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Smells floral when dry like most EGs do to me.

Nice and strong tea, good creaminess. Strongly bergamot. All around a strong tea. I approve. Glad I have this one in the cupboard. Now I have to test it against the other favorite EG creams to see which one stays. 400 teas enter, 1 tea leaves… Leaves… get it? :)

As advertised: crisp, gentle, light.

I only steeped 2 minutes rather than the recommended 3 minutes, though, being nervous about bitterness with such a small broken leaf. Nice, mellow and inoffensive. Nothing I’ll be replacing but with so many cups possible with the smallest size available to purchase, it will take awhile to work through this one. I suspect it will become a candidate for plain old iced tea over the summer. That’s where most of my good but not awesome blacks end up. :)

Lovely, lovely dry leaves. In low light, looking through it, there is almost a pinkish cast to the liquor.

Even sick, this seems like an exceptional tea. Smooth, warm, lightly brisk. It is indeed reminiscent of Darjeelings. There is a light astringency at the end of the sip.

I suspected this might happen. It’s a tea that I’d never spend the money on if it hadn’t been on sale for essentially half price with a certificate. Sigh. I’ll just have to enjoy this one while it lasts.

EDIT: As it cooled off, I was surprised when bringing the cup to my lips to smell vanilla. I don’t necessarily taste it, but I do smell it.

This is good. Much milder than other tiny rotovaned teas I’ve had. Of course, it could be that I just learned my lesson with the others and I steeped this for like a quarter of the recommended time.

Even at a minute and a half steeping time, this is decently strong and still full bodied. A nice, mild, basic tea. Nothing special but nothing bad, either. I’ll try it eventually with the recommended steep time and see what happens. :)

So… this is pretty much exactly what the description says. Spicy, malty, dark, strong. And it would have seemed odd to me to say this months ago, but I can taste the high-grownness in it. It reminds me of other high-altitude teas I’ve had. Along with a tendency to get a bit bitter if not handled correctly, I’m guessing. This cup was steeped a tad too long I think and I can glimpse the bitter lurking in the background. The instructions say 4-5 minutes and I’m fairly sure my tastebuds would quit in protest at 5 minutes.

Not positive on whether or not this goes onto the “must keep” list. Going to put it in the shopping list so I don’t forget about it. But I’ll have to have a few more cups and try some resteeps to see what I really think.

And try it when my tastebuds are not off as I suspect they may be on a day sick at home. :) Hey, the heat is nice and I can definitely taste the tea.

So this morning I wanted something basic. Nothing fancy.

This tea delivers on that without being the same stuff you can get at a restaurant. :) It’s a good, medium bodied tea with just a hint of dryness. I get the feeling that it might turn bitter if oversteeped. Not sure I can tell the difference yet between Nilgiri teas and others in a blind taste test, but I do know that I tend to like Nilgiri teas. Just something a little different about them but not so over the top that I have to pay a lot of attention when drinking them.

I think this is a pretty reasonably priced tea and it seems to be of a decent quality. That said, I don’t usually keep plain old teas in my cupboard so this probably won’t be a reorder. However, it would be a good tea to keep around to gradually introduce Lipton-is-the-only-tea people to the wider world of tea. :)

I have had this several times since I first rated it, enough that I ordered again, a larger amount, and am working my way through that at a good clip. Everyone I have shared this with loves it. It is perfectly vanilla, lightly sweet and deliciously creamy.

/non-tea rant on

I had it last night as a comfort-hope-I-can-sleep-soon tea. I have some bronchial thing going on, which my husband also has. Broad brush statement follows: Honestly, why are men such babies when they get sick? Women get sick and still take care of everyone else. Men get sick and they curl up in a corner and moan. I get it – it sucks. We both have the same thing and I’m not happy about having it, either. The aggravating thing about it is that he’ll be better before I am since he got it first and when I’m still sick he won’t ask if he can bring me anything like juice or medicine. He’ll bring it, but I’ll have to ask for it. Sigh. I guess if they did what we did, they’d be women and what would be the point. I just have a leftover grumpy from last night. :)

/non-tea rant off

Anyway, I’m ramping up my rating on this since I evidently enjoy it immensely and I’ve not yet shared it with anyone who didn’t like it.

This wouldn’t be my favorite yunnan but it’s perfectly acceptable for the price.

Nothing but what you’d expect. A dark, intense tea that wakes you up. I’ve tried this twice now, and despite rinsing it before my second cup, there is still a bit more dustiness than I’ve gotten with other Yunnans.

I steeped this last night and chilled it. I did taste it hot, though, and it wasn’t bad. Not tea, but a nice real, not quite ripe strawberry flavor.

This morning I mixed about 6 ounces of it with a cup of vanilla Greek yogurt (with sugar, not artificial sweetener). It was about sour enough to knock your socks off! I suspect that came from the Greek yogurt. Added a tablespoon of sugar when I got to work and it was much better. Still a fresh, not quite ripe strawberry taste.

Not really a Walter-worthy strawberry shake, but I think it can be achieved. :)

Little bit of smokey, little bit of sweet in the background, no bitterness, and it steeped 3 pots worth today at work. A decent Yunnan, a good black, and not expensive.

What more could you want?