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My first taste of this was just Rooibos. This may be because this sample is a little old. As it cooled, I tasted pastry and cinnamon, with some baked fruit underneath. At this point the peach is more present in the scent and the apple note present in the taste. The base tea is hefty and a little bitter. The tea is a litte drying in the mouth. The flavour is subtle but nice now that it has cooled a little. It does capture the pastry, cinnamon, and fruit of a crisp or cobbler.

This tea is quite a floral strawberry tea. The top note is a mix of rose and safflower, with the safflower dominant to the rose with its watermelon note this blends with a strawberry cream with the raspberry note appearing last and dominating the aftertaste. The strawberry noteis of tart ripe strawberries that have been cut and allowed to heat up in the sun a little bit. The base tea is a broken large leaf Ceylon which adds a bitterness that counterbalances the lightness of the flavouring and provides enough body to take milk. It also has a citrus note to it. The tea is not that astringent but it is quite tannic though this too is counterbalanced by the cream in the flavouring. A nice blend of flavours and a nice change from the usual strawberry vanilla or strawberry caramel.

This tea doesn’t live up to the quality of the other Laoshan tea I have. It requires hotter temperatures and longer steeping times, but it does have one of the strongest honey notes I have had in a black tea. The honey tastes like honey spread on bread, not a faint suggestion of dissolved honey water.

The tea itself has thick brown to golden brown curls. I brewed it at just under boiling and let it steep for 5 min. The resulting brew was a mid reddish brown.

When hot the first note is of hot rolled barley flakes, followed by cocoa and cherry, malt, and honey. As the tea cools the honey becomes more dominant the grain note fades a little bit, and spice notes of nutmeg and cinnamon occur.

A good tea, but not a favourite, I prefer my other Laoshan to this one. The strong cereal notes make it a unique addition to my cupboard.

The buds in this tea are not as white or as tightly closed as some Silver Needles, I’ve had and they are about the same length as Rishi’s premium organic ones. The down on them is short and fuzzy and the leaves underneath are dark giving them a dark grey green undertone under a creamy short haired down. The scent of the dry tea is fruity and spicy with hints of pineapple under the floral.

I brewed 1 heaping TSP in 200ml for about 1 min at about 78°C.

The scent of this tea is a strong and robust jasmine,not powdery or candy like as some of my jasmines have been but rather like blooms that have been picked, were bruised and are slowly drying, a little like some of the strings of jasmine strung through girls hair in India.

The colour of the brew is a pale slightly gold yellow. Taking a sip, the first impressions are of sweetness, a blend between the base tea and the floral, its almost sugarcane like. The jasmine is fruity, but before that there is a flavour like jasmine oil touched with sandalwood oil,its slightly woody and insence like, more like the thickened paste sold for puja. The aftertaste is of a green jasmine with sugarcane and apricot cream sweetness underneath it.

Nice.

The tea itself tastes smooth and creamy but leaves a cooling astringency on the tongue and a tingling at the back of the mouth.

130s. Jasmine with a bit of spice and less bruised waxy floral scent. Taste is sweet, with less sugarcane and more sweet juicy ripe pear sweetness It is once again creamy, and smooth, with apricot cream coming from the base tea. It feels smooth, thick and creamy.

140s. Still sweet pungent jasmine scent.
The scent is still very present but the jasmine is beginning to fade and blend into the base tea flavour. Still tasting very sweet with apricot cream and jasmine end note and a faint hint of citrus.

Thanks very much CrowKettle. I love jasmine teas when done well and it will be a pleasure to finish the rest of this packet!

Malt, sweet potato/roasted notes, hint of a floral note, and red fruit notes meet my nose. This tea smells more intense than the last time I made it. I used more leaf using about 1.75 TSP for 225 ml. The liquor is a a nice medium, orange red. The tea tastes smooth with sweet undertones. With floral fruity notes with a hint of cream dominant over malt and roasted notes, citrus/malt notes more present in the aftertaste. A pleasant cup for mid afternoon.

This tea smells strongly of cinnamon, fruit, and pastry. The fruit is almost more cherry like (perhaps from the almond) than apple, but the apple is present. This is another one where the flavour is more intense when cool. The first sips hot leave an impression of almond liqueur, sweet tea, cinnamon, and a touch of pastry. As it cools a little the cinnamon intensifies, and a bit of apple appears to blend with the cherry touched almond. The aftertaste is of cinnamon pastry and sweet tea,with a hint of vanilla cream. The flavours are well blended together, but none is distinct enough that I could name this as an apple tea if asked. Overall, a nice mild sweet cinnamon tea.

100°C/5 min

2 tsp cocoa nibs
1 tsp soba cha,
a couple thin slices of ginger,
4 small pods of cardamon,
1cm worth of cinnamon stick
3 arms of star anise.
1 clove
@14 oz of water steeped for @6 min

Not bad and chai like but I used one TSP of soba cha instead of extra coconibs and I think next time I will use the extra tsp of nibs and then add the soba cha. I will also up the ginger next time as well, otherwise the flavours mixed well to produce a mild cocoa based chai.

This tea has a fruity, candy like passion fruit that smells almost creamy with a touch of mango. It produces a bright orange amber tea that may appear cloudy as actual passion fruit pulp is used. But this cup is clear. The tea is a large leaf Ceylon with long loosely twisted leaves.

The flavour is of a sweet, not tart passion fruit that is slightly creamy. The tea underneath is fruity with a touch of bitterness, a classic tea flavour even if it tastes a little thin compared to some of the syrupy teas I’ve had lately. The large leaf makes it difficult to measure out so perhaps I under leafed it. This is pretty smooth for a Ceylon with just a light astringency. It probably makes a nice iced tea. Pretty nice hot too. Well worth the @$2.00 I paid for it.

I find that most of my Yunnan’s fall between the spectrum of leathery spicy and honey fruity all with cocoa underneath, but each are unique in some ways. The crudest, roughest one has almost licorice tones, one has orange notes, one has a lot of spice over chocolate notes, another is jelly and violets and then there is this one. This one is quite fruity and almost boozy in the first steeps, overlying the honey, cocoa, and leather and has a bit of snap pea to it.

It looks just like the picture with medium thickness blades and furry gold buds. About 75-80 % appears to be buds. The dry sent is almost hay like.

I steeped one heaping TSP in a 150 ml gaiwan. Using boiling water.

After 45 s the scent is of honey, hay, cocoa, smoke, and a faint leather spice. The tea is a medium ambre brown with a yellow green ring I get in many tippy teas around it.

The flavours of cocoa, hay, smoke and honey combined to create something slightly fruity. It brings back a memory of something I had at school when a classmate prepared a Vietnamese meal for us. There was a hint of grapes, cooked apple and a slight musty tone all soaked in a touch of rum.

Other notes I tasted were of snap pea, honey sweetened cocoa in grape juice, and very faint leather notes. As it cools the cocoa, honey, slightly boozy fruit dominate. Very smooth tingling in front and top of mouth.The first steep was kind of syrupy. Further steeps were as follows:

60s less honey, more cocoa, and hints of tarter red fruit, touch of bean still quite sweet and honeyed. Not as syrupy as first cup.

75s honey cocoa,leathery earthy notes.

120s. Cocoa, honey, red fruit , leather spice

240s. Cocoa, leather,honey.

This tea still has some life in it. I especially liked the first steep and the hint of red fruit in some of the later ones. All together a nice tea that I wouldn’t mind enjoying from time to time.

Thanks, Capital Tea Ltd for this generous sample!

This tea tastes of lightly floral lemon pie filling with a sweetened aftertaste from the caramel. There is a hint of vanilla and cool sugary meringue note. A smooth base underneath, adds a bit of depth and a touch of bitterness and pastry. This tea has a sweet aftertaste. More tartness from lemon appears as it cools and as Lala noticed the flavour intensifies. The flavour was very light when hot. A nice sweet lemon tea with the caramel adding a warmth and richness to the tea.