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I still cannot post a review to Yunnan Black by Little Red Cup Tea Co.. After today I guess it doesn’t matter as I finished it off. Well, actually this is leaf I first used Saturday. I left it in my press. That kind of stuff scares some people. I assure you it was fine. In fact it was just as tasty as it was two days ago. Fact is I enjoyed it even more today. Rich molassesy goodness. Consumed on a sunny 75 F porch with a bowl of rice. A wonderful escape from the sadness of the news.

This review is for Yunnan Black from Little Red Cup Tea Co.. For whatever reason Steepster refuses to let me post my review where it belongs. Spent the afternoon with my oldest son and his wife. They took us to the home they will be moving into sometime soon. Right now they live next door. They are only moving across the county but it will be a change. Afterwards we stopped for sloppy joes and shakes. Fun time. Now I’m home on a Saturday evening. How did that happen. What to do with myself? How about tea? Sold.

I love Yunnan. Never met a bad one. This one smells so nice. As it steeped I noticed grapes, raisins, or something similar. I don’t recall that with other Yunnans but I didn’t check my notes to see. The taste is nicely sweet, no bitterness. It’s mostly honey, malt, and molasses. I don’t really taste the fruit element but it s still in the scent. Nice bit of soothing comfort to end my evening.

OK looseTman, I finally had this without eating something distracting. My initial thoughts in the earlier review remain pretty much intact. The dry leaf smells fresh with tobacco leaf notes. As I poured I did notice a bit of barnyard this time. It is not present in the sip. The taste is light and clean. It is a nice simple everyday shou. What stood out today without strong food accompaniment was the cooling feeling afterwards.

This has become the clear favorite from the three Japanese matcha I have been trying out. Initially I found them pretty close. More tasting is causing the divide between them to grow. I’ve mentioned before almost all my matcha is mixed cold with milk and a little sweetener. I don’t bother with anything above culinary grade because why, and I have used almost exclusively Chinese green tea powder rather than true matcha. Chinese powder is cheap and while not usually tasty straight it does stand up well to mixing. So, here the tea does manage to hold up well to milk while staying very smooth. This has a fresh leafy green taste and a healthy meaty seaweed umami note. It is slightly sweet on its own. I still add sweetener anyway because that’s how I roll. Though I don’t drink it straight regularly it does taste nice to me without bitterness.

I am writing one review for three offerings from Matcha Outlet (formerly Red Leaf Tea). All three are of Japanese origin. All three are culinary grade.

First a little background – I have sampled literally dozens of powder green teas. While I enjoy most tea types, I find I personally have never gotten the matcha bug. I just never crave a bowl of straight matcha. So I am possibly not the best source of guidance on the subject. I do drink a daily cold latte made with milk, sweetener, and culinary grade green tea powder. For the last couple years I have been using Deluxe Matcha which started as a highly floral powder from China. Lately it has become more earthy and far less floral. So, time to see if I want to keep it or find a replacement. On to the review -

All three samples are a deeper green than any Chinese tea I’ve sampled. They are pretty much identical in appearance. All three mix easily and foam well. One thing about the foam, it is a light foam. What I mean is that while the whole cup of tea foams, it is not dense compared to the Chinese tea I’ve been using. No explanation or understanding of why.
I’ve used all three to make multiple lattes and today I made individual cups of straight matcha to try and get a better feel for the differences. I think I have a bit more understanding now. Initial tasting shows very little variation between the three. Really they are very close.

Without knowing the price, my order of preference matched up with cost. That helped reassure my experience with each was at least on the right track. Again these are very close.

The Ryori is like the base model of the three. As a straight cup it has just a small amount of bitter, and is slightly sweet. It is vegetal, green, and seaweed in flavor.

The Haru is step up to my palette. It is more umami in taste. That makes it seem slightly drier. This is more what I expected.

The Oishi raises the bar just a bit higher by being a little more green tasting or possibly it is just a little sweeter while retaining the umami note.

All three are drinkable on there own. That kind of surprised me. Most culinary grade teas are not suitable for drinking straight. What I also notice is compared to Chinese powder, these can easily get lost in a latte. Or probably I just used to a more outspoken variety.

Is this going to be my replacement matcha? All three are as good as and better than most other culinary grade teas I’ve tried. All except the Deluxe Matcha from Matcha Outlet, which I still prefer even if the taste has changed with time. Until DM gets retired I’ll stick with it. If you prefer a more traditional and less floral flavor then any of these will be a good option.

I am writing one review for three offerings from Matcha Outlet (formerly Red Leaf Tea). All three are of Japanese origin. All three are culinary grade.

First a little background – I have sampled literally dozens of powder green teas. While I enjoy most tea types, I find I personally have never gotten the matcha bug. I just never crave a bowl of straight matcha. So I am possibly not the best source of guidance on the subject. I do drink a daily cold latte made with milk, sweetener, and culinary grade green tea powder. For the last couple years I have been using Deluxe Matcha which started as a highly floral powder from China. Lately it has become more earthy and far less floral. So, time to see if I want to keep it or find a replacement. On to the review -

All three samples are a deeper green than any Chinese tea I’ve sampled. They are pretty much identical in appearance. All three mix easily and foam well. One thing about the foam, it is a light foam. What I mean is that while the whole cup of tea foams, it is not dense compared to the Chinese tea I’ve been using. No explanation or understanding of why.
I’ve used all three to make multiple lattes and today I made individual cups of straight matcha to try and get a better feel for the differences. I think I have a bit more understanding now. Initial tasting shows very little variation between the three. Really they are very close.

Without knowing the price, my order of preference matched up with cost. That helped reassure my experience with each was at least on the right track. Again these are very close.

The Ryori is like the base model of the three. As a straight cup it has just a small amount of bitter, and is slightly sweet. It is vegetal, green, and seaweed in flavor.

The Haru is step up to my palette. It is more umami in taste. That makes it seem slightly drier. This is more what I expected.

The Oishi raises the bar just a bit higher by being a little more green tasting or possibly it is just a little sweeter while retaining the umami note.

All three are drinkable on there own. That kind of surprised me. Most culinary grade teas are not suitable for drinking straight. What I also notice is compared to Chinese powder, these can easily get lost in a latte. Or probably I just used to a more outspoken variety.

Is this going to be my replacement matcha? All three are as good as and better than most other culinary grade teas I’ve tried. All except the Deluxe Matcha from Matcha Outlet, which I still prefer even if the taste has changed with time. Until DM gets retired I’ll stick with it. If you prefer a more traditional and less floral flavor then any of these will be a good option.

I am writing one review for three offerings from Matcha Outlet (formerly Red Leaf Tea). All three are of Japanese origin. All three are culinary grade.

First a little background – I have sampled literally dozens of powder green teas. While I enjoy most tea types, I find I personally have never gotten the matcha bug. I just never crave a bowl of straight matcha. So I am possibly not the best source of guidance on the subject. I do drink a daily cold latte made with milk, sweetener, and culinary grade green tea powder. For the last couple years I have been using Deluxe Matcha which started as a highly floral powder from China. Lately it has become more earthy and far less floral. So, time to see if I want to keep it or find a replacement. On to the review -

All three samples are a deeper green than any Chinese tea I’ve sampled. They are pretty much identical in appearance. All three mix easily and foam well. One thing about the foam, it is a light foam. What I mean is that while the whole cup of tea foams, it is not dense compared to the Chinese tea I’ve been using. No explanation or understanding of why.
I’ve used all three to make multiple lattes and today I made individual cups of straight matcha to try and get a better feel for the differences. I think I have a bit more understanding now. Initial tasting shows very little variation between the three. Really they are very close.

Without knowing the price, my order of preference matched up with cost. That helped reassure my experience with each was at least on the right track. Again these are very close.

The Ryori is like the base model of the three. As a straight cup it has just a small amount of bitter, and is slightly sweet. It is vegetal, green, and seaweed in flavor.

The Haru is step up to my palette. It is more umami in taste. That makes it seem slightly drier. This is more what I expected.

The Oishi raises the bar just a bit higher by being a little more green tasting or possibly it is just a little sweeter while retaining the umami note.

All three are drinkable on there own. That kind of surprised me. Most culinary grade teas are not suitable for drinking straight. What I also notice is compared to Chinese powder, these can easily get lost in a latte. Or probably I just used to a more outspoken variety.

Is this going to be my replacement matcha? All three are as good as and better than most other culinary grade teas I’ve tried. All except the Deluxe Matcha from Matcha Outlet, which I still prefer even if the taste has changed with time. Until DM gets retired I’ll stick with it. If you prefer a more traditional and less floral flavor then any of these will be a good option.

I have managed to use up all my bulk straight black teas with the exception of golden monkey. I have mixed them together for iced tea. I dug through my boxes (yes I still have boxes of tea) and found 3 oz of Earl Grey I didn’t know I had. Part of it was used to make my latest gallon of iced tea.

This seems to be an Assam base as there is no Ceylon bite present. The bergamot is highly present. It reminds me of EG that add a little orange rind to the mix but didn’t notice it in the mix. I normally add nothing to iced tea but made an exception as I prefer earl grey lightly sweetened. This takes sweetening well. No bitterness. The bergamot lingers long in the aftertaste.

Some really cool evening weather persuaded me to skip right past the pumpkin stuff (not a big fan actually – prefer my pumpkin in the form of pie). This comfort tea just really hit the spot. The cooling peppermint felt so good on my lungs. Much love for this one.

I reviewed the iced tea at our local Cheddars in the past. It was the best tea I have tasted in a local restaurant. Well today I took my first sip and was majorly let down. Beyond bland. Almost soapy. The meal was otherwise good. I mentioned to the waitress they should go back to the old tea. She agreed and said the new stuff is pretty bad compared to the old. Hope she passes the message on.