PureAromaTea

Another tea from Sil. I thought this would be a sipdown, but there is still enough left for one more cup, so I put that last bit in my ‘sipdown’ box, which I started awhile back. Any tea that only has enough left for a cup, or maybe a 16 oz pot, is getting dropped in there. There are only about 5 of them right now, waiting to be picked off one by one, or maybe for my next Sipdown Extravaganza (I haven’t had one of those in awhile).

I met with a bride & groom a little while ago, booking & planning their wedding for next September. They paid their deposit using my Paypal swiper! So now I have a little money in my PlayPal account! I’ll let it sit there for now, & hopefully it will build up by the end of the month for some awesome tea orders! Meanwhile, I’ll keep sipping!

Yixing teapot – 370ml – (Enough for two)
Tea weight – 10g
Water temp – 95°C
Steeping times – 15 second increments

This tea has a dry, wooden, leather, smoky and tobacco. I took a picture – https://twitter.com/kittylovestea/status/392335220914925568/photo/1

I can taste clay, soil, damp wood, smoke and dry musk. Medium strength overall and consistent throughout but it does weaken quickly. A slight astringency and sourness comes through on the third steep but it’s still rather smooth.

A nice Pu Erh suited for everyday drinking and good for the price but this one is not on my re-purchase list.

sipdown! The rest of this is going over to terri to try. I am really enjoying this tea a bunch. It’s not an overly intense smokey tea – there are sweet notes in it and it’s got a depth to it that i really like. It’s also a very smooth tea to drink. As always, I added a bit of maple syrup to this and i am in my happy place. Gulped this one down before i even realised it was all gone.

sipdown! this is a pretty good average russian caravan. This is not their smokey version, which suits me fine this morning. It’s a refreshing tea without the boldness that i like in a morning tea, so this would like be more of an afternoon tea for me. Overall a decent blend

Mmmm this is so good! Hot, anyhow. I can see why Sil would like this cold. Liquid lemon drops!!! Yup. Quite tasty. Kindof like the cough candy ones though, which I actually like so it’s no problem for me. In fact, it’s a flavour I crave often but don’t really come across so high marks from me!
Next time I won’t add any sugar though, as the little bit I did add made things a tad syrupy, hence the cough drop.
Anyhow. I’m now stuck with “somewhere over the rainbow” in my head.
Silly lemon drops. I never did understand why they would melt. Are they supposed to melt??
Thanks for holding this Sil :)

It’s been a black tea day for the most part which my husband has enjoyed because his favourite teas are black. Still watching Luther (series 2 episode 3).

The tea whilst raw has a strong, smoky, dark, wooden scent. Just the way I like a black tea to smell.

Brewing this with a drop of soy milk.

Once steeped this tea smells robust, wooden and malted.

Flavour is wonderfully strong and sweetly wooden with elements of smoke, earth, leather and malt. It also has a musky quality and dryness. This would make a perfect breakfast tea or simple a ‘pick me up’ tea.

Very nice drink and I shall try it next time without the milk, I may even try it in the morning. Happy I tried this sample, may have to get some more of this.

oh wow this was so good! after seeing how strong the aroma was, I avoided steeping it up, for fear that it’d be overbearing.
And yet… It was quite nice. A dark roasted oolong with a wonderful sweet candy orange accent. I’m really glad to have tried it, and would certianly consider ordering more one day.
Sadly, I never got to try out a second steep, as my tea got knocked out of the infuser whilst on my way to the kitchen. All over the hallway floor!
It’s been that kind of Monday for me, I tell ya. Had a massive fight with a friend over the weekend, missed my train this morning because my blow dryer wasn’t working, and got head hunted for an amazing job that I really wanted only to have them reject me a few hrs later for lack of experience. I have an internet date this evening. We’ll see if that goes any better…

Sipdown, 833.

Bleh, this one isn’t particularly good, but I suspect that it’s mostly because the tea was practically powdered. I’m not sure if that’s because I was the last of the three of us who split the packet to get it, or if that’s how it was the whole time, but either way, it resulted in astringency/bitterness that does not mix well at all with the tartness of what is presumably hibiscus mimicking the tartness of raspberries. (Now that I’m actually on Steepster, I see that it looks powdered in the picture as well…. not a fan.)

I actually think that were it not for the bitterness, this could be a decent tea – it tastes rather fruit punchy; the hibiscus (or raspberry flavouring) is well-done, and I can envision it being quite tasty iced. However, I only infused it for about 1.5 minutes, and even with that infusion, it’s unpleasant to drink. Perhaps it would be half-decent sweetened.

SIPDOWN! (202..not that it means anything since any time i get to 200 more tea just happens to arrive…) I received this as a sample from purearoma with my order – it’s not something i ever would have picked up myself and since terri sent me a bunch of random herbs, she’s totally getting the rest of this hahaha!

Also..though it’s kind of a silly “tea” for it to happen with, this is officially the 1000th tea i’ve tasted since joining steepster! go me!

verdict on this one? It smells awful, but it’s not a terribly “tea.” I’m finding it sort of relaxing and one of those teas i want to add a bit of honey to, in order to bring out the sweetness. nothing i’d ever order on my own, but i don’t hate it.

I. Figured since yesterday was Darjeeling heavy, today could be puerh heavy to try and start working through all of the puerh samples that I’ve accumulated from various people and companies. I’ve got a few set aside to try and drink over the week as well.

This is a sip down because I’m sending the rest either to Terri or through the BBB box for for them to try. I brewed this as a 2 min steeps flat out since the package instructions don’t mention gongfu style. I’ve been sipping on multiple steeps of this over the morning and its a pretty good average puerh to drink. It doesn’t have the nuances that some of the mandala puerhs I’ve tried has, but as a result this is a pretty good puerh to treat like a bold black for first thing in the morning. There is a sense of hay from this one but mostly it’s just a bold and relaxing cup for this cooler almost fall morning. Another solid offering from pure aroma – I haven’t been disappointed with any of their teas really.

The dry blend smells strongly of a peach flavor and black tea. The tea tastes like a moderately flavoured peach tea with a bold black base. It reminds me of peach drink from Tim Horton’s. Mmmmmm. Very refreshing. I think it would make a great iced tea. Thanks Sil for this.

Edit: Did a cold brew for about 8 hours. It was just as delicious as the hot brew.

With summer slowly winding down I am making an effort to sip down my summer teas and this tea is screaming summer, cold steep, and tropical all at the same time (this is one noisy tea!) This is my first tea from Pure Aroma, and I want to thank Katiek for sending this to me in her incredibly generous mystery tea box.

The last several tropical teas I’ve tried have been a bit of a let down, but I enjoyed this one, although I wish the flavor would have been as strong as the scent of the dry leaf. If I had more of this I would double the amount of leaf I used, my typical 1T/8oz for a cold steep didn’t work well in this case. I was surprised by how light the flavor was considering that it steeped for nearly 18 hours.

This blend was very heavy on the coconut, with a hint of sweetness from the pineapple and a nice creamy taste that reminds me of a Piña Colada. I do find that I wanted the pineapple to come through a bit more so i added a bit of pineapple juice to it.

This weekend I decided to experiment with some of my Souchong teas. Of the 3 classic Lapsang Souchong teas this one and Nina’s tied. This one is more refreshing but Nina’s is sweeter and holds up to more steeps.

The dry leaf of this one smells like a campfire with a hint of sweetness and spice that is achieved when burning
hardwood and fall leaves. The tea has a scent overtone of mint and pine and a good measure ofsweetness like semi ripe plums.
The dry leaves are mix of black brown and a touch of grey, you can see the veins on some of the leaves.

It brews to a medium transparent orangey peach brown.

The tea has a scent of light smoke, sweet fruit tones, sap, pine, and sugar syrup. It is not as sweet tasting as it smells, but it is still sweet. Light upper tones disappear almost instantly to deeper plum and grainy tones at the back of the throat which are then followed by an after taste of wood and pine smoke. It is mildly astringent. There is a mild freshening feeling at the front of the mouth as part of a tangy sweet/piney fresh aftertaste.

There is a faint taste of sour cherry. The tart fruit notes dominate over the smoke. The tea is quite refreshing. The aftertaste is accompanied by tingling, cooling sensation. I could see myself ordering this in the future. It Tastes like a slightly damp fall day
once everyone starts lighting their fireplaces. It actually brings back a vivid memory of the scent and taste of woodsmoke in Urbania, Italy. I had been there a couple of weeks when one day the air was full of woodsmoke. At first, I thought it was due to the kilns as there are a lot of pottery works there, but later I found out it was due to the drop in temperature. Electricity is expensive ( my landlord reccommended only turning on the furnace for two hours a day) and many people are using either wood or charcoal to heat or suplement the heating of their houses. This is not my photo but I lived on the top floor of the building on the left and had a huge (capable of waliking into it) fireplace in the kitchen.
http://www.panoramio.com/photo/20443915

3 min second steep. The scent is less sweet, but there is still a potent taste with a stronger reference to smoke, pine mint and grain with an almost floral note. There is still a slightly unripe tart stone fruit taste. Sweet, fresh, but smokey aftertaste that is sweeter than the tea tasted.
3rd steep 345. Honey and cocoa grain notes coming out underneath the smoke
4th steep 5min smoke tones over grainy and bitter cocoa, still fairly strong
5th steep colour fading honey bread and smoke, lighter flavour but sweeter and less bitter.
Overall it is quite a nice tea and very refreshing

1.75 tbsp for 375 ml

Dry leaf scent reminds me of cherry “Jolly Rancher” candy smell.
Hibiscus is not too overpowering. “Jolly Rancher” scent translates to the flavour near the end of the sip.

Another Sipdown from Sil!
This is a light & fruity ‘afternoon’ kind of tea. It does have a refreshing taste, & would probably make a good iced tea if the base was just a little stronger. At least that’s my opinion.

Another tea from Sil.
This is a pleasantly flavored tea with a mild fruitiness, some spice, & some florals as well. Although it isn’t something I’d crave or want to keep in my collection, it’s a worthy cup for today. The flavoring is light, as is the tea base.

Welcome to day 2 of Sil & Terri’s sipdown extravaganza & sip off! :)
Good morning dear Sil! Were you surprised when you woke up to find that the tortoise had, at least momentarily, drawn ahead of the hare? Mwuahahahahaha!

I’m enjoying this first cup of the day in bed, as it should be. This is a sample from Sil, and it’s a bold cup, with a little more acidity to it that I usually like. The tip of my tongue is a tingle, & there’s kind of a brightness, like a brass ensemble playing reveille, with a strong tuba player.

This is not a tea I should be drinking on an empty stomach, & I can understand why people add milk & sugar to teas like this, but luckily we’re going to breakfast soon.

Another tea from my dear friend Sil.
I enjoyed this rich full cup this morning in bed, but I don’t really have much to say by way of description. It’s nicely bold & tasty though.

I just finally printed out my tea collection document for the month, & (mostly thanks to SIL) I’m starting the month at 401 teas. LOL, & a ton of them are flavored teas, which I’m not really all that fond of, but I will of course drink them, or at least 1 cups worth.

I’ve had this summer blend for awhile, from one of the many boxes Sil has sent to me. It’s actually not bad. I drank it without any additives, & today my imagination must have been active, because I swear I tasted a hint of peach. Otherwise, it’s a basic kind of black tea with the addition of a variety of flowers. It looks real pretty & confetti-like as a dry tea, & the various leafs maintain their colors after steeping, although they become muted.
And it’s a sipdown! Only 400 teas to go!