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The green teas leaves are quite small and fine-looking from what I can see and the smell is sort of a green, grassy scent – like you’d get after mowing the lawn and the clipping had been left in the sun to dry a bit. The smell changed radically when I added water, turning into something that was a cross between puff-wheat cereal and burnt popcorn.

It tasted a bit like the smell – though not so much burnt popcorn, but it’s a savory sort of taste.

Had some with milk for breakfast – it makes a good, easy, early-morning tea.

This is the 3rd tea I got from Angrboda and I think this might be my favorite of the three. The steeping instructions recommended 8 minutes in boiling water, but I’m a bit leery of using boiling water for oolongs (I’ve wrecked a few that way) so I dialed down the temp to 90 celcius.

The smell is wonderful, I kept hovering over the mug while it was steeping so I could inhale the scent of sweet rasperries. By the way, this tea gets major point for NO HIBISCUS – I like you already AC Perch, even if the shipping you charge is insane for anyone this side of the Atlantic. ;D

The tea itself tastes quite light, a little surprising for me who was expecting something a bit more full-flavoured like the Tung Ting and the Ti Kuan Yin I’ve been drinking. I wonder if I just didn’t added enough leaf or maybe I should have steeped it in boiling water. Hm. At least Angrboda gave me a generous amount of this tea, so I’ve got room to experiment. :)

The raspberry is faint but it’s also quite distinct to my senses and it leaves a nice, lingering sort of aftertaste in the back of my mouth. It gives the tea a slightly astringent quality, but nothing powerful or unpleasent.

I’m rating this tea at 75 for now, but it’ll probably be subject to change once I get a chance to muck around with some of the variables.

This is very much a two-note sort of tea. First you get the cooling, herbal, almost bitter taste of the mint. Then, as that fades out, the sweet, almost sugary licorice flavour fades in to take its place. There’s maybe a hint of spices on the aftertaste, but they’re not the focus of this tea.

I got this for the boyfriend-creature because he likes Yogi’s Egyptian Licorice and since we’d run out of that one I figured I’d introduce him to something similar, but a bit different. Thankfully he enjoys it and I think it’s pretty decent too, although I wished that the mint and licorice would mesh better on the tongue.

I stirred in a bit of honey in the tea along with the usual skim milk I add. It gives it an…interesting taste. It’s an ashy, sort of slightly carmelized flavour, but to me it seemed pretty inconguous so I don’t think I’ll drink it this way again.

I’ve discovered that this tea has excellent re-steeping power. I’m on the 3rd steep and it hasn’t lost much of its tasty cooked-fruit flavour, so I might even go for another one after this. Jillian approves. ;)

Eh. Dull, boring and pretty tasteless. There are so many better black teas out there.

Backlogging from last night.

I tried adding milk to this tea but it pretty much killed the rich, earthy, cocoa-y flavour of the tea, just leaving behind the tanin-y/smokey flavour (I think it’s what some people are calling cigarette flavour, and I think I might agree with them for all that I’ve never smoked).

Note to self: Yunnan teas and milk don’t mix. DX

I tried lengthening the steeping time of the tea but that seems to bring out the flavour of the Ceylon rather than the flavour of the mango. Hrmph!

Drinking this with milk and honey this morning, though all in all, I think I prefer it unsweetened.