Paul M Tracy

This tea isn’t super fragrant in the pouch; there was just a subtle toasted-grassiness.

Prepared, the reddish-gold tea is slightly vegetal with a touch of smoke. It’s smooth, well-rounded and has a nice maltiness. It finishes with a taste of plum. Good stuff!

After my near poisoning with Soul Robber, I needed something to redeem the day.

I’ve been looking forward to trying this rooibos blend for some time. This is what initially drew me to the Shui Tea website which is turning out to be a favorite.

Opening the package, you could tell this was made from quality ingredients. Everything was brightly (and rightly) colored. I pulled out a dried peony petal that had to be 2 inches long.

The fragrance was incredible! I don’t mean this in any negative way, but the closest representation I can think of is cherry flavored cough syrup. This has some super cherry power and you can sense some underlying bite.

This brews to a bright red. The fragrance is a sweet-tart, rose-cherry-carrot mix. I was surprised by how much the rose stood out. I don’t typically care for rose or rosehips in my food, but this just worked for me.

The taste? Awesome! There’s a mild cherry-rooibos flavor, then you get a subtle flowery palate then BOOM! HOT chili. Finally, the carrot tries to quench the flame a bit until the next sip.

Not only was this a tasty beverage but it was actually fun to prepare and drink!

I admit I was taking a risk with this purchase. Etsy isn’t the first place I would typically go to make a tea or tisane purchase but the description of this one intrigued me. The package says it’s a “Men’s Tea.” It’s actually a tisane but we’ll overlook that for now. So, why is this a “tea” for guys?

1) The product looks like it was swept off the garage floor.
2) When prepared, it looks like used motor oil.
3) It smells like sweaty armpits.
4) It tastes like I would imagine all of the above to taste. (And it made my tongue numb.)

So, it’s obvious why this is a “tea” for men. This has to be one of the worst things I’ve ever experienced packaged as an edible item. I would say this goes straight in the trash, but I think this may require special hazardous waste handling. (And I actually bought one more tea from this same place- %#@$)

This tisane was visually similar to plain guayusa but also contained large pieces of raw cinnamon and strands of lemongrass. Sometimes lemongrass is like lemon scented hay, but this was close to freshly cut lemons. This blend smelled strongly of lemon.

I’m not a big fan of lemongrass, but what was used in this blend is either a better quality or a different species from what I’ve had in the past. It presented as a very clean lemon scent and flavor. This was very strongly flavored of lemon at first but it does mellow. As the cup sat, everything began blending together and I started to enjoy this drink.

I didn’t like this one as much as Amazon Swagger, but that’s because I’m not partial to lemon in hot drinks. I’m going to try this one iced sometime.

This was my first experience with guayusa. The blend is made of uniformly cut plant material of varying shades of green. The fragrance is very subtle and is close to a mix of spearmint and oregano. Once brewed, the aroma is of caramel with an impression of sugary-mint underneath.

The prepared drink is surprisingly sweet but in a light, mellow way. It tastes like a weak cola with a hint of mint. There’s also a slight woodiness. As the cup cools, it develops a suggestion of malt. There isn’t any lingering aftertaste, but instead a continuing sense of sweetness.

Shui Tea includes a caffeine meter on each package (kind of cool feature) and their Swagger line shows 5+ bars. This indicates that the caffeine content is higher than that of coffee. This probably leads to more of a bounce than a swagger, but it works!

The fragrance of this tisane is immediately calming and soothing. My first impression was “Grandma’s House;” not in a bad Ben-gay way, but instead her garden, kitchen and little mint candies all rolled into one.

What I really like about this blend is that the mint isn’t overpowering. Actually, the chamomile (with a lot of big, fluffy blooms present) takes center stage. This may be the first time that I could truly discern the chamomile from the other components in a tisane.

Once brewed, this takes on a completely different fragrance character. The citrus notes rise to the top and and the mint is very subtle. As the cup cools, it takes on a bit of a bubblegum appeal.

I was really surprised by the taste. This is one of those masterful blends where there’s just the right amount of each piece coming together to make a better whole. The chamomile is prominent and there’s the slightest cooling from the mint. Next, the citrus sneaks in and the finish is just a very slight warmth from the cinnamon. The aftertaste of chamomile and anise is very pleasant.

Yep, this one goes on the reorder list!

A small shot of caffeine before and an iced herbal after has become a workout routine for me. I decided to try this one because what guy doesn’t want to feel like Zeus after a hard workout?

Out of the package, there’s a strong fragrance of ginger and cinnamon and a slight citrusy note. Before it even brewed, this just seemed like it was going to be “hot.”

Once prepared, you have a bright yellow liquid (it’s almost fluorescent) that continues to smell strongly of ginger. In flavor, this proved to be much more mellow than expected. The chicory and mate help tame this down a bit, but the aftertaste is warm.

The proportion of spice to herb must be fairly high because this really does result in quite a zesty concoction. I brewed some double strength and put it over ice and it was a great pick-me-up. Now I just need a reason to throw lightning bolts to give it a full test.

This isn’t too bad when you want something warm with no caffeine. The raw herbal is bright with reds and yellows flecked with the light brown cocoa nibs. It smells strongly of chocolate and berries with a touch of chili.

When you prepare this, the chocolate fragrance in almost overpowering. The appearance is the one great downfall of this tisane; it looks like dirty dish water. The taste is a nice combination of chocolate and berry and the heat of the chili sneaks up on the aftertaste. As the cup cools, the berry flavor starts to take over and gets just a little tart.

One thing I don’t like about this blend is that I find it to be a bit wasteful. You have to use a lot of the mix to get a decent flavor profile. It takes three times the amount recommended by the merchant and you’re left discarding a hefty pile of mushy fruit bits.

This tea looks like shiny green orzo in the bag and smells of green veggies; something close to fresh peas.

I’ve never made a yellow tea before and the merchant didn’t provide any brewing suggestions, so I had to guess on preparation. I decided yellow was half-way between white and green, so I split the difference and used water around 180 degrees.

The final product was a very nice champagne color but the taste was slightly bitter over a light cereal and sweetgrass flavor.

Experts, help me out here. What’s the proper way to make yellow teas?

The dried, dark leaves are quite long (1 to 2 inches) so it would have been easier to prepare this by weight versus spoon. The tea has a really unique fragrance- cereal and fruity, like graham crackers and stone fruit.

The prepared tea is on the darker side for an oolong with a slight red tint. The malty cereal notes are prominent in both fragrance and flavor. This is subtly sweet, leaning more towards fruit than honey. As the cup cooled, it developed a very slight tannic quality making it similar to a very weak black tea.

I really like the fragrance on this one. As soon as I opened the bag, I had the imagery of Teddy Grahams holding peaches. I like when there’s an immediate connection. The flavor was enjoyable, but there wasn’t anything that set this apart for me.

I had to go with decaf because of the late hour, but I didn’t want to compromise on flavor.

Next to lapsang, Earl Grey might be my favorite style of tea. This one is nicely balanced in fragrance. The citrusy bergamot doesn’t overpower the tea base. From a visual perspective, it could use a little more peel and cornflower petal but this doesn’t impact the flavor.

Even though this is a decaf version, it is full bodied and brews to a hearty black with a lot of flavor. I don’t do additives, but I imagine a bit of cream and sugar probably wouldn’t hurt. If you have to do decaf, this one is worthwhile.

I haven’t been a fan of white teas in the past because they’re simply too delicate. From past notes, you can gather that I’m big on bold flavors.

However, this white tea had a lot going for it. First, the leaves were an incredibly uniform pale green with the typical silver needle white hairs. It was as if they had been hand picked and matched for size, shape and color. White teas don’t typically present a lot of fragrance, but this was hearty with notes of cereal, malt and alfalfa.

Once prepared, the tea was a pale gold and the rich fragrance remained. The taste is of malt and honey and there’s a very slight floral essence.

This tea kept my attention and it will stay on my shelf until gone-which won’t be long.

This offered some pleasant surprises.

The tea starts as very bright green “nuggets” with a literally sweet, mouthwatering fragrance of honeydew, cucumber and very subtle sweet hay.

After brewing, the leaves were completely unfurled and had expanded to fairly impressive proportions. (My gaiwan runneth over.) The tea was more golden than I’ve seen in other oolongs and was subtly floral and grassy in fragrance.

In taste, it was very light and I picked up buttered squash and a touch of vanilla. The first infusion had a slight tartness, but I think I went too long. Next time, I’d probably start with only a minute or so and work back up.

I liked this one. It had a lot to offer and was really enjoyable. I seem to be building quite an affinity for Taiwanese teas as I haven’t really found a bad one yet.

The leaves on this are large, vibrant green and mostly whole. The fragrance is clean and very sweet.

When brewed, the fragrance is grass and hops, but there was also an unpleasant very slight bleach-like note. I even did a “do over” on this and had the same result the second time.

In taste, this was light and sweet with a mild and lingering fruit and honey aftertaste. I would have scored this higher if it wasn’t so difficult getting past that off-note on the fragrance.

(Yes, my prep gear was clean and has never been in contact with anything resembling bleach.)

The twisted gold and black leaves are fairly short. The fragrance of the packaged leaves is slightly floral with a note of tomato.

Prepared, the tea is vegetal and incredibly mild. There’s the faintest impression of tannin bitterness but far less than most blacks.

This was a pleasant, simple black tea. However, it doesn’t really stand above teas that are more readily available in the US so I can’t say I’d go out of my way to purchase this one again.

This took me by surprise; it’s so unlike any other pu-erh I’ve had.

This tea is very loosely packed and the leaves are long and twisted. I’m glad it was handled gently so they weren’t crumbled. The fragrance is of a freshly mowed lawn. This isn’t unusual for say a green tea, but pu-erhs are usually more earthy. This was fresh and clean.

When brewed, you have a rust to almost cranberry colored tea. The fragrance is slightly mossy, but young. Here I picture a vibrant patch of newly sprouted green moss after a rain as opposed to something older.

This is a really sweet pu-erh. It’s an odd flavor profile, but what comes to mind first is cucumber with a touch of white grape juice. This was totally unexpected for a pu-erh and was an enjoyable discovery.

This is really unique from presentation to the tea itself.

Once you cut into the shrink-wrap around the dehydrated clementine, you get a brief whiff of earthiness and a quick flash of ocean- OK, it’s briefly fishy. I have a friend that describes pu-erh as smelling and tasting like basement. This isn’t that bad, but it’s definitely mossy.

Once brewed, the fish dissipates quickly. The taste is smooth and slightly sweet. I pick up a lot of “veggies” but this isn’t what I’d call vegetative. It’s more like very dull impressions of carrot, potato and mushroom in that order.

While the clementine packaging is a nice novelty, I couldn’t sense any involvement in the fragrance or flavor. This isn’t a citrus flavored pu-erh by any means. It is, however, a solid example of a nicely aged tea.

The appearance of this tea is impressive. The leaves are very loosely packed in the tin as they are quit long and “fluffy” as others have described. The tiny orange-yellow osmanthus blossoms are sprinkled throughout, but you need to shake the tin as they tend to settle to the bottom during shipping. The fragrance is hay>grass>pineapple in that order of predominance.

I was surprised by the color of the brewed tea. The natural coloring of the blossoms turns the pale honey colored silver needle to an interesting gold-orange. The coloration was almost swirled as opposed to uniform. In taste, you get a faint grassiness, then honey then just a touch of peach-pear. I know osmanthus is supposed to have an apricot flavor profile, but this wasn’t quite that sweet.

On my first infusion, the tea got bitter very quickly as the cup cooled to the point where the last sip wasn’t drinkable. (I had followed the merchant’s recommended brewing instructions.) On the second infusion, I decreased the steep time and that seemed to help. Per Samovar, I stopped after two.

I can sum this tea up as “complicated.” It was enjoyable, but it’s sort of like trying to drive a high performance sports car when you’re used to a Chevy. You might enjoy the ride, but probably won’t get the most out of it until you learn how to shift better. I’ll need to come back to this one after I’ve built up more tea experience.

I really like Tea Spot teas because they are simple and unpretentious but of a good quality. Their large tins provide a great value for a decent quality tea.

The Green Roasted Mint is a bit unusual. In fragrance, you have the obvious mint (which is very clean with no artificial qualities) but there’s a note I liken to aged paper which is probably from the roasting. Once brewed, the fragrance is a faintly smokey.

In flavor, the mint and the tea are well balanced. This is one tea that I will occasionally sweeten to bring out more of the mint.

I’ve made this iced as well and it’s pretty decent.

This is my first try of a Canton Tea Co product and it’s also my first time using a gaiwan. (I already love the thing. How much easier is that?!)

This tea is comprised of tiny pearls. Obviously the fragrance is floral, but this tea goes one step beyond. I would say it’s more of a sugary perfume. It’s quite exotic, but still not quite the level of fragrance that would make this my “perfect” jasmine.

The prepared tea has a pale honey color and has an incredibly delicate flavor. It’s faintly sweet but the floral taste just very slightly overpowers the complexity of the tea base. I get a slight bitter tingle on the edge of my tongue that lingers. I guess I want the best of both worlds; more jasmine fragrance but less flowery flavor.

Overall, this is really good but not perfect. It’s a pleasant tea but, especially given the shipping costs from the UK, I’ll continue to look for that “perfect” jasmine.

When you first open this bag, the fragrance of the pineapple and mango are REALLY strong. It’s not artificial or unpleasant, just very up front. If you asked someone to smell this with their eyes closed, they’d have no idea they were smelling a tea. It’s closer to a bag of candy.

Once brewed, the fruit fragrance is still powerful but you can just start to pick up the sweet, plumy, floral smell of the tea underneath.

While this is fruited, the tea is highlighted and provides the predominant flavor. I haven’t been into tea long enough to really pinpoint the origin of “black tea,” but I’d guess there’s at least some fairly high quality Keemun in here. The fruit flavors help brighten and sweeten the tea and bring out its natural fruity-floral qualities.

While I prefer green teas and herbals iced, this black tea rocks on-the-rocks. Typically icing a tea enhances the fruit notes, which it does here as well, but the tea is of such good quality that it stands up to the treatment and you can still taste it as well.

This tuocha was a little different from camel (shark) breath. It was much harder and portions needed to be flaked off using a sharp knife. So, a little prep work was required but it was nothing too onerous.

Everyone has been raving about the initial fragrance but I have to admit that, for me, there was none in the dry tea. There was maybe a hint of grass and pasture, but that’s about it.

The prepared tea, however, was full of fragrance and flavor. The tea smelled like clean hay with cooked sushi rice. A rice flavor, however, dominates and has underpinnings of honey, oats and a very slight floral finish.

From second infusion on, this tea took on greater honey-and-oat qualities. I’m beginning to understand how pu-erh, even through its quirkiness, can build such a strong following. Each one truly does have a unique character and it even offers a varied experience during one extended sitting.

My first experience with Pu-erh was a bit frightening. The tea was fishy and had an odd color and was simply a turn off. My wife has since taken to calling all of these teas Poo-air.

Since then, I’ve had much better experiences with Pu-erh and this is the best so far. This was my first time using the tuocha form, but it was fairly intuitive. It’s a small pressed capsule that looks like a plug of used chewing tobacco. It’s soft enough that you can crumble off what you need with your fingers.

This tea brews to almost black with a very faint “slick.” I describe the fragrance as “oceanic.” Unlike what the name would lead you to believe, I really picked up less camel territory and more shark. There’s a definite kelp and seaweed presence and, as CTG’s tasting notes mention, it’s definitely briny. As it matures, you begin to pick up faint notes of clean hay and a sweet, peat-like earthiness.

What was unusual (and somewhat pleasant) about this tea is that there seemed to be a constant play between sweet and salty. One sip might start out sweet and move towards salty and the next is the reverse.

On the second and subsequent infusions, the tea leaves the ocean for land. It does become more mossy and sweetens even further. When I first saw the size of the tuocha (slightly smaller than a quarter) I didn’t think it would go far. However, this was made for multiple infusions and you have to go past four or five to experience the entire taste range.

I found this hiding in the back of the pantry and thought I’d give it a shot.

The fragrance of this blend is vanilla, chicory and (I don’t know where these come from sometimes, possibly the almonds here?) slightly stale Lorna Doone shortbreads. While not an ugly mix, there’s not a lot to please the eye other than the occasional yellow or blue speck of florals.

Upon brewing, it produces a fairly dense reddish-brown liquid. The fragrance of both the vanilla and shortbread remains. From a taste standpoint, the flavor is of vanilla with a subtle note of brandy and carries a pastry aftertaste. As it approaches room temperature, it begins to pick up a very slight sourness.

I was surprised that, for the number of cocoa components it contains, I didn’t pick up any chocolate in either flavor or fragrance.

I’m not a huge Rooibos or Honeybush fan, so this may be why this moved to the back of the shelf. It’s OK, but not a favorite.