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First and only H&S tea I’ve ever purchased. So many tasting notes and some date back like almost 10 years! I’m a baby when it comes to flavored tea (well, I’m a baby about a lot of the things >.< lol) so take my comments on flavored tea with that in mind. So I’m just putting a positive note and rating on this one because it deserves it.

It’s citrusy (bergamot) berry-delicious, caramel, some cocoa notes, slightly lemony finish delightful cup of tea. I also get some pastry and/or cake notes. It brews up very dark. I followed instructions per package, just did one steep since it was so late.

I had this last night before going to bed after a day of raw pu erh tea sampling. I usually put a rating after my first sample of it (first impression), and then near or close to the sipdown I write a review on it. In this case, I have like 2 more servings so it’s near the sipdown. I’ve always enjoyed it when I had a cup of it.

I’ve got about a ton of sheng from YS to go through. Not sure what I was thinking when I ordered these all back in December but… Oh well, I guess I wanted to try a lot of different shengs back in December. :)

This was interesting like the one review here mentioned. It starts off semi-thick and ends moderately thick so it has a very nice comforting mouth and throat feel. It kindasorta tastes like a young sheng but then again it doesn’t. It doesn’t have a hint of the usual bitterness that sheng has, but there was some astringency as I progressed through the infusions. In the early infusions, the liquor was amber and that progressed to be orange in color. It began fruity with stonefruit, cherry notes… And It has a long almost too sweet finish (for me). Not too shabby. Daily drinker type but it is on the expensive side for that purpose.

Porcelain gaiwan, 6g, 205°F, 130ml, rinse, 12 steeps: 5s, 10s, 15s, 20s, 25s, 35s, 45s, 55s, 1m5s, 1m15s, 1m30s, 2m.

Nope.

I don’t like the taste at all, not the pu-erh and not the tangerine. It’s not gross but it’s just not flavorful to me. I tried with the tangerine (little bit and whole) and it didn’t have a tangerine citrus taste. I prepared it a few different ways. There is so some citrus, of course, but even with the whole tangerine, it’s pretty tasteless. I’ll let it sit some and see how it changes but that’s all I got to say about this one.

Although slightly different, my main focus is looking for a true tangerine yumminess so I much prefer the Aged Chenpi Ripened Tangerine Pu-erh (Teavivre). That one the tangerine has a great tangy tangerine aroma and taste.

I had this a few days ago. Took it with me when I went about the town doing errands. It was mainly toasted rice and had the yumminess of roasted marshmallows. The genmaicha plus the addition of matcha carries it well. It tastes very much like the Marshmallow treats that I loved so much when I was a kid. Glad it’s one of their permanent collections.

So last time I wrote in here I was mentioning a slight headache from a tea and I never have headaches. Since then I was literally laid out. That headache progressed to something I can’t even begin to describe. 48 hrs down. I once had a bad stomach flu years ago, back when I was still living in San Diego. This was similar. Was it the tea or the cup of jasmine rice I had earlier or was it the stomach flu? I don’t know. Having said that, I’m much better today.

So I stayed away from tea since then and now that I’m feeling better. I am starting my morning with these delicious infusions of black tea. I’ve had 3 bananas and some homemade kefir in 48 hrs. o.O

It’s malty-sweet potatoes-cocoa mellowness in a cup. Enjoying it after a harrowing 48 or so hours. The liquor has a pretty bright orange tint and smelled of yams. There are some floral notes but not much. No astringency nor bitterness, calming… Exactly what I needed.

Porcelain gaiwan 110ml, 5g, 185℉, 6 steeps: rinse, 10s, 10s, 15s, 20s, 30s, 40s

I read some reviews on this one and was warned about the effects of it, hehe. I didn’t get a chill up my spine but I did get a weird head throb, fuzziness, and a small headache. I never get headaches. I can’t even remember the last time I had one. It’s not a bad headache though, and when I walked around and got busy, it kindasorta went away. Made my neck feel tight though, like I slept on it wrong.

This one is kind of opposite to the one I just reviewed 2015 Pin. It didn’t start bitter and it goes away like with 2015 Pin but it starts off mild and becomes slightly bitter. I’m currently only on the 5th infusion of a long series so I just wanted to make a note that I definitely felt something odd in my head like some others mentioned. No palpitations nor strong beating heart though hehe. Decent energy but not like the 2015 Pin earlier where I mentioned it felt like a definite mood lifter… or as derk asked “Did it make you dance?” lol :D

Aroma and taste profile is good. The dry leaves smelled like strong stonefruits and hay. It’s a smooth mouthfeel, slick and it kind of hangs in the back of my throat. Just recently I reviewed a tea where I said I had peculiar mouth sensations, the grandpa one. This is similar but different mouth sensations. Slickness. I did not find it too bitter nor dry as some mentioned, perhaps because I began with near boiling water.

I’ll add my parameters when I finish. I’ll also add more taste notes should anything change (which I believe they will).

Thank you Derk for the sample! :D

I have a ton of raw pu’erh to get through. Good thing pu’erh stores well. o.O

The dry leaves smelled of honey, wood, and hay. Different colored dry leaves from silver leaves to medium green to brown leaves. The liquor is aromatic and smelled of honey and leaves, it was a very light amber color. The taste profile began with a slight bitterness, never a put-off type bitterness but one that felt it belonged there. The slight bitterness came with a light, almost tart feeling on the tongue, you could also feel the sides of your tongue react to the light astringency. There were lots of fruit notes, mainly citrus, stonefruits.

As I progress, it morphed into a thick, viscous, almost syrupy honey apricot-peach tea, and then add a little tobacco and smoke. It became less bitter, and sweeter. Lots of mouth action with this tea, super long sweet finish. Towards the end, a wee bit of bitterness would come in for a bit, but again, not in a negative type of way as it remained balanced from the 3rd or 4th infusion but that long sweet finish was ever so present. :)

6g, 110ml, 205F, rinse, 12 steeps: 10s, 13s, 16s, 19s, 22s, 25s, 30s, 35s, 40s, 45s, 1m, 2m

Free sample yay.

Light and mild tasting tea. Sweet, lots of stonefruit notes (apricot, peach). It’s very delicate, smooth, almost creamy mouth feeling. I didn’t know the health benefits of osmanthus until I just looked it up. I would say health benefits or not, this is a delightful, smooth, floral apricot tea. Lung health, sedative effects, detoxifies, appetite suppression and more. The green tea base carries the osmanthus perfectly. I “think” I’ve only had osmanthus oolong and this is my first green tea base. Not sure though. I have only tried a few osmanthus teas but they tend to be a little too sweet for me and this one is not. It’s a naturally sweet taste and the green tea base is very smooth. As I progressed, it became more and more floral (not perfumey) but the apricots and peaches remained through the rest of the infusions.

Porcelain gaiwan, 6g, 175F, 5 sec rinse, 8 steeps: 20s, 25s, 30s, 35s, 40s, 50s, 60s. 2m.

Another sipdown.

I loved the smell of the dry leaves. The aroma of grapefruit is one of my favorite aromas if not my favorite. It wasn’t acidic nor sour but citrusy, sweet and barely tart. I had it hot and iced. Both ways, it was tasty. There was a candy-like flavor, and when I had it cold, it was almost soda popish. I think that was my only problem with it because I’m not a soda pop fan at all. However, I do love grapefruits and I got a lot of grapefruit notes, some lemon, lime, and zest notes. If you like grapefruits, I think you will enjoy this one.

Sipdown so thought I’d do a quick note.

Lots of toasty rice flavor. I don’t know what rum tastes like so I can’t comment on that. :P It doesn’t have the horchata taste to me, however, it was a good genmaicha with very light cinnamon notes. I think it lacked the creamy part of the horchata flavor but it was a nice roasty-toasty rice flavor. I followed instructions per the package.