Samovar

This stuff must have crack in it.

There is no other reason that I would wind up craving what is, basically, a genmaicha. I don’t really like genmaicha. But this? SO GOOD. All it takes is for someone to mention it and suddenly I’m thinking, “Mmm, that sounds good. I need to make some.” And then I’m turning the Zojirushi down and pulling this out.

While it brews I think, “It can’t possibly be as good as I remember. It’s a genmaicha. Sure, with matcha but that’s never improved the experience for me before.” By the time I’ve pretty much determined that this is really just a standard tea and no, I must have been nuts the previous times, my little timer goes off and it’s time to go have some tea.

So I take the first sip. “Popcorn-y. Yep, normal. But wait… Ooo, that end taste is sweet and delicious. Need more of that.” Second sip. “Mmm, that’s creamy. And what is that aftertaste? YUM.” Third sip. “Mmm, milky. Sweet and toasty and creamy. And sweet. Ooh, and milky. This is sooo good.” And suddenly I’m holding my saucer because the side table is too far away for my cup to go in between sips. If I didn’t look at this tea I would swear it had been made with milk, not water. It is that milky/creamy.

And now my cup is empty and I am revealing in the joy of the afterwarmth for a few before I go get a second steep ready.

See, crack. There is no other explanation.

The world was a cruel, cruel place this morning… and so far this afternoon is shaping up to be only marginally better. I figured green tea would be a good selection since I could use a yunomi to warm my hands (the cold makes me grumpy(ier)).

Wow. Lots of flavors going on here… Roasty, popcorn, creamy, a little sweet but sweet like wakame seaweed is sweet not sugar sweet. Okay, and now I’m tasting something like warmed milk. Absolutely zero bitterness or astringency. Leaves me with a thick, wet feeling in my mouth. Yeah, I know, I know. It’s a liquid, it is wet. But some teas leave a dry feeling. Not this. It really is like drinking roasted popcorn and warmed milk with a little dash of seaweed in it.

Rating-wise the jury is still out on this. I have to decide if I love it or just like it. Ultimately it will depend on how much I get into the warmed milk flavor of it. Depending on how that goes this tea will either end up being a ‘good but not for me’ or an ‘awesome-ness in tea form’. I will say this – the only other genmaicha + matcha that I’ve had was from Den’s and this one is much better. The Den’s one definitely fell into the the ‘good but not for me’ category as does genmaicha plain typically. I’ll drink it and enjoy it but never felt the urge to stock some in my pantry. This one…. might break out of that box.

Did a quick rinse before making two cups of this. Brews up dark, smells very sweet and wet earthy and dark. The taste is smooth and mild with a little damp earth and fruit and maybe a little sweet grass.

I don’t think I’m ever going to love pu-erh – the type of sweetness it has seems to be a bit darkly fruity for me to really enjoy, like dried plums or raisins. I tend to gravitate toward lighter or floral sweetnesses. Regardless, I think this is a good tea. Nothing I’m going to crave (since it’s pu-erh) but enjoyable nonetheless.
4.7g/12oz

The dry leaves smell faintly sweet. The smell isn’t strong so I can’t really tell what kind of sweet. But it is pleasant. After a quick rinse, the leaves smelled like sweet tobacco. No fish though so we’re good.

I love the color of tea juice pu-ehr seems to make. Such a delightful dark ruby. I want to like this type of tea simply for that reason. Still no fish so that’s good. Not as fragrant as the last (and only other) pu-ehr I’ve tried but sweet… I can see raisin and maybe fresh cut hay?

Taste wise, this is remarkably inoffensive. I had always heard things about pu-ehr’s taste and my try of the fish pu-ehr (okay, not REALLY fish) pretty much confirmed the horror stories. (Well, not about the nails and bird feathers and cigarette butts because it was loose). So I was preparing for something I’d have to learn to like or look at with a different mindset to enjoy. I was all prepared to tell myself “No no, dirt is a GOOD flavor”. But I find I don’t have to. This is good without having to add qualifiers or adjust my thinking.

Smooth, sweet (but not so much like there is sugar in it though there is maybe a hint of that on the tail), a little dark/wild tasting at the end… maybe hay, maybe fresh, healthy dirt (you know, the rich dark kind with earthworms – and I need to stop that train of thought before this becomes the earthworm tea to me… and it might be too late), maybe some kind of fruit glaze – rum raisin glaze or something. Can’t quite peg it.

I can see the similarities between this one and the fish one I had previous. The sweetness is very similar as is the general expansion of flavors as I sip on it. But this one is much milder and the flavors blend together a bit better without any fish taste so unlike the last one, I don’t have to have multiple steeps before I figure out if I like this. I do. It’s good. I’m not sure if I’m going to be driven to ordering it when I finally place my Samovar order, but I will enjoy this sample.

Thanks to takgoti for showing me pu-ehr doesn’t have to equal fish!

The dry leaves smell sweet and fruity and make me smile when I sniff them. They are dark green with white tea’s characteristic white downy fuzz. The fragrance is hypnotic, like fruit and flowers and the slightest note of incense. It would make the perfect harem drink emerging from the fantasy world of nineteenth century Orientalist paintings. I can picture houris and bellydancers drinking this while eating Turkish delight as they recline on their silk cushions, brush each other’s hair, and tell scandalous stories.

The incense, fruit, and flowers that made promises in the fragrance come through in the taste. It is a languid sensual tea. It would make an excellent meditation tea.

Much thanks to takgoti for this lovely experience. I will definitely be buying more of this tea.

Crazy sweet and nectary and fruity. Makes me think of mango or pineapple or honeysuckle but with a faint undernote of hay – sweet but not as sugary sweet as the nectar sweetness going on, a bit of a more solid sweet. I’m bumping up my rating a little because this is fantastic.
5.7g/12oz

Can’t really smell much from the dry leaf, but about 10 seconds after the water hits them, there’s this lovely whoosh of scent. I can’t peg the smell though. Sweet, a little floral but there’s something else. The company gives the the options of stone fruit and hay. Well, I have no clue what a stone fruit is, much less what it smells like. Can’t really see the hay much either. Smells more like apricots to me.

Oooh, the taste. It sweet but not sugary sweet. Fruit sweet. Like apricot nectar. Not that I’ve had apricot nectar. But I think if I did, it would taste like this. The flavor is delicate yet strong. Does that make sense? It’s not a weak flavor by any means. But it tastes very soft-breeze-on-a-summer-day.

Two thumbs up! This is going on the list of “Things to buy on my first Samovar order”.

The Final Sipdown: Day 22
Decupboarding Total: 43

So I’m having some issues with The Final Sipdown. It feels like I have nothing left to finish off with just one more cup. I’ve been trying to do some pre-gaming, but to pre-game and decupboard two a day is getting difficult. Because of this, today I decided to heck with it, I’m going to take a short break and just have a good tea. So out came Royal Garland.

And one big cup later, yep, decupboarded. Oops.

Oddly enough, this has the Darjeeling notes I’ve been complaining about in a couple of other teas lately, but I like it in this. Perhaps because the Darjeeling taste is more on the front end here – a bit fibery, nicely bright but not astringent or tart – and then is followed by a buttered roll type taste. The kind of buttered roll where there is more butter than roll and the roll is warm so the butter is all melty and oozy.

Then the tea starts cooling a bit and that Darjeeling taste turns more tropical fruits but the warm buttered roll taste is still there, making me think of toasted buttery fruits. Grilled papaya or guava, perhaps. Then there is a lovely littler floral nectar poof at the end. Ah, that’s so nice. And the whole flavor and sweetness coats my mouth and clings a bit after each sip, making me feel like I just swallowed a bit of honey.

So yeah, kind of has the same Darjeeling note that I seem to keep picking out (and picking on) in teas lately. But yet, so totally not the same at all.

Such a pretty cup from beginning to end. The leaves are long, fuzzy and colorful – really pretty. The liquid pours out as a crystal clear light gold. The smell is gorgeous with notes that are simultaneously starchy/bread/chewy and sweet/light/fruity/honeyed. And after it cools just a minute or so, the taste is just… ahh! Grilled plantains drizzled in honey… with honeysuckle or plumeria around to add a high, floral sweetness. Every sip is like a mini tropical vacation.
3g/6oz

This smells so fresh buttery that my mouth is watering. Literally. I’m drooling.

Tried this at a lower temp to see how that adjusted the taste. Still has the bright, Darjeeling-esque notes of muscatel that I tasted at the higher temp but there is more of a buttery taste to it, too. Not quite as much as the smell, though. Also, the Darjeeling aspect of the tea isn’t as hard hitting as at a higher temp. Now it tastes more like a softer oolong, maybe grown in the same region. There’s still a hoppy note at the end, but it seems to blend better with the softer taste of the tea. Almost gives me flashbacks of the Schlafly brewery tour and tasting from yesterday, but not quite.

I definitely like it better brewed at 195 so far due to the slightly softer taste to the tea and the addition of the buttery taste that, to me, seems to pull the flavors together a little better. I think I have enough for one more session with this and I might go down to 180 just to see how it does there.

Sharing this one with the husband. He said it tasted like an oolong plus herbal but then he’s not really had much experience with Darjeelings so I think the fruity Darjeeling flavor is hitting him as fruity herbal. He didn’t try this one at a higher temp, just 195 so can’t compare that way, but overall gives the tea a 4/5 stars. I think if I could get a little bit more buttery out of it, I’d make it a 4, too. Again, I’ll see how the last bit does at about 180.

Finally grabbed some of this so I could compare it to the tastiness that is Zealong Dark. Ultimately, though I still enjoy this one, Zealong Dark wins the taste off.

I’m giving this a bump because apparently this is the tea I crave when I want a toasty, darker oolong. It’s sweet and roasty but doesn’t make me think of cigar smoke. There’s a lot going on in this tea. I’ve already mentioned the sweet and roasty but there’s some stone fruit, some honey and even some raw-sugar-like notes. It’s woodsy and somewhat autumn-y with slight notes of rawness that remind me of Nilgiri but in a smooth way I can totally get behind. As the tea cools, the flavor continues to develop, getting more and more complex. I don’t normally go for darker oolongs but this one is worth being the exception.

ETA: Gave some of the second steep to the husband and he said that it reminded him a bit of genmaicha. And now that he says that, I can see it. It’s got a similar roasty, toasty, smooth taste.
5g/10oz

After the sweet and unsubstantial teas I’ve had this afternoon, I wanted something with a little more darkness and depth. So this one seemed like a perfect match! Smooth and mellow but a strong enough roasted flavor that it easily defeats the aftertaste of goat cheese I’ve got going on from my lunchtime munching. There seems to be a bit more sweetness this time – an almost honey + orchid taste to it – compared to when I had it before.

I’m contemplating reconsidering the need to purchase this one (very decisive, I know). It’s not up my normal alley for oolongs but there’s definitely a place for it. And maybe even a place for it in my pantry. Maybe.

ETA: Shared with the husband because I’m sweet like that. He is giving it a tentative 4 and only tentative because of the sauce-related burning he is experiencing in his mouth at the moment. But first, pre-burning sips were rated as smooth and monkey-esque but roastier.

I only had a little bit left so I used it all. Since I went heavy on the leaf, I decreased the steep time just a tad. I wanted something warm and comforting and minty to help my oh so congested sinuses. It’s very warm and the spices are present and obvious without it being too spicy. I can see this being a good go-to tea when I’m feeling under the weather. It makes my sinuses happy.
3.7g/8oz

This tea seems to have quickly become the ‘go-to’ tea for when my honey feels sinus-y unpleasantness. It’s a great mint tea that has a warm depth and sweetness to it that makes it very friendly on unhappy nasal passages. Very refreshing and comforting, all rolled into one.

DH isn’t feeling well – his sinuses are attempting to secede – and I wanted tea, so I thought I’d combine tea-ness with being the good wifey. Takgoti sent me some of this and it is currently the only mint I have and mint is friendly to sinuses so I thought this would be a perfect time to try this out.

The dry leaf smells a bit like a chai so I was nervous I was about to fry DH’s sinuses instead of help them, but I went ahead. While I was pouring, I got a fantastic whiff of mint. But not plain ole mint. Refreshing mint. Mint with that fantastic feeling of cold whoosh.

Now, because this is ultimately being made for DH, I did add about a quarter teaspoon of sugar in there. Because, unless it is TheraFlu, I feel that any drink taken for medicinal purposes must be sweetened at least a little bit. I blame Mary Poppins. Normally, I would add honey but I’m really to lazy to do that right now.

Oh the taste! Minty and refreshing and wonderful. But better than plain mint. The spices give it a great full flavor without making me feel like I’m drinking a chai. I can’t pick out the individuals spices – they aren’t as strong tasting as the dry tea smells like they will be – but they combine with the mint to give this wonderful fresh feeling/taste without being obnoxious.

This is by far the best mint tea I’ve ever had. I rarely drink mint (I’m anti-peppermint as a general rule) but I definitely think I’m going to have to get some of this to have on hand because it is quite awesome. DH actually finished his cup before I did which is pretty much unheard of in this house. He did request I brew it a little stronger next time. I think that will be no problem. Initially I was hesitant to brew too long because of the spices involved, but after seeing how the flavors combine, I think a longer brew time will be happy-making.

Tasty flavored black tea, not overpowering. Used this with some canned lychees to make ice cream.

The tea brews up into a purple black liquor with the by now familiar somewhat pleasant, somewhat strange, wet yak smell of pu-erh. There is a strong overtone of orange and some kind of spice, perhaps a clove or cinnamon. Unlike other orange scented teas, this is not a sweet flowery orange but a strong orange, which I suppose matches the strength of the pu-erh. There is a whisper of ginger, but it is subdued.

Overall a very nice experience. It is a slow sipper for me because of the pu-erh, but I’m enjoying it with my morning rice.

Much thanks to takgoti for the tasting.

this tea is amazing! started drinking pu-ehr with this tea and i havent found one i like better. its so dark and smokey without being bitter. if i can only have one tea for the rest of my life, this would be it.

picked up this tea a little while back and im not to sure about it. i love the taste of green tea, and at first this has a nice bold green tea taste. but then the rice takes over and im left with a toasted cereal flavor in my mouth. the texture is good, one other reviewer said “buttery” and thats about right. i think i would enjoy this a bit more if it didn’t have the puffed rice added.

Seriously, it’s like eating a jasmine sugar cookie (without the sugary, though)… or maybe like a tea cake like my dad used to make with the addition of jasmine. Not overpowering or perfume-y and with a solid sweet and bready base taste. ♥

A pretty tea both visually (love the little balled up leaves) and taste-wise (mmm). Soft with a good jasmine taste that melds effortlessly into the taste of the tea. Beautiful.

I had been planning on having some Jasmine Silver Needle this afternoon, but then I got this DEEEEElightful package from takgoti. I had an extended brain freeze moment trying to decide which tea to try first and then I decided to make it easy on myself and pick this one – replacing my planned jasmine with this jasmine.

I love jasmine teas but prior to the Jasmine Silver Needle, my last two jasmine teas were… not great. I was ready to avoid jasmine for a while. Then I got the JSN in a swap and I was reminded how well jasmine can be when it is done right.

This is jasmine done right. The smell is gorgeous. Light but rich, not perfumy/fake. But the taste is where this one really shines. Because even badly done jasmine teas can SMELL okay. But taste? That’s harder.

This one is surprisingly deep of flavor. Samovar says it has hints of cocoa and a baked, almost cookie-like flavor. Not sure if I would go THAT far (I taste no chocolate chip) but there is a richer taste that is totally unexpected but very welcome. It makes the taste less one-dimensional jasmine and more like an overall taste of jasmine with a note of something almost bready underneath it. In a weird way, it reminds me a bit of King Hawaiian dinner rolls.

And since I feel totally insane saying THAT on a jasmine tea review, I will leave it there. Oh wait, one more thing: this? is sooooo good.

This is such an amazing tea with a panoply of fragrances and flavors as well as a wonderful sweetness. This is the last bit of the sample takgoti sent me and I’m so grateful to have it to help me get through today. It brings joy and sweetness.

The flavor is lovely with notes of resin, mango, and flowers. I need to order this tea.