28 Tasting Notes
I adore this tea. In general I tend not to like highly scented, flavored, or floral teas and prefer the pure stuff. But this very scented and flavored tea is almost addictive to me: it tastes like Provence in a bottle or liquid Provence. It’s intoxicating. However, I gave some of this to a friend and she hated it. So I think it’s the kind of thing one is likely to love and hate. If you like Monet you will probably like this tea.
This is probably the single most delicious black pu-erh tea I’ve ever had. Rishi Tea is accurate in referring to it as their espresso of pu-erh teas — it is the closest thing I’ve had in teas to the experience of espresso, even though it doesn’t have a coffee flavor. But it would probably work as a way of getting an espresso drinker to appreciate tea.
This tea is superlative. I would have to say that it’s my favorite of all of the white peony whites I’ve ever tasted. I’ve never had a bad one, because white peony is my favorite of all teas, but Shang’s White Peony King, which is his top grade grown on his own white tea farm in China, is perfection.
I am one of those people who in general doesn’t really like green tea. I love white tea, red tea, yellow tea, oolong tea, and pu-erh tea, but I rarely encounter a green tea that I enjoy. This particular tea, with the toasted rice and popcorn flavor, is one of only two or three green teas that I really enjoy, even though I feel as though I’m “cheating”, because in a way it’s like drinking liquid popcorn. But that’s not really fair to it, because it does have a hearty, complex flavor. I wouldn’t drink it daily, but it is a treat.
Fabulous oolong tea. Intense, strong, pungent flavor. And there’s an additional pleasure of watching the ball expand when you steep it. Before the first steeping, it’s just a little ball at the bottom of the teamaker. By the 3d or 4th steeping, it has expanded to fill up the whole vessel! Also great for travel, because you can just pop one into a cup without having to measure it.
