34 Tasting Notes

92

Ah….I had been saving this for a rainy day – which turned out to be day 1 of 3 days of back to back meetings… Too bad it’s only a sample because it is really good! Heavy on the floral notes, but I like that in a green oolong. It kind of reminds me of an orchid oolong I loved a while back but can’t find anymore. Perhaps this one is a new contender.

Flavors: Flowers, Orchids

Preparation
195 °F / 90 °C 0 min, 30 sec 1 tsp 2 OZ / 59 ML

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90
drank Lavender White Tea by One Love Tea
34 tasting notes

The lavender is really strong in this one! Which is a good thing of course. Steeped up great – not bitter or anything, just tasty lavendery goodness. This place is local for me – they had a Living Social coupon which was cool. The building was kind of hard to find but so far it’s been worth it!

Preparation
195 °F / 90 °C 3 min, 0 sec

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84
drank Earl Grey Smoky by Kusmi Tea
34 tasting notes

Apparently mixing two types of tea I don’t really like gives me a tea that is actually pretty good! This one really surprised me. I’m not a big fan of Earl Greys, and smokey teas are even farther down the list, but for whatever reason when they’re mixed it’s pretty tasty – might even make my “should actually try again list”. Thanks ToiToi for the sample!

Preparation
195 °F / 90 °C 4 min, 0 sec

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86
drank Southern Belle by DAVIDsTEA
34 tasting notes

Got a sample of this over the weekend from Awkward Soul (thanks!) over the weekend at our OC meetup! And I am resolving to do better about logging swaps so samples don’t disappear into oblivion. :P

I steeped this one hot, because I apparently don’t read directions. It was good though. In a word – peachy. I wasn’t expecting the yogurt chips to dissolve so much so it was a little surprising when I poured opaque tea. I have a bit of the sample left so I’m going to try it over ice next time

Preparation
195 °F / 90 °C 4 min, 0 sec

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89

Thanks Pekko Teas for the sample! It felt more like getting a gift than a tea sample with the tissue paper and gold packaging :P

Loved this tea – this is the third time I’ve made it. The second time I steeped it a bit too long and it got bitter — I think the sweet spot is definitely closer to the 3 1/2 min mark. It has a bit of the floral-y sweetness of a Darjeeling (I could call it muscatel but I would be lying if I said I knew exactly what that meant for the flavor). Definitely an afternoon tea for me – not quite as heavy as my Assams or Yunnan blacks – which today is a good thing.

I enjoyed this while working outside on my laptop and listening to variations on one of my favorite songs, Canon in D. Yay Friday!

Preparation
195 °F / 90 °C 3 min, 30 sec

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90

Thanks Nature’s Tea Leaf for such a generous sample!

I steeped this a bit hotter than the recommended time (since that’s what my zojirushi was set to for today). I used to not be such a fan of silver needle — I remember the first time I tried it I felt kind of guilty that I didn’t see what the fuss was all about, but lately I’ve done a 180 on that. I love how it can be vegetal and sweet, full-bodied and light, and stand up to my mildly abusive work-steeping habits.

Fresh and flavorful :)

Preparation
195 °F / 90 °C 3 min, 0 sec
Babble

I used to think silver needle was too light but I just don’t think I was using enough leaf. Glad to see we both are coming around to white tea.

Meeka

I’ve done the same thing – I think in part because I want to make the tea last forever :P

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89

So this is the last of my TeaVivre samples from waaaay too long ago, and the only one that I hadn’t tried yet. In between getting those samples and now, we have moved to Southern California, land of perpetual sun and practically no rain (at least so far – I’ve been here since June and he’s been here since March). This pu-erh reminds me of autumn rainyness, without — as I saw in an amusing assesment of ripe pu-erh elsewhere — tasting like hamsters. The closest we’ve come to that after-rain smell here is from the sprinkler system that runs at 4 am every morning in our apartment complex. The tuochas are also a tiny bit bigger than some of the others I’ve seen, so I was able to get away with shorter steeping times for more steepings.

Preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 0 min, 30 sec

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86

I’m not getting a lot of smokiness with this tea like some of the other review, but it’s definitely a sturdy tea. I rationed out this sample in my group of tea to drink on those “oh my god I think I got hit by a train” mornings. Especially for the price – this is worth keeping around

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88

Another in my backlog of teas that I have been drinking but not logging…(going to be a long list) This one is probably one of the best Long Jings I’ve had – the best one being in a tea shop a couple years ago, and I’m not sure where they got it from. This isn’t too nutty or smoky, and it’s also not overly sweet.

Preparation
190 °F / 87 °C 3 min, 0 sec

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Profile

Bio

I’m a 25 year old software developer working from home in (mostly) sunny Southern California. The best part of it all is being able to use my zojirushi for an endless supply of tea…mwahahaha….

I drink mostly pure green, oolong and black tea – but I have been known to fall in love with the occasional flavored tea (I’m looking at you, Lupica Melon Oolong).

My rating scale is rather arbitrary, since I find it kind of hard to compare teas on a numerical scale. The text part is much more useful…provided I can figure out how to describe the tea.

The rest of my time I spend in yoga, zumba, hanging out with my beagle and husband, cooking, reading, trying to learn to draw, and attempting to not play Skyrim. I’m never going to finish that one.

The only teas I stay away from are rooibos, since that gives me a weird headache thing. Other than that, I’ll try anything once.

Location

Aliso Viejo, CA

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