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Delicious, rich, spicy aroma of ginger, stone fruits, woods, and cloves.

The taste is a bit dry and astringent even though I steeped at the minimum temperature (185˚F) for about 15 sec under 4:00. Tastes better with honey but I can still taste a slight astringency. Lovely aroma but I will not be purchasing more of this tea.

Sadly, I am reviewing the 2016 harvest of this tea in 2018. I am so bad at finishing fresh teas (green and white) in a timely fashion…

Despite being 2 years old, this is still an excellent tea. It has a delicious nutty, malted sugar, almost roasted cereal or oats aroma. Nutty, roasted vegetable, toasted bread flavour.

Okay, I’m trying this again by correcting the brewing parameters I tried last time.

Brewed at 194˚F for 4:00 in about 7oz of water. At 4:00 the astringency is a little improved, though there is still a lot of dryness on my tongue. At this point I’m wondering if it’s something genetic that’s wrong with me, so I’d still advise you to sample this tea if you’re interested. For me, I’ll stick to my Chinese oolongs and Taiwanese 18.

Rating: 62

Aroma: Rose, floral, sweet fruit, palm sugar

Liquor: Lovely, full-bodied, sweet, nutty and roasted, flavourful.

Brewed at 187˚F

Rating: 75

Aroma like a subdued version of the Taiwanese 18 tea––malty sugar, maraschino cherry, and woodsy. Which is strange because this Red Thunder Oolong is a Darjeeling tea, and 18 is an Assamica hybrid.

Tea liquor is astringent and woodsy. Awful dry mouthfeel, feels like I’m sucking on hay and herb stems. When I hold the liquid in my mouth for longer, I get the slight impression of a tangy fruit tart. But honestly the mouthfeel is so unpleasant that I ended up throwing out half the cup.

Brewed at 187˚F for 5:00. Will try brewing at higher temperature next time, and/or for a shorter time.

Rating: 59

I was sceptical of the idea of a green tea chai, and sure enough, I didn’t like it very much. The spicy flavour is nice and not as strong as masala chai, but the green tea portion of it tasted overbrewed, bitter, and astringent like steamed vegetables (even though I brewed it at 177˚F). If the idea of green tea chai sounds good to you, then by all means go for it, but it’s not for me.

To be fair, I paired it with a pineapple tart I was eating and the combination was pretty good… but mid-way when I tasted the bitter green tea I spat out the mouthful of tea.

Brewed for 5:00 in 6oz of water at 177˚F. Might try brewing this at a higher temperature, 180 or 185, but I’m predicting it will probably taste even worse. I wouldn’t buy the full size of this.

Rating: 45

I’m not going to rate this tasting because I accidentally used 8oz of water, poured out 3oz of it and had to top up to 6oz of water, so some of the flavour literally went down the drain.

Love the aroma––lovely floral mixed with honeyed sweetness. The liquor, though not as flavourful, tastes great as well.

Let’s start with the positives. Lovely orange blossom, malty sugar, licorice aroma.

Unfortunately I over-steeped it for maybe 20 seconds (over the recommended 4:00) and it’s quite astringent. Tastes a lot like cucumber water, slightly spicy maybe from the fennel, but also kinda musty, which is unexpected in a black tea. Not my thing.

Rating: 68

185˚F in 6oz water for 5:00

Now this time the first whiff I get is a spicy ginger aroma, followed by the malty sweetness, and there’s also notes of buttery pecan, and fresh lemon.

No astringency this time so I think lower temperature is better for this tea.

I tried half of my cup with a few drops of lemon juice and do not recommend that. It turned the tea slightly bitter in addition to the sourness.

Increasing my rating to 80.

Brewed at 187˚F for 5:00. Very lovely, savoury, complex white tea that’s different enough from Chinese white teas to merit a full purchase.

Aroma:
Cotton candy and Hay. Smells so much sweeter than Chinese white tea

Liquor:
Notes of Melon, Celery, Floral. Smooth, no bitterness or astringency.
I was actually eating walnuts with yoghurt at the time I drank this, so couldn’t taste the walnut notes in the tea but I’ll look out for them next time.