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Yay I finally got my TeaVivre samples! I’ve been really excited to try their black teas. Thanks Angel for the very generous samples! This tea was the one I was most anxious to try because it’s so unique. :) The pearls are about a half-inch in diameter, and the color is about an equal mixture of brown and golden tips. They smell divine – very sweet honey with some cocoa, malt, and bread notes. I did two separate steeps (4 pearls each) and then a resteep.

The first steep, I followed the package directions and let it go for 5 minutes. The aroma was very malty in a beer kind of way, with bread and honey and some light cocoa. The taste was…meh. It was very one-note and the malt dominated. I was surprised it did not get bitter at all, even with the long steep.

Second try, I went for 3 minutes. The aroma was more sweet honey this time, but the beer scent was still there with stronger cocoa. The taste was more complex, with some strong honey notes and a little bit of bread or malt. Not really cocoa though. I then resteeped the same leaves for 4 minutes, and got a flavor somewhere between the other two.

I feel like I didn’t get the full flavor out of this tea. The steeping parameters that others have used are so widely varied that it’s hard to know what to sweet spot is. My only idea is to try more pearls, maybe 5, and a shorter steep time. Any suggestions would be amazing. :)

Backlog from last night! I went to start reviewing another tea and realized I still had the notes from this one and hadn’t written it up. Oops. This is from Simple Loose Leaf’s July selection. Looks like rooibos with dried lemongrass, citrus peel, and the odd red peppercorn. It smells quite citrusy, which is good for me. It’s obviously grapefruit, but there are some other citrus scents and a touch of spice. Brewed 5 minutes!

The brew smelled similar to the dry, but with less punch. I was actually surprised that the grapefruit is not very strong in the taste. I mostly get lemongrass with a citrus accompaniment. It’s a little bit herbaceous from the lemongrass, and there is definitely a peppery note. The spice is there but subtle, just a background flourish.

Overall, I liked this as a caffeine-free night option. The rooibos taste was not strong, and it did not taste medicinal like some rooibos can. Although I don’t really get “tropical” from this… Odd name choice.

Another tea from the July Simple Loose Leaf box! I have pretty limited experience with white teas, and I’ve only ever had the bai mu dan variety, so this is a new one for me. I think shou mei is a lower grade of white tea, right? The leaves look fairly similar to bai mu dan, except there are a ton of stems in there. The leaves themselves are large and very varied in color. There are a few scant flower petals in there, too. It smells sugary sweet and kind of like grape, I guess. Mostly like candy… Not a great sign for me. 200 degrees seems high to me for a white tea, let alone one mixed with green tea. But I did it anyway! 3 minutes.

The brewed tea smells similar to the dry, but much more muted. There’s also some weird aroma that I can’t identify… The taste is kind of meh. I like the taste of the base – it’s kind of like a rougher version of the white tea I’ve had before. There’s that hay flavor, but then there’s also dry leaves and some grassiness from the green tea. I’m not sure that I really get floral, it’s definitely very mild. But the plum flavoring ruins this for me, it tastes like candy (not in a good way) and it has a very weird aftertaste that reminds me a bit of plastic combined with Dimetapp (grape cough syrup basically). It’s improved with a bit of sugar, but it still tastes just plain odd to me. :(

The little green man tea! Yoda is pretty epic, even if he is a little bit overdone in pop culture. The tea is a mix of green tea leaves, dried lemongrass, and bits of dried ginger root. It smells exactly like bread & butter pickles! Side note: my boyfriend looked at me like I was crazy when I called them bread & butter pickles, apparently he had never heard that term before (he calls them sweet pickles). Maybe it’s a more southern thing…? I steeped this twice.

First time, 175 degrees for 3 minutes. The aroma reminds me of the pickles too, just with less of a vinegar scent. The taste is extremely light. The main flavor I get is ginger and cinnamon, and even that is very mild. I taste a hint of lemongrass and then a light vegetal edge at the end. Meh.

Tried again at the recommended 190 degrees and with a little more tea. Came out basically exactly the same. I guess this tea is just a bit light for my tastes…

How does this tea compare to Yoda? Well… There is something about ginger and lemongrass that seems meditative to me, which would make sense. And I can see Master Yoda drinking a green tea, mostly because he has that kind of stereotypical Asian wise man persona. But I think he would want something far more pungent than this… Too weak for such a strong Jedi Master!

Another of my Harney & Sons samples that I ordered a while back. I’ve actually had a dragonwell style tea before, back when I got a lot of tea from Teavana. And I remember it being pretty good! This one has long, flattened leaves that are a light color somewhere in the green/brown/grey spectrum. I see stems attached to some of the leaves. It mostly smells like musty hay and alfalfa with some sweetness. 3 minute steep!

The aroma of this actually reminds me of sencha, in a milder way. It has that grassiness with some alfalfa, but it’s much sweeter-smelling and buttery. The taste has a lot more elements than I expected! It’s quite mild and buttery, and it starts off tasting of hay or dried leaves. There’s definitely a nutty element, but I can’t really place what variety it would be. The end is somewhat grassy and vegetal, maybe a bit of Brussels sprout? Not astringent at all and quite smooth.

Overall, I was surprised at the savoriness of this tea compared to the sweetness of the aroma. Quite nice, in an everyday tea kind of way! :)

Yay my first ever milk oolong! I’ve been pretty excited to try one ever since I found out it was a thing. This one is from Simple Loose Leaf – I chose it as my sample this month and it will be in the August menu. The leaves are a dark, muted yellowish green. They’re rolled up like other green oolongs I’ve seen and the size varies a lot among the pellets. It smells very much like sweet cream flavor. Hmm… I steeped for 3 minutes (the high end of the recommended time).

Yum, it smells delicious. It has kind of a peaches and cream thing going on with a bit of mild floral scent. The taste is not quite as exciting to me as the smell. There’s a definite vegetal note that reminds me of butternut squash, some light sweetness, and a floral touch. The peach shows up as an aftertaste, and it’s so convincing that I wish I could taste it the whole time. I don’t really taste milk in this, although I do get a light creaminess from the squash.

Steeped a second time (also 3 minutes) and I think I like it better this time around. The vegetal side is pretty much gone, and it’s much more fruity and floral now. However, I still don’t get a ton of cream flavor. I added some sugar and it seemed to help, but I feel like something called milk oolong should be creamy without additions.

Overall, it’s pretty good for a green oolong but I don’t know that I would classify it as a milk variety just from the taste. Perhaps it has to be with my brewing it western-style…

Happy 4th of July everyone! I’m sure a lot of you are going to be celebrating with family and friends, having amazing barbecues and such. I will be having a lazy day on the couch, drinking tea, and watching World Cup games with my love. Huzzah! Although barbecued meat does sound amazing…

Anyway, another tea from the July Simple Loose Leaf box! I’ve never had a Ceylon before. Well, not knowingly. The leaves are small and skinny and black, and they smell like musty hay with some malt and a little honey and stonefruit.

The aroma of this one is a bit ho-hum to me. It just smells kind of bready and malty with some light sweetness. At first, tasting this, I didn’t get much out of it. It mostly tasted like malt and bread with some earthiness in there. Disappoint. I added a tiny amount of sugar which helped a bit. Then as it cooled down, I started to get more flavor out of it. It’s quite light-tasting considering its flavor profile, and there are some biscuit or cookie notes with a light apricot and citrus aftertaste. It got more astringent as it cooled too, but I wasn’t horribly bothered because I was so happy to find other flavors!

Added vanilla soymilk at the very end when I had about a quarter cup left and this made it amazingggggg… Tastes very cookie-ish now! :D Take the rating with a grain of salt, I know nothing of Ceylon teas.

I hope everyone’s 4th of July celebrations are amazing! :)

This is from my swap with TeaBrat. Della Terra’s teas are kind of hit-and-miss in my opinion, a lot of times the flavor is quite weak for my tastes. Dry, this looks like a mixture of red rooibos and honeybush with some dried lemongrass and a few pieces of citrus peel. It smells good, although a little heavy on the cream flavoring. It promises to be sweet and lemony! Steeped 5 minutes.

The aroma is quite yummy! It smells lemony and sweet, with an almost marshmallowy edge. The taste, however, is not great. There’s a weak lemon flavor and some sweetness, and then rooibos. Maybe a slight tang from the lime. I don’t really get cream or pastry at all from this. I added some sugar and it improved it a bit, but when I added milk it smothered the flavors instead of making the cream taste come out. Oh well!

I’ve been neglecting my H&S samples a little bit because I keep getting more and more teas in the mail. :P But I was in the mood for a genmaicha so I thought I’d give this one a try! Dry leaf is a mixture of broken-up leaves and a decent amount of toasted rice. There aren’t any popped kernels in my sample. Smells like grass with a little bit of sweetness.

Mmm I love the smell of genmaicha – it promises so much toasty rice flavor! However, this one didn’t deliver well on that. The tea is quite grassy and tastes like dried leaves. I would describe it as rough-tasting. The toasted rice is more of a background note and an aftertaste, which makes me sad because that’s my favorite part! Okay, but not something I would purchase.

Yay, another Star Wars inspired blend! Oh Han, you rascal… :) This seems to be a very chai-like blend. The tea leaves are jet black and there are a ton of cloves mixed in, along with a few pieces of dehydrated ginger. It smells very strongly of clove and ginger, so much so that I can’t really pick up on anything else. Followed the directions and did a 5 minute steep.

Mm, the aroma is very comforting. Clove with a sweet edge, warming cinnamon, and a little hit of ginger. Chai always reminds me of the holidays. :) Clove is definitely the most prominent flavor in this tea, but it’s not overpowering as I expected it to be from the scent. The ginger adds a little bit of sharpness and there’s a lovely warm note from the cinnamon. I don’t know what cardamom tastes like so I can’t comment on that. :P

Next time I think I would use more tea as it tasted a bit thin to me. Would be excellent with milk and sugar!

Is this tea Han? I would say it’s a pretty good representation. A strong man represented by black tea, his mischievous personality in the spicy clove and ginger, and his warm heart in the comforting cinnamon. I wish I would’ve tasted caramel in this to reinforce that aspect. Not bad, Elizabeth O.