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After a few weeks I have received a bunch of postcards from postcrossing; and soem with tea in. This one of those teas and it smelled through the envelope. It was so strongly scented, but sadly a little falls flat in terms of flavour. It was rather a bit like generic tropical fruits like and not that much of mango itself.

Nevertheless, it was nicely refreshing and not so sweet (even when stevia is added); and I would like to hear opinions of others. Sadly, I have received a single tea bag wrapper and I can’t it put in the TTB. Of course, I can order that from Germany, but I don’t think that will happen.

Another tea that is in my stash thanks to TeaEarleGreyHot and another delish one. Thank you!

My strainer was in a dishwasher, so I took my old method — fillable bags. I filled the bag with four grams of this tea, some being bigger, some were smaller, there was even a stem; but I decided not to care.

It was also a different vessel than usual, instead of glass tall mug; I took porcelain and wide one, nordic style mug.

After rather short steep, I think it was hardly 3 minutes; but I haven’t measuered it to be exact, I received a wonderfully smelling tea, mostly after malt, a little roastiness, but definitelly no smokiness!
Flavours were equally great, mostly noticeable was sweet maltiness, again the roastiness like a roasted oolongs are and honey-sweetness maybe because it’s bugbitten leaves. In background there were red fruit notes, but I wasn’t probably focused enough to pinpoint the exact fruit; however it was so easy and smooth to drink, I was really sad to see the bottom of the mug so fast. Luckily enough, I have enough of this left.

It’s a perfect tea for colder days as today, a cloudy day, temperatures being only around 20° C; perfect weather for a little hike or so.

Dessert pairing: Poppyseed honeycake; a much better than orginal, which is a little too sweet for me.

I have received a pouch of this tea last year when I was in P&T shop in Leipzig as a free sample. Thank you!

Sadly, this is the new version with black currant instead of figs and well, it has lost it’s uniqueness with that. When I have opened the pouch, I was struck with strong fruity note, rather reminding me more a chokeberry or rowanberry than a black currant.
However, after steeped for 3-4 minutes in a pot, I got a nice smooth black tea base, with nice fruity flavour, but sadly somehow nondescript. It wasn’t boom of black currants (they’re in season now!); also the other notes were a little more muted than when I tried as a sachet in their advent calendar.

It’s still very good though, and I would gladly drink it if offered; but as I wrote, the fig flavouring was so unique and I am deeply saddened that it disappeared. The new formula just isn’t so luxurious and “oh wow!”. For those reasons, I lower the rating from 82 to 80.

A sipdown! (M: 1 Y: 79) — prompt: Your oldest green

To be honest, I am recently bad with drinking tea; and even worse in sipdowns. We’re in the second half of July and I have just first sipdown of the month.

But it is a sipdown with a prompt!

I prepared the last of this tea in my tea pot. And turned out great, considering almost 5 years old green. Yep, it was, like I have mentioned in my first note of this tea, a little bit like a gunpowder green; slightly mineral, with notes of dry grass and hay. Very easydrinking and refreshing in (already) warm morning.

It seems to be renamed by now. It’s “Sleep Time” and I made a new listing… and then I found out this one; and their website have Snore & Peace in the address bar, but everything says “Sleep Time”. I like this old name more. Can someone remove the new listing and update name of this one? Cameron B. maybe?

I am tired. Like really tired; I almost fall asleep today afternoon in the office. Slept badly. Again. Tea to the rescue!
Mint combined with chamomile makes a good and nice combination, and combined with other herbs in this baggie it tastes like a liquid honey with a little of bitter finish. Personally, I wouldn’t mind stronger lavender and less of chamomile.

Would it help me to have a proper, nice, uninterrupted, sleep? Hopefully, but I don’t expect miracles.

Jim (aka TeaEarleGreyHot) has sent me a few teas from his stash and this is one of them, probably, the most basic one. Thank you! I had a long week, returning home around 5 pm (while leaving at 5.30 am from home); and when I have returned, I usually wanted just to take a nap and “leave me alone”. But today! Today I have returned as usual… I wanted to leave earlier, but I couldn’t as I have part-time colleague and I can not leave him alone in the warehouse.

I have returned home, so I took probably the most simple tea in my stash, if I don’t count plain tea teabags and I wanted to try something new well too.

I used 4 grams (with this parameter I can have 20 other sessions); boiling water and my favourite 300 ml glass mug. Steeped for 3 minutes or so, haven’t measured exactly, and it was just so fine! Very bold and strong cup, perfect for mornings, but afternoons alike.

There were leathery notes, combined with wood, a little bitterness and malt. Some sips were suprisingly refreshing, like in A different Eighteen … probably a wintergreen notes which were mentioned by others.

I haven’t noticed any aromas that were offputting, but I wasn’t focused on them this time.

In conclusion, I can say I like this one as I do the same region tea from Basilur. That one is missing that refreshing note, but the woody note there is more pronouced; and liked as weel as here the wintergreen note. I am going to rate it very same, with a chance to lower the rating, or vice versa.

I have absolutely no idea how this tea ended up in my cupboard. The label says it was harvested on November 7, 2020, making it four and a half years old. Remarkably, it was still in a sealed bag with no signs of age, thanks to being stored airtight, dry, and away from sunlight as directed.

Upon opening the pouch, I was greeted by a minty, creamy, and herbaceous aroma. Thankfully, there were no funky or off-putting scents. I’m still puzzled as to where that creamy note comes from.

After steeping 4 grams in 300 ml of water at approximately 80°C, the liquor was quite herbaceous and mineral. It reminded me somewhat of Touareg tea, but without the mint. This led me to think of a gunpowder tea. The leaves look very similar, so it could be a fancier name of that, but with the key difference that this one is from Ceylon instead of China.

To sum it up, it’s a fine tea, but nothing exceptional. This was more or less expected for two reasons. First, its age — even though it was stored properly. Second, it’s a Ceylon green tea, and I’ve learned during my tea journey that I don’t particularly enjoy them. Because of its age, I’ve decided not to give it a rating.

If there is a tea I would order in no-time from DAVIDsTEA, it is this tea.

Luckily for my wallet, they don’t have international shipping. Also my cupboard would probably break under the weight of all the tea.

Anyway, I just prepared it today after a pretty long time I have the pouch, thanks to Shae I believe who put it to the TTB. So, thank you!

This is a pure blueberry deliciousness, very fruity; with a good base tea, and just as expected. Nothing much else, but jammy blueberries. Not too sweet, though stevia is used; and not tart or chalky. Suprisingly refreshing in hot and muggy afternoon.

When I was preparing my gongfu tea — see my previous note of White Peony by Teawala; I was asked if I could prepare in a teapot.

Because it would be rude to say no, I decided to make this one, which is almost sipped down. I think I have last session left in the tin.

Sadly, tea in the tin is now much worse than the rest of the tin. There are only a little of buds now, and more of the bigger leaves, but sadly a bit crushed.

I prepared it in the pot, as I wrote before, and I used 5 grams. It’s recommended to use 70°C water, I did 80°C and it doesn’t seem it was a bad idea.

This one, compared to the second white tea is much more hay-like, though still very fresh hay. But I assume it is because it is much longer opened and stored in the tin (more than a year), but still very refreshing and flavourful. The aroma reminded me a hot summer day in the meadows with haybales around.
Definitely a good tea for hot days; but as usual, the tin quantity was a little too much for me. I would buy it again, but in pouch.

I just checked out and the pouch is same qty as in tin. Whoops. I guess I need to drink those 55 grams faster ;)

Note: I received Tielka teas, included in this (and following) tasting notes, free of charge in exchange for a tasting note. I will do my best to remain unbiased, but of course, I am very grateful for this opportunity.

I do have a White Peony sampler thanks to Kaylee who kindly swapped this one with me. I didn’t wanted to make a new listing for that.

Some background info from the pouch:
Picked: March 2021
Origin: Zhenghe, Fujian, China

I used 3 grams from 8 grams pouch — I wanted to use all 8 grams, but decided to follow a bit the instructions written — 3 g, 150 ml, 85°C…

My gaiwan is only 125 ml; but I was too lazy in hot days to calculate how much tea I should use.

But nevertheless, I have a wonderful tea, that invited me with aromas of muscat, white grapes and flowery aroma, while just in pouch. It was sealed very well apparently, considering it is 4 years old white tea!

And then, brewing; I have started with 10 seconds and did 10 seconds increments and sometimes just 5.
It was so flavourful, smooth and refreshing, with cucumber and muscat being the dominant flavours. As I know, that white tea, even hot can be nicely refreshing in hot days… this was like cooling me down like a little shower.

Also the visual of the tea was very nice; very fuzzy buds and one leaf; very bright green and almost silver in color.

To sum up, I am surprised this one was so flavourful despite its age, and so refreshing. It will be a shame to finish this one soon, so I guess I have to look after some good whites soon-ish.