Tealet

Welp, this is the last of this — and in fact the last of ALL my dragon wells. While it was never a tea I got very excited about, now that it’s gone, I’m at a loss. What am I going to drink in the evenings? Or when I just need something smooth and light and mellow? Nothing comes to mind as a substitute for dragon well, it’s in its own little kingdom.

Hmm, I may have to get some more.

A semi-sipdown – I finished off my tin of 2013 harvest, but thankfully I still have the 2014 one. Hopefully it’s as sweet and mellow as this one was. There’s really no substitute for a good dragonwell.

I got a few dragon wells in a Teavivre sampler and really missed them when they ran out, so I was excited to find some in the Tealet boxes. Definitely tasting similarities between this and Teavivre’s, but while theirs was decidedly savory, this has some sweet and nutty notes along with vegetal flavors. I didn’t know there was such a range. Really nice, can’t wait to try the other dragon wells :)

Enamored with this and sorry that this is the last of it :( The seaweed and citrus notes of this wiry green tea combine into a deliciously complex flavor. The liquor is a burnt orange.

The wiry leaves in this are so dark I was under the impression it was a black tea until I checked the label. Instructions said to use 2 tsp. and I took my best shot at that — it comes as such a tangled mass that it’s difficult to separate any and impossible to measure.

Dry this smells of citrus and hay. The wet leaves smell like sweet seaweed. It does taste like a green tea, but a very dark robust one. Now I taste the citrus AND the seaweed. It’s astringent, but only mildly. Not unpleasant.

Overall, this is a green tea with a LOT of character. Very interesting. Definitely worth trying.

p.s. It stands up very well to a second steep. No loss of flavor at all.

This delicate tea is meant to be steeped at a cool 125F. I don’t know if I actually got it that low, but I hope I was close (it doesn’t taste scorched at any rate). It has a strong spinach flavor with some parsley bite.

Tastes pretty good today. While its dominant note is still woodsy, I’m picking up some carob and licorice flavors as well.

I’m expecting some shipments to come in tomorrow & Tuesday, at which point I’ll have a fair amount of tea in the cupboard again. This has spurred me to dig into the dark corners of my collection and evaluate what I have already. In hindsight, it seems like I would have done this weeks ago, when I was actually low on tea. But no. It felt too depressing then. So it is happening now.

I really thought I hated this one, but it is actually not bad. Maybe I was steeping it wrong before. Earthy and mushroomy, it has a kind of medicinal vibe, but I do have times when I’m in the mood for that sort of thing, so I guess I won’t chuck it after all.

Eh, this is my first houjicha and I don’t know what to make of it. It looks like miniature wood shavings. It smells like licorice. And boiling water, really? Is that how they’re usually prepared? The flavor reminds me a bit of some of the more mushroomy oolongs I’ve tried – like se chung and wu yi – but it’s not as strong. Loamy and woodsy. I don’t know, I think this one might just not be for me.

Sipdown :(

Bumping the rating up slightly. The pekoes from Plucky Farm are quickly becoming a favorite of mine. Fuss-free and rich on flavor. And this one tastes particularly brown sugary.

Smells like brown sugar. Tastes like it a bit too, and also has some malt and a touch of citrus flavor, just like the label promises. This is another Plucky orange pekoe, and the flavor certainly has a great deal in common with the other pekoes I’ve tried from them, but the differences are noticeable. The OP1s had strong honey notes, while this one leans toward the darker side with the malt and burnt sugar notes. It’s also quite a bit brisker.

Mmm, I could smell the honeysuckle the moment I opened the tin. Now that I’ve had 4 or 5 honeyish oolongs from Taiwan, it’s dawning on me that this is no coincidence, this is the place honey oolongs come from, and my ears perk up now every time I hear the name. Such a great flavor. As The Snooty Tea Person noted, this one also has some interesting seaweed notes, and though it’s not something I’d think would go with the floral side of the tea, it actually tastes quite good.

The label mentions dark chocolate as a flavor note, and I’m definitely picking up on that, though I think it might be a little closer to carob. There is also a touch of smoke flavor, and though I’m not really a fan of smoke, this is light enough to be pleasant. I think this is probably the darkest oolong I’ve ever had, both flavor-wise and the color of the leaf. At a glance, the steeped leaves look like shiny raisins. On closer inspection, they look like very knotted thick string, because even after a 3 minute steep, the leaves have barely uncrinkled. Smells a bit loamy and mushroomy, but this isn’t really translating to the flavor.

Unsurprisingly, this is nearly identical in taste to the OP1 with tea flowers (also from Plucky Tea farm) that I tried over the weekend. It’s the same tea sans the tea flowers.

Still delicious though :)

Wanted a late night cup of green tea and remembered I had this, low-caffeine “stem” tea. The flavor is a bit reminiscent of dragonwell — they’re both savory teas with vegetal notes, especially green bean — but this one leans toward grassy, with just a hint of astringency and asparagus. It is, as advertised, a great tea to unwind with. I’m feeling sleepy already.

A pleasant savory tea to relax with. Spinach, green bean, and chicken soup notes.

Sipdown of this delicate but excellent tea. Creamy and nutty with a hint pea. I dragged this out as long as I could because I really didn’t want to let it go, but it’s probably for the best, seeing as this is from the 2013 harvest. Still tastes great though.

This beautifully named tea has light sweet and savory notes. It’s a little nutty, but mostly vegetal, and for a sencha, amazingly mellow. I find senchas have great flavor but can be on the astringent side, so I’m really glad to have found a non-astringent one. Delicious!

Does the fact that this tea comes from Assam make it technically an assam? I haven’t had enough assams to tell by taste, and the labeling doesn’t really say. To me the flavor falls somewhere between an English breakfast and a darjeeling. A hearty tea with just a hint of earth and fruit undertones. And orthodox is right — I feel like it’s “normal” enough that I could serve this to non-tea addicts without raising eyebrows. Certainly not the most exotic of the Tealet teas, but a solid offering.

Sipdown. This tea has some great earth and light spice notes. It’s a high quality white tea, but it just kind of confirms to me that unflavored whites are not my thing — I’d rather be drinking black, green, or oolong. The hay flavor in white tea is just kind of a downer for me.

Eh, really must remember to read directions. I hadn’t had this in a long while and I just dumped in a teaspoon, my usual measurement for a cup of tea, and steeped it up. Alas, the instructions recommend 2 Tablespoons. I don’t think you need THAT much (it seems like a misprint to me) but use 2 teaspoons at least. It’s usually a flavorful white with a touch of spiciness — now it just tastes like soapy dishwater.

The things I do when I’m not properly caffeinated.

The Tealet tins came four to a box, and simply for the sake of keeping some idea of what I’ve tried and what I haven’t, I’m making the round through each box before going on to the next one. Today’s box was particularly well-appointed in that it hit all the major tea groups: black, oolong, green, and this white that I’m finishing out the day with.

While I don’t think I would seek this tea out because I’m just not a fan of unflavored whites, I have to note that the tea has some fascinating spice undertones that give it a lot more character and body than a white tea usually has. It tastes like cinnamon and cloves, if you can imagine cinnamon and cloves as an aftertaste rather than the overpowering experience they usually are. I also get a bit of sweet hay flavor, which I find with a lot of white teas. It’s a very smooth tea, but with 4 out of 5 caffeine points, maybe not the most relaxing tea. Drink it to wake up.

Prep note: the instructions recommend using a whomping 2 Tbsp; I used 2 tsp, which to me seemed plenty strong enough. It’s true that this is a light and feathery tea, with many of the pieces consisting of 2 leaves attached to a stem, and all this means that it’s not going to fill all the spaces in the measuring spoon. But still, 2 Tbsp seems like overkill. Use your own discretion, I guess.

Sipdown of this one too :( This is a solid honeysuckle-style oolong. I would be happy to get it from this company again, but that said, I’ve found this type of oolong from several companies now and they have all been quite good, so it’s not hard to come by.