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The leaves are loosely rolled into little lumps – they’re not neat or symmetrical enough to be called pearls. Dry, it smells like a flower garden with a bit of a sweet hay scent. When I poured in the water the scent turned spinach-like at first, but then even more pronounced floral notes slowly snuck in and ambush my nose’s scent receptors.

The first steep (2 min @ 85 degrees celcius) is an odd mixture of spinach and floral flavours that remind me of the Iron Goddess of Mercy I got from the Granville Island Tea Company, though that tea was more of a stronger spinach flavour and less floral. As the tea cooled it got more floral and there’s a nice, smoothly-buttery note at the beginning of each sip. By the end it got almost a bit too floral, to the point where it was like gardenia perfume!

Second steep and I’m a bit surprised at how much those small, rolled-up bits of leaves have expanded – what started as one level teaspoon now pretty much fills up my whole strainer! So don’t fall into the trap of thinking that the usual amount doesn’t look like it’ll be enough.

Looking at other people’s temperature parameters, I uped the steeping temperature to 90 celcius and steeped for 3 minutes. The resulting tea was significantly darker than the first steep. The flavour profile was similar to the first steep with a bit more robustness. The tea seriously does smell like a bunch of garden flowers in a far more authentic way than any other tea I’ve tried.

The third steep (4 min @ 90) lost a good portion of its floral qualities – a good thing since it was a getting a bit too much like drinking perfume. There’s a sort of bakey flavour that appeared in this steep, sort of like a light, white bread.

It’s a nice tea, but in all honesty (plzdon’tkillmeSamovarfans) I’ve had oolongs that I liked better. The floral qualities are very close to being ‘too much’ and, while the third steep was much better, a tea that takes that many steeps for me to like it isn’t doing too hot.

I drank this tea this morning and forgot to log it. Go see my older tasing notes it you’re curious about what I think of this tea.

I love how peachy this tea smells, it almost makes my mouth water. There’s almost no ginger at all in the scent of either the dry or steeping tea, interestingly. The reverse is true of the taste of the tea; at first it’s like a weakish black tea flavoured with ginger root – and nothing else. But as the tea cool, the fruity flavour of the peach slowly comes back in – although it’s not as strong as the scent would suggest.

I’ve been looking for a good decaf teabag; the Mango Ceylon by RoT was made of fail but this one is actually quite decent. The ceylon base seems weak to me like I noticed with the mango, but again I’m not sure if that’s just the tea they’re using or a result of the decaffeination process.

This tea smells good in that comforting, warm, cinnamon way. And unlike Stash’s chai it doesn’t remind me of cinnamon heart candies. Too bad it’s more weak hibiscus-cinnamon than apple-cinnamon in flavour. Le sigh.

This oolong seem quite ‘woody’ to me. A significant portion of what’s in my sample canister would probably qualify as twigs rather than tea leaves. I wonder if Adagio decided to run the whole tea bush through the woodchipper!

I reduced the steeping from the last time I tried this tea and there is a significant improvement. The tea isn’t as sharp or vegetale tasting and I’m also picking up some chamomile along with a bit of vanilla.

I suppose it isn’t really fair to compare this to last night’s Ryokucha, but I can’t help noticing that this tea lacks depth of flavour. It’s got body and strong savory notes, but it’s very much a one-note tea. There’s a burst of toasted grain flavour and then….nothing. I have to say that even compared to the generic supermarket-bought genmaicha they serve at the sushi bar this looses out. It’s not a bad tea, it’s just that I’ve had better incarnations of it.

Backlogging. It’s too early for me to try and discern any new nuances in this tea – go read my past tasting notes.

So this is the Takgoti tea I’ve been waiting to try. Now I’ve finally been given the chance to see if Samovar lives up to its lofty reputation or not. ;)

The dry tea smells mostly of matcha, a thick, grassy sort of smell with a hint of toasted grains. I accidently put my nose too close and inhale a bit of the green powder. Cue a violent coughing fit.

With my eyes and nose still running, I manage somehow to add the water without spilling or scalding myself. Instantly my senses are bombarded with the smell of toasted grains. It’s a rich, powerful, savory scent that rivals any of the genmaichas I’ve ever tried. My mug is black so I can’t really see the tea colour well, but even so I can see the water turn a cloudy green.

Now here it comes…the moment of truth….Drum roll please.

The taste is fascinatingly complex. I do get the roasted grains flavour at the tip of each sip, but not as strongly as I was expecting from the scent. Then the flavour fades into something like matcha but not quite. It’s lightly grassy with a thick, milky sort of feel in my mouth, but it lacks the bitter-grass tang that straight matcha will give you. The after taste is more roasted grains and tasting it is making me feel a bit hungry almost.

This is a lovely, complex tea; it wasn’t quite what I was expecting, but then I have no idea what exactly I was expecting. It’s a delicious-tasting savory tea that has a surprisingly amout of body and presence for a green tea. This is no delicate little Dragonwell! Two thumbs up Takgoti, I think you have excellent taste! :)

2nd steeping and the flavour has been toned down quite a few notches. I am picking up a bit of a sweetness to the tea, but again none of the suagr or honey everyone else has raved about. Which is kind of odd – are my taste buds deffective?

Anyway to me the dominent taste on this steep is a mild toasty flavour. It’s probably my favorite of the few straight Ceylon teas that I’ve tried, although I guess that isn’t really saying all that much. I think it might be nice with some milk, so I’ll try it that way next time.