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Another longer morning day, so I picked up something to gaiwan again. Derk, you wanted another opinion so here it is and TY for sample.

Unfortunately, I had to make it stronger than usual, 8 grams for 85 ml gaiwan. Maybe has got my gaiwan bigger volume, but this is usual volume I get when it tea is broken. Preheated gaiwan, 15 seconds rinse with freshly boiled water.

1st steep; 20 seconds:
Dry tea reminds me dates, while wet leaf smell familiar, though I am not sure what is it. Maybe bit birch wood in Finnish sauna. It is broking quite quickly. Colour of the liquor is quite brown with red notes. Lily flowers, as they are light are coming to mug too. Taste is some generic pu-erh, maybe bit salty? But it is smooth.

2nd steep, 15 seconds:
The tea is dark, opaque, thick. Aroma is soil. I am not good in naming different soils so just soil :). In taste it became bit alkaline, metalic. Unfortunately not tasty for me. Let´s see another steeps.

3rd, 20 seconds:
Still dark and opaque. Aroma did not changed at all. I like more the wet leaf aroma than liquor aroma. Wet leaf really reminds me birch wood. It tastes really metallic, though now it is bit weaker and hopefully smoother. I think I prefer more sweet ones. Or fruity.

4th, 30 seconds.
Colour still same, aroma changes bit to wet leaf (so birch), but still some metallic and/or soil. Taste changed to more chocolate, wood. Definitely sweeter than previous. Much better now. I tried to search something about the taro flavour, but I am not much clever from descriptions, so I am keeping it simple.

5th, 30 seconds.
The liquor is clearing, red notes of colour are starting to dominate.
Aroma of birch is again bit stronger, and it starts to appear in taste. More woody flavours, with metallic aftertaste. But certainly better than first few steeps. No signs of dying.

6th, 40 seconds.
Colour is really clear (compared to first brews), dark red as some hibiscus teas. Aroma is strongly woody, pleasant. Flavour is wet wood with bit of soil aftertaste.

7th, 50 seconds
Yup, it is clear. And red. Maybe dark copper. Certainly woody in matter of scents and flavours. Those last brews are certainly more lovely than first ones. Still somehow not so perfect.

8th, 1 minute
My thermos is running out. Maybe I will make another. Anyway, one minute steep!
Okay, this is running weak. So no another thermos. Colour is red-brown. Taste is same, but quite weak. I will try 1 minute 15 seconds next steep. Or 30 seconds extra? I dunno.

9th, 1 minute 30 seconds.
Quite light liquor, bit more orange. Somehow reasonable, but it is gone I guess. In thermos I have water for last cup. Just in time I guess. It is really like branches brew. Really woody, I do not recognize anything else.

10th, probably over 2 minutes.
The lily flowers are very pretty. Some of them are expanded fully, maybe they are making the flavour notes? Who knows; I do not. Liquor is light orange, clear. Aroma is more floral, so does taste. But somehow boring.

So, 10 steeps, while it changed from very soil taste to floral through wooden notes. Generally, I do not liked it so much, it was really muddy and alkaline. Then it changes to wood; but still it was not so pleasant. I enjoyed much more the wet leaf aromas than taste of all 10 steeps. Anyway, it was nice to try, but it does not became my favourite tea. Maybe it is hard to compare with puerh I had from Crimson Lotus Tea last time; as this is not just pu-erh vendor. There were not any really unpleasant flavours and aromas; but not my cup of tea. Maybe too “dirty” for me.

Received today from my friend from Italy. It is decaf, which is a plus when brewing at 7 pm. I really don´t have any expecations, as it looks like cheap “something like” tea. Apparently, box of 20 tea bags costs 2.89 € which is bit higher than I expected.

If I undestood ingredients right, it contains: Decaf black tea (caffeine <0.1%), natural aroma 8 % and peach 1 %.

3-5 minutes steeping, I guess I made 4 minute brew.

Colour is bronze, quite clear which is quite nice for “just a tea bag”. Aroma is strong peach, but doesn´t really smell artificial! Maybe little bit malt is there.

It cools down and aromas are dying. Not so fruity anymore, actually it smell like…actually nothing. It is some generic smell.

The taste is quite weak, bit malty, but again bit generic. Nothing really distinctive, somehow empty. I guess it is because it is decaf. The peach taste is almost non-existent. I expected explosion of summer notes, but there are none of them. It´s cheap, generic, black tea, without any freshness, without flavours.

It´s just nice, as it is without caffeine, thus good for evening. But I won´t drink it again.

I finished this tea today. I really enjoyed it – it is nice black tea with lots of malt. Little fruity notes, but today I noticed new scents and tastes: It was somehow spicy! Good though, everything was nice together and my previous tasting notes are right too.

Western, 2-3 grams; about 3-4 minutes brewing time; boiling water.

Tea bag by derk, third tea today.

I just used about 70 °C water; clear glass. Keeping it simple.
Tastes quite good, with slight yellow colour. Bit opaque though.

Anyway, slight jasmine aroma and taste is green tea. Bit of floral/jasmine is there too.
I think it is nice, cheap – as I looked for prices, tea. Nothing fancy, but not bad at all.

Lots of dust remained in the foil bag, so I hope it is all gone. Well, bold tea after roasted pork sounds good. Dry tea bag smells like common black tea without any extra notes.

Scents were quite nice, bit citrusy, bit malty. Maybe jam notes, but not really much of them.

Palate is quite boring though, nothing really dominant – quite bitter and malty. It is not awfully bitter – which I enjoy, but it´s not a tea I would like to buy whole box.

Colour was clear and dark brown – it is not bad.

2 and half grams in my 85 ml gaiwan. About 5-10 seconds rinse. My first yellow tea I guess.

Whoa, aromas woke up, and it is really strong tropical fruit. Maybe mango, papaya, something like that. I really didn´t expected that. Anyway, move on. I had two 20 seconds brew, two 30s, two 40s and so on. I don´t know how much in total, I was too lazy to count.

Anyway, colour is golden moving bit more to amber, nice and clear. Aroma remains with following steeps, it is becoming weaker though a bit.

Taste: First steeps were really nice and fruity, then astringency take part. But it remains fruity. Maybe bit mineral. But it tastes good. Thank you Derk for sample, so I can try it.

I thought I need another cup today. But it is already 9 pm, so something caffeine-free will be a winner. Another chamomile? Okay, who another will drink it than I. Oh it is with citrus. That could work. Hmm, in sachet – there is lots of yellow chamomile buds, something wihich looks like lemongrass and few pieces of zest of some citrus. Probably grapefruit or something as it is slightly red.

I just kept the sachet in while drinking. Colour is quite light, with yellow notes. That can be caused by my lamp though. But even through white led from mobile it is same. So I can´t blame lamp.

Aroma is quite sweet, citrusy (no, really?), maybe bit medicinal. But that is the camomile, huh?

Taste? It works quite well together. Chamomile is quite weak and it is really fresh. Bit like some kind of lemonade – I can imagine it iced. Whoa, it really tastes good.

I do not know. From Derk :)

I had quite big expectations, dry tea bag smelled nice, full of spices, mainly nutmeg.
Colour is copper with chocolate dust – so it is opaque. Anyway, aroma was quite weak, not much spicy as I have expected.

Taste? It was bland, was I steeping it for short time? But it was advised 4 minutes! Hmm, it was like some weak chai tea.

Anyway, it was quite nice and no funky notes, so it was not so bad.

Tea bag from Derk and I have to agree again with everything.
Plain, 3+ minutes of steeping, freshly boiled water into cold glass cup. 8 am. Listening to oldies as “Frankie goes to Holywood – The Power Of Love”. Feeling nostalgic.

Strong, bold tea, wtih stong notes of malt. My fav. Indeed bit citrusy. When it is cooling down I am noticing wine notes too. Overall it is round taste. Colour is dark copper, clear. Somehow typical for black tea.

I like it. For mornings as this rainy one – perfect. Good morning cuppa. Great job from tea bag.

Just one steep though.

Thermos time!
Prepared it in thermos, as I was leaving quite early today and wanted a cup.
Dry leaf aroma is quite nice, vanilla, cocoa, just nice.

When it comes to taste, it´s not so good. It reminds me a cookie dough (not bad itself), but something was sour there. That makes whole blend much worse. Too bad! If there wasn´t that sour aftertaste, it would be really nice.

As in thermos, hard to describe a color – it looked golden when pouring.