Featured & New Tasting Notes
From my most recent What-Cha order, although this is actually one that was added into my order by Alistair and not one I picked for myself. He picked well though; I do really, really love assam teas. In fact, they’re probably my overall favourite black teas that originate from a country other than China…
When I look at the name for this one it’s a little weird; I have a coworker named Prithvi who’s family actually grew up in Assam. We talk tea often, as it’s something that was really ingrained in his childhood before he immigrated to Canada with his family. I tried googling it, but it’s still unclear to me whether Prithvi is a common name or a place for which my coworker was named for. Apparently it’s also a missile. So that’s a thing.
This was really great though; I drank it Western style as that’s my preference for a lot of black teas and it was so silky, and smooth with a thick mouthfeel. The dominant flavour note was malt which is completely unsurprising for an Assam tea. It was supported by notes of honey and freshly baked bread. Actually, this had a lot more of that sweet, baking bread flavour than a lot of assams I’ve had as of late and I was surprised just how comforting that flavour was. I didn’t realize I’d been missing it so much from other assams. The finish was a touch cocoa-y. Not rich, in your face cocoa notes like you’d get from Dian Hong, for example – but a light dusting of it. In such a small level where you’re just getting a hint of the taste it’s really refreshing and enticing. A tease, really.
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnaUgSQh0BU&list=WL&index=1
This is quite possibly the best ten year old ripe I have ever had. It started with some bittersweet notes and I would venture to say some notes of chocolate. These notes were fleeting and other notes developed. I would say it developed a dates note by the eighth steep or so. It also evolved into the sweetest and smoothest ripe puer I have ever had. As to qi. I am feeling a little, quite relaxing. Usually I get no qi off of ripe tea but I am getting some. Now to the big question about this tea. The description of the tea says it is from 500 to 800 year old teas. This certainly has the staying power of ancient trees. I am on steep 16 and plan to go back for more. The main question is do I trust the seller. I do believe I trust the seller to be telling the truth on this matter. And every tea he has sold me has been good. I definitely recommend some samples from him if you have not ordered. This is also my most expensive cake purchase. This cost $310 for 400g.
I brewed this 16 times in a 110ml Yixing Teapot with 8.2g 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, 20 sec, 45 sec, 1 min, 1.5 min, 2 min, 2.5 min, 3 min, 3.5 min, and 4 min. The tea wasn’t finished at 16 steeps, will probably go back for more.
Flavors: Chocolate, Dates
Preparation
Went back for two more steeps. Then boiled the ;eaves for ten minutes to get the last out of them. The result of the boil is interesting. More body than the last steeps had even though I was boiling in more water. Still sweet.
It is a great tea indeed. I sipped it last year as part of an afternnon tea at Mandarin Oriental.
Sipdown! I have a cold at the moment (again), so I’m sticking to teas I’m familiar with for the next few days. This one’s a classic. I adore Dian Hong style teas generally, but this is still one of the best I’ve tried. It brews up a beautiful red-orange-brown, works well with or without milk, and has delicious bread, chocolate, and malt notes to boot. I’m sad to see this one depart my cupboard, but I’m sure it’ll soon be back :)
Preparation
This tea getting bumped up because its mellowed out now & the (way too strong when new) roast takes a backseat to nice classic wuyi rock mountain oolong cream/nuts, similar to fruity cashew or melon seeds. after the first few steeps this is the dominant flavour & its making me much happier. There is also some straight fruity sweet & just a much more pleasurable balance – the lack of the bitter char is helping.
I would definitely consider buying more, but knowing that you need a couple of years on it to taste good.
Flavors: Char, Cream, Fruity, Melon, Nuts, Roasted
Bought this recently with my Yunnan Sourcing USA order. There are some different notes in this one but I find myself at a loss to describe them. There is some malt and some bittersweet chocolate in there as well as a few others. Only brewed this western style this morning due to a lack of time.
I brewed this one time with 3 tsp leaf and 200 degree water in a 16oz Teavana Glass Perfect Tea Maker for 3 minutes.
Preparation
Saw this in Cavo’s feed this morning, so figured i could start my day by trying it as well. 5 pearls for 3.5 min, just under boiling. This is a smooth brew, there’s no bitterness and i’m for sure getting some chocolate like notes at the back end of the sip. Not sure i’d keep this in my cupboard, but i’d happily add this to an order to get free shipping heh.
time to get to work on sipdowns…this weekend spent with tea friends means i’m back up to 87!
You’re still under 100 though :)
I was at like 17(!) but now I’m up to 36 and I feel bad lol.
:D
I’m trying to remember who else had a black pearl tea with a profile like this, but at least this one is very convenient to order (and FAST), so that’s a huge plus for CitizenTea.
I have some of these but haven’t tried them yet – need to do that soon. The best pearls I’ve had were from Mandala – but they haven’t had them for years :( Second would have to be Teavivre – but would be interested in any others that people like.
that’s my order as well dexter. haha. that’s not to say that these are bad..just not quite what i want full time in my cupboard – i’d pick up teavivire’s for that.
Oh, I forgot about Teavivre’s too! I’ll have to keep them in mind because they were a good price. :D
(Those Mandala ones WERE the best. :( /cue intense sadness/)
Midday tea.
I’m so broke right now, and that’s such a horrible thing because I can’t stop building doom carts. One of the sites I keep finding myself gravitating towards is DF; it’s been SO LONG since I ordered anything from them. There are so many things on my wishlist from them…
I really should be focusing what little extra money I do have (root canals are expensive) on Christmas presents though – not ordering tea I don’t need.
Anyway; I pulled this one down tonight to hopefully scratch that Dammann Freres itch a little bit. It certainly helped, that’s for sure. I was able to narrow down the list of goodies I’ve been looking at. BUT the things left on the list I’m more tempted to order than I was before. Must maintain self control.
Flavors: Butter, Caramel, Citrus Zest, Cream, Honey, Lemon, Malt, Pastries, Stonefruit, Sweet
Drinking up this sample brings me back down to 40! I’m glad I picked it up because the mint in this is very icy fresh, close to the mint you specifically find in After Eight. They were fairly generous with the chocolate chips in here too, especially considering that I had a sample packet.
I accidentally brewed this for like twenty minutes because I got distracted looking stuff up online, but I figured it should be ok. And it actually is. There’s a nice balance of chocolate and mint here, and the rooibos surprisingly didn’t get too strong. I’d say it’s one of the better chocolate mint rooibos blends I have had, except it still doesn’t beat Zen’s fantabulous offering. Maybe what also made a difference in the flavour, and what set this apart from others, is the brittle in this? I didn’t notice it while drinking it but my guess is there was just enough in there to sweeten it a touch but not too much. I also enjoyed this with milk and was pleased that the flavours weren’t drowned out.
This morning I finally managed to finish the last of this tea. I had been working on polishing off a two ounce pouch since late September or thereabouts. I recently sent out half of what I had left in an exchange and focused on finishing up the remainder. Now I kind of wish that I still had a little of this on hand. It makes an excellent breakfast or early afternoon tea.
I prepared this tea using a one step Western infusion process. I steeped 1 teaspoon of loose tea leaves in 8 ounces of 205 F water for 5 minutes. I tried a slightly shorter 4 minute infusion at one point and a slightly longer 6 minute infusion at another (DAVIDsTEA recommends a steep time ranging from 4-7 minutes for this particular tea), but for me, the 5 minute infusion was the best. The other two produced good results, but I thought the 5 minute infusion was just about perfect. It produced a brew that had plenty of depth and character while not being particularly bitter, biting, or astringent.
After infusion, the dark amber liquor produced aromas of malt, brown toast, fresh bread, cream, caramel, cocoa, and roasted nuts. The leafiness I get from many Ceylonese teas was there too. It kind of reminded me of an autumn leaf pile. I have no other way to describe it. In the mouth, I got a pronounced leafiness coupled with integrated notes of malt, cream, fresh bread, brown toast, cocoa, caramel, wildflower honey, and roasted nuts. There was a slight citrus fruitiness too. It almost reminded me of a mixture of lemon and orange peel.
All in all, this was a really nice Ceylon OP. Compared to many of the other generic orange pekoes I have tried over the years, this one was very balanced and drinkable while maintaining an abundance of depth and character in the mouth. Normally, I find teas like this boring. I do not have that complaint with this tea. Check this one out if you are looking for a Ceylon orange pekoe with some actual flavor.
Flavors: Autumn Leaf Pile, Bread, Caramel, Cocoa, Cream, Honey, Lemon, Malt, Orange, Roast Nuts, Toast
Preparation
This was an interesting puerh with a surprising amount of age to it. The color of the tea was a dark orange. It had developed the beginnings of aged flavor of leather and tobacco. I had been going on the assumption that this was pressed from older maocha. But the pictures from the seller clearly show a tea liquid that is very yellow. It does not seem possible that this tea has aged in my storage but it looks like it may have. I did buy this tea in 2015 when it was fairly new. I found no information on the King Tea page to suggest that this was made with older maocha. That leaves my storage by default. We do have humid summers here but it shouldn’t be good enough to age the tea this much. Who knows. I guess the only way to confirm this theory is to find something of comparable age that I have been storing and see what the flavor is. If the pictures on Aliexpress didn’t show such a yellow tea I wouldn’t even be considering this idea. And this tea was not in my pumidor. It is a question I don’t have an answer for. The taste of leather and tobacco did go away after four or five steeps and a sweeter note emarged. It became quite a tasty tea in general.
I steeped this tea twelve times in a 150ml gaiwan with 8.2g 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, and 2 min.
Flavors: Leather, Sweet, Tobacco
Preparation
That is very interesting. I have one of these cakes in humidor storage for few months and maybe I sould try it right now as it seems to have matured so much already.
King Tea didn’t have any information about the leaves and the photos on King tea were of a very yellow tea. But Berylleb sells the same tea and says it was produced with 2009 and 2015 leaves.
This is actually the second time I’ve had this in my stash. I just finished it quickly last time and never got around to logging it. The first time, my mom picked it out for me when she was away for work in Texas. Recently, she had to go back and picked up more because she remembered I liked it.
I have such a thing for Fujian black teas. This one is no exception. The leaves are a mix of chocolate brown and dark tan, delicate and skinny. Most are somewhat whole, with only a little broken leaf debris in the bottom. Dry, it smells a little bitter and musty, with a hint of smoke and tobacco-like sweetness.
But once it’s steeped, the flavor is something mellower and much more smooth. Notes of honey and hay bloom, along with that distinct finish of Fujian cocoa flavor. Almost dark chocolate. Oh yes. That’s what I’m in this for. The black teas that naturally taste like chocolate or croissants or dinner rolls. This is almost precisely that, but I have to take points off for a faint iodine flavor. Because of Teavivre and other companies, I know that note doesn’t have to be there. I’m spoiled.
One bad note doesn’t spoil the whole tea, though. I’m happy to have this back in my collection just in time for the temperatures to start to drop.
Flavors: Cocoa, Dark Chocolate, Hay, Honey, Iodine, Smoke, Tobacco
Preparation
I’m stumped. I cannot even explain this tea…..
Meaty smell, but like the beef jerky in a can kinda meaty….(https://dustysbeefjerky.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/dustys-jerky-chew2.jpeg)
And then the tea itself is just…..great! It’s like sweetly roasted meat. That’s the only way I can put it….Just sweet brown sugared beef….
On a good note: I cleaned out the old laptop. I also start my new job on Monday….
Fin
Runs away….Maniacal laughter
Flavors: Brown Sugar, Meat
I bought this tea, loved it and then stuck it in my cupboard and forgot about it till now.
It’s still wonderful. Fairly light, not at all astringent, and brown sugar and squash notes dominant in both the fragrance and the taste. The brown sugar peaks mid sip and fades out in the finish to a malty flavour which pairs well with the squash note.
Flavors: Brown Sugar, Butternut Squash, Malt
Preparation
Wow, I really didn’t like this one last time I had it…
Anyway; this was the first of three teas I had on my shift last night. I’ve decided that I kind of want to take advantage of my free tea on shift to tick off the teas on the wall I haven’t tried yet as well as revisit the ones I have tried but not recently; that way I think my product knowledge will be even better.
So, this is one of the things on the wall that I have tried before – but that was two years ago so I definitely felt like it was time for a revisit. Last time around I had this one as a tea pop but this time around I drank it iced. I have to say; I think I certainly enjoyed it A LOT more than my 43 rating would suggest that I did two years ago…
There is something about this tea that I find a little weird/out of place and even pouring over the ingredients list I can’t exactly put my finger on which of the ingredients is causing it. It’s not unpleasant, but it’s a funny sort of aftertaste that doesn’t really taste like berry/fruit and so it just seems strange with the rest of the blend. At first I thought that MAYBE it was eucalyptus? But no; definitely no euc’ in this blend.
The fruit flavours are really nice though: there are several teas on the tea wall that feature a lot of berries/red fruit but I think this is maybe one of the ones that does so more harmoniously while also still retaining individual fruit notes. Personally, I know I definitely registered the black currant, cherry, blueberry, blackberry and elderberry flavours right away and then I could sort of pick out the raspberry in the aftertaste/finish. The strawberry, and raisin were definitely more light in my opinion and less easy to pick out of the overall flavour. I should also point out I got this without sweetener as I always take my tea and personally I found it had just the right amount of natural sweetness from the fruits to feel balanced.
Friendly reminder that as much as I’d love to increase my current sitting rating for this blend at the moment I’m not rating DAVIDsTEA blends because I’m working for them for their Christmas season. Any ratings you see on a DAVIDsTEA blend are from prior to my working for them.
Maybe when you find your opinion of the tea differs a fair bit from previous times (either for the better or worse), it might be better to reset the rating so there is no number at all? Either way I think its fine and you are being honest and open about working for the company so it doesn’t matter much…just a thought I figured I would share lol.
Overall this tea wasn’t terrible. It was however not all that great. It started out with a note I can only call turpentine and a lot of bitterness and astringency. There was a massive drying sensation to this tea. It did improve dramatically over twelve steeps. It developed into something smooth with a sweet note. By the twelfth steep it was actually enjoyable. This one might be a good candidate for aging.
I brewed this tea twelve times in a 150ml gaiwan with 8.2g leaf and 190 degree 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, and 2 min.
Flavors: Bitter, Sweet
Preparation
Hey everyone, I am back! Between me moving out and breaking up with my long-term boyfriend, I found that it had killed my creativity and joy a little bit, so I had absolutely no inspiration for tea for a while. It feels good to be back, though, and I am back in force considering I am planning on making a big order from Harney and Sons. I don’t think it’s sold locally except for Indigo, which only ever carries a selection of 4 teas, all in sachet form. I’m ordering a tin of Paris, which I fell in love with (in loose leaf this time), and Boston, which I feel like is one I would really enjoy just based on its description. I need to get at least one more in order to qualify for free shipping. Does anyone have a recommendation for a good H&S tea? I generally enjoy blacks, flavoured and unflavoured, and green tea (though nothing genmaicha-like, don’t like the toastyness). Will go for herbal if it’s really good!
Today I am finishing off my mysterious “Black tea with coconut and berries”, which I have come to love and really felt comforting to sip in my toughest moments. I would love to find a replacement for this tea, as I have really come to enjoy the combination of the bright fruitiness with a delicate sweep of sweet coconut in the background, all balanced on a fine foundation of a black the base. At least now I have a tea mason jar freed up so I can fill it with more wonderful tea! If I could just get the damned sticker off completely…
With regard to Harney and Sons stuff, I really like their Earl Grey variations. The Earl Grey Supreme and Earl Grey Imperial are both really good if you like a heavy bergamot presence. I like their regular Earl Grey and Viennese Earl Grey too. Rose Scented and Apricot are both worth trying.
If you can spring for it and there is any in stock, Black King is amazing. If not the Apricot is delish. On the sweeter side, Hot Cinnamon Spice is fantastic.
Hmm, I couldn’t find any of the suggestions on their site apart from Earl Grey and hot cinnamon spice, which seems to be one of their popular ones. Or any of the “top rated” H&S teas from Steepater! Are they maybe limited edition teas? Or just out of stock?
I found most all of them. Did you use the search function rather than browsing? That was how I got them to come up. Or maybe they have a different site for Canada?
I think they must because it didn’t show up for me when I searched?
Thank the sound fidelity gods for noise canceling headphones! My mom got me a set of fancy Turtle Beach gaming headset for an early birthday present after my usual Xbox headset died, turns out I need an adapter to use them for gaming (oops) but at the moment they make excellent headphones! I am using them to blast Abney Park into my ears to block out the incredibly heinous sound of lawn mowing and leaf blowing outside my window. I swear when I do get around to owning a house there will be no grass, just moss, gravel paths, and garden patches. I truly hate grass.
Today’s tea is seasonally appropriate as the cooler weather (slowly) approaches, Moose Crown 2004 Meng Ku Private Stock Ripe Puer by Bitterleaf Teas! This Shou comes from the same year I escaped High School, so you know it will be good, made from Meng Ku big leaf material and pressed in Meng Hai Facilities. It also has the distinction of being the most expensive Shou on the BLT website at a whopping $0.48 a gram with the total 250g brick being $119.50. Most the hardcore Pu heads won’t balk at that price and will buy a tong to hoard…but I am not a Pu Head, partially because I am a bit on the poor side and that price makes me die inside a bit because I really liked this one! It was love at first sniff, with notes of sweet dates, sweet rice, peat, distant camphor, wet loam, and a touch of wet leather. It is very sweet and earthy without a hint of dirt, it is one of the cleanest smelling Shous I have sniffed with only a hint of leather, which I like. A lot of Shous I have run into have stronger either dry or wet leather and I prefer my leather well used, wet, and light if it is going to be present at all.
My beloved Djinn pot (as I call this peculiar shaped yixing) had the honor of steeping this one up for me, the aroma after a rinse and first steep is flooring, there is just so much going on! Notes of camphor, dates, peat, loam, pine sap, wet pine wood, rice water (as in the exact smell of the starchy rinse water from making sushi rice) molasses, and brown sugar. Oomph, it is like being inundated with sweetness while nesting in a hollowed out log on a summer day in a mountain forest. The liquid of the first steep is surprisingly intense with sweet and starchy notes of rice and molasses, dates and baking cocoa, an earthy finish of peat, loam, pine wood, and molasses. I correctly suspected that this was going to be a crazy session that would stick in my memory for quite a while.
This tea starts dark, even for a first steep Shou, and then by steep two it is an inky void. it is like drinking a thick pile of hot night sky, it is intense! Ok, I am going to be honest, what the color really reminds me of is Nuln Oil that has dried out a bit so is super thick, Nuln Oil is a Shade/Wash type paint I use for painting miniatures and it is one of my favorite things, I call it liquid talent. Enough about color and thickness though, the taste, oh my stars and garters that taste. It is like molasses and dark chocolate, dates and pine wood, and a touch of mineral at the first steep. The second and third steep bring in an intense pine loam taking over for the mineral, with a building camphor that manages to make the tea both warming and cooling at the same time. It was so nice to drink a shou and not get the sweats and hot flashes, because I am weird.
Somehow, by steep four, it manages to be even thicker, I almost feel like I am drinking warm honey with that thickness. The sweetness in both aroma and taste increase as well, stronger date and molasses notes with a creeping rice starchiness that reminds me a bit of mochi. Towards the end of each sip a building dark chocolate (like the really dark stuff) and pine loam creep in with a finish of camphor and lingering wet leather note that only really shows up in the aftertaste. I love how this tea really doesn’t mess with my internal temperature too much.
I didn’t really notice much of a taste change until steep ten, where the earthy notes start to fade and is mostly sweetness and now a touch of malt and woodiness. It lasted a total of fifteen steeps, finishing with distant molasses sweetness and rice starch with a date aftertaste that lingered long after I had finished. Not only did this tea taste good it felt good, it was gently warming similar to a Yancha more than a heat power station that some Shous can be, meaning I could drink this one when it was warm out and not wait til the cold weather. I also find that Shous are either very relaxing putting me into a nice stupor or incredibly energizing, usually the hotter the Qi the more energized I feel. Since this was not overly warming it was more like taking a hot bath before sleep or snuggling under a fuzzy blanket…yeah this is definitely the fuzzy blanket of tea. If it wasn’t for that massive price tag I would buy a tong and make this beast my daily before bed drinker!
For blog and photos: http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2016/11/bitterleaf-teas-moose-crown-2004-meng.html
I have the same resentment towards lawns. They’re so useless, and the weekly maintenance that people hire causes air and noise pollution. It used to be so quiet where I live, and then it escalated quickly over the past couple years. I hate it so much.
I am glad it is not just me! I feel crazy at times when I talk about my dislike of lawns and everyone looks at me like I am a nut
Nope, it’s not us whose nuts! There’s not much awareness going around that lawns are purely ornamental and really bad for the environment…
A dangerous name for a tea. I’m not quite sure “who made donuts”, but they are highly addictive.
The tea is a gorgeous loosely compressed mess. The leaves have been settling in my new clay jar for a few weeks, so they’ve had time to stink up the place. I opened the lid to be greeted by a heady floral note, strong grass, and fresh hot maple syrup. This is super dank. I warmed up my shibo and prepared for brewing. The scent of the vibrant leaves opened up into some crystallized brown sugar, oatmeal, and pancakes drowned in maple syrup (maybe breakfast is on my mind). The taste is springy. The brew begins heavy on lemon and acidity. Then, the soup soothes out to a freshly baked apple turnover. The taste is very nice, flaky, and sweet. However, the acidity lingers in the background sparking the taste buds. The aftertaste is thick and long with powdered sugar and fruit. Then, the donut hit me. A smooth cooling sensation that begins around steep two melds with the acidity and rises from the stomach. The process is slow but constant. Suddenly, I experienced an intense pressure on my solar plexus that chilled my lungs. The frost moves up and down my spine bumping into the back of my neck. This tea is a powerhouse. The feeling is electric and uplifting with viscosity whipping the tongue. Lastly, a good note, the brew remains sweet in the forefront throughout the entire session. The dessert taste fades but a stevia succulence persists. A very nice tea. I can see why it has such a price.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BMJiQj3AC1a/?taken-by=haveteawilltravel
Flavors: Apple, Bitter Melon, Floral, Grass, Lemon, Maple Syrup, Pancake Syrup, Pastries, Sugar, Sweet
Preparation
The beginning of the cold weather pretty much always signals a return to Keemun for me, and it looks like this year is no exception. I think the rich dark chocolate and smoke characteristics are what pull me back towards it as soon as the mornings turn chilly. They’re not flavours I particularly crave in the summer, but now…
I started this year with the superfine fragrant, and now I’m trying this one. The leaves here are much shorter and a lot less tippy, but still thin and wiry in appearance. I used 1 tsp of leaf, and gave it 4 minutes in boiling water, splash of milk.
To taste, this is mostly cocoa-like dark chocolate, slightly drying, with a light undertone of smoke. There’s also an edge of juiciness that reminds me of Taiwanese black teas. It’s strong and malty, quite sweet after the richness of the initial sip has worn off. I’m not usually a fan of anything smoky, but on this occasion I’m actually a fan. I think without it this would be a pretty one-note tea, but as it is it’s adding an element of depth that I’m really enjoying, and it stops it from crossing the line into too sweet/cloying. A pretty solid keemun, all in all, and one I’d be more than happy to drink again.
Preparation
My 7-year-old+ laptop has not been making me a happy camper as of late, showing me the Spinning Wheel of Doom and running more and more slowly by the day, it seems. It’s cooperating now at least, hours after finishing this jug, but oh well.
I’ve been really distracted by university- and job interview-related stuff lately, especially today, so that jug was absentmindedly chugged without very much consideration. Despite the distractions, my brain happened to pick up on a ton of tart hibiscus with a dot of strawberry. Not much else going on. It’s ok, but not even close to exquisite or magnificent.
Whoa, it’s 11°C outside right now? What am I doing inside? No wonder why I feel like cold brewed tea today. I should go for a walk but I’ve been so lazy trying to heal this sore neck. Hmm. Fresh air is good air though.
I don’t see much fresh BaDa, so I was excited to try this one out. The leaf is quite compressed and gives off a heavy bitter scent with some thick floral background. The hefty chunk is stone fruity and bright. I warmed up my gaiwan and placed a chunk inside. The tea is oddly fragrant, haha. The leaf opens up some and gives potent scents of peach and apricot alike gummy candy. The fruit aroma grows fat after washing and continues to explore the tea room while brewing. The taste begins bitey and fresh with lemon grass notes. A slight peppercorn taste peeks through the bright sunshineyness. The huigan builds hard and thick in the back of the throat with a sweet tang. The energy is very good and percolates my vessels. However, the tea is quite basic. The tones continue to be soft and slowly moving, but I sensed no extreme bitter, sweet, or unique tastes. The sheng is nice and grassy and becomes dry over time. This raw stuff is quite basic, but the qi is something nice. A nice bright summer energy. I enjoyed the tea, but I don’t think i’ll get a cake.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BIAseP2gx0h/?taken-by=haveteawilltravel&hl=en
Flavors: Apricot, Bitter, Candy, Freshly Cut Grass, Grass, Peach, Pepper
Preparation
I was going through the sample bowl, when I found this.
I thought you were gone, Peanut Butter Cup. I thought I had vanquished you! I thought, with my full sized packet gone, I would never need to see you again. But here you are, a smug little sample packet, and you’ve ruined my cupboard numbers again.
I could, of course, just have thrown it away, no one any the wiser, and been done with it, but I’ve got a rouge completionist streak in me, and I decided I’d bring it to work, and give it one last shot.
And nope. Still dislike it. I’m gonna finish this cup, and this time its a sipdown for rea. (Please? Universe, don’t spring any more of this on me)
