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I got this in a sample size on a whim when I placed order at sTeap. I have never liked smoky teas, but wanted it give it another try. I was excited for the s’mores aspect of this tea but a little apprehensive of the smoky. Well my distaste of smokey flavor won out. I can’t say I dislike this. I added some honey and frothed milk and I’m still drinking it. But the smoke flavor just isn’t for me. It always seems meaty to me, which confuses my tongue. It’s a simple tongue. But, I think if you don’t mind smokey this is probably a super good tea. I love the chocolate and gooey marshmallow flavor. I think if it didnt have the LS I’d be raving about it.

I thought I’d go back to an old favorite today and see how it stands up to all the yummy new teas I’ve tried recently. I’m quite happy to say that I still love this. It’s not as complex as some of the newer ones, but still incredibly tasty. I think I might mix this and the cinnamon swirl bread sometime. I think they have really complimentary flavors, French almond pastry and cinnamon bread. Yep. That will be crazy good.

After Azzrian wrote about this tea on a couple occasions, I couldn’t resist ordering it. I love cinnamon swirl bread. Cinnamon raison english muffins, cinnamon toast, any combination of cinnamon and dough really.

The mailman surprised me with the box of teas from sTEAp yesterday and it took all my restraint to not make this last night, but I can’t have any black teas in the evening or I won’t sleep. So once I got the kitchen cleaned up after breakfast (which is always an undertaking) I rewarded myself with this one.

I wasn’t sure how much to put in my cup as it isn’t listed on the package. I emailed their customer service and they responded within minutes, which is impressive in general, but on a Saturday morning is really amazing. I’m glad I asked, too, as they suggested 1TBSP per 16oz mug, not my normal amount.

I got the water boiling and poured it over my leaves. Oh my. It smelled amazing. Luckily, I only had to wait 2 minutes to try it. This tea is not one of those teas that smells great and then tastes mediocre. It smells great and tastes even better. I have no idea how that bread flavor gets in there, but it’s there. Is that the pu her? I’ve only had pu ehr once and really didn’t like it so I’ve never been back. One of these days I’ll try it again.

Anyway, I love this tea. I didn’t add anything to it (becoming a theme lately!) and it tastes just a little sweet on its on. I bet it’d be good with a splash of steamed milk. But right now I’m enjoying it on its own. And I’ve only been through 1 steep so far, 4 or so more to go.

Ahh, rainy saturday, you can’t get me down today!

UPDATE: 2nd steep, absolutely no loss of flavor. I was scared some of the cinnamon would be lost. Nope. I’m in love.

UPDATE: 3rd steep. Still no flavor loss. Crazy. This time I added some raw honey and steamed milk. Now it’s more like a cinnamon roll with gooey frosting. Dude.

UPDATE: 4th steep. Same as #3. I just realized that 4 steeps of 16oz each is 64oz. I’ve had 64oz and I’m already thinking about when I’m going to make this again, even though I have many other new ones to try. I’ve adjusted the rating to 100. It earned it.

I’ve had this tea first thing in the morning for the last week. And it’s a very tasty genmai cha. When I make it straight I don’t detect much matcha (which is what I want first thing the AM). To make it perfect, I add a 1/2 tsp of the culinary tea matcha powder. When it’s time to resteep I just add a little more matcha. I think this is the way to go with the genmais + matcha. I’ve found that very few of the genmai+matcha have enough matcha for my taste. The only brands that have enough matcha from the get go are american tea room and rishi. They actually look like the picture listed for this tea. Nonetheless, this is still a good tea. With altering, super good.

Well the Bean took another short nap today, but it was long enough for me to brew up a cup of this one. All I can say is, THANK GOODNESS FOR STEEPSTER! I never would have discovered Verdant, or if I did, it would be in the future and not right now and that’s too far away. This is another really good cup of tea that can be enjoyed absolutely unaltered. To me it tastes like an extra roast toasty laoshan black. I’m diggin it. Big time. On steep #2 and about to take it outside to watch the kids ride bigwheels and tricycles on the driveway and wait for the big kid to get home from school. I can’t wait to try the rest of my Verdant order. If the others are even half as good, I’m in for a treat! Tomorrow I’ll try the chai. That has to be good.

I tried to wait till the kids went down for a nap till I made this again. But the burnt chocolate barley flavor was calling out to me and I made it right after breakfast. I used the western method per many suggestions. Dude, I totally get the hype over this. I almost wish I didn’t so that I could be sole contrarian, but not a chance. This is truly one of a kind. I love the barley flavor. Makes me think of a good Ale. I love that I’m not even tempted to add anything to this. And I add something to nearly all black tea. There’s absolutely nothing that could make this any better. I’m definitely with the crowd on this one.

I got this tea in my very first tea swap from EmilyM. I’m not a huge white tea fan, but the champagne part sounded interesting. I enjoyed this tea enough, but it was a little too perfumey for me. The champagne aftertaste was pretty cool though! Now I need someone to make me a Northwest Pale Ale tea. That would be the ultimate!

At long last I get to try the well loved, almost worshipped, Laoshan Black. My experience with the fancier straight black teas is that I totally miss whatever people say they tasted. Maybe I’ve burnt my tongue too many times on hot tea or more likely pizza, but I don’t have the sophisticated “taster” tongue that many appear to have. Regardless, I was hopeful that I would still enjoy this, even if I couldn’t taste all the chocolate or other flavors so often mentioned.

Well, that was not a problem at all. Holy chocolate! And it’s like a slightly burnt chocolate, in a good way. Yum! I’m not going to rate this yet or even comment much on the flavor as I had a less than ideal first go round with the brewing. My rinse went according to plan. My first steep half spilled all over my hand (ouch). I didn’t want to burn my hand again, so for the second steep, I moved the tea leaves into a strainer that had previously brewed a chai so that flavor still permeated. Finally, I moved the leaves to a simple clear brewer that you drain out the bottom. At that moment, the little Bean woke up from her nap so any kind of short steeps were out of the question. So from then on I just poured some hot water into the brewer, watched it for a minute or two and then drained it into my mug and continue to chase the little creature. No real rhyme or reason to it. All the steeps (even the one that I forgot) were really yummy except for the one that still had the chai flavor. Tomorrow I hope to try again. And I hope the Bean stays asleep a little longer this time. Nap time is sacred. She’s been skimping on me lately.

Another one of my teas that I tried early on and didn’t much care for. I thought I didn’t like oolong, but this is the 2nd oolong that I’ve had in the last couple days and I think I’ve definitely developed a taste for it. This one has a great vanilla flavor in the first steep, a buttery cream flavor in the second, the last one has lost the buttery-ness, but it’s still pretty good. I’m glad I’m trying out the oolongs again. I’m really enjoying them!

After my good experience trying the Milk Oolong again after many months I thought I’d try another tea that I had tasted early on in my teaventure that I hadn’t enjoyed much, but was highly reviewed. I didn’t enjoy this one much then and I’m disappointed to say I didn’t enjoy it much now either, so I guess I haven’t evolved that much. ;-)