English Tea Store

Interesting. This is very similar to the Formosa Oolong I had from Tea Emporium, only richer. Deeper even, like coffee… Brisk! but also refreshing in it’s fruitiness.
I agree with Azzrian, it’s rather clean and a dark oolong indeed! Big thank you for the sample Azzrian!
(sorry for the short review, again!! I just got home… it’s almost 11!)

Sipdown! 816.

Fairly similar response to last time, that this is a reasonably generic dark oolong. Tasty, but nothing overly special. I may have understeeped a bit though, so am missing out on some of the oolongy goodness. Will have to address that with cup #2.

Pretty much the same opinion of this as last time: a good solid dark oolong with a pleasant woodiness and slight sweetness. I could drink this regularly quite happily! Thanks again to Azzrian for letting me taste this one!

Mmm, a tasty toasty, roasty oolong with nice roasted oolong aftertaste. Light aroma, good flavour. I definitely would drink this one again, although it’s nothing particularly special.

Going to give more infusions a shot in a few minutes :)

Woah! Second infusion at a random temperature for waaaay too long is actually really good! No bitterness at all! Really impressed! Bet it can last another few.

Thanks for the sample, Azzrian!

I really should not be having this much caffeine right now but the family decided to finally watch a movie at 1:30 am … so Chronicle and Pu-erh it is!
This is an excellent pu-erh and a good starter one for those who want to venture in but are on the timid side. The flavor is excellent! You know the caramelized sugar on top of creme brulee? That is what this tastes like! Full of yum!
Then add to that an almost incense like woodsy note – slightly spicy – kashmir is what it reminds me of. DOUBLE YUM!
Even for those of you who are experienced with pu-erh – you will love this – a wonderful desert tea!

This tea never ceases to amaze and satisfy me. I was in a very foul mood, and wanted tea, as well as just wanted to relax with the process of making tea. It really is calming.

So I scoured through my stash, and found that I had enough left of this for one big cup, so I steeped it all. This tea is good with milk or lemon, but this time I decided to add lemon instead of milk, like I usually do. The lemon helped bring out the lemon and strawberry flavour in there, and I really just love this tea. <3

Mood improved, thanks to a wonderful cuppa!

Backlog from this morning!

So since I had skipped tea a lot these past few days, I decided I needed to dive back in with a tea that I really liked to remind me why I love tea. (That’s what happens to me when I stop drinking tea for a while—instead of craving it like crazy, for some reason, I feel uninterested and don’t want to make any.)

And since I already added a detailed note for this tea, I am going to just go crazy: OH MY GOODNESS I LOVE THIS TEA SO MUCH!! IT IS SO SO YUMMY AND WONDERFUL AND I TRIED MILK IN IT THIS TIME AND OH MY GOODNESS!!

Now back to the nice, formal stuff: The malty flavor came out a bit this time, along with a citrusy taste and a nice sweet. (The strawberries and lemon, again.) Milk made this tea very smooth and creamy, and it was very nice. I really do love this tea!! (Upped the rating a bit…)

Thank you Azzrian! I can see why you love this!!

This tea…I don’t know how to explain it properly, really. I highly enjoyed this tea. But there were some complications, I guess you could say. I’ll explain in my tasting note, so don’t worry.

Smell: Dry, in the bag. It had a floral aroma, with a hint of something citrus. Reading over the ingredients/tea description, it mentioned strawberry and lemon, so that makes sense. It’s a nice scent, and not too strong. Dainty, light, sweet. :-) Steeping it was about the same, though I find that steeping for most of my teas always kind of mutes the scent. It’s not bad, it’s just how it is. The color was nice, too, a dark reddish brown.

Taste: This is where I faced problems. It was REALLY GOOD! It was!! But I can’t really find the words to describe what I was tasting. One of the tea descriptors was “malty” and I don’t think I know what that tastes like yet. It also had a floral, sweet taste too it, which was nice, and that citrusy/fruity taste, but I couldn’t place the tastes. It was very yummy despite not being able to properly describe it, and I am very pleased with it. I’m glad I have enough for several cups, which also means a little bit of experimenting, but not TOO much! Oh, just because I always put how I make it: two packets of sugar in the raw. I think next time I may try a bit of cream. Don’t know though.

I also steeped this in a mug, like my other tea, but it turned out better because this mug held about 8 oz, and I properly filled it. So no diluting for today! :-)

So here’s the first in a series of very generous samples sent to me from Dylan and Missy. As I understand it, this is from Azzrian via Dylan and Missy.

I really, really enjoy this. The dry leaf has a a very powerful orange smell, and the leaves themselves are very dark. Once brewed, the color is a reddish orange mixture, and the smell of orange blossom subsides so the oolong scent can take over. The flavor is heavy on the toasty oolong, with a nice delicate orange blossom follow up. Note that this is not a citrusy tea, it’s more of a subtle floral note. It’s very sweet on it’s own, so I can’t really see the need to add any sugar or honey.

I’m going to have another cup of this in a moment, but after the first I think I can say that I’ll be placing an order to keep this one on hand.

Reducing rating a tad as I have had better darjeelings now.
Full review will be on http://sororiteasisters.com/ on the 9th

Here is a brief Snippit as I am still writing it now.

It is a smooth tea, perfect for morning or afternoon with some tea sandwiches. I am having cucumber sandwiches with mine today and it is lovely. I think however the reason it is so lovely with my sandwiches is because it is fairly bland and does not compete with my otherwise mellow food flavors.

Sweet, mellow, smooth, and caffeinated, just what I needed this morning and all of the things I am not!

Nothing like a cup of Lady Londonderry to warm up to on a very snowy day!

Sitting here with the Lady this morning enjoying an always satisfying brew.
Trying to wake up – at least she is waking me up gently. :)

Having this with breakfast – its so good – I need to pace myself with this one or it will be gone too fast!

I am SO so happy I did not pass this on to a trade partner (sorry trade buddies) but this is all mine! This has made it to my perm stash. I have to have this always on hand.
Creamy, citrus, sweet berry, floral but not in my face floral.
And at under 14 bucks A POUND! HA this CAN be in my stash at all times!
WOOT WOOT!
Love it!

Interesting! it’s green… but also creamy. I find the smell a bit offputting, in that cloying creamy way- but the taste is lovely. Flowery even. Actually, it reminds me of a white lemon tea I tried not long ago, only deeper. The notes gel much better here, I think.
There is quite a bit of sweetness here, and a candy lemon flavour. I’m reminded of lemon donuts or danishes. Yes, that’s it!! lemon jelly!
I love that the green tea isn’t hidden though. So many teas focus too much on the flavouring and not enough on the tea-ness.
I’ve been a bit depressed lately. This is lifting my spirits a bit but I still feel leaden. Maybe it’s time to make some of my St. Johns Wort tea that SimplyJenW so kindly sent me :)
Anyhow, sorry to vent here. Thank you Ninavampi for the sample, this was a wonderful surprise! :)

Another very generous sample from Azzrian. Thank you!

Drinking this tea effectively doubles my experience with oolong tea. I’ve now had two, count ’em two, different oolongs in my tea career. The first was a Maharaja Chai Oolong from Teavana, and the second being this.

Now here’s where my inexperience probably leads me to a bit of a confusion – this looks like a black tea. I would wager, and possibly lose, money at the tea-casino over the family of tea that this belongs to. Intellectually, I understand that green tea is non-oxidized, black tea is 100% oxidized, and you can call anything between oolong. It’s a near black. Like… I’d say it was an oolong that was 99.2% oxidized. Like there was a little factory of workers on starting boards waiting for the pistol to go off, so some large man with a megaphone could yell “Go! Go before the oxidation finishes! We’re losing money by the second!” Preferably with a pirate accent, so he could toss in pirate insults. Insults are always better in pirate.

Opening up the bag, there’s an unnaturally powerful zingy lemon scent. I made the mental association of Thera-Flu, and can’t get it out of my head now. It completely smells like Thera-Flu. But I’m fond of citrus (actually, I’m fairly fond of Thera-Flu), so it really doesn’t bother me… consider yourself warned.

The brew itself was much less pungent, and the steeped aroma was definitely more in line with orange than Thera-Flu, thankfully the flavor follows the same pattern. The flavor is just gently floral, with a hint of orange, but overall I find my tastebuds tangled with more of that zesty lemon taste. It’s a little bit chemically, and a little bit tart. It did drown out the tea flavor to me, which really hid in the background, and just left me feeling like it was all based on a weak black tea. If there was any subtle distinction between the oxidization level of this tea and your standard black, I’m not confident enough in my sense of taste that I think I’d ever find it.

The other thing kicking around in the back of my mind is that I’m not trying this tea at the right time. I drink it, and its decent tasting, but I really think to myself that I’d enjoy it more with breakfast. I think it would shine a lot more on the other end of the day than the one it’s currently trying to star in (Ha! Not intentionally a nighttime joke, but I’ll take it).

Or maybe keep it around for when I’m sick. I really cannot shake the Thera-Flu association!

J’adore le thé Mélange Français! (I’m not sure if that’s the correct way to say that, but my French is only slightly above non-existent) This tea is flowery and delicious and manages to not be too perfumey. It is robust enough to drink in the morning (yay Assam component!), but is perfect, in my opinion, as an early afternoon tea. Oh, and it is decidedly spectacular iced (especially with some lemon). I’ve been trying to find some sort of France-inspired blend that is good enough to continually keep in stock in my cupboard. By George, I think I’ve got it.

Having my second infusion of the morning now. Thanks again Ninavampi, I really am enjoying it! despite that I feel this is more of a “winter” tea lol
Tea love!

This is quite yummy!! thanks to Ninavampi for sharing a sample with me!
There isn’t as much maple flavour as I’d have liked… I added quite a bit of agave to bring it out (1.5 teaspoons)
With milk, it wasn’t nearly as flavourful. I sampled a bit of it that way, I’m glad I listened to my instincts and didn’t just dump milk in the mug like I usually do. In any case, I’m feeling much better after a cuppa.
I’m staying at home sick today, since I sound like Rod Stewart meets a squeaky mouse.
Ginger tea is usually how I go in times like this, but I drank a strong infusion of chammy/ginger/honey through the night and I think I’m saturated for the moment :P
Besides, maple seems to have a similar effect to honey. I gotta say it again… YUM!
EDIT: Okay so after a second steep, with some agave of course, I’m getting more of a maple note… all thick and lingering in my throat like the real stuff. Wow. I am lovin it!

A very enjoyable oolong. Slightly “dark” tasting for an oolong.
Refreshing and relaxing cup.
Its one of those cups you find yourself gulping down.
It has a clear clean taste.
This cooled off quite a bit as I was doing some things and I found it to be very good cool as well.
It has this slight flavor of hay. Earthy, but fresh like spring time.

Of all the “cream” flavors I have had – both Earl Grey and not, from cream peach to strawberry to this … this is the best cream flavor ever to date.
The bergamot is not over powering whatsoever but I guess if you like a punch in the face of bergamot this would not be the tea for you. This is a very well balanced tea with a nice smooth non astringent black tea base, perfect amount of bergamot oil and a delectable cream that you taste on each and every sip without having to look for it.
Extremely fair pricing on this tea as well, fast shipping, great customer service.
One of my top favs in both teas and vendor source!
EDIT NOTE: Fairly decent on the resteep as well! Not as good but better than a lot of black tea resteeps!