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I haven’t had this tea in a while, it’s been so long that I totally forgot what it was all about! I just went back to my old tasting note to find that my impressions are pretty much the same. This is a soft tea made from ya bao, it has notes of lemon and cream and is very gentle. I see Norbu doesn’t have this in stock anymore but they do have a 2004 ye sheng tea log that sounds kind of similar. I’m glad I revisited this again today. It’s really nice!

Reading the tasting notes lately from Lion has made me remember the remaining teas I need to try from my Obubu sampler. The package this tea came in says: Kyou Bancha but I’m assuming this is the same tea as Kyobancha, even though the spelling is different.

Leaves in the package are very brown and roasty-smelling. Bancha are older, late harvest tea leaves and this is the roasted form of them, I guess? Good to know this tea has almost no caffeine because I probably don’t need any more today.

I’m not sure how long this was steaming for exactly (it was at least 4 minutes), but I don’t think you can really oversteep this kind of tea too easily. My cup is a dark orange and the flavor is very mild, with slight roasted, woodsy notes. I’m not getting a lot of flavor out of this one. It’s similar to a hojicha but a lot more boring, lol. I will finish the pot of tea i made but I can’t see any reason to buy this. I think I’d just rather have hojicha.

mmm, I haven’t had this in a while, it’s like “lapsang lite”, very strong with definite smoky & malty notes. This is a great cold weather tea so I’ll probably drink it more in the winter time.

I am running quite low on most of my Harney teas, it’s good to be sipping down some things but something tells me I’ll be placing a MASSIVE H&S order if and when I ever start working again… I discovered recently that the Berkeley Bowl carries quite a few of their loose leaf tins, I don’t think this is one of them however.

Looks like my cold is finally abating somewhat, thank goodness. Still sick but not overwhelmingly so. I actually slept until 10 am which is good, because I really need the sleep.

Decided to brew this one up this morning, it’s definitely one of my favorite teas. Very comforting, malty, sweet potato-y. Good for breakfast, afternoon or anytime really. :)

Tea picked up from Starbucks this afternoon — I guess Starbucks is still carrying Tazo tea despite their recent acquisition of Teavana. There was supposed to be a guest speaker beofre our class today but I just found out that the speaker called in sick, which is annoying because I’M STILL SICK and made it to class an hour early for nothing.

So about this rooibos, it’s not bad. I mean, you either like rooibos or you don’t. But as far as rooibos blends are concerned, it’s a bit un-inspired. I definitely get the vanilla but not so much the other ingredients. I’m accustomed to drinking my rooibos teas with soymilk and I thought this was a lot better with two coffeemate creamers and a sugar packet added. I definitely think this would be nice as a latte.

Not my favorite chai but I still have several ounces of the tin left. I really miss the chai blends I got from Cardamom and Curry in Livermore last year at the Green Fair.

In comparison this seems kind of weak in flavor, even though I made it really strong especially so I could add a lot of soymilk to it for a creamy afternoon drink. I should try making this using the traditional stovetop method, it’s really much better that way.

This is one of those teas I’ve had forever but haven’t been drinking much of, maybe that will change now that winter is upon us. At any rate, I don’t think these roasted oolongs really go “bad” very quickly, I have one that is supposedly good for 15 years.

I didn’t like the first steep so I chucked that one out, 2nd steep has lovely notes of peach and honey with that delicious roasted fruit flavor. Steeped gong fu method in a yixing teapot… it’s good for at least 5 steeps from what I recall.

Song Tea is a new-ish tea shop in San Francisco, in fact it’s right in my neighborhood which is pretty dangerous. They aren’t really set up for e-commerce yet as there’s no pictures or shopping cart on their website. If you want, you can check out the price list though: http://www.songtea.com/songtea_pricelist.pdf

I went in recently to sample some red teas, I believe I tried Eighteen, Twenty One and this Golden Needle. I ended up getting the Golden Needle. This is actually the least expensive tea in the whole shop. I really can’t justify spending $70 for 2 ounces of tea, especially not in my current financial predicament. I think their most expensive is a Long Jing which is $88 for 2 ounces. Wow.

Anyway on to this tea. It’s called Golden Needle and it has small, spike like needles which are more black in color than gold. The flavor is truly lovely, dates and brown sugar are prominent. If you steep this for around 3 minutes it becomes a bit hefty and notes of cocoa emerge. A very smooth tea, devoid of astringency. Absolutely delicious. I haven’t tried this using the gong fu method, but I definitely will soon.

Tea of the evening here…
It’s difficult to believe there was a time I didn’t care for rooibos, because now I really like it!

This is a somewhat neglected blend in my stash, I drank the Coco Chai Rooibos down before I made a dent in this packet. I like it though, it’s a bit chai like and a bit fruity, especially with some nice apple notes. Not my favorite but still quite drinkable. Might need to try this iced someday, I bet it would be tasty. ;)

Tea of the early afternoon here. I am still sick, and have spent most of the day so far sneezing and blowing my nose, to the chagrin of my boyfriend who left early this afternoon.

As far as pumpkin rooibos blends go, I actually prefer this over the David’s Tea version which seems a bit spicy for me. I wouldn’t say this exactly tastes like pumpkin either, but it’s closer than some others I’ve had. It’s definitely got some nice cinnnamon-y notes as well as clove and nutmeg. At least the price is right, I think the tin costs $4.