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Mmmm, this is lovely. Smoky, spicy… reminds me of sitting around a campfire on a cool fall evening, after dark, with a cup of chai in my hands.

I’m drinking both the 1st and 2nd flushes from Castleton this morning. 1st flush is very green and floral, 2nd flush is darker (though still not dark enough that I would feel inclined to add milk) and has a richer, deeper flavour. I’m mostly just sitting here, sipping, thinking “ok, I guess this is that muscatel flavour I keep hearing about”. Tastes like tea. ;)

Well this is my second 1st flush darjeeling, and they have both had very green leaves and quite a floral character, so I’m guessing that’s typical of 1st flush darjeelings? This is quite nice: light, smooth, no bitterness.

This is a nice, calming, bedtime tea. Chamomile, lavender, and mint balance each other out nicely.

I brewed this along with Capital Tea’s Rohini Estate 2nd Flush and it’s amazing how different they are. The leaves in this one are very green, and the aroma is very floral – like lilacs, or lillies of the valley? The taste is light, floral, slightly astringent. Very interesting!

Got this in the October Tea Sparrow box, and it’s yummy. It reminds me of Tiesta’s Nutty Almond Cream (which I think is very similar to Davids Tea’s Forever Nuts) because of the cinnamony, nutty, apple-pie-in-a-cup quality. It has a rooibos base so it doesn’t seem quite as bizarre to be adding milk and sweetener to it.

Oh man, now I wish I counted how many pearls I used for my cup! All I remember is measuring out a teaspoon, then adding one pearl, then removing a little one, to make 2.5g. It’s always fun to watch pearl teas unfurl as they steep, and this one expands into what seems like quite a lot of leaf! It has an amazing lychee smell as it steeps. The lychee flavour is quite strong – sweet and juicy and no weird artificial taste. I love lychees (though it has been years since I had a fresh one, boo) so perhaps it’s predictable that I would love this tea. The base tea is malty with a bit of cocoa. Very nice.

This is a nice, light, smooth green tea. Pleasant enough to drink, but not particularly memorable.

A Taiwanese Assam! Cool. :) The dried leaves are super cool looking, all long and twisty, and very aromatic. The brewing tea also smells amazing, malty with a bit of fruity baked goods? For a non-flavoured tea, this one certainly has a lot of flavours going on. Very nice.

Trying some Assams this morning – tasting this one along with “Black Beauty” from Tealux. The dry leaves are small, with lots of golden tips. The scent has a lot of floral and fruity notes, and some buscuit maybe? The scent as it brews is actually quite mild, and the taste is smooth and balanced – no one flavour is really jumping out at me. There’s a slight hint of bitterness, but I think I probably just haven’t figured out the ideal way to steep this yet.