Tealux

Well, I’ve found the first tea that I don’t plan on ever running out of…

There is something so wonderful about this combination of flavors. A little cinnamony, a little oaty, a little nuttiness, a little raisiny sweetness….I love it so much. And Tealux makes it even easier to love by charging such a reasonable price! It is so right up my alley :) Hot, cold…I’ll take it any way I can get it.

This tea makes me laugh. I bought it awhile ago but haven’t had it because I normally don’t like ooey gooey sweet stuff. It had some pretty good reviews on the Tealux website so I thought I’d try it out.

A good tea to grab when craving something sweet!

I’ve had this tea for awhile and not tried it out. It was a big disappointment. I didn’t really get much pumpkin. Was too artificial tasting to me.

Got my Tealux order in today from their recent sale! Trying a bunch of new things from them as usual, I’m so weak for companies that sell 25g or 1oz at a time. I’d just almost always rather a new bunch of many things rather than larger quantities of fewer things. STUFF! THINGS! TEA!

I don’t know why I hadn’t tried this one before as it’s right up my street! Nice smoky lapsang and my beloved ginger. It’s a nice bacon-y lapsang souchong they’ve used here, good flavor. The ginger doesn’t come through very strongly in terms of taste, but I can definitely feel that it’s there as a mild gingery tingle follows each sip and lingers for a moment.

I’ll probably do a longer steep next time, as I let this go for only about three and a half. I think next go round we’ll try five minutes and see what that does for it. As it is I’m still enjoying the cup though!

I’m in a sales-y spirit so I’m doing a sale for my Etsy vintage shop today until midnight…10% off everything with the code 10PERCENT. Check it out: https://www.etsy.com/shop/SaraLouiseVintage :)

This was phenomenal. I know I adore peachy flavors, and this one is definitely very juicy and peach reminiscent, but peach mixed with floral is killer. And oolong is my favorite tea base, pretty much ever. I want a perfume that smells like this stuff, dry or steeped. I want a candle of it. I want to smell it all day long.

I steeped two teaspoons of this tonight, grandpa style, in my Bee House pot, and had more cups than I could keep track of. Very lovely and light. Lots of roasty rice notes, a hint of astringency but very little, and green tea taste that shifted between sweet and vegetal. Really lovely.

Spears are us, or it is in the case of this tea. They are beautifully twisted and shaped, unusual cocoon style pieces with a chocolate like scent and a high black shine. It doesn’t sound like I’m describing tea, does it? Well in a way it doesn’t feel like it is either, but I’m soo looking forward to trying it.

3 spears in 200ml Gongfu
Time I was recommended is 5-6 minutes so I will stick with that

6 minutes later and I have an extremely pale brown tea liquid. It smells mildly malty and wooden with a slight herb tinge. Flavour is also oddly herbal, I am not sure what though… But despite the delightful oddness of it I must admit it’s pleasant tasting.

Another steep to see if it unleashes more flavours, the leaves are tightly wrapped so I feel it needs to open up more. After another few minutes it’s still mild but I can taste more sweet malt tones. Definite cocoa tones too.

Ok another steep, please open up leaves! Ok after ten minutes it’s still very light. So time to double up, it now has six spears in! Another 6 minutes or so to wait.

That’s a bit better, more floral now than before, though still sweet and malty dominating tones, albeit on a still very light scale.

It certainly is an usual tea, both in appearance and taste, but it’s subtly is just not for me. Sorry Blue Unicorn Reserve, you sound awesome but I just don’t love you.

I had the herbal tea Spicy Pear ages ago. I left a review on here commenting that I really liked the fruity mixture but it was missing something, and thought a white tea would be good. Tealux must have been listening because when I went to order last time this tea was there. I’m just now getting around to trying it and I have to give it the thumbs up. It’s still more of a herbal tea since there’s not much white tea in there but the white tea give it a body that was missing before. There’s popcorn in this too. There was a big piece of popcorn when I put in in my infusier. I am getting that white tea base along with the apple/pear juicy flavour. Just a hint of cinnamon. Not sure if the popcorn adds anything to it but it certainly is good. Light on caffeine too.

Transitioning to straight teas slowly, it seems. How I realized this?! In my last Tealux order only ONE tea was flavoured, the dragon lychee pearls, which I have to say are a must have. All the rest are pu’erh and unflavoured teas. Monkey tips and white buds and the likes, and this one of course.

I get no grape (like Dexter did) but this tastes entirely like a black tea to me. The leaves, however, are gorgeous. Loooong long leaves. Longest I’ve ever seen. Exclamation crossed my lips upon opening the bag. Also, gorgeous as it is, I must say it ain’t exactly ruby :). More like brandy. I saw not much difference between steeps. I have yet to have the time to steep 7 times like some hard core drinkers but I did it three times. Three back to back 8 oz cups is hard corer for me!

In others news, I’m in love. During my last Jann Arden concert two days ago I became aware of this amazingly talented singer who was part of her band. And seriously, once I googled said singer and further realized how talented (and hot!) she is, I am smitten. Seriously, if you can spare a “like” in her Facebook, you should. And she has her own website, however bare it is at the moment allisoncornell.com

Yo, I even bought her iTunes album. Yes, I’m Hashtag OCD :)

Thanks bye :)

I like this. Umami, vegetal and sea weed notes from the gyokuro, and a nice roasty note from the rice. There’s also a hint of soapiness, but not strong or bad.

Oh and then right there at the bottom of the cup, honey notes!

Oh, so much better this time around!

First cup steeped 3 min at 90C, and it’s quite perfect. A touch more floral and perfumey at the start of the sip than other milk oolongs I’ve had, and then rich, creamy, buttery goodness. I like this a lot.

The second steep of these leaves had less floral and cream and more vegetal notes. Not quite as interesting but still tasty.

The dry leaf is tightly rolled with some long stems, and dappled green and almost violet.

The steeped leaves unfurl to almost fill my steeping basket. They smell creamy and buttery with notes of roasting and toasted bread.

The liquor is a deep golden colour and smells even richer, and creamier than the steeped leaf.

The start of the sip is intense and a touch tart, with a hint of bitterness and astringency. After that intense spike though, there’s not much to it. We shall see once this cools a bit how the flavour develops.

As it cools more of the buttery notes develop and it gets richer and more multidimensional, but it’s still not great. I’m pretty sure I oversteeped this, sadly. I’ll have to give it another go with a shorter steep or cooler water.

Another sample from Dexter!

This is a lovely evening cup. It’s got sweet, floral notes on the nose, and the start of the sip is a touch floral and roasty, almost perfumed. The finish is long, tangy and vegetal, quite a departure from the sip.

Not a stand out to me, but a very pleasant oolong.

Yay, I have so many new and untried black tea samples now (thanks to Blodeuyn)! I was sad because I didn’t have any more new teas to drink in the morning. Huzzah! This one is first because I really want to try more Assams, although I have a sneaking suspicion that it’ll be very close to the Taiwanese Assams I’ve already tried, just based on the smell. But onward, to tea! The leaves are large and supple, definitely shorter but thicker than the usual creepy tree branch teas. Dry scent is incredibly sweet with lots of honey, along with cocoa and malt. I brewed mine for 3 minutes at 200 degrees.

As soon as I poured the hot water over my tea, I smelled cinnamon. Oops… I may have used the same infuser that I used for Snickerdoodle last night! :x Luckily for me, the brewed tea itself does not smell strongly of cinnamon, so I think it’ll be okay! Brewed aroma is very strong brown sugar with malt and sweet dried fruit notes (maybe a touch of cinnamon?). Yummm… There’s definitely a tad bit of cinnamon here, and I don’t know whether it’s inherent in this tea, or whether it’s from the infuser… Either way, it goes beautifully! This tea has a little bit of an earthy undertone, which I wasn’t expecting. However, on top there is a layer of lovely dark brown sugar flavor, along with fruit and malt notes. Oh man, I really hope that slight cinnamon flavor is meant to be there, because it pairs beautifully with the brown sugar. I suppose my next cup will tell me! :P

Inspired by the darjeeling discussions that have been popping up on Steepster lately, I pulled out this sample that was sent to me by the lovely Virginia. Thank you! (I have a been of a sample backlog problem, I know).
I eschewed the instructions that came with it and went with 190F water rather than 212F. The tea came out at a bright golden color that smelled of sweet grape. The main note was also a bright grape over hints of hay with a honey suckle finish. It has only a little astringency. It has that fresh mountain air quality that I love about first flush darjeelings! Overall, a very pleasant darjeeling but not mind blowing.

This superb tea was bought from Tealux. Sweet to smell and to taste but doesn’t overpower with sickly sweet sugar. Flavours reminiscent from the process in which it’s made -it’s a lovely milky treat. I enjoyed it in a Timolino flask and it got better the longer I left it to steep (to my taste).

i find with oolongs, the magic is in the cooling. when you let your cup cool, the tea opens up and you’ll experience more notes, and greater depth of those notes.

the aftertaste/after sip in this is sliiightly peach/nectarine but not quite. definitely not as peachy as in other greener, less oxidized oolongs. but it is a subtle fruity-floral, not quite orchid but you can say it is crisp. crisp like a Washington apple? Hmm i’m not sure. if i got definitive apple out of this i’d be thoroughly impressed (not to mention, happy!) but perhaps that is to be found in subsequent steeps.

this is only the first steep, and i have to say, Black Pearl Sumatra sits nicely in between a delicate black tea and an oolong. actually the ‘black tea quality’ about this is sturdy, like a dark-roasted grain, though i wouldn’t say the flavor is toasty. it’s kind of similar in overall flavor to Tealux’s Cream Irish Breakfast, sans butter or cream.

mellow, smooth, buttery, flaky pastry

tea liquor: color infuses almost instantaneously and it is a rich dark, coffee-color brown that turns amber red in the light, just beautiful.

rich and full-bodied. not bitter in the least. so delicious, that even though i added brown sugar, it was a very little bit. next time i may even try without. this is a flaky pastry in a cup, and i’ve been waiting to say that for quite a while. it’s great with milk, but even a touch, you can still taste the buttery, milky flavor beneath that you got in the dry leaf. this is quite delicious! am seriously considering stocking some of this. would make a wonderfully smooth, creamy base for a stovetop chai, but given that spice and sweetness would inevitably take over, the precious flavor of this tea might go unnoticed!

i’ve never had an official ‘Irish breakfast tea’ but if this is anything to go by, it’s a very special tea! unique for sure and might i add—delicious and satisfying. so glad i started my day (err….late afternoon) off with this.

Moist vanilla cake
Sweet raisin cookie syrup
Slight chai-like profile emerges sans clove
Liquor super light
infuses slower than a tortoise trying to surmount a sandcastle

The name of this translates to Cloud and Mist. It is seen as the predecessor of Huang Shan Mao Feng Tea. Isn’t Mao Feng like Bi Luo Chun too? Anyway, that’s what this tea reminds me of – Bi Luo Chun. It’s got that mossy buttery taste which I LOVE. Can’t get enough of teas like this. It’s sweet, nutty & mossy. They call it fruity notes but to me it’s that delicate mossy flavour that I love.

I really like the fancy name of this tea even though I can’t pronounce it. I was expecting something amazing but it’s only okay.

From the Round 3 Here’s Hoping TTB

This is okay but it’s not my favorite. The vanilla flavor is good, and the tea has a nice creamy feel but the woodsy rooibos flavor is too strong for my liking. I think I’ll stick with Vanilla Comoro for my nighttime vanilla fix.