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Another rediscovered tea lost in my move that was so graciously given to me by Angel and Teavivre.

The leaves in this tea are stunning in their own right. Gorgeous greens and yellows begging to be steeped to wow your taste buds. Brewed, the liquor was a light, elegant gold. With all this gold one might think I am royalty. Not royalty, just incredibly spoiled with some of the best teas on the face of the planet.

Light, smooth and grassy this pu-erh knows how to treat your taste buds. Never was there any bitterness or astringency. Towards the end of the sip, there is a most gorgeous fruity flavor. Together with the grassy note I can not help but to think of Spring .

I don’t know how Teavivre does it, but their pu-erhs floor me every time. And I was able to get four steepings with maintained integrity while steeping it western-style-Incredible.

So, I have been a very, very bad Steepsterite. Not only have I been completely slacking on writing tasting notes, turns out I misplaced some of my samples that I was given to review during the move to my new apartment. Erf >.< So, Angel and Teavivre, thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to try this amazing tea and forgive me for the incredibly late review.

Pu-erh and I did not used to be on talking terms. Last time I sat down to have a nice cup of tea with pu-erh, it left me with a mouth full of dirt. I thought that falling face-first into a muddy puddle and swallowing who knows how much bacteria would be as much dirt flavor that I would ever have to endure.. But that Pu-erh had to one up my optimism and prove me wrong, dead wrong. Honestly, I never thought that I would be able to trust pu-erh after that.

However, Angel gave me the opportunity to see if we could work things out. I was skeptical but decided to give it one last chance.

The night with Pu-erh had a very dramatic beginning. I ended up taking a knife to it until it broke down in individual leaves.. I then doused it in 170 degree water and let it sit there and stew on our past history.

I peered into the cup and noticed the brown puddle that I had seen with the other Pu-erh was no longer. This tea brewed a gorgeous excel green. Maybe it has turned over a new (tea) leaf.

First sip: Mmmm, a strong green tea with smoke and honey. But not the type of smoke that makes you feel like you stood by the smoking section of a sports bar. The kind that gently tickles your throat with gentle sophistication. The earthiness is perfectly complimented by the silky honey notes. Pu-erh grew up so wonderfully.. maybe I judged them too quickly.

This is a gorgeous refreshing cup that will restore your faith in all Pu-erhs for the nonbelievers or an amazing starting point for Pu-beginners.

1 tsp+ 1 cup cold whole milk*= OH MY LANTA.

*shaken, not stirred

I can’t believe that I am drinking matcha right now. This is not matcha, no way. As if the funny green color of my milk could trick me. Nope. This is not matcha, this is actually funfetti cake batter for astronauts.

The green powder just needs to be rehydrated in some milk for you to feel like your grandma handed you a bowl of funfetti mix to lick after she was done pouring the cupcakes. But all this is happening in an imaginary world without calories or salmonella. Sounds too good to be true, right? Well, this is the reality created by Red Leaf Tea.

And oh my goodness, talk about an energy blast! I feel like the energizer bunny crushing through Ochem, cleaning the house top to bottom, and going for a run…and wait…it’s hardly 11 in the morning. And guess what? No crash. All the glorious caffeinated benefits of matcha without the matcha flavor. The flavor of the vanilla is definitely WHAM, in your face, ready to take your taste buds to a dance party. This is seriously the perfect matcha for dessert lovers who are afraid of the taste of matcha.

Get your hands on a cup here: http://www.redleaftea.com/matcha-tea/french-vanilla-matcha.html#.VInq4WTF-aE

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I realize that I have been sucking like a Dyson DC65 at getting all my reviews done.. In fact, there are upwards to 50 reviews in the pit. How did they get down there with Dean Winchester, anyways?! Man, time flies. I promise that I won’t go too heavy on the Supernatural references…but my roommate left the Pop doll of Dean on the kitchen table, so it mercilessly staring at me. And yes, I very well might have put all my empty tea pouches around Dean and labeled it as “the pit” with a handy dandy sticky note! Tehehe..:D

Okay, okay..this tea… yeah, it reminds me of Sammy Winchester before becoming soulless…. Intelligently melding together the notes of vanilla, coconut, and almond while being sweet and innocent. This tea is the type of tea that you will want to cuddle around the fireplace with on a blizzardy day and discuss the means of reducing antibiotic resistance in superbugs such as MRSA (What?…doesn’t everyone spend their free time pondering things like that?). It tastes like a Christmas cookie in a cup causing relaxation while slowly soothing away the craving to eat the apple pie fresh out of the oven. So if you can’t get your hands on a Samulet for Christmas, this tea might make a lovely, Christmas-y substitute.

Between this tea and Almond Cookie by Georgia Tea Company, they really have their desserty teas down. Thank you so much Ost for allowing me to try this fantastic tea!

Runs around in complete excitement with this tea in hand!! Right now, I’m so happy. This tea is delicious. It’s sweet and lemony and crisp. This tea is everything that I wanted Teavana’s Strawberry Lemonade and Davidstea’s Mango Punch to be when it wasn’t.

The hibiscus in this blend is perfectly executed, it melds with the lemony flavors completely removing any “blech” from the hibiscus and melding into the perfect lemony tartness. And the tartness is perfectly complemented with the sweetness of the mango. I’m not sure that the mango tastes like mango, more like a sweet strawberry mango, but it is so delicious. The cup didn’t even need sugar..which for a fruity tisane like this is incredible!

Also, I just want to stick my nose in the bag of leaves and walk around like a tea bag elephant because the scent is glorious. I found myself craving this tea even after finishing my cup. (and then again the next day and the next day…) If I never run out of this tea I will be completely content..but peering down at my bag of tea, it is almost gone…:( I need to plan a trip to Vancouver ASAP to get some more. Thank you so much, Secret Garden Tea Company!!

Yes, autumn is definitely here…my lecture halls have been transformed into a choir of sniffing people. And no, they aren’t crying over their Ochem homework, as much as many of them want to:P tehehe. The sky was gorgeously gray and cloudy….and tons of leaves lay on the ground all ready to be jumped in (so, I may have jumped in them like a little kid…and yes, it was glorious!:D)

Fresh apple cider is something that always something that I look forward to in the Autumn, so was there really a more perfect tea to try on such a perfectly Autumn day?:]

This tea smells absolutely amazing. Tantalizing your nose with the sweet and spicy aroma of apple cider. Upon sipping this tea, the flavor was apple cider right on the nose!! But then, the evil twin appeared. The aftertaste was almost so sweet it was bitter. Sooo not good. Too bad…it was SO close… Glad I had a cup but not something that I need. Thank you, Ost!

“I want to be the very best like no one ever was! To drink them is my real quest to review them is my cause!”…Could you imagine pokeballs filled with every single tea on this planet?? Oh my goodness. :D….so I got two packages yesterday one from the amazing Ost and one from the lovely Carol Who.. so I proceeded to google over my new tea samples and dance about my apartment gleefully singing this song. Anyways…on to the tea!

Even though summer has just recently ended, life makes it appear as a long lost memory. This tea is magical, though. It scours your brain and pulls the taste and smell memories from the far reaches of your hippocampus and amygdala and evokes the memories of summertime once again. The pineapple in this tea is sweet and prevalent. But as you finish out the sip you get the oh so delicious taste of coconut. The coconut in this tea starts out tasting fresh and juicy but as the sip finishes out, the coconut flavor is a bit artificial. This is definitely a summertime tea and I would love to try it iced sometime.

Thank you so much, Carol Who!^.^

ATTENTION: This note contains some science garbling semi-relating Darwinian Evolution/Population Dynamics to tea.

I came home after my Experimental Evolutionary Ecology Class (E^3 as we so fondly call it which irritates my boyfriend because he says that should only apply to video games…oh pish posh.— At least our lab groups have interesting names like E^3PO ..tehehe) and found a package from Ost anddd Carol Who waiting for me! Man, sciences classes, letters, and tea, could this weekday possibly get any better?!? I took out a herbal tea from Carol Who (note to follow-hopefully later in the day:D) and this tea from Ost. This one was first because caffeine must be drinken earlier in the day..

Boy am I so glad that I drank this tea after my evolution class because it is so fitting. The flavors in this tea EVOLVE…I can hardly stand how awesome this is!! It’s like generations and generations of accruing mutations happening in my mouth in one sip! :D Ahhh, from the primordial brown steeped liquor arises a slight spicy twang of cinnamon but suddenly a juicy blueberry point mutation occurs giving it a selective advantage over the cinnamon essentially outcompeting it until only the sweet juiciness of blueberry remains. Pretty soon, some cake migrates into the cup and obliterates the previously strong blueberry until all that is left is the sweet, cakey crumble to satisfy your taste buds. Three distinct flavors all fighting to be the fittest but leading to one very satisfying cup. An amazing dessert tea that just makes me happy (and it lasted three beautiful resteeps for me!^.^)

Thank you so much, Ost!