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So this is a SIPDOWN! I’ve been sipping teas down like crazy recently, and replenishing my little tins with new ones, the ones that have been sitting in a tote waiting for their turn…

Also, the weekend that was supposed to be off, the weekend I thought would be my New Teas and a Bazillion Tasting Notes weekend – and the weekend that JUST passed, was spent mostly at work instead. Oh well, that only means there will be more money next paycheck FOR TEAS, right?

I am now taking a break from spring cleaning of my clothes wardrobe & totes (daunting task!) and making a list of teas that I want to send in a swap…

And yes, the tea is really good. It resteeps nicely up to 3 times western-style. It seems to taste more flowery than vegetal this time around. And I absolutely love the leaves of this oolong, they are always almost neon green. Even more so after they are steeped.

I do love lychees but all the lychee teas I had before never did much for me.

This one is just as tedious, although perhaps better quality, than the ones I had in the past.

I don’t know much about Keemuns, I don’t think I have ever had any straight, so i won’t be able to judge the base properly. The whole brew seems a little weak. The aroma is definitely lychee-ous, but as I taste it, the lychee element seems harder and harder to pinpoint… I do not know where it ends and where the base starts.

It’s an okay tea, but nothing that I would be interested in re-purchasing. I predict I will probably swap the hell out of it, too. Perhaps there’s people out there who would enjoy it more.

I absolutely love this. It could be my favorite oolong, as of today.

It smells like brown sugar, plus there’s a definite floral element. The way it tastes emulates the aroma almost in every detail. Sophisticated vegetal-floral sweetness that just stays in your mouth for a while after each sip. It gets itty-bitty bitter as it cools down (but that is barely detectable) and the smell of it turns even sweeter. An amazing experience.

I swear that some oolongs feel more like desserts than the “dessert teas”.

I can’t wait for another steeping of this, but before I make another cup I will take a nice relaxing bath… Oh, this is going to be a lovely weekend. I hope it is going to be just as good, or better, for all the Steepsterites :)

I got this tea as an extra to my order of MissB’s stash sale. Thank you, MissB!

While I mostly taste earthy pu erh here, I also definitely detect some dark chocolate. I am not sure about the truffle part – perhaps it is in the general silkiness of every sip that I take? It doesn’t matter. Overall, it is a tasty and naturally flavored pu erh that serves me real well as a nice after-dinner dessert today.

I’m finally trying matcha!

This is the free sample from Red Leaf Tea that I got a few weeks ago and have been afraid to try. But here it is.

I have no matcha equipment whatsoever, so I had to do with some random bowl and a fork. I believe I whisked it just right – and until the foam appeared. I used roughly 1/4 tsp per 6 ounces of 170 F water. And yes, I sifted it. Also, this post was very helpful: http://oolongowl.wordpress.com/2013/01/26/how-to-make-a-cup-of-matcha-the-easy-way/

Okay, so this is supposed to be French Vanilla – I could smell it a bit in the dry powder, not so much in the ready brew. I cannot taste it at all. But that is okay since all I care about is pure matcha anyway. It’s my very first experience with it, so perhaps it’s even better that I cannot notice the supposed flavoring.

Well, umm… It’s odd. There’s this bitterness to it, not overpowering, just different from any other bitterness that I know. It settles on the back of my tongue for a bit and then disappears. What a weird taste! I can definitely see how this would be better with milk… I cannot have dairy though (or too much of it) and I am not sure if coconut or almond milk work well heated up. Perhaps in the summer I could make iced lattes…

But anyway, I really quite don’t know what to make out of this experience. I think it is growing on me with every sip. My mouth started to get used to the “unusual bitter” and detects more of a complexity of the flavor of matcha itself. I think I could perhaps learn to love it but it might take a few more lessons. I might also tweak the amount of water used as well as the amount of matcha powder and see how that goes. Maybe add a bit of coconut milk to the brew made with warm water. I know there’s like a million ways of preparing it!

I am really glad that RLT offers these free samples, so that I didn’t have to splash out a whole bunch of money on a pack of matcha and then not know what to think of it. I still have about 4-5 servings of this sample left, and that should be enough to confirm whether I want to start a matcha adventure or not ;D

I also know, though, that good things take time :)

It’s ridiculous how cold it is outside :(

I wasn’t very impressed when I got this tea in this year’s Happy Bag. And then CTC Assam that I saw disappointed me further (Not sure why? I keep thinking that CTC stuff is some below-mediocre leaves. Where did I get it from?). I thought it would be just a boring and astringent blend.

I am happy to announce, however, that it is much better than I expected. While it brews into a very dark amber color, it is not crazily astringent at all. Sure there’s bitterness, but with no wince-worthy aftertaste that I dislike. Actually there’s a fair amount of sweetness to it.

While I probably wouldn’t seek out the opportunity to buy it, these days it seems to make a nice everyday morning tea – which I am guessing was Lupicia’s goal here. So – well done!

Apparently, I have never reviewed this tea before. It’s good I caught that fact since I only have a single-serving of it left now.

Right this moment I am squeezing (metaphorically!) a third steeping out of it. It has a divine vegetal-floral aroma and tastes like some milk-textured vegetable drink. I detect a lot of oolongy sweetness that I have learned to love. But yeah, it makes me feel like a goat eating a bouquet of flowers and broccoli-asparagus-celery medley. I never would have thought I would dig such a combination but I do.

It is my first Ti Kuan Yin Oolong (at least first that I am aware of) but it is difficult for me to predict if I am going to like this kind or if it is going to be one of my favorites simply because there are SO MANY TYPES of it. The one I got from thepuriTea seems to be on a very, very green, non-roasted side. I have some other TKYs waiting for me in the queue: the sample of Yezi’s Master Grade and Life in a Teacup’s Roasted one… Perhaps more than that (I’ve kinda lost track…). I am looking forward to trying them and figuring out the convergent points that make a TKY what it is.

I don’t like reviewing teas “retroactively” but I really need to do it with this one. I only had a sample of it – enough for a pot for my husband and me, which means I have no more to try and review it later in the “afresh” mode.

So… I remember that it was fairly-fragrant, lovely-looking loose leaf – pieces of fruit (papaya) and calendula petals mixed in with downy white tea leaves. I noticed that RiverTea products’ flavoring is usually pretty subtle and I was afraid that with this one I am not going to get much beyond the base white tea. But I tasted… MULBERRY. It was definitely mulberry. And I don’t know how I know it because I’ve never had any mulberry. Okay, that is really odd, but I absolutely know that what they achieved in this tea is freakin’ mulberry. Sweet, smooth (and non-hibiscus like!) tartness, makes me think of a red, small, rounded fruit… but unlike any other I know.

Okay, I just google mulberry! Hmph! Looks like a blackberry. Perhaps it is somewhat related to it flavor-wise… Yeah, blackberry would be my closest guess.

I must actually get this tea next time and then I will attempt to review it again. This is more for “bookkeeping” purposes and the rating… Because I do remember loving it!

Other than that I’ve been still trying to reach sipdown status with many teas… And I discovered that 1 oz. is a LOT of tea – I still have so many Della Terra teas left since December/late November last year. And I only ordered an ounce of each!

For the past few days I have been feeling like a Cinderella (CinTEArella :P) because everyone is adding these awesome tasting notes of all the wonderful teas they have been drinking and I am stuck with my cold and post-cold taste buds that only detect a mildly flavored water whatever it is I drink.

It’s a truly horrid feeling. And yes, I know there are worse things that happen in life!

My nose is not runny anymore so here’s some hoping that I will start tasting tea just fine very soon.

And this one I’m drinking? Spicy and earthy, perfect for after-dinner. Apart from ginger, I detect some orange – I’m fairly sure there were dry pieces of it among the loose leaf. The pu erh itself is pretty run-of-the-mill but decent. Perhaps could catch more of its features on a better tastebuddy day.

I got this tea at Shadowfall’s stash sale a while back… It is close to a sipdown now. It seems like I have never reviewed it.

I still have a cold, my taste buds still don’t work right. The lavender is pretty much all I can taste in it right now. So I will just roughly consolidate my previous experiences with this tea: I do enjoy it although it sure is not the greatest earl grey out there. The bergamot is rather citrusy than floral, and there’s no creaminess in the tea either. On the other hand, the bergamot flavoring doesn’t seem to taste particularly artificial, which is always a win. The base is decently strong, even a bit astringent.

Oh, and there’s lots of lavender, the whole meadow of it. I don’t seem to mind it.

Overall it makes a pretty solid everyday earl grey with a purple twist from the lavender. I would love to try a lavender EG from some other purveyor one day.