Nick

A mild fall campfire in a cup. This is my first lapsang souchong and as such I may be unduly impressed by something that isn’t quite as remarkable as I feel it is. However, smelling this as soon as I opened the tin, I instantly recognized the smell. That campfire smoke where you’re roasting marshmallows using the pine needles, twigs, and other small bits of kindling.

The dry tea leaves are not that impressive, but, the aroma is quite potent. They’re rolled tightly and dark in color, almost black. Overall it’s very uniform in appearance, thin, small black leaves.

Steeping this the tea comes out a deep leathery red-brown color. I feel like the smoky scent is even stronger after it’s steeped. The first sip I was greeted with a wonderful woody and full-bodied taste, the aroma of the lapsang souchong filling my nose and a very light taste of pine. The second sip, playing with the taste of the tea by slurping slightly, it’s much easier to detect the pine taste and it’s washed away by a sudden rush of smoky flavor. There’s a small bit of something sweet in the taste as well. I’m not sure if the feeling on the tongue i’m detecting is astringency or not, just due to not having someone go ’that’s what astringency is’ and defining it for me; it tingles slightly on the tongue.

The wet leaves after steeping have unfurled a small bit, they’re slightly lighter in appearance, more of a dark brown than the black before steeping. They still carry the campfire aroma heavily.

A second steeping produces a slightly lighter scented tea with a much more mild color. It’s lost some of it’s strength, however, considering how strong it was in the first steep this is still very pleasant and drinkable. I’m not too certain it’d go for a third steeping.

I’d highly recommend this tea to others, especially as a first lapsang souchong just because it was my first and I found the experience pleasant. It might not be the highest quality lapsang souchong judging by some of the other tasting notes, but, if this one is good and others are better and it can only go up from here, well, that’s awesome. I’ll also note that the 4 oz tin of this was only $6.45; a hard price to beat for experimenting with a new tea.

My first taste of this tea was horribly underwhelming. However, as I’ve continued to drink this, mostly to get rid of it so that i can use the container. It’s grown on me a tiny bit. I’m now able to pick out certain flavors from it. It’s not the greatest tea I’ve ever had, but, it’s still far from the worst and I have to give in and admit it does taste pretty similar to a chocolate covered strawberry.

The tea smells very chocolatey, no real hint of strawberries in the scent to me. It brews to a dark orange with perhaps a slight red tint.

This is kind of like the ear-worm of teas. I don’t really like it, but, I keep exposing myself to it without complaining too much.

Om nom nom nom, cookies…. nom nom… wait… there’s no noms… it’s just tea. It’s hard to believe that they could invent liquid cookie dough, but, it appears to have been done.

This is a rather yummy tea, it does take a certain mood for it though. It’s something that does certainly satisfy a sweet-tooth or craving for cookies though.

8/10 Would sip again.

A deliciously creamy coconut flavored oolong. It does almost seem like it has hints of a milk oolong, but, I think that’s my imagination. It’s very sweet tasting and has an amazing coconut smell. The dry leaves as well as the liqueur carry the aroma. It’s up there with my favorites for the time being.

This is an amazing milk oolong, it’s a little bit less creamy than the quangzhou milk oolong from DAVIDsTEA, but, it has a somewhat better quality I can’t describe very well to it. It’s smooth and silky to drink and resteeps for many cups of delicious tea. Thank you very much to Yssah for sharing this with me!

I got this from Starfevre. I just made it tonight, and I really like the raspberry flavor, but, as she said, it is very sweet. I don’t mind it all that much, but, it does keep me from rating it a bit higher.

I’ve come to love oolongs as my favorite tea in general, but, I think I may have found my new favorite. Even over the Tie Kuan Yin first grade oolong that I got to try a little while back.

The smell is intoxicating, it’s hard to place, and even with the possibility that it’s simply the suggestion from the name and the label it definitely evokes images of cream just from the smell. The first sip I was greeted with a smooth light tea, that hid the tea flavor rather well. It’s not quite milk, but, definitely gives hints of the taste. As you drink it’s easy to discover multiple flavors in this tea, like dairy combined with a light oolong and just a hint of floral taste; the label says orchid, I’m not sure I agree that’s what I’m tasting, but, eh, it’s flowery! :)

I’m definitely taking this to the next tea party I have.

Very mild taste, it wasn’t unpleasant, but, at the same time, I don’t really know what Lichee tastes like. So, can’t really critique this one much. It’s from a batch of inexpensive teas I’ve bought form a local asian grocery. It’s quite drinkable for what it is.

An interesting blend of roasted brown rice and green tea. I didn’t really know what to expect when trying this, and wasn’t really sure what I thought after my first cup. I went off to do research, learning that genmaicha was originally consumed by poor Japanese and became known as the “people’s tea”.

I had multiple cups, playing with the steeping time and temperature, the most successful of which is to use boiling water, steeping for anywhere between 30 seconds to a minute, pouring into a cup and letting it cool for a bit. The resulting tea has the scent of the roasted rice and the flavor is difficult to describe, but, it’s smooth and delicious to me, in this particular blend I can barely taste the green tea, most of the flavor is of the rice. After the 7th cup of this or so today, I think I have to allow myself to like it because I keep drinking it…

This is one of the best oolongs I’ve had the pleasure of tasting, a delicious floral bouquet to it. Sipping this tea it’s much like the description from the company. It’s buttery and smooth, I don’t much detect the smokiness described, but it does have a green floral taste, a little bit of green-ish flavor.

It’s delightful to drink and the smell is intoxicating. It’s got to be one of if not the best I’ve had so far.

This is another of the samples from yssah, but, it’s delicious. It smells just like blueberry muffins and pretty much makes me think of the same thing as I sip on it. It’s a very light tinge of blueberries and creamy.

A very tart, delicious herbal tea. Quite citrus-y in taste and smells incredible. It’s very good, but, at the same time, I haven’t found anything special about it. It’s a nice and sweet tea.

It definitely grows in taste as it cools. It’s a deep red/orange color once steeped. Very attractive to look at.

This is another tea that hasn’t quite reached a certainty. At first I didn’t like it, but, as it cooled and I continued sipping it was a bit more acceptable. I think I need to try it more often to see if it grows on me.

It’s a very spicy smelling and slightly spicy tasting tea. The cinnamon and cloves is very noticeable. At current, it doesn’t seem like there’s anything special with this, it does have a slight creamy aftertaste and almost a little bit like earl grey too.

I still struggle with pu-erh’s. I found this one in a vietnamese store near where I live and just decided to get it on a whim. It’s not as bad as the other pu-erh I had and I watched a video describing how to brew pu-erh from a cake. Break off a chunk, wash twice, brew for short periods.

It had a mildy woody taste, maybe even a little bit of a smoky flavor, not sure. It wasn’t as bad as previous attempts at brewing a pu-erh tea, and the 2nd (4th?) steeping was actually pretty decent. I still feel like I’m missing something in regards to pu-erh teas though.

I have trouble with this tea, but, mostly cause it’s so popular and I was drawn into the trap of reading what other people had to say.

I like it. I don’t know if it’s because my palate is unrefined and incapable of detecting certain things, or perhaps I simply taste something different when I drink this tea. I love the smell of the tea and it tastes lightly sweet because of the vanilla flavoring. Sipping and slurping the tea in almost leaves a slightly salty flavor on the tongue for just a second before being washed away by vanilla and tea.

So far I’ve not managed to brew a great cup of tea out of this stuff. I’ve tried everything I know how, but, haven’t been able to drink enough tea to try all the options on steep time. The directions on the label say 4-5 minutes, but, so far every variation on temperature and steep time I’ve tried has left me with something that’s not quite that good, I’ve yet to explore some of the shorter times. It’s not bad, but, it doesn’t have the sweet almost chocolatey taste that I’ve gotten out of some of the other oolongs I’ve tried, leaving me drinking some slightly weird flavored water. I might be doing it wrong. :|

To me this tea is almost as magical as it’s origin myth, blatantly copy-pasta’d from Adagio Teas..

Ti Kuan Yin means ‘Iron Goddess of Mercy’, and is a reference to a beloved bodhisattva in Buddhism. According to legend, Kuan Yin presented this tea in reward to a kind, poor farmer who lovingly maintained her old, dilapidated temple. ‘The key for your future,’ she said, ‘is just outside this temple.’ Outside, the farmer found a seedling tea bush. After much care, the bush grew rich and full, with thick green leaves. The lovely tea from those leaves was shared with and appreciated by all. Thus, the magical Ti Kuan Yin oolong came into being.

This tea came to me much like it’s origin, I a humble, poor, and learning connoisseur of tea travelled great distance for a new job, and through my hard work discovered an appreciation for teas. I queried the gracious store clerk at Chicago Coffee and Tea Exchange about which teas would be good to try, she bestowed upon me this great gift.

I hurriedly journeyed (a few blocks) back to my apartment with my prize. Brewing the first cup of this i knew not what to expect, upon tasting i was greeted with a roasted nutty flavor, initially making me think of how coffee tastes, and then followed by a sweet almost caramel aftertaste. I knew at once I must share this delicious brew with all I knew.

It’s now my staple tea, even as much as I try other things I delight in my few cups of this tea, generally starting the day with this and getting a good 3 steeps, I sometimes try a fourth, but, generally the leaves are exhausted and lack the ability to produce more flavor at that point.

Another one of the samples that I received. I tried this tea, and it was a disaster! No, not the tea, me. I had every tea brewing accident imaginable while attempting to taste this tea. Not that it’s the fault of the tea that i’m clumsy, stuck my hand on the bottom of my ingenuitea and scalded the crap out of myself and spilled tea EVERYWHERE. Nor is it the tea’s fault that I didn’t bring a change of clothes into work this snowy Chicago day. Nor is it the tea’s fault that we have carpeted floors at work.

Needless to say, brewing this tea was a battle that I was somehow determined to lose. However, in the end, I ended up with a delightful tasting tea that had just the right tinge of citrusy orange flavor in it. A right reward for the trouble I caused myself. The scent is slightly better then the actual taste, I could sit here and smell this tea for hours, or at least until my coworkers glanced at me funny for huffing tea fumes.

This tea’s name is is incredibly descriptive about it’s taste, nutty and sweet.

I’ve been reluctant to go through this sampler, but, only because I feel like i’ll be suffering a great loss once I’m out of this tea. It’s delicious. When sipping this tea the first thing I notice is a tinge of sweetness on my tongue, swallowing and breathing out there’s this nutty aroma. This tea, for lack of other ways to describe it, simply makes me happy.

I don’t want to be too harsh, as I’m absolutely sure I’m not an expert in matcha preparation. It wasn’t a great cup of tea, but, I did feel something afterwards, not sure if it’s just placebo from reading about the effects or something real though.

The taste was kind of meh. It wasn’t bitter, it wasn’t sweet. It was slightly grassy. I was trying to make thick matcha, but, ended up with a watery soup from slightly too much water. I don’t have any traditional materials for preparing matcha, just threw it in a cup and stirred gently with a spoon, I know this is like matcha-sacrilege, but, it still didn’t come out horrible, just not as good as I’ve imagined/heard it to be.

I actually liked this tea, but, it’s bad. Very bad. A very bad, naughty, tea. It has destroyed my ingenuitea. I probably should have known, or been wiser, or something. The only warning on the package says that it should be stored in a glass container. I probably shoul d have inferred something was up from this, but I did not. I steeped it for 5 minutes in a 16 oz Ingenuitea, it’s all cloudy and etched from the oils in the tea and I’ve had a heck of a time getting the cinnamon smell out of the pot. I’m not even really sure it’s safe to drink tea made out of my pot anymore with the damage this tea did.

That being said, a tasting note should be a note on the tea, not how destructive it. I find it to be pretty delicious, just disappointed that it’s possibly cost me a teapot.

This tea is very nice, I wasn’t sure what to expect because I’d never heard of gynostemma before. It also didn’t come with directions, there’s lots of gynostemma teas and they very quite a bit in how long they should be steeped, how much you should use, etc. For this particular tea, I used about a teaspoon for 8 oz of water. My first time making it, I let it go for 2=3 minutes, thinking herbal tea takes forever, but, while I was steeping it I came across some sites that said they steep their gynostemma for less than a minute! One page said 20 seconds. I quickly poured that into a cup, and the taste wasn’t unpleasant, but, it wasn’t that great either. So, honestly not sure whether i didn’t let it brew long enough, or let it brew too long… I figured my next cup I can always try the real quick steep and if it’s not good, just steep the next one longer.

The second time making it, I steeped it probably about 35 seconds. The first steep of this second batch was fairly light in color, but, it had a very pleasant and sweet taste. The second steep released a lot more color into the water, but, I suck at describing color, just it was a lot more obvious it was ‘tea’ in the second steeping. The taste was more noticeable. It’s a really delicious tea and this continued onto my 4th and 5th cups. Each cup has a slightly (but not sugary) sweet taste to it. Given how quick it is to steep as well, it’s a great tasting convenient cup of tea that supposedly gives lots of health benefits. It’s definitely ranking up there in my favorites.

Let me start off this note with a teensy bit of background. I bought some cheap jasmine tea and had even commented to a friend that I shared that tea with that jasmine tea could be a bit iffy, that there were horror stories about the chemically taste and such online. Drinking that tea, I was unsure of what quality of tea I got, I didn’t know what the chemical taste tasted like, and I wasn’t sure if jasmine tea was supposed to taste like drinking a bottle of perfume. I just thought maybe I didn’t like jasmine tea.

I had also asked yssah – Love is Tea (LIT) to try some of the Jasmine Pearls she had available…

I had no idea. I just didn’t.

This tea is exquisite compared to the cheaper jasmine tea that I’d purchased. I now have a much better idea of what good jasmine tea is supposed to taste like. There’s a delicate fragrance of jasmine without any of the perfume taste in my mouth. It’s a beautiful aroma and the pearls unfurling during the 2nd and 3rd steeping are fun to watch.

The first steep had a very light flavor and aroma. The tint of the liquor was barely noticable. The second steep was a much more noticeable change in the color of the liquor a very light translucent champagne. There was much more taste due to leaves opening up more and it was slightly sweet. Unfortunately my pallate isn’t experienced enough to pull out and describe exactly what I was tasting in the tea, but, it was yum.

A very nice but very subtle flavor, please keep in mind that my novice skills in tea brewing may be to the detriment of some very great teas. However, with that being said, the tea leaves smell absolutely gorgeous and hint at the delicious flavor to come. While the flavoring was very subtle in the tea I brewed, the taste left on my tongue after drinking was delightful.