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I bought this bulk from the co-op.

I like Earl Grey but I can’t say I’m a fan of this. It smells and tastes rather medicinal and woody and is really drying. Not what I want at night. I can’t imagine when I would want this. The rooibos looks nice though and it’s not dusty.

Addendum: The bergamot is not overpowering by any means, I think I just don’t like it mixed with a woody rooibos that’s lacking in sweetness.

I got this as a sample from Togo, thanks! The dry leaves had a distinct look, silvery and beige and smelled of floral, lemon, mineral soil and pine. This sample was totally loose but it seems like the cake might be lightly compressed. Warming the leaf brought out a really strong aroma with the addition of fresh apricot. Had me swoonin’ for a minute. The rinse brought out some mushroom, too. The gold liquor was tart and had some characteristic youth bitterness and astringency yet it was very smooth. It was bright and lively in the mouth with some light tastes of apricot, honey and florals. The aftertaste was buttery/yeasty with light honey. Despite the astringency, I could still feel a layer of oil on my tongue.

I really enjoyed this tea’s clean character reminiscent of a damp mountain forest on a sunny day. While it’s drinkable now, I think aging might do some wonderful things. It’s a shame it’s sold out – good deal for $39. Would make an excellent daily drinker. I hope whoever owns a cake enjoys it :)

So I didn’t take tasting notes because I used this tea to fuel me through finishing a university application due tonight. But dang is this a well-balanced yancha. Deep red liquor, aromas, flavors, mouthfeel, returning sweetness, energy all kind of made for the perfect beverage to calm myself down and tell a bunch of strangers why they should accept me into their program. If you want a good idea of the flavors, check out eastkyteaguy’s and oceanica’s reviews for the 2016 harvest, though this 2017 is a bit different. I remember noticing a pronounced thickness, too, which I’ve never experienced in yancha.

Oh, I even talked about tea on my application because the school I applied to tonight, UC Davis, has a program called the Global Tea Initiative that I’m interested in contributing to. Check it out: https://globaltea.ucdavis.edu/

I really dug this Reserve Fo Shou and want more. It’s definitely the smoothest wuyi oolong sample I ordered from Verdant and it’s definitely out of my price range :( but I’ll be on the lookout for this cultivar in the future. (I also enjoyed Verdant’s regular Fo Shou.)

If this were space and I were a space cowgirl, I’d pass by Planet Jinggu for a planet with a more favorable atmosphere for a derk. An atmosphere that’s not so floral and vegetal. Give me fruity pu (or meaty or resinous or citric or herbal) or give me anoxic space death. Some other things that didn’t sit right with me: flat in the mouth, lots of broken material and charred bits, a little too tightly compressed. It does have great longevity, though. Material is still very green. Is that characteristic of Jinggu leaf and/or related to the level of compression? Gets bitter later on.

Get this if you like floral pu.

This was the tea I was rummaging around for to have as a follow-up to a breakfast of a lentil/garbanzo/quinoa patty sandwich and some tater tots.

Gone full western this time. No gaiwan action with this 5g pouch. 8oz, 200F, 4 good steeps at 2/3/5/? minutes.

The dry leaf smelled strongly of tar and cedar smoke. It wasn’t so strong that it was nauseating, though In fact I really enjoyed it. I’m a weirdo and love the smell of a house being re-roofed and the laying of asphalt. I was happy I picked this because it seemed like it was going to go well with the slight smokiness and spiciness of the paprika in my veg patty. The aroma of the first steep smelled moderately of cedar smoke and wood, leather, roasted almond skins and mineral. There was also an umami presence that my olfactories said was cheese, like a tangy and sweet, buttery aged gouda. I like.

The brew started out with a tasty layer of cedar smoke enveloping mineral lemon water. It had a good, light to medium body but also some astringency in the very front of the mouth along my gums which was kind of distracting. Some light bitterness presented in the back. The aftertastes hung around with notes of smoked meat, leather, cedar and a tartness.

I sniffed the leaves after the second steep. With the cedar smoke and leather, there was also a floral note, perhaps white or yellow rose. This didn’t come through in taste in the first few steeps and was likely masked by the smoke but it did appear in the third steep.

As I progressed through the rest of the steeps, the tastes stayed roughly the same. There was an addition of roasted peanut, and as I mentioned the floral note finally came through. The lemon tartness became stronger at the top back of the mouth and on the sides of my tongue. My mouth watered, helping with the astringency. A delayed light returning sweetness also appeared.

This didn’t blow me away, but I’m not really expecting that with a smoked tea. It was comforting yet clean and refined, without the smokiness bowling me over. Good longevity, too. I think it’s worth a try if you’re looking for a higher quality smoked black tea.

Ohhhh Republic of Tea. You got the scent game down in your harvest season blends. I wanna know where da flava at?

Dry bag smells just like mulled apple cider and even the aroma of the tea which is even more tart and pungent. It smells real. But there is so little flavor — a little tart watery apple and cinnamon — and no depth to this it’s ridiculous. This just makes me feel nostalgic for apple season in Ohio and upset that I can’t even come close to nursing my aroma-induced longing with a hot cup.

Boo.

What a lovely leaf to look at and hold. A wild and clumpy pile of large-leaf tendrils. They smell mostly of red cherry, malt and pine with hints of cedar and cacao.

Gone western. What-Cha recommends 2tsp, yes, but how I am I supposed to measure that? The leaves in the teaspoon are the arms of an octopus trying to escape man’s confines. So I brought out my scale and 2g of octopus arms roughly translates to 2 heaping teaspoons? 8oz, 205F, 2 steeps at 3/5m.

After the first brew, my nose is going wild picking out all the aromas coming from the leaf: baked bread, dark cherry, dark honey, cedar, malt and pine foremost with hints of cocoa, juicy red grape, red wine, mandarin orange and grape must. The aroma of the liquor has less strength yet is still satisfying with medicinal cherry, alcohol (brandy?), mandarin orange, baked bread, malt, cedar and pine.

The sip is light and smooth yet robust with an interesting astringency. I’m not sure I mentioned this in my note a few days ago about the Vietnam Wild Boar black tea but that tea’s flavors hit mostly mid-mouth and back with very little happening up front. I’m having the same experience with this tea. Dominant flavors of baked bread, cedar and minerals with hints of cherry, dried orange rind and woody cocoa appear mid-mouth. As I swallow the tea, I notice a stronger mineral presence and tartness. The aftertaste is tart much like a sour orange and lingering with some grape fruitiness and faint cocoa. A light oiliness lines my mouth and I’m salivating, which I love.

I have to thank Togo for the opportunity to try this lovely tea. This is yet another tea to add to my impressive experiences with teas coming out of Vietnam. Oh, this Shan Tuyet black was a great complement to a dessert of coconut ice cream and sticky rice. It cut the sweetness nicely and cleared my palate in between bites.

A final herbal tea to transition out of a stressful day.

I had never drank pure sage tea before because I suspected I might be allergic to it. Being near smoldering sage sends me into sneezing fits and makes me feel ill for hours. However, I seem to be able to ingest it in small amounts in cooking without issue and in tea blends.

I was hesitant to try pure sage in tea form but I drank it with no adverse reaction and quite enjoyed it. It was a little sweet and obviously tasted of sage, a bit woody and earthy. There was some scratchiness in my throat and also a cooling quality in my mouth that was light and maybe different from the usual menthol encountered in other herbs.

The tea had an ethereal quality and produced the senses of heady elevation and cleansing for which sage smudge sticks are known. As I said before, burning sage sickens me, so I’m glad I was able to experience the pure herb in tea form. I suppose this one is a little special since it comes from my uncle’s land of Crete.

Nettle Resumé:

*10 years of experience receiving stinging lashes by 6ft tall Urtica dioica plants.
*4 hours of nursing the pain inflicted by wading through patches of stinging nettles.
*Collection of 2 plants for mounting.
*1 evening with a teabag.

Despite all that time romping around in stinging nettles’ damp environs, I never bothered to harvest them for food because why would I want to mess with something that hurt me. Somebody did the hard work for me here, yay.

The dry bag smells like, haha, flake fish food. Nutritious! Steeped, there is still a whiff of that but it is joined by a sweetness and wet green hay, russet potato, earth and grains. In the mouth it is smooth and a little oily, with tastes of citric tartness, minerals and wet green hay. It possesses more of a vegetal and grassy taste than an herbal, leafy one. My mouth is left a little slick and my tongue feels plump and tingly on the sides. The tartness persists long after finishing the mug. Interesting. I find this a nice evening drink. It feels healthy.

This jujube leaf is remarkably similar to the one offered by Verdant Tea. The dry leaf smelled a little different but it had all the same taste notes using the same parameters with short steeps in a gaiwan at 175F. I picked up on roasted broccoli, potato skins, potato, brownies, edamame, light sweet cream, a red fruit, vanillin and a pleasant lingering sourness.

The only noteworthy difference between the two was this YS jujube was much less sweet, which I greatly appreciated. I feel like that allowed for a silkier body to come through, still reminiscent of a lightly sweetened, watered down vanilla oatmilk. This one also seemed like a better herbal replacement for green tea.

I’m definitely inclined to purchase YS’s jujube over Verdant’s, but if you like your teas super sweet like Verdant’s other Laoshan offerings, I say go for that one. I’m going to have to drop my rating on that one to compensate for how much I appreciate the lack of persistent sweetness in this YS offering.

Thanks for the pleasant nightcap, Togo.