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This shincha came from my latest Den’s tea order and is from the 2014 season.

This stuff is amazing! For one thing the color of the tea brews up to be a brilliant emerald green color and is vibrant. The flavor is very mellow and sweet with a hint of grassiness. Evidently this was produced with some extra steaming which accounts for the color and the flavor. They call this herbaceous but there’s almost something creamy about it in my opinion. Definitely glad I got this one, it’s one of the better senchas I’ve had.

Sipdown!

This is a tea I will miss having in my cupboard. It is a wonderful blend of black tea with douglas fir needles. Would definitely get this again if they offer it next holiday season. On the other hand, it is nice to actually be purging myself of some stuff.

I picked this up from the Spicely store down on Market Street just because I like tulsi and it’s relaxing. the flavor of this one is a little “meh”, however, mostly it is tulsi and there’s not very much ginger involved it would seem. I suppose I could add my own and maybe I will next time!

Tea of the morning here after I finished my morning coffee — is that a sacrilege?

This came in my recent order from Den’s Tea. I don’t think this is a 2014 sencha but it is still really good. It’s hard to get pineapple flavored teas “right” — I’ve had ones that seem really sour and downright acidic. This is really nice and natural tasting with not a lot of grassiness from the green tea. Definitely worth checking out if you’re into flavored greens. I might just go make myself another pot of it this morning, I am enjoying it on this beautiful, sunny day!

Tea of the afternoon here. I am not sure what possessed me to buy more tea but I recently got a few things from Den’s. I definitely need to do a moratorium on tea buying after losing my job due to my arm injury.

This is a nice idea for summer time. I love the cold brew flavor of this and the sencha itself is bright and flavorful. I wish I was getting more pear out of this because the pear flavor is pretty mild. I don’t regret buying it though, it’s pretty tasty! To prepare this, you pop a tea bag into your cold water and steep it for at least an hour. I believe I did mine for about 3 hours.

I wonder if it’s too late in the day to be drinking any caffeine at 9:43 pm. However it’s a Friday night so I think I’m living dangerously. WooT!

I haven’t had this tea in a long time, so long in fact, that I had to read my previous tasting note to remember anything about it. I like the idea of a chocolate pu’erh but this is just kind of light on the chocolate flavor. Do you ever write notes to yourself on your tea tins? I wanted to remember to steep this for at least 4 minutes next time.

I haven’t been drinking many pu’erhs at all lately. Haymen at the Aroma Tea Shop says I might be all pu’ed put… lol

On another positive note I am happy with the progress I am making in PT. Although it is overall exceedingly slow I am doing a little bit better all the time so I am optimistic that I will be able to avoid surgery! wheeee

Tea of the morning here. Didn’t sleep too well last night but I am hoping today will be a good day! I have to admit I felt a sense of relief upon looking at my tea collection this morning because at least running out of tea isn’t something I will need to worry about for a while. :)

This isn’t really my favorite tea from Verdant or my favorite Yunnan, but I am appreciating its gentle nature today. I added some soymilk to mine and am getting some notes of sweet potato and spices.

Good afternoon Steepster…

I am feeling a bit down today as my work notified me they were replacing me at my job due to my injury. The final stick in the eye seems to be that they “might” offer me a part time position in the future in some remote office in order to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act. Why can’t they just lay me off and give me a severance package after the 9 years of service I’ve given them? :((

Anyway depressing things aside, I was in the mood for some oolong this morning so decided to have this today. It’s a nice darker oolong and seems sweet and plummy, as well as cinnamon-y. I think I may have underleafed it this time because I recall it being more flavorful in the past. Live and learn…

Thanks again to Min River for these green tea samples!

This is a beautiful looking leaf, it’s very long, slender and needle like. I decided I was going to steep this for two minutes and after pulling the wet leaf out, it definitely smells of sweet cooked peas. The flavor was kind of light after two minutes, so I decided to steep it for an additional 60 seconds.

The tea liquor here is a very light yellow, like the color of cornsilk. There is a slightly sweet vegetal flavor here that reminds me a bit of corn and peas. With Chinese green teas, I definitely prefer the more robust varieties and this is extremely light. I think it would be good for a warm summer day (perhaps even cold brewed) but it’s a bit light for my particular tastes or I probably would have rated it higher. If you like very delicate teas this may be your cuppa…

Yesterday I mixed one teabag of this with a lemongrass tea bag and discovered that it makes a delicious iced drink.. this has been a public service announcement :)