Samovar

It a bit surprising how resilient this tea is to high water temperatures, especially given how green this particular oolong is. I steep this tea three times (2nd @ 3:00, 3rd @ 3:45) before I got bored with it – three seems to be my limit for most oolong teas, although that Jade Teapot Tie Kwan Yin sample managed to keep my interest for longer.

I’ve realized what the smell and to some extent the taste of this tea reminds me of – lilac flowers. Now that I think about it the scents are remarkably similar. I upped the steeping tiem and it seems to have made the floral flavours a bit less intense instead of the other way around.

The leaves are loosely rolled into little lumps – they’re not neat or symmetrical enough to be called pearls. Dry, it smells like a flower garden with a bit of a sweet hay scent. When I poured in the water the scent turned spinach-like at first, but then even more pronounced floral notes slowly snuck in and ambush my nose’s scent receptors.

The first steep (2 min @ 85 degrees celcius) is an odd mixture of spinach and floral flavours that remind me of the Iron Goddess of Mercy I got from the Granville Island Tea Company, though that tea was more of a stronger spinach flavour and less floral. As the tea cooled it got more floral and there’s a nice, smoothly-buttery note at the beginning of each sip. By the end it got almost a bit too floral, to the point where it was like gardenia perfume!

Second steep and I’m a bit surprised at how much those small, rolled-up bits of leaves have expanded – what started as one level teaspoon now pretty much fills up my whole strainer! So don’t fall into the trap of thinking that the usual amount doesn’t look like it’ll be enough.

Looking at other people’s temperature parameters, I uped the steeping temperature to 90 celcius and steeped for 3 minutes. The resulting tea was significantly darker than the first steep. The flavour profile was similar to the first steep with a bit more robustness. The tea seriously does smell like a bunch of garden flowers in a far more authentic way than any other tea I’ve tried.

The third steep (4 min @ 90) lost a good portion of its floral qualities – a good thing since it was a getting a bit too much like drinking perfume. There’s a sort of bakey flavour that appeared in this steep, sort of like a light, white bread.

It’s a nice tea, but in all honesty (plzdon’tkillmeSamovarfans) I’ve had oolongs that I liked better. The floral qualities are very close to being ‘too much’ and, while the third steep was much better, a tea that takes that many steeps for me to like it isn’t doing too hot.

The best Earl Grey I’ve ever had. Although I’ve only ever had bagged stuff, the difference is mind blowing. The subtlety of the bergamont is perfect. And you can actually taste the blend of black teas in it. Phenomenal, no additives needed.

This marks the end of another sample. I shook out what was left into my cup so it’s a little heavy on the matcha. It was a fantastic introduction to Samovar’s teas and this one is definitely on my shopping list for whenever I make an order from the company.

I’ll admit it – I’m starting to fall in love with this tea. It’s just such a unique blend and it’s a wonderfully-balanced combination of savory maltiness and fresh grassiness. It has a surprisingly good caffeine kick to it aswell.

The resteep (@ 4:45) was good too, though leaning a bit more towards the grassy-flavoured side of things.

I think I may have brewed this a little bit too hot at 85ºC because I’m picking up a slight bitterness in the tea this go ‘round. It’s still quite tasty and oddly filling and satisfying in a way that teas usually aren’t.

So this is the Takgoti tea I’ve been waiting to try. Now I’ve finally been given the chance to see if Samovar lives up to its lofty reputation or not. ;)

The dry tea smells mostly of matcha, a thick, grassy sort of smell with a hint of toasted grains. I accidently put my nose too close and inhale a bit of the green powder. Cue a violent coughing fit.

With my eyes and nose still running, I manage somehow to add the water without spilling or scalding myself. Instantly my senses are bombarded with the smell of toasted grains. It’s a rich, powerful, savory scent that rivals any of the genmaichas I’ve ever tried. My mug is black so I can’t really see the tea colour well, but even so I can see the water turn a cloudy green.

Now here it comes…the moment of truth….Drum roll please.

The taste is fascinatingly complex. I do get the roasted grains flavour at the tip of each sip, but not as strongly as I was expecting from the scent. Then the flavour fades into something like matcha but not quite. It’s lightly grassy with a thick, milky sort of feel in my mouth, but it lacks the bitter-grass tang that straight matcha will give you. The after taste is more roasted grains and tasting it is making me feel a bit hungry almost.

This is a lovely, complex tea; it wasn’t quite what I was expecting, but then I have no idea what exactly I was expecting. It’s a delicious-tasting savory tea that has a surprisingly amout of body and presence for a green tea. This is no delicate little Dragonwell! Two thumbs up Takgoti, I think you have excellent taste! :)

I had this a while ago, so I’m going off notes, but this was a really interesting tea that I’m looking forward to trying again.

The Yunnan tea really lends it a full-bodied flavor. I was getting a lot of malty flavor from it, which I enjoy, and when I swish it around I’m gently reminded that there’s lemon in this tea. It’s very faint, the lemon, until I swallow, and then it’s like…when you walk through the doors of a place that has a fan running right inside so as the doors open you’re greeted with this blast of [usually warm] air. Except instead of air, it’s a refreshing lemon taste.

I don’t remember getting a pepper taste like Auggy mentioned, but when I drank this tea I was in a hurry and I didn’t have enough time savor it like I usually do with my tea [especially on the first go round], so next time I’ll have to watch for it. In any case, what resulted was another well-balanced, interactive melding of flavors from Samovar. I think I’m going to start my day with it tomorrow.

Really, you could just read the description to this tea, because that is what it tastes like. It is light, it has the sweet and savory taste of hay, and the perfumed taste of jasmine is woven throughout.

The silver needle and the jasmine are both easy to find; one doesn’t drown out the other, which is surprising. In most jasmine teas that I’ve had, the jasmine has been very pronounced. Pronounced enough that, while it might not be belting a power ballad in your ear, it’s loud enough that you can’t ignore the fact that it’s there. While I appreciate that, it also means that if there’s anything else going on in the tea it can get drowned out a lot of the time. That isn’t a problem with this one, and I am completely enamored with now this ended up balancing out.

Some teas intertwine like vines on a trellis. Some swirl together like a chocolate and vanilla soft serve twisty cone. Others blend like fruit juices. This is like being outdoors during a summer afternoon, drunk on sunshine, with the scent of just baled hay and jasmine blossoms wafting to you on a light breeze.

I’ll be buying more when I’m done with this tin.

I think by now that it’s official that I’m a fan of pu-erh. I find myself craving it a lot. The cooked version, at least!

takgoti sent me this, and I’ve been waiting to try this one for a while, since it’s supposed to be a really good one. I have to admit, the name really makes me giggle. It’s sounds like Victorian pornography.

But actually, the smell was a bit of a turn-off. For some reason, I was getting a bit of a smell of fishiness off my sample. Nothing strong, and the main smells were earth and super-dark sweet (think molasses), but it was kind of there.

Anyway, so I gave the super-dark-chocolate leaves a rinse with boiling water before allowing them to steep. I guess I should mention that the rinse water, upon dumping, already smelled pretty pu-erh delicious!

I love steeping pu-erh, just because its color is so dramatic. On the pour, it’s such a brown-black, practically opaque brew. Thankfully, the smell coming off the wet leaves and the cup was nothing fishy. Instead, there’s a deep earth smell, a fairly smoky smell (more gunpowder smoke than lapsang? It doesn’t really have a savory quality…), and a hard-to-detect sweetness. It’s very akin to other pu-erhs I’ve tasted.

The taste here is a lot smoother and light and refined than I was expecting! The only other plain pu-erh I’ve had is Golden Moon’s, which has a bit more body and intense flavor. Then again, it could be because of my lower steep time for this puppy. There’s a really nice earthy edge, mixed with a sort of smokey goodness. Pu-erh doesn’t really taste like dirt to me. It’s more soil-like. That smell of fresh-tilled soil in the sun. This develops into a subtle sweet note. It’s not overbearing or cloying or false. Maybe a bit raisin-like? It’s almost fruity. But a dark fruit. A fruit that I don’t think exists. The aftertaste is very autumnal. Wet leaves on a rainy day.

From the wet leaves, and sometimes from the taste, I’m getting this almost bake-y quality. I’m picturing something like a molasses bread. Even though I’m not quite sure if that even exists. I’m only getting it on a few sips, but when it happens, it’s unusual enough to take note. The complexity of this beastie is pretty amazing.

I’m hoping that subsequent steeps of this one are great, because so far so good!

So, the Second Steep (4:00, boiling) was a bit thinner than the first, but a lot of the earthy and smoky complexities were still present. Still very nice, indeed. The infusion was a bit lighter than the first, but it had the smell of a typical pu-erh. Which I take to be a good sign, since once the liquid doesn’t smell like it’s supposed to anymore, then it’s done.

The Third Steep (4:00, boiling) is even lighter than the second. We’re approaching something that looks more akin to black tea than to coffee! The smell is still soil-rich, but now the taste has evolved significantly. The smoke and earth elements have taken a back seat to the sweetness, which has evolved into a raisin taste, perhaps dusted with a bit of brown sugar. I can’t get out of this molasses theme. Let’s see how long this baby can go on! I should note that this might be the best resteep I’ve had thus far in my tea adventures.

It’s time for the Fourth Steep! (5:00, boiling) My wet leaves smelled a bit sweeter now, and but the infusion still smells like good-old pu-erh. The color of it is definitely akin to a black tea although something about the under-tint is off. A little purple, maybe? Whatever. Anyway, the taste on the first sip was kind of… WEIRD. Like charcoal, followed by intense sweetness. Serious sweetness. Sweet like white tea or green tea sweet. Well, actually it’s a bit muskier than that, but it’s lingering on my tongue in a similar way.

Now, here’s where it gets really weird. As it cooled, it started to have this kind of rotten taste to it. Really, really off-putting and very off. Like ripe garbage. Or like really, really over-ripe and blackened fruit. Not cool. Really, really gross, actually. Not cool at ALL. So I had to dump the cup, and I’m dumping the leaves as well. I also can’t get the sweet flavor out of my mouth. Maybe the leaves picked up a smell or something? Or a taste? But it’s seriously one disgusting flavor.

Yeah, no. Dumping the leaves. But at least the first three infusions were pretty good!

Hrm. This one is very light, but interesting.

Yet another takgoti + Samovar = awesome treat! The leaves here are quite tiny, and they smell of rose, almost. Very fruity-floral.

I’ve only had lychee in terms of lychee jelly in bubble tea or lychee-flavored juice drinks. I’ve never had the fruit itself, but when I think of lychee I think juicy-sweet, so I’m a big ? is appearing over my head. The other big ? is that takgoti said to steep this up between 170-175, which is interesting for a black tea.

So I watched this steep to a lovely light nut brown, and the smell coming from the cup smells like sweet, candied roses. My first sip… I was surprised at how light this one is! Very ethereal, if I do say so myself. Gossamer-like.

The black tea base here is more cuddly than substantial, and it fades softly into a floral-like note. It tastes like a rose tea, almost. What differentiates it a bit, though, is the juicy sweetness that is the endnote of every sip. It’s very lychee, if I do say so myself.

As it cools, the floral note becomes more of a blanket for the lychee fruit taste, which I actually really enjoy. So juicy and full and luscious. I can imagine this one being awesome iced, as Samovar recommends. It might bring the fruity notes out a little bit to the forefront. I’m finding I’m enjoying this one more lukewarm than hot-out-of-the-pot.

I can’t see myself craving this all the time. It’s really delicate and serene, which is wonderful, but I could see myself tiring of this. Iced, on the other hand, might be pretty awesome. I actually might try it like that and see what happens.

I’m sort of becoming a big fan of this Samovar-thing. takgoti, you devil, you… you are the ultimate converter to the Samovar experience.

Yesterday evening, it started snowing. I am no stranger to snow, but it’s been noticeably absent from these parts for the past number of years. We’ll get one, maybe two inches – barely enough to cover the ground. When I was in high school, we’d hope against hope that the school board would take pity on us and cancel school for the day [and since we usually don’t get much they typically would, even though it was definitely drivable].

This year, we got dumped with 14-16 inches during the big east coast snowfall. In between then and now, we received a few more inches. Yesterday evening, the weather graced us with another 4-6. This has prompted a number of silly hash tags on twitter, like #snOMG, #snowpocalypse, and #precipageddon [that last one may be my favorite].

Last night’s snow was packing snow. For those who might not be familiar, that means it was coming down in big, airy flakes that are optimal for creating those spherical orbs of crystallized H20 that people sometimes like to chuck at each other or stack into vaguely humanoid forms. This was the kind of snow that used to get me crazy excited as a child, because I knew I’d be decking a few kids in my neighborhood before someone got hurt and we all got yelled at. [Ah, childhood.] Even now, it’s the snow that I find the prettiest. There’s something romantic about it, and it demands a tea with a hazy warmth about it.

Deciding to chance it on something new, I brewed up a cup of Vanilla Dian Hong while I watched the flakes float silently down outside in between physics problems. [I should add at this point that this is one of my favorite contemplative “it’s snowing outside” songs ever – http://bit.ly/c5811d – should you need/want one.] So I sat there, working through problems, watching the snow, and smelling the tea while I waited for it to cool.

It smelled like vanilla, unsurprisingly, but with an edge. It almost smelled…malty. Maybe earthy? It reminded me a bit of pu-erh, actually, and I did find that surprising. Once I thought it had cooled enough to sip without fear of scalding, I went ahead and slurped in a bit.

I’m not sure how to describe what transpired, but it resulted in one of the more interesting mouthfeels I’ve had in a while. It was as though the outside borders of the liquid was watery; tiptoeing on but not quite breaking ground into bitter. It was a little metallic, in a way, almost…coppery? The center of tea, however, was rich and flavorful. This was all in one mouthful, and all when it was held in place without swallowing, and unfortunately that’s the best I can do to explain it.

The center of the tea didn’t have a lot of vanilla taste to me, which was maybe a little disappointing, but it did taste like something good. Part of it was malt. That was unmistakable to me, but it took me a long time to place what the other thing was. Once I did, it was one of those things that made me “D’oh” out loud. It tasted like graham cracker. I haven’t had graham crackers in a long time. Realizing that this is what I was tasting almost instantly transported me back to when I was little and my brother would fight at the end of lunch over who got to split the cracker down its perforated seam. I used to like to dunk my sections of cracker in my apple juice. [Don’t make that face at me; it’s good! Seven-year-old me promises. Cross her heart!]

As the tea cooled down to lukewarm, the vanilla came out of hiding and was much more present in the tea, which made me smile. Sometimes, when the sweetness would fade away at the tip of my tongue, I could taste a spicy puff of black pepper. When I exhaled, I could taste the vanilla on my breath, and the scent rising out of my cup began to remind me of pipe tobacco.

This tea was best to me at a bit below hot to lukewarm. It’s something that I’m looking forward to trying again, because I found it to be pretty complex. It lent itself very well to homework and snow, and since we’re supposed to be getting more snow in soon [and I doubt my load of homework’s going to lighten before the semester’s over], I may find myself in another opportune setting this weekend.

I tried this tea several ways, trying to unlock its secrets. Long steep-lower temps(1min+, 185F), boiling short-steeps(30 seconds), varying quantities of water. I literally have tried everything. None of the attempts jumped out as enjoyable for me. The Barley flavour is overpowering for about 3 steeps (plus rinse). At that point the caramel or raison sweetness start to present itself, with the barley still lingering. The aroma of hay/barley persists up to the fifth steep easily. This might be more suitable for dark-roast or coffee lovers, but for my money, I’d rather spend the few extra dollars and get Samovar’s Monkey Picked, which tends to evolve better with every steep. In Wuyi’s case, its just the same for one too many steeps for me.

Just look at all the ingredients in here! To be honest I was skeptical at first thinking maybe it would be to busy… Glady, I was wrong, very smooth and a very tasty cup of tea! …Yum!

My Firefox crashed and I lost my notes. Blerg. Was just typing as I sipped so I really don’t know what all I wrote. Something along the lines of:

Stout, smooth, thick, sweet, malty with chocolate and fruit, would be perfect for a breakfast time tea. With that in mind, added a little milk and sugar to my cup (Samovar says it is good so let’s try it out).

Yeah, it’s goooooood. Just a hair smoother/softer/less tannic at the end. This would be a super morning tea to take to work. Rating going up for that. Mmm.

6.2g/17oz

Afternoon tea brake! I’m ignoring work to try to mitigate the grump.

Oh, this smells nice. Chocolaty. I even got a whiff or two of what smells like chocolate syrup, so when I say chocolaty, I mean it. Cocoa sure, but sweeter. The dry leaf smells different though. Not so much chocolate as dried plums or maybe raisins (though not quite as thickly sweet smelling). It brews up very dark but very clear. It’s very pretty. I did catch a quick whiff of something that made me think of wet dog but now I can’t find it again (thank goodness) and instead get chocolate syrup.

It’s very smooth. A thinner body that I was expecting but not a thin taste. Earthy like a Yunnan but darker, deeper tasting. As it cools there is a bit of malty sweetness that hits me in the back of my mouth when I swallow. At the very end of each swallow, there is a hint of smokiness that just barely pokes through. Took me a while to figure out what it was, actually, but it reminds me of the sweet smoky tarry taste in Samovar’s Lapsang Souchong. Not much – anti-lapsang-ers no need to fear – just a tiny little poke to the tastebuds consisting mostly of the sweet tarry, not actually barbecue smoky. It reminds me of the pine poky I get from Rishi’s Keemun but sweeter, softer and smoother.

It’s a heavy tea even if it has a smooth feel to it. Very rich, dark tasting. I think I probably should have gone for a lighter tea today because this tea is good but I’m just not quite clicking with it. I’m rating it based on my experience right now but honestly? It’ll probably change in the future. When I’m in a rich, Yunnan-ish sort of mood, I think I’ll appreciate this more. Until then, it’s not quite love.

3g/8oz

No matter what sex, gender, orientation, etc., this tea will put hair on your chest! This tea could start a fire it is soo smokey and tarry. With all that said, this is an EXCELLENT tea and I highly recommend it if any of this sounds interesting to you. Be warned if you are out drinking a bunch of teas, save this one for last it is very powerful.

I heart genmaicha teas, I heart matcha powder. Samovar put the two together for an epic win! everyone has some pretty decent reviews already so I’m going to leave it at that!

My current favorite oolong. It is expensive, but it’s such a gorgeous tea. Beautiful to drink, gorgeous full leaves, and you can re-steep this one over and over again.

This tea is soo good, when you drink it it’s like you’ve never had mint tea before. Be warned, after tasting this tea you will throw out all your other mint tea.

I miss this tea. Genghis Khan Super Horse 1206 AD is what got me into pu-erh tea. Nothing has come close to it’s superiority. Also what a great name!

yummmy yum yum.. so creamy and toasty..