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So, I’m drinking down some of the less palatable-sounding teas I have today. They have the added bonus of being caffeine free, which I am going to need if I am heading to a tea party this afternoon.

This isn’t as repulsive smelling as the last one. Maybe it will taste okay. It’s extreme fake strawberry combined with sweet fake yogurt. It kind of reminds me of strawberries and cream granola.

But as it’s brewing, I am disturbed by the bright red color and the fact that I can smell it from 6 feet away. My entire kitchen is fake strawberries now. I took the tea out of the kitchen and came back 2 minutes later, and the kitchen STILL reeked of fake strawberry. A bit much?

It’s very sour, very fake vanilla, a little nutty. If I liked lemon juice in my tea, I may like this.

Still busy, still working, still writing, but still here and still drinking tea!

I don’t think I can handle many flavors anymore. This smells like a candle used for smelling up the house of a person very different from me. No.

It’s spicy. It’s fake. It’s oddly pineappley? A little sour like an apple. Then there are the spices of course. No thank you.

Another one of those reviews I am not going to have a lot of time to write for. I imagine this is going to be a trend for a while, what with deadlines and all.

It tastes like nothing but roast. There might be a bit of hazelnut, but the flavor is mostly roasted almond skin. I can’t tell if this is because it’s not a good tea or if I just don’t have a palate for the roasted oolongs. I am guessing the former, based on the other reviewers.

I’m very busy, so this will be short and sweet.

Kind of like a cross between a taiwanese black, jingmai wild black, and bi luo chun? There’s smooth vanilla caramel in here along with some malt and chocolate, depending on the steep. It’s fairly good, but you can certainly get better for a better price.

I think I added too much water to this…thing.

Tastes like watered down fermentation. Drinkable, which is more than I was expecting, but nothing to write home about. I will definitely go for less water with the 2009.

The dry leaf of this tea doesn’t do much for me, but then again, it’s been sitting in a tin with a bunch of other samples. Thanks, by the way, to the tea friend who sent me this to try!

The wet leaf…I’m going to just stop smelling the wet leaf from now on, since it doesn’t really have much to do with the flavors of the tea. It kind of smells like Vienna sausages and flowers, one of the more odd combinations I have come across.

But the brew is where it’s at! It’s very thick and buttery, as described before. As you probably know by now, I never really get fruit from a tea unless it’s the dominant flavor. So I’m not getting the fruit that daylon mentioned. I’m getting butter and a mid-level floral of some kind that reminds me a bit of duck shit oolong. I’m also getting a bit of astringency.

My favorite part is the spice out the nose…nutmeg? Cinnamon? Something a little Christmasy that reminds me of a Taiwanese oolong. So is this an oolong green?

The dry leaf to this one was most interesting. There was the typical wood and bark aroma, but it was also mixed in with eucalyptus, menthol, and mint. I kind of want to order a soap in that flavor now.

There is still a bit of menthol and eucalyptus in the aroma of the wet leaves and the brew, but it has taken a back seat to the wet, woody smell.

The eucalyptus menthol is completely gone in the flavor of the brew. All that’s left is a cool tickle out the nostrils, but honestly, that could be my allergies at this point. What’s left is what I taste in all shous: that mossy, woody, tangy smooth flavor. It’s a pleasant experience, but I am starting not to be able to tell the difference between the different shous I am trying.

I have NO idea where I got this tea from. I only have 10g of it, so I am betting it was a gift from a tea friend. I’m sorry I forget who you are.

The more I drink oolongs with a high roast, the more I think I prefer greener and medium roast oolongs. I might even prefer Taiwanese oolongs.

This has a high roasty flavor. It has a bit of walnuttiness and some of that bitter walnut skin flavor.

It’s a good tea, but nothing I’m jumping up and down over.

Thanks to my tea friend for the sample!

This reminded me of the unsmoked jin jun mei from Yunnan Sourcing. There’s a light, natural smokiness that isn’t at all overwhelming like a smoked lapsang. It’s sweet, with a bit of cocoa on the finish. There’s a pretty strong molasses flavor in the middle of the palette, which I think is what reminds me of the jjm.

Lasts a good 3 steeps western, so not bad! Lovely warming black tea with a thick, sweet, sappy mouthfeel.

This was surprising. I pulled this out thinking it was a green tea. It brews like a green tea. It tastes like a green tea. I didn’t find out it was herbal until after I had looked up the brewing instructions.

It’s warming this morning, buttery with a little peas and rice kind of flavor. There’s an earthiness that kind of reminds me of a white potato? It’s really, really pleasant.

The only disappointment is that there’s no caffeine! Guess I have a new go-to herbal though.