Imperial Tea Garden

starts out sweet and makes your mouth water and as it cools it gets a little grassier. Still a winner tho! Very delicate and “frosted” looking! Nice green!

This is absolutely WONDERFUL! It’s very malty for an oolong and gently toasted. I really like this! At the beginning of the sip it sort of tastes like a medium strength black tea and then pushes over to a hearty oolong but it’s more malty than most if not all of the oolongs I have tried so far and it’s really yummy! Two thumbs up! Yes…I will have another cup! This is FAB!

This has a strong sweet scent. Light honey maybe.

Drank very hot it has a strong green flavor with that sweetness tied in.

As it cools to medium sipping temperature the green comes out stronger but with no bitterness, the sweetness still holds and balances this tea. The vegetal flavor is in the main portion of the mouth while the sweetness coats the back of the throat and reminds one of brown sugar. It’s not strong, again it’s just enough to balance the flavor of the tea in total.

As it cools further, a deep earthiness comes out, putting one in mind of a pu-erh almost. Not nearly as strong, of course, but with that same slate-y river-mud tone to it that some pu-erhs have. The sweetness has continued and turned darker and richer. A green note can be noticed here and there, spiking hard in the upper mouth/nose; not in every sip, but there.

And the cooler it gets, the more it shifts into slight berry tones.

This is a complex and rich tasting white.

The longer I drink this, the more I like it as it goes through it’s changes. It may well be a buyer. So far, even among those I wouldn’t buy, I have been pleased with Imperial Tea Garden’s whites. I’m very glad my husband grabbed me a bunch of samples as a gift.

Second steeping: the coffee scent translates some to the taste, now. Not strong or overwhelming at all, just as an aspect of the over-all flavor.

This has a strong coffee/cocoa scent that is very surprising.

The flavor is very… I don’t know. I can’t find the right words for it.

It’s sweet, but not your standard tip-of-the-tongue sweet… rather the sweet seems to be a round softness through the sides and back of the mouth when sipping.

It’s green without be green… I can’t locate any grassy, vegetable, or standard “green tea flavor”. But still, it’s lightly there on the side of the tongue at the end of the sip and swallow.

There’s almost a berry component up through the nose mid-sip. And maybe some hay in the ending, too.

This is a very strange one, I can’t describe it accurately as the taste is just so odd. Good, but odd.

Will need a few more cups, probably, before I decide if I like it well enough to buy.

First, the little “stars” this tea is formed into are both beautiful and adorable. So much fun.

The steeped scent is very sweet in a berry sort of way with a touch of green.

When sipped hot, it has a coating berry taste along the back of the tongue and throat. Very distinct, very enjoyable. There is also a buttery mouthfeel behind the lips.

This actually reminds me some of the Sakura Sencha I recently had… the sencha buttery fullness in that tea.

This is one that loses it’s lovely “oomph” as it cools, best drunk while nice and comfortably hot.

The scent of this steeped tea is very green. It has a slight hay-like sweetness.

This is a rather good tea. Moderately sweet, green in the throat, a touch of the generic “tea flavor” to it (barely, but there).

I would say it reminds me a bit of honey. It has that same sort of sweetness and a bit of the coating feeling that honey gives you.

Looks like I’m buying some more, on giving him a taste the spouse really likes it.

I brewed this one a bit strong, 5.7g of tea to 12oz water, due to finishing off the last bit I had.

Again the scent is strongly tobacco and something faintly, beigely bitter. -But again, not unpleasantly so.

The flavor is very much the smell but with the addition of a light sweetness. The finish is lasting and roasted tasting. There’s also a berry quality to the roof of the mouth and nose when swallowing when it cools some.

Again I like this but probably won’t buy it. It’s tasty, quality, but doesn’t hit my “wow, gotta have!” button. I’m glad that my husband bought me the sample to try, it was very pleasant.

The steeped tea smell sweet, a bit bitter, too with a hint of tobacco scent (of the plant, not of cigarettes or cigars, in case anyone was unclear).

In sipping, it has that tobacco scent turned to flavor that wraps around the sides of tongue up into the nose.

It is a bit bitter, especially on the middle of the tongue it feels. The bitterness isn’t great but isn’t terribly off-putting either. It’s not bad, I’m just not sure I like it.

That’s about it… Maybe a faint mustiness to the scent and flavor, too.

Another quality tea I wouldn’t buy more of.

The scent of this steeped brings to mind camp or woodstove fires and a faint sweetness.

The taste is almost shocking, it is so full. This is a much bigger flavor than I’ve gotten from other whites… they seem to usually be delicate, subtle and light. Not this. It’s flavor is almost the of a flavored tea or the strength (but not flavor) of a black tea. It’s very intense for a white.

It’s earthy, very earthy, and as for the “jam” reference it’s not a flavor in this tea… it’s more the description of its mouthfeel; it’s thick and almost chewy. The earthy taste surrounds the tongue and settles on the back of it, before slipping lightly under the front of it. This also has a lot of vegetal flavor around the middle of the tongue. The finish is fairly long and puts the burnt/woodfire touch to the middle of the tongue after a moment.

A very robust tea. Again, it’s surprising for a white. Very, very good.

4.5g to 12oz water.

Little to no scent.

The taste is quite odd and yummy, both. It is very vegetal over-all and has a faint taste like dirt in the back of the mouth. This may sound not-good, but no, it just makes it an interesting cup.

This tea is also quite astringent under the tongue and in the back of the throat.

I will tinker with steeping times. This one is quite different.