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I picked up a 6 tea sampler from the China pavilion in Disney. This is my first. The scent is very welcoming. It’s black tea with a sweet quality and a touch of a musky just rained scent. I’ve never been to China but interestingly, when I smell it, I think of China.
To the taste, it is sweet but more of an organic sweet. I hate sweet tea but this is fine. It almost tastes like they were gentler in the processing and more of the natural tea flavors are present. It’s really hard to describe this taste. I feel like it’s familiar but not all at the same time.
It is clean and crisp. I would recommend giving this a try. I find it very refreshing. I don’t think there is much in it to offend any taste buds and I picked it up for pretty cheap so if you are considering this tea, give it a shot. I have a few more brews left before my sample of it runs out so I’ll make my reorder choice after that. At that point I guess I’ll learn if you can buy this online or I have to wait until my next trip to pick up more. There aren’t any chinatowns in my area.

This one was also on an airplane (bagged variety). It was better then the Royal variety and better then the Earl Grey Tazo. I think if I had some fresh leaf of this one it might be pretty good.

Another tea I had during vacation, this one at a hotel. It was a disappointment. I usually enjoy Earl Grey but this one was all smell and no flavor. Drinkable, but that is about all.

I had a bag of this on my recent flight from Florida. Much improvement from what the airlines use to give. Overall though, I found this tea a bit basic. Not bad but nothing special. I added some cream to add a bit more dimension. I’m not sure how old the airline bags are so that could be a problem but this isn’t something I’d choose for myself.

This one smells of butter and out doors.
Mmm, very smooth. I taste the buttery oolong and a small bit of burnt sugar. There may be a vegal element but it is way back. I think I can pick up a nutty quality at the very beginning of a sip. This is a great tea.

(Oh and random other note, this is my first full day in my new apartment. I graduated med. school on Friday)

Back to the tea, as it cools a bit, the vegal comes forward some and the buttery/nutty goes backward. It’s still smooth but not as much so.

The second cup is similar to the first but with a touch more vegal.
Third steep is again similar but less flavor. Next steep I’ll do 2 minutes. The vegal taste has backed off again a bit.
The fourth steep smells much more vegal. There is still a bit of buttery/nutty but the vegal is stepping forward accompanied by a touch of bitterness. I’m thinking this might be my last steep of this one. I really like this tea though. Perhaps my favorite Oolong

I logged this one pretty early on and have learned more about teas since then so I thought I’d log it again. I have gone from loving this tea, to being disappointed after discovering pure Lapsang and craving that, to appreciating this tea again. I’ve begun tasting the different dimensions of this tea. The Lapsang is pretty easy to pull out but the Darjeeling and Keemun are there too. For the last two, I can detect 2 other teas presence but right now I’m still unable to definitely say “yes, that it the Darjeeling or Yes, that is the Keemun”. I did want to note a discovery I had with this tea. It seems to be possible, depending on the steeping process, to make one of the teas come out more strongly. A couple days ago I brewed this and was impatient so used water a touch under boiling and brewed for 2 minutes. The Lapsang was stronger. Today I used boiling water and brewed about 3 minutes (I was busy when the timer went off) and one of the others is stronger (still can’t separate them very well yet). I remember always liking this tea better with shorter steeps. I think because the Lapsang came out more. Interesting… I’d really like to learn to differentiate Keemun and Darjeeling better though.

The leafs smell like Japanese green tea. I don’t like Japanese green tea. As the tea cools a touch I can smell the buttery quality coming over the green.
Taste… It’s not that strong for sure. I get the usual oolong taste, there is a element of the green sitting over it. So far not bad but nothing special… As the tea cools though, the green comes out stronger.

Second steep is the same as the first for me.
Oolong always grows on me, it starts at the first cup as annoying me this the similarity to green but the other elements always win me over.

My local Chinese place gives this out with carry out orders. It’s pretty much the classic Chinese restaurant tea. Very nice with my sweet and sour chicken. :)

This tea is different today. I’m not sure what I did. It has more of a vegal smell (thankfully that hasn’t appeared too much in the taste…) Hmmm.

I had this again yesterday with a friend. It is truly an great afternoon tea. Both of us enjoyed the dimensions and quality of this tea.