kuanyin

This tea requires double or more the usual leaf to brew the way I like a morning cup. I’m terrified of overbrewing, so I took several tries to be bold enough to go the recommended longer range time of 8 minutes. Bingo! The 8 minute brew with boiling water produced the sweetest, closest to cocoa flavor that I desired. This is an excellent everyday choice, I can afford to stock up on this one. And it is rich and strong enough for a work morning beginning at 5:30 a.m. (And no, I am so NOT a morning person…) I find Golden Moon’s Keemun the standard for cocoa goodness, but the cost is more.

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This tea deserves a better rating, IMO. The flavor just explodes: honey, date, chocolate.They call for a tsb instead tsp, but with that I got three full-bodied brews, the second being my favorite. More patient people could probably get several more. I use natural sugar crystals, it is improved by it and I just prefer it. This is a fantastic value and a great early morning kick start. I prefer a dark, full flavor in the a.m. – but smooth. This one has a touch of astringent edge on the first brew, but just a touch. I might try 3 minutes for the first brew instead of 4. I plan on getting a much larger bag and making this a regular.

Got home after a visit to Shang Tea with several choices. Which one to make first? Clear Jade Orchid won and, oh my stars, what a tea! I had no directions, and ended up using 2 generous tsp in a 10 oz pot. For the second steep I transferred it to a yixing pot that is a bit larger. This is unique indeed with flavors that I can’t pin point other than floral. Melon? I definitely preferred it with sugar crystals and thought it brought out more of the deep flavor. It looks like a charcoal roasted oolong, with the darker color, it does not taste like it. It is in world of its own and I wish I could better describe it.

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Probably the best strawberry tisane I have found. IMO every fruit tea still requires sweetening, this would be tart without it. I use it to blend and it works deliciously.

This is seriously wonderful cherry tea. Yes, it SMELLS like cherry cough drops (not a bad thing to me) but it tastes like cherry straight up. I’ve used it flavor my oatmeal even! I use fruit teas to blend, and this is my favorite.

This definitely has a fakeness to the flavor, but it is pretty good even so. Their cream flavor is just off, but this one somehow overcomes that. I now prefer the strawberry teas that don’t have that fake cream, at least for most things. I hit on making it as iced tea with the roasted yerba mate and it is fantastic! On Upton’s site you will find the refrigerator iced tea method. Super easy, all you will have to do is strain it and it is better than hot tea turned iced.

This was one of my favorite fruit teas, I use them to blend. But, I have since found others I really prefer. So this is still pretty good, but no longer a fav. Little bit of a false note, probably their fake cream flavor.

This is OK, but barely. I use it to blend with other teas, but I will not buy it again. The real vanilla is drowned out by the fake vanilla.

I prefer the roasted yerba mate to the green. More coffee like and this was one I used to kick coffee. I rebought this one in a large size, it is quite nice. I really like to blend it with fruit teas though. And I recently hit on using it for iced tea, made cold with Upton’s
Strawberry Cream and it was like the best iced tea ever! On Upton’s site you will find the refrigerator iced tea method and it is awesome. Super easy, all you will have to do is strain it and better than hot tea turned iced.

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One reason for the less than optimum rating is that the can was less than half full, which means that I will not get that much out of it. I count 18, which means 9 pots and consider that scanty, even with additional steepings. My second steeping I thought would be safe at 2 minutes, but that actually brought in a touch of bitterness. Not enough to ruin it, but 1.5 minutes the second time would have been better. I haven’t tried a third yet, but I think I might get another one yet this morning. I also appreciate more complete brewing instructions, as in tell me how much to use. And as with the other reviewer, the link did not work to order more. It was supposed to work for Feb. and that is more than half over anyway, by the time I got it. But moot point if it doesn’t work at all.

I’m going to get some from Chicago Tea Garden. I’m sure it is cheaper and probably the same tea!