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Drank this iced this evening (brewed double strength chilled and cut with ice and milk). It was quite tasty, but I wasn’t paying close enough attention to note much more than that. Not too bitter (which was a concern with the CTC leaves, so I made sure not to oversteep), and I got two steeps out of it. Ginger is the only flavor I remember standing out, probably because it’s my least favorite chai spice, but that wasn’t strong enough to ruin it for me.

This time I noticed the chocolatly coffee smell as soon as it was done steeping! Very, very tasty. Even better with milk; I think I hit a sweet spot on the leaf/water/temp/time scale today: 1 rounded tsp/8 oz/ boiling water into steam-heated mug. Must go play with the ratings now to bump this one a little

Inspired by LiberTEAS “daily oolong,” I decided to have Four Seasons today; it’s a lovely oolong, and I have a nice little tin of it, and there is no reason not to simply indulge on occasion. No hoarding!

Moving on: brief rinse with boiling water, as suggested, then a short first steep. Lots of leaf, a level tsp in my little oolong pot. Color is a saturated gold/green. First sip makes me think of a garden, possibly a vegetable garden in spring. Green, rich, fresh, and just slightly floral; a little bit grassy and vegetal, but somehow in the best possible way.
Steep 2: temp drops from 200 to 190 pretty quickly if I don’t preheat the pot;
Steep 3: still only about 1:30 per steep and going strong
Steep 4 is starting to get a bit more grassy – boo
Steep 5 at 2 minutes was a little weak, but there’s still plenty of room to increase the time. All of these later steeps have been boiling water into room temp tiny glass pot, and that seems to work pretty well

Huh. This is very tasty, though I wouldn’t describe the flavor as “cream.” Maple, or maybe coffee, toasted marshmallow. G, my resident convert-in-progress, says it tastes like a stroopwafel and gives it a thumbs up. There is a creamy smoothness to it, and a pleasant aftertaste (and the addition of actual cream goes quite well), but the flavor itself is too… obvious, to be called cream. Maybe a cream flavored jelly bean?

This was nice enough plain, sweet, with the rooibos and coconut coming through most strongly. With a bit of cream though, it’s delicious; very rich, smooth, sweet. It would be good with a bit of sugar, but it’s plenty sweet without. I’d put it in the chai category, personally, despite the lack of actually spices, something about the vanilla/rooibos/almond; in fact, I should try preparing it chai-latte style next time.

From the aroma I was expecting more fruit and spice than malt and chocolate, but upon tasting the smoothness is definitely chocolate. Very flavorful, but a bit harsh plain. A dash of milk improves it, bringing out the chocolate even more, and a bit of that fruit I smelled. I’m still not getting anything that I’d call malt, none of the rich bakeyness of an assam, but judging from Fujian Baroque and this? I love me some chinese breakfast teas.

A second steep at 5 minutes is smooth enough to drink plain, but visibly weaker (copper, rather than the dark red color of the first), so I wouldn’t expect a third out of these leaves.

This might be the first green tea I have really enjoyed, hot and plain. The description is right on – if a tea could taste like a soft, buttered dinner roll? This one does. Not the least bit vegetal, as I understand the word, no spinach or asparagus. Just a light, smooth, sweet and savory flavor. Compared to other light teas (white, green, oolong) this is very tasty.

Ended up getting ~ 4 steeps out of it, all 2-3 minutes