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This tasted like a typical, good quality jasmine. Maybe not as good as a jasmine pearl, but delicious nonetheless!
Be careful not to steep too long; the 2nd steeping I also did for 1 minute, but used less water, and it was just a bit bitter. I enjoyed it still, but it IS delicate.
I’m glad to have some of this in my cupboard. Next time I’ll have to get the pearls and see how that compares.

I finished the tin up the other day. Overall it was very good (this was the first time I had Long Jing). I would definitely reorder it, and maybe some day I will. In the mean time, the thing that keeps me from doing so is that there are too many other things that I like also!

For those of you who’ve had mate, especially the traditional way in a gourd with a bombilla, you will find this to be very interesting.

Traditional mate looks very much like the tea you find in teabags – essentially a fine tea powder. Except mate also has larger chunks of leaf and twigs mixed in. In a way, it feels like a poor man’s tea. However, good mate is delicious, and because of the texture and the traditional manner of drinking it, it is a very fun experience. Who cares that it’s not first flush, hand rolled, or whatever!

This mate is very different; first of all the loose leaf smelled and looked like a dark oolong. We tried putting it in our metal-lined gourd and drinking it through the bombilla, but it didn’t work very well. Because it was mostly whole leaves, (so strange to see whole mate leaves, instead of the powder!), it didn’t have that same resistance when drunk through the bombilla, it didn’t actually steep very well. It did taste like mate, but wasn’t very strong and somewhat watery.

So we dumped the leaves in a normal teapot and brewed it as if it was a somewhat normal tea, 180-190 degrees for 5 minutes.
It came out with a very interesting taste. I actually think the H&S description (above) is fairly accurate in its flavors. It tasted more roasted than a normal mate, had some slightly sweet and fruity flavors, but is hard to describe.

This was a fun experience, but really a completely different product than typical mate. I bought just a sample, and I’m not sure I would buy more, but not because I didn’t like the tea. I just love the normal, earthy flavor of mate, and prefer drinking it from the gourd. The guy who had the idea to produce mate this way was very clever, I really love the creativity. Now to get him to try steaming the leaves and making it Japanese style!

I have a sample of this, and so finally wanted to try it out. This is Bird Pick’s more expensive gyokuro (out of 2 or 3 available).

I tried cold water brewing, first using near-freezing water (steeped for 7 minutes), then 140, 160, 180 steeps. (Not sure how long I let it steep at those temps, probably between 30 seconds – 1.5 minutes).

This had a nice marine-like taste to it, but it was sickeningly sweet; I thought about what the sweetness was like and I figured it out – it tasted just like fake sweeteners (not sure which one) – sweet n’ low, equal, or splenda. I HATE the taste of diet soft drinks or coffee with fake sweeteners. They have a very sickeningly sweet taste, and unfortunately, this tea reminded me of that flavor. I’m sure a gyokuro (or diet soft drink!) lover out there would find this tea delicious, but I didn’t particularly enjoy this first trial.

I am going to hold off on rating this one, as I want to try a regular brew first. Perhaps one reason I didn’t enjoy it is because it was very intense – not only cold-brewed, but 4g of leaf to 4oz water.

I don’t have much experience with gyokuro, so hopefully as I try more I’ll get an idea if I just don’t like gyokuro, or if it was simply this one. And perhaps I’ll even enjoy it with a regular brewing. I really want to like it.

Have a sample of this; seems unique to flavor a Darjeeling, but I think its a cool idea. (At least, I haven’t seen many flavored Darjeelings).

The lemon is a very pleasant, noticeable addition. I didn’t taste caramel, but I think it sweetened/enhanced the lemon flavor. This almost smells like Earl Grey, but tastes nothing like it. There is nothing floral, perfumey, or bitter in the tea, just a smooth lemonyness. (Is that even a word?) I find it a bit hard to give a rating, but I think it’s not quite as good as their straight up DJ blend.

This is a fun tea, and really good iced, too.
I don’t like it as much as the regular houjicha, but it is a nice change. I noticed the dry leaf has a lot more kuki (twigs) in it than regular houjicha.

I’ve never had Darjeeling before, and I would have chosen a more premium variety (sample) if I could have (I wanted to sample first flush), but H&S didn’t have such samples available.
However, out of all the standard classic (black) teas I’ve tried, this is probably one of my favorite. It isn’t as bold or strong as the Keemun, EG, or other black tea blends that I’ve had, and for that reason I think I like it. It is more fruity?, lighter, smoother… more like green tea almost (though, it doesn’t really taste like it).

I detected almost a bit of spiciness (like pepper) in the cup for some reason too.
I’d really like to try a high quality Darjeeling now, but don’t really want to buy a whole lot. Maybe someday I’ll buy a sample from somewhere else…
Compared to the EG by H&S I had recently, I like this a lot more.

The smell that emanated from the bag was so scrumptious! It has the effect that bacon does when you wake up smelling it in the morning. You just want to eat it all up. Except, it smells like fresh-baked cookies. And you can’t eat tea bags.

The tea itself didn’t taste as powerful, but was still yummy. I tried it with and without milk and like it both ways. It seems almost smoother without the milk, but with it brings out the vanilla flavor more. Nice to have a simple (where I don’t have to pay attention to steeping times, amounts, etc.!), decaf, bagged tea that is also delicious and easy to make for a larger group.

My only experience with earl grey is very limited; I think just twinnings tea bags, but I can’t quite remember. But all I did remember was that I didn’t like it.
But I got a sample of this because I wanted to see what real Earl Grey was like.

To me, the dry leaf smelled a little scarily strong to me, like perfume (as others have said Earl Grey can smell). However, the brewed tea was a very nice blend of flavors and the bergamot was present in just the right amount. I very much enjoyed it. I would probably even buy a tin of this if I was into black teas. But again, my love for other teas (Japanese greens!) outweighs this, and also because of the extra caffeine in black teas. I’m glad there’s more left in the sample for one more round though!

I just had a 10g sample of this, but I liked it. It’s hard to put a rating on it though, hard to compare it to others after just one try.

The dry tea aroma was like dried orange peel, and was somewhat bitter. The actual taste though was slightly sweet and a little orange/creamy. The creaminess wasn’t strong, but definitely present. I’d love to try it again, or have it iced.