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I have insomnia again so I’m trying this tea. Made it differently. Put about seven teaspoons of tea in a glass teapot/kettle and added about 4 tsp valerian. But I didn’t steep it, I boiled it fore ten minutes. Tastes even worse. Didn’t know if that’s possible. Hopefully I extracted the valerian.

I picked this out of the Decaf and Herbal Tea TTB because there was so much of it. It is an interesting fruit blend. I added sugar to it which improved it dramatically. I’m not really sure what I taste, apple and almond I suppose. I don’t think I would buy this but it is nice to try when it is too late for me to have what I really want, a gongfu session with some nice ripe puerh. It is way too late for caffeine so this will do.

I brewed this one time in a 16oz Teavana Glass Perfect Tea Maker with 3 tsp leaf and boiling water for 5 minutes.

As errands cost me time to drink some puerh before it was too late for me to have caffeine I thought I’d drink this. This is a fairly tasty black tea. I do not know how it compares to other assams of the non decaf nature. This one is good overall. It has little in the way of bitterness, astringency, or malt. It has a bit of a fruity flavor to it, I’m not sure which fruit I would identify it with. On a bad point it has a bit, just a bit of a sour note to it. Not enough to bother me though. As tomorrow is my first day at a new job I didn’t want to have anything with caffeine after four o clock as I need to sleep tonight and I already have insomnia. Simpson and Vail has done well with the decaf teas of theirs I have tried. Most have been good. They don’t noticeably lower the quality rung to get a decaf. I know some decaf are just horrible but this one is alright, good for an afternoon like this. I usually cold brew their decaf teas which works well too.

I brewed this one time with 3 tsp leaf and boiling water in a 16oz Teavana Glass Perfect Tea Maker/Gravity Steeper for 3 min.

I have my doubts about this tea, about it’s age. As far as the fermentation flavor goes there was a lot of it. And it was somewhat unpleasant. It tasted more like a 2015 fermented tea. It had not cleared at all. The fermentation flavor was thick and lasted for about four or five steeps. It began to improve dramatically around the sixth steep. If you can get past the initial fermentation taste this is a good tea. A nice sweet note developed in the later steeps. I wasn’t really paying attention to the specifics to tell you about notes of chocolate but something of a fruity flavor did emerge.

I steeped this tea ten times in a 120ml gaiwan with 10g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse and a 10 minute rest. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, and 1 min.

Drinking this for my insomnia. Sometimes it helps sometimes it doesn’t. It taste worse than any other tea I’ve had. This tea gets a 0 for taste. I steeped 6 tsp of leaf in 16oz of boiling water for 10 min. Lets see if it helps.

This is a good but not in any way spectacular shou. It has no fermentation taste. It has a moderate amount of wet storage or wet wood taste. This was noticeable for the first four steeps and present to some degree in all eight steeps I gave this tea. This is a tea I will store for six months then try again. I suspect the wet storage taste will dissipate with six months of New York dry storage. This is exactly what happened with my 1998 White Tuo. The first time I drank it I got wet storage taste. Six months later virtually none.

I steeped this tea eight times in a 120ml gaiwan with 11.3g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse and a 10 minute rest. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, and 30 sec.

This tea is strong and somewhat bitter. It was quite tasty though. It stayed bitter throughout the first four or five steeps and then a sweet note emerged. This is an excellent tea for the price. At $18.50 it’s not a big risk in a tea. I think it’s got a lot of potential. If only my pumidor wasn’t full. I will have to dry store this one and see what happens. I’m not really sure how to describe the sweet note that emerged. There was still a bitter aftertaste even with this sweet note.

I brewed this tea eight times in a 120ml gaiwan with 9.3g leaf and 190 degree water. I gave it a 10 second rinse and a 10 minute rest. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, and 30 sec.

Today my insomnia is acting up on me and me medicine is not working. So I thought I would makle some rooibos in hopes of relaxing. This tea is nice. It’s got both a sweet and a savory character. Added some raw honey to this so it tastes really sweet.

Brewed this once in a 16oz Teavana Glass Perfect Tea Maker/Gravity Steeper with 3 tsp leaf and boiling water for 5 min.

This is an excellent tea. There was very little bitterness to this, just a little. While I won’t say it wasn’t sweet, the sweetness was subtle. It didn’t rush at you like some apricoty sheng. This is a tea I was supposed to get for free with my black Friday order. It was left out of that order along with a gaiwan. Paul sent the missing items and gave me three of this tea instead of one. It seems to have some qi, but not tea drunk kind of qi. This is a tea I wish I had picked up more of with my last order with White2Tea which is still inbound from China. This is the second rolled puer I have tried. And I have to say I like it as much or more than the Misty Peaks version. It is hard to say which is better from one session, but this is good. This has a strong, slightly bitter aftertaste.

I brewed this ten times in a 100ml gaiwan with one puer ball or 8g leaf and 200 degree water. I gave it a 10 second rinse. Didn’t give this one a rest. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, and 1 min.

I wish I could say this was an incredible tea. It was not. While there was a lot of improvement over ten steeps and I enjoyed the last couple of steeps, it had a bad start. The fermentation taste was initially strong and unpleasant. This taste lasted for about the average as far as the fermentation goes, about four or five steeps. However, an unpleasant taste persisted for several more steeps. I would say it had gone away by the ninth steep. This is from a small 125g cake. Berylleb has the option to buy a five pack. I am glad I only bought one. It’s not even that this was the worst puerh tea ever, it just wasn’t that good. As far as notes of things like chocolate go there was too much of an unpleasant taste to notice good things. Judged by the tenth steep it wasn’t that bad. But considering the first eight steeps were not that great I don’t think I’ll be buying another.

I steeped this ten times in a 120ml gaiwan with 10.3g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse and a 10 minute rest. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, and 1 min.