Nicole

Steeped according to package directions.

Yummy is the word for this. I think this is the first milk oolong I’ve had – at least that I knew what it was. I had wondered why the “milk” and to be honest, the idea of milk already being in dry tea was kind of a turn off. I realize that isn’t what it means, but the associations weren’t good. :)

It’s creamy, smooth and buttery. Two infusions so far and so good.

Thanks to Chuckieroy for this sample!

Nicely fruity. The flavors come out more as the tea cools. I wouldn’t be able to tell you if it tastes like lychee since I’ve never had any. :) It does have some peachy notes, though, and an overall fruitiness. When it is cold, I pick up some faint florals in the background.

I steeped my first half mug for 3 minutes, then let the rest of the mug sit and steep for probably another 5 minutes. The flavors definitely intensify with the longer steep. It didn’t become bitter, though, which was good.

I was so happy to see that iHeartTeas had this for sale! I was wanting more after my sample from Granville Island Tea but it was a little cost prohibitive after shipping from GIT.

It’s looking like Sourenee, Sungma & Mim are becoming my favorite Darjeelings. This one is smooth and quite strong on the muscatel notes. I steeped it a bit too long so these first couple of cups are a little on the bitter side. Not an entirely bad thing but I’ll be more careful next time.

No notes yet.

Interesting. I didn’t know what to expect of this since I didn’t look up anything about it before tasting it. I assumed acai & tangerine. Beyond that, it looked like maybe a black and green blend.

Smells really good dry. Definitely berry & citrus while steeping. It’s a bit tart, but that could also be that maybe I used too hot of a water temperature assuming it was mostly a black tea.

Nice tangerine flavor and the acai is noticeable as well. Fairly smooth and light in feel. This is my second tasting of a pu-erh. Much better than my first. Nothing I’d keep around, but a nice change of pace for me.

Goes well with a sugar cookie. Good thing I don’t buy into the weight loss teas. :)

Since I know Queen Mary Tea Room does some of their own blending and some they buy elsewhere already blended, I’m wondering if this is Adagio’s Thai Chai…

It is definitely well named. It reminds me of red coconut curry. All that is missing is some Thai basil. :) Strongly coconut, with a hit of lemongrass in the mix. The smells of the spices imply stronger spice than the tea delivers with milk mixed in, though. I did sip a bit before adding the milk and this may be one that the spices are not helped by milk. They were noticeable in the forefront when I sipped it without milk and are now toned down somewhat. The sugar popped them even more but I think the milk brings the coconut to the forefront and sends the spices to 3rd place taste. Not to say this isn’t full of cinnamon & cardamom flavor! It is.

Okay, revisiting this one today.

I get none of the same oily Chinese food smell from it now. Maybe it was just something from the packaging.

I’ve steeped this twice for four cups so far. I still get no apple notes at all. But I do get quite a bit of maltiness, no bitterness at all, and wow, do the leaves ever expand! There is a fair amount of stems in this, though maybe that is to be expected with these kinds of dark oolongs. And while I’m here, Mountain Tea Co. lists this in the Dark Oolong section of their site, but the description just says “black tea.” So I’m not really sure if this is an oolong or not. But I am liking it more than my first time around.

Photos of the steeped leaves:
http://s1165.beta.photobucket.com/user/dagony/library/Black%20Pearl%20by%20Mountain%20Tea%20Co

After quietly scoffing at the husband of a friend who had one of these little gadgets (except that his was glass) a couple of years ago, the potential benefit finally hit home this past week. When I first saw one I thought it was silly – I have infusers and strainers and teapots and mugs and what do I need a fancy dump-it-into-your-cup infuser? Sure, it’s a cool mechanism but that’s it, right? I mean, I can watch tea steep in a glass teapot. So what does this do that I don’t already do?

Well, after using it for a whole evening of steeping, I get it. I can steep, see the leaves swirling around, use one less piece of equipment and still be able to use a pretty teacup. It takes up less room than one of my normal teapots and still holds enough for at least 2 full cups so I don’t have to get up often. :)

I didn’t realize when I bought it that it was plastic. This was the only kind the local tea market had and I probably could have shopped around but I tend to get in an immediate gratification mode when I have a target in mind. :) I don’t avoid plastic, but I probably would have gotten glass if they had one.

I’m glad they didn’t have glass. I can see enormous potential for taking this with me on trips and I don’t have to worry about it shattering in my luggage. Sure, it would be easier if it were still the microwavable version, but even if I have to heat water in the cup I steep in or in a hotel room coffee pot (blech), I can see this getting a lot of use.

Total Klutz Update: Be very, very careful where you set this down. I forgot it drains when the aperture is pressed upwards. I sat it down on a cluttered table while gathering some laundry. I soon had more laundry to do in addition to blotting the carpet dry. When I realized what that running water sound was, I picked up the pitcher and sat it down on a dresser that had an empty plastic shipping envelope on it. Apparently the plastic had ridges just high enough to trigger another flood. Sigh. Ah, well, there are worse things for a carpet to smell like than Santa’s Secret tea. :)

We had this today with Christmas brunch. It went very well with the food. A basic, solid black. No astringency with a weighty body. I picked up this one since I had really enjoyed the Golden Yunnan from Republic of Tea during my last vacation.

Overall, I think I prefer the Golden Yunnan teas. They seem to be maltier to my taste. I have been using Kally Tea’s Royal Golden Yunnan as my breakfast tea at work (and I’ll need to review it before it’s all gone…) and while this Yunnan is good, I don’t think I’d choose it over a Golden. I probably won’t replace this when it runs out but it has been a nice tea to have around.

I hope everyone had a good Christmas day!

The leaves are surprisingly large for being a bagged tea. Smells promising.

Steeped for the bag recommended 4 minutes and got a very dark tea, which is perfectly fine with me. Good vanilla taste, not fakey. I can see where adding cream to this might make it even more dessert-like. It wouldn’t need sugar, I’m thinking. Not that this is sweet per se, just that it has a sweet quality to it with the vanilla.

This is my first Mighty Leaf Tea and I am interested enough to probably seek out others. I usually bag my own loose leaf to take with me on trips, but sometimes it is nice to have some already made up and I think this would be a definite candidate for a morning tea to have along! Thanks, JosieJade!

Another good swap with JosieJade!

I had forgotten that I used to quite like Stash Teas. This is a good black with good peach flavor.

Such a lovely honey color liquor and the leaves unfurl to such a huge size! I steeped 3 times and combined all 3 steeps in one pot.

A nice, mellow vanilla flavor that lets the oolong peek through. The lemon is much fainter. More a smell than a taste to me. Still very nice.

This reminds me very much of Silk Dragon Oolong from The Tea Merchant. I think I prefer The Tea Merchant’s blend, but this is very, very nice and I will enjoy it while I have it! Thanks so much to JosieJade for the sample!

Thanks to Josie Jade for this sample!

Smelling the dry leaf is very strongly lemon. At first, I thought of bubble gum when opening the package but with a deeper sniff the lemon comes to the fore.

A decent black tea base, definitely lemon. Maybe a bit of vanilla or possibly some other “fruity” flavors. Onto the shopping list this goes. A very pleasant blend that I think the tea party ladies at work would certainly enjoy this coming spring.

Brewed this up for Tea Club this afternoon. I steeped for about 5 minutes because I forgot about it… :) It wasn’t bitter, though. It was definitely strong. But it stood up well to the addition of milk. I added sugar to my cup before tasting and I wish I hadn’t. It was very sweet so I wonder if the chai itself was sweet to start with.

Very caramel-y. And I certainly got a hit of black pepper. It wasn’t the Tea Club’s favorite, but it got overall good reviews.

Thanks for the sample, Liberteas!

I can’t believe I haven’t logged this yet. It’s yet another of Shang’s reds made from white tea that is amazing. So smooth, so clean. An exceptionally clear tasting tea.

I need to go pick up some more soon!

Mmmm…. creamy, lightly citrusy background notes and a most definite presence of honey. This is a light oolong, which puts it solidly in my “like” category.

Brewed up a pot for Tea Club at work on Friday after our office holiday lunch. Figured we could all use something a bit light to round out the afternoon. It went over well. I only wish we’d had time to try a 2nd steep. I’m glad I went with a larger package of it on Black Friday even though I had not tried it before.

I did steep it for much longer than recommended and it was still very tasty, so perhaps that means this is a forgiving tea. :)

I will admit that I have never been able to tell the difference between French vanilla and regular old vanilla. It has always seemed to me that “French vanilla” taste can be achieved by using more regular old vanilla. I know it is supposed to be creamier when used in ice cream due to the egg base. Not sure how creamy is achieved when there is nothing but vanilla.

But, I will say that regardless of kind of vanilla, this smells and tastes very strongly of it. :) A nice creamy vanilla that mellows the bergamot. A good, strong black tea base that complements the other flavors well.

I have spent far too much time in the kitchen over the last couple of days preparing for my Christmas open house that was last night. So when I had to run out to finish up a bit of shopping today, I grabbed a package of Candy Cane Oreos. I wanted some cookies this afternoon but I didn’t want to take the time to bake again. They go very well with this tea! And, since they are peppermint, I will not have to share with my husband! So the package will last longer than 2 hours. :)

The tea may not last long enough. I’ll have to keep this one around for sure. I had originally thought that with the super cool packaging I might keep this one for a gift – I’m so glad I didn’t! :)

First sip reminded me of Chinese takeout and not in a good way. Tasted sort of like the oily smell of it. After it cooled a bit the taste was slightly fishy and dusty, but not in a bad way, as odd as that is to say.

For lack of a better descriptor, this tea tastes “natural.” I didn’t get any apple taste from it, but I only had time for one steeping. I think I am at least interested enough to try it a few more times. I find the darker oolongs take a few sessions before I can really decide if I like them or not. My preference thus far is definitely for the lighter oolongs. But, that said, this interests me.

I’ll experiment with the temp and steeping time. The package said boiling but I went with caution. The leaves didn’t really open up much so I’m thinking it really does mean boiling. :)

Smells amazing in dry leaf. Not sure I taste the black pepper very strongly. I get the cinnamon, cardamom, ginger and vanilla unsweetened but they really pop after adding a bit of sweetener. This seems somewhat weighted towards cinnamon since there are cinnamon chips as well as cinnamon listed in the ingredients. Without milk, I get a huge hit of cinnamon and cloves. Something in here makes my tongue a tiny bit numb as I get to my second cup – hm… pepper maybe? There are a LOT of spices, but the vanilla does mellow them somewhat and the tea base seems suited to carry them.

I didn’t steep this with 2/3 milk to 1/3 water this time. I just added a splash of milk after steeping in water (Tea Club had a pretty heavy lunch outing today and most of us didn’t feel the need for more in the afternoon).

This is very rich. I think it might make my tummy hurt a bit if I did it with my normal ratio.

This was a sample included with my Black Friday order from Mountain Tea Co. I made up a pot to share with our little Tea Club at work.

The dry leaf smells of spices – nutmeg, maybe? Cinnamon? First sniff has me thinking of chocolate. Can’t quite pin it down. The first sips bear out that dry smell. A light oolong with an intensely buttery feel, more like broth than tea. Color is an extremely pale honey, even after 5 minutes of steeping. Honey. I think I also get a bit of honey taste from this. As it cools, more flavors come out and I do notice the orchid more than I did when it was hot. Very refreshing and enjoyable hot or cold.

It won’t be an everyday drinker for me, but if I like the rest of my order enough to refill it when I’m out, I might get some of this to have on hand.

Mmm. This has a definite honey taste. Not a fake honey either, but a real honey. I get no nut taste at all, though. The black tea base is very nice. I can’t tell if it is the honey or the tea base that gives it a noticeable dryness which increases as the cup cools.

Overall, though, I will say that the initial impression of the 4 Kally teas I have tried thus far is that they are some of the smoothest black teas I’ve had. I’m not sure I’ll keep this around but I will certainly enjoy it while it lasts!

Update: It does resteep decently for a second cup, though the honey is lessened a bit.

This does taste like a darjeeling. Less dryness and maybe a bit more fruit in the background.

Not bad at all. Nothing I’ll get again, but I’m pleased to have tried this.

Smells malty and slightly fruity. Not sure there I’d say there are any citral tones. Maybe this is another that my palate isn’t discerning enough to fully pick out the flavors in the description. I also don’t see any “white hues” in the leaves.

Definitely a full bodied taste, though I did steep for about 4 minutes as it seemed kind of light at 3 minutes.

Good, but not one that I’ll go out of my way to keep around.

First holiday dinner down, one to go. Such a full tummy. This is a good tea to wrap up the day with.

Lighter than standard blacks, this has a dryness that builds after a few cups. A nice, refreshingly clean taste. A good, uncomplicated way to round out the evening and prepare for the cooking marathon tomorrow. :)