teaplz

SENCHA WIN!

I think I got the hang of this now.

Today I was determined to get this tea correct. I messed up so badly the first time through, that I wanted the second time to be pitch-perfect. So I used a teaspoon of this in 8 oz. of water (instead of a tablespoon in 9 oz.) and steeped it for a minute. I started my pour at about 50 seconds, just to make sure I wasn’t going overboard.

And WOW, okay, the difference is astounding just in color alone. I’ve got here a clear, lime-green liquid. It’s absolutely stunning to look at. Not olive-green sludge that I had the last time. There’s a bit of green, foamy-looking sediment at the bottom. Nom nom.

And the smell coming off of the cup is definitely more of what sencha is supposed to smell like. It’s highly grassy, with buttery undertones. It smells like a fresh-cut lawn.

Now the taste. Okay, you know what? I can get behind this. I get this. There’s definitely a high grass content to this, so if grass isn’t your thing, then this shouldn’t be for you. It melds into a very light, butter note,. This is chased by a more savory element to the tea, a briny element that reminds me of kelp or seaweed. Rounding out the flavor is a touch of bitterness. It’s bitterness, mind you, not from oversteeping. It’s an inherent and almost pleasant quality.

There’s a mouthfeel too! Not as silky as something like Samovar’s Ryokucha, but it feels full and dense.

I recommend waiting a bit between sips, because a most wonderful aftertaste will grow across your tongue. I can’t describe it, but it almost tastes like you’ve sucked the chlorophyll out of a leaf. Even though I’ve never done that before… that’s what it tastes like. A very specific, juicy-green sweetness. Really bright and pleasing.

So yeah, I think I’ve got the idea about this sencha thing now, and it’s actually a lot better than I thought it was going to be! Thank you, Steepster, for helping me figure out what was wrong with my abysmal first steep, and thanks to takgoti, for being kind enough to send me some of this to nom on!

Finally some good tea today!

I’m actually completely snowed in today. I tried walking around outside and nearly fell on my face. Several times. There was no way I was going to make it to the bus stop in those conditions. Not to mention the severe delays.

So I figured I’d steep up some very happy-making tea, to ward off the cold. And to have something delicious to drink! We’re winding down to the end of the Golden Moon sampler here… just Honey Pear and Coconut Pouchong left.

Anyway, when I cut open the package, there was an awesome rush of a sugar and caramel and delicious smell. Man. It’s leaning more towards the sugary side of things, smell-wise, but this is pretty intoxicating. I kept sticking my nose in the packet and breathing in deep. Ahhhhh. I’m not getting a lot of an oolong smell from it, which is perfectly fine.

So I steeped up a teaspoon of this bad boy, and watched the leaves unfurl. Rolled oolongs. So. Much. Fun. The resulting infusion was a light goldenrod color, and the smell coming off of it? Delicious. Absolute chewy, buttery oolong goodness, which I was surprised about. I thought it’d be more of a sugar/caramel smell, but nope. There’s a heady floral component to it. Almost like a wildflower honey smell (which is delicious, by the way).

Hot, I’m just getting a sort of light, buttery-oolong style note. But as the cup cooled down, I began to taste a delicious trace of sugar, and hints of caramel after every sip. The taste is pleasingly light. I don’t know why I thought this would be darker and more syrupy, but it really isn’t. This is so pleasantly sippable that I’m holding my mug in two hands and sticking my face in it, a little smile on my face.

I’ve been so deprived of good tea.

Anyway, as the tea cools even more, there’s this little magical period where the sugary taste really comes to the forefront. The cup even smells more like the dry leaves. It’s absolutely delicious. The oolong here is very light and supporting. It’s funny. It’s like all the components here are in an ensemble cast. I can’t really pick out a dominant flavor, which I like.

The second steep for me (3:00, 190 degrees) wasn’t as good as the first. It was definitely drinkable, but it had that sort of spent-leaf taste that I don’t really enjoy. It’s almost a heavier flavor, an overcooked vegetable flavor. There was still a little bit of a sugary taste to it, but everything was much more muted.

But yes. Yum.

Okay, this one smells really delicious. Like ginger and peaches and lovely stuff like that. Really heady and strong. My dad kept stealing the teabag from me and sniffing the contents and oohing and ahhing.

The bag is really cute too. Some sort of silky fabric, and inside… TEA. Like, actual leaves. This makes me very, very happy. I was very tempted to go in there and FREE THE LEAVES but I figured I should try to steep this puppy up the way it’s meant to be steeped: in the bag.

Anyway, since my friend at work gave me the bag, I had no idea what the parameters were. So I just steeped this up for a bit, and… yeah. The tea doesn’t smell as good as the dry. There’s a bit of a musky/musty order, and the black tea smells a bit dusty. But it’s not that bad.

So I go in for the sip and… hrm. The black tea here is pretty bitter. The ginger peeps through and then trounces your tongue. Bounces on it like a trampoline and says “HAI THURR.” It dissipates into a peach flavor that’s actually pretty okay-tasting, except for the fact that there’s a peach hand lotion taste to it. Like if you’ve ever licked your hand after putting on lotion. That sort of creamy/icky/soapy taste. Yeah. I don’t know what it’s doing in there, since I don’t wear lotion, or maybe it’s just some weird by-product, but anyway…

This one was a bit bizarre. Successive sips made it taste better, and when it cooled it tasted a bit better and sweeter, but I couldn’t get past the hand lotion taste. And the bitterness of the black.

Sigh. Well, tomorrow’s Friday and I’ll be able to steep some lovely stuff at home! Looking forward to the NOMNESS.

Oh NO.

Ew.

So I was a bit adventurous at work today, and I figured, let’s explore the options in the Flavia machine! Oh look! Here’s a Japanese green!

So I have no idea what the leaves look like, because they’re concealed in a foil packet thinger. I’m pretty sure there is leaf in this, and it’s just not powder. Although I wouldn’t be surprised if it was powder. If I get bored enough, I just might cut one of these suckers open. I wonder if I’ll be horrified at the contents.

Anyway, this steeps/pours/does whatever and it’s a neon green, akin to a sencha or ryokucha. NOT BAD, I’m thinking to myself. The smell coming off the cup isn’t half bad either! It’s grassy in a very Japanese green/sencha-like way, with a very faint hint of butteryness. Hrm.

So I wait for it to cool, and sip, and HOLY GOD BAD. Yeah. Um. What the hell. I feel bad for the poor person that had this, thinking that this is what sencha really tastes like, and then never had Japanese green tea again. It’s ridiculously bitter. You can tell that the machine has absolutely no clue about water temperatures and steep times and the like. The leaves taste like they’re screaming for help, dying as they’re engulfed in scalding water. It’s such an unpleasant taste. Blech.

I tolerated a few sips before I had to toss this one. This makes me only all the more eager to nail the sencha I have here in my house even more.

And so the work tea saga continues…

Hrm. So maybe this whole work tea experience isn’t working out quite as well as I hoped!

So I figured I’d finish off the sample that takgoti sent me, and try some Ancient Emerald Lily at work (I have a tin of this as well).

I think the problem is actually my Flavia machine’s water. I’m not sure having the water run through the same spout that produces coffee and hot chocolate and various types of tea is such a good thing. Or maybe it’s just the water that tastes bad…

Anyway, this tea, which is one that I found in the past to be very enjoyable, pretty much fell flat today. None of the flavors really stood out. There was a weird, almost mineral-like taste, and the formally nutty notes were really harsh and unpleasant. The lower water temperature I used really caused the tea to lose a lot of its astringency, which was definitely pleasant. And as the cup cooled, there was definite green-sweet peeping through.

But overall, the cup just wasn’t as good as I’ve had in the past. Tea is probably 99% water, so I have a feeling the water might be the key to my problem. The next step is going to be boiling some water in the microwave and then letting it cool to an appropriate temperature. Or I might test another tea, like Adagio’s Gunpowder, and see how it stands up to these icky water conditions. I don’t want to be ruining tea with bad water.

Looks like the hot water kettle + bottled water might just end up being the more viable option…

My first tea at work! I brought in a mug, a thermometer, my Finum Brewing Basket, and some tea, of course! I figured I’d start wearing down some of my samples. I don’t want to be brewing stuff I haven’t tasted yet in the office.

I measured the water temperature in the office, and it tops out at 180. Bah. So I guess that means greens and whites for now, until I get a kettle. I’m scared of exploding water in the microwave, so blacks will have to wait.

Anyway, this one steeped up to a very light color. I adjusted the temperature and steep time to maybe mellow out some of the astringency and weird mineral flavors that I got the first time I tasted this one.

The infusion was really a very light cream-yellow, almost the color of a white tea. And the smell coming off of it was a lot more buttery than I remembered. But the leaves smell kind of gross wet. I can’t describe it. But it’s unappealing.

The taste this time… woah. Okay, so the mineral weirdness is still there. But now I’m really, really tasting pine cones. Like, wet, kind of old pine cones, mixed with a vegetal taste that’s really kind of like spinach. And then it’s blending into a sweet taste, but this only happens after the cup has cooled. I think the rating is staying where it is. This one isn’t exactly the best thing I’ve ever tasted, by far.

It’s good for mindless sipping, but I can’t say that I’m particularly enjoying the flavors that I’ve extracted out of this one.

Jon and I attended the Coffee and Tea Festival today in NYC! I wanted to write about it, but didn’t know how to do so. I mean, we tasted such a huge variety of tea, but didn’t have enough to form completely valid opinions about everything. So I figured I’d do a little write-up about what the event was like, who was there, what was worth tasting, etc. I seriously took notes. Because we had SO MUCH FUN.

BEWARE THIS IS LONG RAWR

So we walked into the convention center, took the elevator up to the 11th floor, and the door opened to… tea and coffee everywhere! Seriously. Woah. The whole thing ended up being a lot smaller than we both thought it would be, but it was still full of stuff to taste. Please note, I only had extremely small, half-Dixie-cup-sized proportions of these teas. So that’s why they’re not getting individual ratings. Also, a convention floor isn’t exactly the best place to brew proper tea and drink it either. Just a disclaimer. That being said…

The first company that Jon and I stopped at was Rishi. I’m a fan of theirs, so I wanted to see what they were steeping up. They were serving their Organic Silver Needle, and a Masala Chai made from a concentrate that if I heard correctly, is going to be sold exclusively at Whole Foods. Their Organic Silver Needle is probably the best that I’ve had. The flavors were smooth and sweet and delicate, with a bit of a savory finish. Nothing too vegetal or green-bean-like, like I tasted out of Harney’s SN. Really stupendously smooth and refreshing. Their Chai was actually very delicious as well. It was served with soymilk, and even though the flavors were a bit more hyper-concentrated than I think would have typically been found in chai, the taste was just there. I still prefer the stovetop method, and I like my chai hot (this was cold), but this would be amazing in a jiffy.

Later, Rishi served their Golden Yunnan, which I loved as well. There was an almost caramel, sweet potato taste to it. A bit brisk, but really very delicious. The girls at the both were absolutely great. We ended up talking about the magic of Rishi’s Purple Bamboo and tea in general. I ended up purchasing a tin of the SN. Can’t wait to dig into it with a full review!

The next vendor that we visited was Sara’s Tea Caddie. I seriously wish I would have gone back and bought the tea she was showcasing, because it really was some delicious Japanese greens. She had out a Kukicha and a Genmaicha when we arrived, both poured from adorable kyusu! This was my first ever Kukicha, and even though it was a few sips, it was nicely buttery and grassy. The genmaicha was absolutely delicious. I only took a sip or two, because Jon pretty much devoured the entire thing. It was his absolute favorite of the day. Roasty and cereal-like and grassy and just plain yum!

Tavalon had one of the biggest displays, with four teas set out, and a DJ mixing the beats. Honestly, they were the biggest disappointment to me. Maybe it just wasn’t gelling with me today. They had Serenity, Summer Fruits, Peachy Oolong, and Crimson Punch. Summer Fruits had a a fruit-gummy apricot flavor that I found unappealing. I think it’s hard to nail the peach/apricot flavor in tea. It usually tastes artifical, as this did. Peachy Oolong was a bit better, but didn’t have a lot of the juicy oolong notes that I’ve grown to love. Crimson Punch tasted exactly like a Sweet-Tart, so if you’re into that sort of thing, this will be right up your alley. Nothing was really a stand-out in particular.

A local outfit from Flushing, Queens, Fang Gourmet Tea was serving up a Golden Lily Oolong accented with Osmanthus blossoms. The smell coming off of this one absolutely delicious. Serious buttery oolong notes that accents its creamy yellow color. The taste fell a bit flat, though. Maybe it was understeeped? It could have been the Styrofoam cup that I was drinking this one out of. Blah, Styrofoam.

Hancha Tea only has a Facebook page, but they had a pretty impressive display at the festival. They’re from Korea, and they have a lot of unusual and exotic herbals. I tasted their Bountiful Earth blend, which is their genmaicha. It was good, but not as wonderiffic as Sara’s.

For someone wanting to support a good cause, Shapna is a coffee and tea project, student-run, based on raising money for various charities. I tried their Black tea, which I believe comes out of Bangladesh, and it was… black tea. I couldn’t really get any flavor out of it other than that. Very default. Very drinkable, but very close to Lipton’s. They’re good to support, though, so… yeah.

Harney & Sons had a nice big display as well, and they were giving out tons of free samples. I brought home some pyramid bags, and I sampled their Pomagranate Oolong. It was fairly tasty, but both the fruit notes and the oolong notes didn’t really sync up together. There just wasn’t enough substance to justify me wanting to drink more of this tea. They also had their Hot Cinnamon Spice and Paris blends up for trying, but I didn’t give them a go.

One of the biggest winners of the festival was SerendipiTEA. Talk about putting a good foot forward and showcasing some really fine tea. They had out for tasting their Buccaneer, Red Oz, and Fiji blends. I tried the Fiji first, and mmmm. The scent of the infusion was almost apple-like, but the taste was wonderfully tropical. Notes of pineapple and fruity goodness reminded me of palm trees, set wonderfully against the backdrop of green tea. Buccaneer was actually Jon’s favorite tea of the day (tied with Sara’s Genmaicha). This one tasted amazingly of coconut, and it was probably, hands-down, the best flavored tea of the day. The vanilla came through, accented slightly with chocolate, but the coconut was the real star here. Red Oz was served iced, and it was a delicious palate clenser. The rooibos and lemon myrtle was simple but elegant.

I got to talking to the people at the booth about the company and such, and expressed my love of their vanilla-black blend, Colonille. They were super-nice and wonderful. I picked up their Milk Oolong, which was on sale (as was everything else in the booth!). It was super-hard not to just raid everything there.

As for the non-tea items, I have to say, Red Bee’s honey was one of the best I’ve ever tasted. I had their Wildflower and Creamed and Honeycomb and Blueberry and oooooh. So. Good. I could just spread this honey over everything. Jon had fun nomming on Cabot cheese (the Pepperjack was his favorite) and he purchased some Best Friends Cocoa, which was absolutely delicious (but absolutely dangerous to super lactose-intolerant me!). He got their Marshmallow blend, but they had delish stuff like Raspberry and Cinnamon. Seriously good.

Great Spirits Baking Company had a rum-chocolate cake that was a bit too alcoholic for me, and Mountauk Beverageworks bottled iced tea was surprisingly refreshing with its lemongrass kick. A promo table for an upcoming beerfest had some coffee beers. The coffee stouts were pretty good, and the vanilla java was servicable.

I didn’t really get into the coffee that much (the acidity of it hurts my stomach), but let me tell you, the Turkish coffee was unbelievable. Seriously. I’ve never tasted anything like it. It blows regular coffee out of the water. So thick and interesting and non-bitter and complex. Homygawd.

Overall, the event was amazing amounts of fun. I brought home so many samples to try! I’ll be drinking them in the upcoming weeks. I’m on such a tea high right now! WHEEEEE! I can’t wait till next year!

Regular Ceylon, move over, Sinharaja is here! Not only does it have a far more exotic name, but the taste matches it.

I’m almost at the bottom of my Golden Moon sampler – just this, Honey Pear, Sugar Caramel Oolong, and Coconut Pouchong. I have scraps and bits from some of the other teas in the box, but the tasting is almost over. It makes me almost melancholic, really. This box was truly the beginning of my tea education.

Anyway, Sinharaja looks pretty gorgeous for a black. The leaves are beautifully brown and wiry, and very long and unbroken. The smell coming off of the dry leaf is pretty basic. There’s an almost grape-berry smell, slightly similar to a Darjeeling, but it’s really more of a traditional black tea smell.

So I steeped this one up, and the leaves unfurled quite a bit more than I thought they would. They floated up and down, up and down, sort of like a madcap carousel. I was really anticipating this one…

And it delivers! Now, mind you, I sort of think I’m a bit blown away by this one because it is actually a Ceylon. I don’t know how super-excited I’d be if it wasn’t. But for a Ceylon, this is probably one of the best I’ve tasted. The smell coming off of the burnt amber cup is very just “default black tea.” Which I was a bit worried about, because honestly… it smells like a typical toasty Ceylon. But the taste…

It’s a bit more brisk than I thought it was going to be. There’s a pretty heavy berry-like note, followed by a delicious, honey-related note. This one is just one of those compulsively drinkable cups, where the flavors are just smooth and satisfying. I don’t know if I’d be craving this one continually, but I have fallen into like with it. In that kindergartner way. It’s light and yummy and sweet and scratches my black tea itch. Mmmm.

All of the other reviews are right. This is a really special Ceylon!

EDIT: Listen to sophistre! Seriously. I resteeped this (4:30, boiling), which I would have never done with a black, unless someone seriously recommended it. And this is the best resteep of a black I’ve ever tasted. EVER. It tastes completely different than the first steep, but somewhat related. Like cousins or something.

I was a bit worried when I smelled the wet leaves after the second steep, because they smelled… spent. That dead-black smell you get after a resteep that just screams, LEAVE ME ALONE I’VE DONE MY DUTY. But those leaves? They lied. Seriously, because this second cup is lighter than the first, without any of the brisk qualities, and tastes like sugared raisins. With some berry notes. But sugared raisins. Mmmmm.

So. Good. Thanks, sophistre, for pointing out the wonders of the second steep on this puppy!

Whoo, I’m breaking in my Finum Basket with one of the two teas that I picked up from Rishi, and let me tell you, this was super-exciting to try! And I’m feeling much better now. Thank you to everyone for the well wishes!

Purple Bamboo is one of the most unusual tasting teas that I have ever tasted. The Finum Basket is ingenious. But let’s talk about the tea first, shall we?

I opened my bag, and I don’t know what I was expecting, but boy, is this oolong gorgeous! All of the leaves are unbroken, partially fluffy, and silver tipped mixed with a purple-ish and brown leaf. Some of the leaves were over an inch long! Seriously beautiful. The smell coming off them was very unusual as well. Like a Darjeeling, with that grape-wine smell, mixed with the smell of fresh-cut lumber. Really interesting. I’ve never smelled an oolong like this!

So I put two tablespoons into my mug, and poured six ounces of water over the very large and wiry leaves. And I let them steep. The leaves themselves didn’t expand too much; they did drink a lot of the water though. I think I might have ended up with five ounces after it was all said and done. But the Finum really is a doll. The lid fits on perfectly, there was not a single speck of tea leaf in my infusion, and the whole thing was really just perfect.

The resulting tea was a gorgeous yellow in color, buttery almost in hue. Similar to the color of a green oolong when steeped, or a very dark white, like a bai mu dan. And the smell coming off the leaves… buttery with a hint of muscatel-likeness. So strange!

And it gets even stranger with the taste, because I don’t think I can describe it. But we shall try, Steepster, we shall try! On my first sip, I very nearly said aloud, “WAT.” Because I wasn’t expecting this!

The upfront of the flavor is very definitely nutty. Like a walnut nutty. It’s very pronounced, and it blends into an almost Chinese green tasting veggie-flavor, which then slides into a very Darjeeling-esque taste. On some sips I’m getting really floral notes, similar to a rose. On other sips, there’s hints of buttery goodness. Then at the end there’s a sweet aftertaste, similar to the juicy feeling after eating cherries, or green grapes. Sometimes that note is a bit softer and more flowery in nature.

It’s all so wonderfully strange and bizarre that I probably finished this cup in a good five minutes. There’s just SO much going on here. Really, really intriguing stuff.

This was the perfect cap to a really annoying week, devoid of any tea, and healthy feelings. I’m really so happy that I purchased this one – so awesome! So many different flavors and feelings and sensations that combines into a rich and intriguing cup. I’ll be updating with the second steep information soon, because I’m definitely not done with this bad boy!

EDIT: Okay, so let’s talk about the Second Steep (3:00, 170 degrees) of this baby. I think this is the first time ever, for me, that the second steep has really rivaled the first, and managed to bring something new to the table, while being absolutely delicious and wonderful in its own right. The tea this time around is smells stronger of grape than it does of butter, and the taste… mmmmmmm! The wine-like Darjeeling flavors have trumped the nutty flavors, and mixed wonderfully with the more flowery components to produce an almost soft Darjeeling. There’s still hints of butter and nuts, but they’re much fainter. As if cools, there’s a fruity-tart-sugary-sweetness that’s pleasantly addicting. Yes. Mmmm. More. The tea isn’t weaker in the slightest, and it’s a bit sweet-tarter than the first cup. Yeah, this is serious love going on right here.

I’ve never had a tea that morphed in a good way on the second steep. 90% of the time I’ve been really disappointed with second steeps, and the other times, the first cup has tasted much like the second. This one is perfectly awesome on the second cup. LOVE.

Warm spice cake in a mug. That’s sort of how Ocean of Wisdom tastes.

So I’ve been pretty sick all day, and sick the entire week, just kind of miserably getting through the week. I’ve been alternating between drinking chamomile and peppermint, trying to get my stomach in order, and my cramps in check. It’s been working, for the most part.

But tonight, after a particularly awful day, I need something a bit more special to wind down with. Let me tell you, this is hitting the spot. I steeped it a bit longer this time, using a whole teaspoon, and the smell coming from my cup is more heavily of cloves than anything else. This is probably because there was a whole clove mixed into my teaspoon. Not a bad thing, but as I’ve said previously, cloves are just not my best friend.

The taste though… it’s still light, but it’s got more of an earthy depth to it. The rooibos tastes like the way it must smell in a forest after it rains. Warm, wet wood. The cinnamon and ginger are highlights here, with the clove playing backup. The licorice rounds things out with a haunting sweetness after every sip.

There’s just something so pleasing and mellow about this cup. I only wish that every herbal blend had the complexity and warmth that Ocean of Wisdom does. A perfect cozy-up-and-snuggle-and-get-ready-for-sleeptime concoction!

And Steepster, I miss you!

Happy President’s Day, American Steepsters! I hope you’re enjoying your day off from work!

Anyway, I booted up Mass Effect this morning and spent about an hour trying to come up with a halfway decent character build, that had some of my features. This turned out to be nearly impossible. Well, at least she’s not super-ugly: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v601/SinderellaxD/IMG_0855.jpg Poor, poor Shepard.

Anyway, after taking forever creating my little space marine-ette, I decided to brew some tea. And why not chocolate mint? I’ve been in the mood for chocolate since yesterday, when I received a big box of Godiva dark chocolate. Mmm. Dark chocolate > milk chocolate in every situation.

Harney, hats off for delicious-smelling tea, because this smells amazing. Like rich, quality chocolate mixed with fresh mint. Something Godiva or Lindt or Ghiradelli would put out. Mmm. I could inhale the perfume coming from my little sample bag all day.

But let’s get on with the review, before I start going off on tangents about the joys of mint chocolate chip ice cream and candies. The leaves here are fairly small, and they blend nicely with the peppermint leaves. I steeped this one up, and the infusion smelled… interesting.

Okay. It smells kind of like black tea, but a weak black tea, without a strong chocolate or mint smell. Both the chocolate and the mint are present only when I inhale really hard. Then they come up in the tail end of the inhale.

And the taste… definitely does not live up to the smell. This is sort of hugely disappointing. The front end of the taste is a fairly weak black tea profile. It’s not really robust or spicy. You can tell it’s meant to play a supporting role to the star players here, which is fine, except the star players have vacated the premise. The flavor that I’m mainly getting is mint in the aftertaste. It’s nice and cool and lingering, but the chocolate? Nowhere to be found.

I mean, there’s a sweetness that’s somewhat chocolate-like in the end note of the flavor, but it’s nothing compared to that magical chocolate/hazelnut combo in Florence.

Only after the cup cooled down significantly to the luke-warm range did chocolate appear. It was a nice chocolate taste, and it mingled rather well with the peppermint, but the black tea was sort of drowning it out. The entire thing overall was just very weak. Weak-tasting.

I’m probably more disappointed than anything because the smell vs. taste here is so different. Ah well! Definitely drinkable, but I can’t see myself ordering any more of this after my sample has run out!

This one is so bizarre.

So this is the last of my TeaGschwendner teas to taste, and I really haven’t been enjoying any of their offerings. This might be near the top of the pack, however.

I actually really love chocolate with heat and spice. Lindt makes a pretty awesome chocolate and chili bar, and I’m sure other companies do as well. So why not a chocolate and chili tea?

This one is actually very beautiful dry. There’s red pieces of chili, and the seeds, all against pieces of bean and black tea. It pretty much smells like chocolate, but mixed with a bean-like smell. Maybe it’s because the chocolate flavor is mainly coming from the pieces of bean and nib and other random cocoa pieces?

Anyway, after this one is steeped, the color is a very brilliant orange-red color. It’s surprisingly lighter than I thought it would be, and smells almost like a watered down version of H&S’s Florence, without the hazelnut. Which was a pretty good sign!

The taste… is really actually different than I thought it was going to be. There is a black tea taste, but it’s fairly subtle. In fact, all of the flavors are a bit subtle. I wish it was a bit more robust, but… it’s definitely serviceable. The chocolate actually tastes better than I expected it would. I wasn’t thinking that it was going to be a real true milk chocolate-type taste after I had read other people’s tasting notes. But I was surprised that it didn’t taste like that fake, cheap dollar-store chocolate. It’s more of a savory chocolate taste than a sweet one, which I think is a bit fun.

Now, onto the chili. I immediately felt a bit of the tingle on my tongue. I’m hyper-sensitive to this stuff, so… yeah. I’m the one that orders mild. It was a nice tingle, though. It’s less of a chili-specific taste, and more of a heat that builds. I felt it in the back of the throat as well. Luckily, it wasn’t overwhelming!

The tea becomes a bit more tasteless as it cools, which was disappointing. But overall, this one’s fairly good. Definitely not the best chocolate tea ever (for now, that spot is held by Harney’s Florence), but the chili is a nice little twist. I can’t ever see myself ordering this again, as it’s a novelty thing more than a lasting thing, but it’s good for what it is!

Now it’s time to watch the Amazing Race and laugh at the fact that that silly beauty queen idiot is on! Happy Valentine’s Day, Steepster!

Mmmmm!

So I figured that since it’s the weekend, I should make a tea that I can’t possibly make on the weekdays with my new schedule. What tea better to make than a chai. Not only a chai, but a pu-erh chai?

So for this one, I used the traditional takgoti recipe for chai (1 tbsp chai, 1 tbsp sugar, 1 cup milk (soy), 1 cup water) and did the traditional simmering thing. First off, let’s talk about the dry leaves, which are gorgeous. There’s large chunks of cinnamon bark here, and my sample had a single, seagreen cardamom pod. The smell was spicy, rich and earthy. Just the way I like it.

One of the most wonderful smells is chai simmering on a stovetop. Seriously. Everyone that walked into my kitchen kept MMMing and AHHHing. It’s pretty cold here in NYC, and the smell was just immediately warming and comforting.

I should note that I used Very Vanilla Silk soymilk in this one. I would have used regular vanilla, but I was out of it. Besides, Very Vanilla is actually creamier, less nutty, and tastes like a melted vanilla milkshake. So I figured it’d pair nicely with the earth accents of the chai. Anyway, this one simmering smelled deliciously of cinnamon and cardamom, with a delicious pu-erh base.

Before I poured the milk in, the water/sugar/tea combo was ridiculously dark. The leaves almost disappeared in the murkiness. It was pretty interesting. Once the milk was added, the chai was significantly darker than your run-of-the-mill black chai. More like chocolate milk instead of caffe au lait.

After letting it sit for 9+ minutes, I strained the concoction and poured. The first though I had with sipping this was, boy, is this rich and sweet. Seriously sweet. I think I might need to lay a bit lower with the sugar next time, since Very Vanilla is pretty sugariffic. But anyway, the sweetness here was delicious. Then the spices came in, with soft accents of cardamom and puffs of cinnamon. The finish was rich and deep and pu-erh, which was welcome and wonderful. I don’t think the pu-erh is overwhelming here as well, but serves as a backbone to the spices instead.

Even my mom liked this one, and she pretty much intensely dislikes the taste of pu-erh. She said that it was “warming and welcoming,” which is entirely true.

I didn’t really get any of the citrus that GM points out in their tasting notes, but sweet, rich, spiced, wonderful goodness is all here. Chai is its own drink. It’s tea, but it goes above and beyond tea to this rich and delicious concoction. I think this method of preparation has to beat the pants off of just adding milk to a regular cup of chai-like tea. You don’t get the combination of delicious flavors, the uniformity of a unique beverage. Mmmmmm.

I also put a little in the fridge to cool. This bit after it was ice-cold tasted more strongly of pu-erh, with the spices taking a backseat. It was enjoyable, but still not as wonderful and amazing as the hot mixture.

Perfect, perfect, perfect to sip on a cold day. And for watching the Winter Olympic Games! The Opening Ceremony was definitely meh at points, but Gretzky on a jeep in the van being chased by rabid Canadians was absolutely hilarious.

Mmmmmm. I be happiness right now.

YAY OMG TEA.

It is the weekend and my Finum Brewing Basket came in the mail so there will be TEA at the workplace mmmhmmm. So excited about this development it’s freaky. Tea! Workplace! Yay! Because I’ve seriously missed my tea like a crazy person.

Anyway, I wanted to calm down with some tea from someone other than me. My Rishi order came in, so I’m really excited to try it. However, I really want to be alert and at full tasting capacity to dig into that stuff, so I figured I’d dive into some of this Auggy-sent tea.

I have to say, I’m not a huge fan. The leaves smell very prettily and strongly of almond and vanilla. They’re the normal black size, perhaps a bit more broken, but the little bits of almond in there really spruce up the look of things.

Anyway, the infusion is a very vivid red-orange color, and the smell coming off of it is very, very similar to Almond Cookie! I took this to be an awesomely awesome sign, because Almond Cookie is the bee’s knees. So yeah, very cinnamon-almond-pastry-like. Awesome smell.

The taste however… okay, bizarrely enough, on the first few sips, I didn’t taste anything at all. No tea taste, the tiniest hint of almond. Just… a void. But then the flavor kicked in, and it kicked in hard. The black tea base here is very rough and borderline bitter. There’s a bit of astringency, but the problem is really the bitterness. It just doesn’t pair well with the delicacy of flavors like vanilla and almonds.

I’m not really tasting vanilla all that much, and when I do, it’s more like those fake-tasting vanilla hard candies than actual vanilla bean or vanilla extract. The almond is almost chemical-like. It tastes like someone dumped rubbing alcohol in my tea. It’s got that really rough, almond extract taste that tastes awesome in baked goods, but it absolutely horrible to drink.

There’s a bit of pleasing sweetness at the end, which is probably the saving grace of the entire thing. But it’s really not enough to make up for the rest of it. Overwhelmingly robust and bitter black, accented by very mediocre flavoring.

So I started work today (yay!) and my company has free coffee and tea in the shape of a Flavia machine. I interned at this company, and I used to get the peppermint tea from the machine all the time. So I decided to see what it would taste like and how it would stack up against the other peppermints I’ve had subsequently. I actually drank two cups of this today.

The tea comes in these weird packets that are foil, and they have a little plastic nozzle. You insert the tea packet into the machine, the machine eats the packet, and out streams tea. This peppermint was pretty brown in color, but it smelled fairly minty…

Honestly, I wasn’t really paying attention to drinking this. And herein comes my big fear: my tea drinking is really going to die down to a trickle. It’s going to be hard, keeping up with measurements and steepings times. That’s why I’m hoping that the Finum basket I ordered helps a bit.

Anyway, the taste of this one is very, very minty. But there’s something off about this. Like it’s powdered mint, or something. It doesn’t taste fresh in the least, and I think that’s the problem. It’s almost musty. I mean, it definitely has a nice mint kick, which I enjoy, but this is probably worse than bagged tea.

So yeah, we shall see how tea + work ends up getting along! I’m still adjusting to my new surroundings and nothing feels like home yet. :\

Ever since I had my first jasmine tea, I will get these cravings for jasmine. I just really love the smell of it, and the soft taste of it. Nommy. No wonder it’s been part of the tea tradition for so long now, and I’m happy to be a part of it.

takgoti gave me this one, and I love the look of these Dragon Pearls. In fact, I love the look of pearls in general, but these are really gorgeous. The sea green interwoven with the blue-green. So gorgeous. And the smell coming off of them! It’s that floral-fruity smell that’s so jasmine. And I just realized it today, sort of reminds me of Juicy Fruit gum! I could smell these little buggers all day.

One of the other great things about a jasmine pearl tea is the steeping. Watching them unfurl, little bubble trails streaking up the sides of the clear pot, it’s almost like the caterpillar emerging from the cocoon. Entrancing, almost. Anyway, the leaves in this particular one are nice and whole, and there’s a fair amount of buds as well. I don’t know what the ratio is (although there probably is a method to the madness), but I soon had a little green aquarium of tea leaves.

The liquid on this one smells very soft and inviting. Very jasmine, but there’s almost a hint of cocoa in the smell. And it’s actually my favorite color for tea, that dark beige, pale yellow color that I think just looks like rich for its pale color.

It’s the flavor of this one that really knocked my socks off, though. Wow. Just.. wow. There’s a buttery taste, that melts into a soft, juicy jasmine flavor. It’s really not overbearing. It doesn’t try to beat you over the head with its jasmine notes. It just blends seamlessly into the body of the tea. I’m addicted to that butter-like component. I finished this cup very, very fast. It’s just a testament to the quality of the green tea in this one. It’s full of flavor. Seriously.

The jasmine has a wonderful sweet aftertaste that lingers on the tongue, but is pleasant. Some aftertastes just never seem to end. This just quietly fades away.

Really top-notch stuff. Seriously. It’s like a sigh. The flutter of butterfly wings. Okay, I’m getting a little stupidly poetic, but this one is so fuzzy-wonderful that I want to just let it wash over me.

I tried a second steep of it, and while the jasmine flavor was still there, it was a bit more muted, and there was a vegetal note creeping in that wasn’t to my liking. So out the leaves went!

I can’t wait to compare this to Samovar’s!

I think by now that it’s official that I’m a fan of pu-erh. I find myself craving it a lot. The cooked version, at least!

takgoti sent me this, and I’ve been waiting to try this one for a while, since it’s supposed to be a really good one. I have to admit, the name really makes me giggle. It’s sounds like Victorian pornography.

But actually, the smell was a bit of a turn-off. For some reason, I was getting a bit of a smell of fishiness off my sample. Nothing strong, and the main smells were earth and super-dark sweet (think molasses), but it was kind of there.

Anyway, so I gave the super-dark-chocolate leaves a rinse with boiling water before allowing them to steep. I guess I should mention that the rinse water, upon dumping, already smelled pretty pu-erh delicious!

I love steeping pu-erh, just because its color is so dramatic. On the pour, it’s such a brown-black, practically opaque brew. Thankfully, the smell coming off the wet leaves and the cup was nothing fishy. Instead, there’s a deep earth smell, a fairly smoky smell (more gunpowder smoke than lapsang? It doesn’t really have a savory quality…), and a hard-to-detect sweetness. It’s very akin to other pu-erhs I’ve tasted.

The taste here is a lot smoother and light and refined than I was expecting! The only other plain pu-erh I’ve had is Golden Moon’s, which has a bit more body and intense flavor. Then again, it could be because of my lower steep time for this puppy. There’s a really nice earthy edge, mixed with a sort of smokey goodness. Pu-erh doesn’t really taste like dirt to me. It’s more soil-like. That smell of fresh-tilled soil in the sun. This develops into a subtle sweet note. It’s not overbearing or cloying or false. Maybe a bit raisin-like? It’s almost fruity. But a dark fruit. A fruit that I don’t think exists. The aftertaste is very autumnal. Wet leaves on a rainy day.

From the wet leaves, and sometimes from the taste, I’m getting this almost bake-y quality. I’m picturing something like a molasses bread. Even though I’m not quite sure if that even exists. I’m only getting it on a few sips, but when it happens, it’s unusual enough to take note. The complexity of this beastie is pretty amazing.

I’m hoping that subsequent steeps of this one are great, because so far so good!

So, the Second Steep (4:00, boiling) was a bit thinner than the first, but a lot of the earthy and smoky complexities were still present. Still very nice, indeed. The infusion was a bit lighter than the first, but it had the smell of a typical pu-erh. Which I take to be a good sign, since once the liquid doesn’t smell like it’s supposed to anymore, then it’s done.

The Third Steep (4:00, boiling) is even lighter than the second. We’re approaching something that looks more akin to black tea than to coffee! The smell is still soil-rich, but now the taste has evolved significantly. The smoke and earth elements have taken a back seat to the sweetness, which has evolved into a raisin taste, perhaps dusted with a bit of brown sugar. I can’t get out of this molasses theme. Let’s see how long this baby can go on! I should note that this might be the best resteep I’ve had thus far in my tea adventures.

It’s time for the Fourth Steep! (5:00, boiling) My wet leaves smelled a bit sweeter now, and but the infusion still smells like good-old pu-erh. The color of it is definitely akin to a black tea although something about the under-tint is off. A little purple, maybe? Whatever. Anyway, the taste on the first sip was kind of… WEIRD. Like charcoal, followed by intense sweetness. Serious sweetness. Sweet like white tea or green tea sweet. Well, actually it’s a bit muskier than that, but it’s lingering on my tongue in a similar way.

Now, here’s where it gets really weird. As it cooled, it started to have this kind of rotten taste to it. Really, really off-putting and very off. Like ripe garbage. Or like really, really over-ripe and blackened fruit. Not cool. Really, really gross, actually. Not cool at ALL. So I had to dump the cup, and I’m dumping the leaves as well. I also can’t get the sweet flavor out of my mouth. Maybe the leaves picked up a smell or something? Or a taste? But it’s seriously one disgusting flavor.

Yeah, no. Dumping the leaves. But at least the first three infusions were pretty good!

Hrm. This one is very light, but interesting.

Yet another takgoti + Samovar = awesome treat! The leaves here are quite tiny, and they smell of rose, almost. Very fruity-floral.

I’ve only had lychee in terms of lychee jelly in bubble tea or lychee-flavored juice drinks. I’ve never had the fruit itself, but when I think of lychee I think juicy-sweet, so I’m a big ? is appearing over my head. The other big ? is that takgoti said to steep this up between 170-175, which is interesting for a black tea.

So I watched this steep to a lovely light nut brown, and the smell coming from the cup smells like sweet, candied roses. My first sip… I was surprised at how light this one is! Very ethereal, if I do say so myself. Gossamer-like.

The black tea base here is more cuddly than substantial, and it fades softly into a floral-like note. It tastes like a rose tea, almost. What differentiates it a bit, though, is the juicy sweetness that is the endnote of every sip. It’s very lychee, if I do say so myself.

As it cools, the floral note becomes more of a blanket for the lychee fruit taste, which I actually really enjoy. So juicy and full and luscious. I can imagine this one being awesome iced, as Samovar recommends. It might bring the fruity notes out a little bit to the forefront. I’m finding I’m enjoying this one more lukewarm than hot-out-of-the-pot.

I can’t see myself craving this all the time. It’s really delicate and serene, which is wonderful, but I could see myself tiring of this. Iced, on the other hand, might be pretty awesome. I actually might try it like that and see what happens.

I’m sort of becoming a big fan of this Samovar-thing. takgoti, you devil, you… you are the ultimate converter to the Samovar experience.

So cozy!

I’ve only got 5 more teas left to try in the GM sampler, which makes me sad. Somewhere down the line, I’m definitely going to need to order more of their stuff, since it consistently falls above average for me.

Snow Sprout is pretty. Upon opening the packet, it sort of smells like a musty honey smell. With lots of sweetness. Maybe sugared flowered? Anyway, The leaves look like green Silver Needle! Very odd, indeed. They’re fuzzy, and slender, but… they’re not silver. They’re a pale green. Sea green, almost.

Anyway, I steeped up the entire packet of this, because it was around a tablespoon or so, and watched it steep. Funnily enough, once the water hits the leaves (or sprouts? What do I call these guys?), they look like twigs. Knobbly twigs. Very intriguing, indeed.

Anyway, this one steeps up to a very light cup. If someone handed me this, I’d automatically assume it’s white tea. It even smells like a white tea, in that it’s not very interesting on the nose. But does it taste like a white tea?

Yes, yes it does. WEIRD. There isn’t much of a body to it, and the tastes are kind of fuzzy, but here we go, trying to draw some tasting notes out of this puppy. It’s very subtle, like a white tea. For one, I’m getting almost nuttiness at points. I’ve narrowed it down to macadamia nuts! Yes, it’s that sort of nuttiness. There’s a sweetness at the end. It’s more of a green sweetness than a white sweetness. I can’t really explain that; I think it’s only if you’ve experienced the two you’ll be able to tell the difference.

Other than that, I’m not getting much else. It’s definitely a yummy cup of tea, but I don’t think it’s that memorable. For what it is, though, it tastes pretty good!

Let’s just get this out of the way: Auggy is a goddess.

No, seriously. Because I think I’ve finally gotten what all the hullabaloo has been about Japanese greens.

I’m perpetually amazed at how different various permutations of tea can be. Not only through the white – black scale, but from different companies and different preparations. It’s almost frightening. I thought I pretty much knew what gyokuro was about from the Harney & Sons version I had a few weeks ago.

I thought wrong. Completely wrong.

Gyokuro is one of those teas that’s beautiful to look at. I don’t think that photos do it justice. The leaves are silky and a deep blue-green, most thinner than a toothpick. Really gorgeous stuff. The smell coming off them is a sweet, very grassy note, with just a hint of butter.

So I waited… and waited… and waited for the damned water to cool down enough to begin steeping this one. I believe I started the pour at 50 secs, just because I really wanted to make sure that this one didn’t oversteep. It’s that delicate. I also steeped with the lid off, to give the gyokuro some room to breathe. I don’t want to scorch the leaves in ANY way.

I knew immediately while the tea was pouring that this was going to be something special. The smell… oh my gahd. Very grass, but also very, very buttery. Mmmmm. The wet leaves smelled much the same. It’s like a freshly cut grass smell, mixed with melted butter. It smells delicious.

And the taste? Joygasm. Seriously.

I’ve been having a lot of trouble with greens, I think mainly because in general, I tend to dislike green things. I really don’t like vegetables. I hate salads. Beyond artichokes and asparagus, and maybe the occasional piece of broccoli… yeah, they’re not my thing. But this tea… it’s lighter than Harney’s gyokuro, but just as intense and interesting. It’s pretty grassy, but that grassiness is tempered by butter. Rich butter. It’s silky-smooth and delicious and satisfying and REFRESHING. You can taste the award-winningness of this one.

There’s just this general sweetness to the entire cup as well. There’s really no astringency. Towards the end of some sips I sometimes get this almost tart feeling that develops just into a green sweetness. It’s almost similar to the sweetness you find in sugar snap peas (another green thing that I love).

I think Auggy just converted me with one cup of tea. I can’t wait to see what the second steep tastes like, although I probably won’t drink the entire thing, since gyokuro’s caffeine levels are off the charts. But DELICIOUS and NOM. Wow. Taste the quality!

The Second Steep (5 secs, 140 degrees) was pretty tasty, but a bit thinner than the first. The taste was a bit more grassy and a bit less buttery. Hrm. I’ll try to get a third steep out of this, but I doubt I’m going to finish the cup at all. It’ll be just for tasting purposes! NOM, though!

So Steep Three (1:10, 140 degrees) just sort of tasted like grassy umami water. Not that it was bad, but there’s no tea-ness to it. So I dumped the leaves out. I also played around with the wet leaves a bit, and they’re as soft as silk.

I don’t think I’ve yet to find the oolong that’s right for me. Oftentimes I feel like Goldilocks with this type of tea. It’s either “too this” or “too that” and never quite fitting for my taste buds.

So let’s start with the First Steep, which was the only remarkable one of this oolong.

First off, again, Harney’s product here is really gorgeous. Silver-tipped russet and olive green leaves, twisted nicely. You can tell that they’re full and whole. The aroma from the dry leaf is really inviting. It’s a honeyed smell, with a blush of apricots and peaches. There’s also an underlying dark sweet smell. There’s an underlying darker tea smell to it as well, similar to what you smell in a black tea, but lighter.

Anyway, the leaves unfurl at a rapid rate in the hot water, twisting and blooming. The resulting steep was a pretty sunny orange color, and it smelled buttery and smokey. A bit roasty, with a lot of fruit notes characteristic of the dry leaves.

I was actually really surprised when I sipped this at how light the flavors are. From the smell, I was expecting something a bit deeper. Fanciest Formosa is very floral. Really floral. Not in a jasmine or a rose way, but just in a way that evokes lilies and a florist’s shop in general. There’s that almost soapy, spring note to it that’s pretty interesting. The floral is accented with notes of fruits like peaches, but these flavors pale in comparison to the floral notes.

As the cup cooled, some of the more buttery notes began to come out towards the tail end of the sip. They weren’t as aggressive and creamy as I would have liked, but at least they made themselves known. The entire cup is pleasantly sweet, but nothing to write home about.

At this point, I was actually really excited about the second steep, guessing that it’d be even greater than the first.

Second Steep (3:30, 205 degrees)

Steeped this one up again, and by this point, the leaves were completely unfurled and full. Now this steep has a bit more of a floral smell to the nose, with a hint of ripe fruit-like sugar at the end. The honey/apricot notes of the first steep are gone.

This one is already weaker than the first. The floral tastes are still there, but they’re noticeably weaker. Overall, the flavors are more fruity-sweet. Interestingly enough, when the tea was at its hottest temperature, I was getting this almost burnt sugar taste at the end of every sip. It disappeared fairly quickly, so I’m maybe thinking I imagined it, but it was there.

What marked this one was a roasty element as well. Not as pronounced as I’ve tasted in the other dark oolong I’ve tried (Imperial Formosa by Golden Moon), but it’s still there. This cup was definitely not as enjoyable as the first. Maybe the third time’s the charm?

Third Steep (3:45, 205)

This tea is done. You can just smell it in the wet leaves. There’s that vegetal note that reminds me that tea is a plant. And it’s not a nice vegetal note either. It’s that note of the leaves waving the white flag.

The taste now is remarkably flat, with mostly vegetables and roasty notes in what’s left of the body. Mainly, though, it just sort of wastes like hot water. Which is pretty disappointing, since the color has remained pretty uniform across all three steeps.

Overall, the first steep of this was pretty decent, but the second and third… not so much.

I haven’t had any success yet with multiple steeps of oolongs. I know I have some fabulous stuff from takgoti to try, but I’m wondering if anyone has any recommendations for oolongs that have lasted through more than a steep? I’m not sure if I’m supposed to push past the vegetal state to get to something better.

GOOD GOD IS THIS LAVENDER.

Holy… what the… oh em gee.

First off, my hat’s off to Harney for the sheer beauty of this. The lavender blossoms are an absolute joy to look at. Seriously. The prettiest tea I’ve laid eyes on. They feel silky and petal-like, as if they were just plucked. A gorgeous, violet color. And the smell… it’s so in-your-face lavender that it’s almost spicy and pungent. I used a scant teaspoon for fear of my life.

So I steeped this one up, expecting the water to turn a brilliant lavender-blue, as shown on Harney’s website. Blue is my absolute favorite color. Instead, sadly enough, the tea remained very, very clear. Only when I poured it into my porcelain mug did I see that the clear-looking water was actually tinted purple. Hilarious-looking. And smelling ridiculously of lavender.

Don’t think this is some dainty, lady-like tea. It seems like it at first glance. You’d picture this tea as a beautifully dressed Victorian woman, nibbling on crumpets and flouncing around the town square. Well, if you thought that, YOU’RE WRONG.

This is STRONG. This is so strong it’s practically manly. It could probably drag freight trains by its teeth alone. So fearsome that it would guzzle Everclear – straight. And wear a lumberjack shirt. And possibly appear in Inglorious Basterds. It’d best Rocky in a fight. It farts in bacon and beer’s face. That brawny. The lavender gives you a one-two punch of spicy floral insanity. This lavender means business. Serious business.

I mean, for as clear as it looks, it’s just lavender. Very, very lavender. The spicy, heady beginning fades into a taste that’s akin to… lavender bath products. And then that fades into an overall very sweet floral note. We’re talking chamomile sweet here.

I’m so fascinated by it. I keep taking sips and mentally going “WOAH” and then shaking my head, trying to clear the taste out of my mouth. It’s almost peppery at points. It’s intense.

I have no idea where to go with the rest of the review. This tea is ridiculous. I doubt I could ever stomach another cup again, but if I decide to get in the ring with this beast again, I know for sure that it’ll win.

Just when I’m about to give up on flavored teas, Golden Moon saves me from the funk I was falling swiftly into.

I really loved GM’s Jasmine, and found their vanilla to be pretty okay, so I was a bit excited to try this one. The dry leaves have an absolutely delicious smell. Someone mentioned cream soda, but I think it’s a bit better than that (since I’m not the greatest fan of cream soda). It’s juicy and floral and vanilla, very comforting and exciting. You can really smell both in the aroma, with the jasmine probably edging out the vanilla the teeniest bit. There’s also a lovely chocolate-type smell going on here.

I steeped this one up at boiling, but then as the leaves opened up, some looked a tad green, and I began to get worried that I had messed it up. Green and black blends are pretty tricky, temperature-wise. On the pour… the tea is a fairly dark color, a coppery-orange, and the smell coming off of it isn’t that strong. I’m getting more of a black tea smell, with whiffs of vanilla and jasmine.

The taste of this… I’m surprised how light it is! There’s sort of a mellow tea flavor, which I assume comes from the mixing of the black and green. It’s not the strongest, but it’s definitely adequate. At the front of the flavor, I’m definitely getting a bit more jasmine than vanilla, but then they tend to switch and mingle, until they’re just this one flavor that I can’t really describe. Other than vanilla jasmine!

Sometimes I’m actually getting a grape-like flavor, which is sort of strange. I don’t mean like a muscatel-wine flavor, like a Darjeeling, but sort of a grape soda flavor. It’s pretty pleasant, but sort of bizarre. I’m not getting any of the cocoa notes I smelled in the actual drink, which is fine by me.

Towards the bottom of the cup, the tea became a bit bitter on the initial sip, which wasn’t unpleasant, but is probably due to my temperature issues. I’m happy that it didn’t really negatively impact the tea until the very bottom, for sure.

Overall, another pleasant offering from Golden Moon! It didn’t knock my socks off (where did that expression even come from? Did someone’s socks actually get knocked off my something just that awesome?), but it was definitely an enjoyable cup, and on par with what I’ve come to expect with Golden Moon.

What an enticingly introspective blend from Samovar! Ala takgoti, of course, and her wonderful tea swapping choices.

I was out in the cold today because a few friends and myself decided to take a trip to the Brooklyn Brewery (http://www.brooklynbrewery.com/) for a tour. BB is a pretty popular microbrewery and we just sat around, tasted lots of varieties of beer (I liked the Weisse and the Cookie Jar Porter myself). I’m not a beer person, though, so I was happy to get home to some tea.

I pulled this out because I’ve been chilly all day, and mint, while refreshing, is always such a warming and comforting thing to me. Like most of the Samovar blends, this one smells ridiculously complex. Lots of warmth from the cardamom and ginger, mixed with a spicy, minty aroma. The leaves are similarly intriguing, with the yellows and greens blending together in very pretty ways.

So I steeped this one up, and let me tell you, the steam that came off the wet leaves when I opened the top of my pot could have given me a facial. The mint and pepper combination was so strong that I could literally taste it and feel it in my eyes. The vapors!

The cup was a pretty orange-yellow, and the smell of it gave me pause. It’s rather herbal-like and woody. A bit medicinal. But the flavor profile? Boy is it exotic.

And sophisticated. That’s the word that just keeps coming to my head with Samovar. It’s not child’s play. This is real tea, blended very seriously. And it completely works. It’s grown-up tea. I’m not a big spice person, so I can’t pick out individual flavors, but I can taste just the tiniest of zings from the black pepper each time I take a sip. Leave it on your tongue for a while, and it builds up. The taste of the body is very ginger-like and rich, extremely smooth and supple on the tongue. There’s just a hint of a Chinese green vegetal note, which sort of holds the entire thing together seamlessly. I’m getting lots of sweetness (more than likely from the fennel?) on the swallow, which is followed by a rush of peppermint. It’s less about the flavor of the mint itself, but more about that feeling right after you’ve brushed your teeth of refreshing awesomeness.

The tea gets even sweeter as it cools, so I probably prefer it at its highest heat setting. I’m really enjoying the zing of the pepper. This is the first tea I’ve had that includes pepper as an ingredient that I can really pick it out of.

Samovar just feels luxe. takgoti sent me so much of their stuff. I really am so thankful for that, because I’m pretty sure at this point that they’re my favorite tea company. And I haven’t even had some of the greater, higher-rated stuff yet! This is one of the best mint teas I’ve had – and I love mint tea. It’s so complex and interesting that I can’t help but take sip after sip, working my way through all of the flavors and intricacies. Fun and WIN.