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Shadowfall threw this in as a freebie when she sent me my purchases from her recent stash sale. Thanks! I am always on the lookout for more caffeine free options, so I was excited to try this one. The dry leaf smells delicious! It’s definitely very cookie, but I can also smell the lovely spices. Steeped for 5 minutes.

The aroma is also high in cookie smell, which got me pretty excited. Overall, the taste is a little weak, but I would just use more tea if I were to purchase this. I would probably describe this as more of a snickerdoodle than a gingerbread tea, because the cookie is the main event, and it’s quite buttery and creamy. The spices are more of a lovely accent to the cookie. Taa-daa snickerdoodle cookie tea! I sweetened mine, as I tend to do with flavored teas. I would absolutely purchase this, too bad it’s a seasonal thing and who knows if David’s will even have it again this winter season… Shadowfall, how could you?! :P

Another tea from Shadowfall. Yay more Frenchies! I chose this as an afterthought because I didn’t want to make her ship $2 worth of tea to me. I love peach and I love vanilla even more, so I’m glad I get to try this one. It smells lovely, very peachy with lots of vanilla. There are a few chunks of candied peach and some rose petals mixed in with the tea leaves. I did the usual 3 minutes at 200 degrees.

This tea is delicious! It definitely blew away my mediocre expectations. Yes, the peach is lovely, but the vanilla flavor is done really well here. I would definitely describe it as a bourbon vanilla, I can taste that lovely woodiness alongside the sweetness. This is quite possibly my favorite type of vanilla. There’s also just a little whisper of rose, especially near the end of the sip. The aftertaste is lovely tart peach and that amazing vanilla. I added a little sugar and it’s just sublime. The base tea isn’t really detectable, which is fine by me considering how well done the flavoring is. Maybe it’s part of that bourbon vanilla woodiness? I couldn’t say.

Well done, Dammann Freres! And I’m so glad that I have a decent amount of this tea. Many happy peachy, vanilla-y days ahead!

I recently purchased this from Shadowfall in her stash sale. My very first Fauchon, hooray! And I have a couple more on the way from Hapatite’s sale. Mango is one of my favorite fruits, I just love its unique sweet and juicy but almost piney taste. So I’m always excited when I get to try a mango-flavored tea, although none have impressed me too much so far. The dry leaf smells nice but quite subtle, which is what I honestly expect from French teas. I didn’t bother to look up any parameters, I just used the same method I use for my Kusmi flavored blacks.

I actually find myself really liking this tea! The flavor is definitely more subtle than most, but it is in no way difficult to find. I would describe it as a blend of peach and mango rather than pure mango, but I do love peaches too! The black tea base is smooth and unobtrusive, and not bitter at all. I couldn’t tell you what kind of tea it is, but I would guess there’s some Ceylon in there somewhere. The base and the flavor go very nicely together. I added a bit of sugar, which really helped to bring out that mango-peach yumminess. Overall, I like this a lot and it definitely makes me excited to try more of Fauchon’s teas. I hope they’re on Vente-Privee soon! ;)

I decided to do my first-ever gong fu session with this tea. I was having a rather bad day – my car was towed because of the registration being expired, so now I have to sort all of that out and go get it this week. So I had hoped that this would cheer me up. I based my parameters mostly off of Sarsonator’s recent tasting note (I believe it was a milk oolong from TeaVivre), but I used less tea per water as was suggested in the comments. And I also used 200 degree water because I seem to be uncomfortable going for boiling on any teas besides herbal and rooibos. :P So sue me!

The parameters: 5g tea per 4 ounces of water, 10s rinse/25s/35s/45s/55s

Used two of my noble cups from David’s. They’re about 10 ounces total and came with lids, so I figured they were perfect! Hard to pour, but I got the hang of it…
(http://imgur.com/du542o8)

Rinse (10s): extremely light vegetal flavor with floral notes, light peach aftertaste

Steep 1 (25s): creamy and peachy, light vegetal background with floral aftertaste

Steep 2 (35s): creamy, buttery, quite floral with slightly bitter vegetal taste, peach aftertaste

Steep 3 (45s): quite floral and vegetal, apricot aftertaste

Steep 4 (55s): extremely floral with some vegetal notes, light apricot/peach aftertaste

I could have gone for more steeps, but I found myself liking this less and less as it steadily became more floral. I want more of that lovely creamy peach steep! I have enough left for a smaller session, so I might try this one again with shorter steeps. If anyone has suggestions, I would love them! I did enjoy this tea, but I was looking for more of that milk creaminess that I got in the first couple of steeps. I’m finding that green oolongs tend to be too floral for me.

This is my last free sample from Good Life Teas. Honestly I don’t expect much from it, considering it contains both hibiscus and rose hips… There are chunks of apple in here and some flower petals. It smells lovely and fruity, not terribly tart. Steeped for 5 minutes.

The aroma is quite tart, but still fruity. I added a teaspoon of sugar before I even tasted it because I could tell it was going to be too tart without it. The flavor is actually not bad. It is quite tart from the hibiscus, but I can also taste the apple and orange in there. It definitely needs sugar though, as it is still very tart even with the amount I added. Overall, good but not great. I would drink this again but I don’t know if I’d purchase it.

Yum, this is perfect right now. I wanted something a little refreshing and light after drinking a lot of black teas, and this is really hitting the spot. I did shorter (2 minute) steep for a lighter flavor and added some sugar. Delicious, light and just minty enough! Rating is getting a bit bumped. ;)

I’m suddenly very sad that I’m almost out of this one. Gave out too many samples! :P Luckily, I have quite a bit of Kusmi’s ginger lemon, and that fills a similar niche for me.

This was the chai I chose when making my Whispering Pines order. Looking back, I’m not sure why I chose this one, I must have been in a chocolatey mood! And I do enjoy the tea used as its base – their Fujian Black. Anyway! Dry, it has the small, dark Fujian leaves mixed with chunks of spices. I see whole cloves and cinnamon bark among other things. I have to say, the smell shocked me. It is so gingery! And for some reason I get menthol (I don’t think I selected to have the mint added, but I may be wrong!). It’s like inhaling Vicks Vaporub, and it definitely clears your sinuses! I am not the hugest ginger fan, so this got me worried…

The brewed aroma is less intense, but still smells strongly of ginger. I can pick up on the other spices now, particularly the clove and cinnamon. The taste is also extreme ginger. I had to add sugar and vanilla soy milk to be able to drink it, really. But once it has additions, it’s pleasant enough. I can taste the chocolate (definitely a milk chocolate with the milk added) and the ginger is quite strong but the sharpness is reduced. I would definitely drink this one latte-style from now on, so I can add more milk without watering it down.

Overall, I’m not going to rate this one because whether or not someone likes ginger is definitely a personal preference. It’s weird, I didn’t see anyone mention super strong ginger in their notes. I guess I could try stirring up the tea some more, but considering the super strong ginger and menthol aroma, I doubt that would change it. I’m definitely not in love with this one. :(

Yum yum, more Whispering Pines! I really love these light, golden Yunnans so far, from every company. This one has beautiful, puffy golden leaves that are covered in fuzz. Their scent is lovely – light malt and creamy honey with a surprisingly strong stonefruit note.

The first time, I followed the package instructions and steeped for 3 minutes. The aroma was honey-glazed toast with some golden raisin fruitiness. The taste: lightly malty with honey and dried fruits (apricot?). Maybe a little bit of cocoa. There was also this weird bitterness that I didn’t expect.

So I did a 2 minute steep (new leaves) to see if the bitterness would go away. Mm, love the flavor of this one. It reminded me of a buttery croissant with a touch of honey. There’s also a light toasty note that makes me imagine toasted almonds atop the aforementioned croissant. Maybe a little stonefruit in the aftertaste? This steep wasn’t bitter, but it was almost bitter. It had the potential to be bitter. But it was still delicious.

So my question is, what else should I change to prevent the bitterness? Is it overleafing maybe? I am usually a little bit generous with my leaf measurement, and since the recommendation is in volume and not weight, it’s hard to be precise with a larger leaf. Any suggestions (or measurements in grams) would be appreciated!

Yay, I got this in the mail today! It certainly has gotten a lot of hype recently (I blame TheTeaFairy…) so I knew it had to be good. And I love genmaicha and most straight black teas so I figured how could it possibly be wrong? So I ordered an ounce when it came back in stock just to try it out. Dry, this tea is quite beautiful. The black tea leaves are long, jet black, and twisty. There is quite the melange of rice – long grains, short grains, toasted, puffed, popped. And there are dark little cocoa nibs along with a few oxidized oolong leaves. It smells quite lovely with very strong cocoa and a bit of toastiness. I used the average preparation here on Steepster (and I got to use my new scale and filtered water!).

Mm, the brewed aroma is pure toasty roastiness! There’s a bit of chocolate in there too, but I mostly smell that lovely toasted rice goodness. Mm, definitely a genmaicha. The toasted rice flavor in this tea reminds me of lovely crisp toast. There’s also a nice strong cocoa flavor from the nibs, and some nuttiness from the rice. These combine to remind me a bit of chocolate hazelnut spread, which goes perfectly with the toast! ;) I think I also get a little bit of raisin fruitiness, especially in the aftertaste. Overall, this is very lovely and I can see why it’s so popular. If it’s still in stock when I allow myself to order more tea, I may get some more. And I really want to try that Minnesota Blend…

This sample came from the lovely and generous Nicole (I’m actually over halfway through the box I think, huzzah!). The leaves are like beautiful Goldilocks curls! They’re large and ringlet-y with just a little bit of dark among the gold. Gorgeous! The dry scent is very mild, but lovely. It’s all sweet hay and honey. There’s a tad bit of malt but it’s very light. So excited for this one! I steeped (excitedly) for 3 minutes at 200 degrees.

So the brewed aroma is much more powerful! There’s a lot of malt and breadiness. I kind of hovered over this one like a little bee while waiting for it to cool enough. So I noticed that when it was freshly brewed and still steaming, there was a lovely honey scent and a tart fruitiness reminiscent of dried cherries. As it cooled further, it transformed into a darker molasses and raisin aroma. Loved them both!

At first sip, I noticed an unusual autumn leaf flavor. It was definitely a lighter version of this taste than I have previously experienced, and it was quite lovely. Sort of a nice mellow roasty note! Then this gave way to lovely creamy and smooth malt, which made me picture biting into a nice fluffy, soft loaf of bread. Mmm! There was definitely also a touch of honey that just accented the bread flavor perfectly. I wouldn’t have complained if there had been more honey, but it’s amazing as-is. Would absolutely buy and drink this! :D

Just as an afterthought, I noticed after I had already brewed this that the recommended temperature is about 185-195 degrees. But I didn’t experience any negative effects from brewing it at a higher temperature. So my question is, is there any reason for me to lower the temperature? Will the flavor be drastically different? Thanks guys. :)