Teas Etc

I do adore this tea – smoky, smooth and sweet. It’s my rainy-day tea, and that describes today perfectly.

This is tasting better and better to me nowadays. Maybe I’m getting used to the herbally/potpourri flavor. It’s definitely more enjoyable if I use less leaf (herbs?). I mainly drink this “medicinally” (in the evenings as a sleep aid or in the daytime if I feel anxious) and I often make the mistake of thinking “more is better”! But too much leaf just tastes overwhelmingly potpourri-ish and icky. So, just a little less than 1 level teaspoon per 12 oz. is perfect.

You really don’t need much. It’s pretty potent!

Have a bit of insomnia so I’m trying out this tea.

It’s what you’d expect from chamomile and lavender. The chamomile is apple-y and the lavender is herbally pungent—I’m reminded very strongly of rosemary chicken!

The two flavors are very distinct and very potent. I feel like I’m drinking a fresh bowl of potpourri! Like a lavender sachet. But I mean this in a good way—it’s not a stale, icky, dusty bowl of potpourri. It’s potpourri that’s been freshly picked and a bit sundried.

I may have brewed this too strong—2 heaping teaspoons in 12oz. with boiling water. My mug is practically filled with the tea/herbs.

(would you like some water with your herbs?)

I think I’m babbling now—must’ve kicked in!

Some quick impressions (typed up between stolen moments at work):

Scent: Faintly like fresh hay and green leaves. Some sweetness.
Taste: Sweet and refreshing!! Very root-like with some fresh green earth. This has been steeping for awhile in my travel mug, so the taste is a bit toasty too.

I really like this tea—I like its sweet earthy green-ness. And it looks strangely cool also—like little dusty green pebbles of tea. They stay predominantly pebble-y while brewing too, with just a couple here and there gaining the courage to unfurl.

Even from my limited experience, this seems like a very good assam. I only have one tea of the same type to compare it too and that is A&D’s Thomas Sampson.

This seems lighter bodied than TS. But the scent is very similar—malty and Guinness-like…a bit biscuity. The color is a deep, very reddish amber. The taste is all malt, slightly sweet and bready—but very astringent and drying in the mouth.

I like it, it’s very good to have with a heavy meal—but I’m not sure I would choose this over A&D’s assam, for some reason. Although, wouldn’t it be funny if they both came from the same estate?

This is a lovely tea. The buttery aspect is very much there; there’s a rich, sweet scent that rises from the hot tea and the taste is reminiscent of artichoke hearts dipped in butter, and faintly sweet creamery butter at that. I agree with the reviewer that says there’s something reminiscent of a salty feel hovering around the periphery without anything actually being salty about the taste itself, which is an aspect I particularly like. On the second infusion of this tea I can detect a ghost-like sweetness which is present as the faintest of aftertastes. Drinking this is really a lovely and pleasurable experience.

Warming up after a wet day sailing with warm, well rounded Green Dragon Oolong from Teas Etc. One of my favorites.

Weird… I just uploaded this to my website today!! Synchronistic thought processes scare me!

This is so nice and smooth! I usually turn away from drinking many black teas because I usually find the flavor combination of floral and spicy to be a bit too much for my palate.

The cool thing about this tea, which might give me the desire to try other blacks, is that it has another flavor profile that helps to smooth out the over all taste. I really starting to notice this great nutty flavor coming from the tea as it began to cool down.The nuttiness brings both the floral and the spicy completely into check rounds out all of the pointer edges of this tea. I think i like this one best iced.

While it remains hot this is still pleasant and I can drink it comfortably with no milk or sugar. The spice and floral flavors do play nice together even if they can be strong. They are never “put down that cup” strong, but as a fan of oolongs and greens some times I feel black tea flavors are just a bit strong in general. So the fact I didn’t feel the need to put anything in this tea says something.

This is….interesting. It’s not so much “honeydew” as it is asparagus! :O It’s a very “vegetal” tasting tea. And, in the beginning, the vegetable flavor is very potent. But as the liquid cools, notes of white flowers and (finally!) melon emerge. The scent, upon cool down, reminds me of melon chewing gum! In some Korean restaurants around here, they give you sticks of melon-flavored gum with the check after the meal. And the scent is exactly like that!

So, honestly, I kind of like this…but not really. It was good to try as a sample though!

This is Teas Etc’s newest batch of Golden Monkey, not the tea that came in second place in the World Tea Championship. To be honest, I like this new batch better. It is spicier and more intense. The floral notes seem to mesh better with spice than with the more intense cocoa notes of the last batch. Extraordinary. Yum.

Today, this tastes like very soft, slate-y peat moss. The “slate-y” aspect is pronounced. It’s very much how I imagine rain-soaked granite to taste like. There’s this stone-like, almost sandy (but not gritty), lichen and clover flavor.

Yes, this is very soft and slate-y. Not getting too much brine or earth, right now.

Today, along with the usual pu’erh-type oceanic-like earthiness, I’m detecting some sweetness. A “clear” sweet — like plain white sugar that was just dissolved in hot water with no chance to caramelize. I’m sensing this on my second steeping.

How interesting to get salt-water taffy from a pu’erh!

Delicious after dinner…almost like an extension of the meal. The taste is savory and almost salty—like a tea “broth”. Yum! :)