Nicole

Thanks to Emilie for sharing this!

Not super wild about the dry smell. Very strong and somewhat unnaturally caramel.

OMG… this is amazing. Still smells super strongly of caramelized brown sugar. I don’t taste pineapple very much, but wow, does this ever taste like cake. This is the only dessert tea I’ve had that tastes so much like a dessert that I could have it and fool myself into thinking I am having a real dessert. I would definitely order some of this.

Now I need to make pineapple upside down cake…

2 teaspoons tea/16 ounces water per steeping.

I made the mistake of drinking 32 ounces of this on Monday night between dinner and bedtime and I was awake All. Night. Long. Caffeine normally doesn’t bother me but that sure did! But the leaves were so neat as they completely unfurled on the 2nd steep – I just couldn’t help myself.

This tea has grown on me. I like the dark, malty, natural taste. It is a thick tasting tea. Second steep was equally good. I could have gotten another 16 ounce steep out of it without appreciable loss of taste. I won’t drink that much of it in the evening again, but I will be replacing it in the cupboard when I run out. :)

Steeping at boiling definitely makes a difference. Taking rating off as it is unchanged from my previous 84.

Perfumey. Very floral, very jasmine. But dark. Not a black jasmine, but stronger than a green or white jasmine. So, yeah. Oolong jasmine – yup, that’s what this is, alright. :)

I like it. It is a bold jasmine.

Trying a slightly less caffeinated tea tonight. Also limiting this to 16 ounces tonight so no resteep. :)

This is a very light tea. Which, after waaaaay oversteeping some Yunnan Royal this morning, was exactly what was called for.

A pretty leaf that unfurls nicely and steeps a light golden color. Mild dryness as I expect from most darjeelings. Not really astringency, just a little dry. One of the tea club guys said he tasted something smokey. I didn’t get any smokiness at all, but everyone is different.

Very interesting.

It is much lighter in taste. A thin liquor. Refreshing.

Pretty steeped leaves – several different colors of greens and browns. I’m not sure I’ve had much experience with Ceylons so I can’t really compare or vouch for the description as being like a Ceylon.

I like this a lot better than the other African teas I’ve had. Though it doesn’t resteep well.

First, this is very, very pretty as it steeps. The leaves and flowers falling through the water as they get heavy with liquid look like autumn in a glass.

This tastes very similar to other teas I’ve had with jackfruit so I’m pretty confident in saying they nailed this. Whatever the “flavors” are, one of them is jackfruit. There is a mild creamy note to it as well, maybe from the almond. I can’t pick out almond specifically. It all blends nicely together, as Momo noted, under the heading “exotic fruit.” As it cools, it is getting better and better. I think this will be a nice tea to keep around for summer as an iced blend. There will likely be more of this ordered.

I have been looking for something to approximate the Shangrila house blend I had at tea at the Willard Intercontinental in DC last year. I wish I had bought more than one tin while I was there! This comes close, as best memory serves me at this time.

I’m glad Mahamosa has small sample sizes available. I might not have ordered a large size taste unseen, so to speak.

Finally got my hands on one of these. After Em’s review, I had to try one!

It keeps things just as hot as they go in for hours and hours and hours. A great thing to have at your desk if you work where you can’t get up often to get more hot water. My mom wanted one for just that reason and I believe she’ll love this.

The only downside for me with this is that when I take tea on the road (which is when I have the most issue with not being able to get more hot water readily) is that it isn’t a thermos you can drink from. You do need a cup or something to pour into. (Duh – been since grade school since I had a thermos – there is a cup built in as the cap) Also I’d like for it to hold more than 2 cups to be a viable travel thermos.

And it is very thin. Going to have to buy a bottle brush to clean it.

Another purchased with a half price certificate that would otherwise be out of the normal range of consideration for me to buy without tasting first.

Malty and smooth with a hint of sour hiding in the background. Not overwhelming sour, but definitely there.

This is good. Not sure it justifies the price tag for me. There are other tippy and nontippy yunnans that I like as well or better. But this is a good, high quality tea and I’m glad it is in my cupboard. I’ll enjoy it till it’s gone!

My palate is probably not refined enough to pick out the white tea here. But everything seems to go well together.

Bergamot, a bit of cream and floral. I notice a sharp something in here, maybe it’s the rose. Something that makes my tongue kind of numb and the rose lingers.

Nothing I will keep on hand, but I think it will be enjoyed until it’s gone.

EDIT: This doesn’t resteep well.

Smells floral when dry like most EGs do to me.

Nice and strong tea, good creaminess. Strongly bergamot. All around a strong tea. I approve. Glad I have this one in the cupboard. Now I have to test it against the other favorite EG creams to see which one stays. 400 teas enter, 1 tea leaves… Leaves… get it? :)

As advertised: crisp, gentle, light.

I only steeped 2 minutes rather than the recommended 3 minutes, though, being nervous about bitterness with such a small broken leaf. Nice, mellow and inoffensive. Nothing I’ll be replacing but with so many cups possible with the smallest size available to purchase, it will take awhile to work through this one. I suspect it will become a candidate for plain old iced tea over the summer. That’s where most of my good but not awesome blacks end up. :)

Lovely, lovely dry leaves. In low light, looking through it, there is almost a pinkish cast to the liquor.

Even sick, this seems like an exceptional tea. Smooth, warm, lightly brisk. It is indeed reminiscent of Darjeelings. There is a light astringency at the end of the sip.

I suspected this might happen. It’s a tea that I’d never spend the money on if it hadn’t been on sale for essentially half price with a certificate. Sigh. I’ll just have to enjoy this one while it lasts.

EDIT: As it cooled off, I was surprised when bringing the cup to my lips to smell vanilla. I don’t necessarily taste it, but I do smell it.

This is good. Much milder than other tiny rotovaned teas I’ve had. Of course, it could be that I just learned my lesson with the others and I steeped this for like a quarter of the recommended time.

Even at a minute and a half steeping time, this is decently strong and still full bodied. A nice, mild, basic tea. Nothing special but nothing bad, either. I’ll try it eventually with the recommended steep time and see what happens. :)

So… this is pretty much exactly what the description says. Spicy, malty, dark, strong. And it would have seemed odd to me to say this months ago, but I can taste the high-grownness in it. It reminds me of other high-altitude teas I’ve had. Along with a tendency to get a bit bitter if not handled correctly, I’m guessing. This cup was steeped a tad too long I think and I can glimpse the bitter lurking in the background. The instructions say 4-5 minutes and I’m fairly sure my tastebuds would quit in protest at 5 minutes.

Not positive on whether or not this goes onto the “must keep” list. Going to put it in the shopping list so I don’t forget about it. But I’ll have to have a few more cups and try some resteeps to see what I really think.

And try it when my tastebuds are not off as I suspect they may be on a day sick at home. :) Hey, the heat is nice and I can definitely taste the tea.

So this morning I wanted something basic. Nothing fancy.

This tea delivers on that without being the same stuff you can get at a restaurant. :) It’s a good, medium bodied tea with just a hint of dryness. I get the feeling that it might turn bitter if oversteeped. Not sure I can tell the difference yet between Nilgiri teas and others in a blind taste test, but I do know that I tend to like Nilgiri teas. Just something a little different about them but not so over the top that I have to pay a lot of attention when drinking them.

I think this is a pretty reasonably priced tea and it seems to be of a decent quality. That said, I don’t usually keep plain old teas in my cupboard so this probably won’t be a reorder. However, it would be a good tea to keep around to gradually introduce Lipton-is-the-only-tea people to the wider world of tea. :)

I have had this several times since I first rated it, enough that I ordered again, a larger amount, and am working my way through that at a good clip. Everyone I have shared this with loves it. It is perfectly vanilla, lightly sweet and deliciously creamy.

/non-tea rant on

I had it last night as a comfort-hope-I-can-sleep-soon tea. I have some bronchial thing going on, which my husband also has. Broad brush statement follows: Honestly, why are men such babies when they get sick? Women get sick and still take care of everyone else. Men get sick and they curl up in a corner and moan. I get it – it sucks. We both have the same thing and I’m not happy about having it, either. The aggravating thing about it is that he’ll be better before I am since he got it first and when I’m still sick he won’t ask if he can bring me anything like juice or medicine. He’ll bring it, but I’ll have to ask for it. Sigh. I guess if they did what we did, they’d be women and what would be the point. I just have a leftover grumpy from last night. :)

/non-tea rant off

Anyway, I’m ramping up my rating on this since I evidently enjoy it immensely and I’ve not yet shared it with anyone who didn’t like it.

This wouldn’t be my favorite yunnan but it’s perfectly acceptable for the price.

Nothing but what you’d expect. A dark, intense tea that wakes you up. I’ve tried this twice now, and despite rinsing it before my second cup, there is still a bit more dustiness than I’ve gotten with other Yunnans.

I steeped this last night and chilled it. I did taste it hot, though, and it wasn’t bad. Not tea, but a nice real, not quite ripe strawberry flavor.

This morning I mixed about 6 ounces of it with a cup of vanilla Greek yogurt (with sugar, not artificial sweetener). It was about sour enough to knock your socks off! I suspect that came from the Greek yogurt. Added a tablespoon of sugar when I got to work and it was much better. Still a fresh, not quite ripe strawberry taste.

Not really a Walter-worthy strawberry shake, but I think it can be achieved. :)

Little bit of smokey, little bit of sweet in the background, no bitterness, and it steeped 3 pots worth today at work. A decent Yunnan, a good black, and not expensive.

What more could you want?

Wow. If you like almond extract, this is the tea for you. About knocks your socks off when dry.

I don’t know how much flavoring they put in this but it is one of the only almond teas I’ve had that tastes like sweet almond/amaretto. Just putting almond nuts in a tea doesn’t flavor it very strongly. The ingredients say black tea, almond pieces and vanilla cream (whatever that entails). That’s it. I’m not sure believe that.

If so, they went really super heavy on the vanilla and it brought out the almonds in full force. Seriously, this was like drinking almond extract. Not that I’ve done that but I can imagine. :) There was no noticeable tea flavor. Coworker and I ended up liking it after a cup or two – like having a dessert, really. That said, I’m pretty sure it isn’t something either one of us will seek out again.

We were discussing using it in baking or custard type desserts. It would be absolutely yummy. However, since there isn’t really a tea flavor present why not just use almond extract in cooking instead of a tea…

I would rather call this Amaretto Cream than Almond Cream. There is nothing of a natural nut about this tea. Doesn’t make it bad, just misnamed, perhaps. :)

Maybe I got a bad batch or something. I don’t get any of the flavors Upton mentions in their description or that other folks here on Steepster mention.

It was a fine, standard black tea. But no citrus and no bergamot. Hm.

And this was our last tea of the day at work today. (So much for cutting back…)

I liked this much more today. I notice I like it after it cools off somewhat but before it gets cold. As it cools the buttery texture comes out more. It still is definitely an oolong that I would not normally drink but I’m glad I gave it another shot.

I steeped it for quite a long time the first time around and the leaves hadn’t really unfurled. The second steep released them further and I just left the infuser in the pot. Not a bit of bitter, good flavor still on the second steep. Wish we’d had time for a third.

And after 3 pots, I have a sipdown of something. Finally. :)

And this was our 2nd tea of the day at work today.

A basic breakfast tea. Strong, holds sugar well and I imagine it takes milk well also. A nice kick to the day and what I think of when I think of “Irish Breakfast tea.”

This was our morning tea at work today.

Malty, sweetish, fruity, smooth, little smokey. Definitely a Yunnan and also definitely a Darjeeling. Little hit of astringency at the end, but not much.