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Excellent green oolong, with a strong buttery component and a wonderful flower-sweet aftertaste. The smell of the cup is sweetness, kind of like honey and bananas (?) and just barely gardenia/jasmine-y. Perhaps this all, combined, is what honeysuckle smells like?

I was expecting the flavor to be like a green Tie Guan Yin, but this pouchong is more alike buttered sweet vegetables than the magnolia and gardenia bouquet of TGY. The sweetness of this cup is amazing…it’s making me think of honey drizzled on french bread, for some reason.

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The first time I made this blend (Masala Chai + Irish Breakfast), I tried to brew it like a regular tea and added milk. The result? Gag-worthy roasted yam juice tea. Today, I thought I’d try this again, this time making this in a more authentic way. I used teaplz’s instructions as restated by Kitch3ntools (http://steepster.com/Kitch3ntools/posts/21032), and I also added 4 green cardamom pods to the saucepan as it was brewing. I just eyeballed the amounts and might have used a bit more sugar that was called for, but the result was delicious! Yay!
The spice mix tastes very similar to my mom’s homemade chai. The dry leaf smells like cinnamon, which I wasn’t too thrilled about, but I can’t really taste any in the final cup. I like that there are whole cloves in the mix. The balance of tea to spices was perfect for me. I do wish the base had more English Breakfast than Irish Breakfast in it, as I don’t really like Irish Breakfast (too yam-ey). The malt from the IB comes through the milk just a smidge, so if you like that, you’ll probably really like this blend.

Oh, I really like this tea. I was not expecting to like this tea. I was expecting some kind of hibiscusy, bitter-crushed-up green tea, yucky herbal concoction. But the actual tea? It smelled like honey! Really! Like actual, from the jar, honey. And no hibiscus in sight! Along with the honey was a flowery taste, which I’m guessing is the ginseng. This tea would be any honey or sweet tea lover’s dream. I didn’t add any honey to my cup, but I’m sure this tea, with a bit of honey added, would convert any black/sweet tea drinker who thinks green tea tastes like water. This is a definite repurchase for me.

Wow…I kind of love this tea, and I have no idea how to order more of it! My mother actually found this in the clearance bin at the store. Needless to say, I wasn’t expecting much. However, upon opening the individually wrapped packets, I was happy see that these were actually whole leaf teas, encased in nylon sachets. Just under 3 minutes of steeping results in a well-balanced cup of jasmine white tea, with a hint of sweet orange. More than 3 minutes of steeping and the brew begins to get bitter, so it’s important to watch the time on this one. The tea is not too perfumey, and you can taste the white tea base. The orange is secondary to the jasmine and white tea, like a hint of flavor floating above the jasmine white tea base. The actual character of the orange flavor changes from sip to sip. Near the beginning of the cup, it reminded me of a sweet, “dark” orange flavor (like in orange soda, but less artificial); and now, by the end, I’m thinking of navel oranges. Mmm. I need to figure out how to get more of this….

_{Thank you Ricky for this sample and for being a very patient swap buddy :)}

I love the smell of the strawberries in this mix…it’s like strawberry milk or strawberry ice cream. Yum. Unfortunately, my matcha is a little affected by the smell/taste of some of the other teas in the box, so I’m not sure how much of the mellowed, milky flavor is from the matcha itself and how much is from the other yummy teas Ricky sent me. :)

This matcha, like 52teas Mandarin Matcha, has a kind of strange sharp, sour note. I’m not sure why…I assumed in the case of the Mandarin Matcha it was the acidity of the orange, but the same sourness is in this matcha as well. Maybe its a preservative or a flavoring thing? Or just the quality of the matcha itself? Who knows, but it’s keeping me from really loving this.

My package finally arrived! Included was a 1.06 tin of ceremonial grade matcha and a bamboo whisk (chasen). Thank you to DoMatcha for holding this contest! I decided to go ahead and prepare this thick style right off the bat. For those who are unfamiliar with matcha, there are two ways matcha is usually prepared: thick style (koicha) and thin style (usucha). Koicha is prepared using more matcha and less water, and thus requires very high grade matcha; using a lower grade matcha to make koicha will result in a bitter, undrinkable mess. Generally speaking, the higher the grade of matcha, the sweeter and less bitter it will be. I’m using the directions a friend of mine told me about preparing koicha, as well as the instructions listed at http://www.yuuki-cha.com/matcha_green_tea_powder.php. Note: These directions are for koicha (thick) matcha, and not usucha.

1. Sift 3.5 chashaku scoops of matcha into pre-heated, dry bowl.
The chashaku is a bamboo scoop that comes with many matcha sets. I read on a blog that the amount of matcha in a single chashaku scoop should be about the size of an almond—if anyone has learned tea ceremony, please let me know if this is accurate.
2. Heat 40-50mL of water to a temperature between 70°C and 80°C (158°F and 176°F).
I went with just under 50 mL of 165°F water which probably cooled down a little before I had a chance to add it to the matcha powder.
3. Add a small amount of the water to the sifted matcha to create a thick paste. Using the chasen (bamboo whisk), knead (don’t whisk!) the water and matcha powder together using up/down and left/right motions, or a calm 360° rotating motion.
The water and matcha paste actually was fairly smooth from what I could see, probably thanks to the sifting. It almost looked like green paint.
4. Add the rest of the water to the matcha powder. Continue kneading, not whisking, the matcha. Koicha is not supposed to be frothy, and the kneading should produce a tea that is thick, smooth, and without froth.

The resulting tea was thick and smooth. I was shocked because there was absolutely no bitterness. None. Whatsoever. Maybe my taste buds are off because I’m used to drinking very concentrated matcha using crappy quality powder, but really: I didn’t taste any bitterness or astringency. The flavor of the matcha was a little more on the savory side than sweet. It was vegetal and just lightly sweet, similar to steamed green beans, and oh so creamy…mmm. There wasn’t much of a sea or seaweedy taste. There was no grittiness or left-over clumps, and there was such a small amount of tea (50 ml) that there was no opportunity for settling. The temperature was a bit cool for me, probably because I sifted the powder after the water was done heating up, instead of before, so it just sat on my counter losing heat. Oops.

I prepared a bowl of my really low grade matcha from Mighty Leaf in the same way, and the result was a very bitter and had a thinner mouthfeel, for some reason. So, another plus of the DoMatcha ceremonial grade: the mouthfeel was really smooth, thick, and creamy. The Mighty Leaf was also gritty and didn’t mix as well as the DoMatcha, but that might have been because of error in preparation.

Unfortunately, this is the first ceremonial grade matcha I’ve ever tried, so I don’t have anything to compare it to. However, this is a really delicious matcha, and the lack of bitterness, the sweetness and savoriness, and the creamy and thick mouthfeel all make this one a winner for me.

Okay so….my new bag of Coconut Cream Pie came in. Unfortunately, I broke my french press while trying to wash it, so I had to make this in a tea ball. When I opened my bag, it smelled so strong and made me gag (I hate coconut usually…). What gives, CCP? Maybe the sample Ricky gave me lost some of its flavor/smell because it was older, or was a different batch, but this bag is too strong. The steeped tea tasted very strongly of coconut as well, in the bad way. Sigh.

I’ve been spoiling myself all day…first Dawn, now Jackee…

By the way, if anyone has any recommendations for Keemuns or Yunnans that are smokey and delicious like Jackee, let me know! I’m already dreading the day my tin runs out…

I cleaned up my apartment today so that the cleaning lady could vacuum, and as a reward I made myself a cup of Dawn. It’s a lot richer than I remember, which is a good thing. I think part of the change can be attributed to the fact that I didn’t use boiling water in the past, and this tea thrives on boiling water. For anyone who hasn’t tried Dawn yet, it is truly amazing. It’s like unsweetened hot cocoa…there’s even this almost powdery/thick mouthfeel, like you’re drinking a rich suspension of chocolate and cocoa and tea. The second steep is wonderful as well. Simple Leaf, you rock. Congratulations, you get my first 100.

ETA: A slightly longer steep (closer to 4 or 4:30) really makes this seem like a decadent, rich cup of unsweetened hot cocoa.

Four Seasons pisses me off.

Don’t get me wrong—this isn’t a bad tea. It’s actually quite tasty. But it’s just not that special. It tastes, to me, like an average Tie Guan Yin, but missing the delicious heaviness I associate with TGY. It’s delicious, but no more delicious than some of the other TGYs I’ve tried.

But here’s the biggest kicker for me—you have to use a lot of leaf, and it does not produce that many infusions—certainly not 10-15, unless you’re thinking 2 ounce cups in 2 tablespoons of leaf. This is kind of infuriating, since the whole selling point on the Samovar website is that it lasts forever, so you’re getting a good value even if it’s $25 for a small, half-filled tin. I don’t like being lied to or misled. And there sure as hell aren’t 40 servings in the tin I received. Hell, there aren’t more than 15 teaspoons in there. And this tea requires, at the very least, 1.5 teaspoons for 6 ounces of water.

The tasting note descriptions intrigue me…I’ve done a little research, and I’ve never heard of Four Seasons/Si Jie Chun being described as bread and milk. The description I’ve come upon most is flowers, fruit, honey and pineapple. Hm. I’m tasting less milk or lactose or bakey-bready-ness, and more gardenias and sweet floral perfumes. [And yes, I have tried this at a number of different temperatures, and have gotten mostly the same results. No increase in dairy/lactose/bread at a lower temperature, for me.] I wonder how much of the (omg milk! bread!) love for this can be attributed to the power of suggestion…makes me want to experiment by writing up a tasting note for a random tea that’s like “OMG THIS TASTES LIKE CHERRIES!” and then see if anyone else says the same thing :)

So what do I taste? Gardenias, mostly; honey, certainly; and butter from my cooled down second infusion. The proportions of the flavors changes slightly from infusion to infusion, but the leaves don’t last very long either. Something I’m noticing this time around—it’s pretty bitter. I’m not sure if it’s because my water is too hot, or if I’m oversteeping it. A warning: do not try to brew this with 8 ounces and 1 teaspoon. I’ve brewed other TGYs this way and it’s been fine, but Four Seasons is not like other TGYs :) I ended up with one okay-but-light first infusion, and then almost tasteless 2nd and 3rd infusions. It’s so difficult to rate this one…on the one hand, it’s yummy when you do everything right. On the other hand, it’s extremely expensive and you have to use a lot of it to make a decent cup of tea, plus all the reservations I mentioned above.

I know I’m blaspheming, writing a negative review for a Samovar creation…please don’t hurt me!

Okay, okay. I know, I’m not supposed to like this. It’s coconut. It’s CTC black tea. It’s flavored. But oh, mah, gawh, this is soooo delicious with a good sized dash of milk and two heaping teaspoons of white sugar. Oh, my sweet, not-overwhelmingly-coconutty, creamy cup of dessert—I love you, I really do. And I’m sending happy thoughts to Ricky who sent me this sample, because there was no way in hell I’d buy this for myself (coconut and all). But seriously? I have a huge chest of tea that I need to finish before September, yet I went ahead and put through an order for this at 52teas because it is that good. Nom. 100 94 noms.

Haven’t had much time for tea these days, but I broke down and made myself a cup of this after I received my samples from The Jade Teapot in the mail. I think this might be the same as Art of Tea’s Uji Gyokuro, if it matters.

This is my first gyokuro, so I’m a little hesitant to rate this. The leaves are very dark green and full of chlorophyll. It seems like there are quite a few stems in this sample, so it’s probably not the greatest quality Gyokuro. I emptied the entire sample packet (about 1.5 teaspoons) in 8 ounces of water.

First steep, 45 seconds: The smell is very similar to matcha, or at least the vegetal flavor of matcha. The taste is also reminiscent of it, except less seaweedy and powdery than matcha usually is. I can’t really pick out much other than the grassy, delicious taste of the gyokuro…I’m not getting butter or gardenias, although there is a slight perfumy quality to the liquor.

Second steep, ~30 seconds: Okay, I should have only done around 5 seconds for this second steep, because it was quite bitter. Still, it was delicious. Less sweet, and more savory.

Third steep, ~2 minutes: Lighter than the second steep. More savory/umami, and a bit bitter and drying. It’s very brothy, for lack of a better word; I kind of wish it were a bit saltier. The flavors are considerably weaker, though, and there isn’t any of the sweet/buttery/green/vegetal yumminess that there was in the first two steeps. Perhaps next time, if my second steep is shorter, the third steep will still be tasty.

Overall, this was nice, although I think that there are probably some better examples of these flavors out there! It has made me curious to try more gyokuro.

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I’m not sure if this tea has gotten spoiled or not…but there’s kind of a weird smell to it. Perhaps the chocolate bits or white bits (coconut?) went rancid? shrugs

Intrepid tea drinker that I am, I went ahead and steeped up a cup, and added some milk and sugar.

At first, I was like :x but then I was like :D

Hot, this is meh. There is a slightly fruity-almost-tart-but-not-quite-tart taste that’s throwing this off for me. I can kind of taste chocolate, but no coconut. It’s just sort of average-to-strange tasting tea.

But then! I left my nearly full cup cool, and came back to it. And oh, mah, gawd. It tastes JUST like chocolate milk. It looks like chocolate milk. It smells like chocolate milk. But best of all, it TASTES like chocolate milk! :O

But, alas, I am not looking for chocolate milk, I’m looking for tea, so I’m giving this a middling score.

I have a ton of homework left for tonight (blah) and a whole gallon of milk that expires today, so I decided to whip up some black tea. I also bought sugar for the first time! Yay! Sugar!

I’m not a /huge/ fan of apple cinnamon flavored things (although I do like apple pie), so I wasn’t expecting to like this very much. To me, it tastes like sweet (well, I added sugar and milk) apple-flavored black tea, with a generous side of creamy graham cracker and spice. I’m not tasting any vanilla, but the milk I added does give it a nice creamy feel. It’s pretty good, but just not my thing. It did, however, exceed my expectations, as I was expecting to hate it. I’m sure people who like apple flavored things will love this tea. My rating is more of a personal preference thing, and not a reflection of whether or not this tea tastes like it should/good. Thank you Ricky for the sample :)

Edit: There’s almost a coffee-with-vanilla-creamer-ish taste to my cooled down cup…an interesting development!

A big thank you to Ricky, for sending me some of this tea!

I used to hate coconut, but ever since trying Golden Moon’s Coconut Pouchong I’ve been feeling braver about it. So, of course the first tea I picked out of Ricky’s lovely package is this one. I usually prepare teas I’m tasting for the first time without additives like milk and sugar, and at the recommended steeping parameters. Instead, I made this with milk and sweetener, as multiple people mentioned how it tasted better as a latte.

The dry tea has a very light smell, at least compared to the Coconut Pouchong. Steeped up, it’s delicious. Creamy, and just slightly coconutty—but that’s fine with me. Unfortunately, I only had Splenda in my apartment, so it’s giving the tea a kind of funky taste (I can’t stand Splenda anymore, for some reason!) but otherwise, this is a lovely dessert tea. It’s very basic, but I like basic. I’m pretty sure once I make room in my tea chest for more, I’ll be ordering a package of this for myself.

You know how there’s that whole anti-woman b-s stereotype of women always trying to change their partners? Well, I think I’ve been acting out that stereotype—yikes. Because Jackee ain’t no dessert man—-he’s pure smoke, pine, savory velvet. And I don’t know why I spent so long trying to change him to some kind of caramelized wimp, because he is pretty awesome as he is. Giving him a huge ratings bump.

This is so delicious. First, let me just say that I am not a fan of coconut. In fact, as I’ve mentioned before, the smell of coconut tends to to make me queasy, due to a bad experience as a teenager with coconut rum. Anyway, I wasn’t sure how I was going to feel about this tea—on the one hand, it’s award winning. On the other, I hate coconut. Well, this tea definitely has changed my mind about coconut, because it’s absolutely scrumptious (ha, I love that word).

The dry leaves are dark green and long and thin, and smell like coconut milk, cream, and maybe the lightest toasty scent. I can’t smell any tea at all. After steeping, the scent of the infusion is the same as the dry leaf, with a hint of pouchong. Surprisingly, the flavor is actually a very nice, even balance of pouchong and coconut, and they meld together seamlessly. The flavor doesn’t just sit on top of the pouchong, but seems to be intertwined with it. The ratio of flavoring to tea was nicely done, so it doesn’t feel like I’m drinking just coconut flavoring with a hint of tea, or tea with a hint of coconut. And oh, the flavor is delicious. There’s a custard note to the infusion as well, and at times it feels like I’m sipping coconut milk, not tea.

I only have a sample of this, so I’m going to have to get my hands on some more. I can see myself drinking this a lot!

This tea is magical. Really, truly, magical. I don’t know how else to describe it, but I love it.

I really didn’t know what to expect going into this. No tasting notes yet, no description, no steeping parameters even. it was just a free sample that I won by replying first to a thread. But, intrepid tea explorer that I am, I went in head first, and boy was I rewarded for my bravery.

I decided to start off with a 45 second steep. I used about a teaspoon and around 8 ounces each steep, and gradually increased the steep time as I went on, up to around 3 minutes by steep 6. I would have kept going as it was still strong and delicious, but I had to stop in order to get some sleep and pack, as I had a flight in the morning.

The first steep was like stepping into a garden at dawn; lush, dark greenness, a heavy mist in the air, and large white magnolia and gardenia flowers all around you. Steep 2 and onward were even more magical. Each cup was like gardenias, magnolias, and milk. There was the most delicious buttery component, like orchids and unsalted butter, and a hint of sweetness, like lactose or white bread, or maybe just from the flowers themselves. And something else, like the taste of “comfort”—the smell of warm skin, or your kitty’s fur, or your favorite fleece blanket—I don’t know how to put a name on it, but it was surely there.

The mouthfeel of the infusion was remarkable. Absolutely luscious…it was thick, and rich…just a “whole mouth experience.” Like something that you needed to bite into, but would give way easily to your teeth and tongue. Not that the tea was actually like gelatin or something, but it had an impression, if you will, of smooth thickness.

I wasn’t expecting to re-order anything from Life in Teacup when I first received my samples, but after trying this I know I’ll be placing another order soon.

UGH I HAVE AN ESSAY DUE IN 13 HOURS AND I HAVE LIKE NOTHING DONE YET AAHHHHHH

Um. Yeah, in case it wasn’t clear, I have severe essay anxiety and can never get anything done before the last minute because I get so freaked out. Sigh. I still have 4 more pages to write….

So I went over to my tea chest to procrastinate (!!!) and I was shuffling around some tins and my tin of Earl Grey Le Creme opened up on its own and emptied itself out on the floor of the chest. I managed to salvage most of it, though, yay.

Anyway, I prepared this in my new 12 oz. Bodum coffee French press, which I am liking so far, despite some kinks at first…my filter is a little bent and hard to plunge up, so it doesn’t form a total seal and some leaves can leak through the gaps. Anyway, I made myself a cup of this and added in some Rockstar Recovery, which is a lemonade-ish energy drink that tastes surprisingly good (it’s made of 3% lemon juice, and only as 10 calories per serving but tastes like it’s made with real sugar). The mixture turned out rather nice! Kind of like a very citrusy Arnold Palmer, which I guess it technically is.

Anyway, WHAT AM I DOING ON STEEPSTER I NEED TO BE WORKING ON MY ESSAY AHHHHHHH!!!!

I’ve been away from Steepster for a while because of school (and I shouldn’t be on here now, because I’ve got an essay due tomorrow arghhh) but I just had to pop in and see what everyone’s been up to/procrastinate.

Anyway, the tea. I don’t know why, but the last two times I’ve tried making this on my own (outside of the Zarafina, which I gave to my mom) it tastes too…malty? Caramelized? Perhaps I’m steeping it too long…but it’s gone “meh” on me. Knocking this down a few points until I figure out what’s wrong.

Edit: Okay, maybe it’s the honey I’m adding that’s making it taste strange? Damn you CVS clover honey, damn you.

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