Mark Torromeo

Seriously disappointing. This is one of my favorite styles of tea, but this tea was extremely fussy. It was almost impossible to steep it without it becoming very bitter. Even when i steeped it properly it was still nothing to write home about. It was so disappointing that i’ve considered that they may have sent me a different tea in this packaging by mistake. I really expected much more.

This is a great green tea. Has some of the classic characteristics of dragonwell, but those are perfectly balanced with more traditional green tea flavors. Light and delicious. Good stuff.

Pretty nice. Didn’t blow my mind, but this is a solid Mao Feng.

Delicious dragonwell. I would order more but they’re out of this season’s supply. Cant wait to try next years.

Decent. I’m not a big drinker of oolongs, but this one falls somewhere in the middle of my oolong experiences. It is of the style that i prefer, but this one just didn’t wow me. Solid, just not very memorable.

2011 Harvest. This is a great tea with a strong chocolate aroma and flavor with a rich mouth-feel. Smooth. Stands in stark contrast to the somewhat spicy black teas that many people are accustomed to. Definitely worth trying.

Really great, light, fresh green tea. Reminds me of a nice Bi Lo Chun.

This review is for the 2011 Early Spring lot:
Really great stuff, and for a very reasonable price. Delicious, bright, refreshing green tea. Fantastic bargain.

Just got the new 2011 harvest. Solid. Better than last years, but twice as expensive. Interesting notes of cinnamon or some other spice with a nice sweetness makes this a great everyday drinking tea. Slightly weak on the mid pallet, but still light, thirst quenching and delicious. I also steeped this tea 6 times and it was still tasting great. Fantastic tea if price wasn’t an issue…..but I’m really disappointed by the huge price increase. Can’t really recommend it, considering there are other teas out there that could rival this for a much better bargain.

It took me a while to figure this tea out, but it ended up being surprisingly good. Nice sweetness, with a nutty richness to balance it out.

Interesting tea, although not the type of tea I generally like to drink. This tea is very dark and earthy, with a strong aged smokiness. With further steepings some of the darker flavors relaxed and let a bit sweetness come through. A high quality, complex tea….I just generally prefer teas of a lighter, fresher style.

Very nice. I seem to have bad luck with dragonwell. This is only the second one that I’ve even remotely enjoyed. Perhaps because of it’s popularity there’s a lot of low quality stuff on the market.
Regardless of my past experiences, this is fantastic green tea. Light, fresh and refreshingly sweet, with just a hint of darker flavors, nudging on the edges of your subconscious. Although I don’t get a lot of those flavors that I’ve found to be distinctively “dragonwell”. Maybe I’ll pick up on them as I drink this tea more.

Pretty fantastic. The brightest green i’ve ever seen. I just wish good matcha wasn’t so expensive. I would drink it much more often.

Pretty nice. Good aroma. Nice depth.

Decent. Could take it or leave it. Great aroma though.

Very nice. I think this is only the 3rd genmaicha i’ve had, but this is easily the best. The toasted rice isn’t too overbearing, like has been the case in the previous genmaichas. Very drinkable.

So far so good. Nice and sweet, but with a backbone of complexity and depth. Looking forward to figuring this tea out and really getting it to sing.

Nice! This is one of my favorite styles of tea. This one is fresh and delicious, despite the unforgiving weather of 2010 in China.

I’ve bought this a few more times now and it seems drastically less good. My guess is Silk Road’s supply might be getting a little old.

Interesting, interesting. I think it’s well described as being right between a black tea and a pu-erh. Flavors and aromas of both come through. Some really cool spice notes too.

Great Stuff. Definitely has a smokiness to it…but with great underlying complexity. It drinks like an expertly crafted cocktail.

No sir, i don’t like it. Some of Silk Road’s stock might be getting a bit old, considering that 2010 wasn’t a great year for tea in china. But this stuff did nothing for me.

Smells amazing! Although, the tea that it makes was less amazing for me. I’ve tried making straight tea and adding milk and sugar, which i don’t usually do to tea. Might take a little experimentation to get it right.

Having now had a lot more of this tea i’m a little less excited about it. With just the right temperature and steeping time you can strike gold and get a wonderful, rich, buttery tea….but it’s fussy. You’ll have to experiment to get it right. Seems like very short brewing times work best for me. Less than 10 seconds. But that seems to be true to me for most green teas. 3 minutes is absurd. I don’t know why that seems to be the standard recommendation for green tea.