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This tea totally confuses me. I had gone into David’s for a bit of xmas shopping a couple weeks ago and asked the person helping me to recommend something non-caffeinated. He offered me this. I sniffed it and thought it smelled totally minty. I was informed that there’s no mint in this. No way! It’s so menthol-y! whyy? It also smells very blueberry and lavender. So I got half an ounce (actually .6 ounce since that’s the lowest the scale would go) to try at home and solve the mystery.

I’m sniffing this tea again pre-brew. Still seems very menthol-y. Does lavender have menthol in it? Anyway, the blueberry is nice and jammy. I’m not really liking the lavender. It reminds me of the super old dusty tasting herbs my husband refuses to let me throw away. Well I’m not using them, and he doesn’t cook so they’ll just dustier. I’ll toss it all one day… Anyway, I love the smell of lavender, but I’m just not a fan of eating it. Alas. I wonder if husband would like this?

Marco Polo! I’ve been wanting to try this for ever so long! Well, kinda. Back then, I didn’t really like black tea much. So while I found Marco Polo intriguing with all the stellar reviews, I wasn’t really motivated to try it. These days, I find myself craving black teas quite often, though usually chinese blacks. I’m not sure about the source of the tea in this blend, but it tastes Chinese to me. It’s satisfyingly dark and rich without being too strong. There’s a lot of smooth vanilla and berry syrup flavors. Tasty! Not tasty enough to be worth $24 for a box of 30 tea bags… but tasty! Thankfully I acquired this box of tea with a Dean & Deluca gift card I got for Christmas. I would never buy it with my own money at that price. Crazy! Too bad they didn’t have this tea loose. I rather like their tins.

I had a great New Year’s Eve with my friends last night. It’s when we do our Secret Santa style gift exchange. I have awesome friends who gave me awesome gifts. We stayed up way too late. So I’m still groggy right now, but I did manage to haul myself out of bed at around 11am and started using my awesome gifts. :) Feta and olive waffles on my new waffle iron! Yay! Husband was simultaneously please and disappointed because they were tasty but not meant for maple syrup. haha What can I say? I prefer a savory breakfast.

So after my tasty waffles, I got pretty thirsty and started thinking about what tea to drink. I got a sample of this from TeaEqualsBliss, like, forever ago, and I was in the mood for a green oolong. So here we go!

I love the floral hit in the first steep of pretty much every green oolong. Then in the after taste, you can start appreciating the other flavors. I’m getting apple skin and peach. Lovely creamy texture. I’m also getting the coconutty milkiness other people are talking about. I’ve never had a green oolong with the particular natural flavor.

Steep two was like cooked buttered greens. Still floral. Such a nice oolong! Judging from Tea’s notes, I’d say this oolong is at least 2 years old. It’s aging quite well! I can only imagine how it must have tasted when fresh. :)

Thank you for allowing me to try this!

Also, Happy New Year to all!

I was mostly interested in this tea because people have been saying that the tea shimmers. whaaa? That’s crazy awesome! So I picked up half an ounce to try. I brewed it up at a oolongish temp for 4 minutes. I looked for the shimmer, but it was very subtle if there at all. But then again, I only had one or two gold balls in my tea. Not too many of them in my pouch overall. :( But that taste was quite nice. I found the flavoring to be a bit heavy handed on the vanilla. It was sort of like a vanilla spice cookie. I would have preferred for the tea to shine a bit more, but from what I could taste, it was a very nice toasty malty black. Perfectly balanced between refreshing and dark. I enjoyed two infusions. The second one was less flavor and more tea. To be honest, I think the level of flavoring in the second steep is definitely better.

I enjoyed it!

Don’t have much time to write notes lately. :( just coming here to say that this tea is awesome! I picked some up along with the gifts I was buying. :)

This tea was a sample from Teavivre that I have taken forever to get around to. :( I did make this tea once with a scoop of spearmint, but I didn’t feel it would be fair to rate this without trying it first on it’s own. Firstly, it did mix very well with the mint. Sweet and refreshing with a vegetal and malty background.

The tea on it’s own tastes very good as well. I love the shiny little pellets of dry leaf. It reminds me a bit of how green oolong looks, only oolongs aren’t usually so shiny. The brewed liquor is a bit darker than other green teas I’m used to. Darker than some oolongs even. The taste is sweet and slightly toasty. To be honest, it’s not a very memorable flavor. The quality is, as always, top notch. This is exactly what a gunpowder tea should be, but not the tea itself is not extraordinary or unique. I do love that it is smooth and without a hint of astringency. I think I will probably continue to add mint to this tea.

On an unrelated note, holiday cookies are making me fat. It doesn’t help that it’s so cold I don’t feel like going out to run lately. argh.

I got some awesome lip balms in today from momo! I had the hardest time choosing which ones to keep. I need to give three as gifts but I want them all! aaargh. You can buy some here!
http://www.etsy.com/shop/BlackBearLaboratory
I think they would make great holiday gifts. :)

So this tea! I’ve read nothing but praise for this, and today, I am totally understanding why. The dry leaf smells sweet like cookies. The tea tastes like dark cocoa and rock sugar. mmmm… The color is a bit lighter than expected, but the flavor is full on nonetheless. I can also taste some toasted grains. Maybe like the dark crust of some excellent multigrain bread. I’m adding this to the list of black teas to buy again!

Drinking this straight after a cold third steep of Verdant’s Mi Lan Xiang Honey Phoenix.

I’m noticing that this tastes much softer. The flavors blend and meld into each other. The autumnal taste is more like leaf litter while the other is more like the crisp air of a forest. Yet, in both the honeyed note is clear. Clear but so different. Fascinating.

Today’s been an oolong-y day. Had three different teas, all dark oolongs. I suppose it’s just what I’m in the mood for. I hope it helps my tummy because I feel kinda crappy there. Must sleep soon. Tired. blargh. Long day.

At first I was like, “This thin wiry spinach smelling stuff is supposed to taste like mi dan dancong?” But then the hot water hit the leaves and I was a believer! Smells fantastic!

Steep one: Heavy woody spice. Cinnamon? no…nutmeg? hmm, yeah, more like nutmeg. There’s honey and lychee of course. Autumn forest with a distant fireplace going. …and because I just gave my dogs a treat, I smell faux bacon. yuck.

Just from this first steep, I would say that I prefer Canton Tea’s Mi Lan Dancong. Theirs is less heavy and has more fruity lychee flavor. Not that this isn’t excellent and complex, because it is. It might be even more complex, but I find I like the more joyful flavor of Canton’s version. This one is a bit…moody. Like a ponderous man who’s lost all hope in life. But so complex and dark and mysterious. It’s tastes like cloudy.

Steep 2: Mmm… more honey and lychee in this now. Raisins, a little. yummy. I’m going to cold brew steep 3 overnight. :) It’s gonna be high 60’s tomorrow so a cold drink would probably be quite welcome. :)

Happy Monday!

Hmm… has the enchantment of black tea love come to an end or have I just been having a series of less than awesome blacks lately? This one tastes a little…not interesting. It’s not bad, but it doesn’t capture my attention in any way. I get a little floral perfume and taste of malt… Some fragrant sweetness. Vaguely stone fruity. My tastebuds are not all that interested.

So far, the black teas I like and plan to get more of are:
Laoshan black – Verdant
Zhu Rong Yunnan black – Verdant
Yun nan Dian Hong Black- Golden Tip – Teavivre
Rose Congou – Upton

Looks like I like Yunnan black teas. The Laoshan black is still my favorite. hmm… I’ll still have try the other Keemuns from Teavivre. I also have some other congou tea from Upton to try. I wonder where congou tea is grown? Is it also Keemun as wikipedia seems to suggest?