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This is another tea I cold brewed last night and took to work. This one I drank on my break. I can’t recall if I’ve had this cold before. I poured it over ice and was rewarded with a jasmine floral forward notes with nutty creamy undertones and enough gentle vegetal notes to support it all. I don’t always crave a jasmine green tea, but when I do, this is my favorite. The perfect amount of floral, and the pine needles add that extra something that makes it so unique.

I cold brewed this last night and took it to work with me this morning. I drank it while driving and managed to finish all 20oz in the 20 minute drive to work. This was nutty and vegetal. Butternut squash notes mingling with mild pistachio notes, accented by a bit of a seaweed note. Not getting much ice cream this time around and the pistachio is quite muted, but still pretty tasty.

I’ve been really impressed with my Bird Pick samples so far. All have been things I can see myself restocking in the future. And I really enjoy ripe pu-erh so I was really looking forward to trying this.

1 heaping tsp, 8oz water, boiling, 2,3,4 minutes.

This is a really good shou. Earthy, sweet, and not super dark, heavy, or intense. This is medium bodied, super smooth, and so easy to drink. All three steeps kept dissapearing on me. This is what I consider a perfect everyday shou pu. Tasty and addictive, without feeling too decadent. I always feel like I need to spend extra time and effort gongfu style steeping most ripe puerhs, but this one is so good western style.

I just realized that I had yet to try any of the shengs I got from the Mandala sampler, and decided to remedy that with this tea. I have only tried one or twoshengs before, so I’m quite inexperienced with them. That’s why I got this sampler, to explore the world of shengs withput having to commit to any.

7g, 6oz water, 200F, two 5 second rinses, then 8,10,12 second steeps.

Ok, so the first steep tastes like smoked meat. There’s definitely other notes here, there’s a lot of complexity, but I’m having a hard time identifying anything other than smoked meats, and maybe some pine. The second steep loses most of the smoked meat flavor, but still is slightly smokey. Again, smoked pine comes to mind. There’s also a sort of sweetness here, not in the tradition I just added sugar to this sense, more in a mouth feel, and in the salutatory response. (I didn’t add any sweetener, I generally don’t sweeten greens, oolongs, or shengs). There’s also some camphor notes, and with the pine needle like notes, creates a cooling sort of bitter end of sip/aftertaste as it cools.Third is much like the second, but less cooling/bitter.

I don’t know if I’m just not in a sheng mood, or if I’m not really in a sheng mood. But this just isn’t doing it for me right now, so I’ll be calling it a quits early. Leaving the rating off since it’s purely my tastes.

So I took out the package of this to try some earlier. Ate some soup, and then looked all over for the package. I could not find it anywhere, I circled my apartment a dozen times and even went so far as to check the freezer even though I didn’t even go in there today. Finally, I decided to check the box with the rest of the samples. Lo and behold, there it is. I spent 10 minutes making myself crazy, mumbling curses to the thieving gremlins under my breathe, and it was properly put away the whole time.

I sweetened it, like I do almost all of my black teas, and yum. This is malty and fruity. Deep dark dried cherries, craisins, and prunes. Thick sweet seductive and sinful. The flavor coats your mouth and lingers a while, awakening your taste buds and leaving them pleased. There’s a sort of dark brown sugar like taste here, like a thinned out molasses. Yum! I’m not getting much floral from this, which is fine by me. I think the sweetening helped bring out the fruity and dim the floral. And just like that, POOF, the cup is gone.

Backlog

I drank this grandpa style as my last tea of the night last night. The leaves grew big big big and filled up the whole cup (one of my favorite things about oolongs). The aroma was slightly roasty and gently floral. Flavor was a nice balanced floral, not to strong for someone like me who isn’t the biggest floral fan, but still evident enough to notice right off. There was also a smooth vegetal, almost grassy like note mid sip, and then the end was all fleshy nuts, like how I imagine chestnuts taste. Almost chewy, and lingered nice and long. The cup lasted several top off before I hit the sack, staying tasty the whole time. It’s always a nice surprise to find a more floral oolong that I actually enjoy!

Wowza, this is dark full thick and strong. This is like the puerh equivalent of a super dark chocolate. The liquor is almost black its so dark, and totally opaque. It coats your mouth and throat in its warm thick embrace. Deep dark earthiness, with a hint of cocoa that’s made more evident through sweetening. There’s also a leathery note as well. Together it all just becomes incredibly decadent and a tea that you sip, not gulp. Second steep is just as deep dark and delicious as the first. This steep is a little less heavy. If possible, even smoother than the first steep. Third steep is like the first two. This tea is so rich, three cups is enough for now. I’ll save the leaves and do some more steeps later.

This is another tea I’ve been sipping on today. This is a nice bold tea. Nice and malty, with a hint of cocoa, and some caramel like sweetness. I can see this being a great breakfast tea. I’m glad that my sample is big enough for a few more cups, because one this is so yummy, and two this is pretty heavy in my stomach. I look forward to drinking more when I’m feeling better.

I think I have food poisoning. I got sick at work and had to leave 2 hours into my shift. I’ve gotten sick a few more times since then. So I’ve been sipping on some broth and some tea and trying to settle my stomach. Green tea is usually a good choice for doing so.

1 tsp, 8oz water, 175F, 60s.

Hmm, vegetal and savory, a bit bitter and astringent. The flavor is good, so I’m going to try lowering the temperature and decrease the time.

1tsp, 8oz water, 130F, 30s.

This is just what I need my delicate stomach. Soft, gentle, soothing. Smooth with no bitterness or astringency. Vegetal, a bit like spinach, with a touch of citrus and a hint of melon. I love knowing that this is just as good hot as it is cold brewed. When I’m feeling better I might try slightly warmer. Either way, it’s yummy and calming.

Backlog

I drank this one Friday, before going down town for my boyfriend’s birthday. Since I didn’t write up this note up right away, I’m going off of the quick short hand notes I jotted down. I remember thinking that this smelled strongly of baked goods when the water hit it. The first steep was lots of honey, maybe some caramel, and lots of fresh baked bread. Delicious, I recall typing “my name is Mandy and I approve this tea” in the tea chat, so there’s that. I think I did three steeps before heading down town, and the flavor stayed strong through out. This was more light to medium bodied, but I steeped in a mason jar so this might have been due to heat loss. Definitely one that I plan on reordering, because not only does it taste great, its also so pretty and fun.