Life In Teacup

Leaves smells sweet, flowery. They look a fit lighter than usually.

Tea also smells floral. Tastes the same. Gentle. Tasty.
This is a boring review…

Preliminary (and perhaps only) review

I got this as a courtesy sample from Life in Teacup with one of my orders from them this spring (thank you Gingko!). I have lots going on tonight, and I wasn’t thinking at all of doing a review, but this tea was so good I told myself to set aside the perfectionist, and simply take about 10 minutes to write and post a short-if even terse-review (OK, I think it ended up taking about 25 minutes, but that’s not bad for me!).

I feel I am coming to know what to look for in a quality spring Chinese green tea having tried many dozens of them (not to include all of the flavor-added varieties) from almost as many different tea retailers. I am very particular about what I want to experience in the best Chinese spring green teas in that I expect them to be appealing in every way, most notably in appearance, aroma, and taste (a clear-colored tea liquor is good, as well). For example, I want the dry leaves to look and smell fresh, and I want them to look the way that that particular type is tea is supposed to look (if I happen to know what that is). I want it to be comprised mainly—if not entirely—of whole leaves and buds. I would like it to look beautiful while steeping in my glass teapot. I want the tea liquor to have a fresh and preferably mild, aroma. And finally I want it to taste fresh, without any odd or off flavors (preferably when at room temperature as well as when hot).

So, all that to say, this tea meets just about every one of the above criteria (the leaf just hung out on the bottom of my glass 14 OZ mini-teapot for the first two steepings, and I prefer that it hangs from the top so I can ‘see’ or appreciate the leaves in their fullness). The dry tea is comprised of tiny curls with a nice variance in light and dark green colored leaves, all of which are beautiful and remind me of Bi Lo Chun (a quality spring Chinese green). It smells fresh. The wet leaf looks whole, with a mixture of and light dark green colored leaves, and smells fresh. How re-fresh-ing! And, on taste, although I still struggle with the best way to describe the exact flavors, it seems to be vegetal, nutty, fresh. Nonetheless, it clearly has a flavor that I have come to expect in only the finest grades of Chinese spring green tea.

I also wanted to post this because after trying a number of green tea samples from Life in Teacup (some from her blog sale), it has become apparent to me that she truly knows quality Chinese tea, and it seems that she knows where to get it. I am grateful for what Gingko has to offer to us ‘tea enthusiasts’, and I am grateful for Steepster, as that is how I discovered Life in Teacup, Gingko, and her wonderful teas!

Leaves are dark green, they smell raster fresh grassy.

Tea is very light yellow. Also smells grassy.
Surprise, surprise, it tastes very grassy! It’s quite delicious. First sip seamed a bit watery but I changed my mind with the second one. It’s just as smooth as it should be. It only has a hint of nutty taste, mostly grassy tho. More green that oolongy.

(sipping further)

Leaves a really nice aftertaste in my mouth. Mhm, I like this one…

I tried adding milk to see if it would improve the flavour at all – sadly, it didn’t seem to make much of a difference.

Taking on another sample from the depths of my cupboard. This one has a wonderful sweet, honey-like scent, particularly the dry leaves. However I found the flavour to be a bit disappointing. Perhaps I just need to steep it longer, but it strikes me as bland and weak, especially compared to other Keemuns I’ve tried liked Adagio’s Anhui Keemun and Granville Island Tea Co’s Keemun Grade 1. There are some honey notes tacked on to the end of each sip but it’s altogether too light and weak.

Oh wow… this one is GOOD! Sweet, light and crisp.

The vegetative tones are a little bit grassy … but not quite. They’re like steamed baby spinach, only grassier than that. Does that make sense? It isn’t quite grassy, but not quite spinach-y either… somewhere in between those two tastes… but the delivery is very delicate. It has a nice creamy texture and taste too, very smooth from beginning until a slight astringency at the end that is cleansing and refreshing.

A really nice tea, I like this one a lot!

Leaves smell very grassy green teeish, promising.

Mmmm the smell of tea is quite powerful and nice. Color is bright yellow.
Tastes sweet, very flavored, super smooth. Idk how I would describe the aroma. It has a bit of a nutty thing but also something almost a bit fruity and also flowery. Yeah, complex but yet so simple and delicious. Just yummy.

OK, lets see…

Leaves are of darkish green color.And it smells like it’s been drying in a warehouse for quite some time. Really dry.
Tea is gentle, bright and the flavor is quite delicious. Subtle and smooth, grassy and even more nutty.

As master Yoda would say: smooth and yummy this one is.

Thank you LiberTEAS for this sample!

There is some nice tanginess going on in this cup of tea. At first you taste what you expect, grassy – more of a raw cabbage flavor, then it turns sharper, more acidic in tone. This tartness develops into something much sweeter, peachy even. I thought I was mistaken, but yep, its there again – like homemade peach preserves!

Need I say any more? There was a lot of enjoyment in this cup! I’m very new to yellow teas, however this one is nice no matter the process phase. Can’t wait to continue steeping this one, there’s bound to be more goodness waiting!

Lynne-tea – is this what you sent me? It was in a little red package, so I’m not entirely sure.

Anyways, when I opened up the little vacuum-sealed package of this tea, I was surprised to see that the leaves looked somewhat crushed! I had been hoping to use my little glass teapot, but its strainer would let the leaf pieces through easily, so I had to use an infuser instead. I don’t know if this was a consequence of mailing or not, but oh well! Still smelled deliciously green/vegetal.

I haven’t had a TGY in a while for whatever reason, and I definitely have missed them, as I just sniffed this one and nearly swooned! Hahaha. Buttery/vegetal/delicious. The first sip unfortunately screams ‘under-infused’, so it’s a little weaker than it could have been. I was worried about oversteeping because of the broken leaf, but apparently that was unnecessary. The flavour is smooth, a bit buttery, and “green”, but not too strong on the latter element. It isn’t really particularly floral to me, although I could see someone saying it is. Just a tasty cup of tea. I do think I like Verdant’s more, but this one is quite tasty as well. Looking forward to more infusions tomorrow!

ETA: Second infusion, accidently for 4.5 minutes, is still quite tasty and pleasant. Less bitterness than the second infusion from my sticky rice tuocha, and a lovely oolong aftertaste. Almost a touch too “green” for me right now though, but still good.

I’d love to try steeping this tea gong-fu style one of these days but since I don’t have a scale sensitive enough to weight out 5 grams nor an appropriate teapot/gaiwan, this time I had to do my usual method of 1 teaspoon in my strainer mug. I did follow the directions that recommended a quick initial rinse and short, high temperature infusions.

I have a soft spot for Tie Guan Yins and in my opinion when they’re good they’re really good.

This is a really good oolong.

It starts off sweet and floral before changing into a richer roasted or baked flavour with some nice fruity notes. I’m not tasting the smoke that other people seem to be, or maybe I’m just interpreting it differently, but given how good this tea is I’m not fussed. It has good staying power too – I did three infusions and could have done more if it wasn’t getting so late. It’s quite good at keep its flavour, though I noticed that the second steep was a bit more floral and the third one was a bit more fruity.

A+ for this one.

Revisiting this one. Here is my full-length review of it: http://sororiteasisters.com/2011/07/12/dong-ding-cui-yu-oolong-competition-grade-iv-from-life-in-teacup/

A really delightful Oolong: sweet, nutty, slightly toasty with hints of charcoal. Lovely floral notes, hints toward fruity flavors.

Semi-Nutty and Semi-Charcoally-sweet! It’s even a bit juicy! This is tasty! Another winner from Life In Teacup! YUMMO!

Channeling my inner-hippie (which seems to be a daily occurrence…but anyways…)

This has an earthy-dusty wood type aroma to it but also has a hint of that pu-erh type smell, too…moreso on the pleasant side, tho.

This is a cross between a pu-erh and and oolong, I suppose…it has characteristics of both that I am personally picking up, that is.

It’s slightly sweet but slightly earthy. It’s a bit ‘dusty’ but in a good way. It’s a little nutty and has that nice roasted flavor, too!

I want to burn incense now.
Groovy Man…

Prior to infusing this smelled like a cross between a green and oolong but with a little extra something! It was like smelling a Citronella Candle while in the woods! A very unique aroma that I enjoyed!

The flavor is out of this world! It’s sweet and floral but has natural lemon hints as well as a little bit of toasty-business happening, too!

This is pretty special!

I’m so grateful today a local bakery did a VEGAN Falafel, Hummus, and Veggies in their very own Pita Bread. It’s FAB! I’m sipping on this white tea while eating my lunch and it goes REALLY well with it!

I Agree with Gingko this is reminiscent of Bai Hao (Oriental Beauty). It’s a little different, still, tho, but I sure can taste the similarities

It’s lightweight, gentle, juicy, sweet, and smooth! It’s Crisp and clean! A real winner!

What a tea. Upon opening my newly shipped bag I whiff fresh jasmine and a clear fine quality tea. I followed the instructions here on steepster where I covered most of the bottom of my pre-heated mug (had to be my clear glass one) with leaves and added close to rolling boiled filterd water. Must’ve been between 1 1/2 cups of water.
How pretty this tea is. The Chinese clearly know what they’re doing when it comes to names. I really enjoyed watching the snowflake-like petals “dance” throughout and the soft little buds open up making a lake bed.
Such as the scent is most pleasing! I can never go back to typical shelf jasmine green teas now that I know what I’m playing at here. The smell is very true and relaxing, not headache inducing that most overpowering jasmine teas give me.
The taste is sweet and gentle with floral notes. Very clean, and very fresh….I even ate one of the petals and found it added to the effect. I was worried that by leaving the leaves in my mug that it would get bitter from oversteeping like most greens I’ve delt with, but no! I expect good quality leaves allow this.
I’m only on my first steep, buuuut….I think I’ll stay up longer into the night just so I can try more infusions. I’m sure they’ll be wonderful c:

I guess this is the tea I’m about to drink now.

Looks like it’s made out of 3 kinds of various leaves. They smell like the smell of what they sell in stores as indian black tea. You know filtered not very good kind. There’s also an additional smell that i cant define.

I steeped it rather short as it says up here. Looks too bright. Yeah I’m putting the tea back in. After like 2 min it’s still quite yellow and light for an oolong. But I guess it’s how it is.
Idk this one isn’t very tasteful. It’s not bad either. It’s just very mild and undefinable to me.

Wouldn’t get this one again.

Leaves didn’t stink as much as usual :)

I rinsed a few times and then steeped for 10 seconds. Color is red, Smells like pu-erh but not too strong.
It’s very yummy and gentle for a pu-erh. Leaves a lasting nice scent in my mouth. It’s hard tho for me to compare this to anything other than other pu-ehrs.
Anyways nice one. I like it a lot!

Another from the sample pack.

Dry leaves are long and twisted with some white ones mixed in and smell of spinach and something floral. Wet leaves turn a nice bright green and smell slightly floral with a grassy-spinach note. The infusion is golden and smells a hint floral.

Taste is notes of orchid and grassy-spinach. There is also a slight creamy texture that I presume goes along with the orchid notes. There isn’t really a distinctive note of grass, but the spinach isn’t quite like you’d get from the store. It’s almost like it’s wild spinach that picked up scents of the grasses that grow around it.

Another from the sample pack.

The leaves look like bright green spears, not bright vivid green as matcha is, just bright green like grass is. The smell of the dry leaves is very light, I get only hints of something that isn’t quite smokey, roasted perhaps. It’s so light I can’t quite put my finger on it.

The wet leaves have a little stronger smell, not much, allowing me to get hints of something floral and green. The infusion is very pale and has a very light scent that just smells like tea, nothing more specific.

Taste is so very light. I tried brewing this in my 12oz mug and also in my 5oz cup. I did the 5oz cup second and with more leaves to try to coax out some more flavor. The smaller cup with more leaves did get a little more flavor but this tea is just so so light, not to be confused with weak.

Actual notes I got were floral notes in the front and a very light crispness throughout. Not much in the way of mouthfeel or aftertaste. It reminded me of an early morning with soft rays of light breaking through the clouds and warming up the dew on the grass. Bringing up one of the blades of grass and putting the little sun-warmed droplet on your tongue. So very light, so very soft.

Backlogging from yesterday.

From a sample pack, makes me glad I ordered it when I did since there were four different green tea sample packs and I believe there is one left, maybe two.

The dry leaves are green and twisted with some white leaves mixed in and smell very fresh, crisp and grassy. I even said yum out loud! The wet leaves smell buttery and grassy with the slightest hint of a roasted note hiding in there.

The taste is not quite like I’ve experienced before. It was grassy and brothy, like a miso soup, it was so good! Very umami, very yum! There was a silky-creamy texture with a nice mouthfeel. I couldn’t get over the brothiness of the tea, I’ve never experienced it quite like that, it was sooo good! I kept writing yum in my tasting notes!

This was a tea that I had been eyeballing since I saw SimpliciTEA’s review. I will definitely be getting more!

Leaves smell weird. I guess the roast mart makes it like that. I never had roast tea other than black. This one could be interesting.
Tea smells less roast than the leaves. Like a typical oolong. Color is slightly darker – bit on the red side.
Tastes interesting. Like roasting killed all the green tea sourness. It’s smooth but not really sweet. Slightly nutty. It’s really really yummy.

Backlogging and based entirely on my notes

Experience buying from Life in Teacup http://steepster.com/places/2861-life-in-a-teacup-online-easthampton-massachusetts

I got this as a free sample from Life in Teacup in the fall of 2011 and brewed it up on 12/14/2011.

This tea had long, dark-brown twisted leaves that reminded me of a darker roasted oolong; it had a gunpowder-y aroma similar to the Wuyi oolongs I have had, but more uplifting, rather than earthy.

I used my standard oolong steeping times and temperatures (I found this to be surprising, but I think I treated this as an oolong). There were seven grams of dry tea to three cups of water. The the liquor had a light caramel color, with a mild aroma (malty?). The flavor was good, similar to a Wuyi oolong. It had some mild flavor on the forth steeping. The wet leaf looked like any quality oolong I have seen: large, whole leaves ranging in color from dark green to dark brown.

Overall, my understanding is that this is technically a red tea (so fully oxidized), and yet it was best Wuyi-like tea I have ever tasted: it was sweeter and not as roasted as most Wuyi oolongs tend to be. I enjoyed watching the leaves slowly unfurl with each steeping. Although I stopped at four steepings, it may have had more to give. I enjoyed everything about this tea (although I’m not a big Wuyi oolong fan this one was sweeter).