Tealyra (formerly Tealux)

Delicious! There is a strong butterscotch smell which corresponds to taste. The tea is smooth with honey and a very mild cinnamon taste. The peppercorn is faint but lingers on the tip of the tongue.

I’m not really a fan of this one. It smells great, but the taste is nothing like lychee and it just makes for a confused tongue. The base is black tea and I think I’m more partial to greens and oolongs.

So delicious. The best lychee tea I’ve had yet. Today the lychee flavour really stood out, with the base taking a back seat, but the base is lovely and compliments the lychee so well.

I used 8 pearls in my cup.

Sadly, went for a second steep, but it’s just not quite worth drinking.

Thanks to Lindsay for this sample.

These beautiful little pearls are uniformly rolled balls of black tea, and quite possibly the best smelling lychee tea I’ve ever encountered. Both dry and steeped, they smell intensely sweet and juicy. The lychee fragrance is very authentic, bit I’m reminded more of those lychee canned juices, or lychee bubble tea, than of just the fresh fruit.

I steeped 8 pearls in 8oz of 93C water. I think for about three minutes, but I had a timer failure, so I’m not sure.

This is delicious. The lychee flavour isn’t quite as in your face as the scent, but I really like it. It’s sweet and juicy and has that whole mouth flavour that lychees have and that I often find missing in lychee flavoured teas. The black base is apparent, with hints of malt and cocoa, and quite well balanced with the lychee.

Definitely a winner among lychee flavoured teas, and one that I can see buying.

Yesterday I got to meet Lindsay, which was awesome. We had this tea, which is delicious and roasty and I enjoy more every time I have it. Then we went for amazing Ethopian dinner.

It’s so nice to start meeting some of the wonderful people from Steepster. This is one of the nicest online communities I’ve been a part of.

Also resteeping last nights leaves this morning. Mmm mmm mmm.

Rich, nutty, woody creamy. I really like this a lot.

Bad first impressions aside, I ended up liking my first cup of this enough to resteep my leaves from earlier. They were still fairly rolled up and full of fragrance.

I steeped again at 90C for about 4 minutes. This cup was much the same, maybe a touch milder, and with a floral note on the finish. Great flavour.

I think the leaves still had a lot more to give – after the second steep they still weren’t fully open, but I’ll maybe try more than two steeps some other time.

The dry leaf smells very roasted, and is tightly rolled into small, dark pellets. I want to preface this note by saying that heavily roasted oolongs are generally not my thing, though I do enjoy them on occasion.

Steeped for 2:15 in 90C water. The leaves are just starting to unfurl a bit. The liquor smells roasted and nutty, almost coffee-like, and steeps up to a dark brown with purple undertones.

My first impression of my first sip was NOT GOOD. This sip I tried quite hot and I got smacked with strong roast and mineral notes. Not inherently bad, but it evoked the worst association. The first sip tasted the way outhouse chemicals smell. Dear god. When I’m drinking tea, I do not want to be transported to a well-used port-a-potty.

Fortunately, that first impression was fleeting and did not continue with subsequent sips (yes, I’m stubborn, I continued to sip a tea that made me think of outhouse.) Now that the cup has cooled, the roast and mineral are still there, but they’ve been joined by a creamy nuttiness. Added another 30 seconds of steeping, to get just a bit more flavour into my cup.

This is actually really nice – The roasted flavour doesn’t drown out everything else. If my initial impression hasn’t turned you off completely, worth trying.

Cup of the morning.

Lychee is one of my favourite fruits – we used to get them fresh when I was a kid and they were such an awesome treat. I keep wanting to find that same juicy, sweet, fresh flavour in lychee teas. Yet, while just about every lychee tea tastes distinctly lychee, there’s usually something lacking, as there is with this tea. Something about lychee and the black bases it gets combined with almost always lacks the juiciness, and has a pronounced harshness that makes me think of cheap black tea. This harshness lingers into the finish in a way that’s a hint vegetal and artificial.

I’m not getting any peach from this either, so it tastes like a pretty average lychee black. Ah well.

Oh man, now I wish I counted how many pearls I used for my cup! All I remember is measuring out a teaspoon, then adding one pearl, then removing a little one, to make 2.5g. It’s always fun to watch pearl teas unfurl as they steep, and this one expands into what seems like quite a lot of leaf! It has an amazing lychee smell as it steeps. The lychee flavour is quite strong – sweet and juicy and no weird artificial taste. I love lychees (though it has been years since I had a fresh one, boo) so perhaps it’s predictable that I would love this tea. The base tea is malty with a bit of cocoa. Very nice.

I’m not sure what it is about lychee flavoring on teas, but often it makes it smells…. cold? It’s certainly an odd property of the scent, and one that is much better diluted out over several infusions or in a pot rather than in a mug. Today I did two pearls in 16oz, and I did two infusions into a liter thermos. This helped diffuse the flavoring so you’re not overwhelmed with the lychee and can appreciate the black tea base more. I like it hot, but I kept leaving my desk and it was mostly cold when I managed to get back. I suppose the ‘coldness’ of the lychee flavoring also lends itself well to iced tea. It is the season, although my mom was telling me that it was miserly and raining all day in San Francisco, while at my work it was 77 while I was driving home and I told her I was melting.

I feel like next time I’m in the market I need to pick up some canned lychee. It’s been too long since I’ve had the fruit, and maybe I can put one or a few into a cup with this too.

Edit: it seems odd but I think since others have reviewed this tea, the form factor may have changed, because the pearls are maybe around a centimeter in diameter. I could be completely delusional to say that two pearls is equivalent to 1.5tsp/8oz, but it was quite enough tea to water in my opinion. The leaf certainly bloomed enough to make it look like a good 3-4 tsp in my infuser

More backlog….
I had a small sample of this last time, but I finally sprung for the 100g pack in my last order!!

The lychee flavor is definitely not as strong as regular supermarket black lychee loose leaf, but that’s kind of nice too, it’s not as overwhelming. I still think the second steep is better than the first.

TeaLux is now TeaLyra. I wonder if I will remember that next time I brew up one of their teas.

For some reason, while I was perfectly aware that it was a black tea when I was ordering, I was expecting a green base when I brewed it up. The fault of this is that the dry leaf don’t really smell deep and cocoa-y as I tend to look for in black teas. Not much of this shows up in the brewed tea either. Is this what they call a China Black?

It just tastes like tea to me. Like that sweet mild familiar taste of tea with a hit of lychee on it. I guess this would be the closest to the type of teas I grew up on, because I can’t think that it’s anything but Tea, and why mess with such a wonderful descriptor like that? It also makes it a great tea to pair with food, because it doesn’t overwhelm my sense of the food, but it’s strong enough to cleanse the palate.

It’s mild, sweet, comforting.

The first brew was mildly artificial though, I might have to do a initial rinse with this tea from now on. It used to be a habit, but as I tried more and more flavored teas I dropped the habit. The second brew was wonderful and perfect. I used 1 tsp for a small teapot (12oz). The pearls were quite large to my eye, perhaps .7mm in diameter.

I can see myself drinking this alot and wonder how it’ll stand up to grandpa style brewing.

I don’t know why I continue to buy flavored blacks. They always sound so good on the website, so I buy them and then they get here and sit around until I force myself to drink them. You’d think I would eventually learn…

Anyway, Cameron just reviewed this one so it inspired me to take out my bag and try to get rid of some more of it. Now, I’ve never actually had a lychee before, so my only knowledge of the fruit comes from tea. I find it a bit floral, quite sweet and juicy. Almost grape like, but not quite. Honestly, I feel it would be more at home with a green tea, but it’s nice here too. It’s a very refreshing flavor that reminds me of summer. In this tea the flavoring overpowers the base a bit, but it still manages to be quite lovely. I probably won’t rebuy, but I greatly enjoy it whenever I make myself brew some.

Another one from cookies! I’m excited to try this one, as I’ve heard good things about it from a few different people. I don’t have a ton of experience with lychee, but I really liked the Lychee Barley from Lupicia so I’m intent on trying more lychee-flavored teas! These pearls are about a centimeter in diameter, and they’re more loosely rolled than other pearls I’ve seen. Dry scent is strong, sweet lychee! I used eight pearls for my 8 ounces of water.

The steeped tea also smells strongly of lychee, but it’s not overwhelming. I can smell some cocoa notes as well. Wow, there is a lot of lychee going on here, and it’s very tasty. I would describe lychee as being sweet, juicy, floral, and slightly musky. The base tea has nice cocoa and malt flavors, and a touch of wood. Tasty!

Well!

Hmm. So I just received this, and added it to Steepster since it’s so new it didn’t have an entry. At the Tealux website the ingredient list is as follows: apple pieces, date pieces (dates, rice flour), cranberry slices (cranberries, sugar), melon pieces, almond pieces, apple cubes, flavoring, cinnamon rods, pistachios, freeze-dried pumpkin pieces, fig pieces and cranberry slices, beetroot.

But I’ve just opened up my 25 gram pouch, and it has white tea in it. I mean not JUST white tea, it also had some of the other ingredients listed (definitely apple, date, melon, almond, lots of fruity bits, and chamomile buds, which weren’t on the list either). But the white tea base was a surprise since it wasn’t in there! And the tea itself isn’t in the white tea section on the Tealux site, it’s filed under fruity tea. And as you can see in the picture that went with the listing, white tea isn’t visible.

This is a puzzler. Did they send me the wrong tea in the correctly labeled bag? It does resemble what’s pictured here, only with the addition of white tea leaves, possibly a bai mu dan.

On to the tasting! Dry the leaf had a vaguely fruity scent, a muted melon that was more watermelon than cantaloupe. Steeped the scent is all chamomile! I’m afraid to take a sip, but in the interests of science…well, it’s alright. Flavor-wise I’m getting very mellow fruit, but it’s a whisper under the warring tastes of white tea and chamomile. More of the fruitiness peeks out as it cools. I had dazzling visions of this being a bright sparkling fruity marvel of an iced tea, but I don’t think reality will see that through.

Let this cool to barely lukewarm and it just tastes like chamomile now. :(

Going to contact Tealux about this tomorrow and see what they say!

With the dry leaves in a warm gaiwan, this purple leaf oolong from Tealux smells very heavily roasted with a hint of vinegar. My only experience with purple leaf tea has been with a Kenyan purple oolong that had a nice plum and berry kind of flavor but was easily over or underbrewed, getting a dirty or bland taste if you went much over or under 170F (I have no idea why this temperature is the sweet spot, but it is the one the vendor recommended and I tried many others to ensure this was the best). The tea was fussy. I also had a purple tips loose leaf raw puer from that same vendor and it had a very heavy woody tastes that was simply not for me.

Not really sure what to expect from this Taiwanese version of purple tea, the smell is priming me for sort of a Wuyi Oolong experience.

The brewed tea has about the same color as the Kenyan purple oolong I had. There’s a slight rosey tint to it. Where most oolongs would be yellowish, orange, or even greenish, this one has more of a peach/pink hint to it from the purple tint of the leaves (caused by high levels of the antioxidant anthocyanin).

The taste is just what I expected from the smell! It is really similar to Sea Dyke brand Shui Xian, a heavily roasted Wuyi oolong you can find for a really low price at Asian grocery stores. There is a great deal of roast flavor along with just a hint of dill. There’s a good deal of char taste like you’d taste on the edges of pan-fried blackened food. It has a bit of a salty finish. If there is any sweetness in this tea it is barely detectible.

Repeated infusions yeilded more of the same flavor, but stronger.

I didn’t find the flavor particularly enjoyable. If you like really roasted flavors you might.

This tea is lovely with good fruity lychee notes that persist through many steepings over cocoa, butter, honey and malt. It has immediately gone on my wish list!

The pearls are about the size of a medium large natural pearl on a pearl necklace. The dark leaves are fairly tightly wound and are very fragrant. I used 7 of them in 150 ml of boiling water.

Once brewed the lychee is strong in scent, very fruity, slightly raisiny and a bit perfumy. The tea underneath smells of cocoa and a bready malt note and butter.

1.2 min: The flavour is soft and creamy, the lychee is very fruity with a hint of dried raisiny fruit among the lychee, there is a good note of honey, and cocoa and butter in the base. The flavours blend well together. The colour is ranging towards oak.

2 min. The tea has a more balanced blend between the fruit and base tea scents. The cocoa is stronger and the lychee smells rich and voluptuous.
The balance is well met between the originally listed flavours as well, with the lychee remaining strong, the honey intensifying and the cocoa and butter notes remaining uunderneath, but are strengthened. A grainy malt note is also becoming apparent.

3 min honey, lychee, cocoa, malt, butter
Lychee is slightly perfumy, cocoa,butter, mmalt, mineral note , opens up to lychee honey and cocoa.

5 min: lychee and honey dominate scent. The base has thinned out and the flavour is of lychee, honey, cream and malt. This steep is a little more tart than the others.

If you enjoy lychee this tea is well worth trying. Thanks JustJames for the sample!

This lovely oolong came from Virginia. Huzzah, oolongs! (that’s me, every time I drink one). It’s a rolled oolong, which I enjoy for the presentation, with green leaves and some stems. The smell is very creamy and floral and the brew is a light yellow. It has a wonderfully thick, creamy mouthfeel with a creamy, almost buttery taste to match. It’s naturally sweet and you’re thinking, “oh this is nice, sweet cream tea” until halfway through the sip when delicate florals surprise you and lead to a clean, refreshing finish. You get the best of both worlds! I don’t like this one quite as much as I liked the Gui Hua from Tealux, but it was a fabulous oolong.

I must have forgotten to write about this in past tastings even though I just finished a bag. And not a sample bag either! I love these and I will miss them. I haven’t had a lot of lychee teas but this is a great one. With or without sugar, although I prefer with. I don’t like that I’m running out of a lot of favourites all at the same time because it means I must place a lot of different orders. Hard to do when one tries to adhere to a budget or allow only one order per month. Ha! How’s that for discipline?!?

These pearls are so good though. Great flavour, good base. A tea that makes you think about it even when you’re not with it. The pearls are also very cute to look at. Tiny, black aromatic marbles, not too small either. Perfect size! I don’t like stuff that looks like mouse droppings :)

I love tealux purely fir that fact that every tea I’ve gotten from them was good quality and fresh. Even the ones I didn’t particularity enjoy. This batch is no different. Everything from order smelled fresh and delicious, and the leaves were a great color.

Actual review: this tea. I don’t know if it taste exactly like butterscotch but to me this tea taste like a honey/cinnamon bun. Sweet without any sugar and just gorgeous in the pouch to boot. I love that it has a more delicate, vegetal base of white tea that keeps it light and refreshing. I steeped it overnight the fridge and not a hint of bitterness. It was also a hit with the family but this going in my “selfish” stash.