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This is very tasty chrysanthemum tea. I brewed this tea with dried rosebuds for some added flavor. There is a nice earthiness to the chrysanthemum that is not at all unpleasant like the earthiness that ripe puerh can have. I don’t know how else to describe it. It is a mellow and sweet earthiness. In the end I would rather be drinking puerh but can’t afford the caffeine tonight.

I brewed this once in a 400ml glass teapot with 2g Chrysanthemum and 2g rose buds with boiling water for 7 min.

This tea is tasty but strange. It is a blend with puerh tea, coffee beans and something else, I don’t know what until I call Clipper Ship Tea Company and find out. It tastes like someone brewed 2/3 of a cup of puerh and mixed it with 1/3 of a cup of coffee. I get the flavor of the coffee first and the flavor of the puerh in the background. I know the Chinesse sometimes blend coffee beans with puerh tea but this is a first for me. I am not sure whether or not I like it but I think I do like it. However, I wouldn’t want to drink it often so I’m glad I only bought 50g.

I brewed this once in a 18oz teapot with 3 tsp leaf and boiling water for 30 sec.

This is a fairly tasty tea that tastes a bit like sangria without the alcohol. It is sweet and somewhat pungent and just a little sour, but not overwhelmingly so. It is good. I picked it tonight because I have been having trouble sleeping lately and didn’t want any caffeine.

I brewed this once in an 18oz teapot with 3 tsp leaf and boiling water for 5 min.

I’m told this is a breakfast tea. They are often too malty for my tastes. This one is not overly malty. There is a very nice, mild malt flavor, not meaning chocolate malt. This is backed up by a very strong sweet flavor that I think I would describe as plums, or perhaps stonefruits, but I think plums is the best description. It also says citrus which is a good description too. Harney and Sons did not have this in the 4oz t tin so I had to buy the half pound. Considering the price, and the taste of this tea I am not at all unhappy having a lot of it. This and one sample was all I bought from Harney and Sons Black Friday sale, but then again their only promotion was free shipping on all orders. It did enable me to buy only one tea from them and avoid shipping charges.

I brewed this once in an 18oz teapot with 3 tsp leaf and boiling water for 3 min.

Drank this earlier today. I was expecting a lot. It did not come close to living up to expectations. I bought this from Dragon Tea House. In its first infusion I immediately noticed a strong bamboo flavor, and not in a good way. It did not have the flavor and creaminess you expect from a Dayi ripe puerh of any class, let alone a Golden Needle White Lotus brick. It was not very good. The bamboo flavor did persist but got weaker. It did not have the sweet flavor you expect from a good puerh but tasted bland, for lack of a better word. In short it tasted like a $5 brick, not a $40 brick, or was it $45. I also wonder if it is a fake, but for this I have only the taste of the tea for evidence. I will post my instagram pictures. If anyone knows about this brick let me know.

I brewed this five times in a 220ml Gaiwan with 9.1g leaf and boiling water. I steeped it for 10 sec, 5 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, and 30 sec.

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This is a mildly sweet, somewhat floral, somewhat vegetal, tasty green tea. It also seems to have a slight sour note to it. As I have little experience with Bi Lo Chun teas I don’t know how it compares to others of its type. But it is good. If only it didn’t have this sour note. I wonder if that could be my taste buds? Could it be brewing temperature? Did I use slightly too much tea? I brewed it for the right amount of time. I picked up the greens in my latest order with Mandala and Teavivre because I have been told to cut down on my caffeine and there are nights where I just must avoid caffeine because of my work schedule. It is established that green tea has less caffeine than black tea, the science is not clear on puerh. Sometimes puerh keeps me awake, but that may be because of the tendency to resteep it many times and extract all of the caffeine.

I brewed this once in an 18oz teapot with 175 degree water and 3 tsp leaf for 1 min.