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MMMMMMM this tea! Apparently my love for golden tips is deep and meaningful. I STILL haven’t gotten around to doing a proper review of Golden Fleece (although the song for it played in my head immediately), possibly because I just can’t find words for it. But this one is delightful. It’s far too early in the morning for me to be awake and normally I would be pouty about being awake at this ridiculous time on a Saturday morning. Instead I’m purring and mmmmm-ing and happily indulging myself in the smooooth, caramely, buttery, malty deliciousness that is this tea. The song that came to me for this one surprises me just a little – because while Smokey Robinson is ALWAYS appropriate – I would have thought this tea would make me hear a baritone. But nope, I hear this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlzY6cWpoMQ&feature=kp

I immediately heard “we’re gonna fly away, glad you’re goin’ my way…”

This was a special offering from jump62359 in the Teeny Traveling Tea Box. You will see on my profile that I’m not exactly a rooibos fan. I don’t usually like flavored teas much and I especially don’t usually like fruity tea. I had no idea that I would actually like this. Apparently green rooibos is good. This tastes just exactly like honeydew melon. It is pale and pretty and tastes juicy and just happy. This would be a PERFECT bedtime tea for sweet dreams. It is unfortunate you can only get this by walking into a store in California or I would actually go buy this. I know. I’m as surprised as anyone.

The dried leaves are soooo pretty! But this tastes nothing like I expected from looking at the leaves. It brews up a deep reddish color. It hits my very happy place of smooth dark maltiness – but there is a roastiness there that I like very much. There is also a slight floral note that is a little elusive. I overleafed it a bit, but even with that there is no astringency (surprised me) but there is a different (and pleasant) little bite at the back of my throat. It is surprisingly complex and absolutely delicious. I realize this is a very obvious song for this tea but it is VERY appropriate and I’m singing it (badly) to myself as I brew my second cup:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRdtKUWn_wI&feature=kp

I like this.

This is my first Joseph Wesley tea. I ordered several samples and Joe thoughtfully included an additional Lapsang sample all of which I will be commenting on later. I ordered two, was going to say tins, but they aren’t tins really, so I will say I got two thingies of this because it’s hard to make me unhappy with a nice black Chinese tea. I’m glad that I did. This is a really nice cup of tea. There is a little bit of smoke but just a little. It is a nice full bodied cup with little astringency, even though I steeped it longer than the 3 minute recommendation. There is a touch of malt and a touch of grain, but overall a round, nicely complex black that gives me a nice morning not too aggressive tea buzz. This is what I would think of as “Sunday morning” tea, where I get to laze around in bed with the NYT and this tea and be very, very content. I also love the aesthetics and attention to detail of this company. It is obvious that Joe loves tea.

This tea has such a nice groove – a song for it: www.youtube.com/watch?v=FevK4QQaoFs‎

Thanks so much to Tea Brat for sending this as a swap. It has been on my wishlist of things to try. The aroma is slightly malty and seems brisk. The liquor is reddish. First sip – this was not what I was expecting. It is more to the mellow than the brisk side. There is a slight malt and somewhat toasty note with a winey, almost grapey flavor wafting around. It is not as astringent as I expected, which is a plus for me. Overall, this is a nice tea, but I don’t think it is something I would need to have on hand. I’m really glad I got to try it. Thanks again Tea Brat.

Very smooth, earthy and shu-y. A really easy to drink shu. Deep, dark and slighty cocoa-y. This is good. It will never replace Special Dark for me but it is nice to have on hand. A very mellow and laid back start to my morning. I’m glad I have this.

Thanks to Tea Brat for this one. I’ve been trying to find decaf options for evening so I was happy to see this in my swap. It smells like candy! To me it smells exactly like pixie stix the powder in the waxy straws.I steeped it for 3.5 minutes. Dark amber liquor still smells really sweet and still like a pixie stix. I’m not much of a flavored tea person but this was surprisingly good. I thought the grapey taste would be overpowering but it wasn’t. Its sweetish and nice.

I’m a Keemun girl. I have really been looking forward to this tea. The mailman handed me the package and I brought it straight in to the kitchen and have my first pot steeping right now.

The dry leaf is black/brown, tiny curled leaves. I agree with boychik – reminds me of little lashes.

The liquor is a reddish amber. Slighty smoky and unmistakable Kemmun aroma. First sip: slight smoke, definite Keemun flavor. Mid-range malt with a little astringency on the back edges of my tongue. And although it would never have occurred to me to say it tasted a little of salt, I see where boychik gets that.

It is a nice Keemun. I generally prefer my Keemuns just a tad maltier and a wee bit fuller-bodied. This won’t be my forever Keemun but it is very, very nice.