Various Artists

Pinhead Gunpowder from a sample sale at Little Woods

- fairly old
-more savory
-umami-ish
-better than expected for age of tea/length of time it’s been in my cupboard

I’m making progress on drinking up my greens. I just don’t go for them at home.

For Green Loose Leaf Puerh from Gong-Fu tea
Work tea – earthy, just okay, not the best sheng, no idea how old it was, I managed to get through my overly optimistic purchase. So yay, I guess.

Backlog, review for Panda Pearls – Christmas present
I believe this is an oolong.
195F, westren
1. floral, thick, sweet
2. floral, thick, savory-sweet, floral aftertaste – peony? not jasmine or lilac, coating
3. repeat
I liked these a lot. I’ll need to ask my brother where he got them.

Backlog review for Dragons 4 Flowers (blooming tea bough in Atlanta)

I got these for Christmas from my brother along with a glass teapot. I really love that glass teapot – I think I need another. It’s so pretty.

I had two – one at 200F and 185F. Both balls delivered approximately the same flavors. The 200F was flowery, soft, and sweet. Long lingering flowery aftertaste. The 185F was more floral, like lilac. The steep at 200F had better flavors, so if I had more that’s where I would brew it.
Flowering teas are interesting and pretty, but are not a high priority to replace.

This review is for India Nilgiri ‘Hari Ghatta’ Oolong by What-cha.
I don’t feel like entering it. I didn’t like this tea at all.
190F, 5g, 100ml gaiwan
10s rinse – smells fruity, but with sour edge
20s steep – super drying, tea is sucking all moisture from my mouth. Taste is wood? unripe green apricots, sour, very unpleasant to drink. Dumped out tea.
10
Discarding rest my sample, not something I want to try again.

Love tea Phoenix Herb Co.
Herbal? 5min, 205F
Floral, berry with savory note in background. Pretty good.

Today I reorganized the tea cupboard and logged all my teas. Since November, I’ve increased tea count by about 100 teas. Crazy. Gotta work on reducing my cupboard by half.
In pursuit of this goal, I tried to drink my small samples today.

Tea- Artic Fire by Anna’s Tea Shop from Midwest Teafest

Smells fruity. 212F 8oz, 3min
Tastes vaguely fruity black, nothing memorable.

For Purple Leaf tea by Justea.
This tea is supposed to turn the water purple depending on water pH.
Hay, grass. 180F westren
3min- grayish purple color (not the most attractive or inviting color) Tastes creamy hay?? Almost milky, coating. More about texture than taste. Weird 75

Nandi Hills Black distributed by Justea from Liquid Proust’s group buy.
long twisty leaves, slightly smoky, sweet potato
Westren – 3min, 205F- smooth, sweet potao, slight smoke/spice, creamy
I got 3 or 4 good, consistent steeps from this. I liked this a lot. 90

Review for Ali Shan Cing Xin Baked by Tealyra. 8oz, 1tsp, 200F
Sipdown. Creamy, floral, thick, barely roasted. Getting more floral/lilac as I get further along in steeps.

I like this one. Could get more eventually, but I have too much tea and an order on the way. 85 I should probably enter this, but I don’t want to.

This review is for Numi’s Chocolate Rooibos. Free sample. 7min, 8oz, 210F.
Chocolatey, non-woody rooibos. Just okay. I’d rather have black tea with chocolate notes than this.

This note is really about how crazy work was today and how many samples came in. Samples that will impact work tomorrow (today?) and next Tues/Wed. I’ll get it all done, just hope it’s not a herald of how this summer’s going to be.
All I wanted when I got home was to drink tea and relax. Usually when work is very stressful, I want alcohol. I had tea instead. I had several nice sessions.
Tea drank: Wuyi GongFu Black – Verdant, Castalia-August Uncommon, Rou Gui -Mandala Tea, and Indonesia Harendong Pearl Black – What-cha.

10 jan- My Morning Mate + Citrus Lavender Sage = very nice flavored mate blend. I love Citrus Lavender Sage, but it’s expensive. So I just use it in blends, so I can stretch the flavor out. Both from Teavana.

Pumpkin Spice black tea Seasonal. I don’t feel like adding it. Republic of Tea. Sample tea bag from their flyers. Pumkin and spice, neither flavor is strong. Not a tea I would purchase. It’s fine.

There is a local shop called Yan-Tsu Hong herbs that sells Chinese herbs, medicines, and teas—-Regina friends, have you been here? It is right by Cuppa’T. A few years ago, I tried their Iron Buddha tea (Tiekuanyin—it says on the label) and hated it but that was before I appreciated and knew how to brew oolong teas. Trying it today, I know my tastes have changed because I am really enjoying this. It is buttery and floral with vegetal notes. This is a decent green oolong.
I think that I will brew it at a lower temp next time though to see if that brings out more sweetness.

Finished up my Japanese corn tea today. I enjoyed it, even if I never learned its proper name, steeping parameters, or ideal water temp.
Earthy and light, it was a very pleasant cup.
Sipdown!

I unearthed my Japanese corn tea today, to bring along to work. Its got what I think is an expiration date on it, for January of next year. Plus I’m on that whole sipdown thing.
Plus, why havn’t I been drinking this more often over the autumn? Madness. Its quite nice, with a toasty, earthy quality to it that I really appreciate. Mmm, this will be a nice work tea.

So this does not count as a sipdown in terms of cupboard numbers, but it is getting an elderly sample out of the cupboard entirely.
I have something labeled as “Organic English Breakfast” which I got from the Crown & Crumpet tea room. And I got it more years ago than I’d like to admit.
Its not a particularly good breakfast blend, but I’ve had worse. And its age is certainly showing, but I have no one to blame for that except myself.

Ok, I’m breaking one of my tea rules, which is not to try something new when I’m in a hurry or unwell. I am unwell, and trying a new tea.
My mom brought be back a packet of sachets of “Organic Corn Tea” from the Japanese shop Muji, and I know nothing else about it. And, as I’m drinking tea as if there is no tomorrow, I brewed some up.
Firstly, no idea if I brewed this correctly. The package may have instructions, but its all in Japanese, so I’m out in that respect.
It smells very rich in the sachet, but the scent thins out somewhat once brewed.
What I get is a roasty, almost earthen cup of “tea”, which is quite interesting. Huh. I’m gonna hold off on rating it, as I need more sampling time!

Hello Steepster! I’m back, after a dreadful bout of…. something. On Wednesday I got really ill, and have been slowly recovering.
My stomach is coming back up to speed, but I haven’t felt up to tea, beyond the ginger tea that I have, and today a random Milk Oolong that my boyfriend has.
I’m hoping next week to return to my tea drinking ways.

The dry leaf aroma is sweet and floral. It’s also almost fruity. The brewed tea aroma is a floral green oolong. This is my kind of tea!

I got this sample from a co-worker/friend. I have no idea what company this is from as the red, vacuum sealed package is only covered in kanji. I tried translating 茗典茶藏 and determined it says: “tea for ceremony, tea to have.” Anyone come across this before?

The leaves fully unfurled after the second infusion for two minutes. It’s a shame I can’t identify the source because this is a great tea! The leaves have more stem attached then I’ve ever seen before, but the resulting tea is delicious! It’s probably an unflavored milk oolong. This second infusion is creamy! Mmm, yum! This is soooo good! It’s really hitting the spot. I’d rate it a 92.

Bagged houji-cha. Made at work with microwave boiled water (not having a hot water dispenser kind of sucks…)

This was good. First time having a roasted green tea and I was struck by how oaty it was. Reminded me a lot of oatmeal without actually tasting like cereal. This was interesting enough to warrant revisiting … perhaps with a loose leaf version.

I drank some Japanese green tea with matcha from a sample from LiquidProust. The green tea tasted very “leafy green”, combined with the taste of Trader Joe’s Mochi green tea (if that makes any sense ;-) ). Unfortunately there was also too much bitterness to it for my taste.

Free Dancong from Liquid Proust.

It’s definitely aged, but it has aged nicely. It’s got a shlew of minerals, stonefruit, and slight woodsiness. Good Western or gong fu. It does have a bit of a fadedness to it, but the again, the fruit combined with the crystaline mineral notes amidst a clearly fired background is great. Running out of this tea, however, is not so great. Thank you, Andrew!