Featured & New Tasting Notes

Yay! The Great Steepster Freeze of 2020 is finally over! I’m glad all my notes were actually saved and I don’t need to repost them.

I haven’t tried too many aged teas, so this is a learning experience. Thanks to Fong Mong for the sample. I didn’t know how to steep this tea, so I used my old parameters of all 7 g, 120 ml, 200F, and rounds of 25, 20, 25, 30, 30, 30, 45, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds, plus a few long steeps.

The dry aroma is of old wood, char, and roast. The first steep has notes of oak, sandalwood, chicory, minerals, and roast. The roast and minerals get stronger in steep two, and a honey element emerges. The flavours keep getting more intense as the session continues, and there’s definitely a bit of decayed wood in there, too. Generally, this is a smooth, woody tea with a sophisticated profile. The smoke and roast are more noticeable in later rounds, but this tea doesn’t evolve too much over the session.

While it’s not something I’d typically drink, I enjoyed this aged oolong for its exotic woodiness and smoothness. As khboyd said in a review, it reminds me of a Wuyi oolong. I’m sure it would have been even better in the fall or winter. I can’t wait for this unusually hot summer to end, not least because drinking hot tea in this heat is kind of annoying.

During the great Steepster freeze, I hit over 500 followers, so a gracious thank you is in order to any and all who are willing to follow along with my tea journey.  I appreciate all of you here on Steepster!
Additional notes: Sipdown!  Not thrilled about it though, as I love it.  The ginger was surprisingly delicious to a person who isn’t usually happy to have ginger floating around in a mug.  But the pluot flavor held strong, over the age of the blend but also over four huge mugs of the last session.  It paired perfectly with this type of unique oolong, which even brewed up the color of the inside of a plum.  Two teaspoons worked best for me with this one (using a big mug.)  How awesome would it be if Anne would do a summer box like the 12 days of Christmas box?  I know the planning for the holiday box starts around summer though, so I doubt that is doable… I’m looking forward to the poll though (did I miss it?)!  There are always so many summery blends I want to revisit…I could easily think of a box of 12.
2020 Sipdowns: 64 (sample of David’s strawberry rhubarb parfait + Bird & Blend’s Tea & Toast)

Great Steepster Freeze of 2020 Review #1 (08/02/20)

Only two black teas left from my teabox stash, so I’m working through my sipdowns steadily! This came from the Discovery Teabox, so thanks to Skysamurai for organizing and all who contributed! I love floral teas, but have never had violet before, so I was definitely curious about trying this one!

I made my 5g sampler as a small 500ml pot of tea, western style, 205F for a 3 minute steep for breakfast. The aroma of the dry leaf is very interesting, a strong and sweet floral aroma, which comes out just as strongly in the steeped tea. It smells sort of like a candied or soda sweetness (though none I’ve ever had). It’s… really good! Easily on par for me with rose and lavender flavors… it’s a really fragrant and sweet floral flavor, and the black tea base is very smooth, with a subtle honeyed note that accompanies the florality nicely. I think this is a tea I could gladly keep stocked, and while I know florals are hit and miss for a lot of people I do wonder why I see violet as a flavor option so little now.

Thanks for the sample, tea-sipper!

Yesterday, after long, long time I have received a package from lovely ashmanra! I hope mine will arrive soon. And today, I checked the Steepster and saw all the tastin notes that were hidden from my eyes and 150 notices! Oh, how glad I am that Steepster is back, at least in that what was left working.

So, let’s read all the tasting notes I missed; write (at least) one myself.

Unfortunately I wasn’t that much impressed of this one . I haven’t noticed any cherry notes, only nice green tea notes. I steeped it for around 3 or 4 minutes. Nevermind, it was gift (exchange, right), and hopefully there will be other which will be better. Noticed minty, or some cooling aspect drinking this tea.

So, thank you ashmanra for the tea, thank you all being patient, thank you Michael in background working on our favorite website! It was long 10 days, but hopefully it won’t return.

Tastes like breakfast (AKA warm, buttery toast), which is good because it basically is my breakfast today. I’m working from home today, but even still I managed to sleep in and not have time to make a proper breakfast before having to jump onto a call. I guess I’ll just make a really good lunch later…

Samurai Travelling Tea Box – Tea #45

Thanks Shae for including this tea for me! It was the name of it that really hooked me; the idea of tangerine and marshmallow just sounds amazing (like a Creamsicle, maybe?) but what was really fascinating was a “tangerine cupcake” because you normally see those weirder flavours as the frosting but the name of this makes it explicitly clear that it’s the cupcake itself that is tangerine. That’s such a cool concept!

I’m grateful to Shae for including this so I could try it at all, but I really wish there had been more than one serving of it because I definitely got the impression that this is one of those blends that’s good when you brew it casually but that, with refined and more precise steeping, could potentially be amazing! I will say that all the namesake flavours were present, and for as much of a mouthful as this tea’s name is that’s actually a very impressive feat!

The strongest flavour was unsurprisingly the citrus – it’s a little more generic orange than tangerine, I think to truly be tangerine it needs to have this same sweetness but a “higher” kind of acidic top note instead of the heavier, more rounded orange flavour that carries throughout the entire sip. I did like how weighty it felt on my palate though, especially with this full bodied black tea base and the gentle creaminess and vanilla notes that so smoothly came through!

I would definitely be all over a reblend of this one!

Some semblance of stability on here it seems. A part of wishes I went ahead and wrote the notes to let them cascade and save myself some time.

Anyway, thanks to Whiteantlers, I got a massive unexpected surprise on my door step a few days ago.

I saw her name, smiled, and then when I opened the package, I went “Damn….”

“You know me so well.”

I smiled in glee at the treasures, and immediately went to a particular tea that I’ve been coveting for a while from Lupicia-the fan favorite, but misunderstood grape bomb Muscat Oolong. Of course, more on that one later.

For now, this backlog of the many other backlogs I want to do, comes first. I was surprised Orchid Phoenix was not already added, and I was happy to try it. I love Milans, and Totem usually has teas with more refined notes and flavors, and a pretense more than quality that demands high price.

So does it have the usual roasted heather honey woodsiness you can expect from any Milan, with some more Lychee in steep one, but it does not expand beyond “Notes of honey, black pepper flowers, and sandalwood.” Accurate, yes, and I only got 4 rebrews out of it and the sandlewood “burned” into the last sessions. I liked it in steeps one and two, but it got muddled by the sandlewood notes later on being too woodsy.

I’m glad this was a sample, because $14 for this particular tea is way to high for only giving you 4 sessions after a minute for the first steep. I feel that this one is oversold, but I also feel that way about Totem Tea’s hiked up prices period. I still enjoyed being able to try it, though.

Additional notes: checking if steepster posts this, as it has now been two hours without a new post. I’m catching up on tasting notes from ten days ago! And I hope Steepster isn’t giving Adagio TOO much trouble. I have other tasting notes to post, but I will let others catch up first. :D
Just a quick note to say that this one is much better if I pick out the hibiscus before steeping this. It lets some of the other flavors peek out. I really only needed to pick out five pieces of hibiscus anyway, but that makes such a difference. Not sure if I should raise the rating if I need to pick out hibiscus.

Are we getting Steepster back? I hope so! :)

Anyway, here’s a tea I drank today. It is very much a feel-good and energizing tea. At its present state, it is more bitter than sweet, and definitely more bitter than “Keep Smiling”. The bitterness never lets go, but at the same time it doesn’t completely suppress other flavours. It also has less of the metallic and bell pepper like character that a lot of huangpian teas have. For the price, this is some of the best tea one can get imo, just like its cousin – Keep Smiling. The fact that it easily brews 200ml/g just underscores that.

It displays aromas of apricots, peat, carob, candlewax, and a rural, hot hay like scent. Furthermore, in the empty cup one can find a cooling, nutty, and vegetal aroma that is somewhat unique among sheng pu’er. The taste is very pungent, bitter and vegetal with notes of chard, grapefruit skin and rye among other ones. Liquor has a full body and a creamy texture with just a touch of chalkiness in late steeps. As one would expect from the bitter Lao Man E varietal, the bitterness persists into the aftertaste, which is also a bit citrusy, spicy and warming. Towards the end of the session there is the slightest hint of smokiness too.

All in all, I would highly recommend this tea to anyone who likes bitter flavours in their pu-erh.

June 2014 harvest

Little rolled balls of whole and chopped green tea leaf. Dry leaf aroma is light citrus blossom-grass-vegetal. Wet leaf aroma is strongly brothy with vegetal, roasted chestnut and anise notes. Light yellow, viscous brew. Taste is refreshing and mimics the dry leaf aroma. With the second steep, it becomes more vegetal-chestnut with a hint of anise on the sip. A pronounced lemon taste and a whisper of smoke follow, giving way to a tangy feeling after the swallow. A bit drying with a happy and floral, white peach-like aftertaste. Very nice quality for a green tea 6 years old. Somebody who’s not me has the fortitude to not open their tea packages when they arrive.

2.5g, 250mL, 175F, 3 steeps.

This company carries a version of this tea every year, and the one I’m drinking is from 2018. I love unsmoked Lapsang Souchongs and this tea came highly recommended. I steeped 6 g of leaf in a 120 ml teapot using boiling water for 10, 12, 15, 18, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.

The dry aroma of these long, curly leaves is of lychee, pineapple, tart fruit, malt, and flowers. The first steep is extraordinarily fruity and smooth, with flavours of lychee, pineapple, raspberry, cranberry, flowers, malt, grass, and chocolate. Baked bread, orchids, and a stronger pineapple flavour emerge in steep two, and there’s a floral and lemon/pineapple aftertaste. The lemon becomes more pronounced in steeps three and four, joining the tropical fruit, tart, and malty profile of the tea. Orange and wood appear in the fifth steep. By steep seven, the malt starts getting stronger and some tannins appear, but the pineapple, lychee, and raspberry persist. The end of the session sees more tannins, malt, minerals, earth, and still, gloriously, those pineapple and lychee notes.

Aside from the 2019 Yuchi Assam from What-Cha, this is, hands down, the best black tea I’ve had this year. It’s fruity, complex, smooth, long lasting, approachable, and surprisingly affordable for its quality at around $13 for 30 grams. (I know this isn’t exactly cheap, but did I mention how awesome this tea is?) Drinking it has been a high point in a somewhat lousy month. I’m not sure why TheTea.pl hasn’t gotten more press, but I think many of their teas are amazing. Some of their oolongs are too roasted for my palate, but others, like this one, have the fruity, floral notes I love.

Additional notes:  This is my ultimate of hoarded teas.  I do believe it was one of the two teas I ever gave a rating of 100. I thought I only had one serving remaining, BUT NO… there is another steep session left.  Of course there was so much nuance in this when fresh, the most nuance of any tea, so maybe this is the tea that was just ME if I needed only one tea that really was for me, or spoke to me, or whatever.  The nuance might be gone now (of course) but it is still surprisingly AMAZING in flavor. Better than I expected. Brisk enough, but bright, dark, fruity, chocolatey enough but thirst quenching.  I really wish I could find a replacement for this.

Samurai Travelling Tea Box – Tea #32

Finished off the sample of this as a teacup of tea this morning; it was very nice! I don’t think I’ve explored enough of Simpson & Vail’s catalogue of teas, so I pulled some from the box to try – mostly black teas…

This was smooth and full bodied with robust malt and cocoa powder/baker’s chocolate notes and a pleasant sweet raisin or brandied fruit note on the finish.

Tea from postcrossing THANK YOU envelope 4/6.

This tea sojunds amazing while you read
An exuberant herbal infusion of hibiscus, orange peel rose hips and passion fruit flavors

But I noticed that herbal part and not fruit one. Rose hips and hibiscus, combined with raspberry, blueberry and blackberry flavours? That’s this tea I think. Even when I knew it should have passion fruit flavour, I wasn’t feeling it at all!

Blah.

Been drinking this one a lot from omgsrsly it’s the right sort of every day tea that doesn’t give me anything to complain about and just eases me in to the day. Will be sad when this one is gone but i have a few more cups to enjoy before then

First tea of the morning – had it during a Microsoft Teams meeting right at the start of my day. If I haven’t said it before, I hate remote meetings – it’s always hard to hear people, and I feel like I work in an office where everyone is so communicative with their hands and facial expressions that some of the meaning is always a little bit lost…

But, you do what you’ve gotta do.

I’m continuing to love this blend – that initial wave of adoration of the cherry flavour really hasn’t faded for me at all. It reminds me, as a hot cup, a lot of Cherry Nibs but juicier and tangier. Undercut with that licorice-y note though. Red licorice, to be clear, not black licorice/anise/licorice root type flavours.

With Goji Green being discontinued now, this may be my closest thing to a replacement. I loved that red licorice/raspberry note in Goji Green and I feel like it’s here too.

Friendly reminder that I do not numerically rate DAVIDsTEA blends as I’m currently employed there and it would be an obvious conflict of interest. Any blends you see with numerical ratings were rated prior to my employment there. These reviews are a reflection of my personal thoughts and feelings regarding the teas, and not the company’s.

Additional notes: Sipped this one down.  Really it was missing the AMAZING bright lemon it originally had… and mostly reminded me of an Earl grey with lavender in the end…  So if the sample faded, I’m not sure how quick I would be to restock.  Maybe if it were ever on SALE….
2020 Sipdowns: 59

SO B&B’s sale started last night.  As usual, I get like a kid on Christmas morning and can’t wait to see the deals and in the bright eyed haze, completely forget that their website is a pain during the sale every single time.  This time the pain started minute one of the hour long pre-presale link.  It took 55 minutes to check out, RIGHT before the hour pre-presale was almost done. This morning at 10am, most everything in the sale is gone except for the 10-20% off items or things that aren’t actually tea like the little teapots.  I managed to grab a handful of things last night.  Possibly they will keep adding things to the site again, as the sale is supposed to last a few days.  They had some cheap teas that were retiring, I bought Lime Cola which I loved, and Beet It which was great as a fruit tea when I tried the sample before.  Also: Rainbow Chai, Fruit Pie Chai, The Night Before Christmas, and Yule Log.  I was really hoping to at least see Figgy Pud and Salted Caramel Lebkuchen, but they didn’t.   It was mainly Christmas teas from 2019… so they didn’t really bring too many OLDER teas back. I really wish B&B would learn supply and demand already!  And why only have the sale on the limited teas?   I would love sales on their tea wall.  But I’m a B&B addict and can’t help supporting them a LITTLE bit, at least during the sales (if the darn checkout lets me anyway).  I still have a buyban on, but I didn’t really get myself anything for my long ago Bday this year… I’ll just have to aim for six sipdowns this week. And I’ve really been enjoying revisiting some B&B teas lately!

Well, thank you very much, you influencers, you … I mentioned it casually to my husband, and he kindly picked up a box. I ripped into it this morning because I am definitely in need of a little thunder. (In our part of the world school will be opening, so it’s been Katy-bar-the-door at work.)

The way I steeped it (sloppily, maybe 6 minutes), the mate reminds me a little of burnt campfire marshmallow crust. That’s not a bad thing to wake up to.

I seem to have bought this tea on three separate occasions, despite having given it a relatively low grade on my review of the 2015 version. Maybe that’s because people keep recommending it? I steeped 6 g of leaf in a 120 ml teapot at 195F for 7, 10, 12, 15, 18, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.

The dry aroma is of malt, pine, tobacco, and gooseberries. The first steep has notes of malt, tobacco, baked bread, honey, wood, roasted almonds, and tannins, and the tobacco and tannins linger in the aftertaste. There’s a sweet potato aroma in the teapot that fails to translate into the tea. The second infusion adds notes of molasses and caramel. I can faintly detect orange zest, although that’s likely because Eastkyteaguy pointed it out in his review. The next two steeps focus on baked bread, honey, and tobacco, with tannins, caramel, wood, cream, hay, roasted nuts, and very faint chocolate in the background. Sadly, no berries or sweet potatoes are to be found. I get some eucalyptus in the fourth steep. These flavours gradually fade, and the session ends with malt, honey, baked bread, tannins, earth, wood, and minerals.

This is a very complex tea with some unusual flavours. However, I was expecting berries and chocolate, as in the 2015 version, and was a bit disappointed.

I know I’ve been hard on ETS teas before, but this one is legitimately tasty. And it doesn’t just taste the same as many other peach blends. It does its own thing, but the peach flavor totally comes through. It’s bright and tasty, and it makes a totally lovely cold cup of tea. I cold brewed a second steep, which turned out great as well.

I had this tea a while back and loved it. Now I have it again, thanks to White Antlers!

This is the last of it I shall have, too, as the company is now officially closed. It seemed to go back and forth last year, with the website up but not working. I hope the owners are okay and can make their dream of a tea company work out with another try someday!

It was over 100F here today with a heat index of 110F. That’s about 43C. Add in wretched humidity. But after supper the sky grew dark and we heard rumbles and went out to the rockers and watched the storm as the temperature dropped to just 77F! By the time we came in to the air conditioning, I was ready for a cold dessert and some hot tea! Ha ha!

I made a cheesecake a couple of days ago but my husband had already eaten two slices of chocolate cake that my daughter had made (his mom’s recipe so dear to his heart), so it was dessert for me and tea only for him as he was too full.

The tea was fabulous, but it was not a good pairing with the cheesecake. I should have paired a black tea, as a Lapsang, Keemun, or Russian Caravan would have set the cheesecake off nicely. The cheesecake really hid the taste of the tea too much, so I was very glad that I had made a big pot to keep sipping after the cheesecake was gone so I could truly enjoy all the flavor. We made a resteep, too.

This is floral but not overpowering perfumey floral, and is certainly milder than a jasmine scented tea. Magnolia has much more subdued tones to me than jasmine while still being distinctly a lovely fresh flower taste.

The oolong base has a cake-like quality of its own to me, with sweetness and a light pastry flavor. Sweet like a European pastry, not American sugar heavy pastry. It is green but not grassy green.

I look forward to more of this, and some gong fu sessions with it as all!

Thank you, again, White Antlers!

Got this as a sample with my last shipment from Harney. The sample was one large bag with instructions to pour two cups boiling water on it, then steep for 15 minutes, then add six more cups of cold water and enjoy.

I followed the instructions and it turned out okay. Flavored teas are not my thing, though, so I can’t really speak to it. There’s definitely the flavor of coconut in it — far more overwhelming than I had hoped. I couldn’t taste any other flavors with it.

I won’t have this again, but my wife and my kids all enjoyed it and finished off the pitcher of the tea. I might actually order this for my mother, though, who loves anything/everything coconut. I can see her drinking this every day.

It’s almost 5:00 in the morning. I’ve been awake since 3:30 thinking about the coming months. It’s looking more and more like the school buildings will stay closed and kids will have classes online. I am all for public safety, and if that’s what needs to be done so be it. I’m also exhausted at the thought of working full time (or trying to) and teaching my son full time. The idea of everything that will need to happen is overwhelming, and so I’m doing what so many overwhelmed souls have done for years and years before me, making tea.

Earl Grey is a comfort tea for me. It helps to soothe wounds and smooth away rough edges. This tea in particular has a nice amount of bergamot along with vanilla and lemon. There’s no astringency from the base tea, even with a five minute steep. It still reminds me of lemon pound cake, and that’s not a bad thing in my book.

This is also a sipdown, but this is going back on my wishlist. I have one other Earl Grey to enjoy, but then I’m repurchasing this one. That said, I’m also bumping my rating up (it was an 87). This is a true favorite.

A few sips in and I’m already feeling better.

Also, to any teachers who might read this, thank you. Thank you for doing an already difficult job under impossible circumstances. I appreciate you.

This tea is from big bag section as well, but this time aged.

Das gesunde PLUS was a brand from dm drugstore chain, but they changed it recently to Mivolis or something like that. I don’t know if they still do this tea anyway. If you don’t know, it should be elderflower-ginger tea.

The tea, prepared for this afternoon was turning red which didn’t made me much happy as apparently it is again hibiscus/rosehip combo. I have expected some cloudy yellow or green colour. Nevermind, after 5 minutes I took bag off, took a sniff and noticed some old elderflowers, no ginger and overall pretty much meh.

The taste wasn’t that great as well, it was very straightforward with elderflowers, but they were pretty much weak and ginger was almost non-existent in flavour. Again, little bit of tartness by that red combo. Hmm. Not great this time, probably age related.