I could smell this tea the minute I opened the mailing envelope. It has a smoky aroma, even the dry leaf does. The dry leaf is a very pretty silver green. Here’s a pic, but it doesn’t really show the silver effect well:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/97273956@N03/16296255385/

When I brewed it up, there was an old man tobacco smell. No other way to describe that. ;)

The tea had a warming effect on me from the first sip…interesting. I gong fu-brewed it as usual. About the third steep or so, it tasted like grilled veggies, which turned into a grilled meat flavor. According to JalamTeas, they make a soup out of this tea with garlic…I can see why that would go well together. The grilled veggie/meat flavor was kind of good, and I’m a vegetarian!

This is a tea that I probably would have hated when I first started drinking loose leaf, but I really like it! It does sweeten up like most shengs, but in much later steeps. The smoky grill flavor is nice for a cold day like today.

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Another profile facelift! My tastes have changed a lot from when I first discovered loose leaf tea.

I can trace my tea journey back to October 2012, when I discovered DavidsTea. Before that, I had the occasional cup and enjoyed high tea at An Afternoon to Remember, which has since closed.

I went through a period of wanting to try all the teas, and was really into flavored teas, especially dessert blacks, but my tastes have substantially changed over time.

I still enjoy the occasional flavored black or rooibos, but I’m more into unflavored black teas right now and recently, puerh. Chinese black teas are amazing…with their notes of chocolate or sweet potato, who needs a flavored tea? I had a much steeper learning curve when it came to puerh. I used to dump out cups of puerh for tasting like leather. Now, I am really enjoying them. I think it took finding good quality puerh and steeping them gong fu style to really enjoy them.

I also, on occasion, enjoy a good oolong, white, or green tea.

Favorite tea companies right now include: Mandala, Teavivre, Butiki, Golden Moon, Lupicia, and DavidsTea (for teaware mostly).

Just a note: I don’t rate my teas numerically because my iPad doesn’t like the scroll bar. Maybe someday that will change…hint hint, steepster! ;)

P.S. My profile picture is of one of my 2 cats, Holly, who is a little princess but very photogenic, and she loves boxes, including those that bring me tea! :)

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San Francisco Bay Area

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