Featured & New Tasting Notes

First, I must admit that shu puer is not something I get overly excited or worked up about. I enjoy it for some of its medicinal properties, its overall smoothness, the warmth it brings me, and as something that steeps many, many times. The flavor profile is okay. I’ve had a variety of loose leaf shus that work okay as at-work drinking teas and most of them are usually pretty light on the “riper” aspects. This one, however, gets a little fishy for me, even after a rinse and a few steeps. It does have larger than average leaves for a loose leaf shu and the overall flavor complexity is much deeper than other examples I’ve had, reaching into the umami, mushroom, and roasted nut characters. It is supremely smooth. A little tea goes a long way, with a relatively small portion giving a 6oz gaiwan more than half a dozen steeps before showing signs that it was thinning out. Again, I got what I paid for here, a smooth, not too weird, daily drinker loose leaf shu. I’m pleased with Seven Cups prices and quality.

Looks clear orange – very pretty color.

Smells like rooibos with a hint of fruity in general.

Tastes… hot lol :D
Other than that its yummy again. I’m not very experienced in tropical fruits so can’t really distinguish but it tastes tropical and in a very nice way. Goes along perfect with rooibos. Nice one. I imagine it would be most likely even better cold. And some sugar would make it more like juice. Depends what I’m in the mood for.

This company doesn’t make bad teas, there are some very good tea blends. And being able to actually go look and smell at them in the store is def a plus…

Btw ‘Kuća zelenog čaja’ means ‘House of green tea’.

Ali Shan is one of my favorite oolongs, and this one from Adagio doesn’t disappoint. Vegetal, minty, light, buttery, complex, a bit grassy, and a little sweet, the flavors of this tea just keep you guessing. Each infusion brings something a little different out from the leaf. One of the most beautiful things about this tea is comparing the dry leaf to the infused leaf. Because of how tightly it is packed it really goes through quite the transformation as it unfurls. In my cup today there is even a stem with two leaves intact. It just goes to show how much care the growers are putting into this tea.

I have a couple different brewing methods I suggest you try.

For more vegetal, grassy taste: 205º-212º for 5 minutes
For sweet, buttery taste: 185º-190º for 3-5 minutes

As Adagio notes, this tea is good for many infusions. I’ve been able to steep this tea 8-10 times before noticing a decline in complex flavor.

Part of Doulton’s Nabokov prize!

This wasn’t loose. It was bagged. But what a bag! It’s a very neat little bag, looks possibly hand-sewn. I haven’t yet seen another teabag like it. Not sure what the material is, but it’s not like those little silky bags everyone seems to be using nowadays. Whippersnappers. But I digress, as usual!

I…wouldn’t have known what this was, upon tasting. I mean, yes, I’d have known that it was black, but it wasn’t anything remarkable. I was a little disappointed, especially reading that description. It sounds like something that would have been right up my alley, you know? I didn’t get any of the spices, nor the orange peel. It was just…flat. Not bad, but not really remarkable either.

Still, it put Kate Bush’s “Babooshka” in my head. Which can’t be a bad thing. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHwiMgkp8wg

My #1 pick. I’ve experimented with all different preparation methods and have enjoyed them all.

So, I figured it was time to finish up the GM sampler. Picked blindly, got this one, perfect for breakfast!

This tea is probably one of the best breakfast blends I have ever had. You can smell the typical breakfast tea aroma from the leaves, but once brewed it releases a whole world of aroma and flavor. A robust aroma of black tea – slightly fruity and slightly smokey, definitely smells delicious. The flavor, you can actually almost pick out all of the teas in here: there is a smoothness, a malty flavor, a slight smoke and a hint of fruit. Absolutely delicious.

Infused hot, four minutes, no additives. Delicious. Second cup enjoyed with a teaspoon of sugar and some half and half. Also delicious.

Okay…so…I will also post this review under the Tea Hawaii Listing…

I received this ROCKSTAR Tea from Auggy! Woot Woot!!!!

I will agree with others in saying that this is – by far – a black tea of it’s own! It’s in a completely different category! It’s wonderful BUT…it’s certainly NOT your stereotypical Black Tea!

The leaves are glorious! They are on the biggest leaves I have EVER SEEN…EVER! They are FAB! And SCREAMING for multiple infusions!!!! The very slight sweet smell of the tea is barely there and it’s a light and mellow yet pleasant and sweet and juicy taste. In a way I am thinking about ROCK CANDY from the 80s…you know…on the stick!? But I can also comprehend the Rye-Bread comparison made by a few others. The product description from the company says roasted sweet…when I first read that all I could say is “REALLY?” but the more I drink it the more it makes sense! I suppose as an after taste and after thought I can taste the caramel notes.

WOW.

I just don’t know…there are some things that throw me for a loop – but in a good way!!! Trying to figure out HOW this tea is done so well and why more people haven’t tried it or even heard of it…just might have to be added to that list!

I’m going to infused the EVER-LIVIN’ out of these leaves…so stay tuned for the multiple infusion notes!

Yesterday was River Shannon’s first trial (Assam + Ceylon), today this (Assam + Ceylon +Yunnan).

All I have time for now is a pretty rushed note, as I have to get to the office, but I wanted to put at least something down before I forgot what I was thinking. ;-)

That depth I remarked was missing from the River Shannon? The +Yunnan changes that. There’s a balance, too, that tones down the Assam a bit at the same time it gives the tea some heft. There’s more sweetness, more maltiness, more yum. It has a fuller body. It’s closer to what I’d consider an appropriate coffee substitute.

Pretty sure I prefer this one for most mornings. Pretty sure I’m a Yunnan fan, not so sure about Assam yet. I don’t have a firm reference point in my mind for it yet as I’ve mostly had blends so far. (I’ll have to try Thomas Sampson soon!)

One thing I have to figure out about this one is whether I need to add milk to it. It is pretty strong even when brewed at 3 minutes. If I’m not careful, it can grab me in the back of the throat when I’m not looking.

Thanks, Frank & 52teas for shipping so quickly. I received this tea two days after I ordered it! Amazing! I just haven’t been able to review it until today.

The dry leaves are quite large and long sencha leaves. The scent of the dry leaves is a bit tart and quite blueberry like. Once brewed the aroma is more mellow, berry and almost a little floral with a light tartness. The liquor is quite darker than I imagined. It’s almost as if a blue/purple food coloring was added lightly to the green tea. I haven’t brewed a sencha before, so I’m not sure if this is the leaves or something to do with the flavoring. I’m loving the smell of this!

I have no words to describe elderberry with, but the flavor reminds me a bit of the brightness of fresh, ripe blueberries. The elderberries really compliment the flavor of the sencha. The sencha is very strong, but the flavors blend, the mesh so well, it is a wonderful dance on my tongue. I’m really enjoying this.

I did brew it on the higher end of the temperature range, 180F, for 2:30 minutes. I think I will try this at 170F and 160F to see how it compares. I think the length of the steep is just right, as I’m not tasting any astringency.

Nice work 52teas! I’m loving this blend.

So this is the end of the sample that Angrboda gave me and I won’t have it perfuming the inside of my dish cupboard anymore, which I have to say is a bit of a relief.

I wouldn’t buy this tea again I don’t think – it’s too perfumy and has a bit too much going on and it never really engaged me like other teas (including other 52Teas) have. I’m still glad I got the chance to try this blend and I give a big thank you to the Angry Dane for taking the time to mail it to me.

Warmed up the latte mixture for this this morning and increased the amount of Matcha that I used. At first I thought I’d STILL gotten the proportions wrong because the flavors just weren’t blending properly, but then, I set it aside for a while (so I could concentrate on other people’s tea notes) and now it’s perfect! The tea and the latte mix have blended together really well and created this absolutely amazing undertone of I don’t even know what but I like it.

It’s lovely and warming, too (having one of those chilly, foggy Santa Barbara days).

I’m in need of a good comfort tea today – I’ve been wallowing a whole lot lately and it’s starting to get pathetic. So hopefully this will blow my mind and make me forget where I am.

The smell of this was divine. It was a whole lot of burnt sugar and caramel. Now, I much prefer caramel to chocolate; it is probably my favorite sweet out there. So you can see why I chose this tea today.

Right away, I taste the oolong. It’s one of those nice buttery, creamy oolongs, so it is complemented very nicely by the caramel. The caramel doesn’t come out and assault your taste buds, but rather it very gently massages them into submission until you’re lost in the taste. The longer I hold the tea in my mouth, the stronger the caramel becomes. It’s not the sickeningly sweet caramel you would pour over ice cream; it’s almost like there’s nuts added.

This doesn’t come right out and scream “Desert Tea!” It isn’t sweet enough, so it’s perfect to have around as a comfort tea. Which is what I needed right now. I bet after a couple more infusions I’ll be wondering why I was ever in a funk in the first place.

This has nothing to do with the tea, but it just started absolutely pouring. Like, the kind of storm that sends my poor dog running under my bed with her tail between her legs. It was perfectly nice out a minute ago. The weather is so weird here…

EDIT: Oh, lovely. Now it’s hailing, too. And raining sideways.

I know by this time of day I usually move on to Greens, Whites, Rooibos, Minty, etc types but I can’t stop tasting the lovely teas AUGGY sent me! So…here’s another one!

This doesn’t smell like FAKE Caramel…that’s a plus. Not that I am a Caramel Pro by any means. Actually, I’m not really one to usually choose caramel flavored anything…but…there have been some teas I have had recently that have been quite good and they’ve contained Caramel! So…

This flavored tea is soothing and somewhat sweet. The black tea isn’t overpowering nor is it bitter. The Caramel isn’t too in-your-face and it seems to go with the Black tea perfectly. What a union! This is nice!

I bought a tin of this tea as I like it a lot, and surprisingly every cup produces a flavor that grows on me everytime. This is a maple tea so I had the genius idea of having pancakes and maple syrup this morning, with nothing else but a nice hot cup of OH CANADA!
What can I say, the contrast of flavors between the hot tea and the pancakes was fun and intriguing. If your Canadian ( Like me ), be patriotical and drink OH CANADA, and watch hockey ( because hockey is an awesome sport, go habs go ).

This was a really nice cup of tea; I just let 4 pearls sink to the bottom of my cup and unfurl – that was certainly a show. The tea tasted a lot like it smelled – sort of an fresh, earthy clover. It was very aromatic I drank the tea while it was still quite hot, so I decided to steep the leaves a second time later on.

The second steep wasn’t great – it was a lot less aromatic and tasted bland, with a tart finish. Definitely worth the price for the first cup, but I wouldn’t re-steep again.

Nutty nutty nutty. The smell and taste are both very nutty to me, though perhaps that is how I read the malt – either nutty or bake-y? There’s a little astringency on the back end that is close to too much but it is doable, just reminding me a tad of those funny tasting nuts that sometimes pop up when eating a bag of pecans. I added a little sugar and half & half a bit into my cup to see how it goes – it definitely stands up well to the additives and that nutty bitterness is smoothed out which is nice. This is a nice cup, though it doesn’t advance much over ‘typical Assam’ for me.

I’ve drunk this for a couple of mornings now and am trying to reconcile my impressions with those of my fellow Steepsterites. Somehow I don’t perceive this one as big and bold at all; it brews up a light to medium amber, with some delicate flavor notes. On my first tasting I got a hint of cooked veggies (thank you, Harfatum, for letting me know I’m not hallucinating, although for me it was asparagus rather than Brussels sprouts!), and today I picked up on the bready quality more. Contrary to its name, it doesn’t strike me as super-malty, either. I will continue tasting and exploring this one.

The first time I made this (last month) I followed the directions – basically dumped the powder into milk, stirred with a spoon, heated, stirred again… and got an almost undrinkable cup of hot milk, lightly flavored, with green clumps.

This second time, I went a bit overboard the other way on prep, but it worked. First I sifted the powder into my mug of Silk vanilla almond milk. HOWEVER, there is granulated sugar in the mix, which is too big to go through the holes. So after the powder was sifted through, I dumped the leftover sugar in after it (there were no tea clumps to worry about.) I whisked with a metal whisk to get the big stuff, then my chasen (bamboo matcha whisk) for a much finer result. Then I heated in microwave as directed, and whisked again afterwards. Finally, as an extra, I frothed about 2oz of 2% milk and poured it over top for a very luxurious drink indeed!

Next time I will forgo the sifting and use the chasen to whisk the powder into about 3-4 oz milk, then mix in the rest of the milk, heat, and stir. I think that will minimize the prep while still delivering a well-blended cup. The frothed milk on top really is nice, so I’ll probably keep that! :-)

Flavor-wise, I agree with Suzi – it’s slightly salty, but creamy and sweet too in my opinion. It does not taste like cherry or even flowers. It’s ok, and seems really to go well with the vanilla almond milk, but really it’s just lower grade matcha with sugar added. I’m looking forward to trying the strawberry and caramel which I hope will have a more intense flavor.

I have ordered this and will update after tasting. Wanted to share some info about the museum that accepted this tea blend as mentioned above.

National Tea Museum, Hangzhou, is located in the Zhejiang Province and opened in 1991. It is a very large museum, showcasing some of the aspects of history of tea in China, in fact, it has an area of around 5.4 acres, but the construction area is around 0.9 acres. This museum is a first, that is this museum is about the only museum in China with tea as its theme. The most interesting part of this museum is that, there are no external walls, but the enclosed vegetation gives the impression that tea and vegetation here is interdependent. Be sure to observe closely the one hundred distinctive characters (Chinese) which are related to tea.

National Tea Museum, Hangzhou, has four parts, that is four distinctive group of buildings that are pure treasures as far as the history of tea drinking is concerned. Explore Hall of Tea History, Kaleidoscope Hall, Hall of Tea Properties, Tea Friendship Hall, Tea Sets Hall and Tea Customs Hall. Each hall has its own history to narrate, you will be mesmerized to find the different impacts of tea on the lives of the Chinese people. Be prepared to be surprised! The Kaleidoscope Hall features more than three hundred kinds of tea including the six basic tea types of China. The admission to the museum is free and you can easily arrange for cabs to take you there.

http://www.asiarooms.com/en/travel-guide/china/hangzhou/hangzhou-museums/national-tea-museum-hangzhou.html

I wasn’t overly in love with this tea at first but then I discovered more is more, at least as far as steep time goes. Now I’m sad to have to de-cupboard this tea. At least this is one that I can get again! So one day the sweet but fresh candy-ness will be mine again!

My order arrived a couple of days ago but I finally got a chance to sit down and give this tea a try. The fragrance is very “creamy” even though that is probably not the right word to describe it. I was taken off guard by this tea’s strong notes. The wheat-like flavor was very delicious. I like the fact that it doesn’t have a lot of the bitterness and astringency that some of the other bi lou chun have. I can still taste the sweet aftertaste even though its been well beyond 5 mins since my last cup. High marks all-and-all. Be warned though that this is not a light flavor green tea.

I am SO glad I pre-ordered.
Had another cup this morning (well, make that 5 steepings of 3oz each, or 2 American-sized cups). It was delicious and worth every penny. I hope he manages to get his hashiri from the same farm next year.

But you won’t believe it – I just checked his website today, and he is ALREADY OUT!
He has 2 more Shinchas that just arrived as well…looking forward to trying the other one I ordered (Shincha Houryoku, which is a fukamushi) in the next week!

A strange little tea, full of surprises.

When I read the ingredients, I thought it sounded like a terrible mistake. Yet it actually works pretty well.

The dry mix in the sample packet smells mostly like vanilla/coconut and chamomile. The addition of water brings out the lavender. (The mixture in the infuser after brewing smells mostly like lavender and chamomile. Its nice. The association I had was with the smell of something that belongs in a sachet in my sock drawer.)

My glass tasting cups are all in the dishwasher so I’m having to view the liquor against a white background. It’s dark, definitely getting its color from the black tea. The aroma is mostly chamomile, followed by lavender, followed by coconut, followed by vanilla. I’m not detecting much in the way of tea.

The taste is extremely interesting. It has an almost minty taste and feel to it, a volatile coolness. I think this is the lavender. I can taste the chamomile, and it’s in the foreground, but surprisingly it’s not that mouthful of flowering hay taste chamomile sometimes reminds me of. The lavender and coconut (or maybe the tea) take the edge off, so it’s all of what I like about chamomile with none of what I don’t like about it. There’s coconut/vanilla at the end.

The main thing I’m not tasting is the tea. It’s strange, though. I’m not really tasting it, but I’m aware of its presence.

I didn’t try this with sugar and milk, as suggested. I will give that a try next time.

I am pretty impressed that this turned out as well as it did. Who would have thunk it?

This tea came and went very quickly. I bought it last month and ended up drinking a few bags and sent a bunch to tea buddies because they were curious! I think I only one 1 or 2 bags left.

Since one of the themes/trends on Steepster today is MAPLE – I thought I would continue on with this lil gem.

I see another trend today is HONEYBEE – might have to pull that one out later!

I just have to say I LOVE STEEPSTER and the STEEPSTERITIES!!!!