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Amazing. When brewed at the lower temps. it makes a big difference. I find that around 180 F is right for me. This tea is bold and great for cold days! I love Kusmi for this tea!

I have been off tea for the past few days but now I’m back! gah! I’m having tv withdrawal as I just finished Battlestar Galactica. But in lieu of upcoming due dates I’m having this cup as a wake up call.
This tea is very powerful in the smell department. This sometimes has been a good thing and sometimes a bad tea. It often gets passed over my hubby and me simply b/c you really have to be in the mood for it.
The flavor is just Christmas. It’s spice/citrus/cookie all the way! I think that this tea, although tasty, could never hold a permanent spot in my cupboard. This is simply because although it is tasty, the mood for it rarely comes up.

A really great tea! I was feeling down and so this is my late night pick-me-up. I really appreciate how much information was given on this tea package. I think that it was nice to have exact information about the distributor/steep times/etc.
Something that I was reading on another forum about was an idea that I’m trying to encompass. I know that some teas can be steeped over and over again, but at some point they really do loose that pizzazz. I think that I’m going to be more cautious with steep times and temp. so I can narrow down when I should continue re-using leaves.

After a very long and awesome day at school I thought I’d sit down to my now 5th steep of this tea (still going strong!). I am wondering if anyone else thinks that this smells slightly of cheese? Or at least butter. This is my 2nd experience with milk oolong and I’m glad that they were so wildly different. :) The 1st one was by Teavivre.
This milk oolong has much more of a milk taste instead of Teavivre’s more floral liquor. They are both very good in their own special ways.
For this one I noticed that the smell is just a bit stronger; it hits you right when you open the bag. The flavor itself is very buttery. This was the perfect tea to drink during the snow recently! I have to admit that even though I’ve now had 5 cups of this that I still haven’t really given the flavor too much nitpicking because you know what? I drink it too fast. This really tells me something. A+ tea.

So this is my tea break of the day; I’m trying to get through all this reading…It really never ends. This was a very generous sample provided by Teavivre! :)
I’ve had an interesting relationship with jasmine. It’s not always my favorite because of its very heady aroma. This one would not disappoint true jasmine fans! It is beautifully rolled and I can almost taste it as I open the bag. My first steep did not fully unfurl the leaves of these pearls. There is also a very deeply complex smell to this jasmine.
The liquor itself is very light and the taste is actually much more subdued (a good point for me!). I put less leaf into this because of my slight jasmine phobia. I actually really enjoyed this one. It’s not overly floral; most of this flavor hits my palate on the end of a sip. I think that this could be the jasmine that changes my ideas of what jasmine tea should be.
edit I’m now on my 3rd steep of this tea and I’m surprised by its ability to last. I’m quite sure that a 4th and at least a 5th steep could be taken from these leaves. This would be a great tea for the penny-pinching-jasmine loving-poor college student. :p lol

This is another sample that I received from Teavire. Today is an overcast and rainy day that feels perfect for relax style homework and tea! I’m eating peaches while drinking this and the pairing works wonderfully.
This tea is the most floral of the Tie Guan Yins that I’ve tried (Rishi, Chinese Tea Shop, Teavivre). It really hits you on the end of a sip and mid palate. It pairs really well with fruit! The mouth feel on this is very light and more mellow than crisp.
The liquor at first was actually kind of surprising because it is very light, closer to some of the whites that I’ve sampled.
This was an excellent Tie Guan Yin. I find that the more floral/sweet notes are what I seek in this style of tea. I would recommend this for oolong newbies any day! For me this is my 2nd favorite oolong (after milk oolong). I think if I had to rate the 3 Tie Guan Yins according to how I felt it would go: Chinese Tea Shop/Teavivre as a tie with Rishi’s coming in 2nd. This is simply because the Rishi one tends to be more on the strong wheat/barley flavor profile as opposed to floral/vegetal.

I have to thank Teavivre for this very generous sample! I asked for this tea specifically and I’m so glad I did! The dry leaves are beautiful and fragrant. Today I’ve been mostly sleeping as I guess I am coming down with something; so I’m pretty lucky to even be awake for this!
The liquor is so fresh! It does have that kind of Botan candy flavor, some vegetal sides, some fruit (easily peachy) and just is wonderful. This was my first experience with milk oolong and I think it has risen to the #1 spot! :) I’m very impressed by this tea’s ability with flavor. It really stands out and is not weak at all.
I could easily see myself recommending this to oolong lovers and new commers to more traditional teas alike; excellent!
edit I’m now on my 3rd infusion of this tea. The flavor on this is very long lasting. I did this infusion at boiling/2min and it’s still very robust and I am going to keep going! I’m noticing that this tea is especially fruity alongside the milky-ness. This adds a lot to the flavor profile. love
final opinion: after 5 infusions (semi Western style here) at 2-3min/boiling/extra leaf 7oz ceramic teapot
Very solid, almost sweet, peachy, milky awesomeness! This also has HUGE leaves!

This is some funky smelling stuff! lolol I don’t drink it much because it really is just a strange tea. This is kinda lemony; I guess more in a lemon cookie or pie shell or something. It’s lacking the major citrus bite that I was expecting from something labeled “lemon.” I like this a lot, despite the weirdness. I can’t say that this would be my highest recommendation from Adagio, but worth the sample.

Thanks DJ Booth for sharing this one with me! I’m sitting here on this particularly gloomy day trying to get a whole slew of homework done! (when am I not doing homework?) I’m trying to relax a bit and have a mid-day snack of this and pumpkin spice trail mix from Target; that stuff is magical (woot for clearance food! LOL) I have to say that I think I should have had this when it was warmer.
From the dry leaf I was expecting this to be a bit more like the 4 Red Fruits from Kusmi. Although that pit fruit flavor is there on the end of the sip there is something a bit more distracting on the start. It’s very fruity without being overtly sweet or tart; a welcome change to the Teavana blends I’ve been downing.
I think that the only downside to this is I don’t really “get” the rooibos in this blend. It seems like the oolong leaves are nice and big; flavorful to boot. I say ditch the rooibos!