Mark T. Wendell

Tea of yesterday afternoon…..

And thank you so much to narwhalclub for this sample. I have been curious about this tea for a long time.

This is a very good smokey tea. I don’t think the blend of teas in the base is quite as sweet as Lapsang Souchong Black Dragon from Upton, but it is still great. I love how smooth it is, and how balanced the smokiness is. I don’t feel like I am drinking a bitter campfire like the first few lapsangs I sampled. This one is definitely a keeper.

Usual mug method.

So I tried this a while ago when I first got it last September, and it made me super nauseous because a bunch of leaf-bits slipped through the holes of my strainer in my teapot and I drank them. Recently though, I discovered that I have a teaball (I know teaballs are lame for the most part, seeing as the leaves don’t unfurl properly, but this tea doesn’t have that problem) in my house that has small enough holes to prevent that from happening. Since then, I’ve had a few cups of this almost every day, and I really like it. It’s very bold and invigorating, and makes for a great morning tea. Too bad that I wake up around noon on most days and don’t get to drink it in the literal morning :P I like it with a bit of lemon, but I like almost all of my black teas with a touch of lemon, so that isn’t saying too much.

On a side note, the reason I ordered this tea in the first place was that it comes from the base of Mount Kenya, and I actually flew over Mount Kenya in a small passenger airplane when I visited Kenya years ago. So I actually got to see where it comes from, which gives me a sense of a special connection to the tea, which I think is rather cool.

Tea of the afternoon…….

And my first tea out of my Foodzie Box from LiberTEAS. OMG! What a wonderful box of samples! Really, this is a fabulous deal if you are new to tea, or have been around the tea table a few times. I received well over 20 samples, and only one out of the bunch is one I have tried (and I have tried a bunch of teas, and that particular one is an absolute favorite!) I highly recommend this for a fun tea adventure. I cannot wait to try them all.

This is the first tea I have selected. I purchased a gift for a friend from Mark T. Wendell last year. The service was great, and the friend loved the tea. I have not gotten around to ordering there myself, so I requested that LiberTEAs add some Mark T. Wendell if she had some. Here it is.

This is really good. It is a lightly smokey tea. Very well blended and rich. It kind of reminds me of Upton’s Lapsang Souchong Black Dragon. Both are perfect for beginning smokey teas. If I ever do order from Mark T. Wendell, I will probably get this one. TeaEqualsBliss called this Hu Kwa’s pretty little sister and suggested that it was lighter than Hu Kwa. I will probably have to check that out for myself at some point! Very good! Thank you for including it in my LiberTEAs Foodzie Box!

Usual mug method for 3 minutes.

Wow! I am loving this tea. It is so bold and invigorating. Delicious, with a caramel-y sweetness and a malty tone, the tea that immediately comes to mind to compare it to is an Assam, but this one lacks the bitterness of an Assam and is sweeter.

A wonderful CTC tea with LOTS of gusto!

Thank you to TeaEqualsBliss for sending it to me.

Wow, this tastes JUST like Teaopia’s Kalahari… one of my very first loose leaf teas!!
Maybe it’s my sentimental self talking here, but oh baby, welcome home :)
The orange is really mild, sort of in a rindy bitter way. It needs alot of agave to really pump up the flavour, sadly. But I am curious what it would taste like with some milk…
Big thank you to QuiltGuppy for sharing!!!

So, so, so delicious. Perfect degree of smokiness as well as smoothness. I like Lapsangs a lot, but I feel like I never have to try a new one again, (except maybe Upton’s Black Dragon Lapsang), because it’s going to take something beyond exceptional to beat this one. I could drink it everyday, and in fact, I think I just might.

I think this is my favorite blend of black tea: malty, sweet, smooth, and absolutely delicious. I bet this would pair exceptionally with some sort of pastry.

Tasted very similar to Peet’s Ti-Kwan-Yin. I think I prefer this, though that might just be because it came in a fancy box in the mail. Nevertheless, definitely a delicious and calming cup, one of my favorites.

Runa but repackaged for MTW. Going into this one I thought I knew what it was going to taste like – the stereotypical Guayusa lima bean/pea taste but this was rather good. Nothing too overpowering, but, calming, and nice.

Rich, sweet, smooth yet floral, a bit juicy! Great! The aroma alone is memorable! Still trying to think of what the smell reminds me of!

Important. Wendell says steep for 4-5 minutes. DONT. Do 3 minutes. Thank me later. Worlds better with the shorter brew.

Nice. Nutty. Green. Simple. Smooth.

SO MUCH BODY. SO smooth. For such a long brew time, you’d think you would get a really strong, bitter cup. But I got a super nice smooth brew with a nice, sweet, light smoky tang on the sides of the mouth. Brilliant.

For me this was a much stronger tea than the description would suggest, but it’s grown on me. A nice wakeup in the morning.

I think MTW’s Earl Grey is one of the best Earl Grey’s I’ve had and their Decaf version holds true to the original. Flavour is similar, with a good bergamot floral/citrus smell and flavor. I have noticed that the Decaf version brews a little lighter and slower than the regular version…I add a little extra tea to the tea ball to compensate (or I’d have to be even MORE patient).

Thank you to TeaEqualsBliss for sending me a bit of this tea.

Nice! Very hefty Yunnan – strong and peppery, but with a smoky tone to it too. Earthy. Very rugged.

I like this a lot.

Awesome! I’m so excited that Mark T. Wendell has added yellow tea to their ever-expanding collection of tea. And this yellow tea is fabulous!

Thank you to TeaEqualsBliss for sending me some of this tea. YUM!

This Vanilla tea totally makes up for the tea fail I had a bit ago. This tastes so rich and smooth and creamy that at first taste I didn’t immediately recognize the black tea base as Ceylon… I thought that maybe it might be something a bit heftier… maybe a blend with Assam. I don’t taste maltiness from the Assam, but the black tea base is pretty substantial and supports the powerful essence of vanilla. There’s no mistaking that there is vanilla in this blend. It’s POWERFUL … and really yummy.

Very grassy; we tried this at work and it’s the one people refer to as the lawn clippings. Tried it brewed at 160F and at 180F, but finally to had to accept the fact that I just don’t like this tea.

Thank you to TeaEqualsBliss for sending me this Darjeeling – it’s awesome!

My first impression after the first sip or two was “fruity” – it has a beautiful grape-y flavor to it, and as I continue to sip, I also notice an apple like flavor develop. By the time I’ve reached mid-cup, I taste spice notes.

There is less astringency to this Darjeeling than I’ve come to expect from a Darjeeling, instead, I find the finish here to be remarkably smooth and pleasantly sweet. This is a fantastic Darjeeling.

I almost forgot I had this one but am sure glad I found it yesterday! Backlogging! See previous notes…

Yes! It’s grand!

Awww yeah…see previous notes :)

This is really amazing! The leaves look like a cross between (what you would expect or assume from a) Gunpowder Green and a cloudy black. It’s a green-grey-er type black leaf. It has mellow black tea aromas and flavors and brews-up a lighter to light-medium brown. The flavor is incredibly juicy and extremely pleasant. It’s mouth watering and has hints of sweet-floral and natural fruity notes mixed in. This is delightful!

One of the better tasting black teas that is UNflavored but on the naturally lighter and mellower side of black tea offerings. Niiice! And YES…that’s NICE with 3 iii’s!

A reflection of a withering peak in a calm lake