Popular Tasting Notes

As you can see by the picture the leaves are well varigated multi-green and medium brown leaves, with a nice amount of white tips that are well twisted. The dry aroma is very fresh & sweet, smelling mostly like white chocolate, with mild spice note, & even more mild fruit aromas.

Steeping aromas were fruity & nut-like [akin to almonds] with a sweetness I attribute to white chocolate. Wet leaves themselves are mostly green shades, with lighter white tipped & light brown colors. As far as wet leaf aromas, there is a combination of light fruits & flowers, lightly minty and spicey [light peppery notes]. The leaves are large and well shaped for a FF Darjeeling.

The cup is a light yellow-orange color with rather mild aromas. So fresh & sweet, it smells lightly vegetal and nutty at the same time. The flavors on my palate are slightly deeper & still mild, with a vegetal quality and mild almonds. I cannot place the fruits that present themseves on my palate. I get frustrated sometimes when I’m at a loss of words. :// There is also a gentle spiciness and flowery quality on the back of my tongue. The elusive flowery bouquet is fresh and light-much like a distant flower garden ready to be enjoyed.

From start to finish this Sungma Darjeeling is great, & one of the best I’ve had the pleasure to drink! :)) There is also little to no astringency on my palate at 3:15. Sometimes, when a tea like this frustrates me, it is only because it is truly great. It is the beauty of the tea & the experience, that words cannot describe. I’ve accepted that and done my best, but sometimes words and descriptions cannot fully explain true beauty-even if you can reach out & touch it, or in this case taste it! :D

Cupped & Reviewed: Thursday, July 12, 2012.
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UPDATED REVIEW

I decided to add roughly 1 tsp to previously steeped leaves, and it was a completely different and delicious cup of tea. :)) [3:00 minutes at 195-200F]. While the tea was steeping, the liqour was sweeter, & also more fruity & nutty. In addition, the wet leaves had greater fruity, minty & vegetal qualities.

The cup color was still a translucent medium orange, with aromatics such as a heartier buttery sweetness, an enhanced almond scent, & more pronounced fruits. The flavors tasted were also deeper: fruits, nuts, butter & the spicy character. All of these flavors played on my palate, with a noticeable, pleasantly mild astringency. :)) Although not the case with this exemplary tea, when I prepare a second cup by adding leaves as noted above, sometimes the astringency can be a bit too much-even for me. :))

Each cup was delicious, with the first cup being more mild and elusive. The second cup was still mild, while being a little more savory, & I did enjoy the temperate, palate pleasing astringency. :))

Cupped: Thursday, July 12, 2012. Updated Review: Friday, July, 13, 2012.

My very first order of 52 teas arrived today – Hooray!!!

I gasped in excitement when I saw my poor mailman trying to stuff the package through our little mail slot. When I opened the door to assist him, and I confirmed my suspicions as to what it was, I had to fight the urge to hug him – partially because it’s inappropriate to hug unwilling strangers, but mostly because he scurried away so quickly, that nothing short of a rugby tackle would have slowed his pace.

Sometimes I think I should wear a shirt that says “just because it’s your job, doesn’t mean I won’t try to hug you if you do it well”. But I suspect if I do that, my mailman would whip my mail at me and sprint off as if I was a rabid dog. The last business person I hugged was my real estate agent. He’s the best. Thankfully he’s far too sweet and polite to say anything, but I’m almost certain he thinks I’m at least a little nuts.

Damn you Charlotte Diamond for making me a crazy hug addict – lol! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkhBgmGUo7k

As for this tea, Graveyard Mist is the tea that started my fascination with 52teas and eventually led to this first order. I loved how unique the online descriptions of their teas are, and when I saw that there was some of this one available I jumped at the chance to give it a try (along with a few others).

To be perfectly honest, when I caught the first whiff of this brewed tea while taking my initial sip, I expected to hear the whirrrr whirrr of the dentist’s office. Upon the first sip, the association of the minty sweetness went even further and made me lightly tap my teeth together in anticipation of that sandy grittiness of the toothpaste my hygienist uses. Thankfully there was none.

Thankfully, I was braced for disappointment when I took my first sip. I had suspected that there was no way this tea could ever live up to my high expectations. I have been so excited about trying it, that I built it up in my head to be like some kind of magical elixir.

Sadly, no magic… well, unless you count being mentally transported to my dentist’s office.

I won’t say that I was completely disappointed, because I wanted something different, and this certainly meets that criterion. I’ve also read on other tealogs that many 52teas blends get better with age, so tearing it open as soon as I got it is not likely a good way to give it a fair trial. It’s minty and sweet, and I get the feeling that I will enjoy this tea increasingly as I draw closer to the bottom of the package and make my peace that no tea can possibly ever live up to my crazed imagination. So if you see my rating for this one slowly inching up, it’s because I’m getting back in touch with reality.

Until next time, hugs to every one of my Steepster friends!
♪ 4 hugs a day ♫ that’s the minimum ♪ 4 hugs a day ♫ not the maximum ♪

2013-05-11
OMG Tastybrew my mystery swap box arrived and it’s a smorgasbord of tea! like whoa!

i immediately picked two teas. and this was the first.
the scent is pretty damn decadent. heavy butter, or like a fresh cheese danish. bam!
the base is a pretty mild black so it would be nice when i don’t want a mega caffeine hit or a heavy mouth experience. a mellow dessert tea!

thanks so much TastyBrew, this whole box is gonna be a wild experience.

2013-06-07
this tea is. so. good.
like sogood!

i’m listening to spoon on repeat too. this song is also so very good.
Paper Tiger – Spoon
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uA7uEW56rCE
it’s all too bittersweet.

and it’s raining out too. super raining. i keep getting emergency flood warnings on my phone.
it’s a dramatic day.

I’m having a lovely latte cup of this tea this morning while i try to get going. I had a hugely long day of work yesterday, followed by a distinct lack of sleep (i’ve been up for 4 hours) – an overall crappy day in which i was clearly affected by something given my inability to let things slide – which i’m normally pretty good at. So today, i’m taking it easy and trying to still do work, but from home, in my pj’s while drinking tea.

I missed out on all cyber monday purchases yesterday because of work but i did get a lovely card in the mail from grace, which helped improve my day a bunch. It also occurred to me last night that you guys all rock my socks. I really do love the sense of community we have going on here and the inclination that a huge number of people have to just be awesome. The sharing, the conversation – everything just makes my days a little sunshinier for having the steepster folks around :) So I’ll raise a cup of tea this morning in your honor and be thankful for the comraderie that is abundant here on steepster, that keeps me going some day.

Thank you all for just being awesome. keep it up!

(oh and the tea? it’s a lovely cup of delicious vanilla warmth)

There’s a saying that goes like this:

«In doubt, go for GO» … That’s what I did. And I did good.

Oh, and since Steepster is on an Instagram craze, here’s this morning’s big mug pic of GO

http://instagram.com/p/rPK-WFQh4K/

I woke up with a stomach that was out of sorts, felt nauseated, stood outside for a while and inhaled the (temporarily nice) fresh air, and came to work. Now I’m sitting here nauseated again. How annoying. I think I’m just going to try and hang in there as long as possible, but I really hate stumbling into my boss’ office and letting her know I won’t last the day. I just feel I should generally have better discretion than that, and just not go in as opposed to going in to try your best and just look as though you’re trying to prove a point. ugh I’m overthinking things. What else is new.

Anyway, this tea is just lovely. A touch of astringency in the most refreshing way possible, and I never thought that a straight black tea could taste refreshing. But there’s also a fair dose of malt and sweet, and a hint of apple woodiness from what I’m assuming is the Darjeeling. This tea really does taste quite complex, but is so effortlessly beautiful in your mouth. I got 8 oz of it (what? it didn’t come in smaller amounts!), so am happy to share, but also don’t anticipate having any issue at all finishing it. I like it a lot better than Scottish Morn, because I just found that tea to be astringent and strong but not much else. And I don’t know that I really like very strong but otherwise uninteresting teas. This is a lot more complex, while still having enough strength to be a legitimately awesome morning tea. Absolutely recommend!

My family is having a Thanksgiving lunch today! I am so excited!!!! Even though I am vegetarian, I still love everything about Thanksgiving! The smell of the food, the Christmas music, the company!! To start of my day with a smile, as soon as I was done running I made myself a delicious Pumpkin Chai Latte!!

The dry leaves with pumpkin sprinkles make me smile every time! The smell is very sweet and pumpkin bread like. It doesn’t quite reach my spice requirement, but that can be easily fixed with a pinch of nutmeg and cinnamon!

I frothed up my milk and made my tea in my double walled Bodum cup. It smelled like joy! My Mom walked by and asked if I decided to bake pumpkin bread, this of course made me smile and I made her try my tea. She loved it! I get points for making my coffee loving Mom admit to really liking a tea!!

I can honestly say that last year I did not love this tea. I am not sure what changed… I still acknowledge that it must be a latte to be really tasty, but it is really tasty! Today, it was the perfect tea to start the day off with a smile! I think I will need another cup of this with Thanksgiving dessert!!! :)

Upping the rating a bit!

This is another sample I picked up just for the sake of trying all the teas. Did I expect to like it? Nope. Did I even read the ingredient list? Nope!

So anyways, laoshan green mixed with… things. I know there’s mint in here, but I’m pretty clueless as to everything else, to be honest. Dry, that’s pretty much how the tea smelled. Minty. Bleh, like I said, try all the teas! There have been surprises before.

When I took the infuser basket out, I have to admit that I caught aromas I was not expecting! Laoshan green, definitely, but… along with the mint there is something savoury. Almost smells like… gingerbread??? A spice of some sort, I’d have to guess.

And then the flavour…. See, this is why I pick up teas I don’t expect to like, because sometimes I get something amazing! First, there’s typical beany laoshan green, which is a treat on its own. Then there’s mint… but it tastes like mint mint to me, not peppermint. I like mint mint! (Does anyone else understand what I mean here?? My mom would!) Anyways, after the mint there’s this intense gingerbready flavour. I have no idea what it is! And then it fades into what’s coming off to me as almost a… coffee flavour? But a delicious coffee flavour, no burniness. I have no idea what it is I’m tasting in here, but I’m kicking myself for not trying this earlier, because it’s ridiculously delicious! I think the caramel notes of the laoshan green are playing in here somehow… ok, off to Verdant’s website I go!

Coriander! Cardamom! Well, I guess the cardamom is what’s coming off as ginger to me, and the coriander is probably involved in the general “savouriness” of this tea.

Darn… I am really disappointed that I only have a sample size of this one. Anyone have some they want to get rid of/trade? I would love to send my mom some of this one…! It is really a fantastic blend.

ETA: Nuts. Just checked to see if anyone else who reviewed this didn’t like it… but pretty much all the reviews are 89+, except for the one person who seems to have given theirs away to other people who posted! :(

ETA again: Second infusion also delicious, third infusion somewhat less so (but it did sit out overnight). I think I have enough for a couple more cups though… I will have to savour them!

Chaiman Meow picked this one 2 times in a row and the chairman knows best. I broke off 10 grams and separated what I broke off into mainly full leaves as this is compressed lightly. I used the Gaiwan also per the chairmans pick on the brewing vessel. I gave a good 5 second rinse to wake everything up. The wet leaf had a touch of ’mustiness" that most teas this age exhibit.
It gives bit of the floral and citrus along with sweetness and an almost caramel touch to it. It also gives the tongue tingle that most older quality teas give. Really nice, not too harsh astringent or bitter considering its age and origin. A really nice one done here. If this is “middle of the road” I think it does a good job.

Second tasting…thanks to Fong Mong Tea!

I have a new iPad…woo hoo! Bound to happen that I’d come home to Apple. My first computer was a Mac. I lived in Cupertino (Home of Apple) and worked off and on in Apple offices (not uncommon in Silicon Valley). After 4.5 years with a HP Laptop I’ve seen the light.
Yes, I have to pay for it over time…but it had to be done soon. My computer was whimpering, letting me know that a fatal crash was imminent.
My tea drinking is more like work today. I hate that!!!
In the middle of transfering ‘stuff’ from the HP to an external hard drive (for my iPad), setting up all the things I need on the iPad, erasing my personal ‘Stuff’ from my Kindle Fire to give to my granddaughter :) my tea review is going to sound aweful!

Sorry Fong Mong Tea!

Why didn’t I choose a crappy tea on a mentally challenging day? After all, my abilities are slow…really slow!
On stressful or busy days, everyone needs good tea!
Crappy tea fails to make you feel better.
Bad tea never stops you cold in your tracks and reminds you to take a second and reflect…
“Uh huh…I can do this task…I am drinking a very floral tea with a cool mint undertone that is wonderful. This is a tea I remember liking before…sweet and fruity.”
This is what I did.
I drank a really good tea on a stressful day! I drank several small steepings and smiled at the sweet floral flavor.

Then I went on with some clarity to finish more of my iPad setup.
I’m a step closer to a blog.

This sample was sent to me by a Steepster friend. It is a really nice sheng, I am enjoying it this morning. For such a young tea, it is pretty mellow. It has some really great flavors, it’s lemony, sweet, melon, floral and a tiny bit of smoke. There was a small bit of bitterness in the first two steeps that has mostly gone away now that I’ve reached steep #3 and #4. Mostly it’s sweet! It’s good to have some shengs that don’t knock you over with harshness. The price is still reasonable too (today it’s $39.00 for a 400g cake).

I am tempted to buy the cake, just not sure if it would fit in my mailbox and otherwise the post office will lose it… :( Anyway I am really glad I got to try this one!

Holy Heaven!!! LOVE THIS!
It’s like drinking honey wrapped around honey comb and laced with more honey. Only on the first steep now.
Underneath the honey, I can taste a faint green Oolong note which I suspect will come up more as my infusions grow in number. That mineral aspect is there as well but given that I haven’t got much experience describing it, I’ll have to wait til I am more familiar.
I love that this is such a complex tea. Mineral and honey and green oolong, mixed with that rich base that combined makes me think of sitting on a porch with a view of the snowcapped mountains and a green meadow beside me.
Now I just need to find a way to mainline this…
Rating: TBD but as it stands now, 98

Man i love this tea… just the right balance of spicy and sweet and delicious! Though i have half a mind to try mixing this up with the lapacho just to see how more orange in this one tastes. but i’m lazy…so likely not haha.

Final Count: 136 – now to see if i can get 6 more in before FLORIDA! (if so, then even with orders being added to my cupboard in march from florida, i’ll be at 150…so totally at my goal!)

Edit…hey look at that 3600 notes… Lol

Another sipdown! I’m down to 106 now – not too shabby! This was nice. I’m always a bit nervous about lavender because I associate it with grandmothers and soap, but this was really good.

I just packed up 19 teas for my sister as a Loose-Leaf starter kit (with instructions, perfect spoon and perfect mug). I’m so excited and I hope she likes it. I tried to mix the traditional teas like Earl Grey and Assams, with all the fun flavoured ones that a lot of people start with. I hope it’s not too much. :| I will probably wait until Sil’s package arrives because I know she sent me some DavidsTea samples and some of those might be nice to pass on as well.

106 is nice, but I’m worried I’ll be up to 150 soon (which would be a record). I’m expecting samples from Jessiwrites, JackieT, Sil, TerryHarpLady, and Kittena, and I’ve got orders now from Verdant, Butiki, Steappe Shoppe, and Harney & Sons. And 52 Teas. Yikes. That sounds like a lot when you type it all out. I spaced it out though – that’s probably ALL I ordered this month.

I just couldn’t resist the name of this one! And the description is just as fitting!

Sure…this tastes tropical…but a bit more gentle than most…but still true and fresh! Pineapple, Mango, and Papaya – the perfect THREESOME – is just dandy! Playful and a powerful yet relaxing trio of flavors.

YUM!

The flavors also seem to melt in your mouth and mesh well, too. As well as being nice and even throughout the sip! Very nice!

So the new AC Perchs shop opened on Friday! YAAAAY! I stopped in there on my way home from work this afternoon. Work. Yes. Nose to the grindstone once again. I want more summer holiday as I was not finished with it thank you very much. Anyway. I was rather looking forward to this shop opening as it’s one of my favourite places to shop online even though I have to get at least 100 grams of each item. I was hoping with a real shop where they would measure it out on scales for me, I could get less at a time, and maybe have a sample of whichever tea I might be interested in but not certain I would care about.

Well. Tough bloody luck. I was told I could still only get a minimum of 100 grams. And yeah, I could get samples, there were a basket of pre-packed ones to choose from, which at a glance of course turned out to be the same ones as they offer online.

I’m having a really hard time wrapping my head around the logic of this, and I have to say I’m now feeling rather disappointed.

So, having spent a few minutes scouting out all the things I’d have liked to get samples of, I was forced to control myself with one certainty (vanilla, which I would probably have got in that amount anyway, as self lurves vanilla black and even if it was Awesome, it’d definitely get used) and one new one which is this one.

It smells like marcipan and sweeties both before and after steeping. I reckon this would be pretty good around Christmas as it reminds me strongly of Christmas marcipan confectionary.

I’m expecting a marcipan-y taste as well now. Creamy and sweet and sort of thick-ish. I’m fearing that it’ll turn out to be a lot more sort of raw almond-y, which like other nuts, can be slightly astringent in flavour. For me, anyway. (This is why I don’t much care for hazelnuts on their own. Feels like chewing wood)

Strangely enough, it’s sort of a middle-y thing between the two. It’s definitely thickish and creamy and somewhat sweet, but it’s not particularly marcipan-y. It strikes me as rather more nutty than marcipan-y, but doesn’t have the astringency that I was afraid of.

I had to have a few sips before I could come to any conclusion on this, but I think I’ve decided that I rather like it as it is, BUT that, like vanilla, it will probably be excellent as a ‘mixer’ with other flavoured teas as well. I want to try it with my hazelnut brittle!

This is the 2nd tea from the April TOMC. The dry aroma is a light incense, the warm aroma is of red grapefruit & sandalwood. It’s very addictive. I sat breathing it in, & I love it.

The first time I tasted Mi Lan Xiang Phoenix Mountain Dancong, it kind of freaked me out. I’d never had a tea with the vaporous after-aroma incense-like sensation in my sinuses. I also didn’t really care much for the feeling like I was drinking incense mixed with grapefruit juice. It just wasn’t right.

Amazingly, each time I drink it, I enjoy it more! It’s a very complex tea, best suited to a gongfu session. The early cups are gently sweet grapefruit, with a bit of the bitter rind, a pinch of clove, & the after glow of sandalwood, & with each steep it builds, like eating a sweet grapefruit in a Buddhist temple, the air heavy with incense & flowers.

Just brewed some of this one up, and OH MY GOODNESS this smells so incredibly delicious! Like creamy caramels mixed with that delicious vegetal flavour… it is all I can do not to gulp this down, but I’d surely burn my throat quite badly.

Cool faster, tea!!! Updated tasting note to come…

Also, for reference, I brewed ~4g of this in ~6oz. of 175F water for about 30 seconds. All approximate, yep. If this is as delicious as the aroma, hopefully I can replicate it…

ETA: Ok, I have very little experience with straight white teas, but this one is absolutely amazing! I love love LOVE vegetal greens, particularly ones with a natural rock sugary sweetness (like the Dragonwell-style Laoshan Green), but this is completely something else. Not rock sugar, but definitely creamy, sweet caramel with that Laoshan background. Amazing. I only picked up a sample of this one, but I suspect a full ounce or two may be headed my way sooner than my bank account would prefer…

ETA again: Yummmmm. I would be hard-pressed to identify this as a white tea over a green, but I really don’t care… this one is so good!

ETA a third time: Second infusion, 175F for a minute, is astringent but not unpleasantly so. The vegetal, green-beany flavour is very present, and leaves a strong, caramelly, vegetal aftertaste. Oh so good. I do, however, think that a 45s infusion may have been a touch better – less strong! Or more water. Either way, this is one yummy tea.

Dear Lady Grey,

I’m so sorry for always thinking I don’t like you. I don’t know what it is, but when your beautiful scent and taste aren’t right in front of me, I forget your wonders. Instead, I associate you with dusty dry bergamot, and your terrible husband, Earl Grey. I don’t know why he and I don’t get along, but you, my Lady, are a pleasure. Thank you for your faux lemon/faux froot loop taste and your conveniently packaged teabags. Forgive me my forgetful nature, and try not to hold a grudge when I inevitably think (once again) that I don’t love you. I do. I swear.

Sincerely,
Uniquity

PS – You really are best enjoyed at a 2 to 3 minute steep time. Who doesn’t love a quick Lady? ; )

I’ve had this tea for awhile, unopened. I was saving it for a special occasion, which wasn’t planned, but ended up being today.

The side-effects associated with migraine and fibromyalgia take over from time to time, and there’s not much I can do about it. Sleeplessness and depression are the two symptoms that I’m glad to get over with the fastest. Physical pain is easy to handle by comparison.
Today I woke up and reached for my Kindle Fire next to the bed. My daughter had a new entry on Facebook with a link to her blog that began with this quote:

“Stand at the brink of the abyss of despair, and when you see that you cannot bear it anymore, draw back a little and have a cup of tea” ~Elder Sophrony of Essex

Then she went on to quote me (shock):
My mother reminds me often that tea has a way of keeping you in the moment. It’s not like coffee which in our society is meant to keep you always moving forward.
Tea encourages the partaker to sit down and rest a moment. It is a sort of “reset” button for the weary.
If we push ourselves beyond what we can bear for the sake of being strong, we will fall over, teacup and all, and find staring up from the darkness of the abyss… far more terrifying than standing at the brink.

(Hum, I thought…something from an Elder (Monk) and my daughter to think about in the middle of my depression, and I went about my morning…considering those words from time to time.)

At about 4PM, I couldn’t figure out where the time had gone. I felt foggy headed and the depression had closed in on me.

I remembered the quote from the Elder (Monk) and went to my tea cupboard…rummaging about until I found the one unopened SPECIAL OCCASION tea that I had left.

Standing on the edge of the cliff as I was, seemed a great time for Hand Picked Spring Tieguanyin!

Without a care for the opinion of others, I smelled the leaves. They reminded me of the many years of art classes, the sweet scent of oil paint on my brushes and canvas (and on me).

When I rinsed the leaves, I was washing the gloom away with tea liquor like a new ritual, washing my hands and face with it’s pale perfume.

Each leaf was so dark I wouldn’t imagine it had seen more than the most gentle rays of sunshine.

I drank the tea.

Beautiful, delicate orchid, cool spearmint like a pool of mountain water…honey cream…that made me sit in another moment different than the one I had been in before.

Drinking the tea, I drew back from the ledge and the sadness was interrupted.

Through cups and cups, I continued to let the tea lift my spirit.
(Not only through the way natural chemicals in tea helps the brain, but through the exceptional flavor of this particular tea.)

Time and again, tea has come to my aid when my body gets the best of me.

I’m feeling…better!

Shenging with The Monk 2012 again tonight.

I’ve written many reviews, so please see previous notes if you want to know how it tastes like. Tonight, I just want to share some thoughts.

Just love how it makes me feel. L-o-v-e-i-t. It embodies all the reasons why I love sheng.

I covet it. Cause 2012 is no longer available. And the fact that I sit on two cakes doesn’t make me feel any better. The day I run out will be a sad day. Hopefully, I’ll be sitting on a few 2014 cakes by then, and life will be good again :-)

I want to take this opportunity to thank Garret and Mandala for the outstanding quality of their product, but mostly, for the exceptional customer service I receive on every purchase.

It means a lot to me, and they have earned my loyalty. They are at the top with very few other sellers for me. And I don’t say this lightly.

So Garret, if you read this: thank you.

I drink your tea every day, and my life is better because of it.

Pic of the session:

http://instagram.com/p/r3IwTPQh4_/

Most folks who’ll be reviewing this tea will probably do so from the perspective of evaluating Lao Shan tea as a whole. I love Lao Shan greens, and I’ve had so many different kinds, qualities, and seasons, so this one is more focused on what makes this Autumn picking unique from the others, appreciated for its own strengths.

The dry smell from the bag is undeniably of cocoa.. of cocao nibs in particular. That’s somethig I find to be consistant across all Lao Shan teas in recent memory. I wonder why I never noticed that in Qingdao? Probably because I was living there, so I never took the time to stick my face in the bags and smell and appreciate. Also- no chocolate in Qingdao[ :*-( ], so maybe I lost my context. Why chocolate? Probably has something to do with that distinctive beany Lao Shan taste.

Consulting my notes, I see that the steeped leaves have a “delicious smell.” Hmm, usually I write more, but what can you say to that? Must have kept me from writing anything else.

The taste is crisp, lively, and subtle. It is certainly sweet, and there is something in the flavor that is making it positively addictive. Maybe it is some light savory and salt acting as a gentle support- sweet cream butter. There is Lao Shan bean, but it is a quiet force playing nicely in the background, walking on light tip toe so as not to disturb the calm coziness of the scene. Reminds me in a way of a quiet parent who picks you up to takes you to bed after you’ve fallen asleep on the living room floor. You remember them, you know it happened (counted on it, in fact), but there was no disruption to your dreaming.
Something in the taste also reminds me of Japanese green teas that have been dusted with matcha. I have a feeling that this would appeal more to the sensibilities of a lover of Japanese greens, even though grassy astringency is not actually rearing it’s head… grassiness is there more as a scent infusing the whole brew with a smooth, full mouth-feeling. It is a perfect, airy feeling of grass that is also solidly earthbound, mixed together with cozy cream.

More than anything with this picking, I am swept off to a place.

It’s a misty seashore, early in the morning. The air is cool and wet and smells of autumn, but there is also an intense warmth and coziness. You are standing in your robe with slippers on, in your fuzziest robe and blanket, watching the scene from warm within your woody cabin. A solitary retreat on the North Shore (except in this fantasy, the heat is on perfectly!). A feeling of subtle quiet, thoughtfulness… I’ve drawn a little heart here in the corner of my notes.
Or it is evening on that same sea/lake-shore after a long, full day. There is a crackling fire, and there are waves in the background. The ocean and water is so strong in this one, but it is that feeling of place.. of waves against rock.. not of brine.

Looking back on the description of this tea’s taste, I’m surprsed I can love it so well. Usually, I want my Lao Shan teas to taste like Lao Shan! The bean, the butter, the soil. This one is so much more subtle.. so much more of the autumn.. but the result is so lovely. The place that this tea takes me to is so strong. It feels like one of those original places of my own self.

- -(Tasting notes over: mini-proclamation begins)— —
Hurray for all of these autumn pickings! Who knew that tea could be so giving? Those who kowtow blindly at the Altar of Spring to the exclusion of all other tastes need to stop obsessing over questions of SUPERIOR GRADE this and TRADITIONAL SOURCES PROCLAIM that. Just quiet down for a moment and use your own tongue to appreciate all that tea is trying to offer you. Discover your own preferences, but not before you open yourself to new possibilities and taste with your own self.

Listen to the tea, and appreciate. It’ll never let you down.

Buttery Dragonwell and citric grapefruit together!? I must be dreaming because this is too good. Thank you, thank you, thank you, for existing! This is my new favourite tea.

The beautiful dry leave scales have a very potent sour grapefruit smell and they initially both excited and worried me. After steeping, the scent becomes less tart and more like a sweet white grapefruit. The flavour is exactly that, with a smooth and delicate and restrained vegetal base. It’d like I’m consuming the most divine grapefruit to ever step foot inside a cup. Yes, I’m aware that grapefruits don’t have feet that we know of… Second steep was equally amazing.

Third steep sees a toning down of the sweet grapefruit and a greater focus on that buttery vegetal Dragonwell that I enjoy most of all. I don’t think I’ve ever loved a tea so dearly. I’m extremely pleased with myself for randomly choosing to go with 1oz of this.

Cherry flavoured black teas seem to be few and far between around these parts and I’ve always thought that was a shame because I really wanted one. So when I was in Fru P’s the other day and I saw this one, I spontaneously jumped on it and got 50 grams. I’ve been crazy much looking forward to trying it, but was trying to control myself a bit. Otherwise I’d have had it at five minutes to bed time last night. :D

The aroma of the dry leaf is definitely cherry. Very recognisable as such, but there’s something else in there too which I can only say reminds me of marzipan. I don’t think that’s actually really it, but that’s the closest I can get. It smells like cherry sweeties and the sort of warm cherry sauce that we eat with the Christmas rice pudding around these parts.

After steeping it smells a little less like sweeties, and there’s a certain harsh-ish note to it which makes me think it’s been very strongly flavoured. Like the vanilla one was. I wonder if these are actually completely freshly blended for her shop and that’s why the flavouring seems so strong. That perhaps they haven’t had time to settle and air out the excess yet. I don’t know. I suppose we shall just see over time. I’ll definitely be revisiting the vanilla one, so I’m sure I’ll notice if that one suddenly takes a nose-dive on perfection.

Cherries, when I eat them, always seem to surprise me by how dark and grey-ish they actually taste. It’s like I keep imagening something more tart-ish and cranberry-y for some reason, and then I got surprised when they actually just taste like cherries. I love cherries, but I don’t get them often. We can only get them in summer around here and even then I don’t always buy them at the shop. They go mouldy SO QUICKLY, cherries do, so I’m always rather picky about whether or not to get them.

Like cherries, this cup surprised me. Cherry just isn’t really much of a forefront flavour, so at first I just get a sip of base tea, and then that is immediately followed by the flavouring. I think the base here is either Ceylon or a mild-ish Chinese. It has a certain amount of grain to it and a bit of malty notes as well.

There isn’t really any time to properly try to analyse the flavour though, because the cherry comes in and floods the whole thing. The aftertaste is pure cherry.

I’m not picking up any of that sweetie or marcipan-y notes in the flavour itself, but there is a hint of marcipan on the aftertaste. It suits the cherry quite nicely, really.

Cherry sauce and marcipan. I’m getting in a Christmas mood…!