Five O'Clock Tea & Coffee Shops

First of all, I really like the concept and appearance of Genmaicha. It contains beautiful, dark green leaves, small balls of roasted rice and small puffed rice clouds.
Brews into a very aromatic tea, full of base Japanese tea notes, roasted and nutty flavours from rice.
And, as one may expect, the taste is also complex and rich, with characteristics from tea and rice balanced into a really compelling mixture.

Wonderful milky aroma with hints of grassy, strawy oolong in the background.
Very rich taste, especially after it cools down a bit, milky, grassy, with distinct butterscotch character.
Wonderful milky oolong.

Wonderful aroma of roasted rice, milk chocolate and a bit of coffee, plus very subtle green tea notes in the background.
Velvety, mellow texture, with all the ingredients fully detectable, but nothing stands out too much. Great warming and soothing blend.

Pure smoky perfectness. No need to say anything else.

Aroma definitely dominated by the base Pu Erh tea, with only traces of lemongrass and fruit.
Taste is more complex. Fruity and flowery notes are balanced and well blended into the tea itself, resulting in a warming brew.

Very earthy taste, with strong suggestions of smoke, dry, with almost no bitterness and very little astringency.
Clearly a high quality tea, but one that can be enjoyed on an everyday basis.

Strong, malty, rich aroma.
Rich taste, with strong maltiness, solid earthy notes and slight bitterness.

Smells wonderfully, like a high quality lemon custard.
The foreground taste is solid base black tea, very malty. Lemon notes are in the back, rather subdued, they just compliment the tea itself.
When it gets colder, the lemon notes remain in the background. There is no advertised creaminess nor freshness.
The tea is not bad, but is different than I expected.

Strong, sweetish smell of mango.
The taste is at first a bit disappointing. The tea seems watery, both the base sencha and mango are barely discernible. But when it gets colder, it becomes much more intense, fruity and refreshing. Probably a great choice for cold brew.

Slightly smoky, earthy aroma.
Rich malty and smoky flavour with solid bitterness and astringency.
Really good one.

There is that aftertaste of “plum” but it didn’t really interest me that much. Too bitter for ma taste and nothing that interesting for me really.

I can’t really say much about this tea. It’s decent, deffinitely an upgrade from the common variety, but other than that it’s nothing unusual. Too bitter for my taste with no interesting undertastes or aftertastes.

Straw, slightly herbal and a bit toasty aroma.
Solid bitterness, toasty, herbal and flowery flavours.
Not exactly my cup of tea (pun intended), but I really appreciate the richness and uniqueness.

Earthy maltiness and a bit of toffee in aroma.
Solid malty background, slight bitterness and astringency, dry aftertaste, slight fruity notes.
Not bad.

Malty, earthy, deeply fermented aroma.
Raisins, nuts, chocolate in taste, but all in all the tea is rather watery, not rich enough.
May be good with milk, but on its own it’s quite disappointing.

Strong malty and earthy aroma with hints of honey.
Strong taste, quite earthy and malty, very low bitterness and astringency, slight nutty notes.
Solid black tea with very focused taste, not aromatic.

It’s a really decent tea. A little flat, but I like the taste far better than of a complex but uninteresting tea.

Sipdown! Another very old sample, but surprisingly delicious. A very nice milk oolong – plenty of both cream and oolong, and it’s durability in a ziplock is impressive. I’d honestly still have rated it solidly in the 80s, which is saying something.

Ha, I thought I had tried this one before! But since I’ve been craaavvviiing milk oolong for a while, and this was from my swap with Lynne-tea… I totally felt justified in drinking some. Still have enough left for another cup, too!

Anyhow, this is a yummy milk oolong, as I said previously. It has likely lost some flavour, but I’m still quite enjoying it. A big bonus here is a complete lack of that “flavoured” taste that comes through with some milky oolongs. Not to say that this one isn’t flavoured, but it doesn’t have that accompanying chemical taste, which is perfect.

Couldn’t find a listing for this one, Lynne-tea, so I made one! Let me know if this is in the wrong place.

So I stumbled across a milk oolong in my pile from Lynne-tea, and as I haven’t had one in a while, it sounded very appetizing to brew some up… soooo I did!

The cup smells incredibly caramelly (like Milk-fuls?) and delicious, and the flavour is similar, leaving the mouth with an intense caramelized milk flavour after swallowing. Heavenly. I have no idea if this one is “flavoured” or not, but it’s lovely. Milk oolongs are so wonderful :D

Thanks so much, Lynne-tea!