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I made two cups of this tea – the second steeping turned out to be rather tanic, but still good. I agree with my previous post that state that I thought there were spicy notes but not peppery notes. The spice is a sweet spice, not a savory spice – so the mysterious pepper notes elude me yet again! ;)

Go see my older tasting notes on this tea. :)

Hm I think I oversteeped this a bit; there’s a harsh astringent flavour to the brew this time. So it looks like 3-3.5 min is the optimal steeping time for this oolong- I’ll have to try and remember that. :)

The flavour is an intriguing mix of vegetal and smokey flavours, accompanied by a slightly dry, astringent note. It’s not a sweet tea – or a dainty, afternoon tea type drink; it has body and presence to almost the point of being harsh maybe, but I still found it an enjoyable cuppa.

The second steeping (@ 4:00 min) was less smokey and more astringent-vegetale which I didn’t care for as much as the first round.

Looking at the steeped leaves afterwards I could see that the gunpowder pellets had unfolded and they were pretty much all whole leaves instead of shreaded bits and pieces – a good sign I guess. It’s really kinda cool how they managed to role the tea up so tightly.

Made a poor-man’s chai this morning by filling a quarter of the mug with milk and mixing in some of my cherry-flavoured creamed honey. Very tasty.

Finished off the last of the sample Takgoti gave me. I got three good steeps (2nd @ 4:45, 3rd @ 6:00) out of it before it’s light, lilac/floral flavour started to fade too much. I generally don’t try to wring more steeps out of a tea once it starts telling me that it’s done – even if I could.

It’s a nice oolong, but I don’t think I’d buy it – it’s not a bad tea, don’t get me wrong, but I’ve had better oolongs IMO (the one from the Jade Teapot being a good example).

I’ve discovered that this tea tastes good when paired with food, particularly starchy food liked toast or nuts, etc. It’s a mild, smooth tea that IMO is great to drink in the afternoon with a snack to boost the energy levels.

I’ve never detected cocoa notes in a Ceylon before, but I’m definitely tasting them now. They aren’t as prominent as they would be in some of the yunnan blacks I’ve tasted, but it’s definitely present mixed in with a toasty sort of base-flavour and some slightly citrusy notes.

I’ve always considered Ceylon teas to be a bit ordinary and blah, but I’m really enjoying this particular one – it has character. I don’t think I’d advise taking this one with milk, but sugar or honey might be a nice addition – I’ll have to try it that way next time.

The last bit of this tea. *is sad * Damn you Lupicia for not shipping your teas to Canada! *shakes fist * I would totally buy this tea if I was given the opportunity – some of these American companies are really limiting themselves by refusing to accomodate international customers.

On an unrelated note, those things that I thought looked like peppercorn actually are red peppercorns (I went and ate one – ewww). And yet I’m not getting a peppery taste from this tea at all. Strange. ;)

The bag tore open when I was stirring the tea so I ended with all these bits of tea leaves in my drink. And to add insult to injury it wasn’t even a good drink! It basically tasted like water with a bit of generic vague berry flavour.

Yeah, this is Tea Fail.