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For some strange reason, I had it in my had it in my head that the cherry would be stronger in this tea but in reality the flavouring is more dominated by cooked stone fruit ands a falavour that reminds me of baked red delicious apples with skin or plum kuchen. I found plum, apricot, and cherries in the flavouring which also has a certain brightness with a hint of tartness. The base was sweet , rich and thick, and contributed a bit of malt, honey, and biscuit tones. The aftertaste is kind of an interesting fruity flavour blended with citrus and a hint of wintergreen, along with a bit of bite from astringency.

All of the flavours kind of blended into each other, without it being incredibly distinct about what you are drinking. The tea re-steeps quite well, with the cherry becoming more distinct.

Thanks JustJames for a tasty treat!

This tea smells a little bit like across between shortbread and scones with a touch of almond flour. The taste is subtle but pleasant. The base tea underneath is quite sweet, with a touch of astringency. The initial flavour note was kind of like a powdery shortbread cookie, followed a by a touch of almond extract and assert note that reminds me of licorice or perhaps stevia (I haven’t had it for a while). Mostly reminds me of shortbread with a touch of almond extract. Thanks to Dexter3657 for the chance to try this limited edition tea.

This tea is a little different than some of the Taiwanese blacks I’ve had before as it is neither dominated by fruit, or the mint spicy tones you often find. Instead it actually does reference oatmeal, not in the aged tea/ exhausted steeping type of oatmeal flavour you get but actual oatmeal with grain, malt and a little hint of nut in it, contributing to a savoury comforting, rich flavour. As secondary notes it has fairly strong malt tones, sharp fruit ranging from long an to red currant, and honey tinged cocoa.

I brewed it 5 times (20, 30,55,120, &240s). It seemed to have a nice bit of resiliency, with malt retaining prominent notes and the cocoa honey note increasing in the first few steepings and the fruit changing from longan to a currant note in later steeps.

Maybe not my favourite Assam but still a warm, comforting and pleasant cup. Thanks to TastyBrew for allowing me the opportunity to try another of TTC’s black teas!

Thanks to Tea at Sea for providing me with this lovely sample. As others have noted they have lovely packaging even these samples come in lovely resealable packaging with cute graphics.

This tea is tightly rolled like a green oolong. It is not smooth and smokey like a gunpowder green tea, but pellet like light to dark olive nuggets that smell of seaweed, dried alfalfa and a touch of red clover flowers.

I steeped 1 TSP in about 135 ml of water and got 4 good steeps out of it (45, 60, 80, 100s) at about 85°C.

The tea brewed to a nice bright yellow tinged green initially smell in of a light and soft slightly spicy floral with alfalfa underneath, becoming both sweeter and nuttier with later steeps.

The tea itself had mostly a rich smooth taste with the flavour initially more savoury and becoming sweeter and nuttier.

Flavour notes I noted were: slight spinach note, hay, clover, butter, plum, apricot, cream, honeydew melon, choclo ( a type of corn), alfalfa, buttery sweet greens, clover nectar, cooked peach, and chestnut.

Altogether a nice, smooth, and mild green tea.

This is another bilochun style black it has loosely curled black nuggets with prominent golden tips. It smells of smokey cocoa. Taste wise it is closer to Teavivre’s black dragon pearls than my other bilochun style black tea from Zen Teahttp://steepster.com/yyz/posts/225415. With Teavivres tea having a slightlier creamy texture and taste. I actually prefer this one though.

I steeped this tea 4 times ( 60, 80,110,300s). I found it a little less resilient than zen’s Phoenix Pearls.

The scent is smokey, with cocoa, honey and light nutty notes. It brews to a coppery maple colour.

It tastes of light smoke with a cocoa mole sauce note with later steeps referencing a hint f the flavour of Chile. The cocoa smoke lies over citrusy malt tones and a touch of honey. Later steeps release a light nutty tone as well. Overall a nice savoury, cocoa noted tea.

This tea is getting a little old but is still very nice. The dry tea is a dark bilochun style nugget with some lighter brown notes and a few golden tips present. It smells very sweet of honey and cocoa. This tea remains quite sweet and retains it’s honey cocoa grainy malt notes throughout its steeping. Like others have noted it is quite a forgiving tea.

After a rinse and a one minute steep I had a deep maple colour brew with a scent of cocoa, honey and grainy malt. It tastes of honey, cocoa, a barley grain note, and aslfalfa with malt more present as it cools.

I steeped it again for 80, 110, 180, and 300s. The tea became slightly sweeter in the later brews with the malt rising in the early ones than blending more evenly with the other flavours a slightly nutty note appeared as well. Altogether a nice honeyed, cocoa tea with grainy, nutty notes. Quite enjoyable.

I thoroughly enjoyed this well balanced oolong courtesy of a sample sent to me by the thoughtful Dexter3657. This green oolong has a really nice soft, sweet blend of floral notes (gardenia/lily/sweet Williams), fruit peaches and vanilla sugar, papaya, citrus notes and hints of pineapple, mineral notes, cream, and the sweeter tones of artichoke. I may prefer a slightly more biting floral green, but I enjoyed the soft sweet floral notes of this oolong.

I steeped this tea 8 times after a rinse (30, 30, 35, 40, 50, 60, 85 and 105s).

The dry leaf smells of fruit, peach and pineapple, vanilla and a light floral accent of lily and gardenia. They are tightly rolled and are a bright spruce green with light olive accents.

30s. Light green tinged yellow brew with a peach tinged with citrus pineapple scent with a floral green top note.

It tastes of gardenia mixed with citrus notes, pineapple, cream, peach, a hint of something powdery and vanilla. A nice mix of fruit and soft floral, with a silky texture.

30s. Slightly deeper yellow brew.
The flavour is a green floral mixed with sweet Williams, cream, warm peaches, papaya and pineapple. It is very sweet and has notes of warm cooked snap peas and vanilla.

35s. Deeper flavour with a green vegetal note of sweet Jerusalem artichoke. There is a softer green floral with lily and gardenia, peaches sprinkled with vanilla sugar and cream. There is a freshening feeling in the front of the mouth.

40s. Mineral note, light gardenia, lily, peach, snap pea, sweet cooked peaches, cream, with a vanilla hint. Still a creamy texture.

50s. Similar but more intense flavour than 40s, with greener peach, vanilla note, artichoke and gardenia breaking down into a nutmeg like note.

60s. Sweet, slightly more fruity than floral.
Tastes of a mineral green soft vegetal note, peach and gardenia.

85s. Savoury with gardenia, nutmeg, cream and stronger artichoke note, faint reference to aftertaste of peach.

105s. Vegetal, mineral, gardenia, cream.

Sorry I posted this in the wrong place originally.

This tea is a really nice blend between the sweet and savoury. It’s scent is blend between bright fruit and light smoke and once brewed it releases a perfume of smoke,rich, sweet plum, sweet corn/ pea note and a hint of spice.

I brewed this tea four times (45, 55, 70, 100s).

The dry leaf are dark olive to khaki tightly twisted wiry inch long leaves that produce a golden yellow brew.

The tea is smooth. The first notes are savoury, with light smoke, salted butter, a roasted vegetable note (sweet green pea mixed with a slight bitter spinach), over honeyed plum, pepper and a hint of nutmeg. The aftertaste is sweet plum intensifying under a light spinach note. The tea has a rich creamy texture and maintains a consistent flavour over ateeps with only the light smoke dissipating while the rest of the tea sweetens.

The tea offers a really nice value. It has really nice fruity aspects, a thick texture and a pleasant savoury note. Another really nice tea from Capital Tea Ltd! Once again thanks for the sample.
http://www.capitaltea.com/shop/product.php?productid=227&cat=5&page=1

This tea presents quite a lovely impression of a strawberry pie made from cooked fruit with just a touch of cinnamon and only slightly sweetened. These are among my favourite types of pies, ones where the fruit is allowed to shine and its freshness is highlighted. Very nicely done!

This tasting note is more a series of impressions brought to you thanks to the generosity of CrowKettle who sent this to me as a surprise.

Scent: Graham crust, strawberry slightly green bright note, cinnamon, bright note from the tea

Broth: deep orange gold with a hint of red.

Taste: Light strawberry that becomes more apparent in the aftertaste with a hint of sharpness from the hibiscus. Hint of pastry that offers a thickness and a certain smoothness to the tea. Cinnamon note blends in with the flavour of the base tea which has a certain richness, a touch ofbitterrness, honey and a certain brightness. Pleasant but not in you face flavouring. The strawberries are like slightly under ripe berries that have been left out in the sun after slicing with a very subtle floral note blending into the fruit. A touch of woodiness is present either from the cinnamon or the base tea. Enjoyable with the flavouring developing and becoming more apparent as I sip down the cup.

I think this is one you have to be very careful with when measuring out the leaf. You have to make sure you get enough caramel pieces and I think it does better with a little bit more leaf than less. The first time I had it I underleafed it and it tasted of slightly sweet watery rooibos. This time I used 2tsp for about 11oz of water. It came out smelling like nutty skillet toffee. The rooibos is still there contributing a little dryness and a nutty woody note, but the flavour is of vanilla cream caramels. Pretty nice tonight.