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Today is the day I’ve been waiting very impatiently for the past couple weeks…the day my Teavivre samples came. Words can’t explain how excited I was when I saw the beaten, tattered box with Chinese writing on it sitting on my counter after school. This is my first Iron Goddess and my first green oolong in general. I was surprised when I smelled the brewed tea because I am naive to green oolongs. I had always heard “floral” as being a commonly used word to describe the taste of an oolong, but I never expected it to be this strong, to me it smelled like straight up jasmine green tea. The smell alone was very soothing and therapeutic. Being new and not yet having a refined palate, it’s hard for me to tell what all is going on in this tea. The floral flavors are very obvious to me, as well as a “slightly roasted” green tea type of flavor, and something I’m picking up on that I would describe as “minerally”. But it is a very delicate tea and I can tell there is a lot more going on then what my untrained taste buds can pick up on. Still, I like what I am experiencing. This tea is very mellow, and very soothing, and it’s doing a very good job of helping me wind down a little bit after a hectic week. I’m very much enjoying it and look forward to trying the rest of my samples (after 3-4 more infusions of this). Thanks to the generous people at Teavivre for allowing me this opportunity.

It’s all tea bags for me right now as I’m out of loose leaf and have zero cash. This is one of the few I somewhat enjoy. Still not high quality or remarkable, but with a little sugar it’s smooth and comforting.

I picked some of this up today because I’ve been on a bit of a black tea kick lately (which is strange for me), and I no longer have any loose-leaf blacks in the house. I had heard that this was the best black tea you could get in a grocery store. While I obviously didn’t have high expectations, I thought it would be better than this. I smelled it and thought “this smells like any other grocery store black – dull, flat, and uninteresting.”. And when I brewed it and tried it at different temperatures, it didn’t get much better. Still dull. Still flat. Still uninteresting. But along with that, I was also greeted with a bitter punch it the face. So yeah, I guess it is a little more “bold” than most grocery store brands, but I didn’t find it any better.

This is growing on me. I’ve decided that whether or not I like earl grey can change at any time given my mind state. It’s not gonna be something I want all the time, but I’ve found it to be a great cup when I need something to breathe life back into me on those long evenings of studying and homework after an already exhausting day of school. The taste is bold, and it can be a little overbearing, but it turns out that sometimes that’s just what I need. It’s refreshing and invigorating. Man, my opinions change like seasons…

My very first tea maker besides a basic bamboo strainer. From what I can see, this is virtually the same design as Adagio’s IngenuiTea maker and numerous other nearly identical products from other companies. I must say the design is very cool and works well. It’s very easy to brew, just put the leaves inside along with your hot water and when you’re ready to pour, simply place the device on top of your cup. I love the simplicity. I haven’t noticed any “notes of plastic” in my tea when using this, the tea still maintains it’s pure and natural flavor. The only problem is that it sometimes leaks a little bit which can be annoying. But overall, I’m happy with it.

This time around I intentionally oversteeped it by three minutes just to see if it was possible for it to attain bitterness. The things I do when I should be starting my schoolwork… Well, there was still almost no detectable astringency, just a fleeting trace. Still very smooth. This time around, it’s very roasty and reminiscent of fresh-baked bread with a hint of sweetness, and a taste that doesn’t “taste” like caramel per se, but invokes thoughts of caramel. I love this stuff.

I’m not sure what vendor they got this tea from, but I bought it from a little tea and spice shop called Spices ‘n Such in a farmer’s market in Pennsylvania. I was surprised by this one. I really expected it to be disappointing as they didn’t seem to have the greatest selection of teas in this particular shop, but I was pleasantly surprised. The leaves, rather than being fragmented, were actually long and flat. The flavor was much different than the previous (and only other) dragonwell that I tried which was from Serendipitea. It was slightly toasty and nutty, a little bit buttery, and had a pleasant vegetal flavor. THIS is what I was expecting when I was let down by the mediocrity of Serendipitea’s dragonwell. I enjoyed this.

Bought at a tea shop in Malford, Pennsylvania for $1.50 per ounce. This one wasn’t bad, but it left a little bit to be desired. The gunpowder green tea itself was very good, it had that nice mellow smokiness I love in a gunpowder. Where this tea fell short was in the peppermint. The mint leaves were very fine, mostly brown particles and were pretty bland as far as scent and flavor goes. There was a little bit of a mellow mint flavor present but it wasn’t as crisp as I had hoped. Not the greatest gunpowder mint, but for the price it was satisfactory. Definitely a casual everyday cup.

I’m bored, I had a box of this laying around, and I’ve been drinking sencha all day so I thought it was time for a change. This is one of the few bagged teas I actually enjoy, although there isn’t much actual TEA flavor at all (but what do you expect)? It doesn’t really taste all that much like eggnog, to me it actually tastes a lot like butter rum. I like to think of this as a “junk food” kind of tea. This isn’t something I lean on when I want a quality cup of tea, it’s something I go for when I’m really craving something sweet…and it gets the job done. With a little cream and sugar, it can really ward away a candy/dessert craving and its odd flavor is strangely comforting.

Super smooth and toasty. There’s not much to remark about when it comes to this tea (or genmaicha in general), it’s just one of life’s simple pleasures. The green tea is a little bit more pronounced in this than Ito En’s gemaimatcha, which I like. This is a mug of comfort on a cold winter’s night. Out of the few gemaichas I’ve had so far, this one is my favorite.