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De-cupboarding this tea as well. You know, I was really excited when I ordered this, but it wasn’t all it was cracked up to be in my opinion. Drinking it with milk and a bit of sweetener (honey or agave nectar) does improve things however, though I never really get near what I’d call ‘root-beer float’ flavour.

Not bad…it tastes like a rather generic green oolong without a lot of the complexity I’m used to tasting in a Tie Guan Yin. But I think that might be because I got spoiled by the awesome TGY I got from the Granville Island tea store last year. There is a bit of a fruity flavour present, though it isn’t readily distinguishable as promgranate necessarily, though it gets bit stronger when the tea cools and the natural sweetness of the oolong seems to work with it.

De-cupboarding this tea. Unfortunately the dregs at the bottom of the bag were rather bitter so I didn’t enjoy the last few cups as much as I would have liked.

Thank you for sending me this tea Angrboda, I did enjoy drinking it. :)

The leaves of this tea are a dark, pine green and look like little bits of chopped-up needles. I’m not quite sure what to expect of this tea, I’ve never tried any of Mellow Monk’s products before – this and one other sample were gifts from TeaEqualsBliss. I’m not even sure what type of tea this is or where it’s from, though my guess from the flavour is that it’s Japanese.

It’s faintly sweet and a bit hay-like at first but then it takes on a savoury, slightly nutty-tasting tone. Then the flavour trails off into a grassy, slightly bitter aftertaste. The touch of bitterness actually seems to work with this tea providing a counterpoint to the initial sweetness that gives this tea balance. It also leaves a nice, fresh, palate-cleansing taste in my mouth.

It’s been awhile since I’ve drank this tea – I’m not quite sure why, I certainly don’t find it objectionable. It smells just as smokey as I remember, but I find myself surprised at how smooth and gentle the tea actually is. The tea doesn’t have a heavy, lingering flavour and I find it feels quite clean in my mouth.

I just noticed that this tea/tisane brews up a very bright, almost neon yellow color – I’m not sure I’m fond of drinking something that looks like it’s practically glowing. 0_o

It’s been five months and I still can’t really bring myself to like this tea – it’s too vegetale and hay-like in it’s flavour and it tends to leave my mouth feeling a bit dry after drinking it. Meh.

I dug a sample packet of this tea out of my cupboard just now; I’m honestly not sure when or from whom I got it. Hmm.

It an interesting tea that starts out with a floral flavour when the tea is hotter and then as it gets a bit cooler it takes on a deeper, and more well-rounded flavour. The floral notes fade and the tea takes on a sweetly buttery flavour. The feel of the tea in my mouth is very smooth and pleasent. As the tea cools some more the floral notes come back slightly along with a honey-like sweet flavour.

The resteep (@ 5 min) is less floral and has more of that honey flavour. It was an enjoyable oolong and I liked that it wasn’t as flowery as some other green oolongs can be.

This tea tastes quite similar to da.u.de’s Xaouen blend, although I found that one to be more floral while this one tastes more fruity. Also this blend lacks any green or white tea which seems to make it taste a bit sweeter and less vegetal.

The results are better at a slightly higher temperature in my opinion. I get a pleasent mix of fruity pear flavour and spices (like clove – yum) and the white tea doesn’t get over-cooked and turned bitter. It’s a win-win all the way around. :D

The name ‘Chunmee’ always makes me laugh – I mean precious eyebrows? I consider my eyebrows to be a lot of things but ‘precious’ generally isn’t one of them. The dry tea does sort of bear a resemblance I guess – the leaves are twisted into short little curves, though to me it’s still a bit of a stretch.

The tea brews up fairly dark for a green tea, turning the water a sort of dark-golden colour. Right away I can taste the sourness in the description, it’s not exactly gack-worthy but it takes some getting used to. In my head it’s not so much like sour plums as it’s comparable to a crisp, dry, white wine like a sauvignon blanc. The body of the tea is rather grassy and the aftertaste has a touch of sweet that I wish was a bit stronger.

The resteep (@ 3:30 min) is much mellower, but it still has a hint of that dry, grass-like sourness. The sweetness at the end is a bit stronger however – possibly because the other flavour elements aren’t drowning it out.

All in all I’d say that this isn’t my cup of tea (pun not intended…okay maybe a little) although I think that might be down to personal tastes rather than this being a crappy tea – I haven’t really tried enough chunmees to form an option of how this particular tea holds up to others of the same kind.