New Tasting Notes

This tea isn’t bad, but after drinking it for a while, I find it’s not tasty enough. It taste like water most of the time. It’s like if it tasted someting untastable for my tongue, I seems I can only smell it, but not taste it anymore. Strange, isn’t it? Even more because I used to like it at first!

I really like honeybee. More than chocolate rocket. At first, I thought chocolate was my favorite, but I got tired of it pretty fast. This one is really soothing for your throat, without being syrupy. It’s sweet, but not sickly sweet. Yum

This one is surprisingly nice! It has a really dark color when it’s ready, and I was scared because I usually don’t like pu’erh but this one is nice. It’s not too strong, but I could’nt taste much of the oolong in it. It’s mostly lemon en ginger, but more lemon than ginger to me! I haven’t seen any slimming effects, but I like it after a big meal.

My absolute favorite rooibos. It’s so good. It’s fruity, like cassis and blueberries, but there isn’t any sourness. And you then you have a bit of a lavender after taste. It’s really a soothing blend I think. And it smells gorgeous!!! I enjoy closing my eyes and smelling it :) Will doing my homeworks at night :(

A gorgeous tea, but not everyone’s favorite, maybe because of the smell of the lavender, but I like things different and usually my tastes aren’t the same as most of my David’s tea clients. But you should try it!!!

Brewed in a 1 liter polish pottery tea pot. Used one tea bag, just as I did with the Earl Grey, but the soup was so pale, I wonder if I should use more? Using the same standards that produced success when brewing the Earl Grey and the Classic, this time I ended up with a pale cup. On the one hand, that may be the point of “afternoon” tea, but when I compare it to my personal favorite brand, Ahmad, I can only say that this tastes exactly like hot amber water. No flavor. So either I need to add more tea, or I need to stick with my Ahmad. Tregothnan Afternoon tea does not impress—just as well, since it’s not easy to obtain. I bought it on a lark, because of it’s provenance, and I really didn’t have high expectation for flavor anyway. Tourist tea. That’s all it is.

Right brewing temperature is very important here. So far, I getting more and more fond of this tea. But I am also learning how to get best out of it. Will write more later.

So I thought I hadn’t tried this, but it turns out I have. Oh well, this is still amazing, I am in love with it! We haven’t been to the Tea Emporium yet, but I think we need to stop in! But I’m worried, I can’t find this on the website! Has anyone seen it there lately? Also, thank you, Indigobloom, for this lovely sample!

Many thanks to Tabby for sharing some of this tea with me! The leaves, while curled, are golden and black — and sadly remind me a little bit of spiders’ legs. I try not to think about it as I scoop tea into my cup. This tea smells rich and sweet! A little bit of pepper and a little bit of sweet potato. I can’t wait to sip! There is something a bit leathery and thick about the first few sips. I suppose I was expecting something a bit sweeter. Yes, it’s a bit like thick smoky, peppery bread. Quite dry and earthy. I think this would make a better morning cup of tea. It might be a bit too heavy for this evening!

Yucky…I really wanted to like this. The promise of pear was so enticing. The aroma was ok but on the first sip I could help but think I was sipping from our compost bin.

The smell is very floral, and the taste follows. It’s lighter than I expected, but I don’t mind — the flowers don’t overwhelm. There isn’t much of a tea taste here, just enough to establish itself as white tea and then let the flowers take over. (A bolder tea base might have been more interesting, but I personally enjoy the way it is quite a bit.)

The tea is very good, leaving a lasting impression on the palate. Very similar to Bai Lin Gong Fu from Teavivre, only less chocolate notes. Nevertheless they are very comparable. If given a choice I would probably decide on Bai lin, but luckily I do not have to choose. The tea is excellent for daily drinking, particularly in the morning, very energizing, and good for many steeps.

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A friend told me this was her favourite tea, and she was curious what I’d think of it, so I promised her I’d try it. She warned me it is a love/hate thing, so I went in forewarned.

Dry, omg I love the smell of this. Campfires and woodsmoke and I just want to sit and smell it and remember my summers spent camping with a fire every night. I was very excited to try this after smelling that!

I set this to brew on the counter and went back to my computer where I was chatting with friends. Soon I started smelling . . . beef jerky? Clearly my apartment was getting scents from another apartment down the hall, so I didn’t think anything more until my timer went.

But nope, it was the tea that smelled of jerky. I brought the cup over to the computer, and the smell started doing funny things to my stomach. Determined, took a sip, and tasted jerky. Curious, I plugged my nose and tried again, and there, finally was the taste of the tea. I enjoyed it, but two sips and my stomach was saying I couldn’t keep the cup next to me.

So sorry Lapsang Souchong Star . . . my stomach apparently doesn’t like aromatic beef jerky tea.

we are finishing off the last of this sample today. It’s a rainy and blustery day here which seems perfect for shu. A very musty and woodsy one here… see my previous tasting notes

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It is a very rare tea that has me gifting away my entire bag without even brewing it twice, but this was it. I went in hoping and expecting a slightly spicier version of Creme Caramel and got . . . I’m not sure, possibly a clove patch sprinkled with orange juice and dirty feet water?

The person I gifted it to enjoys it, so it has found a better home. Best wishes to it.

My tummy’s not feeling so great today, so mint tea it is. This is a very nice mint tea, not too strong for an upset stomach and not so weak that you’d think you were drinking hot water. I like this. I’ll have to try it again when I’m feeling well to really appreciate it though.

Tonight I’m brewing SML in a gaiwan, because I’ve yet to short steep it until now. Anyway,

First steep starts off tasting very mild and friendly, then after a few seconds a rush of flavour comes out. I’m getting a hint of the unique SML flavours here, malt, zesty tomato, vanilla, grains, cinnamon

Second steep it obviously much stronger, with the typical powerful SML flavours showing up.

Sniffing gaiwan lid, the scents made me think of soy sauce and tomato.

Moving onto the third steep, it keeps getting more and more intense. Now there is a minty/menthol flavour coming out. It mixes really well with the existing flavours into something that makes me think of licorice.

At the fourth steep the tea leaves have completely unfurled. Tasting the liquor, the mint is more powerful, along with the existing flavours. I think this fourth cup really tests your tolerance for STRONG flavours.

The fifth steep tasted like the tea flavour was weakening, but it’s otherwise pretty strong.

Sixth to twelfth steeps continued to get progressively weaker, but otherwise I enjoyed the typical SML flavours.

I go into more depth with my earlier tasting note, but in summary: I love SML because it is such a unique tea.

This short steeping experiment worked out nicely, I think I prefer it to the traditional one steep western style. For one thing, I think the menthol/mint comes out better here. As a bonus, the long, twisted dark leaves are a delight to watch in a gaiwan, and the large open mouth of this tea vessel makes it great to sniff the wet leaves.

100ml gaiwan, 2 tsp, 12 steeps (30s, +15s resteeps)

Thanks to Tabby for sharing this with me!! : )

Green teas started my love of loose leaf tea. Green tea is the reason my dog is called Sencha. Green teas taught me that time and temperature in steeping are very important. Most significantly green teas taught me that quality makes a HUGE difference. I had almost forgotten about why I loved green tea so much until I tried this one.

The large green leaves smell fresh with a hint of sea weed. It makes your eyes pop wide open, the smell alone alerts you that you are in for a treat! The package reomends that you steep 1-2 teaspoons per cup. Since the leaves were so large, I opted for 2tsp.

They were beautiful to watch steep. The water turning golden green and the leaves expanding is borderline magical. The smell was hypnotizing. Mineral sea weed goodness!

The taste was exactly what I was hoping for. Sweet creamy sensation up front followed by a mineral wave ending on a pleasant seaweed note. The vegetable was toned down under the mineral (in my opinion, the way it should be!) Delicious first brew. One of the best I have had in a while!

The second steep was a little too watered down for my taste. I enjoyed it, but the with the sweetness and mineral flavor toned down, it was more of a ghost of what the first cup was.

I love this tea! Sadly, I just placed my order from Teavivre and didn’t include this… I guess that a second order will be necessary soon! : )

Thank you, Angrboda, for this lovely tea from our swap so many months ago… I finally had the chance to sit and enjoy it this afternoon.

This tea smells gently of strawberry hard candy, with a slight scent of leaves, presumably from the green tea. I didn’t want to risk bitterness as I only had a small sample, so I steeped it lightly, and it turns out that it was the right approach for me.

Together with the orange, the strawberry actually presents more as a gentle, non-acidic pineapple flavor. It’s sweet, yet not overly so. The green is a great choice for countering the sweetness. Other than that, the green tea is unremarkable, but it doesn’t need to be anything more than a crisp base for delivering a pleasantly sweet afternoon tea.

Thank you again, Angrboda! :)

I used this up today. Such a good tea. Another staple to have in my tea cupboard. A formosa oolong as well as a milk oolong ;)

Delicious!

I had this during lunch. This is a great staple to my tea cupboard. When I finally downsize my cupboard, I will definitely be keeping a dragonwell tea in there.

This was so fresh! It smells like celery, but it (thankfully) doesn’t taste like it. It is fresh, slightly grassy green with a tinge of roast. It is sweet and smooth. Delicious!

If you’re looking for a tea that tastes like biting into a Dairy Milk, this isn’t your tea. But if you want something that definitely has strong chocolate tones while still being a tea, then this is one for you. I always find that my first couple sips have me going “huh? Weird!”. But as I keep sipping the chocolate taste overpowers and I don’t remember the other notes, just the chocolate. Which is good, since that’s why I’m drinking it in the first place :)

Outstanding tea and certainly a keeper! The first impression on my palate was strongly of nutmeg and basil, however such sensation did not mask the original tea taste, rather lifting it to a higher level. It is exotic tea no doubt, yet it is excellent for every occasion. I was offered a sample and this was truly most welcome surprise. The depth and complexity are just unbelievable. The tea taste changes little even after 3-4 steeps, only mellows revealing additional earthly notes, but these are not ordinary, rather like a forest after the rain presenting a whole new aromatic spectrum.
I am going to give it 5 stars!