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Golden Moon Sample #?/31

This was another generous sample, around 3.5g, so I used a generous 1.9 in my 4oz pot. The leaves are large and, yes, silvery; they look lovely steeping. Formosa oolongs aren’t usually my favorite, but this one is impressing me. A little bit astringent, but very flavorful. G pronounces it starchy, savory, and nutty. Not getting any orange blossom yet, but maybe on the 2nd steep.

2nd steep (5 minutes) was probably the best, though 3rd at 7 was also good. Both were smoother than the 1st.

Another free sample; 1.1g in 4oz seemed to work fine. Well flavored black tea- fruity, sweet, smooth enough to drink plain. Would probably be tasty iced. 2nd steep at 5 minutes is equally good. If I wanted a grapey/winey black tea on hand, I would happily buy this, but it’s not quite spectacular enough to have me putting in an order right now.

Finally trying out my Ryokucha sample from Samovar. The toasted rice is the most powerful flavor (no, I haven’t had genmaicha before, why do you ask?), though I get more creamy green tea if I swirl before sipping (so the matcha isn’t all settled to the bottom). This is really nice, though not very… green, in taste. Very green in color! A lovely pale sea/spring green.

This has a serious caffeine kick, by the way. I can feel it going to my head, and incidentally, taking care of the headache I woke up with today!

Will update with steeps 2 and 3.
Steep 2, at 185°F, is almost identical to the first: a little less toasted rice and a little more green tea, but otherwise very similar. Pale green color, and still some matcha settling to the bottom of my cup.
Steep 3 had less matcha :( but was still pretty good

Today felt like a pu-erh day; I’ve had a few more since the last time I drank this one, so I’m appreciating the strength of flavor a bit more. This is smooth, and sweet, and rich, and goes really well with the chocolate bar I’m currently nibbling on. We’ll see later how it tastes with leftover curry – I’m optimistic. Definitely bumping the rating, but keep in mind that that’s relative only to other pu-erhs

ETA: I’m on steep 4 or 5 and going strong; it did indeed taste good with a curry :) and is as forgiving of steep times as any puerh. I’ve tried everything from 1 to 10 minutes today with little variation in flavor.

Had a small cup of this to compare to Herbal Infusion’s Canadian Maple Cream – they are pretty similar. The flavor here is a little stronger and sharper (that coffee hint), but overall I’d have a hard time choosing between the two. Adagio’s is smoother when plain, but HI’s was naturally flavored and would probably steep a couple of times (I didn’t think to try earlier). I’ll probably end up buying my next tin of Cream tea from whichever company has more (other) things I want.

Got my Samples from Herbal Infusions today! They’re just big enough for one small cup each (and in cute tiny bags), but hey – free! I used ~1g with 3oz water. The package smelled divine, mostly from this one and the Scottish Caramel Pu-Erh, I think. The leaves are kinda small and dusty on this one, but I think part of that is from the long shipping/tiny quantity. This tasted a bit harsh for my taste plain, but was pretty sweet and creamy with milk. The maple flavor is strong, but I can still taste the black tea underneath. Might buy!

This is the kind of tea that makes me glad I bought a tiny scale; the leaves are much too big to fit well into a teaspoon, but I know that the 1.2g I used in my 4oz pot made for a fairly weak cup, at least for steep times of 1-2 minutes. I’ll let the 3rd steep go longer, but so far this has been a very mild tea with more aroma of darjeeling than flavor.

So, I was gone all weekend (Six Flags for G’s birthday! Fun for all ages!), but this means when I got home and wanted chai there was no milk in the fridge :( So you know what I put in this?

Vanilla ice cream.

A little sweeter than I’m used to, but it worked in a pinch ;) I wish I could have steeped this stovetop with milk, though, I’ve really been spoiled by the method.