sitting at the office overnight, from the weird batch, actually tasted much better the next day, completely cooled. (Yes, I probably shouldn’t have drank it, but I was curious.) No soapiness, and I could tell it was the same tea, but it definitely was lacking something in comparison to the other batch I have. Oh well!

FYI everyone, I’m taking a brief Steepster hiatus as of now, because I have a ton of work to get done and I’m spending too much time on here (because I love it!) I’ll be logging teas (but after this morning, hopefully not trying new ones), but not responding to comments/messages, etc. Just so nobody thinks I’m ignoring them! I hope to be responsive again on the weekend.

Anyhow! Thought I’d finish up the last black tea from DavidsTea that was sitting in my cupboard untried. I like lychee as a flavour, and have eaten the fruit, although sometimes I find it a bit perfumey. One of my friends really adores some lychee flavoured alcoholic beverage of some sort, which I tried and thought was ok (except I dislike alcohol!)

The dry tea is strongly perfumed with lychee, although thankfully once steeped it’s a bit more muted.

I can’t really taste too much lychee… ok, there it is in the end of the sip. Not bad. The tea tastes rather weak though, in spite of using a generous 1.5 tsp for my mug. The black tea base is noticeable, but would be much better if stronger. I did go with the low end of steeping time to be cautious, due to all my recent black tea woes, but I think that was a mis-step this time. I’ll have to try it again with a longer infusion time.

So, not bad, but too weak for me. Even if brewed stronger, this one will not make the favourites list though.

ETA: Did not make a second cup. It was too perfumey, and I was getting jasmine aromas as well, and my stomach just didn’t want that. I think this will be going into the giveaway pile.

Forgot to log this one yesterday – drank a second infusion only, as I gave the first to my roommate to hook her (it worked). The tea was good, but not great, but that would be typical of a second infusion :)

I am not feeling well tonight. While heading home from school/work, I decided to pick up some thai food for supper, which was great; I got home and watched an episode of New Girl while eating my delicious food. However, when I went onto Steepster right after, I was having trouble reading/focussing on the words, and noticed my vision had weird wavy lines in it. They lasted long enough (~25min) to freak me out a tad, and make me somewhat dizzy, but thankfully they did go away (but not before I panicked about having a stroke/brain tumour – I should mention that I was diagnosed with a blood clot in my leg in January, which I initially thought was a charlie horse, so am now hyper-alert about medical issues). Anyways, I am left feeling tired, a little headachy, and a lot pouty. And I have work to do for tomorrow, but no motivation or energy to do it.

SO. In addition to a few re-steeps, I thought spearmint would be a good choice.

The dry tea smells like potent spearmint. Gum, candies, anything. Delicious. Steeped, still spearminty, but more dilute.

Taste-wise it is definitely spearminty (not pepperminty), and it’s good. A bit chloriney though, which is the problem I have with peppermint. I do wish it was a touch stronger; I will add more leaf next time. I think this would be lovely as a latte, or added to a matcha latte. Spearmint matcha latte? Vanilla spearmint matcha latte?

My one irritation is all the leaf bits floating in my cup though. Wish the tea was less crumbly.

Tried this for a second time with boiling water and sadly achieved a pretty similar result to last time. The smell was lovely and promising, but there was a definite gross soapiness in the sip that hid anything tasty. Amanda, I’m wondering if you got a weird batch – you didn’t seem to like it either, yet everyone else is crazy over it. I do also have a sample from LiberTEAS that I will hopefully test out soon so I can compare the two – hoping for a better result!

(P.S. Those of you who I have received tea from, don’t be concerned if you see me acknowledging someone else for a tea you sent me some of – I have a few doubles, but have kept things separate so I know what’s from whom!)

DISCLAIMER: Very old tea. Do not rely on this review to judge this tea or company!

The third of the ancient teas. Dry, this one does have a bit of a fruity smell, different than the mango tea. Somewhat promising, but it’s unlikely to be any different than the first two :P

Steeped, there’s a definite fruity smell as well.

Argh, I let this one cool too much, and all I can taste is cardboardy, astringent black tea. I think there was potential at a warmer temperature, but it’s too late now. I really don’t want this cup. Into the sink you go…

DISCLAIMER: This is very old tea. Please don’t judge this tea or company by this review. (No rating for this reason.)

Due to lack of a tea ball, I figured ‘why not try to use up some of these ancient teas’? So, round 2 of ancient tea. Round 3 coming shortly (well, you see, I also took home one of my mugs, so only have one…. what’s this one-tea-at-a-time thing?!)

This might be the least appetizing of the bunch. The teabag smells like… oldness. Haha. There are also more of this type than either of the others, because I guess I was more enamoured by passion fruit and mango (not too surprising).

The smell of the steeped tea has a bit of light fruitiness. I wouldn’t identify it as pineapple, but it’s definitely different than the mango tea. I’m also smelling some black tea maltiness. I think I do like the black tea base that was used for these blends.

Oh wow! There’s actually some pineapple flavour! At least initially. I was not expecting that. Like, we’re actually talking a flavour that I identify not as mere fruitiness, but pineapple. It is very subtle though, and mostly in the beginning of the sip, before the black tea moreso takes over. Given it’s age, I’m pretty impressed though. Another tea that I’d like to try a fresher version of. I think I might like it :) One more to go…

ETA: Blagh! I let this cool down, had a yogurt, and then finished it, and somehow it tasted like it had developed a fair bit more astringency. Ick. Oh well, it was nice when it was warm!

DISCLAIMER: If you are looking for reviews of this tea prior to purchase, do not read this one. My tea is so old as to be completely non-indicative of the actual tea. Hence the lack of rating, as well.

Ooook, so this is an OLDIE. I mean, it’s probably 10+ years old. And not stored well. I have low expectations (although got some nice fruity mangoey smells just now… perhaps it won’t be as bad as I think?) My mom brought these back for me from Hawaii forever ago, and I drank a few bags’ worth, but that’s it, and have kept them around until now out of guilt. Perhaps if there’s a bit of flavour left, I’ll finally use them up! I have two other flavours as well, Pineapple Waikiki, and Passionfruit Na Pali. The last time I recall trying one of these (a few months ago), I recall much cardboardy flavour… but there was likely oversteeping then too. fingers crossed…

Ok. It smells a bit fruity in the cup now. Just a bit. Flavour-wise, I can definitely taste the black tea, and although somewhat astringent, I feel like it’s a touch malty as well, which is nice. Sadly though, this does not taste much like mango. And sure enough… there is a bit of a cardboardiness as well. No real surprise there.

It’s definitely drinkable, given that I brilliantly only steeped it for 3 and a half minutes, and without additions, even. I’d love to try a fresh batch of this (and the other) teas. I’m probably missing out, given TeaEqualsBliss ’ review & rating below.

Ok, they must have renamed this tea at some point – my tea bag clearly says just ‘Pomegranate’, with no mention of ‘Delight’, although the description is identical. Anyways…

The teabag smells deliciously fruity, tangy, and juicy. Yum!

I can’t recall what I thought of this one the first time or two I drank it… probably steeped it incorrectly too, so we’ll see what this round brings!

Steeped, it smells fruity but with a definite black tea base. Taste-wise it is much the same. Quite pleasant actually! I suspect I brewed it for too long the other times I tried it, because this is pretty good for a fruity black tea blend. And if there’s hibiscus (which I don’t think there is), it’s behaving nicely.

Not a tea I’ll likely try again (will just finish off what I do have), but mostly because there are just so many others out there! A nice afternoon cup. Now, I have to get my butt off Steepster and do my damn presentation that I’ve been procrastinating on all week!

So thankfully my office mate a) has T-sacs in our office and b) was willing to lend me a couple, because I took my tea balls home for the weekend (hence the marathon tea sessions), and neglected to bring them back this morning! The horror! I do have bagged tea in my drawer, but I brought this tea and another along special cuz I wanted to try them as a treat.

Anyways, thank you LiberTEAS for this sample! Fruitcake is not my most favourite thing in the world, but in a tea… who knows! The dry tea doesn’t remind me of fruitcake; mostly I smell nutmeg. The tea is filled with big nut chunks, full pretty sunflower petals, and big, whole white tea leaves – looks delicious!

Fruitcake is definitely not the first association I’m making when I take a whiff of the aroma from the freshly brewed cup. However, the aroma is incredibly familiar. It reminds me of holidays (likely nutmeg), but most of all makes me think of a tropical greenhouse! You know, where it’s all humid and hot and filled with wonderful plants and blooming flowers? That is what I’m smelling. Since I’m a plant agriculture student, and I’m at work, there’s actually a tropical greenhouse downstairs that this reminds me of. Were I not so lazy, I’d head down there now just to confirm my thoughts.

Anyways, I love tropical greenhouses (I love plants…), so this is really kind of neat, not unpleasant at all! (Oh, a note – I dumbly let my water cool down too much so I know I steeped this one at too low of a temperature. I have lots left so will correct that in the future, but wanted tea now so just put the bag in anyhow)

Sipping the tea, I can taste nutmeg… and greenhouse. Oh – late in the sip I am definitely getting apricot! I think there’s some initial nuttiness too.

Oh man, I’m kind of loving that apricot. Why can’t you be more prominent?! Perhaps had I paid more attention, it would have come out more. I can’t say I’m really tasting any white tea either, but we’ll blame an absurdly low steeping temperature (yeah, that’s right, just under 70C) for that.

I’m finding this one very different and intriguing. Tentatively rating it now, but I expect an increase upon trying again with proper conditions. I may try a hotter re-steep shortly… I am drinking this one quite quickly! A sign of enjoyment :)

ETA: I lied, getting a hint of white tea aftertaste. Looking forward to cup #2!

ETA again: Well, the re-steep, which was at 163F (yeah whoops again), and for aaaages, was pretty meh. The tasty apricot flavour was gone, and it just tasted like greenhouse. That’s ok though – I wouldn’t have expected much after such a long initial steep anyhow. (I still drank it though! It wasn’t bad, just not terribly flavourful.)

I’m too tired to review this properly.

Smells sweet, ice creamy, and delicious when dry, same deal when steeped.

Same delicious sweetness that the other cake teas had. Definitely getting strawberry ice cream (from neapolitan). Like both the others, it’s tempting to keep this in the cupboard in a small quantity for those days when sweet-ish teas won’t do. I truly think any of these three could kick a dessert craving. Chocolate Cake is probably my favourite though.

ETA: Apparently forgot to finish drinking this one last night, so drank the rest tonight (yes, probably a bad idea. Whatever. Anyhow – holy doodles is it sweet! Definitely still tasty though, haha. I also re-steeped it, and it tastes slightly of strawberry now, with a definite cakey flavour. Interesting; tasty.

ETA again: The third infusion has more flavour than I expected. But like everything else I’m logging today (Tuesday April 10), it tastes weak. I’d probably take the tea to this point again in the future; I think happier taste buds would enjoy it.

I’ll need to review this again (it has completely cooled and sat for a fair while), but figured I should write a quick note.

The dominant flavour is definitely jasmine(?!), but I’m getting pomegranate flavours as well. I can taste the green tea, but not the black tea or green rooibos. It definitely makes me think of a typical jasmine plus some fruitiness, although the jasmine isn’t too fruity.

Pretty good, but not special enough for me to likely keep around. We’ll see though.

ETA: Second infusion predictably a weaker version of the same. Worth it.

Heavenly. I really do love this tea. Can’t screw it up; two delicious steepings. Mmmmmm.

Thank you to LiberTEAS for today’s random sample!

The scent of the steeped cup is lightly “green” and perhaps there’s a hint of a vegetal aroma, but it’s very subtle.

Even though it was steeped for four minutes, the taste is very light and subtle, like a weak green tea. Good, but nothing remarkable. It’s my first yellow tea though, so perhaps I’ll find that they are generally too weak for me. Either way, I’ll try brewing this one with a bit more leaf/less water next time to bring out the flavour a bit more. Might try that with the re-steep as well (decreasing the water, that is).

So one of my roommates (not the aforementioned roommate I often share tea with) is Chinese, and I frequently see her drinking tea, but made nothing of it until one time I saw her breaking off a piece of a round brick of tea to steep. I thought it was kind of cool, but still didn’t think too much about it. She called it black tea; I didn’t question it. Until today. It occurred to me that what she was drinking was probably pu’erh – so I caught her and asked, and sure enough, it is! Apparently her family went into an asian grocery and found the dustiest-looking box of pu’erh they had to buy. To each their own; that wouldn’t scream buy me to me! She offered to let me try a piece and I happily accepted – I love trying new things! She tells me that the way she drinks it is to brew it in boiling water and leave it in the cup as she drinks it, so it gets quite strong. I opted to use half the amount she usually does, and stick it in a teaball so I could remove it after a few minutes.

As it was steeping, I noticed some mildly fishy smells coming from it, along with some rich earthiness. Not unpleasant. Either now that I’m aware that fishiness can be a characteristic of pu’erhs, it concerns me less, or I’ve just grown used to it (from my wealth of experience trying two flavoured pu’erhs from DavidsTea), I’m not sure.

Taste-wise, it’s quite pleasant. Definitely earthy, but nothing like the dirt that the bagged pu’erh I tried a couple days ago was. It’s kind of reminding me of the piece inside a pistachio shell, not part of the edible nut, but coating it and attaching it to the hard shell. Er, I should probably be able to figure out what that part is botanically, but I’m really tired right now. REALLY tired. You’d never know that I just drank a whack of caffeinated tea.

Anyways, that’s what it reminds me of. I’m not tasting fishiness, and that aroma has pretty much dissipated. This is definitely a different sort of tea, but it’s growing on me with every sip. A nice change from flavoured. I’m now looking even more forward to my Verdant order arriving!!

I still have the other half-chunk she gave me; I think I’ll try that one more gong-fu style, including one or two rinses to begin with, since that seems to be the norm with pu’erhs.

I took a picture of the little box; I will try to post it on here (maybe from my phone?!) and perhaps someone can tell me what it is! Or where it’s from! Or something!

So sorry for spamming your dashboards, everyone. I just looked, and the vast majority of tasting notes on mine, at least, are from me…. :D:D

This was today’s random selection from my box of teas from LiberTEAS! Thank you!

The dry tea smelled sharply of ginger, and unlike DavidsTea’s Strawberry Ginger, I wasn’t getting a weird artificial smell from it, which was good. I also smelled citrus, although can no longer remember how strong it was, nor exactly what citrus fruit it reminded me of, and there was only a 1-cup sample packet so I used it all (although it sure looked like there was enough for more than one, the packet instructions indicate to use the whole package for 8oz. of boiling water).

Watching the colour changes as this one steeped was interesting – started off green, then turned pinkish, before settling into a deep pinkish purple colour. Although the instructions indicated a 5-minute infusion, after 4 minutes I took out the teaball as I was fairly certain it was strong enough…

Holy doodles. Strong enough can’t accurately describe what I just tasted. Uh… I think I need to water it down :| Major hibiscus alert too – so tart!

Hmm, too lazy to get more water. Small sips it is!

I forgot to mention how it smells. The aroma is gingery, and strangely, if I poke my nose into the cup it’s almost a bit sour. We’re gonna blame the hibiscus here. I can definitely taste ginger, which is lovely, but there are a host of other weird, strong flavours in there, mixed with incredible tartness and a strange sweet lingering taste in the mouth. Silly girl, when will you learn to trust your instincts and remove the teaball according to smell/sight and not timer? I must say though, I don’t think that this one would be improved a great deal by decreasing the amount of dry tisane used or the infusion time. Definitely not a tea for me. We’ll see if I make it through the cup (doubtful, given the plethora of deliciousness surrounding me).

I’m surprised that nobody else has logged this one yet given that a whole bunch of Bulk Barn teas have been logged on here! Perhaps it’s new?

Either way, I picked it up on a whim today, partly because it smelled so delicious! A dark oolong mixed with yellow flower petals (marigold??), it smells deliciously like tropical fruit. Mmmmm. There are no coconut pieces nor mango chunks, though.

Brewed, this smells tropical and fruity. I think it was more fragrant when it was warmer; it’s rather cool now.

This tastes surprisingly delicious! The central flavour is a tropical fruitiness, followed by a coconutty creaminess, and then, yes, a lovely oolong flavour! Love when fruity teas containing actual tea actually feature its flavour!

I need to get over the fact that this is a tea from Bulk Barn, and consider keeping it as part of my permanent collection. Yes… it’s that good! I’m very shocked/surprised. If you haven’t tried this one and have a Bulk Barn nearby (and like fruity oolongs, of course), I strongly recommend you pick some up. I honestly didn’t pay attention to the price, but I got maybe 3-4 cups worth for $0.41? Sounds like a bargain to me!

ETA: Second infusion (94C/4min) is pretty much a weaker version of the first. Not as impressive, but still good. Lacking enough oolongy flavour to make me happy though; perhaps it could have used an additional minute or so.

Thank you Amanda for this sample! I belatedly wanted to sample this after you had sent off the package – I was so pleased when it was a bonus sample you had sent along!

The dry tea smells fruity, creamy, and with a sour cherry tang. Steeped, it smells sweet and vaguely cherry-like… hope the fruity taste that I’m expecting is there!

Oh wow! THIS is what I wish Cherry Potion from DavidsTea tasted like! This is lovely! I can taste apple and cherry most prominently, but what I’m loving the most is the lack of strange artificial flavours, and the fact that this is caffeine-free. I really hope I can acquire some of this reasonably easily – I need this in my cupboard. NEED. This is seriously the perfect fruit tisane. I mean, I’ll have to try the rest of it in another cup, but I doubt it will change my mind.

I don’t know whether this is just a good night for me + teas, but I feel like I’m on a roll here :P (Good thing, I very literally have EIGHT full cups of tea sitting here to drink!)

Semi-impulse buy when I was at DavidsTea today… definitely didn’t need another tea, but I wanted to try a basic tie kwan yin to compare other green oolongs against (e.g. those from Teavivre). I intended to pick up their High Mountain Oolong too, but didn’t see it on the shelf. The wallet thanks the tea gods for small favours. Another reason I grabbed this tea is because although I like milk oolongs, sometimes the milky flavour can put me off a bit, or be a bit too rich, when all I want is that lovely green oolong flavour. Likewise with overly floral oolongs, so this is one in which neither attribute is prominently featured (I think).

Anyhow, I didn’t have the patience for short infusions today (also, cannot justify wasting MORE time), so western-style brewing it is. A generous amount of leaf: prob 2tsp. I kind of wish I hadn’t brewed so many teas at once – I can’t remember how long I steeped any of them! Should have written it down. Although now I remember – I set this one for two minutes, sniffed it, and decided to leave the basket in longer… and then forgot about it. My guess is that it was in there around 4-6 minutes, which is approximately the range suggested by DT, so hopefully I haven’t ruined it.

The dry tea just smells green and grassy. Maybe the slightest touch of floral, but I’m not sure. Steeped, it smells a bit buttery, a bit floral, and a lot OOLONG! Yes! This is what I want! Please please please taste like you smell.

The moment of truth….. and it’s exactly what I wanted! Oh man. This may only be a mediocre oolong for most people, but holy crap it is exactly what my taste buds were craving (I didn’t know this prior, but they’re currently immensely satisfied and pushing thoughts into my brain of brewing up a whole pot in spite of the row of tea-filled mugs crowding my nightstand). The taste is buttery and smooth, barely floral, and OOLONGINYOURFACE. Bahaha, “oolongin’”: a verb describing an intense desire to drink vast quanities of oolong tea, e.g. “I’m oolongin’ so hard today”. Nevermind me….

Anyhow, I’m not going to say that this is The Best Oolong In The World or anything, as I haven’t tried enough for that, but I’m definitely quite happy with it, and need to now compare it with my Teavivre samples… although I just realized that I only have the honey tieguanyin from them… And my Verdant samples. I think that while I may like the more expensive ones better, this will be fabulous for the cheap, western-style-frequent-drinking option, while I can save the others and truly experience them.

ETA: Second infusion, 94C/5min, definitely not as good, but starts off creamy and almost like more of a milk oolong, and finishes with oolong. A touch more astringency is perhaps the biggest difference. Perfectly good though, for cutting that oolongin’!