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I’ve only had one variant of Earl Grey ever and that was Teavana’s Earl Grey Creme a couple years back. And the only vanilla tea I’ve drunk was from Bigelow . This one smells soooo good. Vanilla works incredibly well with bergamot. I smelled the leaves while they were steeping and thought, “I could go for some vanilla cupcakes now.” First I drank the tea straight. I tasted the base tea – malty, astringent – and bergamot flavoring more than the vanilla, which takes over in the aftertaste. With milk and sugar, the malt and bergamot disappear, so it’s like drinking plain vanilla-flavored tea. I like this tea both ways, but I just love the vanilla more. I need to save this for autumn. It’d be even more comforting then.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand it’s my 100th tasting note! Woohoooo!! It took me sometime to choose a tea and then I remembered receiving a couple samples of dragonwell from Teavivre’s reviewing contest.

Brewed Dragonwell style.

I could never tire of a good Dragonwell. This is one in which you can’t stop sticking your nose into the packet to savor the aroma of the dry leaf, which smells of ocean and seaweed and fresh vegetables. The liquor is crisp, somewhat thick, and full-bodied, with sweet vegetal notes. Aftertaste is nutty, mostly almonds. Also, the leaf has a lovely color – fresh, bright green – and steeps beautifully in a glass tumbler.

Last one to try from the Unflavored TTB!

Method: gongfu with a gaiwan. 10 second rinse. Steeping times: 5, 5, 10, 10, 15, 20, 30, 60.

The aroma of the wet leaf evolved. Piping hot, it smelled of earth and bitter chocolate. After cooling a bit, chocolate-covered fruit: pomegranate, acai, strawberry, banana… And after cooling even more, raisins galore! Purple raisins. The liquor was rusty red, clear, and full-bodied. I tasted earth, coffee, and some chocolate mostly. Around the third and fourth infusions it had a thick mouthfeel and was more coffee-like This pu’erh didn’t last long – it pooped out after only the fifth infusion. Overall, especially taste-wise, it was ok.

Story time! My mom and her coworkers, who work in NYC, occasionally go out to lunch. They went to a Japanese restaurant yesterday and had a mysterious tea with their meal. This morning, I finally told her that that tin of “Yunnan black tea” she bought for me from Chinatown nearly two years ago was actually ripe pu’erh, and then I showed her this tea. She said that’s exactly what she had at the restaurant, recognizing the coffee smell and color resemblance. Everyone had doubted if what they drank really was tea. The waitress said it was but didn’t say what kind, and her Japanese coworker, who loves drinking tea, said with a straight face that it was Japanese tea. (lol we think he didn’t want to admit he didn’t know). I joked that you never know what tea you’re going to get at a Japanese or Chinese restaurant in America. I NEVER got pu’erh before though.

From the Unflavored TTB.

Gongfu method with a gaiwan. Steeping times: 15, 15, 20, 20, 30, 45, 60, 120.

The dry and wet leaf aromas are buttery and floral. When the leaves steeped for the second infusion I could smell cinnamon (this went away afterward). The first infusion is clear in texture, and I mostly taste salt and butter. Following that, the liquor becomes creamier and more floral, which overtakes the butter flavor during the latter infusions.

This is my third milk oolong. I’m positive that this kind of tea doesn’t do anything for me. It’s not bad per se, but…“meh.” The first infusions each time weirded me out – salt?? Artificial taste?? Even though I liked this one the most of the three, I’m not rating because I don’t want to skew the number. (leaving that to people who actually like and can compare milk oolongs)

From the Unflavored TTB.

Method: Test tube steeper. 1st infusion 5 minutes, 2nd 10 minutes.

First I was surprised that the steeping instructions recommended a five-minute infusion. Then I was surprised to see that the leaves were rolled and looked similar to a lightly oxidized oolong. These were perfect to watch in the test tube steeper. Their color change from lightly brown and muted dark green to a green that look alive as the plants in the backyard garden.

I think this one was beginning to fade – I didn’t get much from the dry leaf aroma. The wet leaf aroma has notes of seaweed and rice. The liquor is pale yellow-green and clear. Texture is creamy. Medium-bodied with sweet corn and floral flavors. The aftertaste is citrus-y and kind of prickly. A very interesting green tea.

From the Unflavored TTB.

No yixing teapot of my own, so ceramic it is! 5 second rinse. Steeping times: 10, 10, 15, 20, 30, 45, 60, 120.

I’m inexperienced with shu pu-erh. So what did I get? Mostly EARTH. All around. The wet leaf aroma, however, also contained gentle notes of plums and grapes. Such a lovely combination! I kept sticking my nose into the bowl.

At first the color of the liquor was copper, which then deepened to dark orange. The intensity of the flavor throughout the session was basically shaped like a percentile graph. The first infusion was light-bodied and a little astringent, and the earth was muted. The second and third infusions were more developed: full-bodied, flavorful with coffee and bitter notes. These notes in subsequent infusions became softer, and inevitably weakened.

I like this. I wish I were more experienced to get more than just earth and coffee. Also, I think I prefer shu to sheng (is that weird?). Mostly for the taste, but especially for the effect. As soon as I finished the first infusion I felt as if this tea were giving me a hug. And then halfway through the session I felt serene yet energetic. Every time I heard the water boil for the next infusion I ran to the sauce pan like a puppy.

“Weeeeeeeeeeeeeee I like teeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeea”

From the Unflavored TTB.

Prepared with a test tube steeper.

Dry leaf aroma is vegetal and salty. Wet leaf aroma has notes of fresh beans, spinach and Brussels sprouts. The liquor is pale green and medium-bodied, and tastes of beans and snow peas, simultaneously bitter and sweet. At first the texture is clear but slowly becomes creamy.

The tea didn’t survive past the third infusion, after which it tasted stale. The Laoshan greens I’ve had before were able to go up to six, but I suppose this one doesn’t travel very well for long. Regardless, I chose to rate, keeping the tea’s potentiality in mind.

I found the most enjoyable part of drinking this tea, actually, was watching the leaves in the test tube steeper while they were being steeped. They looked alive as if they were never dried. Also, after the first infusion the color changed from minty green to fresh garden green, the color of asparagus.

I should have waited until summer was over to open the packet, but I’m at the point in which I’m anxious for autumn to arrive (I miss you 3/4 of the year, my favorite season). As I soon as I cut the seal: “Faaaaall!” It smells really great! Made me want an actual caramel apple even though I preferred the candied kind. I couldn’t taste any caramel in the liquor, just the apple. This apple flavor quite sour and overpowered the base, a medium-roasted oolong, so it seemed like I was drinking – albeit very thin – hot apple cider. I’ve been drinking so many “pure” teas this past half year that my liking of flavored teas has gone down, but I enjoy this one!

From the UnflavoredTTB.

Brewed with a red clay kyusu. First infusion: 175°, 60 seconds. Second: 195°, 30 seconds. Third: 205°, 15 seconds. Forth: 205°, 15 seconds.

I reviewed this tea before, when I ordered the sampler. Thought I’d give it another go since I haven’t had it for more than year. I couldn’t smell the dry leaf very well – might have been due to the ziplock baggie – but the wet leaf aroma has strong buttery, squash, and spinach notes. The leaves are dark green and short, many broken up (not due to traveling, as I remember from the sampler packet). They produce neon green liquor which contains leaf particles, has a thick texture, and is full-bodied, flavorful, and wonderfully bitter and vegetal. If you’re interested in trying Japanese greens or want to get a general idea of how sencha tastes, I point to this tea.

From the Unflavored TTB.

Brewed Western style. The dry leaf aroma has grassy, honeydew, and cantaloupe notes, while hay appears and is most prominent in the wet leaf aroma. The pale green-yellow liquor has a light body, and is delicate and airy, smooth, and clean, tasting of sweet grass. I am inexperienced with rarely drink white tea, so no rating for this one. Nonetheless, I still think it’s good – much sweeter than white teas I’ve tried before, has a “head in the clouds effect”. It was a pleasure to finally have a tea from Malawi, and a white tea from Africa. Thank you, Single Origin Teas!