Featured & New Tasting Notes

I stopped by the shop on Friday whilst running errands and picked up a cuppa. So much yum!!!
Now, I could have very well brought home a whole bag of it for double the price of one cup but I really didn’t wanna bring MOAR tea into the house when I am trying my darndest to sip down my (slightly damp, but still, I can’t bear to throw it out) supply as it is. Atleast not until I know if I like it or not.
Either way, now I know that this is a highly delish tea filled with dark chocolate and malt notes, with a very slight hay-ish backround. There were also moments where I thought I detected a subtle pepper but then it was gone faster than I could blink so don’t quote me on that!
Would love to try this in my gaiwan :)

I’m enjoying a delicious cup of this tea, along with a deliciously relaxing Sunday morning.
Toasty, malty, nice tongue tingle, a little spice, a rich resinous feel, a sweet aftertaste.
Kind of like having a bowl of oatmeal, drizzled with bee pollen, cinnamon, & honey, & a piece of toast.
Now for breakfast…

Getting down to the last bits of this tea. Will probably have to add the little bit left to something else in order to make a cup of it. This tea is one of the first straight black teas where I discovered that black teas could taste different than “black tea” and have interesting notes like malt and raisins. I’m now quite the lover of unflavored black teas and continue to be surprised and enjoy how absolutely different good black teas can taste, from cocoa and smoky notes, to sweet potato, honey, fruity, or even artichoke notes. I love them all! Now I have a hard time getting to the flavored teas in my cupboard because the unflavored ones are just so darn good!

This tea has quickly become one of my favorite breakfast teas. I love the way it smells while steeping. It reminds me of a morning campfire with its smokey notes but there’s also something a little bright and clean about the fragrance. The taste is chocolate, smoke, sweet with a hit of citrus right at the end. It’s a grand way to start the morning, and as fall weather starts peeking in I’m finding myself enjoying this tea even more.

Queued post, written July 24th 2014

It’s a heatwave and I’m drinking hot tea? Why??? Well, caffeine really. I do the occasional cold brew of stuff, but I have to say in general iced tea leaves me… well, cold. Just not in the desired way. Tea should be drunk hot. It is, for me, the natural state of tea. Cold tea can be all well and good, but it’s just not something that I want.

So I’m having hot tea now. In a heatwave. A normal person would go and have a glass of Ribena instead, but apparently I can only take normality so far.

Another reason is that I’ve still got this box of untried things to empty. I’m down to only eight things in it, not counting this oolong I’m having now. I need to empty it so that I can be allowed to buy new stuff, and for the longest time I’ve been annoyed by the lack of dark oolongs in my possession. The cup of tea that I want the very most right now is Da Hong Pao. But I haven’t got any. And I’m not allowed to get any.

Yet!

So onwards with the box emptying.

This is the last of the three samples that Green Tea Terrace sent me. I didn’t choose this one myself. I said I would like to try an oolong, but as they were all greenish types so far as I could tell, I said I had no idea where to even begin. I said the one or two that I had tried before, and asked them to choose something for me that wasn’t too floral. This is what I won.

The aroma of it is indeed not very floral. Again, and I’m beginning to suspect that this might be a Taiwan characteristic in general, I’m getting a fair bit honey notes from it and also a little bit of milk.

The flavour also has a large honey note, which I immediately decided I liked very much indeed. It really is mostly a honey-y tea, with a leafy sort of note to the aftertaste. The GTT descriptions mentions notes of jasmine and lily, which under other circumstances would have made me disregard it completely as I really don’t like jasmine scented things much at all. In this, however, I can’t actually find any of these floral notes at all. For me, this is a big win.

I found I quite enjoyed this, and it makes me more curious about the greener oolongs. I’ve never been hugely interested in green or white teas in general (save for the occasional ambition to learn more about them which would always pass again relatively quickly) and greenish oolongs tended to fall to that same side of the spectrum. I just couldn’t tell them apart at all. Not the way I’ve learned to do with black teas. I reckon this is probably a question of gaining a lot of experience, but in order to gain experience you have to have an pre-existing amount of interest which has turned out to be much more difficult to achieve. I can’t say that this particular tea has sparked such an interest in me, but I can say that I’ve now become interested in seeing if it could. :)

This is another one of those never-ending teas! Thank goodness, since it is a favourite.

Drank it with a tiny bit of sugar added, while painting my nails. Or, well. Attempting to paint my nails. And then I remembered I didn’t have any acrylic paint left so I couldn’t finish the manicure but that’s OK. Just the sponging took for-freaking ever. http://instagram.com/p/s5v4tAR5Ay/ The nail on my middle finger is honestly even. It curls as it grows, which annoys me.

The tea is as delicious as usual. Yet another I should drink more of, but I continuously reach for black teas without thinking. Maybe I should organize my cupboard by steeping temperature? Then I could set the kettle, and pull down a bin. It’d be faster than choosing a tea then setting the kettle!

There are a couple tea pages for Temple Stairs, but not specifically for this version, so I added it.

Thank you Garret, for adding this sample to my order!!! I’ve found that I need to drink puerh early in the day or I’m up all night! That last sheng I had really kept me up! Today I have a scratchy sore throat, but I don’t feel sick. I need a good tea to help soothe it! I wasn’t sure I should try a new tea with a sore throat, but I did it anyway!

I like the samples from Garret, as they’re already portioned out, and I don’t have to think about how much leaf I should put in the pot…I just dump the whole sample. I might need to invest in a small scale…any other tricks? I’m trying to remember how the perfectly portioned out samples look in my little pot and then I’ll just copy that amount.

Two 15sec rinses.
30sec: nice earthy, cocoa, a bit leather/cedar notes.
45sec: similar, more leather/cedar…maybe a hint of mint or cinnamon? Something that has that effect.
1min: smooth, very dark, it’s smoothing over my sore throat. It also feels like it is clearing my nose out. Interesting. I just love the color of ripe puerh…that red hue is awesome.
1min15sec: ooh, smells sweeter…I just stuck my nose it it like a dork! Haha! Oops! This tea is having a major calming effect on me…I feel so blissful right now!
1min30sec: that sweet smell is like caramel-sweet, not fruity-sweet. Mmmm!
1min45sec: definitely a light caramel sweetness coming through and the earthy flavors are fading now.
2min30sec: light caramel, hint of cinnamon.
3min, 5min, and 7min steeps: caramel sweetness.

Overall, very enjoyable, and I wouldn’t mind some more of it!

I love how I can just drink any puerh now and enjoy the experience. There was a time, not that long ago, when I dumped cups of puerh! I know, the horror!!! I think Garret, and Angel at Teavivre, can take the credit for that renaissance in my tea journey. :)

steepster is making me mad this morning. It won’t let me comment on people’s tasting notes, but it’s hit or miss…so sometimes i can, othertimes i can’t. I WILL NOT BE SILENCED DAMNIT! lol

i am scrambling around like a madwoman today – need to get some work done, pack AGAIN, get ready to leave the house this afternoon and try to at least help my other half with a few things around the house. I feel terrible that he’s on his own all month.

This tea was pulled out because it’s my oldest tea (january) and because i need to finish something things up soon because Terri and Nicole maaay have exploded my cupboard a little…at least it’s largely samples lol

So far today I’ve been just laying around at my house, but I finally made some breakfast & have also been enjoying 3 & 5 min steeps of this tea. For some reason, it’s not as wonderful as I remember it, & seems kind of weak, even though I know I used the same quantity I always use.
It’s probably because my tastebuds & sinuses are allergy-affected.
OR maybe there was a higher ratio of white tea in that TB.
Who knows? Who cares?
It still tastes good, & although I drink hot tea year around, I especially enjoy it when the cool weather arrives, & it is pleasantly cool & wonderful here is St. Louis!

My visit with Sil was awesome, but short. We laughed a lot, & we drank a bunch of tea!
If you’d like to see a video of her playing my small harp, here it is:
https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10204087208195877&set=vb.1095023403&type=2&theater
:D

Weeeeellll… I guess you can’t love them all. A little fairy told me that.

The color here is amazing, like pale amber. And the dry tea smelled nice, but the wet tea had a heavy earthy smell. I did two rinses and some short steeps.

This sample is from AllanK and he did warn me of the strong bamboo flavor, but it’s a bit overwhelming at first. It seems to taper off in later steeps. And even though the earthy flavor gets quieter, it lingers at the end of the sip. I can handle it a little better when it’s at the front of the sip and more pleasant flavors remain in the aftertaste.

I’m really grateful to try this one and I have enough for a few more sessions. Maybe I’ll learn to like it a bit more.

Dear weather,
Its September. I should be taking out my sweaters, and looking at my tights, and generally getting cozy.
Its going to be 102 today. Come on, really? Please? Please? I’d like to wear at least one sweater before October.
Plus, the cold makes drinking teas all that much better. I don’t feel ready for the autumn teas yet!
Please?
-Me.

I’ve liked the Taiwanese black teas I’ve tried so far, and I’ve been getting along quite well with Butiki’s leafhopper teas also. On the strength of these, I requested a sample of this one with my last Butiki order. I’m drinking it at work today, and it is DE-LIC-IOUS. I followed the recommended parameters, and gave this one 3.5 minutes in boiling water. The liquor is a golden brown, and smells sweet and malty.

To taste, it’s wonderfully bready. I’m talking fresh baked bread right out of the oven. It’s also highly malty, with all the sweetness that entails, with a note of caramel in the smoothness of the aftertaste. I can also pick up on the oak and plum notes mentioned in the description — they add a slightly savoury twist to an otherwise sweet cup, and end each sip beautifully, lingering a little on the palate. The star flavour here for me, though, is the initial hit of bread. It’s so clear and intense, it’s actually making me feel hungry! Definitely one I’ll be picking up with my next Butiki order!

Thank you Cameron B. for the sample! This one totally sounded intriguing, even with the inclusion of ginger in it – which seems like an odd pairing with dragon fruit to me, personally.

Steeped up I think I can smell the dragon fruit a bit more than I can taste it, though it is present in the taste. I’d kinda describe the flavour as slightly dragon fruit flavoured Fruit Punch, but a little watered down. It also has an earthy rawness to it. Maybe that’s the damaina leaf? I have no clue what damaina leaf is supposed to taste like (anyone know?) but apparently it “enhances sexuality”.

I can’t really say I’m feeling more sexual as I drink it? But then again I’m not super sexual to begin with…

I’ll be sending you a bag of it VariaTEA though I’ll leave it to your discretion whether you want to disclose whether this one gets you going ;)

Ugh… I definitely overdid it on the caffeine yesterday because I couldn’t fall asleep until 2 am and then had a hard time getting out of bed this morning. I had to start the morning off with a coffee and now I’m drinking this brew, which I haven’t had for a long time.

Mark T. Wendell has some very solid teas, especially black teas. I’m surprised they aren’t more popular on Steepster. I was thinking about ordering some of their assam recently, but there’s so many places for me to buy tea in San Francisco it seems a bit ridiculous to have it shipped all the way from Massachusetts unless I’m ordering a bunch of stuff.

Anyway, this is a blend of black teas with formosa oolong, and that gives it a lighter and more fruity taste. This is a good afternoon tea, or a lighter morning tea. I find it very flavorful. This morning I am getting lovely malty notes. I shouldn’t be neglecting this so much, it’s really a delightful cuppa. I’d get this again if I place another order with MTW.

I drank this tea yesterday while I was at work. I really enjoyed it! It reminded me of a Kenyan Silver Needles I got from Butiki Teas, with some interesting sheng notes mixed in. Very unique! I finished it up, and before I was going to write my tasting note for it I decided to go stretch the canvas print I had just made…AND I TOTALLY STAPLED MY THUMB! :-O

It was pretty painful. If you want to see, check it out here (not for the squeamish!) http://twitpic.com/ebiscg

Anyway, I never got back to my desk to write this note. My manager took me to the MEC and a doctor pulled out the staple and gave me a tetanus shot and some pain killers. Last night was rough, it was pretty painful and I had trouble sleeping. It seems slightly better today and I am back at work! I could use a nap though…and/or some tea!

Good Morning Everybody!!
I’m not usually up this early on a day I don’t have to teach at the school, but it’s going to be an exciting day, so here I am.
“Why exciting?” You ask.
“Because Sil is in St. Louis!!!” little terri blabs! She’s so excited that she was jumping on the bed all night :)
Of course, she is working by day, but tonight we get to hang out for awhile, & tomorrow we get to hang out ALL DAY, or at least most of the day. YAY!!

Here’s a brief survey of the teas I dragged to school with me yesterday, all teas that I’ve already reviewed many times, all teas that are worthy of their own review & tasty:
Malty Irish Breakfast – Butiki – sad sip down…sigh…
Dinjoya estate assam – also Butiki
Premium Grade JIn Jun Mei – YS
Feng Qing Gold Needle Yunnan Dian Hong – YS
and once I got home:
Vanilla Citrus Spice

That’s all of my tea drinking day yesterday rolled into one.

Sad Sipdown (123)!

First off, this is tasting note 1900! Woot! That means the next really big number is going to be 2000 – I think I need to start planning now for what tea I’ll celebrate that landmark with…

Thank you Cameron B. for sharing a cup worth of this awesome limited edition blend. I had no idea I wanted to try it until you wrote about it, and then after I did some looking in to it I felt like I had to try it even though I was hoping so much that I’d hate it. Why was I hoping I’d hate it? ‘Cause the only thing worse than hating a tea blend is falling in love with a limited edition blend. And of course, that’s what happened.

Aesthetically, the tea blend is beautiful! The deep green leaves make the yellow marigold really pop, and the juniper berries are super fun to look at. Smell wise, I don’t get a lot from the dry leaf, but steeping it smells like a high quality traditional Genmaicha; a little greener than roasty.

Taste wise; this is really smooth and silky. It weighs only slightly more on the green side than the roasty, but both are present and really well executed. I’m gonna have to agree with Cameron B. and say that the primary flavour I’m getting from the green base is butternut squash. Yummy! The roasty brown rice has a nice nutty quality to it as well that I’m also noticing. But most importantly, this has the most divine vanilla flavour. It’s gentle, but man is it present and very, very raw/natural. The vanilla really makes the tea, and honestly I haven’t tasted a vanilla flavour as amazing as this since Butiki’s Creamy Eggnog; which is pretty close to the perfect green vanilla tea. The green base here even shares the same buttery aspect alongside the very gentle vegetal taste.

I honestly don’t taste much of the Juniper berries (you’re right Cam, Junipers do have a sorta pine like quality to them) but I think I ever so faintly get a peek at the very, very end of the sip. If there’s one thing I’d want more of in this blend, it’s the Junipers…

But even so, I’m in love. I want more of this, like now. At least 2 oz. of it would make me a very, very happy tea drinker – ‘cause guys, I’m like 99% sure this is my Japon. It’s so smooth and silky and creamy, and rich in the most calming and pacifying way. And very subtly flavoured.

And dammit, ‘cause it’s limited edition! GAH!

This was my big indulgence for the day, I was being spendthrifty, which is not good for someone who’s unemployed but somehow it needed to be done and it was difficult to resist! As I am looking at the website for Market Hall Foods, I see that their price for a tin of this is about 1/3 cheaper than at Chantal Guillon so I don’t think I will be looking at CG for my future tea purchases. Even Dean and Deluca is cheaper. sigh

Generally I have found the MF teas that I’ve tried to be not worth their hefty price tags. I really wanted to try the Plein Lune, which was out of stock. I ended up getting this based on the smell of the dry leaf, and I don’t have a good vanilla tea at the moment.

I don’t know how long this cup steeped for because I forgot to set the timer. I was definitely not disappointed in this one. It has a smooth, almost velvety texture and the flavor is definitely vanilla as well as caramel. This is a really nice tea for the afternoon, or for an after dinner tea. I can drink it plain but it was also nice with a splash of soymilk. Doesn’t need sugar at all in my opinion. It doesn’t seem as “fakey” as a lot of vanilla teas I’ve tried. It’s elegant, even the name is elegant to me. It’s nice that I’ve found something from M.F. that I’m really fond of… but still not sure it was worth the price I paid for it. I will savor this one as an elegant treat. It will go very nicely with cookies, I think. I’m a happy camper! I need another cup of this now…

This sample came from Roswell Strange. She was sending me a bunch of David’s teas that she purchased for me at a store (thanks again!) and I asked her if this one was any good, so she ended up sending me some! Aw, you shouldn’t have… I admit, a lot of the reason I was drawn to this tea is that the name is super adorable and makes me think of a kiwi (the bird, not the fruit) with a little suitcase going on a worldwide road trip. Lol! Visually, it looks like sencha or bancha leaves to me, and they’re combined with lemongrass and pieces of dehydrated kiwi and apple (I love that I can see the black seeds in the kiwi pieces). The dry scent is heavenly – it’s sweet and tart at the same time and very fruity, with just a bit of grassiness from the tea. I steeped mine for 3 minutes at 175 degrees.

Mm, the brewed aroma is also heavenly! That same sweet-tart juicy fruity aroma combined with grassy tea. At first, I was disappointed by the flavor. The beginning of the sip is mostly grassy green tea taste, but partially through that kiwi pokes its fuzzy little head out and then it dominates the rest of the sip. And then it leaves a lovely juicy kiwi aftertaste that lingers! I admit, the kiwi flavor here is somewhat candylike, but not in an artificial overly sweet way, it just has the most impossible level of juiciness and the sweet-tart combination is wonderful!

On a side note, I added a bit of sugar to see if it would make this even better, and I think it actually made it less enjoyable. So maybe I’m not sugar addicted anymore, lol!

Thanks Roswell, I love this one! :)

So I don’t like coffee but for some reason when I see coffee flavored things, i get really excited. However, when I drink them and they have the coffee earthiness/bitterness, I find myself disappointed. Unfortunately this tea was no exception. I tried it without sugar and really disliked what I was tasting (though it smelled AMAZING!) because the espresso took over. Today, I took Stacy’s advise and added some pieces of rock sugar and though it has helped to bring out some of the other flavors, this is still too espresso for my taste. Luckily many seem to be a fan so I doubt it would be hard to find someone to take this off my hands.

I know this is a long review. Sorry but I still think you should read all of it. Just saying.

So. Shou. I kind of have a thing for it.

I drink it everyday and have lots of favourites. I have been known to have shou boxes in the house. (See what I did?) That was before I copied MzPriss and make my own “pumidrawer”. Cause you know…who doesn’t want to be like the fabulous MzPriss?

So it is established that I have a huge amount of shou in da house. But. As you probably know, I can’t resist many of the WP teas. I just go where quality is.

And I had yet to try this one. MzPriss recently reviewed it, and I was kind of envious. She got a real shou buzz out of it. I wanted that too!! But hey, you just don’t order a shoubuzz like you order a pizza.

I had already gotten a nice buzz from a sheng earlier. Pinky cheeks and all. Very nice qi. But not over the top.

There was still room for more. So…could I get lucky twice in the same evening?

Well. That is an understatement folks. This stuff should be illegal.

First I will describe the taste, then the qi. (Cause really, I could devote an entire page to it)

The dry leaves look like “chocolat au lait” shavings, so pretty.

I’m using 7g for 5oz shou yixing (shouxing?)

First steep, and wow. I mean this is as soft and smooth as angel wings. Makes me regret wasting the rinse.

No trace of earthiness or even leather in this. It’s all nuts and creamy vanilla. At first, I thought roasted pecans. When I later read the description, it said walnuts and I think it’s more accurate.

It’s sweet, in a dark brown sugar kind of way. It also provides that fresh mouthfeel of camphor that coats your entire mouth and lingers on your lips.

The third steep was probably the best. A little powdery, still very nutty and creamy.

I stopped at around steep seven, and I can tell you that by then, all I could do was lay on my back and enjoy the feeling.

The qi. It made my body twinkle all over. This tea is pure warm energy. I could feel my blood circulate. It made me tea drunk in a way I have never experienced before. Oh, I have felt this way before, but I promise you it wasn’t from tea leaves. (O.O)

And I kept thinking how nice this feeling will be on upcoming lazy rainy days. I’m gonna need
a lot more of this.

If you already like shou, this will only make you like it even more. And to all non shou lovers, please hurry and give this a try.

P.S. There should be a warning on the pouch: don’t shou and drive.

This is a sheng I bought cause i saw Scott posting pics of it on Instagram and it being a yin and yang design, well, I knew I just had to have it!

It’s like when I sometimes buy a bottle of wine just for the label, hoping To get lucky.

Well I just got lucky!

This is quite a deal. Young sheng yes, but it tastes a lot more mature than its age.

And I’m sure it will only get better with time.

I get close to zero astringency.

It’s super mellow, all sweet and honey.

I get hints of apple pie, feels like autumn tea to me.

It’s also a bit grapey. Definitely fruity.

Tonight I’m having it with the TEAplets, but I had it for the first time last night, and it gave me pinky cheeks. And a nice buzz.

Hey, I never wear much makeup, so a nice natural blush sheng glow is always welcome ;-)

The qi is kicking and I almost feel like I stole this cake, having spent a ridiculous amount of $15 on it.

People. Get this, it’s a bargain!!

AllanK is 3 for 3 on shous from our trade! Thanks, A!

This is another winner. This tastes a little like dessert, even on the early steeps. I did one rinse, and then 10-15-25. I will probably dial it back a little to a few at 15 seconds. It even has an interesting mouthfeel, very soft and full. It gives a nice tickle on the back of the throat, too. It has some nice chocolatey notes and is only very slightly earthy. And I mean very slight.

I have a feeling that this must be pricey, which may not be so bad since I am on a strict buying hiatus anyway. I’ll say this – I definitely WOULD buy this. It’s excellent!

Sipdown!

I find that I really do like this tea, even though it’s an odd one for me. And the name is totally inappropriate! In my opinion, it should be called “Jinjunmei Smoked Meats Fragrance”. Lovely light smoky, savory tea. Yums! :)