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I received this tea as a sample from Joshua – thank you!

The dry leaves smell a lot like the Chinese dried plums that I loved to eat when I was little. I followed the directions and used 2 tsp/cup in boiling water for 3 minutes. The resulting brew was a pretty amber color. I’m not sure if I used too many leaves or accidentally oversteeped, but it was quite bitter. However, I do also get a maltiness and a fruitiness. It does pack a punch, so I think it’s great as an early morning wake-up tea! I rarely take my tea with milk, but I think this tea would be good with some milk.

Unfortunately, no brandy involved in making this tea. =P

This tea smells amazing – the dry leaves have a sweet flowery aroma. I brewed this gongfu style 1tsp (my scale died… =( ) in 120mL starting at 10s. The first three steeps were super strong. It tasted exactly like described – like honey and molasses. There was also a slight flower aftertaste. The later steeps were fainter, but still tasted like I was drinking honey. I will have to also try this western style!

https://www.instagram.com/p/BIX6oFKBNfz
Bunny was a fan of this tea too! https://www.instagram.com/p/BIX60dAhenL/

Whoa, I totally understand why this tea is so highly rated and popular! It’s amazing! I didn’t want to wait for the tea to cool before tasting, so I I took a sip with a spoon, and before I realized, I had sipped almost half of the cup! I taste honey, butter, and cream. There’s a floral aftertaste that has me going “mmmm.”

Unfortunately, this tea doesn’t re-steep too well – I was only able to get 2 steeps (1 and 2 min) out of it. However, this is definitely going on my re-purchase list!

Fujian Shou Mei White Tea Ball from What-Cha

I received this as a mystery white tea. The tea comes in individually wrapped balls. I’m not very familiar with white and definitely not ones that come compressed into balls! The instructions recommend 1 ball/cup of 90C water for 1-2min. However, I wanted to try my new tiny 120mL teapot so I dropped used one ball, 90C, 30s, adding 10s each re-steep.

The wet leaves smell quite medicinal – reminds me of chinese medicine! Fortunately, the brew tasted a lot better. It tastes quite mellow and relaxing. There’s a hint of honey, nuts, and a slight astringency. Unfortunately, I didn’t get much fruitiness that was advertised on the package. However, this was quite a yummy tea!

This tea is definitely interesting! On opening the package, I was hit by the strong scent of rum. I’ve never had tea that tastes like alcohol so I was super excited to try it!

I used 3g in about 8oz of boiling water for 1min. The brew smelled like rum and something kind of… mushroomy? earthy? muddy? which is probably the puerh coming through. I couldn’t taste much rum in the beginning, but the rum flavor started coming through as the tea cooled. There was also a hint of sweetness that complemented the alcohol flavor very well.

This tea is very unique, but probably wasted on me since I still haven’t learned to like alcohol yet! I might brew some of this for my more alcohol-loving friends to try.

This is for the Spring 2016 harvest.

Wow this tea is amazing! I really love high mountain teas, so I ordered a sample of this – should’ve gotten a larger bag! The liquid is a very pretty light glowing amber color. It’s very smooth and slightly floral. Had me going “mmm” every sip! I bought a tumbler of this to my all-day test and it got me through the day.

I western brewed this, but I will try gongfu with the rest of my sample to reveal the complexities of the flavor.

Actually, this is my first jasmine scented tea! The dry leaves smelled soooo bright and flowery. I steeped it according to package instructions – 1tsp at 80C for 2.5min. The resulting tea was really flowery. I don’t know what jasmine is suppose to taste like but it reminded me of lychee! I really liked it, but it was slightly overpowering. Maybe I’ll try a shorter brewing time or less leaves next time. I cold-steeped the remains and the resulting brew had a light jasmine taste that was amazing. I will have to try more jasmine-scented tea in the future!

This tea is great! The dry leaves have a strong aroma of sticky rice – mmm! We’re off to a good start! =D

I steeped 1tsp (2-3g?) in a cup at 80C for 2min, adding 30s for each subsequent steep. It tastes exactly like sticky rice! I was concerned that the aroma/taste would be overpowering, but it’s perfect for me. The tea is sweet and comforting. It would be perfect for the wintertime! Or really, any time!

This tea is not only aesthetically pleasing, but also delicious! The tea is very smooth, rich, and slightly sweet and creamy. It tastes a lot like honey. Mmmm. Reminds me of sitting by the fireplace with a nice hot drink. It’s a very comforting tea, but still has that oomph to wake you up in the morning. The 2nd steeping is sweeter and less bold, but continues to have that smoothness that I really enjoy about this tea.

This tea smells like the strawberry Kellogg’s protein bar! It tastes exactly how it smells – there’s a warm toastiness from the genmaicha and a tartness from the berries. I’m not the biggest fan of tart tasting teas, so next time, I might add some sugar or try cold brewing it.