Featured & New Tasting Notes

This is my favorite tea for parties. It is light and delicious, goes great with a wide variety of foods, and is well-liked by guests regardless of their general preferences.

The flavor of Jardin Sauvage is very zesty and energizing. There was a familiarity to each sip that tantalized my curiosity. I recognized the taste; it was a flavor I’ve encountered before. But what it was, I am not sure. When I asked my brother, he tasted and declared the tea tasted of white/clear gummy bears. He tasted again, and said maybe a lime jello.

I don’t know that either of those is quite what I’m tasting, but it’s definitely a sweeter citrus-like flavor.

I’ve never had green rooibos before, but I really liked this blend and I’m normally not especially fond of red tea. Jardin is extremely refreshing and fun – I love it!

OhmygoodnessGuessWhatIFound?!!?!!?!!

This… is the… BEST… unflavoured… unsweetened… tea I have ever experienced.
That’s right… I did not just taste it… I EXPERIENCED it.

Have you ever spread fresh honey from the farmer’s market onto freshly baked, still warm, French bread?
You’re salivating right? Good. That is the aroma of this tea. The aroma matches the taste. It’s glorious.

This is the very first yellow tea I have ever had… and I do believe it may become my new obsession, if any others even slightly compare to this.

I saw that Rishi has one other yellow tea right now, called Yellow Sprout. It’s next up on my “to-do” list. As for the Yellow Buds… I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THEM.

Rated: 80/100

Pretty good! You don’t want to use as much tea as they say, but half that amount and 3 min infusion turns out a great cup…

The jasmine scent does not overwhelm the delicate oolong. It reminds me of warm humid nights with the scent of my night blooming jasmine wafting in the window.

This is a favorite … kind of my “comfort tea” – it always makes me feel good after I have drunk some.

I keep trying to give this tea the benefit of the doubt, but it turns out horribly bitter every time. I have tried fully boiling water, water cooled to about 190, even to 180, varied steeping time, but it still is extremely bitter.

This is going to be my “morning brew” for awhile…I inherited a 1/2 lb of it from a friend who thought it was too mild. I’ll not bother to post more on it…save everyone the boredom.

This is my favorite tea ever!!! It is good iced and hot. When I brew it just right it tastes like white gummi bears :D A very nice light fruity white tea

This is that last of this tea as I only had a small sample envelop of it. It didn’t blow my mind but it’s still a very pleasent tea, though I think I’d like to try some other Ceylons before I decide whether or not to get more of this one.

This one is a bit dry, but very tasty in my opinion. You can taste the natural sweetness in the steam rising up from the cup. The color is deep golden…very pretty. It smells faintly of green tea but tastes nothing of it. I’m digging the slightly nutty flavor. I could drink this one all the time. I bet it would be tasty iced too. Yea Darjeeling!

I’m glad Auggy sent me a full sample tin!

Okay, I don’t know what I did differently this time (perhaps brewed it longer?) because I liked it today. Still don’t know what a currant is supposed to taste like but I got sort of a light black cherry/berry vibe coming from it today. Of course, lower expectations also might have played a hefty roll in my liking it today. Yay lower expectations!

My son actually gave me a cup of this mint tea when I was coughing and miserable with a cold. It is soothing and stopped my coughing about as effectively as a cough drop plus it adds fluids to help the cold move on out!

A chinese tea wanting to be a japanese one? When i saw this in the shop i knew i want to taste it. Chinese teas are usually pan fried and japanese teas are usually steamed. So this was quite a surprise. The leafs look like high quality sencha – quite long and nice in color. The smell was ok, fresh and green. Also almost like a sencha. So where is the difference? In the taste of course.
The first steeping can be quite long – like 1 minute. I used quite a lot leafs (1:5 water). There was a slight bitterness, but also a nice sencha-like taste. Very good.
The second time a steeped only for 30 sec. Even after this short time the brew was quite bitter and the taste started to resemble a bit more the tradicional chinese teas. The green fresh taste and the bitter taste were quite is sync. Both very powerfull. The 3rd and 4th steeping were less bitter, but you could still feel it.
This tea is not for everyone. If you don’t like the bitter taste, you won’t like it. It’s not possible to get enough flavour from the leafs without having it bitter. On the other hand, if you don’t mind the bitterness (it’s not this bad bitter taste like if you leave the tea steeping for too long), it’s a very interresting tea. You can play with it quite a lot. After finishing you can see the really nice leafs – quite good quality. This one behaves like a real mutant :)
..but for a good price: around 7Euros for 100g (and only 1/3 as bitter as Ku Ding >_<).

A very tasty Earl Grey- the lemongrass really does make a difference- one of my favorites!

Caramel and houjicha- I was very skeptical. A friend sent me a sample of this, and it is actually quite good! Probably not something I would re-order, but something interesting for a change of pace. The caramel flavor compliments the houjicha very well, and it makes for a brew that is slightly reminiscent of coffee… in a good way.

Very nice, especially because I don’t usually go for the greens. Good vegetal flavor, not too grassy/earthy or bitter. Light and airy with a touch of sweetness. The brew is surprisingly light in color, just a hint of green (unless you let it sit in the pot too long :) ). I think you green and non-green lovers might like this one.

Having with breakfast on a leisurely Saturday morning. A smooth, round flavor with no bitterness. Brewed with slightly cooled water (bring to full boil in kettle, remove kettle lid and wait 2 minutes, then steep), served with a few drops of milk.

This is going to sound weird, but I’m having trouble being excited by this tea. It is a really good quality tea – smoky, smooth, great flavor. In fact, it is the only Keemun that hubby has actually said he likes and that’s HUGE.

But I’ve had really good Keemun before. Adagio’s Keemun Rhapsody is my favorite and I think quality-wise the two are very comparable. So having this is just “Mmm, good Keemun”. No angels sing, no epiphanies occur. Just the acknowledgment that yes, this IS damned fine tea.

Part of the reason, too, could be that TS sorta knocked my socks off. Like, a lot. But then, my experience with Assam is very limited and Thomas Sampson was a huge quality jump compared to what I have had before. And I just didn’t get that jump with Jackee but I admit, I was kind of hoping for it even though I acknowledge the expectation was unreasonable.

But the lack of quality jump is not Jackee’s fault. If I hadn’t had Adagio’s Keemun and had just stuck to the ones I’d had from SpecialTea’s and Rishi, I think this one would have knocked my socks of in comparison. As it is, it’s just now competing with Adagio to find out which Keemun reigns supreme. (This needs to be said in a Chairman Kaga voice… Was there ever an Iron Chef tea battle?)

Randomly, am I late to the party in seeing the jac’KEE MUN’tz and thom’AS SAM’pson bit? That’s so neat but I feel like I’m probably the dorky child that takes 20 minutes to get the punchline.

Mellow, smooth and creamy as advertised! I’m going to have to try this one iced as well.

A good all-round black tea, with typical Assam malty overtones. A reliable standby tea for first thing in the morning.

Mmmm, this hits the spot tonight. I’m getting a good butter taste from it and the floral bit is coming through nicely as well – it’s actually pretty strong for a floral flavor. But it isn’t a light, rose floral or anything that would be sickening, but a richer floral flavor. Orchid I assume but can’t say for sure given I’ve never eaten any flowers (my dad once made me eat a cattail but I don’t think that is the same thing – that was more green leaf/stalk, not floral).

This is quite a nice little tea and something I was apparently totally in the mood for tonight. That makes me happy.

Yep, I was right. This is good with a big glob of honey. I steeped it a little longer since the description practically encourages it. Seven minutes instead of five. It got stronger, yeah, but not bitter. This might taste a little bit too much like wood for me, though. I’m still curious to try Yunnan Gold and Yunnan Noir despite this.