Life In Teacup

This was one of the free samples I won from Life In Teacup’s Valentine’s contest…

This does not seem like a white tea at all. It brewed up a brownish color – really like a black tea. It smelled sort of like a cross between a black tea and a puerh- I got a hint of earthiness in the nose after it brewed, and the black tea scent that I’m very familiar with as that is one of my favorite tea types.

Tastewise, I’m thinking it reminds me of a black tea as well, with a small honeyish note. I don’t get white at all, but to be fair, I’m so inexperienced with white teas I may just be missing it.

Overall, though, this is a very pleasant and relaxing evening tea.

Interesting find . . . thanks, Gingko, for sending me some to try!

The mini-cakes are loosely pressed and can be broken apart very easily. The dry and wet aroma is of a very good high-mountain type and actually surprised me with its sweet and creamy pungency.

The broth is thin and easy on the palate displaying typical sweet and green floral notes very well but does not command very much attention. There is sufficient depth and no unpleasant sharpness even when brewed with boiling water. The lasting hui gan brings the elements found in the wet aroma around full circle along with a very nice grassy flavor. At around the third steep the flavor really reveals a warm, almost spicy sweetness and a pleasant marine quality.

I would specifically serve this tea with food for this very reason as it strikes me as an excellent restaurant style tea. I usually refrain from serving hot tea with food because the tea may tend to get lost in the flavors of the meal (and I am not a gourmet chef though I would imagine that some creative soul out there can pioneer the art of pairing pure tea to a customized cuisine). I would not hesitate to serve this with any light meal and not because the flavors of the tea are disposable in any way. In fact, the flavors are so well balanced and comforting and the mouthfeel is so smooth and unassuming that it would enhance any meal made to accommodate it.

I love Oolong – and this is so good. Roasty, but not overwhelmingly so. Pleasant nutty sweetness with a faint note of bitter. Delicious! YUM!

I just got finished writing my full-length review of this tea which should publish on March 11 (if not sooner!) on the SororiTea Sisters blog.

The aroma of this kind of reminded me of honey butter and buttered veggies – more specifically buttered asparagus or green peppers, even. I like the aroma! The taste is very crisp and clean. It has a bit of a vegetal taste but just enough to say so. This makes me one happy green tea drinker!

This tea’s scent is beautiful from start to finish. When I opened the pretty little vacuum sealed bag, the smell of the tea leaves reminded me of a preserved bouquet. It was very pretty, yet grassy. Not overdone or overpowering. Just pleasant.

195/2 min

Now, the fragrance of the tea is much more evident. I’m picking up on the bergamot scent, reminiscent of Earl Grey, but not scent the room strong. The taste is really subtle. I can taste the bergamot, but I don’t feel it as in the Earl Grey where it permeates all of your senses. Instead, it’s comforting and delicate. This tea is fairly light and other than a hint of toasty oolong flavor, it really does resemble more of a roasted green tea. I’m not picking up too much of a fruity flavor, just a gentle floral infusion.

I ordered a small tin of these with about eight inside. They’re okay. Frankly, the tea taste is a bit harsh. These are more like candies than chocolate, but not really sweet. I think the ratio of the white chocolate to tea needs to be changed. More chocolate, less tea. There are bits of tea in it that add texture, but I really didn’t feel like they’re necessary. The green kisses are soft like white chocolate, but the taste is just off what I expected. It didn’t stop me from eating all of them in the course of just two days, but I wouldn’t repurchase them. Now, if they were made with genmaicha… :)

This is a very unique, interesting white tea.
Thanks Gingko, for the sample, I enjoyed it both times (I think it was two 3.5g bags)!

The liquor was a light brown somewhat gold color. Honestly, this tea really felt like a black tea, rather than a white tea. The color wasn’t light (green or yellow tinted), the wet leaves were dark brown (again, like a black tea after infusion; not as dark as houjicha or anything), and the first pot I had of this was slightly astringent and had some malty notes!

For the first time a few days ago, I went by the directions; boiled water for 3 minutes. This afternoon, however, for the 2nd bag, I tried slightly under boiling, probably between 190-200 or so, for the same amount of time.

The astringency and drying sensation from the first pot were gone. Instead, the honey-sweetness was much more pronounced! (This was present the first time, but far less obvious). This really reminds me of a less complex Yunnan Gold. It is from the same region, so I guess I shouldn’t be surprised by that.

For a white tea, this was very surprising – it wasn’t too light, flowery, buttery — the honey-sweetness was quite enjoyable, but I can’t remember there being much else to it. I think I would go for Life in Teacup’s Yunnan Golden Buds over this, but that’s just my personal preference!

Thanks Gingko for the fun sample for Valentine’s. My wife and I enjoyed this and the Green Kiss Chocolate. There are probably a lot of things you could put these blossoms in to add character/color, and a little flavor.

The chocolate was delicious, very fun to find teeny tiny pieces of leaf in ones mouth after it melted! It had the very familiar flavor of green tea (think green tea icecream) mixed with what I thought tasted like white chocolate (buttery, not dark). I don’t think it’s pure white chocolate or anything, but there’s probably more cocoa butter than cocoa solids.

Anyway, enough about the chocolate, this is about this fun herbal tea.
While I like rose-water flavored things (icecream for one!), I was a little skeptical about drinking actual tea made from little rose blossoms. Just before the steeping finished though, I smelled the lid of the teapot, and it had such a nice, sweet, subtle, rose aroma. It didn’t quite smell like something I’d want to drink, but it was very pleasing.

The tea (tisane) itself I was a little more doubtful about after smelling; it was quite strong (though, still clear in color). However, the taste was nicely muted. The flavor of rose is definitely present, but not overwhelming. I used 10 buds for 6oz water (1-2 buds per oz). My wife pointed out that I should have used a dozen! This is the perfect tea for such an occasion.

My second of the free samples I got from Life in Teacup. This one had a wonderfully pure, tea-like smell coming from the dry leaves. I brewed 2 tsp. in 500 ml of water, with the steeping parameters below.
The tea itself holds NO bitterness or astringency whatsoever. I wouldn’t call it sweet (mostly because sweet to me means actual sugar, and I’m drinking this with no additives), but there is a woodsy, honey-like note in the background, that really makes it feel like the black tea that it is.
A very nice, high quality tea.

This smells and tastes like flowers and celery. It’s VERY clean. The color of the liquor is a light beige/olive green mix. It’s smooth and the middle of the sip makes your mouth water and the end of the sip on to the after taste is a little nutty.

This morning, I decided to try Taiwan Sweet Summer Oolong for the first time. The leaves smell woodsy, kind of herbal.

I brewed it at 205 for 3 minutes. The leaves expanded tremendously! I think that surprised me the most. They completely filled the basket on the Breville.

The scent, once steeped, is slightly sweet, kind of like honey, but without the weight or heaviness one would associate with it. The taste, yes, is also sweet, but with a touch of floral notes. Like an orchid, almost. It’s a nice tea, not as strong as I thought it would be based on the previous reviews. It has a slight tinge of bitterness and doesn’t seem quite as forgiving of a longer steep than other oolongs I’ve tried. Still, it’s very good.

CHECK

Sorry to see these go…didn’t last long in my stash! YUM!

See previous notes…

This little gem is a beauty, let me tell you!

The color of it is that of green olives with small specks of what I later noticed to be tiny particles from the tea leaves. This smells like a mellower matcha. I really love the ‘molding’ of this little individually wrapped chocolate…it’s flat on one side with a frame-like shape on the other dented inward to reveal a nifty star in the middle.

This tastes like chocolate and green tea. Smooth but sweet-grassy and sugary. The small leaves that leave particles throughout the chocolate are small and fun to nibble on, too! They are quite good…almost like a parsley type flavor.

I think these guys are just too cute and they are quite tasty. What a treat!!!!

You may have noticed (if you look in my cupboard that is), but I tend to gravitate toward flavored teas. Like, strongly flavored desserty teas. But I won the Valentine’s contest by Life in Teacup, which was very fortuitous indeed – it got me back to the roots of really good, basic tea.

This was the first of my samples that I broke open. Upon smelling it I immediately said “flowers!” at the same time that my boyfriend said “grass!”, so in other words, it’s a garden in a cup. After it was brewed the flowers stayed in the smell, but there was also something buttery behind it. Despite that buttery presence the tea was extremely light..the flowers were very present in the taste. It was like springtime on my palate, if that makes any sense.

It made a wonderfully calming ending to the day.

You know when you feel like you’re missing out on the perfect cuppa? This is the one.. especially on such a hot day like today… sweetly yummy as is, no additions!

I really like this oolong because of the consistent, yet mellow sweetness… you can also smell/taste the vegetal notes which blend in at the right level to compliment. Simple, relaxing, great choice for after a meal.

This is one of the samples I received from Ginkgo with life in teacup. There was a valentine’s special package created for 10 lucky steepster posters and I was lucky enough to be one of them!

I’ve never tried an unflavored oolong, so this is an experience for me. I have seen many raving reviews about different Tie Guan Yin’s and wanted to try one. I followed the steeping instructions in doing a 1 minute prewash/steep, then a 20 second steep with nearly boiling water. I like the infusion that came from the first steep. It is sweet and light and delicately floral. I hope to try more steeps from these leaves.

I had a Pomegranate Tie Guan Yin from Harney several months ago, and now remember it being similar in flavor, but having an added tart fruit flavor from the pomegranate. I do like this tea, I just wish I had more of a vocabulary to explain and describe it.

I will forever be indebted to Ginko from Life in a Tea Cup for giving me my first sample and introduction to Lapsang Souchong.
Being new to tea, I am sure the veterans will appreciate my awe and wonder inspired by the multitude of new tea flavors with their complexities and character.
I knew a little of what to expect with this, from reading reviews and learning how the tea was made. But nothing prepared me for the experience.
The aroma was smoky of course, but immediately made my mind race to memories of campfires, fireplaces, bonfires, and other burnings. The first sip was full of smoke at first but like a whiff was gone and the flavor of black tea appeared. The aftertaste followed with a whisp of smoke that lingered…and was gone.
Sip after sip followed the same path…guiltily, I felt almost as if I was smoking…savoring each pull, holding in and releasing after each taste, hoping it would never end.
I learned something, you don’t “drink” this tea, you experience it. After the first cup, I realized the smokiness was calling me back to an earlier time, the Fall of 1999 and fighting forest fires in Northern California. Hardwoods had been the fuel of choice growing up, in the hearth at home, on campouts. Hardwood smoke has it’s own character. The Pine forest we worked on in ’99 had a scent I will never forget…and thought was lost in memory…until I tasted this tea for the first time.

You come to expect a fair amount of the same thing with these greener style of oolongs: orchid floral notes, a light sweetness and not a whole lot of infusions. This tea however offers up a little more.

The name almost perfectly describes this tea. Like a late afternoon in early May before the heat really sets in but leaves you with a sticky feeling nonetheless. The aroma is floral with strong vegetal notes and a little malty as well. The tea ‘soup’ is quite smooth and fills the mouth nicely. It has a very well-rounded flavor that doesn’t just sit in the top of the mouth and disappear after swallowed. The aftertaste leaves behind a very comfortable malty-sweetness, but only just. A friend who I shared this with also described notes of mulberry leaves, although I’ve never had it so I’m taking his word for it.

But, like other green oolongs this one is somewhat shortlived. Only about 4-5 infusions. Maybe I should use more leaf. Smooth, sweet, and very, very comfortable. All-in-all not a complex tea, but one that offers something different in the way of green oolong.

April 2011 sample – AWESOME! I’m enjoying this more than the last sample, actually! There is a hint of something sweet underneath this smooth green! It’s MARV-uh-lussss!

This doesn’t have much smell prior to infusion but after infusing it smells like chewy green veggies! The color is what you could or would expect from a green. The taste is slightly vegetal but more notably brothy. There is a sort of thickness to it I wasn’t expecting but really enjoy! This is tasty.

I recently won a Valentine’s Day sampler from Life in Teacup, and as my free samples, I chose these two Pu-erhs from the Guan Zi Zai factory.
I’ve never had Pu-erh before. After reading enough tasting notes from Steepster users the_skua and cultureflip, my interest was finally perked. Also, I have to point out this article: http://hojotea.com/article_e/puerh_e.htm
After reading it, my impressions of Pu-erh were very much changed and I think it was this in the first place that helped me to even to start paying attention to what people said here on Steepster about various Pu-erh they enjoyed.
It’s a long article, but I recommend it.

Enough rambling… anyway, the first steep or two was smokey tasting and also earthy. But not unpleasantly so; I thought it was kind of calming and smooth.

At about steep four or five, my wife and I both noticed it that it was getting flowery as well (it may have been like this, but this is when we noticed it, at least), and the smokey faded to become more like the smell of tobacco. The earthiness was also less present.

I think it’s pretty yummy, and really fun to have a first-time experience not be a gross one, which seems to be a potentiality with Pu-erh in particular.

I have to really thank Ginkgo again! She is the reason I found my favorite black tea (Yunnan Gold!) and now she’s selling a tasty Pu-erh. Thumbs up to Life in Teacup!

Happy to report that this retains a lot of character in subsequent steeps - it’s really too light for an a.m. tea, but I left the leaves overnight and brewed a rerun this morning. Has lost very little of its velvety texture.

My general opinion of white tea has not been very kind in the past—usually I think it’s too insipid. This one (thanks, Gingko from lifeinteacup.com!) was a surprise! The leaves are monster huge and it’s a beautiful golden maple color. Flavor is subtle, which you’d expect from a white tea, but leaves this wonderful sweet, biscuity aftertaste. Like drinking liquid suede.

The lifeinteacup website says I can expect to get seven steeps out of this one … it’s a little late in the evening for me to attempt that feat, but I’m looking forward to seeing what an encore cup is like.