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Golden Moon sample No. 10 of 31. Hard to believe I’m a third of the way through. What a fun ride this is. I’m glad I have 2/3 left to look forward to.

This one is making my pulse rate go up and my palms sweat a bit because it’s another green/black blend. My last GM green/black didn’t go so well and I was disappointed because for those who got the steeping right it seemed to be enjoyable. I think I steeped too hot last time, so this time I’m lowering the temperature. However, I’m still sweating a bit because now I fear I may be shortchanging the black part of the blend.

The dry blend is a mix of colors, shapes and textures that gives it a pleasing look. Bright green flecks of mint, dark brown spears of black tea, little dark green gunpowder spheres, and some brown shapes that are likely the vanilla bean pieces, though they are smaller and not as easily identifiable as in other vanilla flavored teas I have tried. The mint fragrance is similar to that of the Moroccan Mint. It’s those Girl Scout thin mints again! But it’s creamy in a way it wasn’t before, with the addition of the vanilla fragrance. I’m thinking mint ice cream now. There’s also a rich, slightly toasty, slightly malty undertone.

I’m going to try to hit 180 (tricky business with the Zo as it is between settings), and steep for 3 minutes. And dang, I missed it on the way down and on the way up as well. Oh well. I’ll use 175.

A clear, light amber infusion. The vanilla and the mint are evident in the aroma and about equally balanced, though the mint predominates slightly. There’s an intermittent cocoa note and a somewhat toasty green one as well.

Ah. This is better than my last green/black attempt. There is no harsh sensation in the back of my throat. I do notice the back of my throat while drinking this which is unusual and which is no doubt resulting from the power of suggestion. I wish I didn’t notice it, but I can’t be sure it’s the tea causing me to. The tea is minty tasting with a softness to it that must be the effect of the vanilla. There is also a sweet, “dark green” flavor from the gunpowder that is most evident in the finish. The black tea may be contributing to the sweetness as well.

Second steep with slightly hotter water, about F183 degrees. This is definitely more in the ballpark of the correct steeping temperature for this. The flavor is richer all around at this temperature, and the black tea is speaking up and contributing some maltiness in a way it wasn’t at 175.

I like this well enough, but I am not sure I’d need both this and the Moroccan Mint in my cabinet at the same time or whether they are similar enough that one would do. I’d really like to try them side by side to see.

I’m in the mood for chai. Simply because it’s near me. Funny, but when it’s near me, I’m in the mood for chai.

This was actually on the big side as far as my (free, thanks!) Herbal Infusions samples have gone. It’s enough for 1+ cups of tea. But it isn’t quite half a tablespoon, so I’m leery of trying to make it on the stovetop. Instead, I’m planning to steep like a black tea and then add some milk/sweetener.

The vanilla note in the dry leaf mixture is striking and very appealing. The others in the stable of chai spices smell like their comforting selves.

Once made into chai, this has an interesting note that stands out in both the aroma and the taste. It’s not vanilla, it’s something else. Time to take a look at the ingredients and try to figure out what it is. Here they are, according to the web site: Premium black tea, calendula petals, chopped and powdered ginger, cardamon, coriander, cinnamon, cloves, black pepper, natural flavors

I’m thinking it must be either a flavor added by the calendula petals, or coriander that I’m tasting because those are the only two ingredients that don’t seem necessarily common to most of the other chais I have tasted. I suppose it could also be vanilla, on second thought. Though it’s not the vanilla flavor I’ve experienced in other teas. It’s almost fig-like.

Notice something else about those ingredients? I suppose one of the natural flavors is vanilla, because there isn’t anything else identified as vanilla in the mix.

So here’s where I’m coming out. It’s better than the Numi chais I’ve tasted because the spices are stronger and hold up to milk (and the black pepper probably single handedly accomplishes that and is missing from the Numi). It’s about on a par with the Tazo chai, maybe slightly better, and perhaps would be significantly better if prepared via stovetop method. But as prepared today, it’s not as interesting a mix of flavors as the Golden Moon pu erh chai I had earlier today and it’s not as smooth and near perfect as Samovar’s. Good, with perhaps a potential for greatness.

Golden Moon sample No. 9 of 31. I’d picked this out after the Orchid Temple but had to wait until today, when I have stove access during caffeine-safe hours, to put it through its paces.

I used the stovetop method LENA described here: http://steepster.com/discuss/25-chai

I made a slight modification, which is that I didn’t boil five minutes after adding the milk. I just brought it to a boil, removed from heat, covered and steeped for 10 minutes, a la the instructions on the Samovar Masala Chai sample. I did this because my stove must run pretty hot. The water boiled completely away before 10 minutes were up, and fortunately I walked into the kitchen in time to save the project from disaster. So I think my personal recipe is going to have to be “boil 10 minutes or until water evaporates.” Either that or try more of a simmer than a boil.

Anyway about this tea. I calculated that I had enough in the sample for 3/4 of a cup of chai, so I used 3/4 tbsp sweetener, 3/4 cup water and 3/4 cup 1% milk.

When the sample came out of the mylar vest, it smelled deliciously spicy. Cinnamon and cardomom. Just the slightest, earthy pu erh scent. This changed during boiling. The pu erh came out in the aroma. This pu erh smell didn’t strike me as leathery so much as mossy, wet tree bark or maybe leafy soil. It kicked in shortly after the boiling started, then just as quickly resolved and retreated, and back came the spices as the primary aroma.

The chai has a dark aroma owing to the pu erh. It’s gingerbready, but also vaguely chocolatey.

The taste is interesting. It’s chewy, but because of the pu erh it strikes me as a little rough around the edges. Not in a bad way, mind you. It makes this a less sweet, somewhat earthy drink, but with chai’s spicy creaminess. There’s depth and complexity to the flavor — I’m getting some coffee notes and some chocolate notes. I could see being in the mood for this on a cold rainy day. It doesn’t replace my top choice, but it’s a nice sometimes alternative.

I wonder how it would taste using the Samovar method of adding a spoon of black tea to it? Or would it be more appropriate to add a spoon of loose pu erh?

Another sample that came with my order. I’m knocking back a few of the decaf ones given the time it has gotten to be.

The handwritten label on the sample says “Rooibos Chaman” rather than Chammann, which is the name given on the web site. Now, I couldn’t find a translation of Chammann, but Chaman, it turns out, is shaman (or sorceror or mage). I really was joking when I made that crack about The de Druids (Druid’s Tea), something to the effect of “do they have tea of the shaman, mage, warlock [fill in your World of Warcraft class here].” Now I’m thinking, I bet Guillaume Leleu is in a raiding guild in his spare time. It’s just too much of a coinkidink.

Anyway. Vanilla rooibos, indeed. It’s a nice one. There’s a certain intensity to the vanilla that fulfills what has become my primary criterion for acceptable flavored rooibos — that the rooibos flavor be secondary to the flavoring agent. As secondary as possible, without disappearing altogether. It’s the vanilla that stays with when the sip is done, not the rooibos. I like that about this tisane.

And I also like the name. Back in my WoW days my main was a whammy shammy, so I feel like this one’s for moi.

Dor-o-thee, The-o-dor. Cute, isn’t it? Almost like a palindrome but not.

I got this as a sample with an embarrassingly large order I placed with The O Dor that arrived last week. I believe it to be what I wrote in the description, though the envelope containing the sample said “Mel. Dorothee.” I searched the The O Dor site and found no other product with Dorothee in the name.

In my sample, there are a ton of dried cherries. And hibiscus blossoms. And one thing that looks kind of like a dried banana chip. I don’t see any pineapple. I’m finding that samples are iffy things. Often, it seems, it’s just the luck of the scoop that you don’t get all of the ingredients in so small of a container. What I did have was gorgeous, though. Mostly various shades of dark magenta between the flowers and the cherries.

It brews to that same dark magenta color and smells of cherries and hibiscus (not surprising since that is mostly what’s in it). Here’s what I thought was interesting. Though I didn’t do a side by side, its look and smell reminded me pretty strongly of Tazo’s Passion.

It tastes much like Passion as well, even to the point of taking on a no-sugar-added grape juice flavor when sweetened up a bit. It is somewhat less tart than I recall Passion being, which is a plus — maybe that is the influence of the pineapple and banana flavoring agents. But I can’t help but wonder whether it’s really supposed to taste like this, or whether it is supposed to have a more tropical flavor, and whether a different sample, or a scoop from a full tin, would taste differently. I’m going to reserve rating since I can’t retest to verify my results.

I may have to order some just to find out, though given the humongoid nature of my most recent order I suspect it will be a while before I place another.

Had to run to the store for something on the way to work this morning and there was a Starbucks next door, so I decided to try AmazonV’s “no water” suggestion. Yum. The more I have this the more I like it. Nice blend of spices that takes the milk just right. It’s the same comforting feeling as drinking hot cocoa. It isn’t in the same league of chewy and nommy as the Samovar, but on the other hand one can’t just run into the (every) corner Starbucks and get the Samovar Masala Chai. Life is full of such trade offs. Bumping the rating a hair.

Lemon tea, very pretty! Ok, I know it’s an herbal blend but I had Peter, Paul and Mary bouncing against the inside of my brain repeatedly and I had to let them out.

It’s a pretty mixture that smells more than anything else like fresh hay. There’s really not a lemon scent until it steeps, and then it’s a very gentle aroma, neither tart nor sweet, with a bit of a cookie reminder to it. I have had lemon cookies that are a very intense lemon flavors and those that are just a whisper. This is the latter.

The tisane is a peachy color, and its taste is quite different from other lemon blends I’ve had that had a heavier fruit content, and also quite different from the original lemon I’ve been looking to upgrade from, Bigelow’s I Love Lemon.

The H&S is a quiet, subdued, smooth lemon. It tastes refined (not in the processing sense, in the deportment sense). It doesn’t shout about its lemonness. It’s less like lemonade and more like… something else. Liquid lemon whisper cookies.

It’s not soapy, it’s not too tart. It doesn’t require sweetening up. It’s also not really sweet. It actually has something that hints at bitterness around the edges, but dissipates as soon as you start to really think about it.

The thing that keeps it from being my perfect lemon is exactly what makes it so good. The perfect lemon I had in mind isn’t this quiet.

While it may not be perfect, it is definitely a fine alternative. Maybe there isn’t a single perfect lemon after all. Maybe there are a number of almost perfect lemons that can become part of a rotation.

I’m going to work my way through this sample to be sure I don’t change my mind about this one (I’m still a little spooked on the lemon front from my myrtle experience), but if it continues to taste as it did tonight, it’ll become a staple as a quieter alternative to the Teavana Strawberry Lemonade.

I was thinking that the leaves looked a lot different from most oolongs I’ve had and then I read on the description here that this is a mix of oolong, black and green tea. Holy infusion temperature/steeping time confusion, Batman! Out of an abundance of caution I’m going to start with an infusion on the short side.

There’s a shortcakey smell to the dry leaves which must be the “hints of berry jam.” The other scent I’m getting is more spice than floral. Let’s see how it steeps up.

Tawny color, with hues of orange from the black tea and green from the green tea and yellow from the oolong. It smells like berries!

The taste is interesting. It’s got a thicker mouthfeel than I expected, with a moderate amount of astringency. The black tea is pretty prominent in the taste, but I can parse out the oolong as well. It adds a dab of butter, and is no doubt responsible for the softness. The green. Hmm. Yeah, I do think I can detect that too. It’s a fresh, higher note. The berry hops around a bit. It’s not a strong, uniform flavor, but it does pop up in the aftertaste like a little starburst of sweet fruit. The tea didn’t change much through three infusions and the berry flavor was present throughout.

It’s unusual and I appreciate its ambition. I enjoyed drinking it. It isn’t immediately grabbing me by the collar and shouting that I must order it, but it isn’t outside of the realm of possibility. I just want to shop around a bit first, maybe try that raspberry oolong Angrboda likes so much and some others before I commit.

Golden Moon sample No. 8 of 31. I was glad that my random selection today was an oolong. I was in the mood for one. I can already tell I’m not likely to stop at one oolong today.

The dry leaves are very green, ranging from a dark forest color to a much lighter yellow green. Some stems are present. The leaves are tightly curled, almost in little balls. Their fragrance isn’t strong; they smell a little grassy, with a slight bit of toastiness (not nearly as as much as more oxidized oolongs often have). There’s a hint of a floral note, but it isn’t anywhere near as intense, or as beautiful, as that of the Life In Teacup An Xi Tie Guan Yin Grade II modern green style.

Liquor is pale yellow with a green tinge, very like that of many green teas. The aroma is unusual. It is floral, but… it unfortunately reminds me of the floral smell of some dishwashing liquids. It has a soapy undertone.

Thankfully, there is no soap in the taste. I do get a little bit of butter, a little bit of cream, and some floral taste on the first steep.

Second steep: 3:30 min. Color is a deeper yellow, aroma is still a little soapy, but it seems to be less now. Flavor has a more toasty, vegetal quality now. Not as heavy on the butter. There is a mild floral sweetness as well.

Third steep: 4 min. Less toasty, more vegetal, about the same buttery, about the same floral.

Fourth steep: 4:30 min. Not toasty, less vegetal, more buttery, more floral.

Fifth steep: 5:00 min. Sigh. I’m not going to do a fifth steep. I’m just not liking this enough to do another one. :-(

On a positive note, I love how wet oolong leaves look. When they unfurl, they are quite dramatic looking. It’s the same effect as those little gelatin capsules kids drop in water, and as they dissolve animals made of sponge come out that are four or five times the size of the capsule. It makes steeping somewhat unpredictable, though, since you never know whether the leaves are going to outgrow the filter when you start. (Are those oolong leaves in your filter or are you just glad to see me?) These were no exception. Wet, they are grand, majestic things that have expanded to take up about four times as much room in the filter as when they started. Olive green, with interesting serrated edges.

In all, I’m unlikely to order this one. It doesn’t bowl me over. It doesn’t even show enough promise that I want to give it another chance. I don’t find the aroma appealing, it doesn’t do anything special for me in terms of mouth feel. And it isn’t as flavorful as others I’ve had, nor does it have the character of some I’m currently enamored of.

I’m a little sad about it as I was hoping to discover another favorite. C’est la vie.

Another of those confusing black and green blends. What temperature? How long? Wish: that sexy Breville tea maker will have the right setting for something like this and take all the guesswork out of it. Getting to experiment = fun. Having to guess = not so fun.

I chose to go with three minutes and fairly hot water. I’ve mostly been making this tea at work anyway, where I have little control over water temp and less control over steeping time. I get distracted easily by work while at work and tend to oversteep. Which is as it should be (the distraction part, not the oversteeping part). :-)

Before I did, though, I sniffed the bags. I could smell the cucumber and something spicy. It took a minute for it to click, then I realized what spicy cucumbers are… pickles! Yeah. Pickle smell. I like pickles, but I’m not sure how I feel about them in tea. Seems like next year’s 52 Teas April fools joke waiting to happen.

The pickle smell becomes less prominent with steeping, perhaps because the peach fragrance emerges. It isn’t strong, but it seems to snatch whatever was making the bags smell pickley away from the cucumber aroma and renders it fresher smelling as well.

Flavor-wise, this is fairly unremarkable. There is a fresh note to it from the cucumber, and a slight sweetness, but not a lot else going on (not even pickle). It has a moderate amount of astringency.

I am considering two adjustments. 1. Lower water temperature, and 2. Sweetening it up a tad. I wonder what adding honeybush would do?