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Thanks to Faith for including this one in a recent swap. I don’t drink a ton of DavidsTeas, but occasionally there is a flavor I get curious about. I love salted caramels, so this was definitely one of them, though I don’t know what coconut is doing in there. Salted Coconut Caramel?

I smell the coconut in the steeped tea, and it smells a bit like some of the chocolate-coconut blends I’ve had, though only with a faint chocolate and with more of a caramelly background, which makes sense.

Well this is pretty tasty overall. Caramelly, coconutty, with a hint of savory to it, which must be due to the salt. Ooh I just got a sip with a lot of burnt-sugar caramel to it, which was delightful. I have also come to realize that although I love coconut in general, I often am not the biggest fan of it in black tea blends (though I often love it in whites or greens). Dunno why. This does have a bit more coconut in it than I would prefer. Why is coconut necessary in a caramel tea? It’s just weird to me. Still, this is pretty tasty despite it, and I am glad I got a chance to try it.

I ordered this ages ago, tasted it, and decided I wanted to let it “meld” for a while since Ovation blends their teas to order. Then I promptly forgot about it, until I decided to make a cup today to try it out before I sent most of it out in a swap. I have cold-steeped this once in the interim as well, and it turned out nicely.

Last time I found myself not fond of the bite of the assam base, and without clear flavor profiles. This time I will say that the flavors have mellowed more and I get pretty decent raspberry and citrus notes. It’s not super bergamotty, but it is enough so to definitely be an Earl. The black tea still has a kick to it, but not overly so. Tasty enough, but not one of my faves.

I really haven’t been drinking a lot of flavored teas lately, besides flavored matcha. Weird. Well I finally went to the post office during their opening hours this morning so that I could get the packages that were too big to fit in my (actually very large) PO box (although seriously, there is no reason that two ounces of tea, or a small tin of matcha, need huge cardboard boxes to ship in), and so I finally got to pick up my order from Della Terra. I’ve been curious about Della Terra teas since everyone has been talking about them on here, but never that driven to order from them. But then they had a 50% off halloween teas and I ordered two off that list since the price was right.

I have not spent a lot of time looking for a perfect pumpkin tea, but am pretty certain that it is a flavor I will be fairly picky about because I love pumpkin everything. I go pumpkin crazy this time of year. The dry leaf on this one is powerfully pumpkin pie. Spiced, but not spicy in a chai way, and definitely pumpkiny. Steeped, I smell more fall-themed spices, particularly some woody cinnamon, a bit of pie crust, and what may be some pumpkin hanging out in the background.

The flavor is pretty nice, with some good levels of spices and a decent creamy pumpkin-ness. It’s just, the black tea is so weak. It’s like it has hardly any flavor at all. At one point this would never have bothered me, but now it does. I can just imagine how much more delicious this would be with a lovely, rich, black base underneath. I could try to steep it for longer, but I fear that would just bring out undesirable black tea qualities. I may actually try to add some richer black tea to this the next time I have it and see what the result is. Even so this is pretty tasty with nicely balanced pumpkin flavoring.

I recently received this tea as a free sample from Tea from Taiwan. So thanks for the opportunity to try it!

I realized I forgot to do my exhale-inhale scenting of the leaves! I think I was so wrapped up in figuring out how to brew it. Tea from Taiwain doesn’t give very exact instructions, so I googled for others and found a thread on TeaChat where people were posting how they brewed Taiwanese high mountain oolongs. I read a number of posts and was intrigued by a method in which they had no rinse, a long first steep (90 seconds), then dropped back to 30 seconds and built from there. I sometimes feel like I am washing away some of the delicious stuff with the rinse, plus I often like the first steep best, so I decided to try this method on this sample. I used all 7g in my 6oz teapot, and approximately 200°F water, which people also suggested.

Underneath the lid, smells floral and buttery, and that is present in spades in the scent of the liquor, which is just barely colored enough to look different than the light green of my ru kiln pot. It smells amazing, incredibly buttery and even a bit cookie-ish. The flavor is interesting, more like asparagus or snap peas than I expected, with a buttery undertone. Definitely like crisp, blanched veggies.

I can’t say that I believed a 30 second steep after a 90 second steep would be very strong, but even just looking at the liquor, it is a much brighter green. The flavor is pretty similar, though with ever so slight floral notes this time. And a subsequent steep at 1 minute was basically the same, but also getting more green and less buttery. Then I stopped steeping it because I kind of lost interest.

This tea was pretty good but not really my style, as I am realizing that many Taiwanese high mountain oolongs are not quite my style. Very light and fresh, and it smelled amazing, but too much vegetable in the flavor and not quite enough butter or florals. Still I appreciate the chance to taste this tea!

In my recent gongfu sessions, I have discovered a new favorite step in my preparations. After I portion out some tea into the pot, I take a sniff in the pot. Then I exhale into the pot, and smell the amazing scents that come back out. It is a revelation. The teas smell amazingly different warmed and humidified by my breath, and notes come out that more closely match the flavors.

This one smelled amazing this morning, the perfect embodiment of autumn. New fallen leaves, sweet potatoes, spices. I have never brewed this tea gongfu before, so I am excited to try it. Once again, leaf amount is a guestimate… I really should bring my scale in since I rarely use it at home these days, at least until I get a feeling of what a certain weight looks like.

This time I didn’t even try to make the first steep a rinse, knowing I wouldn’t have the heart to throw it out. A few seconds, and the tea is just waking up but still has lovely flavors of sweet potato chips, a kind of sweet and savory together.

I do think I might not used quite the right amount of leaf, though I’m not sure right now if it should have been more or less. Regardless, the steeps I had (many) were tasty, though not quite as delicious as just steeping it western. But I will definitely have to properly measure my leaf and try it again.

I have so been on a gongfu kick lately. It’s like, I kinda figured it out eventually and now I want to use my little ru kiln set all the time. I usually drink black teas first thing at work, so I figured, let’s do this one gongfu.

I tried to guestimate the amount of tea for my 6oz pot, since again I don’t have a scale handy, so I ended up eyeballing the tea and about 4.5tsp looked right again. Black teas seem to steep so fast that I can’t really rinse them without resulting in a dark, aromatic brew, so I end up drinking the rinses because who can waste that? This time the rinse smelled chocolatey and sweet potato-y. Like my western steeps of this tea, it tastes a bit chocolatey, but in this steep even more of the woody, minerally, smoky, peppery notes come out.

The first real steep (still only like 2-3 seconds) is dark, whoa, and the liquor has a piney smell to it. It smells kind of like the pine barrens (a type of forest we have here on Long Island, basically pine trees and little else). The flavor is bold and strong and I feel like I could have probably gone easier on the leaf in the pot, heh. The “roughness” that I perceived when brewing this western style really have come out, even in this super short infusion. I treated the subsequent steeps to extremely short pour-in-pour-out steep times. I did quite a few where more of the sweet potato came back, but the flavors were still a bit harsh for me.

At least in this sitting, I preferred this one western to gongfu style, but I think that has a lot to do with the amount of leaf I used. In another gongfu session I would definitely use less. But I also think gongfu has a tendancy to bring all the flavors to the foreground in various steeps, so they can’t just hide out like they can in a western steep. So the marginal elements that aren’t as appealing when you steep a tea western, aren’t marginal anymore. I enjoy this tea but it’s definitely not quite my style, and that is definitely emphasized in the gongfu session.

I am a huge Earl Grey fan, but I’m also a pretty picky Earl Grey fan. I went back and forth for a while on whether I would order the Earl Grey matcha; on one hand, how could I not? But on the other I am happy with regular Earl Greys, so why do I need a matcha one? In the end, obviously, the former one out, and I ordered the matcha with the classic (basic) grade, with robust flavoring, from here: http://www.redleaftea.com/matcha-tea/earl-grey-matcha.html

Upon opening the package, my first thought was holy moley, that’s strong. Like, cleaning solution strong. And it preparation it remains strong, and not in a good way. This bergamot is pungent and floral to the point of bitterness. This is bitterness not in the matcha, but from the sheer amount of bergamot in the cup. After a bit I added some sugar to try to dampen it a bit, and it did work a little, but as it cools it is coming back with a vengance.

I would not recommend ordering this one at the robust flavoring level, even if you loooove bergamot as I do. I will see how this does in a latte, and I will be definitely mixing it with a variety of other matchas to try to tame it. A biiiit to much for me.

I feel bad because I have had this free sample for review from Teavivre for forever, but I hadn’t ever gotten around to it. Partly because I don’t know how I feel about ginseng. Yesterday I thought of it because I happened to see something that said ginseng is good for a cold, and I seem to have the sniffly beginning stages of one. I portioned it out into my ru kiln pot based on proportions listed on Teavivre’s website, which ended up being about 3 perfect teaspoons (4.5 actual tsp) for my 6oz pot. Then a million things came up, and I never ended up brewing it yesterday. So it was waiting for me this morning!

When I smell the dry leaf right off the bat, it kind of smells green and oolongy, a bit vegetal. But if I blow into the pot with the leaf and smell the air that is released, woah. Very savory and brothy, with a bit of toastiness. For some reason it is appealing to me even though I wouldn’t normally be into that aroma profile.

I did a quick rinse, then a perhaps 5 second steep. And now I feel even worse that I never got around to this tea because I am finding it delicious. It’s kind of light a lightly roasted tieguanyin at first, but then this sweet-savory flavor comes out. It is a bit bready, and I like Bonnie’s suggestion of sesame. The aftertaste is so incredibly sweet, it’s like sesame candy. I didn’t want this steep to be over!

The liquor from the second steep (about 10 seconds) is much darker, kind of a yellowy-orange with a hint of green. This one is more vegetal, though as it cools a bit the sesame sweetness of the ginseng definitely makes itself known. The mouth-coating sweet is kind of amazing, and it would probably be awesome on a sore throat.

Third and fourth steeps (also 10 seconds) are even darker, an amber color. Now the roasty-toastiness of the oolong is starting to come forward. And, against my expectations, that sweetness lingers. The main part of the sip almost verges on bitterness, which is so odd, but then boom, the sweetness is back. It’s a weird combo.

At this point it has taken on the characteristics of a roasted green oolong without much else going on, so I will cease my steepings now. But this one worked out well for me. I don’t know that it would become a regular tea that I crave often, but it’s definitely tasty and could be nice to keep around for its cold-busting properties.

Had this one last night and this morning, while staying at a friend’s place. It is so nasty and snowy and cold outside that I needed a quick, easy warmth and grabbed this off my shelf. My apartment actually got power back yesterday, but the bad news is that it appears that my thermostat is broken, so it’s still pretty cold in there.

I definitely need a careful hand when dishing out the powder on this one, and my cup last night resulted in a slurry of tea and spices at the bottom of the mug that had never been suspended properly. This morning I used less powder and it turned out well. I want to mix this with some hot cocoa and try it out!

The third of four new matchas for me to try! This one was on my short list because I love love figs, and it got several very good reviews. Red Leaf’s fruity matchas can sometimes be a little candy-ish (as opposed to real fruit flavor), but I’ve never had fig candy so I don’t think I will have that association! The aroma of the powder is sweet and fruity, and it smells kind of like fig jams or fig butters that I’ve had in the past.

I ordered this one with the classic (starter) matcha base and a robust level of flavoring, which are my go-to settings, from here: http://www.redleaftea.com/matcha-tea/fig-matcha.html

My first sip is awesomely figgy and delicious. As it cools and I am able to taste more and more, the flavor continues to intensify, and now I have a bit of natural sweetness hanging around on this one (no sugar added today!). The fig flavor is strong. Tasty, but very strong at the robust flavoring level. I’ve tried enough of Red Leaf’s fruit flavored matchas now to think that I could probably go with the distinctive level on most of them. Still I will have no problem finishing this one up and I can’t wait to mix it with other matchas I have as well.