Samovar

Exceptional… I haven’t had anything like it. I come back to samovar for it.

This tea was a dark cup, with a very heavily roasted smell (hence the name I suppose…) Given the darkness and roasted smell, I was expecting something with a fairly bitter aftertaste, not so. It actually was quite smooth, very full, and good. I was expecting a lot more powerful taste but it is actually very mellow. Overall very good, not really what I was expecting, but good!

See the full review and more at www.teageek.org

It’s hard to actually describe this tea any better than the other countless tea logs have already done, so instead of attempting to re-describe the flavour, I will stick to describing what I think of it.

I brewed this at work so there was no way of me going for the traditional steeping method, as interesting as it sounds (jam in tea? really? I gotta try it some day) so instead I opted to brew it the simple way. I like the strength and flavour, though my tongue seems to be telling me that it’s slightly similar to Lychee Black, another Samovar tea. I only had sample packets of these two teas so I suppose to really tell the difference, I’ll have to try them again some time.

Overall, I’m a fan. It hits the sweet spot (potentially literally) in my dark, black tea oriented flavour preferences. Once again, I’ve yet to try a Samovar tea that I have not liked.

Definitely minty – I’m liking it. For all the heavy mint aroma it actually has a very light flavor. Also, it right when the water hits it, it smells exactly like pot. Weird.

I got this as part of a Samovar sampler a friend gave to me. It smells extremely fragrant and wonderful out of the bag, and while it steeped that seemed to fade and turned in to the vegetable flavor that others had mentioned. It’s quite astringent from the first sip, and has a sweet but sharp bite at the end of the flavor.

I’m not incredibly impressed. Like everyone else is saying – it’s quite good, but not THAT good. I think I’ll go back to my Japanese teas as well.

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Second Steeping update:

I tried steeping it for only a minute and used slightly cooler water this time, and it seems to be much better. The astringency is mostly gone save for a bit towards the bottom of the cup, and the vegetable smell is also greatly reduced. A friend suggested washing the leaves in room temperature water before steeping, but since it was a small sample I only had enough for one pot.

I believe Samovar does a take on this tea where they soak it in honey over night. Absolutely delicious. As a black tea lover, this is a great oolong to add!

At the first sip I was taken aback by the upfront deep smokiness of this tea. Kind of a sharp snap-to for the morning senses. But as I grew more awake I started to enjoy its smooth, full bodied, earthy depth. Rich like a pu-erh but a lot more smokey. With the first cup, each post-sip exhale gave the sensation of exhaling pipe smoke. Second cup seemed to be a touch sweeter and less smokey. I found the lychee to be a little subtle, but it’s there and complements the smokiness perfectly. I would come back to this tea in the same frame of mind in which I’d seek out the kind of friend with whom you have deep, serious conversations. An enjoyable contemplation tea…

Late last month, takgoti did a cross-country trip and I bribed her into stopping by my place by offering a free place to spend the night. It was super-cool to officially meet her and needless to say, she’s even more wonderful in person than on the interwebs. Added to the lovely fact that I got to experience her sparkling and fun personality in person, she also shared tea with me! Yay for hand delivered tea swaps!

This one was one of the lovelies she gave to me. Honestly, I didn’t take too many notes on it because I was really just enjoying it too much to. Basically, this is a lot like Royal Garland but without any residual dryness or astringency (which I didn’t really notice with Royal Garland until I had this tea). It’s like grape juice and sweet fruits and wonderfulness. Juicy and sweet and good. It resteeped rather well, too. Thick and sweet and staying remarkably true to the initial taste while also developing a heavier flavor to balance the sweet juicy grape-ness.

I’m still probably a Royal Garland fangirl at heart – anything that can make me think of grilling fruit on a beach as a storm front comes in is a win in my book – but I would say that I could easily enjoy having some Bai Hao around.

Soooo Gooood!!!!!

So smooth, slightly sweet and light to medium vegetal taste. Simply wonderful.

One of my favorite teas to start my day.

This is pretty much your standard Yerba Mate. It’s not bitter, but it does seem to have a bit of a dirty taste. It tastes much better with milk. I prefer Mate Factor’s Green Yerba Mate. Prepared with almond milk and stevia.