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This is a really smooth. It just slips down your throat like liquid silk. The flavor is autumnal and reminiscent of leaf littered forest floor. In between sips, I can taste something fruity lingering in my mouth. It’s peachy or somewhat berry like. I don’t really taste the honey that the official description talks about. I’ve had other Bai Hao where the honey flavor is really strong. Here, it is hard to taste. Still, this tea tastes very good. It’s not entirely my style though.

Excuse my rambling and somewhat disorganized review. I’m very tired. :)

Had this again today. Liking it a lot less. The green tea base tastes totally off. I did make it stronger because I wanted a stronger mango flavor. I guess the flavors in this tea aren’t well balanced. sad.

Finished the last of this today. So tasty and comforting. I maybe really have to consider buying this. I just looked at Rishi’s website and the price really is quite reasonable! But I mustn’t buy anything until I drink down these teas!

Also, don’t you hate when you’re eating your apple with a bit of peanut butter only to find that your apple is eaten but the peanut butter keeps finding its way into your mouth? Mmmm, peanut butter….

heeey! This is pretty good! This is another David’s Tea that I was convinced I didn’t need to try. Then came all those gushing reviews. Ack! The first day I went to pick up a sample of this, it was completely sold out. Apparently, it was sold out within three days. Three days! How does NYC already have such a huge DT following? There must be a ton of Canadian expats or something. But anyway, they finally restocked and I snagged a 1 oz sample size.

I just used all of it to make one potful with 4.5 cups of water. Clearly, one would need quite a bit of dry tea to keep up a Tropicalia habit. I plan to chill this pot and drink it tomorrow. :) Even though the weather has cooled down enough now that it’s possible to drink hot teas, I feel that this one would benefit from a chilling. I am sampling a bit of it hot now, just to see how it is.

I must admit, the brewed tea looks disturbingly like soup. It’s a rich yellow-y orange and there’s a nice layer of oil floating on top. I’m sure it’s from the coconut, so I’m not worried, but man, this looks like soup! I expect to stir it up a bit and find onion pieces in there. Speaking of which, I ate some of the tea after brewing. the little pineapple bits were the best! :)

This tea is surprisingly sweet all by itself. I suspect it’s all the dried fruit pieces. I can definitely taste the apple and the pineapple with a yummy coconut richness in the background. This also reminds me a bit of amaretto. Just a bit, but enough to convince me that a splash of amaretto would be amazing. maybe with a bit of sugar and cream. The tea person that sold me this said he liked it with Bacardi. I’m sure that would be great too. :)

My only complaint? You need too much tea to make your drink. I probably won’t be getting more of this.

I’ll rate this once I’ve had it chilled. For now, it’s time to make dinner!

At first, I wasn’t too keen on trying this one, but the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to taste it. I actually love the Mexican treatment of mangoes with a bit of salt, lime juice and hot sauce. It’s sweet and tangy and hot and very refreshing! Hopefully, this tea will capture that deliciousness.

Brewed, it smells mostly like mango. I’m not sure what kind of green it is, but the savory aroma makes me thing Chinese. I could be wrong. The peppers might be messing with me. The taste of this is only lightly mango. I’m actually a bit disappointed in how light the mango flavor is. As you swallow, the spiciness burns a bit going down. Very nice! I happen to be a fan of spicy food. (One of my favorite snacks is toast with avocado and a healthy drizzle of sriracha) I would say that the spicy level here is just right for a tea. Hotter and you’d lose the mango. THis is a good balance. But again, this is coming form a spicy lover. I can imagine some people finding this too spicy. On the other hand, my spicy loving friend would probably enjoy this. :)

Overall, quite a nice tea. It’s different from any other tea I’ve tried but it’s very enjoyable. Next time, I think I’ll use more leaf to see if I can make the mango pop a little more. Maybe I’ll even try a bit of lime juice and sugar to make this taste more like that yummy Mexican mango thing!

Okay! I’m starting with my Fong Mong samples today! I picked this one out as a variety I haven’t tried before. The little leaf nuggets are smaller than the green oolongs I’ve had before. And they smell so floral and good! Like sun dried grass and lilacs. Mostly lilacs. I think.

I see that the instructions say to steep for 6 minutes. Eep. That’s a long time isn’t it? Maybe it’s for western steeping. I’m doing my usual gong fu style so I think I’ll do it my own way for now.

First steep: mmm… lightly floral. There’s a bit of something like cooked summer squash. There’s a light fresh sweetness with a clean finish. This might be a winner as a cold brewed tea. This tea definitely tastes like summer harvest vegetables to me.

Second Steep: More floral and lightly vegetal. It’s delicate and sweet. Vaguely fruity. I can’t place that fruitiness. Maybe a subtropical fruit of some sort. This tea is really impressive so far. The smell and flavor makes me think of a garden of fragrant blooms and fresh summer squash.

Third & fourth Steep: I combined these two. It’s getting a bit more vegetal now, but the floral character is still very strong! This tea is well named! It’s still very light and refreshing. Hmm..I think I’m detecting something like apple skin. It doesn’t leave any lingering dryness or creaminess or thickness on the tongue like other teas do. It is, however, smooth and comforting going down. Very very good.

Steep five: I spilled some tea on my pants. Now I smell awesome. :) The veggie and floral flavors seem to reach an equilibrium in this infusion. Still tastes light, fresh and lovely. I’m beginning to tire of this tea though. Ah, my fickle tastebuds.
The leaves have also opened up quite a bit now. They smell fantastic! Like the best smelling blossoms ever grown. And this is why I will always love green oolongs.

I’m going to save these leaves for later. Judging from their appearance, I can probably get one more steep from them, at least.

Having the last of this sample from Azzrian today. I don’t know why, but I was craving a bolder tea this morning. Maybe it’s because I’ve been drinking so many herbals, fruity flavored things, oolongs and greens. I need something different! Plus I went out to dinner last night and it was a sort of pre-fixe that came with coffee/tea and dessert. The only tea they had was lipton. Sigh. I can’t believe I used to be ok with lipton. Then I moved up to Bigelow and Twinings. SO much better! and now, looseleaf!

This tea is great. First steep is a bit harsh. I added sugar. To be honest, the second steep is probably the best. It’s mellow and smooth and chestnutty. Perfect.

I really should be getting to the new teas and samples I have. I have too many! But I really wanted this tea today. It’s perfect. I might even start drinking black tea because of this! I know I’m already a fan of DT’s Butter Rum. I really don’t need to start liking another category of tea! Luckily, Pu-erh and I still aren’t BFFs. Green oolong will probably hold that title for life!

I feel suddenly compelled to get one of those two part necklaces that say “Best Friends” that fit together like puzzle pieces and give half to my green oolong collection.

…that’s it. I’m officially crazy.

I cold brewed a large pitcher of this a few days ago. The flavor is much sweeter and melon-y than hot brewed. It even gives that slightly prickly feeling in the back of the throat the real sweet ripe melons seem to! I have barely enough for a cup. I’m going to miss this when it’s gone. Slighty chocolatey and so fruity! It’s a wonderful tea hot or cold.

I stopped by David’s Tea today to pick up some stuff for a friend who lives overseas. I also used this opportunity as an excuse to pick up some samples of stuff I’ve been wanting to try. They finally got those teas I wanted back in stock! Yaaaay! And since Steepster has been acting better lately, you’ll likely be seeing my thoughts on those teas soon!

After chatting with my tea helper and sniffing teas, I got a bit thirsty. So I ordered this iced to go. It’s only ok. While the icy cold drink was very refreshing on a hot moist day, the flavor was only so so. The peach was too candy-like for my taste and the oolong was a bit too grassy and metallic. It wasn’t bad, but it didn’t taste like high quality oolong either. And there’s supposed to be some almond in here? Hmm…didn’t really notice.

I don’t regret this tea. I’m happy i tried it, but I have better things waiting for me.

Also, if I lived or worked closer to David’s Tea, I’d be all over their iced tea promo! $1 iced teas all summer long if you bring in their own special travel cup. The cup is $9ish. Tempting…veeery tempting….

Edit: looking at my receipt, I suddenly realized that I got this iced tea for free! That’s so awesome! What’s the trigger for a free tea to go? Thank you so much, tea person!

I cold brewed this for approximately 24 hours. It tastes old, understandably. I think this was blended over a year ago. Also, I can no longer recall who sent this to me in a swap. I am so sorry! Whoever you are, thank you!

Aside from the aged leaf flavor, this is actually quite a tasty tisane. I think green rooibos is way better than red. I also think honeybush is way better than rooibos. So green honeybush? Way awesome! I think the base is a great accompaniment to the watermelon flavors. This isn’t the sweet red core of a watermelon, but the melon closer to the rind. Less sweet, but more refreshing. Either way, very watermelony. Exactly what I needed after tromping around town doing errands in hot humid weather.

I’m now considering Frank’s latest watermelon blend, but I think that one is a red honeybush. Hmm… It probably won’t be as refreshing. Naaah. I just got a sample size of David’s Tea’s Luscious Watermelon. Hopefully that one will be good enough to replace this tea. Frank certainly has the fresh watermelon flavoring down. I suspect David’s will be more candy-like, which I wouldn’t prefer, but we will see.