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I’ve never seen an oolong with quite so much broken leaves. The leaves were a mix of black pieces, green pieces, and brown pieces, along with some twigs.

The liquor brews up a golden color. Taste wise, it reminds me a lot of a mild bagged black tea. It’s vaguely sweet, and honey tasting, but it also has the distinct brewed from a bag black tea taste. Eh, not a fan, hopefully the choice grade is better.

Smelling the leaves, I had a feeling I wouldn’t be a fan. I realized that the idea of combining orange (which can be bitter) with fiery cinnamon doesn’t appeal to me. This smells like red hots, which smell like Fireball Whiskey, which I really don’t like (my bfs liquor of choice, and after some bad experiences last year, my least favorite). The smell kind of turns my stomach (like I said bad experiences. Let’s just say that I must be really special if I could up chuck all over my boyfriends bed before we were dating, and still have him ask me out).

I absolutely sweetened this, expecting a fiery bitter mess, and I’m glad I did. Sweetened up, there’s still a red hots vibe going on, but it’s in the back and it’s subdued by the sweetener enough to keep me forming dumping the cup. The orange isn’t bad actually.

The aroma when you lift the cup to your mouth to take a sip is all cinnamon, but when it hits your tongue, the first thing you notice is the orange. I wouldn’t say it’s quite juicy, but it’s not bitter either. It’s not till the end of the sip that the cinnamon hits you, and then it sticks around in a lingering after taste.

This tea was doomed for me from the start. I love chais, but not straight cinnamon teas. Due to the bad associate I have with the red hot type flavor, it’s not for me. But that being said, if you like fiery cinnamon, and you like orange, then you’ll like this tea.

Backlog
So when I got my samples from Teasenz, the box looked like the mailman used it as a seat cushion. Fortunately most of the teas were fine, unfortunately, this one had sprung a leak. I was a little hesitant about contamination, but for some reason decided the best course of action would be to cold brew it (the hot water of a regular steeping probably would have killed the germs, but cold steeps are so great for taking to class).

So far I haven’t felt ill so I take that to mean that it wasn’t contaminated. And now for the reason I took a risk with this tea, it’s smells to fresh and vegetal that I couldn’t bare tossing the sample. The liquor smells like spinach and some kind of stone fruit, apricots maybe, and a bit of nuttiness that I’m starting to thing is the infamous chestnuts note that lots of greens apparently have (I’ve never had chestnuts so I wouldn’t know).

Taste wise, this is fresh and green and vaguely nutty and stone fruity. If refreshing was a flavor, I’d say that it was the strongest one here. First and foremost this tea is clean and fresh, like rain water, and then there’s a mid sip taste of mild vegetal notes that transform into a soft apricot chestnut taste, with the vegetal returning in the lingering after taste. Another good contender for an iced tea on a hot day.

This is a pretty strong and hearty genmaicha. The roasty notes in this are darker deeper and more roasted peanuts like than other genmaichas I’ve had. I’m assuming that’s because I’ve that addition of the puffed barley. I’ve never had puffed barley before so I can’t be sure if that’s the difference I’m tasting.

The end of the sip also has a more green punch than some others I’ve tried. There is a bit of astringency. The stronger, darker green combined with the dark roast, creates a deep complex cuppa.

So after trying the last genmaicha, I realized that I dot notice much difference from genmaicha to genmaicha. Since I have two more genmaichas in my to try pile, I decided to try them next in order to pick up on the differences.

I noticed that this tea is more toasty than roasty. Less like a roasted peanut, more like like a rice crispy treat. This is also got a sweet mellow vegetal taste. Instead of one note standing out from the other, the two seem to blend so seamlessly I can hardly pick the two apart.

And overall this is one of the more mellow genmaichas I’ve tried. This is a great choice if you want the coziness of a genmaicha, but in a more gentle form.

I’ve never had a genmaicha like this before. A fine coating of matcha is dusted on everything, which looks pretty darn cool looking.

I saw the directions had instructions for icing this, and even though I basically ice or cold brew everything, I’ve never thought of trying a genmaicha cold. So obviously that’s what I had to try.

I combined both the first and second steepings and iced them. Dang, I like this. I’ve had roasty teas iced, and I’ve had green teas iced, but never together. I already know that I love the combination of roasty toasty comfort, with sweet delicious vegetal when hot, but cold it’s so similar, yet different when cold. Instead of being warm and comfy, it’s refreshing and complex. The notes are all the same, but the tone is different. This is another one I’ll need to restock.

Smelling this tea, it smells just like everything I love in a green tea: sweet vegetal spinachy goodness.

I set my stopwatch, and waited 45 seconds for it to steep. I let the leave float free, planning to strain it through a basket, but right before it was time to strain, I knocked the basket on the floor, and had to rush to go clean it, of course causing it to over steep.

The liquor smelled delicious and mouthwateringly vegetal. Unfortunately, sipping it was a bitter astringent mess. This cup went down the drain, and when I resteeped, I made sure to pull the leaves out at exactly 15 seconds. This cup was much smoother, sweeter, and more vegetal, but also mellow.

I had enough leaves yet, so I tried again, pulling the fresh leaves after 30 seconds just in case. Much better than the last first cup. I got all the vegetal spinach notes of the resteeping of the last cup, but a bit stronger and with a slight astringency. Definitely a good vegetal fresh green tea. Might need to restock this one.

Backlog
Hot, this tea is like rich dark cocoa, but as it cools it gets much more roasty.
First sip of my cup, and wow, cocoa. Dark dark cocoa. My boyfriend accidentally turned off my timer so I don’t know how long this was steeping for, but I’ve decided I like it this strong.

We had company over last night, so I added a splash of Coconut Rum that I picked up while I was in the Caribbean, and it was superb. I love chocolate and coconut, so the two went together perfectly. Like a perfect dessert drink. All it was missing was whipped creme. That should totally be a thing. A tea bar! Serving mixed drinks made with tea, like strawberry tea in a daiquiri, chocolate tea and rum. Pumpkin chai and Baileys. If I ever win the lottery that’s what I’ll do. Open a Tea Bar.

Anyway, so I resteeped, and while waiting for it to cool, totally forgot about it. A couple hours later, it’s cold, but I take a sip. Deep dark roasty-ness hits me. And something else, that I might even call an autumn leaf pile (not that I’ve ever experienced autumn, let alone an autumn leaf pile. I love the sun sand and surf of Florida, but sometimes I’m really jealous of you northerners).

I put the leaves in the fridge last night, so depending on if they still smell fragrant, I might go another round with this baby.

This is not my favorite. It’d taste is like a celery, flowery, mild taste. Definitely something that would take some getting used to. Its sort of savory, but floral, but also sweet. I can do savory, when I’m in the mood. But it’s the sweetness that throws me. I usually add a touch of salt to savory brothy teas, to make them more brothy, but that doesn’t work when theres a slight sweetness.
That aside, it’s not that worse thing I’ve ever had, and its supposed to have all these great benefits to it, and if that’s true, it could be worth the odd taste. It’s too soon to tell if the claims are true though, so only time will tell.

Backlog
I cold brewed this up the other day, and forgot about it, so it sat for almost 2 days. I have to say, that it turned out pretty good considering how much I over steeped it. It was only slightly bitter and astringent, which I assume is due too how long it steeped. besides that it was mellow, slightly sweet, and pleasantly vegetal. Thankfully I have enough to try again and get a better idea of what this has to offer.