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This is a great lighter oolong, especially when cold brewed. I will most certainly pick up more the next time I am placing an order with Rishi. I love the lilac aroma.

I realized I still had this in my stash recently and since it is a few months since I opened it I wanted to focus on drinking it. It’s a very light green tea, also very mellow, kind of a welcome change from the Lupicia sencha I just had but still not much to write home about. See my previous tasting notes.

I couldn’t resist picking this up yesterday at the Lupicia store even though I have a lot of green tea already. bad!

Anyway I steeped this at a very low temp (around 170 F, I thought) for about 2 minutes. Regardless, I don’t think I should be trying to steep anymore Japanese green tea until I get another thermometer or find the old one. They are just so tricky.

This steeped up to be a very light greenish/yellow and has a lot of brothy, marine and vegetal flavor but also has a lot of astringency which is overwhelming my palette a bit. After reading the other tasting notes I might try to steep this for one minute only. With Lupicia I was more a fan of Sencha Chiran, it seems it was sweeter, and I do not like much astringency in my tea.

ooh, this one is really nice. It has nice large fluffy leaves and smells very flowery in the bag.

According to my little pouch this tea was picked on Nov 11, 2011. I steeped it at 5 minutes at around 195 F.

Yum! I happen to really like this flavor profile. It has a sweet malty aroma and also seems like it has a lightly toasted or baked quality. Biscuits anyone? I am also picking up the sandalwood aroma and the tea after drinking just gently coats your palette with no real astringency that I can detect. Slightly buttery but this is not one of the main flavors I’m picking up. At times this reminds me of an oolong and at others times it reminds me of a darjeeling but it’s really pretty unique which seems to part of the Himalayan terroir…

Slightly brisk and lingering according to the RTR website. Yes this does seem like an apt description. I do like tea companies that can really sum up the essence of the tea in a brief paragragh.

Very well done, all around. Also very pricey so would have to decide if I really need this in my stash or no…

After going to the San Francisco Russian festival today, it seems most fitting to drink this tea. See my previous tasting notes. :)

This came as a belated Christmas gift from a friend who says it is one of her favorites – it’s good to have friends that have nice taste in tea. :)

This Assam comes as one of their “stronger black teas”. I steeped mine at boiling for around 3.5 minutes. It’s pleasantly robust, very malty and smooth. There is an underlying fruitiness in this blend which I am quite enjoying. You get a bit of pungency in the finish which I am not loving, and overall it’s a bit strong for me. This is one I will definitely need to take with soymilk and a pinch of brown sugar.

The boyfriend seems to like stronger black teas and he took to this more readily than I did.

Again like the Nepal tea from yesterday it seems like a shame to call this darjeeling a black tea…

According to wikipedia: SFTGFOP—Special Finest Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe: Sometimes used to indicate the very finest.

I was a little worried about this one because “clean astringency” sounds like it could be too acid promoting or sour so I only got the sample size. This was steeped at 4 minutes at around 190 F.

The dry leaf in the bag smells very aromatic and they are beautiful olive green and silver grey leaves.

This is a lot more mellow than I thought it would be, which I am enjoying. It’s a golden yellow liquor with a light bodied and smooth taste. Slightly earthy and spicy at the same time. A little bit of peach but the fruit notes are not quite as prominent as I thought they would be. The finish is also not very harsh or astringent. I am not a darjeeling expert but overall I quite enjoyed it – also I can’t say that I need to buy anymore right now.

Certified Fair Trade and Organic – always a bonus

I wouldn’t really have ordered this as a stand alone thing but it came in my sampler pack of Shang teas.

I love the way the wet leaves smell here when brewed – this is high mountain tea and it smells so fresh, sweet and delicious! I really love the white tea that Shang is using here as their white tea base and I think it makes a huge difference in the flavor of this blend.

This sample is about 3 g and I decided to steep the whole thing using short infusions in the gaiwan with water that’s about 180 F. The jasmine is fairly subtle here, definitely not in your face as TeaEqualsBliss describes below. It is very nectar like and relaxing but jasmine never really sits well in my stomach. If you’re a jasmine lover I’d highly recommend checking this one out. Probably one of the best I’ve had of this type but my personal preference would be the Shang white honeysuckle over this one. Keeping the steeping times shorter is helping to keep the jasmine under control.

The package instructions say to steep this at 185F for 4 minutes. That’s what I have tried to do here.

It almost seems like a misnomer to really call this a black tea. When I steeped it up it was a light amber color. Very similar to a first flush darjeeling only it’s from Nepal. :)

This tea is exceptionally clear and bright and is gentle with a honey like sweetness. It definitely has a fruity peach like quality with barely a touch of astringency. It does seem like it would be a shame to add any sweetener or milk like stuff to this tea since it really doesn’t need it. I thought this was an exceptional bargain at $6 for 50 grams.

Thanks to Dinosaura for this one!

I had a feeling I would like this, it looks very pretty and smells great in the bag. White tea and roses does seem very girly but I’m a chick so I guess it’s all okay. :)

I steeped this for approx. 2 minutes at around 180 F. The aroma of this one is very light and fresh and flowery. The rose was very light and flavorful in my cup, not too perfumey, it was nice. As it cooled off I did notice some bitterness and I wasn’t sure if I accidentally steeped it for too long or at too high a temp.

I did attempt a resteep at a lower temp. and I thought I got better results with the second go around. It’s too bad this is only available in the U.K. but I see that Zhi makes something similar. I’ve been known to put rose petals in my white tea and I buy those in bulk from the health food store. :) It is a nice combination for sure.