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This is a somewhat tricky tea to rate. Going on the taste alone, it’s not one that I would willingly seek out. It’s very medicinal, both in taste and smell. The smell of the tea, which sorta reminds me of bug spray, quickly takes over the entire room. Strong fennel taste with a musky sort of sweetness, hints of nutmeg, citrus, and mint. Similar flavor profile to Yogi bedtime tea but thankfully no stevia in it to amplify the funky stuff.

Now as a sleep aid, I would say it works almost too well. I used less than half the quantity of tea the instructions called for and fell into a deep slumber less than an hour later. Didn’t feel like waking up the next morning and felt groggy most of the day.

So yeah, not exactly a pleasant tea but it did help me sleep. I’ll still reach for chamomile to help me wind down in the evening and reserve this for those occasions when I’m having trouble with insomnia.

My Rishi tea order arrived yesterday. Lots of herbals and caffeine free blends, but I did pick up a couple of regular loose leaf teas one of which was this bergamot scented green oolong. The leaves are beautifully fragrant and brew to an intense but smooth bergamot flavor. Notes of tangerine, cardamom, and eucalyptus. Compared to Earl Grey black tea, I feel like the neutral green tea base really allows the bergamot to shine through. Reminds me of Verdant’s now retired Earl of Anxi blend which used TGY as the base.

That said, I prefer a subtle bergamot flavor and on its own, this is way too potent for me. But that’s not a problem, I will just blend it with a straight tea the way I do all my flavored teas.

Why, oh why did they have to add stevia to this blend? It completely ruined what might have otherwise been a palatable tea. I was super excited when I took a whiff of the teabag. It had a tantalizing aroma of oranges, spearmint, and chai spices. But thanks to the stevia, what I tasted in my mouth was reminiscent of peppermint toothpaste or tiger balm. And it wasn’t just a fleeting note either. No, the weird minty taste lingered forever in the back of my throat as if I had swallowed toothpaste. The aftertaste haunted me long after I finished the tea.

I’m just going to give away what I have left of this tea because it’s that bad. I ordered Valerian Dream, an herbal blend from Rishi with similar ingredients but no sweetners and appears to be much higher quality.

After trying the Spring 2019 harvest, I have to up my rating for this tea. The winter picked tea sample I had previously tried was inexplicably bad but this one was respectable. Highly aromatic and sweet with intense aromas of pineapple, papaya, honey, and flowers. The brewed tea had a mild fruity-floral flavor. I detected notes of mango, orchid, and lychee. However the biggest downside was this delicious flavor peaked way too early and the tea itself had nothing left to give after about 6 steeps.

Drank this one as a commute tea on the way to work this morning. Grandpa steeped 1.3g in my 10oz tumbler using just under boiling water. Leaves had a subtle aroma of caramel and flowers. The brewed tea smelled of dried prunes. The flavor is somewhat different than other Dong Dings I’ve tried in that it doesn’t have the toffee and caramelized notes. Instead it has a syrupy buckwheat honey flavor. As it steeps I get notes of brown sugar and sticky buns.

Though this is not the most nuanced Dong Ding, it’s a sweet easy drinking tea. Smooth and dark without any roasted/char flavor.

Received a sample of this tea with my Thes du Japon order. This is a good sencha, albeit atypical for a fukamushi. It’s not super grassy like deep steamed sencha tends to be but instead leans more towards gyokuro with its pale yellowish-green liquor and savory, umami flavor.

Dry leaf smells of raspberries and a freshly mowed lawn. Wet leaf smells of spinach. The first infusion is gyokuro-like with a rich umami flavor and light, earthy grassiness. Faint hints of blackberries and pine nuts as it cools. A deeper green flavor and color emerge in the second steep. More grass, umami, and steamed spinach notes with white pepper in the finish. The tea begins mellowing by the third steep yet still has a bright green flavor and a bit of sweetness.

I’ve always looked forward to shopping at Daiso whenever visiting the west coast. For the unacquainted, Daiso is an Asian dollar store that sells some really nifty Japanese items. Kawaii stuff, stationary, housewares, toys, snacks, etc. So imagine how stoked I was when the first Daiso store in the midwest opened up just a few minutes from my house. I’ve been dropping by regularly and usually leave with one of their bottled Japanese teas.

I’m a big fan of the Ito-En line of bottled teas and their Golden Oolong is one of my favorites. Last night though it was missing from the beverage case so I picked up a similar tea from a different brand. This Sangaria tea was a darker oolong than Ito-En which is made from a blend of Tie Guan Yin and Huan Jin Guei leaves. To me it tasted like a Da Hong Pao. A heavier roast with a cinnamon warmth and motor oil like thickness and mouthfeel. Definitely on the darker end of the oolong spectrum. Not my preferred flavor profile but still a very drinkable tea.

So my insomnia has been pretty bad lately, even after cutting back on tea. Wanting to avoid going the melatonin route, I decided to look into tisanes. Internet research consistenly turned up chamomile and valerian as effective sleep aids. Since I like chamomile on its own, I decided to try it first.

My stash of Rishi chamomile medley had more herbs than chamomile flowers left so yesterday I set out to procure some organic loose leaf chamomile. However, Whole Foods only carries the bagged variety and the giant 1 lb bags sold on Amazon are overkill. Luckily I was able to get half an ounce of pure chamomile from the Spice & Tea Exchange.

Tastewise, this was a delicious tea on its own. Sweet, citrusy, and honeyed with a bright yellow color. Normally I steep chamomile for 5 minutes but I decided to brew it extra strong and steeped for 10 minutes. Even then it was soft and very soothing.

A couple of cups of this and some classical music on Spotify definitely helped me sleep better last night. Hopefully it’s not simply a placebo effect because it’s such a lovely and relaxing bedtime tea. I will experiment tonight by upping the quantity of chamomile and maybe blend in some dried lavender.

There seem to be a lot of Ali Shan teas that smell delicious but taste just kind of “meh”. This is one such tea.

The leaves were rolled into fat green nuggets and gave off wonderful aromas of melon, flowers, and lychee. Initial steeps were light and tasted of cucumber and melon. Some mellow floral notes of orchid and hyacinth emerge by the 3rd steep. At this point, the flavor begins to peter out. The remaining steeps were fairly insipid and flat.

Yawn…a very drinkable tea but ultimately forgettable.

My third kamairicha and once again a top-notch green tea. There’s an amazing range of flavors that unfurls on your tongue as it steeps. The taste is a mix of fruity, umami, grassy, sweet, and nutty. The liquor is thick with a buttery mouthfeel, evoking the lush flavor of high mountain oolongs. I first had it a few weeks ago while down with a sinus cold and even with my sense of taste and smell greatly impaired, I could still taste the pear like fruitiness. Gives at least 3 good infusions.