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After surviving that last batch of samples, I needed to reward myself with a trusted tea so that i could be all (*^◇^)_旦

I sure hope the new Irish Breakfast blend is just as good!

Oh gee, look at all the fancy ratings for this one!! There must be something wrong with mine. What’d you do to it Shmiracles?! lol j/k (^^)

This tastes like a cheap bagged tea with artificial funky caramel flavor. Yuck!

It’s drinkable, but definitely not to my standards.

I sum this one up best as a burley man tea. It’s definitely reminiscent of Thorin, but not the tea for me. Thanks anyway Shmiracles!

Tastes like the end crust of a pie with residual pumpkin. I am surprised that there is even a detectable pumpkin flavor in this, rather than just spice, but it’s artificial tasting. The overall flavor is rather flat and unexciting. Of course, after finding Butiki’s Pumpkin Creme Brulee, I have high standards for pumpkin and spice teas :D Thanks for letting me try this one Shmiracles :-)

I just samples a whole bunch of teas (all from my mystery swap with Shmiracles). As I have a bunch to log now, my notes will be brief.

The dry leaves of this one smell like champagne. I’m really not so into champagne or most alcoholic beverages really. I do pretend to like them when the occasion calls for it or if I really just need the after affect (^^) but that’s about it. I brewed this one tea up anyway, hoping it might taste different than it smells. Oh, sure it does. It tastes like, like, well I don’t really know. Fruity, sure, but the rest? Something in there tastes nasty. Is that the chocolate or the bluebonnets? It doesn’t taste like either, its just a strange flavor mixed in with the fruity. But on the brighter side, it didn’t taste like alcohol (^o^)

I did this gong fu style this time, but I think I liked my western cup better. The shorter infusions brought out more tart and mineral flavors and less savoriness.

1st infusion (after rinse) 5s:
I detect a slight floral aroma and flavor that was lost to the western-brewed cup (this, to me, is the only discernible benefit of short infusions for this tea). It is also vegetal, but not very creamy.

2nd infusion 10s:
stronger vegetal and floral flavor than 1st infusion, still not creamy.

3rd infusion 15s:
the floral characteristics are almost non existent. Still vegetal. Some mineral. This infusion tastes similar to the western-brewed cup of Dong Ding from thepuriTea that I logged the other day.

4th infusion 25s:
vegetal, more mineral, slightly tart

5th infusion 35s:
tart and mineral, mild vegetal.

I ran out of time to go past 5 infusions, but I feel like the savory and creamy aspects that I liked about this tea are lost in the gongfu brewing. The first two infusions were the best, imo. I wonder how it might fair for more steepings. Some other time maybe.

Backlog:

This tasty caramel rooibos comes to me from Shmiracles! yay \^.^/ I brewed it up this afternoon. The caramel is just enough to add a touch of sweet to the rooibos. I think rooibos and I got off to a bad start. The first few rooibos blends I had were not for me at all! Although I’ve discovered that rooibos can be good in the right blend, I still have to be in the right mood for it. . .unless its DavidsTea Birthday Cake blend! I like that one more than this, but hey, can’t be having birthday cakes everyday now can I?

Backlog:

I made this one yesterday when I was sampling a couple of others as well. This one came to me from TastyBrew. Of the three I sampled at the time (incl. Disney Mad Hatter and Java Tea Co Revolutionary) I liked this one the least. I was surprised at how little the rooibos stood out in both this one and in the Revolutionary. In this one, though, it seemed like the caramel flavor was trying too hard to take over and it ended up producing a strange musty flavor. It was still drinkable, but not something I’d want to have again.

I just posted a note for Verdant’s Dong Ding Oolong and I have a cup of this too for comparison. I steeped it for less time than I did before, but I seem to pick up a slight mineral flavor that I only detected in the second steeping last time. I think I only notice it now because I am comparing it with the other tea, so it stands out more (though it could also be because the water temperature was 5 degrees higher than last time). I still like this one and my rating remains the same, but I like Verdant’s a bit better because it is more savory.

Update: I gave my husband samples of both too and he likes this one better than Verdant’s. Guess I’ll be keeping both in my stash now :)

I ordered a sample of this after my husband said he liked Dong Ding Oolong. He previously tried a sample from thepuriTea, and I ordered that one too. I wanted to compare them. They are very similar, but this one doesn’t smell floral at all and it is slightly more savory than thepuriTea one.

Thank goodness that Verdant clarifies the distinction between mainland and Taiwanese Oolongs. So far, the only green Oolongs that I like are from Taiwan and I never made the association before. I really do like a delicate floral aroma (I didn’t used to) but I don’t like floral flavor so much (who knows, maybe my taste for that will develop too). What I really like is savory. yummy. (^o^)