Featured & New Tasting Notes

Cold steeped overnight.

OMG SO GOOD.

SO SO SO GOOD.

Why did I not believe people about how good it is?

Thank you SO MUCH, MissB!

Haven’t a clue what this is, haven’t a clue what the story is, no idea about anything really. Other than, of course. OMGsrlsy gave this to me on a dark and stormy night in downtown Vancouver, as if we were dealing (gasp) drugs! The horrors.

Package had someone else’s name on it (sorry James), with the instructions to steep for one minute. Really?! It’s a… gosh words, come to me now… the kind of tea that looks like coffee grounds, and of course the word escapes me. Anyway. Butiki’s Premium Chai has the same base (I think), and I luuuuuv’s me that tea. So, I’m in. Let’s try it. Just enough for 12 oz.

I steep it for one minute, and I’m confused. It doesn’t taste like much of anything. It smells a touch fruity though… so I’m in, I steep it a bit longer.

Steeped a bit longer (another 3-4 minutes) I get a bit of… licorice? something fruity still, and, no, that’s black licorice. Isn’t it? Jeepers. I can’t tell. I’m also eating salted chocolate and feel like a truck hit me since about 9pm last night, so, you know, really professional review here and all folks.

Grab bag sample from MissB! Almost nearing the end of these, and have been so excited about them.

I had a feeling that I wouldn’t be the biggest fan of this because of the classic clashing ingredients in here, namely cinnamon and hibiscus. You see, I normally always cold steep hibiscus-based blends, and they turn out better that way because the dry tartness of the hibiscus is kept at bay this way, plus the fruits that usually accompany the hibiscus make these types of blends refreshing. But then this cinnamon throws a monkey wrench into things. It doesn’t translate the best into a cold brew. Seems out of place.

So, trying this hot, yes, the cinnamon is warming, the berries are like jam, but that hibiscus gets so syrupy and tart when steeped hot, consequently taking over the entire show. Can’t win with such a combination, I’m afraid.

I’m down to 57 freaking teas! But. My American Tea Room Black Friday order just came in so looks like that super sweet, low number didn’t last so long.

How is it I haven’t written a note about this one? I know I’ve had it before and liked it. If I’d known I hadn’t written about it before I would have used a different cup and paid more attention, but I can back up and talk about things like color next time.

This is an unusual tea because the taste and smell of tea is usually so closely interlinked for me that if I don’t really like how a tea smells, it’s fairly certain I also won’t care for how it tastes. This one has sort of bakey chocolate smell that I don’t really love. It’s like that part of the chocolate cake that sits next to the flour on the cake pan and absorbs some of the flour into itself so it’s a diluted and somewhat overbaked tasting chocolate compared to the rest of the cake.

But the tea tastes much richer than it smells, and what’s really great about it is that it’s so much more than it’s advertised to be. The chocolate and the coconut are definitely there, but there’s also this weird synergy between them plus a freshness in the mouth that gives a sort of a minty note to the flavor, and as the tea sits on the tongue, it smooths out into an almost caramel flavor. Like with the Premium Steap coconut, the flavorings are of a piece with the tea rather than glommed on top, which makes it that much more enjoyable of an experience.

Alas, I see that Premium Steap doesn’t seem to have this blend anymore. Too bad, as I would have recommended it.

Another one from the spectacular MissB. Muchas gracias! I was so excited to try this so I purposely left it for near the end. I appreciate a good white chocolate, and the thought of it paired with a delicate white sounded like this would be a sure winner. However, I find the base to be a little too vegetal for my liking. I’m really whiny about that, though. There’s also a a rich butteriness and not sure if it’s from the base, the white chocolate, or a combination of both.

With a different white base, I could see this being a total win. It makes me miss RLT’s White Chocolate matcha.

By the way, I just ate a little square of the white chocolate from the dry leaf and it tastes like a church to me. A church. You know when you walk in and there are tons of candles burning, it has a hint of subtle stale smokiness (possibly from its age) with a waxy note. When I told my mom that this tastes like a church, she totally got me right away and figured that it tastes like wax. Crazy!

Thanks so much, Nicole! I’m amazed that I’ve loved basically all of the teas you sent along. Your tea collection must be astronomically delicious to part with these teas! The only type of tea like this I think I’ve tried was in Butiki’s Three Friends (that I adore.) But Three Friends is actually a Zhen Qu base. I’m not sure what the difference is but the leaves certainly look the same. Dark curly crumbly fuzzies with a lot of twists to the leaves and a lot of gold. The scent of the dry leaves is very much like dried grass. The flavor is deep and dark with two teaspoons… a lot of dark chocolate flavor but it’s a very smooth tea and never astringent while also being a very strong cup. My favorite type of black tea: dark, strong, but smooth and never astringent! I certainly like it with two teaspoons. I think it was too weak when I tried it with one teaspoon.
Steep #1 // 2 teaspoons for a full mug// 15 minutes after boiling // 3 minute steep
Steep #2 // just boiled // 4 minute steep

First one to review this! PLUS, it’s my 500th note!

I’ve been waiting to write my 500th note until I tried something new, not just write a review for something I’ve had before. And when I saw this in store yesterday I knew this was the one. I am so excited about this tea.

So, Steeped it up for 4 minutes and took a nice lovely sip. This tea is naturally sweet and bold. It really does live up to its name. I’m not one for honey at all, but this one really works for me. It’s sweet without being overbearing honey flavour. It’s just a lovely sweet bold, slightly malty tea that just has everything going for it. I know several people that don’t care for it all the much already, but I love it. It reminds me of Nepal Black in some ways, but it’s very unique to itself also. I should almost do a side-by-side comparison. That will happen another day though.

So anyways, I LOVE this tea. I will probably get more soon. It’s so lovely and delicious, sweet and yummy. I definitely recommend.

Forgive me, Steepsterites, but I must vent and I know you lot will understand.

My father doesn’t like tea. At all. He feels about tea the same way I feel about beer, i.e. NOPE! Blech! Spitty! My mother enjoys the occasional cup of tea, though, but wants it to be as convenient as possible, so preferably bagged stuff. Recently she has been very fond of Lady Grey from Twinings.

So my father writes me an email saying could I help him find something like that, only maybe a better quality than the Twinings bags and such and such is the budget. Sure, I do some research. Twinings, imo, isn’t actually the worst bag out there, but even so the next step up is loose. And if we’re going for loose, we might as well go that little bit further. So I trawl through AC Perchs’ website and finds a couple that sound to me like they might be similar and I trawl through Carstensens (another large Danish shop, but I have never used them much for no other reason than sort of forgetting they’re there) and find things that are similar.

And I put all these findings in a very long email, which has links to both websites, price per 100 g of each and price of shipping. Plus information that these are loose, not available as bagged, and he should make sure to also get a box of those filter bags to go with or a brew basket or similar for her cup. Also point out that if he wants the tea tinned, he must buy a tin separately. All of which is available for purchase at both websites.

The reply I get doesn’t actually say ‘tl;dr’, but it might as well have. It then becomes further obvious that he didn’t read it all when he says it must be bagged, because otherwise she’ll just never get around to drinking it because it’s too much of a hassle. Clearly he didn’t get to the bit with the filter bags or the brew basket which can just be whacked in the dishwasher afterwards. Then the initial question once again, now posed in a mansplain-y way as though I was five, but with the added strong hint that he would like me to order it for him. Oh, and if necessary could add such and such to the budget.

So I got rather irritated and waited until the next day to reply, in which I had to explain that using a filter bag was no different from making coffee (which is somehow not a hassle. Seriously, spoon leaves into bag or spoon coffee into filter and toss the lot after use, what’s the flipping difference?). Also explained that while sachets do exist, they are not something one can count on, and throwing more money at something will not make it magically exist. Refrained from pointing out that what he was actually asking was similar to wanting a high quality whisky but preferably pre-mixed with cola in the bottle. Husband’s analogy, that one. Also pointed out that I had done my research based on the criteria I had been given.

Reply was, ‘yes, yes, yes, yes, I surrender.’ And THEN the initial question again now posed as though I was three, complete with ‘I don’t know anything about it other than I don’t like it.’ Then he remembered that I had once brought some sachets up for her years ago and could we get some of that again. Oh, and still including the strong hint of the never actually asked question, ’can’t you just order it for me?’

I still refuse to take the bait, because I know he’s not actually that helpless, so I link him directly to the sachets that ACP sell, tell him which two it was that I had bought then, and a few others which are also black tea (my mum’s not really that adventurous, so didn’t want him to get her some green or white blend that she wouldn’t know what to do with). At the same time, I’m thinking that not only did he not bother with reading the initial reply, he also didn’t bother with the links, because if he had clicked on the ACP link, for example, he would have seen a very large bit of the menu that said ‘tea bags’ on it. Also hoping that the direct link will serve as a strong hint that he’s not so helpless he can’t do his own damn Christmas shopping.

The final email from him said he had written to Perchs (hallelujah!) and they had suggested a different blend as the closest thing they had to Lady Grey, so he’d ordered 100 g of that.

Loose.

headdesk

To be fair, he did also get two boxes of sachets, but still. After all this hassle he put me through because he didn’t want loose, he goes and buys her a #¤%#%# loose tea!

Give me strength…

Do you lot have to deal with these people as well, or is it just me? At least I avoided doing his shopping for him. For the record, I’d happily have ordered something for him if he had asked me to. I do not, however, volunteer just because he’s feeling whingy. I’ve got my own shopping to deal with, thanks.

Am putting all this under this particular tea, because I’m having a cup and it’s life-giving, and I need life-giving after all that.

( ETA Please be aware that I may choose to remove this post again later on. Right now it’s simply a need to share so I can get it out of my head.)

This came as a sample with my last herbal tea order from Zen Tea Life. I decided to try it out for breakfast today to test its suitability for serving at tea time today.

I made one steep in my smallest Kamjove, gave a taste, and decided it seemed like a resteepable tea, so I decided to go ahead and combine two steeps. The review is based on the two blended steeps, but you can amp up all the factors for an accurate idea of what the first steep was like.

The company description is pretty spot on. Dian Hong teas usually have a strong sweet potato flavor to me. That is true of this one, but there is a lot more going on. It is heartier and made a great breakfast drink with my scrambled eggs with French thyme and cheese (eggs courtesy of Blondie, my rescue chicken who looks bedraggled but lays like a champ) and Viili with honey. It takes a decently strong tea to go well with all those flavors.

This has a heavy mouthfeel which is why I refer to it as hearty. I take my tea without milk or sugar, and this was smooth enough not to ever need milk to take the edge off, and sweet enough not to require sugar to make it interesting.

I made a third steep as a stand alone and it was delicious. This is a winner.

I must add that I have received excellent customer service from Zen. I ordered a couple of cast iron pots from them as well as a number of teas over the years and have always had a good experience, with reasonable shipping costs, quick arrival of goods, and good communication when I had questions.

Working from home today and stuck travelling the rest of the week, so this is my opportunity for tea really. I’m trying to pull out a few of my french teas to revisit them and because i tend to enjoy them more in a mug versus a travel mug. this one is no exception. delicious salted caramel goodness. so much noms….even in an oolong.

Another I finished off. Possibly my personal favorite of flavored matcha I have tried. Tastes just like French Vanilla should.

Really cool wrapper on this cake! This sheng is on the light and sweet side, with notes of moss, linen, straw, hay, and floral. I found it quite gentle with a thick mouth feel. A nice light bit of dryness and bitterness that many pu newbies would like.

2015 Pin is quite different compared to 2015 2Late or Poundcake as it’s lighter. I got this tea with November 2015 White2tea club, and it says to try this cake again in a few months once the excess water in it goes away. That said, these tasting notes may change.

Full review on Oolong Owl http://oolongowl.com/november-white2tea-club-2015-pin-tea-review/

My second craving of the day.
You know when you don’t feel like trying a new tea because you want some kind of certainty in your cup? I’ve been taking all kinds of foolish chances on unknown teas this Black Friday weekend. Ok, maybe foolish, maybe curious, maybe thrill-seeking. Maybe it’ll pay off. Whatever.
Today, I wanted something I could depend on. The moment came for flannel pajamas and this. And to hell with the world for now. And my credit rating.

The first steep of this was amazing. Very vegetal, buttery, and mildly floral. I really don’t like florals at all and barely noticed it so that was fine by me!
The buttery part does lend itself to “popcorn” but I would never have picked out that descriptor without looking at the notes above. I consider Genmaicha to be closer, but in a different way of course. If you could combine the two, you’d definitely have a great snack alternative. And since popcorn IS my fave indulgence, well I’d be in heaven.
Also, first steep was rather drying. The second was less so, but then I found it to be more flowery, so not as tasty IMO. Even still, I really enjoyed it overall. Very tasty! Too bad I only had a sample. I may see if they have any next time I’m at the shop.

Yummy yum yum.

But seriously, who tasted cannabis in this?!

From the aged oolong group buy.

I am starting to love aged oolong. I usually steep oolongs with 3 grams in 6 oz with 1-minute steeps, but started out with a 20 second steep after Liquid Proust’s warning about the strength of the tea. I didn’t find it at all strong and after this first steep went back to my usual 1 minute steeps. I think it’s just that LP is a green tea drinker and I prefer blacks, though we both love puerh and oolongs.

The first steep started toasty, ended grassy, with a very long finish. 2nd (60 s): Back to my normal steep routine. Not at all overpowering. Nutty aroma, medium roast flavor with hints of nut and tropical fruit. Good finish. As the tea cooled it became much less interesting. Just a plain medium roast. 3rd (60s): This time the roast is a bit too powerful, smothering the fruit. Later steeps smoothed out, showing rich, complex flavors without the roasted component (other than a bit in the nose).

Usually oolongs peak for me in the second or third steep, but this tea just kept getting better. The early steeps had sharply defined flavors that sometimes seemed at odds with each other. The later steeps were much more integrated, with the rough edges all smoothed off. I drank this over a period of two days, with other teas in between, so lost track of the number of steeps. I think i’m on about the 6th or 7th steep and the tea shows no sign of fading, even though I’m still only doing 60 second steeps. It is just a pleasure to drink.

So, as some may have already read, I hate cherries! However, my mom really likes cherries and keeps asking me to make a cherry tea and I’m like: “heck no mom, I have no idea how cherry could taste good so I’m not going to try to make something I dislike”

So thankfully this was made and I was able to make my mom a cup…. like a huge 16 ounce full. Upon seeing the brew of the liquid and aroma, I had to try it because I figured a cherry oolong with some coffee bean would smell much stronger and be a bit darker than it was. The taste came out as smooth and balanced, but that is all I will say.

From my perspective: The mixture is 95% in contact/full. That speaks volumes in regards to tea blends because the majority are around 75% that I’ve noticed. I’m just picky because I hate flavors being added to leaf of low quality to offset the actually leaf taste. The oolong used in this blend is nice so that makes me happy.

I’ll get to my teas from Q2T soon and should have more positive remarks.

if you’re going to drink one JW tea in the morning, you might as well drink two! haha. Not much to say on this one beyond the fact that it’s still delicious and still one that i’m glad is in my cupboard.

This is a tasty black tea. There is little malt, bitterness, or astringency. It’s got a nice somewhat sweet, barely perceptible spicy note to it. I’m not sure what to call the sweet note. The website just describes it as mild and fragrant. This is accurate but I’m not sure how to describe the fragrance involved. The dry leaves had an odd smell to them but I didn’t get any of that in the brew.

I brewed this once in a Teavana Glass Perfect Tea Maker/Gravity Steeper with 3 tsp leaf and 190 degree water for 2 min.

Breaking in to the distressingly dwindling hoarded stash this morning: can now find PG Tips bagged locally, but not loose leaf. But some cold mornings, strong, sharp, stout builders tea is the only thing that will do. Like when it’s your week to teach seventeen fifth and sixth graders who are post-Thanksgiving sated, have been cooped up inside during a four-day weekend because of a multi-day deluge, and pre-Christmas hepped. Praying for grace and a sense of humor!

This tea is really quite good. It’s roast profile is really light which in my opinion is good. There was no unpleasant roast flavor. The tea had a nice sweet flavor to it, not sure what to call the note. I ordered the GABA sampler from Taiwan Sourcing and this is the first I’m trying. I can’t say I felt any effect from the GABA though. That is somewhat disappointing. I did steep this gongfu style and ten steeps so I drank enough tea. This order has also left a sour taste in my mouth. A tea that I ordered 75g of was not sent in the proper quantity, a 25g sample was sent in it’s place. We will see if Scott at Yunnan Sourcing does the right thing and ships a replacement. The 25g sample portion was actually marked 75g. Most annoying. This tea however was what I can only call steller. The fact that it tasted so sweet to me and I added no sugar to it is a testament to the processing skills of the tea maker in Taiwan.

I steeped this tea ten times in a 120ml gaiwan with 7.1g leaf and 190 degree water. I gave it a 10 second rinse and a 10 minute rest. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, and 1 min.

noms. Enjoying this one again today since i need to get to 100 if i want any orders this weekend AND because it’s close enough to LB that it’s like a treat today. I need enjoyable drinking things since it’s operation “tear the house apart.” We’ve been putting off going through things in the house with the intent of getting rid of things we haven’t used in years and i’ve put a deadline for us of Dec 15 – when we start dog sitting for three weeks. So everything is going in to piles – keep, donate and trash. 900 CD’s? DONATE! (after making digital copies of them all…) etc.

I’m starting to pull out all the good stuff from storage, and this was on the list. I’m going to be getting a little more of this, so I decided to try this, so I know what I’ll be getting. The leaves are massive, dark, and I can spot some lengthy stems. They carry a dry wood and some spicy aroma. I warmed up my jianshui and placed them inside. I gave the pot a shake and took in this unique aroma. The scent was very light and subtle. I was picking up some slight fruit mixed with tobacco. The background scents were of decayed wood and some peat moss. The aromas were so subtle that I had to sit for a bit and try to pick them up. I washed the leaves once and prepared for brewing. The steeped leaves gave off some much more prominent notes of tobacco, leather, fruit, and some cherry wood. The first taste was intense, yet it was also incredibly light bodied. The initial sip was syrupy sweet and juicy with some underlying oak tone. The brew gave a gummy feeling in the mouth. The brew develops to a maple candy succulency (east coast people and Canadians might know about these candies). The aftertaste consists of a brown sugar sweetness. I detected no astringency in the brew, and I only tasted a very slight bitterness. I pushed the brew after a little bit to try and extract some more intense flavors. The brew was a nice bright orange, and I was getting more leather tastes in the later steeping sessions. The sweet tones faded for most of the session and were replaced by maple wood and leather. The taste also drift towards the pleasant sour side. However, in the final steeping session, the brew came back with a sugarcane sweetness mixed with the maple wood. The huigan is very delayed, but is extremely thick. The back of my throat had nice maple syrup taste that followed after the session was finished. The leaves are mostly intact and massive. The qi is not all that powerful, but it is intensely warming. I had to change out of my sweater in the middle of session, for I began to feel like a furnace. This is a very nice tea, but isn’t my favorite offering from YGH. I think this needs a little more storage, but it’s still really tasty.

https://www.instagram.com/p/-ojCjWzGQf/?taken-by=haveteawilltravel

This is the kind of review that I write once every two months or so and I really don’t like them.
I always try to add positive notes about a tea I have drank along with the crowd that would enjoy it. Unfortunately, sometimes there are products that don’t get recommended such as fish at McDonalds.

This cake can be broken with the pressed of one finger and I’m not exaggerated. I can send a video to demonstrate if you’d like, though that isn’t an issue for me because I’m after taste and feel from a tea.
I pulled out four cups to try different timing with this tea at 100c which is what I always use for ripe. Every single cup to the 8th steep (where I stopped) had a grainy texture to the taste with a little musk. The fermentation flavor is here for sure, but has a lot of friends that I do not like. This mouth feel after is a medium dryness which I can’t get over. It’s about the same as drinking 16ounces of roasted green tea, but all of that into 2 ounces of liquid.

Honestly, the 2015 Green Miracle is a cake everyone should buy because it is absolutely amazing for being such a young little guy but this Hui Run isn’t something I can imagine drinking a year from now… though it will be next year when I open it back up to try again.

If anyone has any previous year to swap I would love to see if this is the same qualities of the other ones and maybe realize some people enjoy these tasting notes.