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When my SO comes in to work we sit down to tea together, and this was her request for today. The dry leaves have a very faint chocolate smell and the wet leaves smell just as one would expect a black tea to. The liquor comes out a nice, medium dark reddish color.

There is a hint of honey flavor in the first steep, followed up with a sweetness, but not a honey sweetness. She describes it as having the bitterness of gallberry honey, which I’ve never had. It does produce a drying in the mouth with a bit of bitterness left in the throat.

The flavor is stronger in the second steep, naturally, and I feel like it brings both more depth and less bitterness. She says she can see herself drinking this as a breakfast tea with southern biscuits. She’s the black tea drinker, so this is more up her alley than mine, but I’d say it’s a good tea.

We enjoy a couple more steeps that remain consistent in taste. We only had 5 grams of this, so we won’t get to try it again, but it was a good primer for trying a honey black before we open the bigger bag we have from another vendor. All in all, it was a good experience!

I ate some kiwiberries before drinking this this morning. This is a note to myself to /not/ do that again.

Wet leaves in gaiwan smell roasty and a bit salty to me. The liquor itself is dark and doesn’t have a very strong scent. I’m not getting much of a smoked scent or taste, but I wasn’t really expecting to.

I screwed up and let the second steep go way too long. Just tastes burnt. I have just a bit left of this little sample, so I will be more careful with the next session so as not to screw it up.

My throat started getting scratchy again today. Not sure what this is about, but I brought a bag of this with me just in case, so I’m glad I did. It’s not helping as much today, though, just making my mouth taste like sweet fennel licorice.

This is another I got from Haveteawilltravel. The dry leaves don’t give off a strong scent, but once wet, the liquor is very earthy, smells a bit like charred wood and ends up being a much lighter color than expected

The first steep isn’t entirely up to strength, but it smells like evergreen and the SO says it tastes like a Christmas tree. There is a bit of a camphor-like sensation and aftertaste, and the mouthfeel is smooth and thick.

The flavors seem to really carry through steep after steep, even after the mouthful starts to thin out a bit. I’ve got another tea that this one has sort of reminded me of, and as we’ve got enough left for one more session, I plan to do another tasting of them both soon.

Got this from Haveteawilltravel ‘s stash. This is my first “Dragonwell” so I have no point of reference and no clue on judging quality, authenticity or anything like that. The dry leaves have an interesting, sweet vegetal scent and they’re so long and thin and lightweight. The yellow-green liquor holds the same scent, albeit lighter. Drank the first steep during a meeting, so I couldn’t take notes on it.

This was definitely a new taste for me, but it had some familiarity to it. It’s definitely vegetal, but it also has an interesting sweetness and another flavor to it. It seems kind of nutty with, perhaps, a hint of cinnamon? As I sniff the second steep, I’m definitely sensing more of that. Just a hint of sweet, roasted nuts with a vegetal base. The second steep is a bit darker in color and definitely has some bitterness, so perhaps I overdid it with time, should have dropped the temperature or should have only done one steep. Not sure, but I’ll be trying this one again, and will definitely be planning to explore this type of green tea in the future.

I totally forgot what I was doing and oversteeped this this morning, but it still came out delicious. Steeping at 70C really helps prevent bitterness when I screw up like that, though I don’t mind some bitterness in my tea. I even managed to get a decent second steep.

Not sure if it’s allergies or germs or just the air that’s not agreeing with me, but my throat needed some comfort. This delivered.

I’ve been waiting for the SO to get back into town to try this, as she’s the black tea person. What a smell! The dry leaf balls smell very sweet. The wet leaves also smell sweet and a bit creamy with a hint of toastiness. The liquor is a medium color while remaining fairly transparent and tastes—as the SO put it—like something you would have with pancakes. Sweet and somewhat creamy, it definitely tastes french toasty or like a syrup.

She likes it so much that she tries to steal the cha hai and take the rest of the first steep for herself. The second steep is even more flavorful as the leaves expand more, and we get a good few flavorful steeps after that, as well. We will definitely be coming back to this one again.