Brian

Thanks to JacquelineM for this tea!

I don’t even know how to describe this! It reminds me of cantaloupe. Not in an overpowering, artificial way either. At the very end (and only if I make the smacking noise to taste), I get a hint of that traditional green tea taste. Overall this tea is excellent, one that I would serve to friends to show off, or to myself when I feel like fancy drinking :P

All those good reviews? Totally worth it. This tea is jawdroppingly good. I could snort this tea the smell is so intoxicating, and the taste is just as…..wow, I need to order a tin >_>

Anyhow, more details. It’s a fruity, citrusy, rose-y kind of thing. It’s like trying to explain FLCL to people that don’t watch anime (my fav one by the way!). It’s just this conglomeration of everything nom. BUY IT NAO

No notes yet.

Thanks to JacquelineM for letting me try this tea!

So I’ve been looking forward to this tea in the mail for quite a while now, and it’s finally here! Brew it up, pour it out, here it goes:

This is a tea with muscle! The mouthfeel on this is extraordinary, it’s is one of the smoothest teas I’ve encountered. It gets spicy in the back of the throat too when you swallow! This would wake me up in the morning, and then some. Guess I’m ordering some more!

Let me start off by saying thank you JacquelineM for the box of tea I got today! I’m so excited, I don’t know where to start! But I was brewing another pot of Hunan as it came in, so let’s see where it takes me.

Alright, let’s try this again. I added less leaves, and only let it steep for about 2:30. I’m also enjoying a bowl of ramen pasta (pour the water out, use different seasonings, SO much better and better for you!) with sauteed mushrooms, so I can see how it is with a meal.

Wow. This is really good with food. The vegetable flavor is still there, but it goes down smooth and kind of refreshes your palate after taking a bite. I also now detect a sweet note in the back of my tongue. This might grow on me as a lunch tea!

So it’s been an eventful past few days, Sam (the gf) came back from CT, and that was good. It’s really pretty funny considering with any previous girl I would be freaked, but I completely trust her….ANYWHO work has been constant, in these economic hard times I should probably consider that a blessing, no? Now on to the actual tea :P

I got this box in the mail yesterday, having ordered 3oz of this and a sample of Florence (which I’ve read is supposed to be amazing). So I opened the box, and lo and behold! Not only has H&S sent me my order, but also an additional FIVE samples to try! Gee, way to know how to get me spending more money eh? XD So this tea smells amazing, and not so amazing at the same time. I agree with ru0 that it smells like strawberries, but you also get that musky grassy green tea smell. Well I put a couple teaspoons in my Aladdin infuser mug, put some water in, and roll out the door. I swear I only had it in there for 3 minutes, but with me who knows? The taste was too bitter at the end, so I’m thinking that I either put too much in or steeped for too long. I also only did a quick wash on my mug from my previous tea, Moroccan Mint. So the mint flavor got in too >_< I’m wondering if I just dislike that fresh vegetal taste, or if it’s all in my head? That would leave me out of most greens and oolongs though :( any suggestions, or anyone suffer this same thing? I always smell like a spinach-y smell with greens/oolongs!

I forgot to log this :X

Welllll…..initially I loved this tea, it has a very nice hay/orange quality, but only after the second or third steep. The first was nice, but I don’t care for the first steep on Pu anyways. But once I got to the bottom of my particular orange, the taste got kinda bleh. I might rebuy, but not before I buy the Black Golden Bi Luo!

I finally got my sampler in today! If anyone hasn’t gotten around to getting one of these yet, I highly recommend it. It is so excellently packaged, and just made me feel like opening a Christmas present!

This was the first tea of the sampler I tried, and I must say I enjoy it….I think. It’s one of those teas that doesn’t exactly hit the “I want to drink every ounce of this tea that I can” spot, but it is of such good quality and left such a good mouthfeel with me….gotta give props.

The tase almost reminds me of Rice Krispies mixed with an amazing green. It is really neat, and I bet this would be even better with some sushi drool

Well I liked this tea before to keep me awake and as a general drinker, so I ordered 3oz of it. They sent me 4oz, so thank you Adagio :) I love the color of this brew, it comes out such a pretty reddish color, and the taste is bold with good wake me up feeling. Details on this one? pssshhhh, who needs details for this, just good basic tea :)

Wow, no one else has tasted this yet? I’m shocked due to the price. I found this on Amazon for $13.13 for a pound. Yes ladies and gentlemen, a POUND for thirteen bucks. Needless to say, I ordered it and hoped for the best.

You never quite realize how much a pound of tea is until you do it teaspoon by teaspoon. This is a TON of tea! Anywho, you open the bag and bam! Someone just blew in your face after chewing 2 packs of Wrigley’s Spearmint Gum. I was pretty scared after such an intense mint explosion. But fear not! This tea tasted pretty delicate. Not the best of teas, but hey for the price I think it’s great! I think it would be good maybe mixed with a black? Or iced, this would be epic iced.

By the way, YOU KNOW YOU WANT TO SWAP TEAS WITH ME!!!!!! I got plenty ;D

So today has been interesting. I had a slow day at work, but with a full tip jar! (bought How To Cook Your Life by Dogen, a very interesting read, and a mini Munny to color with Sam [the girlfriend] when she gets back from CT….just from tips!). Anywho, I came home to discover 1….2….3! Three boxes on my doorstep! I knew one was my Moroccan Mint tea from Davidson’s (review up later!), but what were the others? Oh wait, it’s this tea from Norbu and my new gaiwan from JAS eTea!

Norbu was kind enough not only to send me my order very neatly packaged, but also included a free sample of 2009 Norbu Lao Mansa! I was excited to try both, but for now let’s stick to the Yi Wu.

The leaves in this are really nice dry, they look just ready for the brewing. Rinse, dispose, pour in more water. 30 seconds-ish……omg.

This is amazing. I love this, it’s sweet and delicate but has that blunt woody finish that I know from the other Pu I’ve tried. Kind of like someone hitting your tongue with a hammer made of marshmallow.

Second infusion: Just as much amazing. This one added a lot of astringency at the end of the taste, at first I didn’t care for it, but it quickly grew on me.

Third Infusion: A liiitttlllee less flavor here, but not much. The astringency dropped back down to only a little.

Fourth Infusion: I had to answer the phone during this infusion, so I goofed it. Woops!

Fifth infusion: very light crisp earth taste, like wet sweet leaves. Started to get that kinda hay-ish taste. I wanted to try the mint, so I tossed the leaves after this infusion.

Overall, this was an amazing experience. Highly recommended! Now to go write on the mint :p

Another tea I still enjoy inbag. Probably one of the first teas that made me start looking at looseleaf, this tea gives a one of a kind experience and a good focus

Even though I’m trying to shy away from bags nowadays, this is the best EG I’ve found so far. It’s not a “creme” or anything like that, just a straight, smell good taste good no frills tea. I usually use a littler sugar and just enough milk to make it turn clay colored. One of my daily drinks at works when I don’t feel like making looseleaf!

Well, I just finished off my sample of this at work today. Got out pretty early which makes the night great!
Anywho, this tea smelt very light, I could pick up just sweet veggies. Well the tea itself reminds me of the same! Almost like snow peas with a little honey on them, the taste is really cool and refreshing.

I enjoyed this tea, but I think I would have savored it more from a gaiwan. Most of those nuances are lost when you don’t have time to relax and focus on them sadly :/

No notes yet.

So I was off a couple days and didn’t update this one, but boy am I glad I waited!

Initially I made a pot of this for a friend and I, thinking it was going to be sweet perhaps. The flavors in this tea are amazing, but expect savory, not sweet. It’s very malt-y, which I didn’t care too much for on the first infusion. We only infused it once until we moved on to the next tea.

Well…

Today I had work, and had my new Aladdin Infuser Mug too (love it!). I wanted to bring a tea with me that could survive multiple infusions, so I decided to give this another whirl. It was phenomenal! The first infusion is OK, very strong, but the second infusions onward were very much enjoyed. I got 5 infusions out of my leaves before I tossed them!

Oh and that reminds me, I’ve seen the word “mouthfeel” used a lot, and that’s what I will be using here. This tea is one of the smoothest I’ve ever experienced. It has to be experienced!

Well I’m about to head over to a buddy’s house (got a handful of samples from Chicago Tea Garden, and I felt like sharing), and I also overnighted the Aladdin Infuser Mug. This thing is COOL. It looks sleek and I wanted to brew tea in it, but didn’t want to use my CTG tea yet. SOOOO I remembered I had this!

Do I smell a mild citrus tone? Or is this just a really bright tea? The tea infuser worked wonderfully, making a second infusion possible as soon as I finish this. Earlier I had the Apple Tea from Adagio, and I definitely taste the similarity. I think Ceylon is a better base for their flavored blacks more than Assam, due to the fact that it doesn’t pucker the back of your mouth as much. It does have a mild astringency, but oddly enough only right when I swallow. This makes me think of a morning tea, but nothing so particular as “Winter Morning” or “rainy morning”. It’s not powerful enough for such strong detail, but just light and good :)

Well after a day at work, my Adagio order finally came in! Although it wasn’t as massive as it originally was (due to a transaction problem with my web browser that made me scale back a bit), I ended up with this. I like it, don’t get me wrong. I’m just trying to figure out what i feel it needs. Sugar maybe? But on the other hand, I just got one with pot #3 of it :P