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The dry leaf smell was so promising for this tea. It immediately brought back memories of having strawberry ice cream. The brewed cup doesn’t smell too bad either, although the creaminess is gone and it’s more like strawberry syrup. However, the flavor of this tea is not to my liking. It’s very woody. It almost reminds me of like a mesquite flavor or something. I don’t know…It’s making me remember flavors from barbecue or something cooked on a wood plank. Regardless, it’s definitely not a flavor I enjoy with strawberry ice cream.

Yummy sample sipdown tonight. Drinking just a single serving of this one brewed in my Chicago Diner mug. (Best f*cking vegan restaurant ever, FYI.) Also watching this: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/poisoners/player/

Thank you, ashleyelizabeth for sending me this sample in our swap!!!

(While I am on the subject of swaps, for those I have promised to send tea to, I apologize for the delay! I’ve been having things come up every time I plan to go to the post office, but everything should be in the mail soon.)

It’s fun to get samples of things that aren’t available for sale. It makes me feel very lucky! :-) I brewed this up per Verdant’s instructions. The aroma was wonderful, but the flavor was a bit thin. I think I will do 3 minutes on the resteep and see how that turns out. My allergies have been kicking my butt recently, so maybe I didn’t get as much out of this as I would otherwise. I’m taking a non-drowsy allergy medication, but I definitely still had to take a nap at work today…

I’ve removed most references to my kinky life on Steepster. While my interest in tea did evolve from an interest in tea as a service task, it has developed into much more than that, and it’s now a part of my everyday life.

The local BDSM community lost a wonderful person last week. She was involved in local and global tea organizations, and I had the great pleasure of meeting her and taking a tea service training class with her. Yesterday, those who wished to remember her had a cup of tea in her honor, and this is the tea I chose.

I requested this sample with my latest Butiki order, and it’s pretty good. I get a lot more floral (rosewater) than I do lychee in the aroma, but the aftertaste is really spot on lychee fruit. There is something missing in the mid-palate to me, though. I just wish there was a little bit more flavor. Maybe a little bit of astringency would be good? I can’t really put my finger on what is missing. This might be really excellent iced in the summer. Maybe I’ll try that one day.

Yay! I received my latest Butiki order today. I ordered 4 oz. of this one, so I decided to finish off what was left of the 1 oz I’d ordered before. This tea is extremely comforting to me. It reminds me of freshly baked banana bread and macaroons. Such a good tea to curl up with after a busy day at work. I think I’m going to try to find some Shakespeare to watch (still don’t have the focus to read much)…A Midsummer Night’s Dream, perhaps.

I got this one in the mail today. I couldn’t resist after reading so many positive reviews. And, I have to say, it’s pretty amazing. I brewed this in a small glass pitcher and started drinking it after just over two minutes of steeping. I’ve never seen dragon well leaves that were so green in color, and the dry leaf has an incredible fresh, savory aroma. When this was first brewed, it was a light green color, but it turned more yellow as it brewed for longer. I definitely liked this tea best when it was first brewed, but I will definitely enjoy adding more water to the leaves and seeing what they have to give as this session goes on. I’m beginning to see what others like so much about dragon well tea.

ETA: I’m still pretty devastated over my recent breakup. I’ve found that the best therapy for me has been doing nice things for other people. If anyone wants me to ship them a sample of this tea or anything else in my cupboard, I’d be more than happy to oblige.

I took this sample to New York to share with my father and cousin. It was a little bit confusing identifying which tea this was, as the name on the bag isn’t the same as the name on the website. I had to go into my order history to make sure which tea this was. I don’t have too much to say about this. I brewed it very strong, because my family is used to drinking very strong bagged black teas. It probably would have done much better with less leaf and a shorter steep time. It was very good anyhow, and I might even be making some progress in converting my father from drinking Barry’s to a loose leaf tea. This one was a pretty typical Lapsang with notes of sweet potato, malt, and chocolate.

I was traveling today, and picked up a bottle of this at the airport. It’s pretty nice. The Jasmine is very sweet and candy-like. I’ve said this about another jasmine tea before, but the smell is very much like the candy shell of Cadbury’s Mini Eggs. I probably would not pick this up again, as the jasmine flavoring is a little too sweet for me…

Thanks, Sil, for this sample!

I tried this last night before going to bed. While the dry leaf smelled similar to other chocolate teas that I have found to be too “boozy” for me, the brewed cup did not remind me of a liqueur at all. There was a bitter note, but it reminded me of the bitterness of dark chocolate, and was inoffensive after the first sip. I’d burned my tongue on a latte the day before, and I was having this alongside some soy ice cream, so I’ll wait until I try this one again to rate it. I really liked what I could taste of it, though!