Featured & New Tasting Notes

This is supposedly a rare tea cultivar, plus it is an aged Japan black, which is also not very common.

As is always with tea from Japan it is broken up into pretty small pieces. The wet leaf smells strongly of leafy greens, sea, sourness and umami. The taste largely follows the nose. Sourness, medicinal herbs, seafood, soy. Pretty smooth and understated.

This is pretty far from a regular tea territory flavor-wise, bordering on medicinal herbal concoctions or traditional Asian food. I was not a big fun, to be honest.

Additional notes: This is still very excellent! I really don’t know why it received such a low rating from so many. This is still Frank’s blend and perfectly matches what the tea is supposed to be doing IMO. Lemon! Marshmallow root!

My work setup isn’t favorable for anything that requires attention, so I never do green teas there unless they are bagged. This is a viable option. It’s toasty rather than spinach-y and seems to be pretty forgiving on time and water temp. Perfect for this purpose.

Finished my sample of this last night. This was a solid Shan Lin Xi with tropical fruit aromas and perfumey florals, typical of this type of tea. Out of the bag, the leaves have a buttery honeysuckle fragrance. Following a rinse, the aroma becomes fruitier with notes of mango and nectar, accented by vanilla and coconut.

The tea opens up with a subtle sweetness and hint of jasmine. As it progresses through steeps, it builds intricate floral layers of lilac, honeysuckle, and wildflowers. Smooth body and a slight fruitiness in the background that complements the florals nicely. I got about 7 steeps out of it.

February 2020 subscription.

The aroma of loose is not amazing. It is strong perfume like, rose, with deep inhale some butter and exotic fruits.
Brewed quite long and heavy (4 grams – 5 minutes); but brew was quite light, yellow-green. Aroma of brew is not very present, reminds me only hay and rose. When sipped I note only some weird notes of sour, I haven’t noticed any peach, rose was quite weak and base was not there at all.

Overall rather letdown. Expected more fruitiness and as I had black tea with rose, I miss the body of tea. It was somehow generic with some weird flavour.

This is a strong cup of tea! Malty and coppery and astringent with a tangy aftertaste that reminds you its a robust cup of tea. I could think of blending it with another, gentler leaf, but I happen to like a strong cup of bold Assam, and this foots the bill. I wouldn’t describe it as complex, its mostly coppery and astringent, with a hint of malt. The lingering taste reminds me of a hoppy, bitter beer like an IPA. The second steeping is not quite as bold, but still has enough of a coppery, astringent flavor to be enjoyable.

Feeling a bit too lazy to make a seperate listing for a batch that’s a year apart, so this is a review for the Spring 2019 harvest.

I’ve been dancing around hot gold Yunnan blacks for the past couple weeks. It’s definitely spring now, the days are 50F or a little above with the sun intercepted by some heavy rain. Cold brew teas with fresher notes seem more appealing than homey hot brews. Out with the sweet potato and yeast, in with the crisp fruits and florals.

However, I ordered this and a few packets of other Yunnan golds to try back at the start of February and they just arrived, and I’m not letting that seasonal weariness keep me away from new tea. The leaves are very pleasing to touch: velvety from the little hairs, they feel like the ears of baby goats. Admittedly sat there and stroked them for a few moments before actually brewing them. I made two 5 ounce steeps in a gaiwan and poured those into a mug instead of basket-infusing for once.

This is pretty mild as far as heavy golden blacks go. Starting to realize that they aren’t my favorite because they become hard to drink when the flavor is too intense, but this one is quite light! And terribly smooth. It tastes a bit like wheat bread, in a pleasant way. The last sip in the cup was almost syrupy sweet. A very nice tea to accompany a meal on a chilly day. Probably going to save the rest of the bag for the next cold snap, because I don’t think it’s meant for the warm seasons.

Gongfu Sipdown (824)!

Steeped this at work this morning; it’s been weirder readjusting to being back at the office than I expected it to be post vacation. I’m nearly caught up now though, and getting to have a nice, sloppy session this morning while working on projects helped kind of get me back in that work mode/normalize being in the office again.

This is a really intense and full bodied shou with bitter, muddy earth notes and a coating, medicinal citrus note from the chenpi. Maybe not the most approachable chenpi for those looking to dip their toes into this style of tea, but if you like full bodied and thick/medicinal then I think it’s excellent, & I imagine it could be an excellent tea to keep in rotation for cold weather and sick days. I steeped this coin over a dozen times during the course of the morning and it just kept going! Munched on a little bit of blood orange as well, which added a nice subtle & complimenting sweetness to offset some of that medicinal profile.

Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/B9XNQAGAq3f/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zy3706vJ4Ng

Hey Teamail!

My Adagio order was on my doorstep when I woke up today, so I immediately brewed up a mug of this. I am a bit iffy on the brewing instructions, as it said to use boiling water, and there is Silver Needle in this. But, for scientific purposes, we will do it their way first.

Brewed western, 212F/1.5tsp/12oz/4min

Taste is… oooch, let that cool why don’t you! Ok, this has a strong black tea taste with flavors of malt, tannin, and a hint of leather. However, I can also taste the silver needle, giving it a fruity flavor, with notes of melon. It kinda does taste like cereal! But you know what this reminds me of more? If sort of reminds me of that one W2T cake Hot Brandy. Considering that that tea was also a blend of black/white tea, I’m not surprised. Obviously, the W2T tea is much more complex and flavorful, but this stuff is really good as well. The flavor profiles somehow do mesh together well, and I wonder how much caffeine this stuff has. It’d probably be a great wake-up tea for cold mornings like today.

Overall, what do I think? Well, I love it. The different base elements blend together into a lovely cuppa that is both malty and floral. I’m glad I got the big tin of this, not just for presentation effect, but so that I can drink this without hesitation until I can get more. I think I would like to keep this one around. It’s really good.

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksHXRKW0pW0

Very nice. :D Thank you tea-sipper!

Notes of baked bread, light caramel, vanilla, multiple fruit notes of berries, stonefruits, maybe some cherry notes. A little sweetness but not overwhelmingly so, malty, pretty bold and with a tsp of cream it was wonderful for breakfast. My darn stomach doesn’t like tea in the morning so much anymore /cry.

I hope you are all doing good. I’ve become quite a review-voyeur lol since I’m still working on sipdowns. I’m enjoying all of your reviews <3 as always.

Due to the hibiscus in the mix, I couldn’t detect anything specifically blackberry-y or blueberry-y when I had a cup of this; however, it wasn’t too tart to be enjoyable. Just fruity with a little tang. I plan to use the rest of my little box when it’s iced tea season.

I normally enjoy Laoshan tea but this recent harvest isn’t doing it for me. It’s got the usual vegetal notes – zucchini, edamame, and cilantro being the prominent ones I picked out – but something about it tastes off, like overripe fruit. It reminds me of pears or honeydew that sat out too long. At the moment, it’s been banished to my work stash where my less loved but still palatable teas go. It tastes better cold brewed or blended with a flavored tea so that’s probably how I’ll drink the rest of it.

Sipdown (334)

So I remembered liking this so I even added it to my advent but I probably should have looked at my steepster reviews since I gave this a rating of 10. So that’s some incorrect remembering if I’ve ever seen it.

I don’t love it but it’s not disgusting thus not deserving of a 10 so we will be raising that. It’s actually not bad. It’s got rhubarb but not much custard. A slight egginess perhaps. I blame the base because it comes through for me which adds warmth but distracts from everything else. At least it is better.

Additional notes: I have a bit of this remaining from Ost that is older, BUT it was on sale when I bought other teas, so I had to grab some. I don’t know why this has such a low Steepster rating! It does what it says it does: mint, chocolate, sugar sugar sugar. This batch seems a bit like alcohol, but with time it should be fine. May be less chocolate than I remember but with a good mixing, I’m sure the chocolate is there. Steepster is being extra glitchy today.

I still think the name of this tea is absolutely awful.

However, today’s cup tastes like perfection. It’s sweet and creamy, with this and coating vanilla notes and a complimenting strong and sweet cinnamon note that doesn’t actually add any “heat” to the overall mix. It does, I reluctantly admit, taste like what I imagine a cinnamon and vanilla milkshake would.

This is another of the Adagio white teas I got from Meowster’s cupboard clearout a couple summer’s ago (thanks Meowster!). So far this has been my favorite of all that I have tried; it was the most pleasant of the different flavored whites I’ve tried as a warm cuppa, and right now I’m drinking it as a cold brew, which I prefer even more.

The berry taste isn’t syrupy or candy-like, which can be the case in a lot of strawberry teas; but it isn’t really a strong, in-your-face sort of distinct strawberry flavor, either. I get a more gentle sort of berry sweetness, and a subtle tanginess as well, that I think compliments the refreshing white tea. This white tea isn’t coming off quite as leafy either, which probably helps (or maybe the flavorings are just covering it up more this time around). It tastes more like damn earth rather than autumn leaves, slightly vegetal, and a bit of melon rind, which comes in more at the front of the sip, but the close is a sweet-tart sort of berry taste; not distinctly strawberry, but an indistinct yet pleasant red berry sort of note. It’s a refreshing iced tea, and actually brewed a nice warm cup, too, while the other flavored whites I tried I really preferred as iced beverages to their warm cuppa counterparts.

Thanks for the sample, Meowster! Just one more flavored white from the cupboard clearout to go!

Finally caught up! Sipdown no. 1 of 2020 (no. 596 total). And my original note is spot on. Nothing to add here.

Hi all! I have been offline for a bit as you may have noticed. Work became impossibly busy and there were a few dramatic incidents with the kids (who are now teenagers — I may not survive, it was hard enough when I went through it the first time) and then I got off the habit. My coffee consumption went up because of the work things. I needed mega-caffeine to get through the very long days. But now things may be getting back to normal. Plus, I like the idea of bringing my own drink to work in these days of communicable diseases. So I’m going to try to get myself back into the tea habit.

This is a backlog, as are the next three entries. I can no longer remember whether this sipdown occurred in October or November of last year, but it was either November or October of 2019 because by December I was off of tea.

So let’s call this Sipdown no. 5 of October 2019 (no. 104 of 2019 total, no. 592 grand total).

My original note on this will have to suffice as I have no notes. But it reflects my recollection of how I experienced this.

This does not taste like gummy bears. It doesn’t taste bad and it is fruity but it is definitely NOT gummy bears. I get a lot of leafy flavor from the raspberry leaf. It is more savory, for lack of a better word, than anticipated. It’s fine but nothing special.

Gongfu!

My roommate cooked us both lunch yesterday; a delicious cold noodle dish with peanuts, sesame, and garlic – sweet, savory and just a little spicy. In return, I steeped us some tea to drink with the meal. I like this one a lot with food – it’s thick and full bodied and the flavour is strong enough to hold up to something well seasoned/strong in flavor. However, the peppery profile and medicinal chrysanthemum and citrus notes kind of compliment a lot of savory dishes while also cutting through them.

I liked it a lot with this dish/meal.

For some reason when I hit their website, it offers me install of Wordpress. So I instead used the tea bag picture. Unfortunately no more info, or at least selling lines of it.

It is green tea with light flavours as peach, raspberry nad jasmine. I was afraid it will dominate the flavours, but it was actually very different.

We had family gathering a bit, so we were all sitting in my grandma’ living room ’(9 adults, 2 children <1 year old) But I was happy to see everybody. Maybe this is actually the number I am able to survive.

Anyway, to the tea. As grandma does not have temperature controlled kettle (not even I, but I know on stove-top one, what is the temperature); I just thought that when bubbles start to appear, it will be around 80°C, but I am not of course sure. So, not adding it to tasting note. Brew was very light, it doesn’t want to brew at all, but managed to keep it in for those 2-3 minutes, but I thought it will be quite light. And it was, but I noticed floral notes – jasmine as well rose, then some fruits, but rather apples than peach or raspberry. That was bit sad to be honest, as I hoped for fresh and juicy raspberry. Maybe it just need longer steeping time. The tea itself wasn’t much present as well, and if it was, it was rather hay like, certainly it doesn’t felt like a fresh green tea. I need to buy some greens, as almost all of them are actually some blends, or just not so fresh as I would like to drink.

I started doing Jenny Craig again on Wednesday and while I am on top of things, the one exception I make is for teas. For instance, this tea has a lot of sugar and marshmallows in it so it’s maybe not the most diet friendly but at the end of the day, I doubt it’s doing that much harm so I’m just enjoying it. Plus, I have to have two servings of milk per day and a latte allows me to get that serving in. So I am just enjoying my teas as I always would while trying to make healthier food and exercise choices.

This is making for a nice treat. Lots of caramel notes from the rock sugar with marshmallow and distinctive sweet potato flavour. I’m happy that this is once again really enjoyable and the first latte wasn’t just new tea excitement that had me rating it so highly. Thank you again Roswell Strange for sharing this with me!

Again, I wanted something simple and this worked well. I feel bit I can’t inhale properly, so herbs are always good for that. I don’t know which Sage was used, probably common sage, but whatever.

Even it is a teabag, I prepared it rather like a grandpa brewing. I just kept bag in all the time.

Turned out quite well, it is pure herb – so naturally there are mostly herbs in aroma and in taste, quite earthy as well. But it was enjoyable, clean taste; no dirt or whatever. It wasn’t much woody as well, so probably they used indeed only leaves, not whole “branches”.

It’s not perfect, but as it is probably old (I don’t know where I got it), it made its job well. Mostly because it is something simple :)

Ever had a morning where all your tea plans fall apart? First, I couldn’t find this tea anywhere. I have my teas “catalogued” and organized in a very specific way, and it just wasn’t where it should be. As a librarian, this was very frustrating. As a librarian, I also know it is entirely possible for an item to get miscatalogued and be “on the shelf” in the wrong place, so I basically had to go through my entire tea shelf digging through each section until I could find it (finally found it in the “white teas” section… ugh!) I moved house last year and am not entirely surprised that when unpacking over 500 teas a few mishaps happened along that way, but that put me short on time racing against the clock to get a cup of tea brewed before work… and then when I dumped the hot water into my gravity well infuser, it didn’t hold the water like it always has, and I had boiling water all over my counter! That was fun to clean up.

So, then I had to get my spare infuser out and start a fresh cup (I thankfully had just enough in my sample from teasipper’s cupboard sale to make another cup — thanks, teasipper!) and steeping another cup made me late for work. I don’t know if the other infuser is dead or if a really thorough cleaning will bring life back into it, but I cleaned it just a few months ago, so it may just be time to lay it out to pasture… I do make an awful lot of tea with it…

Anyway, the tea is quite a fudgy flavor. I do recall it brewed pink originally in my infuser, but I’m drinking it in a closed thermos here at work, so I can’t really enjoy that “novelty” of it now, and don’t really taste any difference from the beetroot to the flavor. It does taste a little fruity, though; it reminds me of the subtle fruity notes from a good dark chocolate, like a hint of berry that I can’t quite place (I’m leaning raspberry, but not quite).

It’s a nice chocolately tea, I just wish it hadn’t been such an utter mishap to make it! Thanks for the sample, tea-sipper!