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I’m starting to feel that keemun is just not for me. I can’t put my finger on a single thing wrong with this tea — it’s smooth, rich, and free from bitterness — but somehow it’s just not appealing. The Fengqing Dragon Pearls and the Bailin Gongfu that came with this one in Teavivre’s sampler are so much more interesting.

I had so many problems trying to make this tea last winter, but now that summer is here and I’m trying it iced, I feel like all my troubles are over. The flavor is rich and elegant, and finally the black and green tea are working with instead of against each other. It tastes like peach and rose, with an emphasis on the peach. The rose is more in the aroma. I never could taste the jasmine that’s supposed to be in this mix, and I still don’t, but neither do I miss it.

Amazing the difference temperature can make.

This tea tastes different every time, possibly because I can’t get my steep times under control. It seems less biting and more vegetal this time around. Very good. Plus the fuzzy tea leaves are adorable.

Had this once a long time ago, and steeped it up tonight in the hopes that it would be better than I remembered. It’s not. It smells like dusty alfalfa hay, and it tastes the way I imagine alfalfa hay would taste if you brewed it. It’s also kind of drying to the mouth, even though it’s not astringent. Upton lists this under their ‘bold’ teas, and I liked the sound of that, because I find all too often that white tea is weak and flavorless (and also, I thought, how bold can it really be?) But Upton is not kidding about this, the tea boldly and strongly tastes like hay. I guess I should see how the neighboring horses feel about it.

I am new to Bailin Gongfu, so this tea came as something of a surprise to me. Aside from the Lapsang Souchong, all the teas in the Teavivre black tea sampler I’ve been working through have been mellow and mild. But this tea is hearty. Somewhat earthy. For the first time, I’m understanding why people say ‘bread notes’ when describing tea. There’s some sort of vegetable it reminds me of, but for the life of me, I can’t put my finger on exactly which one. And there are other elusive flavors too. Man, this tea is complicated. Anyway, I like it, but it’s a lot to take in all at once. Maybe I’ll be able to sort out the flavors better the second time around.

Finally settling down with this and a big bowl of popcorn to write the artist notes I’ve been trying to get my head around all morning. This is my #1 stand-by tea. It’s cheap and excellent. While it’s notably more balanced when you steep it correctly, I’ve never been able to truly ruin it, a sterling testament to the tea’s fortitude, as I excel at oversteeping and all other kitchen-related disasters.

This tea smells so peachy keen, I was expecting to be hit with a blast of flavor. But it’s actually a very subtle tea. I couldn’t taste much till I added a bit of raw sugar, and then the peach came alive. Still subtle, but in a delightful way. The jasmine is even more in the background, but it rounds out the peach flavor nicely.

As to appearance, these pearls are huge! Even bigger than Teavivre’s plain jasmine pearls. The size actually makes them a bit tricky to measure. Do people just count them out? I used 10, which filled a teaspoon more or less. It seemed in the ballpark of correct, but maybe 1 or 2 more pearls would have been nice.

I was apprehensive about this tea because the dry leaf smells dreadful. I read somewhere that the leaves are sometimes smoked over pine tar rather than pine wood, and I wonder if that’s the case for this one, because it smells like pine tar. With heavy emphasis on the tar, and not much on the pine.

That said, most lapsang souchongs taste better than they smell, in my opinion, so I forged ahead.

When I first sipped it, I didn’t like it, though it definitely tasted better than it smelled. Now that it’s cooled a bit, it tastes nicer, sweeter and more mellow. There’s still a faint note of something that just doesn’t appeal to me though.

I have a feeling that this tea might just be too authentic for my sheltered American tastes. I’ve never really been into lapsang souchongs, but of those I’ve tried, I liked David’s the best. It was recognizably smoky, but still on the mild side.

Um, I go back and forth on this one. Some days I don’t know what I like. Am I or am I not into smoky green tea? It’s become like a deep philosophical riddle for me. Also, I think I steeped this slightly too long, so that’s not helping me decide.

Despite the almost identical name, there are huge differences between this and the FLAVORED Taiwan Jin Xuan Milk Oolong. While the flavored one veers strongly into sweet cream, this one is very vegetal, smooth and buttery, a little sweet but not much. They’re both great. I requested a sample of this so that I could figure out which I liked better, but now I see I’m going to need both.