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From Dexter3657, still more from that huge box she sent me! Thank you.

This is so funny because I sent Dex some bao zhong-based coconut oolongs (which I think is weird and don’t remember doing honestly; it doesn’t make sense I would given I know she doesn’t like bao zhongs) and the main takeaway was they were predictably too floral/green for her tastes. Meanwhile, I’m a FIEND for coconut oolongs that use a light, floral base. Haven’t met a single one I didn’t slurp up. Anyway, turns out this oolong is not green, it appears on the darker end of the spectrum, so it makes sense Dex likes it. Also explains why I wasn’t nuts for it—I was like, oh, the oolong is too dark tasting for me! Where are my gorgeous fresh green notes that I’ve come to associate with coconut oolong? Haha. We are like Jack Sprat and his wife here, but about the oolong spectrum and how it relates to coconut flavored tea.

That said, the darker oolong does give the finished tea a nuttier, roastier flavor which I think most would welcome. I just found myself missing those fresh green notes though. Now I get it! Knowing is half the battle. Thanks Dex!

Drank oodles of tea last night but didn’t get around to logging ‘cause I was too busy being all WTF DAWN I LOVE THIS SHOW SO OFF THE WALL, ha. None blew me away and none were terrible, so I’m just gonna do brief “I drank this!” backlogs pretty much.

This was ok, but there was that plasticky aftertaste vanilla flavored teas often get, and combined with the floral of the pouchong, ehh. I think I prefer the vanilla teas I’ve tried from The Tea Merchant slightly. But it wasn’t terrible.

Another well balanced, smoother-than-expected-but-still-classic-tea-taste morning blend from Harney. A little more interest here than in the very straightforward, almost bland (but not weak!) Stanley’s Blend, and a pleasure to drink first thing, but again, Harney’s got so many fantastic invigorating and delicious morning teas I don’t need to order this one. I am generally not a fan of Nilgiri so I do appreciate how here it’s helping balance things, a neat trick. Harney does such a consistently bang up job generating the appealing flavor of legacy-style teas while managing to tame the usually inevitable corresponding bitterness, astringency, tannin, bite. Where you still get to taste the good balancing parts of those components but little to none of their potential unpleasantness. I really admire their blending skills.

We had this one a while back for afternoon tea and I forgot to log it. The smell and front end of the sip is uncanny in its resemblance to no-frills s’mores—I get everything, the waxy cheap meltable chocolate, graham cracker (yes!), and sugary bag o’ cheap marshmallows. Husband and I were both like “wow, that IS a s’more!” But it turns out I don’t want to drink standard s’more flavor as tea…it includes the pinpointy plastic afterbite of cheap chocolate and Kraft marshmallow, and drinking that is overload. Alas. This is a case where the tea does what it says on the tin (ha) and kudos to DT for that, especially given it’s a rather tricky, odd synthesis of flavors. I just don’t want that particular flavor profile as tea much (see: Cherry Cola and Cake). But yeah, good job Della Terra, and sorry this isn’t for me. Luckily husband likes it enough to finish off the sample.

Steepsters are right; this is by far the best flavored Kusmi I’ve had. The only one I’ve tried so far I’d consider buying again. Still, it’s not blow-my-socks-off great; I’ve a feeling there are other caramel teas I could find I’d like better. But it has a better flavor than most, one that integrates well with the usual gentle tea base. It hit the spot nicely for afternoon tea on this bitterly cold day.

I was expecting this to be harsh for some reason so the smoothness and lightness took me by surprise. It tastes like a breakfast tea but is oddly light (I mean, there’s thickness from the Assam but the Darj lightens everything considerably) and kind of straightforward; there isn’t any complexity to the flavor, but it’s not a bad flavor…just straight up “classic black tea” taste with the edges sanded off. Better than I was expecting because there’s no bitterness or astringency, didn’t mind drinking it at all, but I wouldn’t restock because it’s also kind of boring, light on interest. Not bad though.

And more from Dexter3657 (I should have that put on my logs automatically somehow, the equivalent of letterhead, ha!). Thank you!

Aw man, I should like this because it’s heavy on ubersweet licorice root which is one of my guilty pleasure tisane ingredients (I totally agree with Cavocorax that it reminds one of Stash’s licorice tisanes, which I loved as a teen staying up late doing my homework). That aspect brings to mind Steven Smith’s Bon Bon which I discovered and got a bit fanatical about over holiday break. But the other components, while definitely in the background compared to the super sweet licorice, include chamomile which I tend to be ehhhh about (like I’ll tolerate it in wellness or sleep aid tisanes for its soporific effect but I don’t enjoy it) and lemongrass which for some bizarre reason I actively hate in tea (love it fresh, love cooking with it…yeah, I dunno either; for some reason it reads like bathroom cleaner which leads to some weird urine smell association for me). All together it becomes something sharply, sickly sweet with a weedy (as in dandelions, not pot), musty (good word, MissB!) evocation and a hint of bathroom cleaner. It’s actually not as horrible as that sounds thanks to the crazy sweetness of the licorice root and the cooling quality of the mint—I finished the cup and I do see the way it evokes candy canes but with more oomph from the other less orthodox flavor additions—but you get the idea. Not my thing. Ah well.

Still MOAR from Dexter3657! Whee.

Confession: despite their popularity, if I’m remembering right I’ve never had my socks knocked off by typical Yunnan Black. Over a year ago when I got back into tea and started off with David’s loose leaf blacks I got some of their Yunnan and really didn’t like it (like just about all of those David’s straight teas I tried, it tasted like watery nothing). And when I fell in love with Verdant’s blacks I remember the one that stood out as NOT winning me over immediately was the Yunnan Black. I never think they taste “bad” really; usually I simply don’t taste much, period. They’re SO smooth and (again, to me usually) sweet but in a boring, straightforward way (I get the feeling I tend toward craving a little “rasp” to my tea as a throwback to my early tea drinking days when it was all legacy-style stuff, mostly Indian; Chinese expertise at making ever smoother and sweeter teas is sometimes lost on me as a result).

So that makes me all the more pleased to find I like this one a lot! It still has that characteristic off-the-charts smoothness and is quite sweet, but this time the sweetness comes across as soothing, satisfying, with a depth to it I really enjoy. It’s not actually caramel-like in that there isn’t a toasted or burnt sugar element, but it’s rich and a little creamy in a vaguely related way. It’s best while still pretty hot; as it cools, that watered down quality to the sweetness begins to creep in somehow. While hot, it has a rounded, rich and satisfying quality that reminds me a bit of what makes Dragon Pearls so appealing (though I should note, it never approaches the actual thickness of Dragon Pearls).

My first official Yunnan Black I like a lot (well, unless I’m forgetting one that isn’t labeled/marketed outright as such)! Woo hoo. Capital Tea, you’re winning me over big time.

I tried this one a while back but never was able to log it, think Steepster might’ve been wonky. Yet another treat from Dexter3657 (seriously, that swap box was ginormous), thanks!

I think I messed it up, just went with my default black tea parameters, the ones I use if I don’t know what to do. Boil/208F, 3 or 4 minutes. It was fine, but I didn’t get the strong flavors people are talking about, alas, and there was, as Dex and others mention, a light-bodied astringency that grew with each sip. I agree with Dex that this teeters between one kind of Chinese-style black and lighter astringent stuff a little more like darjeeling…I do usually find teas that do that fascinating (it’s one of the things that sold my heart to Verdant’s Zhu Rong) but here it was like the flipside of that coin, where I get the aspects of each I don’t love without the components I do—the body read as wimpy, disappointing, and the flavor wasn’t Chinese-sweet enough to make up for the astringency, if that makes any sense. I am going to try a lower temp though, combined possibly with a longer steep time. Intriguing.

Oh my dog, this tea is special. Thank you Dexter3657 for sharing some with me—this is riiiiight up my alley!

The dry leaf smell is wonderful, an intense chocolate aroma. The tea brews up fairly dark and thick, and the taste is deep and unusual; I get loamy soil notes and almost mushroom. Something rich and wet earthy like that. There’s a slight bitterness but also a spicy sweetness to balance it. This kind of reminds me a bit of the complexity of an intense shu pu erh, but less complicated to worry about steeping correctly (easy as pie, Western style 3 min even and hot works very well, much like Laoshan Black) and no possibility of funky aroma, quite the contrary. I love it! Definite winner; I’m thinking it might be the best Assam I’ve ever had. It would make an awesome morning tea on special days you want to spoil your taste buds first thing out of bed. Its complexity and strength remind me a bit of Butiki’s The Black Lotus, crossed with yeah, a sweet, intense pu erh. Great googly moogly it’s good! I would place an order with Capital now just to get more of this for sure.

ETA: yyz who as always is way ahead of me here is spot on about resteeps being lighter and less chocolate-spicy but amping up a honey note. Yum!