Luthien

Not too bad, as chocolate teas go. Tastes more carob than chocolate. I had it with milk and a little sugar this time, but I think I’ll forego the sugar next time.

Other Half got this tea at the Japan City shop. The strawberry is mostly in the aroma; the tea itself is a pretty basic Japanese green. Okay but nothing special.

I was in the mood for a Chinese green today, and this is one of the best I have. A sweet, delicate tea that I can drink a lot of.

This tea is wonderful now that I’ve hit on exactly the right way to brew it. Mmmm.

Definitely this week’s favourite new tea. I can see I’m going to just keep coming back to this one.

Really disappointing. The first steeping was really lacking in flavour and I was hoping for better with the second, but it also failed to deliver on the promised aroma and sweet taste. I liked the Ti Kuan Yin from The Tea Centre much, much better than this.

Had more of this yesterday. Still good!

I’ve just been drinking this the past couple of days. I’m really loving this tea. The second and third steepings are always the best. Sometimes the first steeping has a slight edge of bitterness and sometimes not. I’m still trying to work out what’s causing that. I might keep a really close eye on the temperature next time.

Wow. This one really blew me away, and is immediately in my top two favourite oolongs. Wonderful fragrance that translates into a complex floral/slightly vanilla-like/vaguely milky flavour. The first steeping is great, but the second is even better. Brewed in a zisha pot for approx. four minutes.

The taste was disappointing to begin with, given the lovely vanilla scent, but it improved a bit as I went along. I’ll try this one again before making up my mind about it.

Revisiting this old friend. This time I made the mistake of trying this at a slightly lower temperature – 65C – and bleurgh. No flavour at all. Back to the usual brewing method next time!

Still playing around with this. I tried it at a slightly lower temperature tonight – 58C – mainly because I got called away while the water was cooling. This worked pretty well, though I think the flavour comes through better when the water is that little bit hotter. I still like the second steeping the best.

I’m not a big fan of tea with milk, but this is one I definitely prefer when made up as a tea latte. The roasted, nutty flavour really works well with the milk and leaves a pleasant aftertaste.

I’m not feeling so well today and not in the mood for any new tea experiences. Every time I go to the tea cupboard I end up thinking: “I think I’ll have another cup of this.” Currently contemplating cup number four…

I didn’t much care for the occasional pu-erhs I’ve tried in the past so the fact that I didn’t mind this one was a pleasant surprise. The colour is very dark and rich-looking but the taste is less full-on than others I’ve had, and woody more than earthy. It’s working well as an after dinner drink tonight and settling my stomach.

I did three steepings of this. All three were good but the second was the best. Very, very green, rich and grassy and smooth with hints of other things beneath the surface taste. This is a tea that I’m going to enjoy exploring until my limited supply runs out. Two teaspoons of leaves per cup, steeped for 45 seconds in water at 68C.

Taking a slightly different approach with this tea this time, since I didn’t get it quite right the first time I tried it.

The first steeping was pleasant, fairly light, not overwhelmingly grassy. The second was exactly what I’d been hoping for from this tea: richer in both colour and taste than the first, with the flavour leaning more towards seaweed than grass and with none of the bitter edge that occurred the first time I tried out this tea. This time I increased the proportion of leaves to water and decreased the water temperature and steeping time: two teaspoons of leaves per cup, water at 70C and steeped for one minute.

Trying this for the second time. The weird sort-of licorice aftertaste isn’t as pronounced this time, which is good, though I still don’t enjoy the way it lingers so long and makes my lips tingle. It almost feels like a mild allergic reaction, except that I’m not allergic to any of the ingredients. This really isn’t a tea I’d want to steep for long. The stronger it is, the less I like it. This tea and I are not a good fit.

This is fast becoming a favourite.

Works really well without milk. I like it best with a little honey. Really nice on a cold late autumn afternoon. Brrr.

Drinking it for its headache-fighting qualities this time.

This is a beautiful tea. Pale yellow in colour, smooth and slightly malty to the taste and with a very soft, grassy scent. I got this just exactly right this time: two teaspoons of tea leaves per cup, steeping for one and a half minutes in water at 55C.

The addiction has continued over this weekend. ;-)

The leaves give off a wonderful citrusy smell, and you get a similar aroma from the brewed tea. The first sip isn’t anything like as strong to the taste, so I was somewhat disappointed to start with, but the flavour really builds as you go along. I liked the end of the cup much better than the beginning.