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I tried this tea again due to advice on brewing it differently.

This time this tea tastes much better. I used 1 tsp for 10 oz water, at 190 degrees, for 3 min.

It is light amber, slightly floral, in a lightly sweet way. there are light earthy notes. This tea in a way reminds me of a green tea. All in all, a MUCH better infusion than the first brew i tried with a gaiwan.

This is the first ever darjeeling i will have tried, and it comes in a package of 16, yes, 16 darjeeling that i recently received from Marzipan. This will be quite an experience :D

The leaves are small, wiry, and black, or exceedingly dark brown. They smell like clean fall leaves mixed with clean hay.

I started out with one tsp in my 4 oz gaiwan and brewed for 4 min, and it was a little weak to me, so i added another tsp and brewed for another 4 min. This was better.

The color of the liquor to me is quite soft for a black. It is a nice amber, and quite clear.
The smell is that of fall leaves. The taste, for me, was a little underwhelming, sadly. It was pretty much one note, that of fall leaves, and fairly astringent. sadface
Ooh well, there are 15 more samples to try :D and hey, now i have tea to drink again :)

Being desperate for some black tea, and unwilling to finish off my imperial golden monkey, i grumbled, resigning myself to a bitter cup of the crushed stuff i got.

Remembering how when i first bought this from teavana, steeping this differently messed with the flavors. So i decided to pretend that these crushed pearls were actually green tea. So i loaded up my gaiwan, forgot about rinsing, and steeped at 170. The first steep was the longest to open the leaves, around a min or so, and then i was able to do the 30 second steep, 45, ect.

It wasnt AS bad! The bitterness is still there, but there is a memory of the lovely cocoa, malt, and molasses that i fell in love with in this tea. Sadly the honey notes are still on hiatus. BUT this is a drinkable brew! Score one for the home team :)

I think that this is my last order of… anything from this company. The sample i got from this company was nice, it had flavor. The 7 oz i ordered, however, came half crumbled, and the whole pearls are flavorless. I even tried brewing in my gaiwan, and these pearls either go from quite watery to bitter. No pleasant cocoa, molasses, anything. If this bag of pearls were my introductory to this tea, i would have passed it up.

Im so glad i still have some of this tea. I went to open my new bag of black dragon pearl, only to discover over half of the bag was crushed in shipment. I know, right? So, now down 7 oz of tea, i turn to my extremely low stock of samples, and see this. I now regret criticizing it in my earlier review for trying to play as a white tea while being a black tea. I am extremely glad now for this.

As in my earlier tasting note, this tea is a nice light bodied black. Even though im brewing it western style now, which i am BAD at, it still comes out tasting lightly of straw soaked in clover honey, and is perfectly helping me through the disappointment of the loss of 7 oz of tea. Its just sad i only have about 4 more first brews left…

SO. Im in a pickle. I just recieved a 7 oz bag of these. As such, i went through the last of my tea before i opened this. When i did, i noticed that half of the bag was filled with what looked like opened tea bags. So now i have to ask for a refund and most likely ship back the last bit of this tea i have. /cries

Im still trying to get my infusions right with my new infuser. It is looking like i much prefer the gaiwan over any type of western brew. So far, this tea is either too light in taste, or i over brew it or am using too many pearls. Im just not good with western style brewing X(

im bumping back the rating on this tea. when i first started drinking this, i liked how over the top the sweet potato taste was, but the more i drink it, the more it gets to me. its kind of like over-indulging in strong caramel. when you first start eating it, you think its wonderful, but the more you eat, the more it gets to you. this tea is just a little too rich for me in the long run.

After butchering SEVERAL batches of one of my favorite teas, Golden Eyebrow, Jin Jun Mei, in my nifty new western style infuser that looks like a french press, i decided to try infusing this, wanting something light after the bitter blacks i tried to drink.

I must say, this tea holds up FAR better to inexperienced western brewing. I most likely over brewed it, and it still tastes quite nice :) i lost some of the creamy, buttery taste, but it still has a nice sweetness.

I just unwrapped this weird tea steeping device that i ordered online, it looks like a french press for tea. kinda. so, after being so much in love with this tea from last time, i decided to infuse some in this… and promptly tossed the brew. and again. and again… so, it seems like with this tea, it is SO much better to use a gaiwan, vs western steep. ecleast for me. if i would have tried this tea the first time in my nifty new infuser, i dont think i would have kept the tea.
See my other review for what this tea can REALLY taste like, properly infused.