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So, I’ve had tea wish vanilla bean in then before, but this was the first time I ever have seen an actual vanilla bean segment in a tea. It was a few cm big and bursting with the little black vanilla bean seed things, so cool.

I don’t know if it’s because how much straight tea I’ve been having lately, or because of how great the quality of the base tea is, but I’m getting a bunch of flavors from this. There’s the vanilla of course, but there’s also some cocoa and malt and cherries and honey. And there’s a nice long lingering raisin and cherry after taste. I always assumed Ceylon were bland, I don’t know why, but I really need to stop underestimating black teas.

In all my years, I’ve only ever had Earl Grey one other time. I wasn’t a fan. First thing I notice when I opened the package was that from a foot from my nose I could smell cream. But when I smelled the dry leaf up close, the scent was more citrus and what I assume is bergamot (it smells nothing like all the Bath&Body Works scents with bergamot that I love so much), and then that creamy smell.

This isn’t terrible, I’m still not a big bergamot fan, but the creamy notes round out the blarg and make it drinkable. If served, I would drink it, but wouldn’t choose it given a choice. Better than the other EG I had though, and if you like the blargamot you’ll enjoy this.

First of all, I started a session with this at 2am. I might not be easily affected by caffeine, but even I have a feeling that this was a bad idea. Plus, I really don’t like being the first to write a tasting note on a tea, even though I seem to be in this position a lot lately. But, I really wanted to try this pu.

So, this smells similar to most other puerhs do to me, musty earthy pond watery. But, I still go mmm when I smell it, because I know what that smell means. Yummy pu! I used the whole 7g sample, to 8oz of boiling water. 2 15 second rinses, and then 20,30,45 second steeps. The color is dark red tinted brown, but not totally opaque and inky. It’s light enough that it looks more brown than black.

This is soft smooth mellow. Not as intense as many other puerhs I’ve had, this is like the quiet cousin. Earthy caramel, maybe some mushrooms. It’s gentle, it takes you by the hand and says follow me, while it carefully pulls you out in a current of puerh tranquility. Shh no worries, no problems, just bob along in the ebbs of the puerh sea.

Tangent time
Have you guys ever just stopped. Stopped and really thought about how vast our universe is.

There’s you, you’re in your home, in your neighborhood, in your city, in your country, on earth, and then the earth is in our solar system and every which way is the Milky Way, and then Milky Way is surrounded by other entire galaxy’s in our local group, and then our local group is just a drop of water in an entire ocean of other galaxy cluster within the observable universe.

You’re you, you’re a person with an entire complex life that collides with so many other complex lives, and yet in the scale of the universe, you’re so insignificant that it’s almost impossible to fathom how small of part you are of the whole.

Sorry, it’s late so my minds already running rampant, and combined with the tranquil feeling I’m getting from this puerh, I’m getting a little philosophical.

This is such an intriguing tea. The dark spindly leaves look like a black tea when dry, and they smell sort of malty and breadish like a black tea. But the wet tea smells malty still, but also bright and fruity, like apricots and lime zest. And the leaves have unspindled, and have become light to medium green whole leaves, reminding me of green tea or a green oolong.

And the taste is a mix of malt and honey, apricots and water chestnuts, and a bit of citrus. It might sound like an odd mix, but the different notes come out to play at different times and blend with the other notes to create a very complex and interesting cup.

I can’t even describe what I’m tasting, but this is my best attempt to.

Looks like tonight is a night of pu. This has the typical wet earth/pond water smell that I associate with puerh. I used the big chunk (maybe 8-9g) with 7-8 oz of boiling water. I started with 2 20 second rinses, and then did 20,20,25,25,30,35 second steeps. The tea liquor is the deepest darkest red tinged brown, it almost looks squishy and inky.

Taste wise, this is earthy but sort of nutty and caramel like. Deep and dark and mysterious, but smooth and creamy and sweet. I don’t get the cocoa notes that I sometimes get from puerh, but it’s still good.

My anniversary sampler finally can in and I decided to start with this since I’ve never tried raw puerh before. The dry leaf smells sweet and vegetal. I did 2 15 second rinses and then 20,25,30,25,30,30,40,40,45 second steeps. If other raw puerhs are like this, I don’t understand why so many people fear them. It reminds me a lot of a dark green tea. The first steep tasted exactly like spinach. Pure spinach. The second steep was a but bitter and astringent. As was the third, which is why I backed up the steeping times. But the tea remained very spinachy, taking on a (chest?)nut background note in the later steepings and as it cooled. The last few steep were also pretty green bean and kale like. There’s also the astringency and bitterness popping in and out at random times.

Definitely not as scary as I thought.

The dry leaf smells like the sugar free caramel sauce on top of the sugar free dulce de leche puddings in the refrigerated section of the grocery store. Sweet and caramel like, but also a bit off.

The wet leaf and tea liquor smell like creamy custard and a but like caramel. It smells like that milk film the coats the pot after making a chai tea latte.

The flavor isn’t nearly as strong as the smell. There’s a bit of the milk taste, but not much of the custard from the aroma. There’s a bit of a sugar taste but it’s a far cry from the sweet sticky caramel smell from the dry leaf.

As it cools down there’s a bit more of a caramel taste, and some of the black tea base is coming out and mingling with the milk at the end of the sip. It smells better than it tastes, unfortunately, but I think that it might shine better in a cold brew.

I always find it interesting when I see an oolong that’s not rolled into tight knobby balls. The leaves almost look like how the leaves of most tightly rolled knobby balls of oolong look after a short steep, still rolled and wrinkly looking, still knobby, but straightened up out of the ball shape. The leaves stayed rolled and wrinkly, through the first two steeps, and it wasn’t until the forth steep that they actually started to smooth out.

The aroma of this is like most green oolongs, floral, sort of vegetal, and a little roasty. This is a floral oolong, with a natural sweetness that again makes me think of peach blossoms, with a very light roasted taste that only sticks around for the first steep or two, and a buttery taste that is especially noticeable in the 3rd and 4th steeps.

Overall not a bad tea, but not phenomenal, a good tea for when you want to just drink something simple and floral.

Thanks Cameron B for the sample. The wet leaf of this smells similar to the smell I get from puerhs (pond water, but I’m starting to think that what I think of as pond water, y’all call wet earth, and I can accept that). There’s also a cocoa note hidden in there.

I’m almost positive that this is my first Keemun. I’m very happy to report that I didn’t detect any smoke. I did sweeten it so that might have contributed to it, but either way I’m not a smoke fan so I’m glad I don’t taste any. What I get is chocolate and bread and malt. I just can’t get over how much I like black teas. I thought I hated them, but I was so wrong. Never judge a book by its cover, and never judge a tea genre on its cheap bagged tea dust. I don’t know if it’s just because black teas are still “new” to me, but I think they’re becoming my favorite tea.

This smells like green beans with a couple crushed roasted peanuts on top, next to a bouquet of flowers. A dark kind of dark vegetal mixed with a raosted note, and a floral finish. The leaves are tightly rolled dark and light green, gnarled knobby little things. The wet leaf smells more floral, and after the first steep the leaves are still wrinked but not longer balls. The second steep the leaves expand and smooth out more, and by the third steep they’re fully unfurled.

This is on the more savory side of the oolong spectrum.It’s roasty, but not in your face roasty (like the actual peanuts and not the peanut skins). Its that sort of floral thats that I always have a hard time defining. For some reason I want to say peach blossoms (is that even a thing?), or orchids. And in the background is darkly vegetal, like green beans, and buttery, both in taste and texture. Its a fancy cold green bean salad, with a orchid and peach blossom infused butter sauce drizzled on top, and sprinkled with crushed peanuts. Its different, it’s hard to describe, but still you want more.