Popular Tasting Notes

WOW does this tea smell good in the bag. Summertime is right: fruit and a little flower scent. In the cup it’s a nice dark gold, and smells the same only slightly less fruit and more flower/tea. I am a little disappointed in the flavor though. Maybe I understeeped? (I hate to push my luck with greens; you get that bitter astringency if you oversteep.) It’s just kind of plain grassy green tea flavor, with a hint of the lemon and flower from before. Just a hint. I’m going to put some sugar in the next cup and see if that brings out the flavors. This is pretty drinkable as-is, but nothing special.

Teas with this many elements to them can be iffy, but this one turned out to be beautifully balanced. The aroma is sweet, but not overpoweringly so, and the mix of green and white tea with all the other flavours results in a subtle, complex tea. Steeped for about three minutes at 85C.

I really loved the smell of the tea from the tin and was hoping for that sweet peachy flavor. Unfortunately I can barely register the taste of peach and got mostly a strong black tea base instead. I brewed this in a large pitcher for my guests last weekend and they see to like the taste at least. I’ll try steeping for a less minutes next time to see if it makes a difference in sweetness.

I’m still making progress toward cleaning out my hoard of oolongs. I was able to finish the last of the Tieguanyin Deep Roasted Wednesday, and have been working on this one ever since. This was another Tealyra oolong that I first sampled in a gongfu session last month and didn’t get around to reviewing prior to the end of the month. I’m rectifying that now.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. My rinse ended up being several seconds longer than I planned because it was kind of late and I zoned out. Fortunately, this little misstep did not significantly impact the remainder of the session. Following the rinse, I steeped 6 grams of loose tea leaves in 4 ounces of 195 F water for 10 seconds. This infusion was followed by 10 additional infusions with an increase of 2 seconds per infusion. Steep times ranged from 10-30 seconds.

Prior to the rinse, I noticed that the long, twisted leaves produced a mild aroma that was simultaneously vegetal and floral. Following my unintentionally long rinse, I noticed that the floral aroma was more pronounced. To me, it was very reminiscent of lilac, magnolia, and violet. The first infusion saw creamy and buttery qualities merge with the floral scents on the nose. In the mouth, I picked up delicate, surprisingly well-integrated notes of magnolia, lilac, violet, lily, orchid, sweetgrass, cream, and butter. The next 4 infusions saw a slight breadiness emerge on the nose and in the mouth. It was most pronounced on the finish where it was joined by slightly stronger vegetal notes and minerality. The final series of infusions saw the floral aromas and flavors fade a little quicker than I would have liked, while mineral, bread, cream, butter, and sweetgrass remained. I should note, however, that the floral aromas and flavors did not completely disappear during these infusions-I could still just barely detect them under everything else.

Okay, let me just state for the record that I highly doubt this tea would compete favorably over a lengthy session with many of the premier competition grade Baozhongs offered by some other vendors. I do think, however, that this is a very solid, approachable, and consistent Baozhong for the money. If you are a fan of greener oolongs, I could see this making a good daily drinker.

This is a grower .. at first wasn’t blown away but after drinking it for a week or so I’ve found it to be a right satisfying cuppa.

I was really excited about this one because of how it looks and smells. My first surprise was that this tea brews very red. My initial reaction to the taste was that this tea is exactly like Celestial Seasonings Raspberry Zinger tea. Surprisingly, there is no raspberry in this tea so maybe it is apple I am tasting? husband says it smells like red kool-aid. I would like to try this tea iced but think ultimately this one rates as nothing special, just ok. 9/5 – I tried as iced and it is better, but I agree with husband, much like kool-aid.

This is a favorite from my childhood. Mom discovered it when she lived in Canada and now I’m hooked. You have to be really careful about not oversteeping, though, because it gets bitter fast.

Basic black tea- there’s very little remarkable about this tea, but if you require a cup of black tea, this gets the job done.

almost perfect, very clean scent of earth and woods, with a lovely floral, lime, woodsy flavor