Featured & Popular Tasting Notes

additional notes: The actual cereals are ridiculously priced at this point, but at least I have this still delicious tea. It’s still uncannily balanced in flavor of oats, strawberry, and marshmallow. How how how? I also had an Apple Jacks pop tart this morning. NOT AS GOOD. It’s a cereal inspired day, I guess.

I have not left the planet. The last few weeks have simply not been very conducive to tea drinking beyond grabbing RTD bottles from the fridge. Last night on the way to bed I grabbed a cup and a bag of sugar cookie sleigh ride. I love this one anyway, but when you have been tea time deprived this becomes heaven in a cup.

This is my third Ruby 18 in the past few months. The one from What-Cha was so good that I now consider picking up samples of other Red Jades, even though this is a tea type I often find too tannic and astringent. This version is from the 2022 harvest. I steeped 6 g of leaf in a 120 ml teapot at 195F for 10, 12, 15, 18, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.

The dry aroma is of sweet potato, caramel, malt, menthol, sassafras, and tomato vine. The first steep has notes of sweet potato, raisin, menthol, sassafras, malt, tomato vine, and brown sugar. The tea is a bit drying and already has some astringency. The next steep has even more raisin, sweet potato, and menthol notes, with tannins, malt, caramel, cream, sassafras, and wood in the background. Steeps three and four emphasize menthol, sweet potato, earth, raisins, and caramel, with increasing levels of tannins and a hint of something floral that I can’t name. More malt, tannins, and raisins appear in the next few steeps, though the tea is still quite sweet in spite of its astringency. The sweet potato persists into the end of the session, though the tea also becomes more tannic, earthy, woody, and mineral.

A solid Ruby 18, this tea nonetheless falls short compared to my beloved What-Cha version due to its higher levels of astringency and less complex palate. However, I liked the sweet potato and caramel, and this is a nice example of the type. I’m now completely out of Ruby 18 and I’m not sure if I mind. I think I like Shan Cha and Taiwanese high mountain black teas more than Ruby 18, in spite of its intriguing sassafras/menthol elements. Aside from the What-Cha version, it’s just too tannic for me to really enjoy.

So… catch 20/20 here… this was in the TTB so I should review it, but it was so ‘eh’ that I have had nothing to say for the last week about it. I thought to myself, ‘just let it pass and don’t review’ but then I realized I got to do what I got to do.

With so many different sheng out there and what not, and being that I’ve had a ton: Either this is something that isn’t very noteworthy or it needs time?

I’m really fortunate that my tastes usually refer beer over champagne. it keeps me out of a lot of financial trouble ;) For me this is everything I want out of a daily matcha. The flavor is slightly unique and solid. It stands up well to milk or sweetener but is drinkable straight. i keep a one pound bag clipped in the freezer and a small quantity in a tin. Everyday begins with matcha and 95% of the time it is this one.

An Ode to Tea challenge #2– Y

Ancient tea, jasmine magic!  I didn’t expect any jasmine flavor because it wasn’t there in the smell test of the leaves.   But it’s still tasty on this unique white base.  Next time a sad sipdown but it will be about time.

This tea smelled so promising in the bag, but the flavor didn’t translate into the cup. I get a little hint of dull lavender when I’m focusing on it. Maybe something masquerading as citrus? The whole cup is dull and depressing and I overleafed this one a touch. I don’t know what it is about Harney teas, but it’s rare that I find one I enjoy!

This was probably my favorite from the sampler box. I held on to this one for quite a while not wanting to finish it off. It was minty and mocha-like and delicious. The soymilk I added turned it into a creamy lazy latte. I would repurchase this one for sure!

Well, hello there, dashboard, I missed you!

The Anna Marie’s dessert teas I’ve tried up to this point have been superlative. I temporarily have to back this one off to really, really good, but I’ve only had one cup and I may have underleafed it. The strawberry is strawberry-hard-candy quality (but tasty) and the chocolate gave off a little chemical vibe, but I think there’s some room to tinker with the leaf ratio, and with milk or ice. Aw, shucks, I guess that means I’ll just have to make more…

Another tea from Martin :) I had two envelopes of this caffeine-free Fresh Orange, so I brewed one hot before bed last night and one cold overnight.

Hot was so full of bright, fresh sweet-tart orange flavor. At times I really did feel like I was drinking some freshly pressed valencia orange juice. But then there was also a little bit of that orange vitamin taste which said no, this is tea. And I did not object to that light vitamin taste. Really brilliant aroma and color, too.

Cold-brewed was just ok. There’s some hibiscus, rose hips and acidifier in the blend that give the tea a more noticeable acidity than when brewed hot, and the orange flavor is less pronounced. Regardless, it was a nice palate cleanser to have this morning.

Fresh Orange is a fun caffeine-free tea. I like it a lot and would keep it stocked, especially for summer.

I wasn’t going to drink any tea this morning, but my daughter called to me that she had made a pot of this as she went out the door. I was just going to SNIFF it, that’s all, but it made me go all weak in the knees when that smokey rich aroma got in my head.

It has been quite a week, such a mixture of great things and hard things all happening at once. Thank heaven for tea.

Happy Easter to whomever celebrates! THIS is a cupboard staple at this point. Good to see it is at least on their VIP page (if anyone is interested!) I have quite a lot left, but it better be available when I’m out of it. I’m just such a choco/marshmallow combo fan. Plus that genmaicha! So toastiness, deep chocolate and natural sweetness and not stevia. So this tea is good stuff. Unique blend!

I enjoyed this tea. It is, however, different from many ripe puer. There were no notes of chocolate in it. Instead there were notes of camphor, spice, and a little bit of wet wood or wet storage taste. It had a fair amount of fermentation taste in the first few steeps. This taste was a little more unpleasant than some ripes but not out of bounds. In the end I will neither recommend or not recommend this tea. It is really a matter of taste. Some will really like this tea, some will hate it. It was cheap. Dragon Tea House sold it for around fourteen dollars. While I don’t classify this as a bargain find as I do a cheap brick I recently drank from Yunnan Sourcing, it wasn’t bad. It’s in the eighth steep now and I am enjoying it so it isn’t all bad. Just if you buy this don’t expect too much from it.

I steeped this eight times in a 120ml gaiwan with 9.7g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse and a 10 minute rest. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, and 30 sec. Judging by the color of the brew I’d say that I would get another four or so steeps out of this if I wanted to continue.

I received this generous 15 g free sample in an order I placed last fall, so I assume it is from the spring 2019 harvest. Gardenia is one of those flowers whose fragrance is sometimes hard for me to pin down in tea, so I was happy to get an example of what it’s supposed to taste like. I steeped 6 g of leaf in a 120 ml teapot at 195F for 25, 20, 25, 30, 30, 45, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.

The dry aroma is of gardenias, other heady flowers, peaches, and sweet cream. The first steep tastes strongly of gardenia, orchid, butter, cream, peach, banana, and grass. It’s simultaneously sweet and kind of waxy, and drying in the mouth. The banana and peach persist in the second and third steeps. I get a distinctly floral gardenia flavour as well. The banana becomes more prominent as the session goes on, especially if I let the tea cool. The tea develops a lovely, thick body with a gardenia aftertaste. The florals and grass take over by steep seven, and the session ends as one with a regular green oolong would, with floral, vegetal, and grassy notes.

Although some people might consider this oolong to be too perfumey, I like floral teas and enjoyed this one. I also think it would make a great cold brew.

March 2020 harvest. A mystery oolong pick that Leafhopper shared with me when we went a little crazy in November.

The dry leaf has notes of spinach, walnut, cream, gingerbread and honeysuckle. This transforms into a very floral perfume with the rinse – notes of lilac and gardenia, plus cream and gingerbread.

The tea is one of the most fragrant unscented teas I’ve ever had, so strong that it’s dizzying — in a good way if I were to find myself in a mood that warrants such an effect — but I couldn’t handle it either time. The tea is creamy, sweet, soft and silky and produces a wonderful mouth-watering effect. The floral perfume lingers long in the aftertaste.

The characteristics of the tea soup point to good quality, but the floral aroma is much too intense for me. I can see why this tea garners such positive reviews here, but it’s simply not for me. This is truly a Jade oolong and for those sippers with a major floral tilt, I would recommend it.

Soft & gentle roast, honeyed sweet body. I found it fairly light with the orchid perfumes but there is a gentle hint of fruits in the background, I have found this with other WO teas. Its a good thing having fruit flickering in & out (especially for me who likes fruit-forward in everything), even if verrry subtle on this one.

The roast fades pretty quickly over the session into really subtle soft perfumed wuyi leaf oolong. Dark greens, good looking leaf.

‘it is quite welcome by most of the tea friends in China’ on the website, and ‘most approachable’ mentioned here. I think that sums it up.

Ashmanra’s sipdown challenge – January 2024 Tea #4 – A winter inspired blend

S&V’s flavors usually last quite a while — more than most teas.  But this one is just not aging well.  Understandably! This is at least five years old!  Tea is not immortal!   But the flavor is leaning more towards a plastic note at this point, for some reason, that was not there when the tea was fresh.  Just a note to not let this one age very much.  Next time is a sipdown.

Cold Brew!

This is not something I would normally have as a cold brew, but I do like pushing myself out of my comfort zone with cold brews and since it does lean bubblegum-y I thought it might work out okay. The brew was interesting; it actually came out pretty thin in terms of flavour though the body and flavour of the black tea was still surprisingly robust. The thinner flavour though actually resulted in it tasting less like bubblegum and more of the spice notes coming out which resulted in more of the “toddy” like flavour that probably should have been present in the first place.

It was a nice brew and really easy to finish off, but I think I actually prefer the less accurate to the name tasting flavour that emerges when you prepare this as a hot tea.

Old tea that has held up nicely: a calming, comfy end-of-day cuppa. A nice, unobtrusive green base with sweet vanilla and just enough lavender for you to notice, not enough to clean floors with.

Can’t decide if it better fits the “me” tea or the “geeky tea” prompt, as I am a lifelong book nerd…had one with me at all times…on the bus, in between assignments at school, snugged up in my secret closet reading spot, with a whole stack of ’em on a blanket in the back yard…

Tea of the afternoon. And why, when it’s still 28 degrees out? I think it’s a comfort thing, and I need comforting when I look at the amount of work that’s just come my way thanks to two skiving colleagues. One is notorious for being “sick” on nice days, the other is just workshy and had to go home because “her leg hurts”. Obviously it’ll hurt a whole lot less in front of the TV, but since when did a sore leg stop anyone from typing? Never in the history of the world, that’s when. That, in a nutshell, it how I ended up doing to work of three people, feasibly for the rest of the week. I decided I needed caffeine.

I love Earl Grey Cream blends. I think I’ve adored every single one I’ve ever tried, as far as I can remember. This one’s no exception. I used 1 tsp of leaf for my cup, and gave it 3.5 minutes in boiling water. I added a splash of milk. To taste, it’s pretty wonderful. The main flavour is a thick creaminess, very sweet and vanilla-y. The bergamot is very subtle, really just an underlying flavour, which works for me because I’m not a huge bergamot fan. If you like really creamy Earl Grey blends, you should definitely take a look at this one. I could happily drink it all day, and I probably will if the current conditions prevail.

Advent Day 11
I was worried when I smelled the dry tea. It smelled like currants with some sort of mint and it was jarring. I was relieved to see there was no mint in the ingredients and proceeded with caution. It’s a black based currant tea with an undertone of orange. It’s nice enough, well balanced, has the currant front and center, but I wish it had more going on. I said in one of my other CW reviews that I wish the blend was more dynamic and I feel the same about this one as well. Perfectly good tea, just not that exciting. I don’t know what you would pair with currant to make it more magical, but I’d like it to have something.

Wow, this one got terrible ratings already. I initially ignored this one when it first came out, but smelled it yesterday and thought I’d grab a bit to try. The dry leaf smells so unique! It’s a melange of tart fruitiness with a pastry note in the background. I’m not sure if I would classify it as a muffin, but definitely something baked.

Trying this hot, it’s not that bad. It’s not as tart as I thought it would be. There’s definitely cranberry in there, with marmalade trailing behind. Then that pseudo-muffin note is in the far background, only noticeable if you know it’s supposed to be there in the first place.

I don’t think it’s dreadful like the majority of the reviewers on here but it’s not great either. To note, I actually had two cups and am not done my pouch, and both times were alright. I put about 5g of leaf into a regular-sized one-cup coffee mug each time, so I wouldn’t say I put more or less than the norm for a mug that size.

In its youth, this tea only worked for me with 200 degree water. Sessions with boiling water were overly astringent and short-lived.

This session started out simply enough with vegetal, zucchini notes and slightly sweet finish. This lasted for about three steeps, each one getting thicker and having a longer lasting finish. The finish and lingering aftertaste were like baking spices to me, like how a house smells when you’re baking a pie. Around the fifth steep, the flavors and feelings, mainly the thickness, started coalescing and coming together beautifully. The front of the sip got less vegetal and more sweet. By the seventh steeps, the astringency which had been lingering under the sweetness was just about gone. The tea had a thick, buttery texture. A bit of a hay note was all that remained of the former vegetal notes, and the sweet finish began almost immediately and lingered for quite a while. The tea started giving up after about 13 steeps. The last couple after that were mostly astringent bitterness returning, so not entirely pleasurable.

I think the most apt word I’ve seen to describe White 2 Tea’s tea is “gestalt,” used by fellow Steepsterite moot, whose reviews I’ve been greatly enjoying the past few days. I’m not too proud to say I had to look up what word meant – essentially a whole which is greater than the sum of its parts. I think that could be used to describe most of the teas I’ve tried from W2T, including this one. Having recently read some of what moot wrote about W2T, I had it in my mind while I was drinking, and when the flavor and thickness really synergized on about the fifth steep, I found myself agreeing with him on the appropriateness of his word choice.

Another good one from W2T, though I think it might be the first puerh I haven’t been able to enjoy with boiling water. I think this tea might be a little better once it gets just a bit of age on it, to take off that bitter/astringent edge. Then I could’ve used boiling water, and I bet it could’ve been even thicker!

Maybe my memory is on the fritz but this just seems different than any Bao Zhong or Pouchong I have tried before. First the leaf has more green than I recall. There is also tan tips and the darker leaf kind of looks battle ship grey with white spots. The liquor is bright yellow which I did expect but the aroma is floral like Alishan. The taste is sweet and at first reminds me of corn with maybe a touch of malt. Then it moves towards the floral notes. The aftertaste is lingers green and viney.

I know most western folks seem to like their oolong dark and highly roasted. I do not. This is more my style. Light, crisp, and refreshing. A good afternoon sip, to chill or meditate.