Unknown from China

Thank you Sil for this sample! Twas quite the yummy cuppa. I was pleasantly surprised.
Mind you, I had it a few days ago during one of the Steepster outages, thus am logging it now… so all I can recall is that it was sweet, with a hint of smoke and a whole lotta artichoke or the “green” part of avocado (ie not the creamy taste)
Either way, it was delish :)

Sil, is this the “smokey black tea from China?”
Last time I logged it under ‘Random Steepings’, LOL.
Oh well, no matter, it’s a sipdown!
I didn’t find it really to be THAT smokey, but it was tasty, with an interesting menthol taste & tip of tongue sensation during the last couple of sips!
Thanks Sil!

1 tbsp used for 248 ml

Too much astringency. Dark cherry flavour that seems authentic.

Thanks Sil for sharing this with me!

Thanks to Sil for this sample!! It’s a backlog from ages ago that I completely forgot to log. Oops!
Anyhow, not bad for a random rooibos. The strawberry is very faint and slightly artificial, but pleasant. I was super sleepy so can’t recall more than that. I’ll have to rate it next time.
Thanks to Sil for the sample!! All the way from China :D

Apparently i haven’t logged this the few times that i’ve had it but yay for sipdowns!I enjoyed this one and have been drinking it up while watching the weakest link doctor who special (uk) :)

Had this one this afternoon to see if a green tea would help. I also figure i need to make it through some of my randoms from china, especially the green ones in relatively short order. I wish i had ANY sense of what this one was because it’s a lovely sweet cup of sunshine.

Sooooo… my baggie reads “Other Random Black Golden Tip” – is it this one, or the other one?! Ahhhhhhh :P I’ll have to find the first one and see if there’s any visual difference or anything, otherwise I may never know…. (Sil, Raritea – any clarification on this? I know you guys packed it up :D).

Anyhow, my house is shockingly cool enough for me to want warm tea! This coming on a day where we hit 32C, and 42C with the humidex. Good work, A/C! (Gonna be expensive though, eeps!) So I grabbed a couple random-ish teas from one of the various billion boxes upstairs to make a bit more headway on smaller samples.

This tea, although not bad, isn’t really my thing. I think I brewed it a bit weak (maybe 2 min wasn’t enough), though that’s not really an issue – it’s just more hay-y than chocolatey, and I much prefer a good dose of chocolate. That said, there’s no astringency, and it’s warm and malty… certainly a good tea for those with a greater acceptance of black teas than me!

Thanks for sharing some of it with me, Sil!

ETA: Re-steep was unremarkable.

sipdown on this one today as well! I’m very nearly out of the teas i brought back from china – well the ones that weren’t packaged in tins or individual servings. While it makes me sad, i’m also really glad that i’ve been able to get through them and enjoy them while i’ve had them…as well as share with others!

had this today too. bed time now. overtired and overwhelmed. tomorrow will be a better day.

I guess i forgot to log this the first time i had it. This is one of the teas i brought with me back from china. What is most surprising is how much raritea enjoyed it since she’s usually on the other end of YAY! in terms of types of teas we like :)

This tea though? I wish i knew what it was since it’s smooth, chocolatey and sweet with no additives. It’s a very very nice black tea, on the less ROBUST IN YOUR FACE variety, but a very pleasant cup.

1 tablespoon used for 375 ml

Smokiness. Slight astringency.

Thanks Sil for sharing!

Sipdown! Thanks Sil!

Blech. I brewed this one up pretty strong, and that was a mistake; although the strawberry flavour in here is fairly apparent (though rather fake, not that I care about that), I’m getting an overwhelming medicinal taste from the rooibos which is making me gag. Perhaps it would be ok if brewed for a shorter time or with a higher water:leaf ratio, but I can’t undo what I’ve done! (Well, I could add more water. We’ll see.)

Anyways, interesting to try a flavoured rooibos all the way from China! I wish it had been honeybush, sigh.

Sipdown! 835. Apparently I tried this one previous, but had forgotten. Similar impressions to last time; tastes like a nice, light, vegetal dragonwell. Pretty delicious.

Mmmmhhhh. Dragonwell. Thanks to Sil for a sample of this one. To my palate, it is a fairly standard dragonwell, which means it’s sweet and light and vegetal-beany. Quite tasty, and a big step up from the “Green Bamboo” tea I just drank. I may not be getting the full extent of this one given that I’m using it as a palate cleanser, haha. I have some more left to try later, though, so I don’t feel too bad. My general conclusion on dragonwells is that as long as they’re reasonably fresh, I like them. I have way too much other stuff going on to attempt to find “the perfect dragon well”; besides, they inevitably change from year to year, so I feel like it would be a futile search. Hence I am happy to drink whatever variation of this tea I come across, so yum! (Also, I probably could/should have steeped for an extra 30s for a bit more flavour).

Thanks to Sil for bringing back this random tea from China :D Also, sip down, back at 791 after adding/removing Bluebird Tea Co. teas.

The flavour is a bit of a spiced floral cherry sort… but very mild. I may have underleafed my cup though – I’m not sure if there was a full 1.5tsp of leaf in my baggie, and I didn’t check, just brewed it in ~8 oz. I kept the infusion time pretty low, though I don’t think that would have contributed to the mild flavour. Anyways, as I mentioned, it’s more of a floral cherry flavour rather than tart, which is what I prefer, so I preferred Cherry Fantasy from Tealux to this tea. The base is fairly nondescript here… nothing more to say about it!

1 tbsp used for 248 ml

Very slight creaminess. Strawberry taste only mildly artificial. Sweet note accompanying the strawberry.

Thanks to Sil for sharing this with me!

1 tablespoon for 375 ml

Smooth, slight creamy mouth-feel. No astringency. Very slight licorice-like sugary sweetness in background.

Thanks to Sil for sharing this with me!