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Had this one again today in a larger quantity (a few cups rather than one small one), and decided that some aspects of the taste remind me of gyokuro! Certainly not a bad thing.

Day 2 of the Journey into Black Teas!

The first thing I noticed is that the smell of the infusion is incredible. It’s savory and sweet – almost reminds me of banana bread or gingerbread. The taste is subtle and complex – it’s hard to pick out any specific notes. It has a mild astringency, and a satisfying (somewhat buttery) aftertaste.

A wonderful tea! I feel like I’m starting to understand the appeal of white teas. This infusion has a roundness and ‘purity’ to it that is magnificent. Delicious floral and fruity notes, not a hint of astringency. Would certainly be worth purchasing.

This is a very fine sencha – thin small leaves and powder, really. Smells very tangy dry.

The infusion is a cloudy bright green. The taste is focused around a savory ‘umami’ flavor – rich and matcha-like. You could probably get away with using more tea leaves than you would for normal japanese green infusions without having to worry about too much bitterness.

Day 1 of my journey into black teas begins!

This is an incredible tea. As mentioned by the description, it has delectable fruity and floral undertones – a gentle and complex Darjeeling for sure. Very enjoyable overall and surely worth savoring. I’m excited to have enough left to try this tea again once I’ve developed my appreciation of black teas more.

I should note that this is a fairly old sample, so it may not be entirely representative of the fresh Yen Bai. I ended up steeping this one for longer than I usually would to try to make up for any lost flavor.

It has a smell that reminds me of a mixture of a black tea and a pu-erh, and a taste that reminds me of a Wu Yi oolong, because of the nice gentle sweetness to it. It is a fairly sophisticated black tea – I’ll need to come back to this one in the future when I’ve further developed my taste for black teas.

I’m finally going through a black tea phase, so I cracked this one open! I like it a lot – went great with breakfast. The bergamot is lovely, and not too overpowering. This one is probably my second favorite Arbor Teas black tea so far – my favorite being the Irish Breakfast.

Nothing in this world makes me feel quite as good as a nice cup of matcha. And this one delivers.

I had one of these after lunch today (much thanks to my girlfriend), and was blown away. This was my first tea-chocolate, and it was delightful. All of the tastes were fairly well-rounded, nothing overwhelming or obnoxious. Quite subtle, but very delicious. I feel like it gave me a slight caffeine buzz, but this could just be placebo (or just the warm feeling from eating chocolate!)

I’ve never had a green yerba mate before! It was pretty interesting to taste yerba without so much tangyness. Sometimes yerba mate gives a headache (not sure why), but this one didn’t, which is a huge plus.