Nicole

Not sure how I missed logging this. I’ve had it several times.

I like this one a lot. I can taste the fig and the cherry both. Admittedly, the tea base takes a back seat. Nevertheless, the base is smooth and non-astringent. Smells wonderful.

It makes an excellent infusion for mousse and probably would make a good infusion for ice cream or creme brulee.

Toasty, ricey, little hints of vegetal flavors here and there and pretty smooth. Not silky or creamy, just smooth and soft. The leaves expand quite well, as expected for an oolong.

This is my first Dong Ding oolong. Not sure I am enough of a fan to keep it around, but it seems to be a very nice tea and I wouldn’t turn it down if it were offered. And I will not make it through 7 steeps. I will probably never get through 7 steeps of the same tea in a row. :) Too impatient, too many teas!!!

Again, thanks for sharing, Tamm!

Wow! What a pretty tea. Whole rosebuds, orange slices of dried carrots, lavender, just lovely!

I don’t get much beyond the lavender taste but it was very nice and relaxing. I liked it after it cooled off a bit. Freshly hot it was hard to taste the flavor.

I could see mixing this with a nice chamomile for a before bed cuppa. Thanks, Tamm!

No notes yet.

Don’t think I get pear or strawberry. However, it does taste like the scent of an old fashioned candy store. Kind of like old wood (not in a bad way) and nonspecific “sweet.” Maybe that is the jelly roll chocolate taste Tamm mentioned.

Thanks for the sample, Tamm!

Roasty, barky with a silky mouth feel. Smokey, earthy. Amazing to think I am drinking something aged for so long. I don’t even drink alcohol that old! :)

That said, this probably isn’t going to be something I seek out to keep around. If anyone would like to try it, I’d be happy to share some.

Well, this is odd. A bit of fig, a bit of honey… and lots of other things that I can’t pick out. There is a strange sweet aftertaste. Very odd in that it doesn’t taste sweet when I’m drinking it but immediately after swallowing it, there is a sweetness that suffuses my mouth. I thought at first it was what I was eating with it, but I’m not sure how sharp cheese and pretzels would make a tea sweet. Maybe… the licorice root is the sweet.

Hm. Not sure I like this. I could drink it if it was served to me, but I don’t think I’d choose it over other teas.

Dry leaves are so, so pretty. Smells definitely malty dry.

Steeped, this is super malty, bready, yeasty, dark and satisfying. I can get some of the oak notes but don’t notice any florals at all. Maybe a tiny bit of astringency at the end of the sip, but it’s a teensy, tiny bit. The taste does linger a lot in the mouth.

Though this is something I could easily get too much of in a weekend and it might upset my tummy if I drank several cups at a sitting this is another unflavored black from Butiki that I simply must keep in my cupboard.

So… wow, Ysaurella was absolutely right about this one – cloves, cloves, cloves. :) I can pick up a bit of the citrus hiding under the cloves, but not much. I don’t think it is sweet, which is odd, since a lot of the European tea companies’ products seem sweet to me. While it is not something I will seek out for my cupboard, I am quite happy to have tried it. Thank you, Ysaurella!

Hm. Not sure I’ve had a plain black currant tea before so I wasn’t sure what to expect. The smell of the dry leaf is slightly sweet. I guess this is grapey? I know currants are grapey. The steeped liquor smells like grape and is slightly sour but not bitter. I probably won’t replace this when I’m out but not a bad flavored tea. I’ve been overdosing on unflavored blacks lately so getting back to some flavored blends it’s been nice to have decent ones. :)

This was the loose leaf version.

Not sure what orchid is supposed to taste like but, from the description, I don’t think it is supposed to be a flavor in this tea. I get toasty vanilla and coconut from this, with a pretty nice black tea base. Overall, not bad. I picked this up with a recent Rue La La certificate which made it essentially half price. Not sure I’d keep it in the cupboard over other vanilla blacks but this is a good tea to have around until it’s gone.

Oh, and I don’t know if it makes a difference but this was the loose leaf version.

Ysaurella was kind enough to send some of this my way recently. :)

This is a nice, mild black tea with strong violet flavor. It is also sweet.

What it reminds me of are the violet candies you used to be able to get in 5 & 10 stores in small towns. http://chowardcompany.com/products.htm

I never cared much for the candy. As a tea, it is okay. Not bad, but nothing I’ll seek out to keep in the cupboard. I’ll share some of the sample I have left with my mom and her friend and it will all be steeped and enjoyed while it lasts. :)

This is a lovely tea! The only teas I can recall having before this with cherries were greens and they were always very tart and didn’t seem to blend well. This is wonderful. The tea base is nice and smooth and melds well with the cherries. A tiny bit of tartness but not nearly as much as with the green bases in other teas.

I would keep this in the cupboard. Thanks so much, Ysaurella, for sharing this!

No notes yet.

Picked this up with the Princess Noori at the Russian market today. Smells very strongly of fruit. Not sure what fruit, but definitely fruit.

Tasting it, I get berry. Reminds me of Lady Londonderry so maybe strawberry. It’s a good tea. Light and fruity. As it cools, it becomes more tart. I think I do want to try it like Bonnie did, with a spoon of cherry jam. I sure have enough to share if anyone wants any.

Picture of leaves: http://s1165.photobucket.com/user/dagony/media/Tea%20Stash/IMG_1989_zps2f512a55.jpg.html?sort=3&o=0

I got this today at a local shop that sells Russian goods. The package is all in Russian except for the side I took the picture of. :) Here’s a picture of the Russian side: http://s1165.photobucket.com/user/dagony/media/Tea%20Stash/IMG_1987_zps4d73c0f7.jpg.html?sort=3&o=1

When I opened this, it was holy-cow-bergamot! It’s a pleasant, mild tea with a great bergamot flavor. And the price was definitely right. I think I probably have come to prefer cream Earl Greys, but this one will be used up for sure.

A tea club coworker brought this in to share today. Not sure I’d call this tea since I can’t pick out any tea flavor at all, but for a tisane it isn’t too bad. A pretty pink color. Dunno what a youthberry is, but it does have a distinctly orange flavor profile. Sounds strange to say about a liquid maybe, but this is wet. I am pretty sure it wouldn’t be one I cared for after it cooled off and I could see where adding sugar would make it very close to juice. Steeped “leaves” look pretty much like a heap of damp fruit.

OMG… DRINK ALL THIS TEA!!!!!

This is another amazing tea from Butiki. The leaves are phenomenally huge. (Picture after steeping: http://s1165.photobucket.com/user/dagony/media/Tea%20Stash/IMG_1976_zps47b28c20.jpg.html?sort=3&o=1)

Soft, creamy caramel that perfectly complements the tea without covering it up. This is only my second tea that can satisfy my need for dessert without being dessert. I tried it with a little sugar and it seems to overwhelm the tea while bringing out the caramel even more. Not bad, but completely unnecessary. And I did not care for it with milk. Again, not a bad taste but it seems to muddy up the tea flavor.

This is the perfect tea for today. It’s far too cold to be spring and I’m trying not to eat anything since we are going out to the Brazilian grill tonight with friends and I want room for meat! This should keep me feeling warm and not hungry yet not fill me up.

http://s1165.photobucket.com/user/dagony/media/Tea%20Stash/IMG_1977_zpsd6c0e3e4.jpg.html?sort=3&o=0

My only complaint – it’s hard to measure 2 teaspoons when the leaves don’t fit in the spoon! I probably got more than 2 teaspoons in my cup. I’m on the second steep and it’s still good.

Fruity, malty, a smell of damp earth and leaves. A dry note that builds as the cup cools. Quite tasty. Glad to have gotten this as a sample!

This was the free sample that was included with one of my Capital Teas orders. I have only had one tea with mate before (I think it was Celestial Seasonings Morning Thunder or something like that) and while it was okay, it quickly became a taste I didn’t like more than about half a cup of. So I was a bit nervous about trying this since there is no tea at all in it, just mate.

I made up the whole sample in a pot to share with Tea Club today. Used half 1% milk, half water and I went decently heavy on the sugar.

The predominant taste that most of us noticed was cinnamon, followed by ginger and lemongrass. Perhaps prepared in a different way, other spices would have come to the fore. It was pretty good. I don’t think I’d keep it in my cupboard over other chais, but I’m glad to have had the sample to try.

Wow. This is really good. First taste was dusty and reminded me hay but as it cooled it reminded me more and more of Butiki’s Taiwanese Wild Mountain Black. It’s different, but very close I think. I did get a lot of nutty taste and a light honey sweetness.

Having steeped my entire sample over the course of today, and resteeped each cup once as well, I can say that it will get somewhat bitter if oversteeped, but it didn’t get to the point of being undrinkable or unpleasant.

When completely cool, I got really strong cinnamon notes – not sure where that came from!

I would love to keep this in my cupboard. I’m glad I got this sample.

Wow, so I’ve been through a whole 2 ounces of this and haven’t reviewed it???

This is a wonderful yunnan. Gorgeous dry leaves – very prominent golden tips. Wonderful, deep malty smell and flavor. Golden brown mahogany color liquid. I could drink this every single morning. This is what I was chasing since having my first golden yunnan back in November. This simply must be kept in the cupboard at all times.

Since you can’t really see the tea very close in the picture from the Kally site, here’s one that I took this morning.

http://s1165.photobucket.com/user/dagony/media/royal_zps63525f48.jpg.html?sort=3&o=0

I’ve had this in my cupboard for a couple of years now. Can’t believe I’ve yet to log a tasting note for it!

When I was first exploring darjeelings, this was something I picked up along with a cart load of other H&S teas. I found that I liked this as a darjeeling even though it isn’t technically one. The dry leaves are lovely and the steeped leaves are the multi-colored small to medium leaves I expect from a darjeeling kind of tea.

This has a medium body with a lightly sweet smell. Dryness in the background is what reminds me most strongly of darjeelings. I oversteeped this cup by a few minutes and while it got a little bitter, it isn’t undrinkable. I don’t get honey but I do taste the woody.

Well, I wish I liked this as much as most folks seem to but unfortunately…Thank you to Darby for sharing this with me before I placed an order and ended up with a lot of this. :)

I will say this: it is exactly as chocolate as the description implies. Like drinking the aroma of chocolate, if that makes any sense. Notes of burned caramel in the background. And later steepings did indeed have more of a raw cacao flavor with more spices – what ones I’m not sure but they seemed odd to me.

This is just not going to be my thing. I am not a big chocolate tea person at all and this is completely a chocolate tea. Not sweetened but not bitter – just chocolate tea with an earthiness to it. I can see where the devotion to this tea comes from. If this kind of taste were to your liking, it’d be all that and a bag of chips. If you are looking for a tea that truly does taste like chocolate – this is it.

I passed this on to a Tea Club member with no review other than to say that it wasn’t my thing and I’m anxious to see what he thinks of it.

I hesitate to rate this since it is indeed what Verdant describes it as – it just isn’t for me.