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Pretty standard, for a Mi Lan varietal, I think (though honestly I wouldn’t take my word on that—I’ve only tried about three); dark, roasty honey, sometimes sharp (though I wouldn’t say astringent or bitter).

I’d almost say it makes me think more of chestnut than honey.

Of course, most of this is from memory because my tastebuds still seem to be dead. I don’t know. Last cup of this, would like to get more though I’m leaning more towards trying other varietals, and getting a xhi lan.

I’ve had a hard time tasting things recently. Though by “things”, I think I mean mostly tea. Maybe it’s because I’ve been purging my cupboard, so I haven’t really been paying as much attention to what I drink, but it’s really been bothering me.

The burnt tongue yesterday didn’t help.

So I made a pot of this and sat down, and have just been swishing it around my mouth and really sitting on it. It tasted like nothing and smelt like lychee at first. I think I picked up a bit of Keemun in the scent as well, so I’m guessing that’s the base. Someone else suggested that as well, I believe.

As I’ve worked my way through the pot, it’s slowly been coming back to me. The base is Chinese, definitely, the lychee not coming through as much in the taste, but there’s thick smoke and I’m definitely sure on Keemun now.

I needed this.

Picked this and a few other teas up from Art Knapps. Can’t really give an accurate review since I burned my tongue on soup just prior to drinking this, but the floral fruityness of the lychee’s still coming through.

There’s more than one Lychee Red on the website, but I’m assuming they’re all the same (they also have lychee-lavender and lychee-rose); mine, however, came in this package:

http://www.mcot.ca/en/catalog/product/196/PC-005/

Which is pretty creative, actually. Although once you take the plastic off, not particularly air-tight.

Whoops, guess I haven’t made any notes for this one yet.

I picked this up when I hit up Tea Desire at Metrotown during their closing sale (I should check to see if they’re still open and pick up a few more teas before they’re gone for good—they’re an underdog in the Tea Community, but they’ve still got some nice stuff, if you know what to look for). I’ve had it a few times, and I quite like it. Not their usual green-black blends, but instead a green-white blend. It takes to the pineapple and strawberry well. Pineapple’s more visible in the hot variety, but today’s post is actually about icing it.

I bought some bottled sodas last week, and kept the bottles and caps to reuse for iced tea. I bottled this and a few others (I’ll get to those when I sip them), then refrigerated ’em and forgot about ’em for a few days.

Opened this one up, sniffed it—delicious strawberry pineapple scent. Sipped it—love it. I’m inexperienced when it comes to ratios for iced tea, but I think I did pretty well for my first try. I did two heaping teaspoons for the whole bottle (355mL); steeped in about 250mL (3 minutes), and then poured in with a bit of crushed ice (as much as I could get in there—narrow necked, unfortunately), then put the bottle in an ice bath.

Very refreshing. Getting the green tea mostly. Not much of the white, as to be expected. Strawberry’s stronger than the pineapple. Didn’t use any sugar, and I’m loving it without, but as a fruity green I think it’d do well with it.

I’m going to have to make more. Bring them with me when I go camping in a few weeks.

Made this in a gaiwan. It’s powerfully floral this way. Very distinct sensation of sticking your face in a bouquet.

Continues all through the sip, with hints of savoryness and faint minerals.

I didn’t actually write a note on this? Jeez, this is the last cup of it.

It lives up to the apple bit, at least. Juicy with a nice base of green and black. Never got much from the almond. Not particularly creamy. But a good apple tea.

I think this tea’s finally grown on me. A shame because this is the last cup I’ve got left. I feel my taste for wine grew with this, despite the fact I didn’t actually DRINK any wine. The base is mild, the "soapy"ness of my original post has evolved into a sweet muscatel grape. Reminds me a little more of white grapes (never liked the purple—I think because of growing up on the artificial purple grape taste).

Bumping up the rank just a bit. That’s the last of this.

I got this to go at some point, but didn’t pay much attention to it while I was drinking it (I was cramming for my exams at the time); I do remember remarking to myself that it was darker than milk oolongs that I’ve tried, and nuttier (I didn’t actually think it WAS a milk oolong, as I hadn’t seen the dried leaf, and it was less ‘green’ tasting).

SOKO’s recently decided to phase out a few of their lesser-selling teas, and so they packaged them up in increments of 100g, for 50% off (as well as a bunch of old teaware); I decided to pick this up because I remembered liking it (although I was hesitant about committing to 100g, but what the heck, I bought 100g from Tea Desire the other day too, since they’re shutting down and had pre packaged teas for 50% off as well).

I decided I’ve been good lately. Been working hard on a giant cupboard-purge. Got from 59 teas down to 34! (Give or take; bought from tea desire, finished another, bought Creamy Oolong—34 now). Finishing off all the teas that have sat at the back of my cupboard going stale. Teas I ignored because I got them and decided I didn’t like them (seems hypocritical that while I’m doing this I’m also committing to 4oz of two teas I don’t know if I’ll love either).

Dry this smelled deliciously of cream. Almost vanilla-like. Quite rich. Steeped, the liquor is a pale gold, and smells… of butter. It was slightly off-putting. From here I’ve assumed that this is probably of the human-intervention, intentionally flavoured milk oolong. Not the natural kind.

It doesn’t TASTE artificial, or like any cream or milk has been added. It’s not foggy, just a pretty clear gold. The leaves were a dark green, rolled. The liquid tastes bakey, not green, faintly nutty and with hints of a sweet cream. The site describes it as tasting of orchid, which I think seems apt. It’s a not-quite-there vanilla that’s more floral. Almost buttery feel and taste, but luckily not as literal as in the sense of the smell.

I definitely like it. For now. Hoping I don’t regret one-hundred grams. It’s been a while since I’ve bought that much of one tea.

I’d like to compare this to the greener milk oolong I have on-hand from Teavivre. Since that one’s definitely unflavoured. I’ll keep that post for my teatra.de blog.

Warm, toasty, rocky, buttery. Last cup of this, brewed at two minutes. Often times it gets a bit astringent, but I managed to avoid that this time around, paying a little closer attention to my parameters for this last cup.

The smell is thick and sweet, but unlike the other tasters, I didn’t get much of that in the taste. Although it does feel thick in the mouth. Buttery and earthy, toasty but not smoky, rocky.

Finishing this off. I really enjoyed having it on-hand. Sometimes it ended up coming out bitter, but that was mostly me not paying attention to the temperature. Especially near the end, when there was a lot of tea dust in the scoop.

Still enjoyed it though. Buttery green went well with the caramel. Might buy some more…

Last cup of this for now, though.