Featured & Popular Tasting Notes

Super busy these days – rest assured that i am drinking tea like a mad woman, trying to get my stash down so i have room to buy tea at the tea festival next weekend. this one is divine. looking forward to seeing what else AU will come up with.

Thanks so much for the samples, Teakruthi!  I felt terrible with my internet down not being able to get to reviews of teas from various tea shops.  It seems like I acquired quite a handful before my computer broke.  And then I feel like my chlorine sink water is ruining teas, so I really would like to figure that out before I’m posting reviews of teas.  However, I feel like I should do a couple, as it has been a while!
I was all in for a vanilla Earl Grey!  There seems to be many flower petals here… maybe too many… certainly more flower petals in my sample than the photo.  I do like my Earls brisk, and this Ceylon may be a little too light for my tastes, even with closer to two teaspoons.  I have certainly had worse bergamot teas, but this one seems more like lemon.  Sadly, not much noticeable vanilla in the fragrance or flavor.   As the tea cools, it is more of a smoky flavor somehow, with the bergamot turning to a lemon rind sort of flavor.  Somehow the tea and lemon are stronger, when the cup is cold?  But not astringent.  The second steep is stronger and more to my tastes.  Earl Greys are difficult to please, as well as vanilla teas, so with the added difficulty of both of these types of difficult to make perfect for me, this one is tough to love.  It’s not a bad cup, anyhow! 
Steep #1 // 1 3/4 teaspoons for a full mug // 14 minutes after boiling // 3 minute steep
Steep #2 // just boiled  // 3-4 minute steep 

I’m eyeing a couple teas on DAVIDStea’s sale (Chagas, Movie Night, Cookie Dough) , but they already took down Sweet Potato Pie!  The day after Thanksgiving?!?!  I really like that Birch Gold Dipped mug too…

I made sure to pick up a sample of this tea with my first W2T order, because I had heard a lot of good things about it in the online tea community.

If ever there was a dessert tea, this is it. Crazy sweet flavor, but not overpowering. I thought at first that the flavor was a bit light, but then decided it wasn’t light, but was pretty subtle. The texture was anything but light – thick and oily to begin with, after which it came across as more of a milky/creamy taste/texture. I think I got a little bit of floral flavor from a few steeps, but mostly the sweetness was from your more sugary/sweet type of stuff – particularly honey (mostly in the early steeps), vanilla and burnt sugar. In the later steeps, i also got a kind of honey-nectar type of flavor that was pretty good. This was around the same time it started to acquire a slight mouth-drying effect as well.

I was able to get about 10 good infusions out of this one, which is actually a little less than I expected (maybe I’m just greedy). I did enjoy this for its milky sweetness, but I think I prefer the Little Walk cake (I think they make an alright comparison, as they’re both predominantly sweet shengs). So, this was good, but not one I need to order a cake of.

From the S&S TTB #2

Thanks to Rich for the generous addition to the TTB.

This tea is the reason I love sheng. The tea is rich and complex, with every one of at least 10 steeps showing a subtly different character.

The first steep (some would call this the rinse) was light but delicious with floral highlights. 2nd and 3rd were rich, complex, and powerful. Middle steeps (3,4,5) were woody and tannic, presumably suggesting an ability to age. After the 5th steep, the steeps became soft and round and sweet. The combination of the flavor and the cha qi leaves me sitting on the sofa with a smile on my lips.

Tried this tea for the first time on Friday, brewed up Gongfu and paired with an absolutely incredible raisin and fennel corn crusted baguette from a local bakery!

I actually started with the baguette, and then tried to pick a tea to drink specifically when I ate the baguette – so thank you to James/Shredsofmetal for helping me select the tea! We generally have very, very similar tastes in hongcha, so when he said that this was a really raisin-y tea that would suit the bread quite well (based on the description of the bread) I definitely trusted his opinion!

Of course, unsurprisingly, he was absolutely correct. I knew he would be as soon as I opened up the sealed bag of loose tea for the first time; the smell of the dry leaves was deeply, sweet raisin-y with a hint of malt and autumnal leaves. I was salivating before I’d even begun to heat the kettle!

Similar to my experience with a lot of W2T’s black teas, this doesn’t have a ton of longevity when brewed Gong Fu – which is why I often drink most of White2Tea’s black teas Western style or Grandpa style. I have a gut feeling this would be incredible brewed up in a big ass, huggable mug. So, I got about five really solid infusions of this when brewed Gongfu – and then two more lousy ones at the end of the session that I’m not going to count against the tea.

The tea was thick, full bodied and raisin-y right off the bat; and that raisin note continued all throughout the session – easily the most prominent flavour throughout the whole session. However, it wasn’t all raisin notes: I also thought that this was pretty sweet and malty, with undertones of very dark cocoa as well and even a hint of overripe, dark cherries during the middle of the session.

The bread was essentially fancy raisin bread – so of course a very raisin-y tea and a sweet, raisin heavy bread would compliment one another; but it did go farther than that: the maty, cocoa notes in the tea also complimented the raisin and the sweetness and licorice-y note of the fennel in the bread added a hint of sweetness to the tea as well. Essentially just making both sweeter and more robust feeling.

Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/BxlKasQgzUk/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqOICwwBUP4&list=LL1M1wDjmJD4SJr_CwzXAGuQ&index=13&t=0s

I’m sure to review this tea multiple times throughout the year. I wanted to begin my first session strong, with an added person to share with. Unfortunately, my wife isn’t much of a tea drinker unless it can be made Southern styled, or if it isn’t pu-erh. So, I invited our friend over to have some Repave; however, she’s new to pu-erh, so the session didn’t last long for her….

I must admit that I went above and beyond on this order from W2T. I have always wanted to try nearly everything on their site due to their creativity via tea and their wrappers. LP also guided me along, directing me to the teas in which I’d thoroughly enjoy. I wanted to try this first, though. Perhaps it was due to the description that “This will get you very, very tea drunk” that made me want to dig in greedily (after allowing it to breathe for a couple of days), and as soon as possible.

Now, to the tea. What can I say? Where shall start? At the beginning, of course!

I started this session with 10.6 g for 150ml. As I previously mentioned, I wanted this session to go on strong—really hit the palate hard—and last for ages. The first few sips were bitter, but thanks to the suggestion from a tea friend (oolongowl? t-ching? matu?) I was brewing it too long (15s intervals) for the leaf. Therefore, I cut back to 5s intervals throughout the night, waiting for the tea to tell me when to increase the steep time. It hadn’t told me to stop. Ever. I kept it at 5s throughout the three hours of drinking. And you know what happened? It never ever changed the color or depth of the tea! Repave kept going on, unchanging (with the exception of flavor) throughout the three hour session. I was baffled by the amount of depth remaining throughout that time.

However, the flavor did change entirely whilst the session went on. The first steep was bitter. The following two steeps remained slightly bitter, but had a honey note to it; which remained on the back of the throat/mouth. It had offered a gift to the tongue, as if breathing out from your mouth, left a sweet nectar on the tip of lips, like a kiss. And then, the tea danced upon the palate, with great satisfaction—musing about on the tip, back, and middle of the tongue—leaving such great flavors wherever it hit. I had vegetal notes, honey, sweet grass, peaches and/or pears, butterscotch (I had written it down, for whatever reason) and deep earth, but from the “lands of Narnia.”

I will note that I’m reading through the series, so my mind is ever on Narnia. Heh.

I want to drink more this morning, but I must move on to samples from friends. By which, I will enjoy those sessions too, because they are gifts of kindness. :) And joining a vast community of tea enthusiasts has really made me feel blessed to know that there are tremendous people out there…..

Anyway, I’ll leave this review here, at a good note.

The weighing of the tea.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BIyEsdoB7mE/

The 5th steep
https://www.instagram.com/p/BIyIx09BT0A/

The 10th steep (I went up to 15!)
https://www.instagram.com/p/BIyegutBz2D/

The order
https://www.instagram.com/p/BIvqFQyBVcV/?taken-by=s.g_sanders1

Oh my, this is such a sophisticated blend of floral, fruit, almonds, and chocolate. The dry leaf smells like a blend of chocolate-covered almonds, bergamot, and rose.

Can I wear this as a perfume, please? I imagine Marie Antoinette’s tea party to smell like this. Everyone’s dressed to the nines in their wigs and gowns. I can taste every single note in here. Nothing gets lost. The base is bold but I managed to prevent it from going bitter.

I’m so glad I got this one in the group order, and grateful to Marzipan that she was willing to split this one with me. It’s a winner.

Additional notes: Sipping these now. I’m almost out of pearls! Anyone know where the best black dragon pearls are sold? Or really, just any pearls at a reasonable price, since all of the ones I’ve previously tried seem to be out of business. The adagio pearls seem a little pricey.

This smells 100% of cola which is awesome and even though this has sat in my travel mug all day, it tastes like cola as well, with a nice serving of ginger. I think I would like to try this hotter or colder as opposed to lukewarm but this is a nice start.

So yeah, everyone knows I have been in Poland in the end of last year, right? I have visited also Toruń, a town famous for gingerbread. And it’s UNESCO protected city center. And why to visit Pisa, when a leaning tower is here too? So, I have been in their Gingerbread muzeum. And then I have decided to buy gingerbread for my friend in Switzerland and I have saw they offer a tea too. So here it is.

It smells fantastic. Very accurate to actual gingerbread (and similar to museum air itself), with cherry undertone. As it is often mixed with some crémes and such, I thought it is pretty good aroma. And pure gingerbread would be rather similar to chai.

I have used two teaspoons (there are no steeping parameters anywhere) in my big strainer, brewed for 3 minutes.
Woo… it is again a delicious thing. The base tea is present and truly making the base, somehow tannic, but no astringency to be found. The cloves and cinnamon play the biggest role in the taste notes. Sometimes the cinnamon is stronger, sometimes the latter. The morello cherry is adding a little, but needed sweetness and a little bit of another dimmension of flavour. But it’s not cherry-like at all.

Honestly, I am very surprised of qualities of this tea and the leaf quality isn’t bad either. It is not CTC, but it seems to be OP! And taste… is just right. Good for colder days for sure!

Seeing eastkyteaguy’s notes posted today for Zhang Ping Shui Xian teas prompted me to dig this out from a past LP group buy.

Unwrapped from its many layers,

The little pillow of black tea smelled like something I should not be putting in my body.

Sometimes you can’t help but entertain the curiosity.

Aromas: Melting Plastic, Burning Rubber, Petrol, Whisky, Burnt Almond Pits, Roasted Almonds, Dark Chocolate, Brown Sugar, Spices, Leather, Osmanthus

Flavors: Latex, Spring Water

That shit just ain’t right.

Sample from Tao Tea Leaf this morning. It’s an enjoyable tea, I would say sweet and smooth really describes it. It’s definitely a bit on the lighter side when it comes to body and has a good cocoa flavor. Amazing no bitterness or astringency at all. I steeped this for 3 minutes and it’s still a bit on the light side, overall I think I prefer black teas with a bit more heft. This was tasty but probably won’t be a repurchase for me.

Geek Steep S2E22 – Cloak & Dagger

Even though I wasn’t really able to find the “perfect pairing” for this week’s fandom I did feel fairly strongly that what I wanted was a black tea. After not being totally satisfied with my first pairing attempt, this was my second choice. I liked the kind of name pun that tied in with the light/dark themes and imagery explored. On top of just having such gorgeous downy golden buds and tips through the loose leaf, it’s also a completely rich and robust malty cocoa bomb with a backbone of warming spice, wood, and dark honey notes!

In the end, like my other pairing attempt, it was a delicious tea but not a great fit for the comic…

Tea Photo: https://www.instagram.com/p/CaPvDtQOIQs/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUqEtEET9yI&ab_channel=Superet

The things one finds.

I totally thought this tin was hiding some other tea. But no. It is, indeed, Paris.

Nice fruity EG. With milk. Yum.

BTW. WTF is up with all this snow?! It’s not supposed to snow here. :|

additional notes:  I broke into my 150g pouch that I just had to buy during the sale… I was thinking of buying some anyway because I once saw it on the VIP page so I thought it might be leaving.  So I went for it during the sale.  Upon opening, I realized there aren’t any caramel cubes… to me it’s an entirely different blend now.  What makes it “toffee” without the caramel cubes?  I asked B&B and they said they removed those from the blend three years ago.  Ack.  But really, it doesn’t seem like the same blend even if it had the caramel cubes.   The black tea seems lighter even with two teaspoons, the apple is lighter, which makes the smoke seem stronger. So I’m sorry if my praising of the past versions of this blend had anyone buy the less great recent blend.   I just don’t love it anymore.

Unless it was part of a blend, my poor, impaired tastebuds never equated pu-erh with much more than cave water or sweet tree roots. To see some of you mention menthol or camphor as flavor notes mystified me.

Well, today, I finally got it. Cave water first, tree roots next, but then I caught just the smallest breath of mentholated sippiness just after each swallow, which immediately created a mental image of Mama Bear lining the cave with pine and wintergreen branches so that it wouldn’t get too stinky while she hibernates. I’m ready to go back to bed now.

I made a huge DF order and it all arrived last week, and I haven’t had much else since then. I have been bad about writing tastings notes on them. Some of the teas are real WOW teas. Some are just normal, but by normal I mean still a really good tea.

This one was a WOW tea. I found myself thinking about the tea each time I took a drink – it kept pulling my attention because it tasted so good. Sometimes I can sort of zone out and drink the tea automatically. The description says red fruits, papaya, and strawberry bits. But the really interesting part is the “biscuit” – which of course it not like an American biscuit. It’s like a European one, or a cookie. That’s the magic here.

It’s hard for me to describe exactly what biscuit tastes like in tea, but it’s sort of like a bit of cookie on the finish, but it’s not a sweet cookie. More like a shortbread. This tea alone makes me want to order one of every one of the teas they sell.

A delicate, smooth and complex dianhong. The early autumn peacefulness and richness of aromas. Its unique taste gently but resolutely resists the attempts to describe and deconstruct it. However: some malt, caramel, plum, spices, baked goods, sweet potato, herbs…

It induces wakefulness, sharpens your senses and brings a note of nostalgia.

Normally, I avoid tea-in-a-jug like it was sulfuric acid, but this morning, I had the opportunity to try Chick-Fil-A catering grade unsweet iced tea. Sometimes you find yourself in a position where you have to grab whatever’s available, so I can recommend it as a decent black tea with slightly sharp edges (strong Ceylon?) that ices down well. Didn’t detect any harsh artificial lemon or citric acid, either one.

The occasion for grabbing the tea was a complete surprise. I had a work-a-versary, and my (I am blessed to work with these people) department buddies did a surprise breakfast spread with over-the-top carbs and mylar balloons, which are currently distracting me so badly I can neither concentrate nor finish this note! You know the stunt they do sometimes at group work events where everybody stands up, then people start sitting down based on longevity or whatever else they want to recognize? I may well be the last one standing.

Ashmanra’s sipdown challenge – February 2023 Tea #5 – An afternoon tea

Quick cup, no resteeps — that says “afternoon tea” to me!  This is from my gifted set of ten teas.  I’m not sure if the water I used was too hot.  I figured Vahdam might have added turmeric to the matcha to disguise that the matcha isn’t great.  Really, I can’t even tell there is turmeric here other than a slightly yellowish color to the matcha.  Instead, it’s a marine vegetal matcha — neither great nor terrible.

This was a tea that was as phenomenal tasting as it’s price tag. This tea was sweet from the start with zero bitterness. It had very little in the way of fermentation flavor, I really barely noticed any. That fermentation flavor that it did have was not in any way unpleasant and certainly not fishy. There was a fruity note to this tea early on. I think the word dates would work to describe it but other fruit descriptions might be possible too. This is a very expensive tea when you look at the overall price of $550. When you break it down to the price per gram it comes to 55 cents a gram. I used approximately 10g for this session so the cost of this tea session was $5.50 approximately. When I look at the cost like that it doesn’t seem so bad. This is supposed to be ancient tree tea from tea trees in the range of 500 to 800 years old. As to this I have no way to be certain obviously. It comes down to whether or not I trust the seller. And as Larry has always been truthful in the past and sold me nothing but really good tea I tend to believe him. I suppose it would be possible to find information on the Jin Yu Xuan Tea Factory and confirm but I don’t think that factory has an English language website if they have one at all. I do know they are a fairly small tea factory. Very few companies produce ancient tree shou in the first place. This just may have been the best shou puerh tea I have ever drank. I would recommend people buy a sample of this but he doesn’t sell samples on this one, you have to buy a whole brick or get a couple people to split it with you. I steeped the leaves eighteen times and they were pretty much played out. I will probably go back afterward and boil the leaves for ten minutes to get the last out of them. Again, I think this was probably the best shou I have ever drank. I think it is slightly better than the 2006 Jin Yu Xuan tea cake that I reviewed last week. I have another tea from this tea factory yet to get to, a loose ripe from 1999, also supposed to be ancient tree although on that one they didn’t specify the age of the trees. If anyone has not bought from purepuer I can attest to the fact that they sell good stuff. I have bought maybe seven or eight ripes from them and all were between really good and phenomenal. I have bought a few of their cheaper sheng and they have been good. I have not bought any of their expensive sheng. This is a company I will certainly buy from again but they rarely get new teas in so it may be a while. In particular a tea called the 2010 Tong Qing Hao ripe is really good but somewhat expensive at around $90 if you want to try something from them. On that one I believe they sell sample sizes of around 2 oz. The basic concept behind purepuer is that they only sell tea from the unspoiled places in China where they have clean water, no air pollution, etc. This is probably why they seem to only rarely add to their inventory.

I steeped this tea eighteen times in a 150ml gaiwan with 10.1g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, 1 min, 1.5 min, 2 min, 2.5 min, 3 min, 3.5 min, 4 min, 4.5 min, and 5 min. The tea was pretty well played out at eighteen steeps but I suppose I might have gotten another two or three steeps out of it. I will probably go back and boil the leaves for a little more tea.

AJRimmer Advent Day 15

What a special treat to get to taste AJRimmer’s custom blend designed in partnership with 52Teas! I’m not much of a soda girl, but I definitely get the vibe this blend is going for. The green rooibos seems like a great choice for the base, keeping things light and effervescent. Thanks so much for sharing, AJRimmer!

4tsp for 500mL water @90C, steeped 5 minutes, drunk plain.
Picking date: 2 August 2019.

Wow.

The “raspberry” in the tea’s name is not an added flavour but a pronounced tasting note. Raspberry jam and dates, as the packaging says, and some soft malt. Medium body. Only mildly astringent in aftertaste. Sweet and deep. No bitterness at 90C. I think I’m falling in love with Assams all over again, thanks to TeaBox.

Teakruthi sent me an awesome box of samples. I hadn’t heard of them before! They are sustainable with a ‘Just-In-Time’ sourcing model, single origin tea leaves and 100% Ceylon with no artificial additives or preservatives. Plus, free shipping at the low level of $18! They seem to be offering some uniqueness that other tea shops just don’t have. I’m excited to try some teas that I certainly can’t find anywhere else.
The leaves here look half rolled up like an oolong. The scent of the leaves is creamed corn with a hint of spice. That spice translates to a flavor that reminds me of the spices that might be in a BBQ sauce. I notice this flavor occasionally in a green tea. It’s rare though, so when it is in the mug, I can’t help but notice it taking over the mug.
Steep #1 // 1 1/3 teaspoons for a full mug // 29 minutes after boiling // 1 1/2 minute steep
Steep #2 // 32 minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep

I wanted to try it again with the suggested one teaspoon to see if I could get the bite out of the flavor. I think that was accomplished, but it also lost much of that BBQ sauce flavor. It’s surprising it’s like a different tea with just 1/3 less of a teaspoon. Now there was hints of smoke. It tastes like savory vegetables. There is a slight lingering creamy quality while also being thirst quenching. I don’t see this flavor combination in green teas very often! At the same time, it isn’t the flavor combination that I reach for or crave in a green tea.
Steep #1 // 1 teaspoon for a full mug // 30 minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep
Steep #2 // 25 minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep