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TTB #20

I had this tea yesterday and I didn’t make any notes at the time, so this review is more “as I remember it” reflections rather than anything.

It was smooth, malty, slightly astringent and totally enjoyable. I remember loving every sip of it. It was slightly bitterer and darker than how I know the Chinese dark teas to be but then Shang Tea teas are a different thing altogether, the way they are processed. And the bitterness of it was somehow… different. Very savory, not just bitter-bitter.

I must place an order with Shang Tea! They have this sale going on until the end of February and that’s just awesome because my next paycheck comes on 27th, so just in time :P And don’t ask me what happened to the money I just got a few days ago err… * cough* American Tea Room * cough, cough* Eco-Cha… :P

It seems like the Wuyi oolongs do not excite me very much. This is definitely better than an average wuyi though. The initial note I get is roasted rice, but then some flowery sweetness kicks in. Okay for a nice afternoon but ultimately nothing to write home about.

I think I overleafed this slightly this time as it came out pretty bitter. It’s still really good, though. Perhaps more on the dark chocolate side than orange now.

Sweet, cute pearls! I love how they look :) The infusion I got is less ruby-red than what I’m used to with Chinese blacks, it looks more like a darjeeling. The smell makes me think of milk chocolate and molasses. It is very smooth and silky sipping experience. The flavor is extremely mild and there’s next to no bitterness. It is really odd because, while I am used to a greater complexity of the flavor in Chinese black teas, this tea has a lot of depth, or body, to it nevertheless.

Nice day-opener!

There is barely any flavor here. Some distant sugary spices… Might as well be warm water with a bit of cinnamon sugar in it. And the steep looked in my cup just as greasy as a chicken soup.

ThepuriTea, why did you leave us when we are just getting into your teas???

This is the first time I drink this and I absolutely love it. I generally prefer green oolongs, but this is fantastic! Smells just pleasant and uneventful kind of grassy but the flavor… At first I taste sweetness of ripe fruit, then the buttery milkness kicks in in order to be replaced by flowery-perfumey notes that abruptly end with a mild vegetal aftertaste. I don’t remember when I’ve had a tea this complex, even though I have had a ton of marvellous teas in the past few weeks.

I feel so bad about not having included at least 2 servings of this in the Traveling Tea Box… It was on my list but ultimately it did not make the cut. It’s plain wonderful and I can only hope that Dan Congs from other places will be able to replace this one for me.

Oh wow, this is pretty extreme! The leaves are almost powdered into some matcha-like form. I knew some of them would fall through my infuser – they are smaller than rooibos! – and they did.

I usually steep my greens for 2 minutes, but with this one I thought it would be wiser to just steep for 1. The brew I got is very foggy and… actually GREEN, not yellow :D It smells like green beans & asparagus casserole… I am not sure how to feel about that!

Ooh, the flavor! It hits you in the face! It sure is extremely vegetal but does not taste like soup (which was what I was afraid), there is this lovely grassy sweetness that comes right after the vegetal kick that sets everything right. There is also some bitterness coming up, the longer the tea sits. It could be because of the pieces that got their way through the infuser and that somehow still keep on steeping in the cup. I might try brewing this tea in a tea-bag, actually, to avoid the chunks.

This is definitely a unique experience. I do prefer the straight teas to be more subtle, but I can also see myself reaching for this when I need something more in-your-face obvious and at the same time “different”.

While I must take my initial rating down a little bit, it is still an extremely enjoyable flavored black tea. The apple and molasses flavors seem to go together perfectly well and they add some sort of enigmatic dark spin to what otherwise would be a so-so black base.

Good half-waker, half-snoozer for a lazy morning (on a day off, hell yeah!)

TTB #19

It is a nice dessert oolong smelling and tasting strongly of vanilla, but also of some undefined milky candy sweetness. Not bad for a flavored green oolong (its dry leaf looked pretty awesome too).

Now that I have the last few sips of it cold, it actually reminds me a little of Golden Moon’s Coconut Pouchong.

TTB #18

Unfortunately, this one was a miss for me. I’ve been discovering recently that I just do not like mint in tea unless it’s straight mint that I am drinking because I am sick. This tea totally confirmed that.

I steeped it according to the instructions on the package, somewhat curious for a black/green tea blend, 160 F for 2 minutes. It tasted like… excuse me saying this, Bigelow’s Mint black tea. There’s mediocre mint and mint and mint… and then some really weak black tea base. I don’t find any bergamot in it whatsoever. Or green tea either.

I would still be interested in ordering from New Mexico Tea Co. some day, it’s just that I would definitely not buy this one.