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I am not a big fan of Assams but my supplies of Chinese teas are getting dangerously low and I want to wait for the 2018 harvest for reordering. So, I am resorting to drinking long forgotten and neglected samples from the bottom of my tea cupboard.

This particular Assam is actually not that bad. The taste is not complex by any means – your typical Assam here- but pleasant and if you do the short infusions the bitterness is avoided. It has a pleasant floral smell too. The taste is floral with some pine notes plus a bit of sweet potato. A solid if unspectacular tea.

Given that I could not finish about a half of Assam samples that I had tried it probably means that it would be a good budget choice for someone who actually enjoys drinking Assams.

I am not a big fan of licorice. But I should admit that this pairing of ginger and licorice is very good and complimentary. IF you like licorice. And, oh, it smells like heaven.

But if you are like me you better stay away from this blend: I honestly tried hard to drink myself into liking it – but this licorice is just too damn powerful in all its uncompromising glory.

I thought that Teavivre is a place to find just inexpensive passable puerh (with their core competency rather being green and red teas) but I was certainly wrong with this one. These little cubes are solid. The first steeps deliver a good balance of earthiness, mushrooms and sweetness. In later steeps sweetness becomes a dominant flavor. No hint of astringency, funkiness or any fishy flavor.

It comes out good with short light infusions and with longer deeper ones. The taste is not the most original or overly complex but there is enough going on to keep you interested. It also looks and smells right and generally presents itself as a quintessential solid ripe puerh. That combines with the ability to give you many quality resteeps and very affordable price.

I really liked this shou and, inspired by it, will certainly get samples of several more puerhs from Teavivre hoping to find more hidden gems there. Because their puer prices are certainly one of the cheapest I encountered so far.

Now this is a puer that stood out for me on so many levels. I kept it for a while and, after a more than a moment of hesitation, still decided to try it at 10 PM about an hour before I would have to go to bed. In my experience, a typical shou is not the best choice option for a late-night tea…but this tea is anything but typical.

First, it has a very appealing formulation: 20 g. It opens so many different ways to use it while still being fairly easily portable. Second, the taste: it was the most unusual shu that I tried so far. There was none of the common heavily earthy, woody and generally oppressive notes of decay. Instead, this tea is incredibly light and sweet. But this sweetness is not floral-based but rather intertwined with equally light notes of mushrooms, meat-based broth and, most prominently, the taste of naturally sweet water from a well or a spring somewhere in the wilderness.

This Gold Melon works extremely well with short infusion, it works equally well with the longer ones: the sweetness becomes even more pronounced without any hint of bitterness.

All-in-all, this puer is a very optimistic, sunshine-filled and uplifting drink. Good on its own, even better as a desert after a hearty meal. This tea is so tasty and “different” that I will certainly order a sleeve of it – because in addition to all its goodness this puer is also very affordable.

I tried it as a sample. The operative words for this tea are smooth and inoffensive. Way to many young puerhs that I had tried were acid-like in their astringency and sourness and required the unfailing precision in their steeping time and temperature to be enjoyed. This Daily Drinker is the opposite: it is smooth and very forgiving.

The tasting profile is actually pretty typical for young shengs and not complicated at all -floral, cranberry, some honeyed sweetness – with the commendable long aftertaste.

Now, for the bad part: this tea tastes very generic and fairly boring and does not produce many steeps. It is not going to turn anybody off but it will not wow anyone either. There are simply way to many puerhs that actually have some character and that’s why I will never return to Daily Drinker.

What a nice surprise it was after a streak of quite forgettable Harney’s teas. This tea certainly has a very distinct fragrance and flavor profile. The aroma is very perfume-like but not in a bad, sickly- sweet way and over-the top way. There is some freshness and boldness in the smell.

The taste is also distinct. It is charmingly restrained (the bergamot is certainly not as bold as in the Harney’s Earl Grey Supreme) and the slight sourness of the grapefruit blends well with all of that bergamoty goodness. Also, the tea base is lighter than in other H&T flavored teas.

The end result is some understated sophistication without any pretentiousness, which actually befits its name. I am surprised that Diamond Jubilee is not as popular as, say Paris or Vanilla Comoro. Good job Harney and Sons.

It is a decent Ceylon-type Kenyan tea. The aroma is clean, with woodsy and floral notes. The taste is brisk but not bitter: grass, green wood, flowers, biscuit, some hint of sweetness. But mostly green wood, to be honest: I had to strain to pick up other notes.

Now for negatives: it looks more BOP than OP to me and the taste is not interesting. Just passable. I think there are more enjoyable choices for a brisk morning tea.

I don’t know what’s the deal with Harney&Sons but all of their flavored teas taste like it’s the same tea with tiny variations. No offense, they are pleasant, the flavorings are not overboard, the smell is nice…but this Boston blend is essentially Vanilla Comoro with some cranberry tartness! And oh, it is also reminiscent of Paris.

In short: this tea is vanilla, chocolate and muted cranberry on the solid but thoroughly generic black tea base. And, by the way, I don’t think that these components blend particularly well, i.e. it is not Paris nor Hot Cinnamon Spice by any means.

Don’t get me wrong, it is not a bad tea but I already tasted 90% of it before in other Harney teas and it is kind of disappointing. It ’s like a one-hit wonder band that keeps mercilessly milking their only hit by issuing endless remixes and unplugged versions. Me not happy.

Update: I tried it several times and it has grown on me. It is a flavorful blend and I learned to identify and appreciate its unique notes. So, I am back to up this tea’s score.

This is one of the teas that is well known and has quite a following so I was looking forward to try it. I was impressed as soon as I opened the tin: the smell was fierce and, in a sense , primeval. The appearance looked very appealing and natural with the orange dust everywhere and large chunks of …oranges, I guess.

But after I made a cup of tea and took a sip I had to stop and instinctively take a big breath as if I was burned. The taste is incredibly intense, dripping with sweetness, cloves, citrus and cinnamon in megadoses. It takes more like a spiced apple cider on steroids: the tea itself gets absolutely overshadowed by everything else.

It is just way to intense for me and simply falls into a completely different category of drinks: whatever it is it is not tea as I understand it. I will probably need to drink it a couple of more times to let it grow on me but the problem is that I usually match a specific kind of tea with my mood at the moment and I am not sure I will have the mood befitting this concoction with any frequency. Quite possibly, this tea reminded me that I am more of a steady, puttering-along type of a person unlike living in the fast lane fiery personalities for whom this tea was so obviously created.

I needed some inexpensive pleasant teas for everyday drinking (to save money for pricier Chinese teas) and Vanilla Comoro turned out exactly what I was looking for. It has a cheerful flavor of vanila and chocolate that brings to mind desserts, cakes and other yummy goodness. Both the aroma and the taste is not overwhelming but rather subdued and feels very unprocessed and “natural”. And that characterizes a lot of other Harney’s teas like the ever reliable Paris.

This tea takes milk and sugar well and has a pleasant lingering aftertaste. Not a tea for slow sipping and obsessive gaiwaning in a search to bring out different notes of its complex taste, but a reliable and cheerful flavored pick-me-up. In short, a winner.