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Very sweet and buttery with just a touch of honeysuckle and fresh cut grass. I like this a lot! Reminds me of a mix of Jin Xuan and Ti Guan Yin. Brews up a surprisingly gold color despite the very green flavors and appearance.

Cleaned up my desk today (gasp!) and found a pile of tasting notes that I hadn’t posted yet :)

Thanks for this sample from Autumn Hearth

The dry leaves are plump, furry golden buds with a deep honey aroma.

1st steep I over-brewed a bit, but the tea was still very mild and smooth. Malty brew with rich brown sugar and yam flavors, and a touch of mineral and linen qualities. Later steeps showed a bit of nutty pistachio flavors, and progressively became richer and creamier with vanilla notes. Towards the end it began to thin out and better display the black peppercorn flavor.

The best part of this tea was its thick, silky, almost syrupy mouthfeel, which really set it apart from other Yunnan blacks for me. Very smooth and creamy.

Very nice tea!

Back home in Orlando and getting re-settled into a normal routine. I really enjoyed my vacation and escape from the heat, but it was stressful at times with so many people, semi-planned activities, etc. Basically I loved it, but the introvert in me is happy to be back in my own bed :P

Dry leaves: Medium-large cool brown leaves with plump white tips and a velvety shine. Aroma has gotten a bit mixed up in my sheng box, but the aroma is slight tobacco, peach, grass, and old book with a little spice. The cake is loosely packed, but nowhere near falling apart on it’s own.

Brewing: Melow greyish-yellow orange liquer, fairly clear. The wet leaves are long and plump with thick veins. Olive green coloration with a slight purple-red twinge here and there.

1st steep: Slightly brothy, but clean mouth feel. Very sweet and has a fairly ballanced flavor. Peachy with slight tobacco and mushroom notes and greenness. Mild pine resin astringency, little bitterness. Sweet aftertaste lingers a bit after the initial flavor.

3rd: Still peachy and sweet, but bolder with more tobacco flavor and woodyness. Slight charcoal touch, but no smoke. I start to get the qi sensations on the back of my head and I feel focused and steady.

5th: The bolder flavors die down and reveal crisp freshness. Flower bulb, walnut, oak wood, and fresh rain.

7th: Continued freshness, but mellower with heart of palm and red grape notes. Flavor slowly weakens, but I go on to ten steeps.

Really nice sheng! I think this is the best of the YS brand cakes I’ve tried, though the Yiwu Qui Yun is a close second.

Rich, malty Assam. Flavors of charcoal, raisin, and a good bit of Yunnan-ish sweet potato flavor. Definitely the best Assam I’ve tried.

Day 3: Riding the mountain hills til my body’s sore, and enjoying the peaces and quite before my crazy cousins and little nephew show up :)

Came down to the coffee shop and decided to try this tea, definitely not my brightest idea… :P This might have been a good tea at some point, but I think the leaves have been sitting around in this coffee shop for way too long.

There’s a bit of plum and seaweed notes, but the overriding flavor I get is raw oyster. It’s drinkable, but pretty bad. I almost never add sweetener to green tea, but adding little honey to this made it taste alright.

On vacation in Waynesville, NC where my grandparents are renting a place for a 4th of July family get together. Paradise! I’d really like to live in Asheville or somewhere near when I get out of school.

There’s a coffee shop in Waynesville that I always stop by when I’m here, and apparently they started carrying a few Rishi teas. I’ve been hunkered down here all day to get my schoolwork done before the rest of the family gets here.

This is a pretty tasty powdered sencha. Doesn’t make me go “wow” but its a refreshing and easy way to my tea fix :)

There’s a tea house in Asheville that’s supposed to be pretty nice, hopefully I’ll get to visit there sometime this week

Very tasty! A balance of creamy, sweet, and brothy flavors, slightly citrusy.

Sorry to everyone waiting on the Traveling Teabox, I packed it up to mail it last Friday, but I realized I didn’t have Yappy’s address… I guess I forgot to get it after the change in shipping order

My brother and his wife (recent tea converts) sent me an Adagio gift card for my birthday! Its nice not being the only teahead in the family, even if they’re living half way across the country :)

Mild, fairly sweet green tea with peach and sugarcane flavors, and a very tiny bit of smokiniess. It smells and tastes pretty fresh, I’d guess either this spring or last autumn. The pearls are really big, about the size of a nickel. I think “Green Dragon Balls” would be a much more suiting name :P

I think these are a pretty new offering from Adagio, since I had to add the tea to the database. Couldn’t seem to copy the picture off the Adagio page to put in the description, though.

Fresh, citrusy tasting earl gray. Definitely has that “fruity pebble” aroma, but the flavor is fine tea and bergamont.

First tea from the teabox!

Best dragonwell that I’ve had. Very mild with apricot, chestnut, and slight artichoke flavors. Most of the leaves appeared very young, and there where a few silvery buds as well. This is a sweet, gentle dragonwell nice for tea drinkers like myself who don’t like very vegetal greens.