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I tried a more traditional approach to brewing my Gyokuro this time – 60ºC water, warmed mug, double the amount normally used, less steeping time, etc. And the funny thing is that I think I liked it better last time. Of course that might be because I went for 1:30 min instead of the 1:00 I maybe should have.

The flavour is distinctly grassier with less sweetness – more matcha tea than gyokuro I’d say. There’s also the faintest touch of a bitter edge to it. The aftertaste is the same, I think I’ve identified as similar (but not quite) to a light genmaicha.

Tsk, you’re a finicky tea, Miss Jade Dew!

The re-steep is a bit better, less grassy, but I think I might have scalded the leaves a tiny bit so I’ll chuck the leaves out and try this again another day.

So my boyfriend apparently found this sitting on the table in the lunch room at work and gave it to me. Err…thanks, I guess.

The tea bag looked pretty generic and it didn’t have much of a smell to it (who knows how old it is). I was pretty cautious with the steeping time and temperature and the result was…surpringly palatable. I was bracing myself for something harsh and horribly bitter, but it’s actually a fairly smooth, quiet tea. I guess that’s the ‘mellow taste’ they mentioned on the packaging. I’m glad I didn’t steep it longer or hotter though because there’s a bit of a tang that tells me that the tea was within a hair’s-breadth of turning bitter.

There’s not a lot of depth or complexity to the flavour of this tea, so it’s really kind of blah. I’d drink it in a Chinese restaurant or something, but otherwise I think I’ll stick to my loose-leaf greens.

My opinion on this tea is pretty much the same. I drank it with milk this time and it did bring out the caramel a tad, but it also brought out the toasty flavour aswell and that seems to dominate the tea. Still, I like that they didn’t go overboard with the caramel to compensate, it tastes very natural this way.

Bleh! -Still nasty IMO, even after knocking down the steeping time. I’m so glad that I didn’t order a tin of this tea, it would have gone to waste otherwise. The rest of my sample is probably going to be put up for grabs I think.

Well I’ve finally got the jasmine down to levels I can handle (I think), but it has an artificial quality to it, rather than smelling like the fresh blosoms. The green tea base has a bit of a harsh, bitter tang to it too, making me think that it wasn’t really that high of a quality.

I think I might throw out the rest of this sample, there’s really not enough left to be worth trading. :(

Now that I added more tea I’m definitely getting a fruity/peachy sort of thing going on with the scent as it’s steeping. The colour of the tea is a delicious-looking dark honey colour.

At first, while the tea was hot, the most prominent flavour was a bakey one that actually reminds me a bit of a Darjeeling tea but with less of an astringent bite. There’s also unfortunately a bit of a dustiness in the taste than I’m picking up that doesn’t exactly do much for this oolong. As the tea cools I start to notice a sweetly fruity flavour particularly at the end of each sip.

The second steeping (@ 4.5min) is more low-key and the fruity notes come through better. I’m also noticing a bit of a smooth, buttery quality to this steeping aswell.

Well that’s the end of the sample, thank you for sharing it with me Ricky. It’s a good dark oolong and I’m bumping it up a few points from last time, but it still doesn’t match up to the Lavender Basics Formosa oolong in my opinion. Damn you, why did you have to go out of business – whyyyyyyyy??! *dramaflail *

Go see my older steeping notes. :)

I forgot to log this tea this morning. My box is getting quite low (nuuuuuuuu!) so I’m rationing it. :D

I forgot to log the two cups of this tea I made this morning. It certainly has a good wake-up kick to it.

I’ve realized what the smell and to some extent the taste of this tea reminds me of – lilac flowers. Now that I think about it the scents are remarkably similar. I upped the steeping tiem and it seems to have made the floral flavours a bit less intense instead of the other way around.