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Wow, the instant the water hit the leaf the room was filled with the scent of wonderful sweet hay. The wet leaf is a bit seaweed. The first sip, as with the white peony, still reminds me of mild cucumber, but today there is another element that… it reminds me of fresh garden picked sweet peppers. You know the kind with no heat or pepperiness to them, they just taste green. The aftertaste is melon. Multiple cups tell me this packs a pretty good amount of caffeine.

My new tea disciple buzzed me today to ask what made oolong different :) in explaining it to him I mentioned white tea… white tea? I have never heard of that!.. Um, would you like to try some? I think he was in my office with his mug before I could hang up. I showed him the dry leaf, then poured him a cup. He thought it just looked like water but sniffed and caught the hay note. He had the 3rd cup. My 4th was still going strong.

You don’t chug this and run. You get quiet with it and meditate on its subtle flavors. When you do it speaks in a nicely complex way. This is really good.

Since I am already rambling – I had a spinach salad at lunch with cucumbers and mushrooms. As I am biting into the cucumber I am thinking this isn’t quite the same as what I called cucumber in the tea. Then I bit into the mushroom and it tasted so earthy like forest dirt smells, and all I could think was puerh! I am becoming such a tea nerd.

This one stays hidden in the back of the drawer. I broke it out today to share with a co-worker. He recently let me try the Governor Gray he got on vacation. It peaked his curiosity about tea and I thought I would give him some of what I consider the best. He was impressed that it was Fujian. Was amazed at the little pearls and how much it unfurled after steeping. He told me he wasn’t going to drink it. He was just going to sit and smell the cup :) I know how he feels.

He came in much later and told me he got tied up on the phone and the whole time the aroma of the tea was filling up his room. The tea got cold before he got back to it. He was afraid it was ruined until he tasted it. He poured it over ice shortly after and asked for the web address. Time will tell if I have my second convert. He tends to be a hobby of the month person. At least for the moment he seemed to get it.

I continued to drink on the same leaf the rest of the work day.

I never really considered fruit teas when ordering before. My previous experience with them was mainly RoT stuff. They are ok and amused me at the time. This is not ok… It’s excellent. I seriously cannot think of one negative thing to say about it. 2 cups.

This is my second favorite Teavivre tea. The first is Jasmine Dragon Pearls. I noticed the video on their website for preparing this tea and it looks like what I have been doing with the exception of they add the leaf to the heated water instead of the other way around. So I did just that this time. The dance of the leaf was great fun to watch. I love the look of the dry leaf. I love the smell of it. I love the vegetable aroma of the brewed leaf. The color of the liquor is pretty. I find the taste refreshing. It’s green but not too green.

This was an exhausting weekend. Friday night and Saturday morning I finally was allowed to work a little overtime to try to dig out from under. Saturday night our praise band opened at a benefit concert. It was too loud. Sunday morning we led worship and once again it was too loud. I am a guitar player – we never say it’s too loud! Our sound guy went to a Skillet concert Friday night (you tube – Feel like a monster) and I think he was still deaf. Last night the house was so hot I couldn’t sleep. Today I have a bad headache and I need caffeine. Chun Mei to the rescue – I hope. Near boiling water and a 30 second steep. Light smokiness followed by grassy green and tapering off into sweetness in the aftertaste. Love it. Several cups – lost track.

Sunday evening cards with mom and dad. This is what they always serve over ice. Yes, the Tetley I use at home is light years better and I realize this wouldn’t even pass for tea with most of y’all but its family and you don’t trash family.

2 cups. Good as always even for a bagged.

Fed the addiction again this morning along with a cup of rice.

My brain was too overworked and tired for brewing anything requiring thinking. This one never lets me down. Drank all day long.

Any one know what the difference between the tins with silver lids and the ones with green lids? Local only sells the green.

Upping my rating on this one. Reached in the drawer for a different tea and accidentally came out with this tulsi tea. There is much more flavor here than I noted last time. First off I did not realize the light clove like hints come from the tulsi. Second, I first had this after drinking Super Fruit Sencha. It overwhelmed this one. This time, I had it after tasting Skippy peanut butter with honey on a cracker. I had never heard of it before – it is really good. More important it really set up my taste buds for this tisane. I think I caught the sip mostly correct last time – a fruitiness (orange & apple), followed briefly by a light tartness (rosehip), that drifts into the light clove like (but not really) goodness of the tulsi. Very lightly sweet .Also notes of cinnamon, and pepper that probably aren’t really in the mix. Excellently blended and executed. Looks like I grabbed the right bag after all.

This actually the much shortened and edited version I wrote earlier today:

AAAAARRRRRGGGHHH! Ok, I feel a little better. Yes, I am stressing out. The Cloud Minders are wearing me out. For the non-nerds that is a reference to an episode of the original series of Star Trek. It has to do with those who don’t do the work making all the decisions. I have been carrying 3 times the normal work load for too long. Yesterday, I find out I have to switch what I am working on because one of the Cloud Minders promised we would be done with another project April 1. It can’t happen but that is beside the point, I told deaf ears a month ago this would bite us in the butt. Then I come in today and find a different project on my desk marked ‘HOT! Good grief. I say all that to say this, thank you Teavivre for this wonderful tea. If not for this cup I might be curled up in a little ball in the corner and rocking. I did get to share a cup with a wonderful elderly lady who bakes cookies for the office every Wednesday. Today it was lemon sugar cookies. Oh, she thought the tea was lovely. Sorry for the ramble. It was necessary.

I brewed this puerh differently today and got totally different results. The water was cooled below boiling. Steeped about 2 minutes. The liquor was not the dark burgundy normally experienced. Instead it was dark caramel and looked more like normal black tea in the cup. The scent was a bit off. It was a bit of a fishy poo odor. That horrible odor is gone now with hotter water. Maybe needs more aging. The taste though was the leather I love, but also deeply earthy. It was like really rich soil. It is not at all musty or fishy in taste. Except for the smell I was quite pleased with this today.

Today I get to control how this is brewed. Go me! I used a healthy spoon and boiling water for 2 ½ minutes. I thought 3, Ashmanra suggested 2, and so I compromised :) The liquor is nice and dark. It smells much lighter than the dry leaf suggests. One comment on the wet leaf – this is CTC and the wet leaf does plump up nicely but not quite as much as say Twinings.

The taste is interesting. The bergamot is a tad lighter than I prefer in an EG, but tasty. It comes in late in the sip. The first taste is a very smooth bit of malt, emphasis on smooth. There is a drying aftertaste yet this doesn’t seem astringent when sipping. As the cup cools the bergamot becomes more pronounced, which appeals to me. I let the last of the cup get cold and I liked it. This would make a good iced tea. Today, the second cup is not as good as the first but still drinkable.

This is a pleasant cup. I can’t think of anything to compare it to. It is as far removed from Twinings as it is Harney & Sons. Obviously, the American aspect of it appeals to me. It breaks the rules of tradition and it still works. I started to give this a 76 as in ‘spirit of’, but in reality it is a little more interesting than that. If I could buy this locally, I would keep a small tin around for the novelty alone. I was told it was $6 for 2.3 oz (50g).

A co-worker (not the cheesecake guy) came back from vacation having taken the South Carolina tea plantation tour. He didn’t want to go – his wife pushed him into it. He said it actually turned out to be the most interesting thing they did on vacation. He wanted to share what he had learned. It was a bit of a refresher course but I pretended it was all new so as not to squash his excitement. He bought a book, and a video, with me in mind, but forgot them this morning :( but did remember a tin of this tea :)

On to the tea. There are no brewing instructions on the tin. Ingredients are tea and oil of bergamot. It smells great in the tin. The leaf is very small pieces of CTC. I am going to reserve rating this until I get control of the steep. Today I was handed a press with the leaf already brewed once. It did not appear there was enough leaf. This may also prove to be a tea that cannot be steeped twice. It has been so long since I have had a black that could only be steeped once that I almost forgot that is normal. The tea is dark enough but the taste isn’t there. The coworker who drank the first steep compared it to bagged Twinnings Earl Grey. I took a scoop of leaf out of the tin and put it in a plastic bag to try later.

Today is a good day. A co-worker brought me a piece of homemade cheesecake, and it was good. I thought what tea goes with cheese cake? Oooh, Bailin! Low temp water and 2 minute steep. For those who reviewed this recently and thought it rather ordinary, I am so happy that you get to drink black tea this awesome enough that this seems like nothing special. With the combination bite/sip, I got cheesecake just drifting straight into malt that lingers forever with chocolate and caramel notes. No bitterness. No astringency in the taste but does leave you with a very slight dry mouth feel. In my realm of tea experience this stuff is freakin’ awesome!

Sunday afternoon with the Mythbusters and a cup of yum. (Season premeire tonight!) My wife took one look at my mug and said it just looks like water. I said, yeah and it tastes like cucumber. She said, ewww and walked away. Yep, I know how to keep this stuff to myself. Honest wasn’t my intent. It just does taste like sweet hay and cucumbers. If I heard that description I would be skiddish too. One taste though and you just get it. This really good.

Yeah, I know its spring not fall, but this was included with my samples and once I opened it and caught a whiff I had to have it now. Smells like gingerbread to me. This is a mix of rooibos, honeybush, sweetpotato, pumpkin, candied peanuts, ginger and some other stuff I don’t recall. I used a healthy 2tsp of ‘leaf’ for a 12oz mug and steeped in my press for 9 minutes. The brew is a muddy orange red. This smells so good.

The sip is rooibos and honeybush at the beginning, followed by ginger mixing with the other spices. At the tail of the sip and especially in the aftertaste you get the pumpkin and sweet potato. This is a delicious and awesomely aromatic rooibos blend. If you are a fan of this type ‘tea’, this one is a winner.

Sample provided by Fusion Tea Room. Passing along, get 10% off your first time order by entering the code 10off.

The dry leaf smells a bit like clove to me but there is no clove listed. The ingredients are Tulsi herb, papaya pieces, apple bits, rosehip peels, orange peel, and flavor. I used 2 tsp for 12 oz of water and steeped for 7 ½ minutes. The liquor is yellow. The aroma is pleasantly fruity and mainly of orange.

The sip is a lot different than the fruity scent suggests. It is slightly tart with the interesting taste of the tulsi lifting up in mid sip. The aftertaste still seems to be lightly clove. I can pick out the orange and apple influences. I believe the tartness is probably the rosehip. What I am not certain about is the papaya. I believe it adds a touch of sweetness but this is not what I would call a sweet tea. There is just a hint.

While this is masterfully blended, which has been true of all the Fusion Teas I have tried, it is not an in your face fruit drink. It has a much more subtle and relaxed flavor. I would recommend this if you are looking for more of a laid back, not too sweet, caffeine free, sip. As with most hot drinks, I think the cooler this gets the more flavor it develops.

Sample provided by Fusion Tea Room. Get 10% off your first time order with the code 10off.

Today’s lab experiment involved a healthy scoop of this Ceylon Keemun blend and about 4 leaves of chocolate mint. Slightly below boiling water and 3 minute steep. This tea straight up is really fantastic. With the mint added, I am not as impressed as I have been when I have used it with other teas – ripe puerh for instance. Here, even though I went light on the mint, it tends to take over and be the predominate flavor. There is a hint of chocolate in the late sip. The tea base just gets a bit lost. Maybe I should have used hotter water? 2nd cup full roiling boil, 4 minute steep. Well it is more balanced, and I can taste the tea base and as it cools it gets better, but I’ve decided this base doesn’t need messing with.

Yummm. Passed the rest of the sample to a coworker – he’s hooked.

Actually enjoyed this more today than at my first attempts. I used water below boiling and a 3 minute steep. The bergamot in this one is not exactly citrus, flowery, perfume, or even artificial. The best I can describe it today is fruit punch. (Last time I called it bergamot/peach) I really like the base tea.

Ahmad is my favorite bargain brand. A 100g tin is around $6. Some of their varieties can be found in a one pound box for less that $7. The bargain price isn’t important if it isn’t drinkable. This is actually quite pleasant. Enough bergamot to satisfy without overpowering. Not Earl Grey but closer than a lot of teas claiming the name that cost a whole lot more. Been craving their Darjeeling lately. Guess I need to clear a spot in my drawer.

Blueberry bagels, cream cheese, and Earl Grey – enough said :)

Bagged tea and it is actually pretty good. I drink it chilled. It has a nice aroma and the taste is stout without being bitter. Not a bad evening tea I think.