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Resteep. Again a long steep…flavor isn’t as intensely green as the first go around, but still veggy. This cup is a nice oolong, but its not being slapped in the face with an oolong like the first cup.

Have a new office hot water dispenser…it only hits 118 deg. F. Not hot enough for a good black tea (and the office microwave takes like 3 minutes to get the water any reasonbly hotter; I can’t be expected to wait another 3 minutes for tea, can I?). So, I tried going green with it. This is a green oolong that I purposefully oversteeped in deference to the cool water. Very good! Still brews pale and clear, but the flavor is intensely concentrated. Not so much of a floral overtone, but strong green vegetable, like asparagus or spinach. No it doesn’t taste like spinach…but the flavor is intense, concentrated like that.
I have some green tea that a friend brought back from mainland China…no idea what it is as the label is in Chinese…when it steeps, in unfurls to an actual twig with tips and one or two full leaves…this reminds me of that tea.

I’d have to put this tea amongst my favorites at the moment. I normally like a fine Ceylon, but don’t have any at work. This tea is a wonderful substitute. It is only lightly oxidized and is noticably light colored when dry; the leaves have a brown and green color when brewed. Its flavor is not as clean or crisp? as a good Ceylon…more in line with Indian teas, but lighter weight…a medium strength tea. It has excellent complexity. It brews a light color, don’t let it fool you into going to long.

And yet another resteep…that’s two for those counting. I suspect I could get a 4th cup (3 resteeps) from the pellets, but I’ve had enough…time to move on :-)

Got a good resteep out of the pellets. They started to unfurl a bit with this steeping, so you can actually tell they are green tea leaves.

I was somewhat worried by this tea…my only experience with “ginseng” and tea was a Stash’s Ginseng Tea disaster. I was pleasantly suprised by this tea. Its very light..in fact I’m not getting much, if any ginseng. Perhaps a slight, little tingle after the fact.
The visual appeal of this tea is lacking…rabbit pellet tea, that’s what one co-worked called it; but, the taste is a nice, mild oolong. A bit of vegetable in the flavor, but not grassy.

brewed this a little longer this morning…it really pumps up the smokieness, without really pumping up the tea flavor. Not sure that I cared to learn that since I’m not a strong fan of smoke. The resteep went well though.

Backlogging this from yesterday. I have only had this tea a few times…I have the 4oz tin sitting in the kitchen, but I’m sparing it out ;-) So, I was somewhat upset yesterday when I lost track of time and overbrewed the tea. You’d think…well nevermind. Anyway, I ended up letting it cool a bit and then pouring it over ice. WOW! This makes a 1st class ice tea too. It was terrific as it was, I bet a twist of lemon wouldn’t hurt either!

Drinking this again today. Its now 3 hours old and stone cold and, while its developed a bit of bitterness, it still has the bergamot flavor and is quite tasty. I had a cup of this sit overnight…wouldn’t recommend drinking it after its sat for any serious length of time as the overnight cup had apparently oxidized??? Anyway, it turned black…seriously, black like ink.