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So this marks the end of the sample Lena gave me to try – and I’ll miss it. The leaves held onto their flavour through four steepings but after that I reluctantly decided that the tea was mostly spent. I probably could have made more tea out of the leaves, but I wouldn’t have enjoyed it as much. So I elected not to try and squeeze every last drop of flavour out of the leaves, lol.

The flavour never became harsh or astringent, and it managed to be floral without getting that overly perfumed-flowery quality that I’ve noticed in some oolongs. At the same time it had a slight vegetale flavour that was more of a ‘cooked greens’ flavour rather than ‘raws greens’. There’s also something about the taste that makes me think of warmth and comfort.

This is a very nice tea ladies and gents.

Well this is the first cup of tea I’ve had in several days. I got a really nasty stomach bug and I couldn’t keep anything down so the only things I was consuming were Gatorade and water. D:

But anyways, this is quite a robust tea yet not harsh in flavour. It’s strong enough to wake me up but (hopefully) not so strong that it’ll upset my still-tender stomach.

Even though the instructions say to use boiling water I’ve heard that maté can get scalded and become bitter like green teas, so I kept the steeping temperature at 90ºC. The tea smelled so incredibly chocolatey when I opened the package, like one of those rich chocolate shakes you can sometimes still get at diners. I could see that cocoa nibs mixed in with the mate leaves aswell which is a good sign – I always like it when a company uses real ingredients instead of ‘flavouring’.

The first thing I can taste when I sip the tea is the mate; it has the roasted, nutty, and slightly vegetale flavour that is unique to that particular plant. But underneath there’s a creamy, malty flavour with a hint of sweetness that makes me think of Ovaltine a bit. The chocolate is there too but maybe not as a stong as I wished I was – although that might just mean that I need to steep it longer. The taste lingers subtly and pleasently in the mouth, not letting itself be dismissed.

This is a wonderful, unique blend that I really enjoyed drinking. Congrats to Frank for creating another winner.

Angrboda was kind enough to send me a generous sample of this tea and I was terribly curious to see what it was like, so I decided to brew up a cup of it tonight. First of the all the dry tea practically reeked of campfire/BBQ and the smell permeated the house as I steeped it. I think my nose became habituated because I couldn’t smell it after awhile steeping, but the boyfriend-creature walked in the door, gave me a look and said “You’re making that smokey tea, aren’t you?”.

I was pretty worried at that point since Lapsang Souchong tastes like liquid BBQ to my palate and I was worried that this tea would have a similar flavour as, from the smell of it, it obviously has a large helping of that particular chinese tea in it.

Much to my relief it wasn’t nearly that bad – the smokiness was about on par with the Russian Caravan I got from Murchies recently. There’s a distinctly green note in the middle of each mouthful that I think serves to mellow the flavour.

It’s a really interesting blend, thank you Angrboda! :)

That’s the end of this tea – it was only a small sample because I’d never tried an ali-shan before this and I didn’t want to buy 50g only to find out that I hated it.

As it turns out, I don’t hate it, but it generates kind of a ‘meh’ reaction from me. It’s about on par with Samovar’s Four Seasons Oolong – nice but I’ve certainly had better too.

I’ve noticed that this tea lacks the malty, almost creamy, chewy quality I’ve noticed in other genmaichas.

The mint flavour seems stronger to me when the tea is steeped longer. It lends a bit of a…not quite bitter tang to it. And the menthol leave a bit of a tingly, cooling sensation in the back of my mouth.

The taste of this tea isn’t at all tart or sour so it’s in no danger of venturing into Tazo’s Sweet Wild Orange territory thankfully. I think I am picking up some slightly floral notes but they’re very subtle much more so than what I’d expect from all those jasmine blossoms in the tea.

The oolong hardly looks like it’s even there in the dry tea, but it really unfolds a great deal as the tea steeps so that in the end it’s taking up much of the space in my strainer.

The resteep (@ 4:30 min) was nice and strong too, and I think this tea could probably handle another one or two steeps after this if I felt so inclined.

This tea tastes more like a herbal tisane than a flavoured green tea, but I’m not really fussed over it. The two cups I had with breakfast went down nicely and the lemon flavour and the ginger flavour are both well-balanced and not too powerful.

Urgh, that’s the problem with using a large-holed filter with a finer-leafed tea – the bottom of the cup gets muddy.

I’m tasting a bit of sweetness from the sencha this time, so apparently a shorter steep is better for this tea.