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This sample came from Hapatite. She included several sizable samples with my purchases from her stash sale a few weeks ago. The black tea leaves in this blend actually look like they’re higher quality than I generally see in flavored teas. There are also pieces of what I assume is dried plum? Doesn’t say on the website or in the Steepster description, so who knows? Smells sweetly fruity and there’s something nutty too, but that may be scent contamination from another tea. I steeped it for 3 minutes at 200 degrees.

The aroma is mostly black tea with a vague fruity smell. I added some sugar to mine, as I am wont to do with flavored teas. I’m actually pleasantly surprised by this one! I haven’t been loving most flavored teas lately, and some of them even make me feel nauseous… The flavor in this does remind me of a very ripe and sweet plum, and there’s a teensy bit of tartness that makes it seem even more believable. I don’t really have much to say about the base tea besides that it’s mellow and it doesn’t interfere heavily with the flavor. This tea leaves a pleasantly tart fruity aftertaste in the back of my mouth, yums. :D

This sample came from Mandy. I really need to stop requesting so many flavored samples from people, as I tend to not like them so much anymore. This one looks like a shou mei with a few flower petals mixed in. It has that alcoholic flavoring smell to it, meh. I steeped it for 3 minutes although the package recommended 2 minutes.

Meh, this tea is just kind of unremarkable. It doesn’t really taste like toffee to me, closer to caramel, and even then it’s mostly just vaguely sugary. I can definitely taste that it’s artificial flavoring. The white tea itself isn’t great either, it’s quite “rough” tasting for a white tea – it reminds me of autumn leaves.

Overall, meh. This one will go in the rehoming box.

So I was talking with Lariel about biluochun earlier, and I remarked that I’ve never actually had the green variety. So tonight when I felt like a green, I pulled out this sample that I got free when I ordered their Laoshan Black Chocolate Genmaicha. The leaves are dark, almost evergreen, and they’re quite thin and twisted. They’re not really very snail-shaped at all, though some of them are slightly curled. Dry scent is sweet and mildly vegetal with a bit of hay aroma. I was unsure how to steep this, so I just did the same thing I would do with sencha, 1 minute at 175 degrees.

The brewed aroma is sweet with mild spinach and butternut squash scents. Wow, I think this is the best green tea I have ever had… It’s so amazingly smooth and creamy in texture, with a lovely butteriness that coats the tongue. It tastes like pure sweet and creamy butternut squash. And just when I thought this tea couldn’t get better, there’s this amazing and light sweetness that creeps up at the back of my mouth and throat at the end of the sip. It reminds me of the nectar of a honeysuckle flower – a clear, dewy sweetness with a hint of floral. Delicious!

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Ost was kind enough to include a sample of this in the package with my stash sale purchases, thanks dear! I do love me some blueberries. The sample was 2 teaspoons and Della Terra’s website recommended 1 teaspoon for 6 ounces, so I decided to just use the whole thing for my 8 ounce cup. In my experience, Della Terra’s teas need to be overleafed anyway to be strong enough.

This is a perfectly nice flavored tea. It’s mostly pastry and cinnamon to me, with hardly any blueberry. It sort of reminds me of cinnamon rolls with sugar glaze over the top and maybe a couple of blueberries sprinkled over. I don’t think I would order this, it’s a bit too artificial for me. It is quite tasty, but not enough blueberry!

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Yum! It’s been long time since I first tried this one, and I’m not sure where my palate was then, but this is definitely better than an 85 now. I made this a bit strong, with a teaspoon and a half of tea, and it’s quite lovely this way. Nice and malty, there’s a teensy bit of smoke in the background but I actually love the effect it has. Very nicely balanced dark and rich tea! :)

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Thanks so much to MzPriss for sending me a sample of this tea. I have decided that my favorite way to have this tea is to steep it for 3 minutes. It turns into a lovely dense bready/pastry-like delicious thing. It’s right on the cusp of being slightly bitter, but I actually love that about this method. Yums! While this is a lovely tea, it’s not something I would purchase just because of the price. I find it to be very similar to the imperial gold style teas from Yunnan Sourcing, or even the Dian Hong Golden Tip from TeaVivre. And those teas are much, much cheaper than this one.

This is the final tea from Verdant’s blends club for the month of August. This was really the only one out of the three that I was any kind of excited to try… I don’t really have any experience with tieguanyin itself, but at least there’s no licorice or flowers in this one. :P The leaves are a dark brown-green color, and they’re somewhat loosely rolled. The dry scent is mostly roasted oolong, but I do get a little bit of citrus and vanilla. I steeped about a teaspoon and a half for 4 minutes at 190 degrees.

Brewed, the aroma is still mostly roasty and oolongish with maybe a little bit of vanilla? However, the other elements are there in the taste, thank goodness! The oolong itself is very light and sweet, with just enough of a roasty punch. There’s a nice orange flavor, especially near the end of the sip and in the aftertaste. It kind of builds as I continue to drink. The vanilla, well… it’s not there as much as I would like it to be. I can taste a teeny bit. There’s also just the slightest suggestion of spice at the end, I guess it must be coming from the sarsaparilla. I have no idea what birch bark tastes like, so I couldn’t tell you whether or not it’s here. Overall, this is a lovely light and slightly creamy citrusy tea, it kind of reminds me of Fauchon’s Sweet Almond & Orange tea. Thank goodness, I at least liked one tea from this box… glares at Verdant.

This tea sample was provided for free in exchange for review. You can find it here: http://www.teasenz.com/feng-huang-dan-cong-phoenix-oolong-tea#.U-pCB_ldXX8

I have little experience with oxidized oolongs in general, but I always seem drawn to them when browsing. So I decided to choose both this tea and the Da Hong Pao as two of my free samples from teasenz. The leaves of this tea are dark, long, and twisty, similar to some black teas. They smell of autumn leaves with a tart fruitiness and some honey. I brewed about a teaspoon to a teaspoon and a half for 4 minutes.

The brewed tea smells very roasty with a lot of autumn leaf. I can also smell fruit and a bit of honey. I’m not sure if “autumn leaves” is a good descriptor for this flavor, but that’s really what I reminds me of! There’s a definite roasted characteristic to this tea, and it’s quite lovely. The main flavor is definitely that “autumn leaf” taste, though. There is a rather strong stonefruit note, reminding me most of apricots or tart plums, and it’s present throughout the sip. I definitely get some floral as well, although I couldn’t tell you what kind. On their website they list lotus as one of the flavors, so maybe that’s it? It’s not heady at all. The only complaint I have about this tea is the way it leaves my mouth feeling. I wouldn’t quite call it astringent, but it’s almost dusty-feeling? I’m not sure how to describe it. Anyway, a small price to pay for taste! :P

Yay, last tea of the evening here. The bag itself smells strongly of celery salt and garlic, which I didn’t expect. I brewed it for 10 minutes in boiling water, as per the package directions.

Brewed, it smells like broccoli, celery salt, and onion salt. Like a nice vegetable broth! :) The flavor is quite good too. The broccoli is definitely the base of this tea, and the cilantro pops out and says halloo! It has a nice little herbaceous, spicy kick. I can definitely taste the celery and onion salt as well in here, especially near the end. This one would probably be quite good with a bit of salt added, but I’m enjoying it plain right now. A lovely bedtime tea!

Daily Summary: 4 sipdowns, 146 teas remaining in cupboard

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Another lovely Shang tea! The leaves are twisty and dark with a few silver tips. They smell of grain and slightly vegetal. I steeped the whole sample pack for 3 minutes.

This is really rather lovely. It’s sweet and grainy like the other Shang teas I’ve tried, but it has a noticeable vegetal or grassy element. Kind of like a combination of a white tea and a mild green. I’m ashamed to admit that I let half of the cup get stone cold, as I was playing a game. Oopsies? But it’s really delicious this way, which makes me think it would be great iced. It’s quite sweet and creamy and lovely! :D