rainycityjen Send Message

Visually tasty, with large, jade green sencha leaves with a good amount of toasted rice.

Yummy, well-balanced genmaicha flavor, lots of rice. Hits the spot.

Quite sweet which reduces the tang of citrus and hibiscus. A very good replacement for flavored bagged teas but not as good as Rishi’s Ruby Oolong.

Very nice savory black with aromatic roses, but no cloying sweetness/unsavory bitterness. Just smooth sipping and aromatherapy.

Received a sample of this with my November order. However, it doesn’t appear on the site so I’m not yet 100% on what it is. It looks like a golden tips black tea, which smells leafy and lovely in the bag.

Ok, brewed and stewed. Grassy, lemon aroma off the cup. Then I sip and oh, yum. Smooth, biscuity, toasty goodness. Quite a light and savory black. A nice winter breakfast tea!

First infusion, 20 seconds: smells a tiny bit sweet. A lot of mineral taste in there with the earth. Like licking a wet rock (in a good way). Maybe a little hint of molasses.

2-3 infusion, 10 seconds: As soon as I pour over the hot water, the dark, dark cola color BLOOMS in the bottom of my teacup. Fairly bitter and espresso-like. The bitterness is more mineral than vegetal bitterness if that makes sense. Fermentation flavor is not too bad.

Overall a pretty good but one-note shou for me.

Was there pineapple in this? Huh. Didn’t taste any.

Lovely flavored tea that smells and tastes like fresh coconut milk, rather than coconut perfume. Despite a couple of over-steeps it never developed bitterness or over-potency. Would make a great “chaser” for pu’erh!

A fresh and light green, with subtle seaweedy notes, but not so much that it tastes vegetal. Instead it is mostly fragrant and nutty like salted edamame. Very delicious and easy to overdose on.

Not rating this one, since how you can rate Christmas?

Steeped 2 minutes and the taste is very strong. It is mostly bitter citrus and clove, with just a bit of cinnamon bark. I appreciate that since American holiday flavors get so heavy on the cinnamon. The hibiscus and elderberry just serve to add a little additional tang. This would be rich and delicious sweetened – even if that makes it a bit too much for an everyday drink.

I don’t drink a lot of darjeeling, so I had to look up the flavor profile of this one from Teance. The wintergreen aroma they describe is definitely there, as well as a light-roasted coffee bean or nutty scent. Deep auburn-brown brew after a short 1 min infusion (4g in 6 oz.) My teeth will be a pretty color after this one!

The flavor follows the scent – like an espresso followed by a burnt biscuit with jam.

First visual impression: lots of big stems in this, but I appreciate that the tea is vacuum-sealed inside the tin.

After rinsing, I steeped for 30 seconds. It smelled pleasantly floral and fruity, like maybe pear, and the liquor was the color of pear juice. It has a very silky, creamy mouthfeel with no astringency.

The second infusion, I steeped for 50 seconds. The tightly compressed leaves finally opened here. This time the infusion was dark golden yellow, and I started to get a new aroma from the cup. It sounds pretentious, but the first things that popped in my head were honeysuckle and white grapes. This deeper infusion started to show a little bit of astringency that lightly coated my teeth, and I got a hint of toasted nuts. The floral scent that is so present in the steam was subtle in the actual taste.

Overall a really pleasant surprise for such an affordable oolong.