Various Artists

No-Named sample of Li Shan/Pear Mountain Oolong today in a baggy from LP in an LPT order.

Everything about this tea is lovely. its like perfect fruity floral water with just a hint of butter.. notes of super fresh green apples or pears or peaches, along with floral in the aroma, and the taste is of lovely fresh green tea leaf, sweet and with no bitterness.

second cup and its leaf and butter in the nose, its really the kind of tea I could swim in and drink gallons of all day long.

If you’re reading this I would be interested to know where it came from

Urgh. This is annoying me so much not being able to do tasting notes, I think i’m just going to review my cold.

This cold is an interesting one: initial steeps were very hot, ending in me sleeping only four hours last night which wasnt great. The body is medium sore, with the headfeel definitely strong enough to be in the ache category but not as strong as, say, a migraine. My nose is also blocked so im frequently having to bump this with sudafed.

The most amazing thing is the mouthy feeels & huiguan, I just cant taste anything! for three days! Oh how fun that has made drinking tea. They are on to a winner with that one.

medium to strong astringency

I steeped this in a 100ml gaiwan with boiling water

Had a random ‘turkish tea’ given me to try by a Turkish girl.

Tasted like Tobacco, specifically cigars and something slightly spicy. I couldnt place what type of leaf it was, I was listening out for hints but couldnt place it. Wasnt too malty and no sweet notes I could get.

Apparently it probably was Rize tea https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rize_Tea

Nice of her to offer me some. :)

I was using a second cup for my leaves and in a sleepy haze steeped it. It was Ba Xian & a Sheng.

Some nuttiness & cream & some menthol to lift it, with some bitterness.

I dont think it would qualify for a master blend unfortunately. But I ended up enjoying it by pure surprise :D

Hey everyone, I am back! Between me moving out and breaking up with my long-term boyfriend, I found that it had killed my creativity and joy a little bit, so I had absolutely no inspiration for tea for a while. It feels good to be back, though, and I am back in force considering I am planning on making a big order from Harney and Sons. I don’t think it’s sold locally except for Indigo, which only ever carries a selection of 4 teas, all in sachet form. I’m ordering a tin of Paris, which I fell in love with (in loose leaf this time), and Boston, which I feel like is one I would really enjoy just based on its description. I need to get at least one more in order to qualify for free shipping. Does anyone have a recommendation for a good H&S tea? I generally enjoy blacks, flavoured and unflavoured, and green tea (though nothing genmaicha-like, don’t like the toastyness). Will go for herbal if it’s really good!

Today I am finishing off my mysterious “Black tea with coconut and berries”, which I have come to love and really felt comforting to sip in my toughest moments. I would love to find a replacement for this tea, as I have really come to enjoy the combination of the bright fruitiness with a delicate sweep of sweet coconut in the background, all balanced on a fine foundation of a black the base. At least now I have a tea mason jar freed up so I can fill it with more wonderful tea! If I could just get the damned sticker off completely…

Having a go at one of LP’s pu-erh sample packets. This one was unlabelled, and looked like a fourth of a tiny tea cake. I actually pulled out my digital scale for the first time since buying it (over a year ago… lol) and the piece weighed 7g. I thought this might be too much to use for a single mug of tea, but I was unable to break it in half as it was quite hard. So I did a really terrible mock version of gong fu brewing. It turned out OK, but I wouldn’t really know because I had no idea what I was doing, haha. I just went off of what I read in other people’s notes when they do multiple steepings.

So, I used boiling to near-boiling water for everything, since I don’t have a variable temperature kettle. Also… all my times are approximate.

I started with a 10 second rinse, since apparently that’s what you’re supposed to do with pu-erh tea. Next, I let it steep for about 20 seconds and I pulled out another mug to pour the tea between the two a few times to cool it down so that I could try it faster. The first infusion was too light, I couldn’t really pick out any definite flavours. The cake was still mostly packed though, so after the first infusion I loosened it up with a knife to get the leaves to separate a bit. The second infusion I left for maybe 30 seconds, and this one turned darker quicker. It also had a rather woodsy aroma, but the tea remained a light amber/orange tone, not the dark brown that I had come to expect with my other pu-erh experiences. This is the infusion I decided to drink and review. I have put aside the leaves so I might go back and use them a couple more times to see what happens.

The tea is pretty decent. I still have a hard time understanding the flavours of a pu-erh because I am not able to identify other notes other than a woodsy aroma that reminds me of the smell of wet, earthy moss. Nonetheless, I like this infusion and would call it a mild success. I would even say it reminds me a tiny bit of the earthiness of oolong, but with the slight fermenty flavour that pu-erh gets. That’s another thing: I know that pu-erh has a distinct flavour which comes from its fermentation, but I can’t isolate this note from the others in my infusion, even though I know its there and I can detect it. Dunno if pu-erh will ever really be my thing, but I will keep trying.

Drinking an unknown tea from last Christmas’ gift set from my mom. It is only labelled as “Black tea with coconut and berries.”

I don’t think I drank this for a very long time. I might not have logged it if I had – either on Steepster or in my brain – but the last time I remember drinking this was shortly after receiving it last Christmas. Which, by now, is almost a whole year. I made it as a side to my bowl of grapes this evening when I started feeling a bit hungry. Which probably just means I should skip the snacking and just have dinner already, since I ate lunch like 4 hours ago…

Anyway, I honestly don’t remember a lot about this tea, so it’s nice to feel like I’m drinking something almost new. I steeped it for about 2.5 minutes out of fear of the black tea becoming too astringent, which usually happens with lower-grade black teas, at least in my experience. The aroma is quite nice – a balanced mix of smooth black tea, sweet coconut and floral berry notes.

My first sips reveal that the flavour profile is not as balanced as the aroma. The berry notes seem to be lost in the slightly overpowering black tea base, which is the main flavour. The coconut and berries kind of dance around it, as if not wanting their toes stepped on by a big burly dancer. It’s not the smoothest tasting black tea, but it’s not all that bad. The good part is that it is not at all astringent, just overwhelming to the subtler notes of the tea. However, when the coconut and berries come through it is quite enjoyable. I think I’ll be drinking this tea more often now that I’ve refreshed my memory of it!

Edit: In hindsight, I suppose it was not a good idea to have this at 8pm, considering it’s now 1am and I’m usually asleep by 11..

Drinking that one unlabelled tea I have from the Christmas gift box my mom gave me. It’s black tea with coconut flakes. Pretty good in my opinion. The tea is a little bit astringent, but if I put in enough leaf and don’t leave it to steep for too long then it can be avoided (mostly). The coconut comes in as a subtly sweet aftertaste, also helping to combat the bitterness. Pretty average tea, but unique and good enough that I would drink it until it’s finished.

First time using this random tea template! I am glad someone made this, as currently I am drinking tea that I only know ingredients of, not the name or vendor. So here we go.

My mom kindly got me a tea gift set that came with a very cute plain white teapot that reminded us both of Mrs. Potts from Beauty and the Beast. The tea, however, is not looking too great. So far I have tried 3 of the 4 that were included in mini glass jars (which I will keep for tea storage, they are perfect!), and only liked one.

The one I am drinking right now is just labelled as “Green tea with tropical fruits and flower petals”. It’s alright, but the flowery aroma is a bit strong for my liking, and it’s hard to taste the fruitiness or green tea base. That being said, it’s a huge improvement from the tea I tried this morning: black tea with flower petals. I kid you not, this tea is so flowery I thought I was literally drinking a cup full of roses. While it smells very nice, it’s not something I look for in a tea. This experience prompted me to create my own tea giveaway thread, since I don’t see myself going back to these teas anytime soon! If you want to try them (or other teas I have listed), go to my tea trades thread:

http://steepster.com/discuss/12335-mookits-cupboard-tea-trades-and-giveaways

There were two other teas in the set, one of which I haven’t tried yet. One was a black tea with coconut that was pretty good. I can see myself finishing that one in time. The last one seems pretty straightforward: jasmine green tea. While I know what this should taste like, the flowery trend of this gift set has me a bit wary. Hopefully the jasmine will not be too strong!

On the 17th day of sipdowns…

I got this in a swap but I’m not actually sure what it is… It’s in an Adagio tin labeled “Pearl” but the list I received from the swapper said there were two other Adagio teas but no Pearl. I decided this must be Strawberry Shortcake from the list (though it doesn’t taste like it.) It was good, but not as wonderful when iced. I’m not terribly let down that I can’t figure out what the tea is but it was interesting to try to decipher the tea without having an ingredient list.

Sample picked from the Pu’erh Plus TTB. The label said 2013 Year of the Snake, “picked up in Hong Kong,” but since there is more than one entry for this shou, I’m placing my review here.

There was also another note on the packet: “Xin Cha: tea tree Lincang”.

Brewed in a ceramic gaiwan. Gave the leaf two 5-second rinses and a 2-minute rest. Steeping times: 8 seconds, 10, 8, 10, 10, 15, 20, 40; 1 minute, 2, 5, 10.

The dry leaf smells of leather and chocolate, and after resting in the pre-heated gaiwan, it smells like those little Brookside chocolate-covered fruits (the pomegranate and blueberry/acai ones specifically). Nothing like inhaling a ghost of a dessert.

The soup is clear and dark red, full-bodied, and smells of brown sugar. Even after resting in a zip baggie for at least a month, the leaf still has signs of plenty of humid storage. It was until infusion 6 that the fermentation taste went away completely, but there was some interesting development until then. 1 tastes sour, completely of fermentation. 2 is bitter-ish but also fruity, with a silky texture. 3 through 6 are much sweeter, but only on my tongue – the back of my throat tastes like coffee grinds. A cocoa aftertaste follows. These flavors are quite robust.

For infusions 7 through 11, a woody note replaces the fermentation and the intensity of flavor lightens (still sweet). The coffee grinds are still present in the back of the throat. The texture is creamy. The 12th infusion – the last one, very long steeping time – completely tastes of wood.

Additionally: I felt a little sluggish in the middle of the session. Relaxed sluggish.

Acquired through the Regional Group Buy. This is only for my second or third purple-ish tea. Still very new to me. I evaluated this tea as best as I could, and I tried to be as concrete in identifying the flavors I was smelling and tasting. I decided to first brew half the sample in a gaiwan and then then other half in an infuser mug.

120ml. No rinse. Steeping times: 30 seconds, 10, 20, 40, 60, 90; 2 minutes, 3, 5, 8, 12.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BJsuYUQB4eJ/

I had difficulty discerning specific notes in the dry leaf aroma. I wrote: sweet, cloves, grain-like, Cheerios. I let the leaf rest in the pre-heated bowl and smelled an entirely different aroma: tart berries, particularly blackberries and gooseberries. The wet leaf aroma is combination of the previous, smelling of pies made with tart berries, and of Cheerios.

The gongfu method produces a liquor the color of rose quartz. The body is medium, and the texture creamy, and the aftertaste consistently sweet. The tasting portion starts off sour – literally. At the second and third, the tart berries stay in the front of my mouth while the Cheerios note rests in the back. The fourth and fifth infusions are more grainy than sweet/tart. From the sixth infusion to the end, the liquor tastes sweet with a note of chard, the grain having disappeared entirely.

I found steeping the leaf Western method more favorable. This leaf is meant to be steeped this way. Steeping times: 3 minutes, 5, 10.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BJxxlyuhD15/

Two days later, I had an easier time picking out what I was smelling in the aromas. Dry: rhubarb, gooseberries, gooseberry pie. Wet: same notes, but the sweet- and tartness are stronger. I can’t tell what the liquor color is because the inside of the mug is blue. This time, the body is fuller. The first cup, at first taste, has a bitter grass notes, underneath of which is plum. As I continue to drink, the tea becomes more flavorful. The bitterness disappears, the sweetness completely takes over, and the delightfully fruity aftertaste lasts for minutes. The second and third cups taste lighter and not as flavorful, but are just as sweet, with no bitterness at all.

Additionally, I couldn’t find anything off-putting about this tea. Preparing Purple Leaf Tea the gongfu method draws it out too much. Consequently, its personality doesn’t shine through. I highly recommend to steep the leaf in an infuser mug like me or a larger pot. The leaf gives out so much more.

Beorhthraefn included a sample of Lover’s Cup by Sereni-tea in the Secret Pumpkin package. Thank you!

Brewed in an infuser mug. This is a white tea blend with rose petals and rose flavoring. It tastes like pure rose tisane but light, unlike actual rose tea. I can’t taste the Bai Mu Dan base at all. Not unpleasant, just OK to drink. Wouldn’t have it again.

Beorhthraefn included a sample of Taj Mahal by Sereni-tea in the Secret Pumpkin package. Thank you!

I didn’t examine the leaf, but I remember it being close to a typical masala chai, containing whole but short leaf black tea, cinnamon, clove, cardamon , etc.

Brewed on the stove-top with almond milk. I shouldn’t made this with almond milk. It was my first time having it ever and I wanted to try masala chai with something other than 2% milk. Not only did it not properly boil, but it didn’t taste all that good (even by itself). But underneath that I could still tell that this blend tasted strong, malty, slightly peppery, and cinnamon-y. Average but OK.

Beorhthraefn included a sample of 8 Immortals Dancong by Sereni-tea in the Secret Pumpkin package. Thank you!

Brewed in an infuser mug. Steeping times: 2 minutes, 4, 8. The wet leaf smells muscatel and like wet rocks. The liquor is clearly golden, full-bodied, and juicy with white grapes. Can’t really evaluate the quality considering my lack of experience with Dan Cong, but this was nice to drink.

Jasmine White tea – might be Mountain Stream teas but I don’t have any company info on the package, sipdown. Backlog 5/8
212F, 3.5g
sweet jasmine aroma
well scented, sweet and clean through 2 steeps
the third steep loses the scent

Sipdow @work.
Panda pearls – small rolled balls of tea. Might be white, might be green, I’m not sure. Kind of thick body, little bit of fruit, sweetness. Reminds me of green tea due to the subtle taste, but it’s been open to air for a while too…. Flavor is a little to subtle for me. I like the taste to be more forward. 70

The other one – Roasted Dragonwell. Experimental Liquid Proust from May 2016.
2min, 180F – roasted, hint of sweetness, sour nuts – light. Kind of a bad aftertaste.
Sipdown.

I’m making progress on both drinking down my green tea and avoiding adding too many more teas to my stash!

Roasted Sencha – received from Liquid Proust at the 2016 Midwest Teafest as an experiment.
2min, 180F – roast, sweet sour chestnuts, green arugula, drying and coating.
It’s interesting and of the two (this and roasted dragonwell), I like this one better.

Sipdown.

Anxi Benshan Oolong from Little Woods
Sipdown
Bought this for work. I was disappointed with the flavor of this tea. Do I not like green oolongs anymore or is this tea not good? Turns out I wasn’t letting it steep for long enough….oops. Still, not the best tea. I still like green oolongs, but not this one. 70

Keemum Mao Feng (organic) – Little Woods (sample)
200F, 2 min
I was expecting a similar profile to their other Keemum, but I was surprised. It’s smokey. Bread, sweet, smokey. I wouldn’t mind ordering something similar.

Unknown oolong ball from Oolong group buy 2016:
7.1g, 195F, 100ml shibo
15s rinse – pale yellow, hint of sugar cane? 5 min rest
20s – hint of sugar cane, still really balled up & resisting my try at breaking it apart
25s – why do I smell pickles? honeysuckle, clover?
Upped water temperature to boiling in an attempt to get more flavor than hints of something.
15s – ??, ball mostly fallen apart, with a little bit of dry leaf left
30s – soft, hints of something, pretty orange color for having little to no discernible flavor, hint of floral
honeysuckle, clover as it cools, kind of green aftertaste.
I didn’t mind drinking this. I wish it tasted more than a hint of something. If it was influenced by the age of the tea? I can only evaluate what I have.