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Thank you for a generous sample of this, Cavocorax! I am so happy to be able to sample the famous Damn Fine Teas!

I had this on a Saturday morning, when I was still in the woods, while sitting on the porch and listening to birds chirping. I decided to also have it this morning and right now I am sipping on the very last drops of the second steep of this.

I remember the time when black tea used to be just… black tea. Terroirs? Harvests? Blends? Single origins? Whaddya mean, my friend? Those times are long gone ;)

The first time I had it I recognized it as a kind of black tea I am usually less drawn to. It’s bold, noticingly astringent (although not unpleasantly so), even a tad bitter. But then, at the same time, it also appears to be mild, a little sweet and refreshing. The balance here is amazing because you can just go on saying “this tea is x but it’s also y” about most any quality of it. You’d think it makes it careful kind of boring? No way! This tea is taking some names with its bold uniqueness, it certainly takes mine. You just want to keep on drinking it even though it might not be entirely your thing, like in my case. It’s just DAMN GOOD.

The only complaint I would have is that this tea seems not to be able to go well beyond two steeps. And even with the second one you gotta make sure you add at least 2 minutes on the top of 4 minutes you wait for the first infusion. Also, the second steep comes out much more mild and docile anyway. Which is not a bad thing for a fan of sweeter blacks like myself.

Thank you so much for this sample, Cavocorax! I still have enough left for about 2 servings. Yum!

I got this tea a little while ago when Eco-Cha had some good discounts on their older teas. This one was harvested in Spring 2013 so it is roughly a year old.

The age, I think, doesn’t matter, because this oolong is heavenly. Extremely fragrant (as much as I love fragrant teas, I don’t think I could drink this one when having a headache!), smelling like the purest, freshest, off-the-comb honey that was gathered from orchids and fruit blossoms. It tastes very sweet with a tiny amount of roastiness that balances the sweet notes out. The second resteep was even bolder in roasty notes (but they were still really mild) and also brought some vegetal notes.

This has everything I look for in an oolong. Because of its age, and because I have relatively a lot of it, I am going to make this one my evening staple… And I don’t know, but if it’s even better when it’s fresher, perhaps I am glad I got the older one :D So I don’t get too excited over it :D

This tea I ordered mostly as a curiosity to share with my beer-loving friends (as well as beer-loving myself) and even though I said I would try it with all of them when we meet this next weekend, my husband lured me into trying it last night, so here we go :D

Dry leaf of black base is mixed with delicious-looking peach pieces as well as leafy hops particles. It brews into an orange-ish liquour – more reminiscent of an IPA than a black tea blend (how thematic!). Smelled mostly of ripe peaches, with a bit of lingering bitter notes. The flavor pretty much reflected the aroma dot for dot – lots of peachiness balanced by the unusual, velvety bitterness. As I was nearing the bottom of the cup, the hoppy notes were stronger but never too strong. I would say that hops in this tea is more to underline the sweetness of peach rather than stand out on its own. While I was hoping for more hops experience I believe it could have been also very risky to make tea actually taste like… an IPA ;D This blend is extremely delicious as a peach tea though, and I usually have a problem with peach teas. This could be my favorite one.

If I have any left after tasting it with my friends next weekend, I will try to cold-brew some (yes, I got into cold-brewing lately, although I said before that I wasn’t too much excited about it, now I really like doing it!).

Okay, this is the serving that I “snatched” from Traveling Tea Box & Cards organized by Nicole before I sent it to another person… sometime in February ;) So yeah, here it is, vanilla excellence.

I have nothing against vanilla flavor but at the same time it doesn’t make me overtly excited. I have also noticed that, with some exceptions (Butiki’s Caramel Vanilla Assam), it is not very well pulled off in teas. Especially when it is supposed to play the main and only role, like in the case of this tea.

This is pretty successful, though! Vanilla is present in both aroma and taste. Not forced, not artificial. It tastes just as if vanilla flavor was an inherent part of the base tea (which is some kind of black – Assam maybe?). I must say, however, that the base seems a little weak, but that could be due to me keeping a teaspoon of dry leaf in a way too big baggie for like 2 months now.

While this is not something I would care to keep in stock at all times, I think it would appeal strongly to staunch fans of vanilla teas.

It was last night’s sip down. There went my ounce of it. I have a whole bunch of Eco-Cha’s Dong Ding to try now, so… I’m not panicking! Dong Ding stock is under control.

However, I must bring the rating of this one down quite considerably. While this was a delicious oolong, the ounce that I got from Life in a Teacup never actually managed to excite me as much as initially did the sample of this they sent me before months ago (See the previous note). I am not sure if this was some different batch or if something happened to my taste buds then. It’s yummy, vegetal oolong with a wonderful flowery aroma, but I feel I can’t rate it 99 anymore.

Last night I finally got around to try one of the samples that I got from the awesome Den’s Tea starter sampler pack (for $3!).

It was tasty and totally what I expected from this: green greenery, roasty roastiness. How eloquent. But you know what I mean, right? ;D Perhaps I thought I would taste more matcha in it but it wasn’t very noticeable. The roasted rice pieces were pretty big in size and they tasted delicious as a part of this concoction.

I like genmaichas a lot but the thing about them is that they are pretty sameyish no matter from where they are. In that case, having it with a few specks of matcha, might be a nice twist that adds a bit of grassiness to the taste as well as uber-cool neon green to the color of the steep. Nice!

Now, this is a tea I could totally have in my cupboard most of the time!

Dry leaf didn’t look too promising, seemed somewhat broken – into more pieces than was necessary. Perhaps it was because I might have accidentally squeezed the bag ;D The color of the liquor is impressive though! Deep, deep mahogany. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a tea that would look quite like this.

The aroma is a little bit understated, but what you get is sweet honey notes that are yet a little floral, the kind of honey you’d find on bees’ legs (lol!) and not necessarily in a jar. For some reason I was afraid that this would be too bitter, but it’s one of the sweetest blacks I’ve had. Extremely full bodied, it almost makes you feel like you’re drinking syrup or honey.

It’s such a pleasure to start a day with a tea like this one!

Wow, I don’t know how these dudes blend their teas but they tell you to steep this white one for 5-8 minutes :O So umm… I did exactly that, although reluctantly, and voilà! It tastes… really good, actually!

No, it did not come out bitter. Not at all. It smells a little tart, but it’s a good kind of tart… like the promise of tropical fruit. The way it tastes holds up to its aroma promise I think. There’s definitely pineapple and peach… Not sure about the elderflower, I mean, what is it supposed to be anyway? Oh, there’s also supposed to be pomegranate, but it’s wonderfully subtle. I am used to pomegranate hogging all the room for itself in blends (usually it turns out it’s hibiscus, not pomegranate, anyway!) and here it is more in the background.

It gets better as it cools… Nothing about it tastes artificial. It reminds me a little of American Tea Room’s Bliss green & white blend, but this one is IMHO better. I really like it!

Big thank you to Anna for sending me a sample! :)

Thank you, VariaTEA, for a sample of this tea!

It’s so yummy! I can definitely taste strawberry and marshmallow fluffiness as well as genmaicha ricey base. It all melts together real well. I can envision this tea being suitable for both summer (the strawberry refreshing notes) and winter (the desserty, sweet relaxing goodness). It is also, possibly, the first 52teas creation that really impressed me. I cannot order anything from anyone for a while now, and probably by the time I can, this will be gone, but most of the recent 52teas blends sound really good anyway… so maybe, maybe… I should consider it as the company I will order from soon?