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Not bad but not exactly ahem my cup of tea. Raw cocoa powder, cacao nibs and dark chocolate are very much present, without bitterness or excessive sweetness. These are followed by toasted sesame, salted roasted peanuts, Korean barley tea. Leaves a rather long salty and chocolaty taste. Weird stuff.

Brewed in my 350ml/12oz workhorse tea mug with water as hot as the water dispenser in the office can put out + a splash of cold water to reduce the wait time to a minimum. Dark, fairly large leaf, the color of dark chocolate and cocoa nibs. Beautiful polished bronze liquor. Deep honey, sweet floral aroma, milk chocolate, roasted nuts, caramel and a touch of burnt sugar. The liquor is missing some of the sweetness found in the leaf. More leaf/less water next time around maybe? Slight greenness later on. Easy drinking oolong.

Another great tea from What-Cha. It’s lighter in taste than I expected but I’m pleasantly surprised. Some roasted oolongs I find quite overwhelming and with this one I can have a longer session without my taste buds getting fatigued.
I went western for this session. I always seem to underbrew when I go western style, I’m too impatient, I know.
The first note I got was lovely dark caramel, just on the verge of burnt sugar. The caramel flavor reminds me of my mother’s Greek semolina halva. Then some roasted pear and quince jam and some cinnamon spiciness. All these match pretty well with the festive season. The finish is pretty short but that just beckons you to have another sip.

I live in a country where when you say tea most people think of tisane. And it’s quite understandable, we’ve been drinking herbal teas long before Camellia sinensis made it to these lands. We’ve been drinking thyme, and peppermint, St John’s wort, chicory, and yarrow, clover, chamomile, lemon balm and linden blossom. In fact granny used to take me out on day trips and we used to gather these very same herbs in preparation for the winter months. Ah the good old days.

Anyway, this is a different herb and one not as common, probably because in Bulgaria you can only find it in the Pirin mountains. Sideritis scardica is an interesting looking herb – sort of woolly from all the white fuzz that covers stem and leaves. It brews into a vibrant yellow liquor and has a unique and interesting flavor and smell. It’s herbaceous but also lemony. It also has a faint sage note, nowhere near as powerful as the real stuff. Overall it’s a very light flavor profile. There’s some sweetness and a feeling of spicy pepperiness in the back of the throat. It also smells slightly savoury too but that doesn’t translate into the taste.

In the rare occasions I buy this tea I usually go for the shredded version which also has the stem and leaves. I thought that the whole flowers would be easier to brew without the need for a strainer or tea bag. It could be unrelated but for some reason this batch seems more peppery than I remember.

Such a lovely and delicate tea. Sweet floral fragrance accompanied by a light herbal medicinal note. Produces a light golden liquor with a greenish tint. It’s thick and coats the mouth. The taste is a combination of sweet, creamy floral notes, very light herbal green bitterness and a minty cooling sensation in the throat. The sweet flowery aftertaste lingers for a long time. (I wonder what flower this is.)

I had this for the first time today but I’ll give it another chance before I rate it. I don’t know if I messed up something but this was a really weird experience. It could be that I overleafed or oversteeped it or that I didn’t wait for it to cool down a bit and burnt my tongue slightly. After a decent albeit a bit weak and watery first steep I increased the steep time. The liquor and leaf had a pleasant fruity and toasty smell but it left my mouth bone dry with a slight sour aftertaste and a really baffling saltiness. I could literally taste salt. Weird stuff.