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As I am not feeling well, stuck nose makes trying teas even harder, I tend to drink simple cups as I can’t focus on all nuances of the teas. Definitely, my sniffer isn’t working properly and taste is slightly affected as well — definitely at least I have no mood to try teas I haven’t tried as it can be a bit off.

I said last time it is strong in malts and bread notes; today it felt a bit more like a leathery taste and aroma… but take it with pinch of salt.

I have 8 bags remaining, so hopefully I will have a better chance to re-try it soon.

English can be so misleading. Lime, while it is linden; Tilia in Latin. Natural remedy against cold. So yes, Michelle, I have another tea to the rescue. Though I have no more sore throat, but just a common cold with lots of blowing my nose. And everything at work was taking me twice as long as usual.

Anyway, I bought this tea while shopping on Sonnentor; partially as a trying something lovely — I still remember http://steepster.com/teas/aalia/95296-lipovy-kvet-ze-svojetic which I sent to derk and it seems it’s not carried in my store anymore, which is sad, and partially because I just needed something for free shipping I think. And at last, herbal tea against colds are always useful.

Well, it is lovely, though probably not that much as previously mentioned one. This is more about the flowers itself though (yellow parts) while the other one was more about green part of the flowers.

Honey-ish, sweetish, floral cups which helps me with getting mucus out. Soothing my throat, highly flavourful (but also high dose), just something that should be tried by anyone who likes caffeine-free teas.

This blend of Kenyan, Indian and Ceylon black teas is fine. Nothing extraordinary, but as I have a tea bag version of this (offered also as a looseleaf and in bulk of 100 tea bags); it is enjoyable, strong and robust. No offputting notes, instead there are woody and autumn leaf pile notes, quite mouthcoating with sweet, almost caramel-like finish.

A sipdown! (M: 10, Y: 72)

A sipdown indeed; but I did not had the final mug. It was my dad… and I just remmber trying it, but I haven’t wrote any notes… and now it’s gone.

Can’t say much, as I just don’t remember it much. But orange flavour was there, and although not so strong as Fresh Orange by Teekanne which is staple in our cupboard, it was finished and apparently it was great too. At least my dad drank it almost all by himself, while he wasn’t confident on first sight.

Argh, sore throat. And I exactly know where I caught it. On today morning train to work. A lady was there coughing all the time, not covering her mouth much effectively… and my day spent with changing environments of office, outside (rainy 7°C), and warehouse wasn’t helpful too.

Tea to the rescue! I guess; Lemon + Ginger could be a nice remedy… I believe I got this tea from postcrossing again too… probiotics is something that wouldn’t hurt for sure, but not really sure if I drank tea with probiotics earlier.

But honestly, I miss both major expected flavours… lemon and where is fiery ginger? I couldn’t notice anything of those. Rather the warming cinnamon and some kind of medicinal creamy flavour; overall covered by licorice root. Drinkable, but not what I have been expecting.

A sipdown! (M: 9, Y: 71)
Decided to steep remaining 7 grams gongfu, which means it will be quite strong, which I am not so sure if it is a good idea as I have started drinking it at 5.30 pm; but nevermind, sleep is for weak.

Once I added the leaves to preheated gaiwan, a whiff of leathery notes appeared with some red fruit notes. Also some stonefruits and overall I thought I found a good preparation method for this tea.

Sadly, I have to write that those aroma notes are only positive thing on this tea. Tea tastes flat, like English breakfast from cheap (!) tea bag, there is nothing but tannic water flavour. And moreover, drying. On the positive note, there is hardly any astringency or bitterness.
Shame, shame, shame!
Lowering the rating from 70 to 55. Am I too rough for this tea? Maybe…

A sipdown! (M: 8, Y: 70)!
A bit intentionally I am focusing on sipdowns and finishing small amounts of tea, which go stale faster.

This time I picked up in my box this one; I have read my previous note saying I will focus more on the flavours and I really did.

However, even I have tried my best, I can’t point out the actual flavour profile! It was smooth and malty, somehow quite sweet (I have used roughly 3.5 grams), somehow floral, but overall I feel that is not what I was experiencing.
Vendor claims flavours of fresh plum and honey, but I don’t feel it is that either. Confusing tea and well, I am afraid I am not able to find out and I will need to buy a pouch of this one to find out and send to others to find out their opinions… and maybe then I will see what this tea is about.

Keeping the rating on 85, definitely nice breakfast tea, although drank in the afternoon with a apple pie.

If there is something specific for me regarding trying new teas, it is uncommon places where they are grown. It is not my first US-grown tea for me, but probably first one loose-leaf and pretty well done!

Finished the rest grandpa style, there were lots of crushed leaves and quite many stems. But it didn’t went bitter what was something I was afraid of, and it had a herb-like note I noticed in my previous note. A little astringency was there, a little of hay (well, it isn’t fresh batch), but mouthfeel was good. Definitely something I would gladly try again. Of course it’s not so refined as typical green tea growing countries, but fine enough for daily drinking.

Label: China Velour ‘leaf’ Puer by Happy Lucky’s tea

Absolutely no idea where I got it, but it’s A sipdown! (M: 6, Y: 68)! I found it forgotten in my real cupboard which had to be removed as we had to change our tankless gas water heater. New one is bigger and my tea shelf won’t fit there anymore.

Anyway, it is quite straightforward shu puerh, luckily without any funky, fishy taste, rather sweet, chocolate flavours were noticeable. Quite smooth and great breakfast pairing.

Steeping parameters: 5g / 300 ml / 3-4 minutes

Office cleaning day
A sipdown! (M: 5, Y: 67)

At last, a proper sipdown! To be honest I don’t remember much, but not because being so busy. It was hardly any lemon and hardly any gigner tea. I felt it was just plain lemongrass and lemon myrtle. There wasn’t any (zinger) ginger fierness in this mug and honestly I don’t remember it from previous tea sachets at all. Probably the poorest effort from Tielka in their sample box. But it was fun trying them. Just expecting a bit more for the price.