Little Red Cup Tea Co.

last tea of the evening and i have to say that i bought this one in part because it was a large amount for a reasonable price (even as a sample size) but also because i was curious as to what the flowers would taste like. Mostly i just wanted to try an interesting, different experience. Sadly i was very distracted when i had this, and all i can really say is that it’s more like a white/green sort of tea but i DID drink it all up, relatively quickly heh more to come when i try it again!

Final Count: 72 YES! mwahahaha sipdown count for 2014 achieved… not that i’ll be making it to my next goal unless i decide to do 5 teas over 2 month periods…since i’m going to keep pushing for 50 teas heh

Cup from this morning – i vastly prefer little red cup’s keemun that they no longer carry but this one isn’t bad. it’s just not great, and there are a bunch of other teas out there, that i think i’d have first.

this has been a busy day today…. this was from much earlier in the day and was a great cup of tea for being out and about. Its an average every day sort of tea but that doesn’t make it bad :)

Another from yesterday – I’ve got the travelling tea box arriving tonight so i’ve been trying to focus on some of my larger quantity teas lately since i know the box will bring lots of sampling. this one is quite nice, but it’s not their keemun. So sad that one is gone from their lineup.

Another tea from yesterday…all i really recall about this one is that it’s quite tasty. This is a great little company that doesn’t have a huge number of selections but their customer service is good, their packaging is fun and the teas that they DO have are really enjoyable. They had samples for us about a year ago on steepster and i tried them then…it’s taken me a while to place an order and sadly the keemun they had is no longer a tea they carry. So i picked this one up as well just to try it since i’d been so pleased with their keemun. I’m not disappointed! best of all their “sample” sizes are very generous ranging from .5os to 1.5 haha

Final Count yesterday: 78 (forgot to log these ones in to my cupboard..this does not bode well for my end of year goal…)

MzPriss’ Unflavored Tea Box – Tea #25
I might have waited too long for this one to cool, as the flavor was very light… too light to almost tell what type of oolong this is: fruity, floral, vegetal. Not sure! Maybe all of them! The second cup was slightly better, the top of the sip is floral, but then lingering in the mouth it is vegetal followed by a hint of creamy milk oolong… so I suppose the flavor IS all of them. Not too fruity anyway! It seems I haven’t had a peachy oolong in ages, and those are one of my favorite kinds. I used 3/4 teaspoon and filled the mug 3/4 of the way.
Steep #1 // 28 min after boiling // 2 min
Steep #2 // 15 min after boiling // 3-4 min

This tea has quickly become one of my favorite teas. Its a sweet, smoky tea which I find absolutely delicious. While drinking this tea, I can’t help but feel like I am sitting in a cabin on a cold winter day. It makes me feel all cozy inside! Teehee.

I removed this from the Here’s Hoping teabox a few weeks ago. I loved the Little Red Cup teas I was able to sample. I had to try their keemun. Usually keemun doesn’t have the hint of smoke that they should. This one does but it seems like it isn’t naturally within the leaf itself but added later. It does remind me a bit of some of those artifical lapsang souchongs but with a lighter smokiness. The smoke kind of tastes like leather. The black tea itself is slightly sweet but then there is a flavor here that reminds me of stevia with a hint of cherry. The brew is on the lighter side. Not much of a fan of this one, but I’m always up for trying a tea.
Steep #1 // 1 tsp // 10 min after boiling // 3 min steep
Steep #2 // just boiled // 4 min

This tea is awesome! It looks more like a white tea than a green tea. It smells slightly buttery mixed with some floral notes. Its very smooth and easy to sip on. The flavors are all very subtle, but refreshing. I enjoy drinking it in the morning, as well as at night. It tastes a little buttery, but mostly leafy (once again, I suck at flavor descriptions. I shall learn!) All in all, a great tea to drink at any point of the day. I recently ordered the Mandala double walled glass tea thermos. I plan on using this tea in it. I am not sure if it will get bitter being in the water for prolonged periods of time, but I have high hopes that it will remain delicious!

from the (Mostly) Unflavored TTB

I had this one in my new little clay teapot. It was quite nice. I know the pot is still sucking the flavors from the teas, and will for a while yet, but this was still quite tasty.

TTBCr2
This is one of the samples I took from the Traveling Tea Box C, and I’m glad I did. I did this western style, but I can tell how awesome this would be in my gaiwan.

The dry leaves are tiny little not quite balls. .5t/8oz is what it called for, so I had measured out a teaspoon to keep from the box. I put the whole sample I kept into the basket of my curve mug, and added boiling water. After steeping for 2:30, I pulled the infusion basket out and I was amazed at how much the leaves had expanded.

A little sweet, a little buttery, a touch floral. I like it.

I was surprised with Little Red Cup Tea co’s keemun – its smokey! This keemun has a brown sugar sweet start, earthy, wood and spice notes. End of sip there is a bit of briskness, fruity and chocolate richness. A bit of floral notes when the cup has cooled.

Pretty cool! The last keemun i tried was more on the smooth and sweet side, but this keemun is dynamically delicious!

Full review on my blog, The Oolong Owl http://oolongowl.com/keemun-black-tea-little-red-cup-tea-co-oolong-owl-tea-review/

TTBCr2
This tea is a green tea that is supposed to be similar to a white. I didn’t quite get that from this tea. I thought it was definitely a green tea, although a lighter one. I didn’t get any of the subtle complexities that I normally look for in a white tea. That does’t mean this is a bad tea; it’s a very delicious tea. It is more subtle that most greens, but it has a very mild vegetable flavor, less prominent than most. I enjoyed it, for sure. I don’t know that I would order it, but it someone offered me some, I would definitely take them up on it.

I took the end of what was in the box, so it wasn’t quite a full serving for my mug, but I actually think it wasn’t significantly underleafed for the amount of water. It was actually a pretty good amount. I even got two solid infusions from it, and I’m going to try to steep it again.

From the HHTTB2

Oh mercy, yes! This is exactly what I wanted this morning. Rich and slightly smokey with hints of leather, wood, and brown sugar… this is so good. I tend to prefer my straight black teas from India or Nepal, but I think I’m going to have to spend some time trying Keemun teas because I have thoroughly enjoyed the two I’ve had this week.

This one is going on my shopping list.

Backlog:

When I wrote my notes for this tea, I had just come back from a big holiday shopping day … and I was exhausted. I liked the way this tea helped to revitalize me.

Here’s my full-length review: http://sororiteasisters.com/2013/12/23/mao-jian-green-tea-from-little-red-cup-tea-co/

This is an excellent Mao Jian. One of the better teas that I’ve tried from this company.

Sipdown # 78!
This one comes from KS, & is a greener oolong, with a vegetal taste & aroma, & what I consider a ‘dry’ quality to it, which doesn’t mean it dried my mouth out, but I don’t really know how to describe it, LOL. Interestingly, the first couple of sips were kind of boring, but as it cools it takes on a buttery quality, & the flavor of sourdough bread with butter & a pinch of salt. I shared several steepings with one of my college students, who was here for her lesson, & she enjoyed it very much as well. Thanks KS!

Welcome to phase 2 of Monkey Monday. This tea has a nice grassy nose. The taste is more straw than grass. I’m not a fan of veggie-flavored tea, so like this one. It has a good mouth-feel and finish.

This is a good, solid tea, but doesn’t really stand out in the crowd. I probably wouldn’t purchase.

Thanks to Little Red Cup for the sample. BTW: as someone who owned a copy of Chairman Mao’s Little red book in college, I love the company’s playful name :)

I am getting ready to place an order with LRC, so I decided to hop online and pick the two teas I had rated the highest to reorder. Imagine my surprise when I realized that for some reason I never posted my review of this tea, which is a shame because I’ve really come to enjoy it. I think that I may have been in the middle of reviewing the samples that Martin from Little Red Cup Tea Co. sent me when my husband got sick and ended up having surgery, because on further inspection I only posted reviews for half of the teas. I was a bit distracted during that time and am just now getting back in the swing of being able to write every day. Hopefully I’ll be able to post reviews of the other teas soon.

Once upon a time I was a huge fan of smoke teas, but anymore I could really live without them. I remember writing recently about another smoke tea, I believe it was a Lapsang Souchong, and mentioning that I felt that I had outgrown them. I’m not sure that is a completely accurate statement, I think I’ve just been bored with them because I’ve run into so many that are just overwhelmed by the smoke aspects that the rest of the flavors in the tea are lost.

This is the first Keemun I could see myself drinking on a regular basis, I normally reserve them for Autumn. The smoke flavor doesn’t overwhelm the tea, but instead its rich flavor makes itself known before letting the other flavors come through. There is a smoothness present with each sip that gives way to a subtle sweetness that I really enjoy. I think I’ve finally found the perfect tea for a cold winter day and living in Wisconsin we have no shortage of those up here.