Ubacat Send Message

Well, I am working from home today and it’s a good time to try and review some samples I have. I had mixed feelings about trying this tea. I’ve had sticky rice raw pu-erh and found it too strong so I didn’t know what to expect with this one.

I brewed in a cup 2 min at 90C. First sniff. Whoa! Intense! Sticky rice aroma and taste was so strong. I can see why some might love it as it did go along good with the oolong but I’m pretty sensitive to strong aromas or flavours. I tried to get through the cup but I started getting a headache from the super sweet aroma and taste of sticky rice. There’s still more in the sample so if I am brave and decide to give this a second try, I could discard the first infusion and start from the 2nd one which may not be as strong. I don’t want to give this tea a bad review because it is what it is: sticky rice oolong. For those who love a strong sticky rice flavour , you will love this tea.

Sip down on this tea today! Actually I sipped down all the remaining Green Terrace Teas I had this week-end. They were all one year old. All were still good but this one is still as good as the day I got it. A delicious sip down. Will miss this tea but it’s good to take some off the tea list.

Another sample from Christina.

I found this one pleasant enough but sometimes I am in the mood for osmanthus and other times not. When I had this yesterday, I don’t think I was in the mood for it. The osmanthus seemed a little too cloying sweet. I think the green base was a basic green tea but I don’t remember any chestnut or buttery notes from it. It was more on the vegetal or grassy side.

Thanks Christina for the sample!

This was a sample from Christina. Thanks Christina!

I enjoyed this tea at work yesterday. I reminded me of Honesuckle which I love too. It has that honey sweetness to it. After reading Christina’s review on this tea , now I will be on a hunt to find this one in whole leaf form. I ran across some on Mountain Rose Herbs.

I wonder why this tea has the name early spring in it but it’s an autumn tea? Hmmm

Anyway this was in the monthly pkg for November. Brewed some up today (just in my mug and infuser – no gong fu). This is sooo good. I haven’t had a decent bi luo chun for all of 2015. I don’t know why. I had amazing ones in 2014 but 2015 there was nothing that I really loved. I wouldn’t say this one is the best compared to 2014 but it’s the best I’ve tried for 2015!

It has a warm chestnut flavour with a little bit of the mossy notes. It’s the aroma that I love more than anything. Slightly floral & chestnutty.

This tea brewed up darker than I thought it would – a golden yellow. It was slightly fruity with an underlying caramel note. There was a woody and slightly grassy taste to it. A bit different from some other white teas I’ve had but I really enjoyed it.

I am so far behind in my sample tasting. This tea was with the Yunomi group buy and just getting around to trying it now. I brewed it gong fu with the first infusion pretty short (15sec) but am really enjoying it. It doesn’t have that heavy bold taste that some black teas do (that could be in part because of how I brewed it). It’s a bit sweet with a nice malty flavour and a fruity note. It’s weird, but I had a feeling this tea was going to be fruity before I brewed it up or even smelled it. This was my first black Japanese tea too.

The dry leaves of this smelled so good from the bag – a bouquet of fruitiness hit my nose. When I brewed it up, I was in for a surprise. It just didn’t taste the same way it smelled. It has a roasted? flavour. I don’t think yellow tea is roasted so not sure what I was picking up. I didn’t like it very much at all. It didn’t seem to have any of that grassy , buttery flavour I get from greens.

I had the one sample of this tea and brewed it later in the afternoon (after my caffeine intake was already near max). This impacted how I felt about the tea since I was not willing to do many infusions to give this tea a real try. I know many others have loved it but I’ve never loved roasted oolongs a lot. There are a few I do like so not all are excluded.

So when brewing this up it was just okay for me. It didn’t have an over roasted flavour. It was pleasant enough with some fruity notes. I just didn’t love it though so tried a 2nd infusion. It was pretty much the same as the first infusion and I gave up after that.