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There are some quiet , reserved people you meet that you are not happy about. You feel they are shy or unwell and wish they came out out of their shell and became more expressive and assertive. And then there are quiet people that are good and natural at being quiet and you like it and like being around them. And that’s this Jin Jun Mei.

IT is very balanced and hits on all notes: beautiful leaves with a large share of twisty golden tips, captivating sweet caramel and honey aroma, and a long pleasant aftertaste. Also resteeps extremely well. I had it Western style since it is very forgiving in a preparation and provides you with a delectable sweet taste full of honey, caramel and fruit. It is certainly light and reserved but perfectly balanced and quite cheerful.

I liked this tea a lot: it was the first of the Aprtea samples that I tried that I immediately went on the company’s website to check the price for a larger quantity. It is not super cheap (no Jin Jun Mei teas are) but quite reasonable and I am very likely to reorder it.

It’s a good tea that is frustratingly close to being great. It is simply too restrained for me: a delicate smell, a delicate understated taste somewhat reminiscent of a wild unsmoked Zheng Shan Xiao Zhong.

I can go along with its lack of malt, chocolate and kick that is more typical for a Keemun Hao Ya. But if I was looking for restrained subtlety I would be drinking white teas .This tea reminds me how Michael Harney called Keemuns “the aristocrats of Chinese black teas”. Maybe I am simply not refined enough and would rather mingle with uninhibited commoners.

I slowly make my way into oolongs. They often come to me as being to sweet and "loud’, and as not having enough of malty backbone that I typically like in Chinese red teas. So, outside of Tie Guan Yin I was rather shy about blissfully swimming in the sea of oolongs. However, this Ben Shan considerably softened my guardedness.

It has a rich smell of tropical fruit, lilac and gardenia. I had it both Western and gongfu and it carried itself well in both. Creamy, sweet, mouth-enveloping, with a pronounced aftertaste. The taste itself keeps evolving with the subsequent steepings. Lots of fruitiness, spinach and butter, some spice and some vegetal notes. A pleasant pale liquor. There really wasn’t any area where this tea was appreciably lacking.

I know that Ben Shan oolongs are often considered to be less complex and exciting then, say, Tie Guan Yin and other more famous brethrens but it did not came out that way to me. And, as new and inexperienced I am to the world of oolongs, I can say with a certainty that this particular tea would not disappoint another relative novice like myself. Especially given its very accessible price.

It’s very possible that several months later, after trying a few other oolongs I will have to come back and lower the rating I am about to give to this Anxi Ben Shan but for now, based on the amount of pleasure I derived from it compared to the other teas I had tried up to this point I have no choice but put it in my personal 90s.

A free sample. Thank you AprTea! Also, it was my first yellow tea ever, so some of my observations could be not tea-specific but rather a result of my first yellow tea encounter.

This tea had one of the most alluring and strong dry leaf aromas I encountered so far: full of guava, melon, honey and pomegranate. The appearance was also impressive – the main photograph used in the tea’s Steepster account describes it well.

I prepared it both gong fu and Western style at 175 degrees, and the short gong fu steeps were decidedly better. It has a very creamy mouthfeel, with the honey, herbs, spice, spinach, and tropical fruit flavors. A bit of nuttiness as well. Overall, it is a very cheerful tea that put a smile on my face. Western style felt a bit thin,and longer or second/third gaiwan steeps brought forward some green tea-like bitterness and grass. And I personally find this generic slightly oversteeped green tea profile not so interesting.

All-in-all, a good tea that requires some attention in preparation and high leaf-to-water ratio. I will probably need to try more yellow teas to better evaluate its relative value in class.

This is one of the several free samples generously sent to me by AprTea, a new Chinese tea vendor located in Anxi (Fujian, China). I much appreciate both the samples and the fact that we seem to have gotten another quality vendor of Fujian and other Chinese teas, of which I am a big, big fan. The collection of samples came in simple but visually appealing sample bags packed in a cardboard tube. I actually like their design that is minimalist with a touch of a faded antique style: it’s practical, tasteful and good for the environment.

The tea itself consists of visually pleasing golden snails, quite uniform in size and color. This is the tea that is well suited to gongfu. I had three infusions and all of them gave something new. The aroma was the one that you often get from a good Yunnan tea with honeyed sweetness and malt.

The first steep was short (10 seconds) and the tea came out quite mild, with the notes of baked bread, sweet potatoes, honey, hay, malt and wild flowers. It came out as very fresh and authentic , i.e. “real”. I increased the second infusion to 25 seconds and the tea aquired a pleasant bitterness , metallic and minty notes. The bitter chocolate aftertaste lingered for a long time. The third and final infusion (25 sec) gave me a very mellow tea with all kinds of muted sweetness and barely a hint of bitterness.

Well, I liked this tea quite a bit. It tastes very “real” and three-dimensional and responds well to experimenting with a gaiwan. On the negative side is that I am not a big fan of a strongdark chocolate bitterness and that this tea does not give you a lot of quality infusions, both of which is not that uncommon in dianghongs.

I remember reading great reviews about this tea, being tempted but passing on it since it had been only available in sachets at the time. Recently I saw it offered as loose leaf and immediately ordered – this tea has not disappointed. I always liked the famed Paris from Harris and Sons but felt that it was just a bit understated and underpowered. Tower of London seems to address all of my little peeves about Paris perfectly.

It is floral, sweet and bergamoty. Lush, decadent, tempting. I usually do not add milk and sugar to my blacks since they get inevitably hopelessly overpowered but this tea strangely tastes as if milk and sugar has already ALREADY been added to it and just in the right amount. This blend is by far my favorite Harney and Sons tea.

English breakfasts is an odd type of teas: it can come seemingly from any country and run the entire gamut of all possible black tea flavors. This one consists of Keemuns and is rather mild, which I like.

For starters, unlike many of its brethren, it has some perceptible flavor of sweetness, malt, spice, and crushed blueberries. Rather pleasant. The taste is not super complex but also agreeable: honeyed sweetness, malt, pepper, wood. You need to steep it for a while and there is no possibility to get anything decent for second steeping.

The power of branding is a funny thing: I would definitely be disappointed if I bought it as a Keemun, but as an English Breakfast it tastes OK to me.

Unlikely to reorder anyway: there are tons of teas that have more personality.

Generally, I am not a big fan of budget Indian/Ceylon/ Kenyan Assams (too bitter, too simple) but this one tasted surprisingly good for me. The taste has enough complexity with floral, apricot, baked bread, malt and honey-sweet notes. The bitterness is present but it is not extreme and blends well with other flavors. This tea is certainly can be enjoyed without sugar or milk and works best as a morning tea.

A sweet, sweet tea. I liked it the moment I opened the pouch and inhaled a strong aroma of camphor, apricot and flowers. I had it gongfu style and it lasted a good amount of steeps. The aroma of the wet leaves was good and consistent: this bird is certainly an olfactory pleasure.

The taste was equally light and uplifting: camphor, peach, apricot, prunes,flowers… Just a touch of earthiness and dry wood. I initially did the steeps of 10-15 seconds and when I went a for a bit more it added some pleasant bitterness to the palette. In short, it is the tea that encourages you to play with time and temperature and the results are different but never bad. In the later steeps (6+) most of the complexity was gone and it started to taste like a good regular dianhong, which was FAR from being disappointing. Shou puerhs are often tend to be to gloomy,decay-ish and intense and this one is quite different, being lovely, light and uplifting.

Several previous reviewers called it a decent everyday drinker. I tend to drink the lower -priced puerhs, so quite possibly there are right and there are undiscovered wonders in pricier cakes but from the perspective of a puerh catfish like myself this tea amounts to something more than that.

I got it thrown in as a freebie with my last Harney’s order, so I guess I log it in as well. On a side note, it is the second time that I order loose black Chinese teas there and receive sachets of herbals as free samples. I suspect that they just have some disinterested worker throwing in the same free samples in each order without any attempt at customization. Which is bad and speaks of less-than-stellar operation practices. Incidentally, the free samples that I have gotten at Teavivre or White2Tea always displayed some thought put into it, have been aligned with my order and, unsurprisingly, did lead to my ordering of the sampled tea in larger quantities afterwards.

Anyway, this tea is pretty standard for herbals. Not bad, but not spectacular either. the mint takes the leading role, while verbena adds some heft and an extra dimension. And, as other reviewers mentioned before, the mint is rather muted and not-in-your face – and I actually liked it. Oh, and the sachet is large and potent enough for multiple steepings.

Not a bad choice at all if you are into herbals and mint, which I am regrettably not – despite all the clever wild guesses of the Harney and Son’s order fillers.