The Tao of Tea

This tastes toasty and mineral-y. I think next time I will steep it longer to give it more flavor, but I am glad that it wasn’t astringent at all. The lack of astringency is why I tend to prefer oolongs to blacks. I think I will have to play with this one a little longer.

Sipdown This was a really lovely tea. With the ridiculous amount of Assams I currently have in my cupboard, I don’t think I’m going to pick up a full-size tin of this one any time soon. But I will certainly take an oz or two with my next Tao of Tea order. I did have to lower the rating just a bit, because it seems super dependent on temperature. Even 5 degrees off and it looses a bit of its magic. But no matter how I brew it it’s still quite lovely.

Oh, wow, this is nice. Pure malt with a lovely deep sweetness. Hands down my favorite Assam of all time. Wish I’d have picked up more than an ounce!

I messed up the steeping on this one, but I’m pretty glad I did because it came out lovely. Instructions say to steep a tsp in 12 oz at 180º but I did my usual rounded tsp in 8oz at around 200º. Despite being named ‘strong’ black it is really very light. I imagine steeping as instructed would result in something far too weak for my tastes. There’s no astringency to note so I think I’ll steep an extra 30 seconds next time and see how that goes.
Though it’s not very strong it is very yummy. It’s light and sweet and citrusy. A little malty with a bit of stone fruit hiding in there and overall incredibly smooth. As the cup cooled a bit of cinnamon like spice became noticeable as well. Very nice.

I really like this one. It’s incredibly flavorful with tons of interesting notes hiding throughout the sip. Orange zest, sugarcane, potato and sweet potato a bit of undistinguishable spice… maybe pepper? And it’s a bit astringent. Not especially bitter but drying on my tongue. It’s not at all an unpleasant astringency.
If I hadn’t read the description I wouldn’t have guessed this was a Yunnan. It seems to have the mouthfeel of an Assam with a taste somewhere in between that and a Yunnan. Really unique and delightful. So far I’ve been extremely pleased with Tao of Tea’s products. I wonder why they aren’t more popular around these parts?

Pass the Stash TTB 2
I took a sample of this and never got around to trying it. It’s hard to taste the bergamot past the strong smokey flavor. I love a good earl grey but this isn’t it for me.