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The third of the four Harney sample tins of oolong that I have mysteriously not written notes about previously.

The first thing I noticed about this was the leaves. They are delicate, spidery-twisty, and tippy — very visually interesting. They have a winey, almost darjeeling note to them in their dry form.

The leaves steep up lemon-yellow, with a toasty, stone-fruit aroma and flavor. Also, there’s something nutty in the flavor, rather like pecans. There’s a freshness in the aftertaste, like the feel of an evergreen needle but without the aroma and flavor of one. The flavor is surprisingly mild, no pungent or sharp notes which I would have expected given the winey aroma of the dry leaves.

The wet leaves look twiggy, dark brown, sort of like the nest of a tiny bird. If they were fluffier they’d look like pipe tobacco. Steep 2 has a darker liquor, more toward amber, and a very peachy fragrance. The tea at first seems to remain surprisingly mild with a soft mouthfeel, but there’s a sharpness to the finish that isn’t quite a throat grab.

Fortunately, the sharpness receded by steep three and the mildness returned. A lovely floral note emerged in steep 4, as did a buttery mouthfeel. Still flavorful and soft in steep 5, and continued to be mild and peachy/pecany/aromatic.

Although I prefer green oolongs, this is a really nice dark one.

Also, I’ve caught 2 shiny beldums (beldi?) so far…

I don’t want to get too excited here, but it is possible I am getting to close the point where I will have tasted all of the flavored oolongs in my stash and written about them. I’m finding them harder and harder to locate in the as yet untasted category in my Steepster cupboard.

When I get to that point, I am thinking I may move on to the relatively few flavored pu erhs I have.

But meanwhile, I’m trying this one today. Pineapple and coconut, tropical staples, and a green oolong. The dry mix smells about 1 part pineapple to 2 parts coconut. But both flavors smell like good representatives. Not fakey fakey, in any case. Which is exactly what I’d expect from Lupicia because they give good flavor.

Rinse, short steeps, etc. for this first getting to know you session. Light butter yellow liquor.

A pleasant surprise after steep 1 (15 sec): the floral aspect of the tea base comes through nicely. It’s about equally prevalent with the pineapple and coconut, which are now at about 1/3 each after steeping. And that’s pretty much how they taste, as well.

Steep 2, 20 sec. The leaves have unfurled and are now filling the gaiwan. The three components I noticed in steep 1 are still there in equal parts. The coconut may be slightly less, but that’s ok. Coconut is a pretty strong flavor and can tend to take over. Not here. There is something really wonderful about this. I’ve had a lot of teas with these flavors, and none of them have struck me as so nicely balanced. I particularly love that I can taste the oolong in and among the flavors, in all its buttery and floral glory. When the tea is gone, the cup smells like sweet cream.

Steep 3, 25 seconds. This may be the exception to the rule that flavored oolongs don’t need to go through multiple short steeps. Because this one somehow manages to keep the tea base front and center. The pineapple, coconut, and oolong flavors are still present in equal parts, and aren’t really losing much flavor. The buttery, creamy quality is developing nicely.

Steep 4, 30 sec. The non-tea flavors start to wane, but the tea is still tasty. The wet leaf smells like a damp forest, with an interesting evergreen note. Fir-like.

Remaining steeps — 35, 40, 45. The tea flavor starts to wane but is lovely till the end. The leaves, when completely unfurled, overflowed the gaiwan.

I’ve had a run of great luck with teas I’ve tried lately and this didn’t blow the streak.

How am I the first to write a note about this tea?

As those of you who have read my notes over lo these many years know, I am a huge fan of jasmine green tea. Huge. Many people are saying. Big league.

I think I was saving this one because it smelled so awesome in the packet. By awesome, I mean that it smells very much like jasmine flowers, not like painted-on jasmine flavor.

That is also the case after steeping. It’s definitely jasmine flowers. There’s something even slightly nectary and polleny about the aroma. Bingo. The tea is clear and golden yellow.

And wow, it tastes just like it smells.

I am in love.

It has been a long time since I’ve had a Moroccan mint tea. My favorite in the genre is Samovar’s Moorish Mint, and I remember it being exquisite. Damn near perfect, really.

From the moment I opened my tin of this, though, I thought it was a definite contender. A wonderful minty smell — but not too minty, not so minty that it overpowers everything and makes your eyes water. It smells to me like spearmint rather than peppermint — which makes sense because I think that is what is typically used in Moroccan mint tea. But it is also a gentler mint in general, and tends to blend better. I also smell the bergamot, which is a nice touch — it cuts through any tendency the mint might have had to be overpowering.

The tea steeps to a pretty, apricot color with some suspension in it and smells divinely minty (but not overpoweringly so). The bergamot has a heightening effect that’s hard to describe. It’s like a freshening effect, I guess.

The flavor is gently minty with slight bit of citrus around the edges. The tea base is a juicy, vegetal green that peeks through every now and then.

It is not as perfect as Samovar’s. But it is quite good.

February in October!

Back from the fun run. I plan to give the PTA a piece of my mind because this year there was NO COFFEE at the finish line. Plus, I wasn’t about to eat the coffee cake, muffins, and other assorted carbs, or drink the juice.

So I must have caffeine and I must have it now. Tea and chocolate. Score!

I think Harney does a really nice chocolate tea, and that’s mostly what I smell in the tin. Amazingly, because the chocolate is so rich, I smell a tiny touch of rose as well.

The tea is a dark, clear copper color, and smells like a rich chocolate tea with a floral overtone. The rose is quite subtle, which is a good thing in this case. Too much rose on top of very rich chocolate could be a stomach churner.

Amazing flavor! Just the right amount of rose to lift up the chocolate and make it interesting.

I feel like I’ve been rating things high lately. Maybe it’s my mood.

Or maybe it’s just that the teas have been really, really good.

Saw A Star is Born last night with the BF. It’s what everyone says it is, but I’m still generally annoyed with remakes. This morning we have No. 2’s fun run fundraiser at school, but it’s questionable whether we’ll make it because I’m the only one awake and it’s in about half an hour…

This tea has a creamy vanilla scent in the tin with an earthy undertone. I expected it to be more beany, but we’ll see if that changes with steeping.

And it does! Steeping makes a dark, reddish-brown tea that smells like a rich, beany vanilla. This carries over into the flavor, which is also beany vanilla.

Sometimes I can get a chocolate note out of vanilla, but I’m not getting that here.

The base is pleasantly Yunnan-esque.

A great exemplar of its kind. But I’m guessing Upton no longer has it because artificial flavoring.

I’ve been looking forward to trying this for ever! It has such love here on Steepster.

I am making myself put this through short steeps in the gaiwan, even though I suspect that as a flavored oolong it’s not necessary to go through the trouble. I know not everyone views going through short steeps as trouble, too, so don’t hate on me for that, k?

The smell out of the packet is of amazingly juicy peaches. It’s a pretty tea, too (see picture at top).

The first steep (15 seconds, 195F) is a butter yellow color and clear and it smells like — white peaches! It’s pretty amazing how they were able to get the flavor to be so specific. Not just a generic peach approximation, but a definite variety. Wow. I have to say that pouchong is an especially effective flavor delivery vehicle. I’ve generally been impressed with flavored pouchongs. The tea has a soft mouthfeel and a lightness that isn’t weakness but is more a general uplift. It doesn’t weigh you down. The smell in the cup after the tea is gone is amazingly confectionery. Like some sort of very light pastry, a meringue maybe.

Second steep, 20 sec. Smoother than the first go around, with the peach flavor very much in the fore. Very mild and easy on the stomach.

Third steep, 25 sec. Not really. I got distracted (no. 1 called) and it steeped for longer than 25 seconds. I don’t know how long, exactly. It could have been as much as a minute.

But in any case, it’s more peachy goodness. And something that is slightly like coconut!

As peach flavored teas go, this is a star. As flavored oolongs go, this is also a star. Rating accordingly.

This is the second of four sample tins from Harney that I seem to have never written notes about.

The leaves on this one are beautiful — long, twisty, and chocolate brown. In the tin they smell roasty, smoky even.

Gave them a rinse and then started at 15 seconds in the gaiwan at 195F, increasing by 5 seconds.

The tea is clear and golden and smells, unexpectedly, floral. There’s a sweetness that reminds me of brown sugar. Or maybe dark honey. But also a toastiness that wafts in and out among the other aromas.

The flavor is sweet and toasty-woody, and much milder than I would have expected. No sharp edges. I sort of understand the note that likened this to cannabis, though I am not really getting more than a hint of that. I do get some peach, though I wouldn’t call it juicy.

Second steep, 20 sec. A little darker all around. The liquor is closer to amber, the floral (lily of the valley? lilac?) is deeper and more polleny, the smokiness more prevalent amid the roastiness. Some stone fruit, woody pit notes.

Third steep, 25 sec. Interesting. The sugar and the stonefruit finally came together for me in this steep and I am definitely getting peach in the aroma. And in the flavor, too, though not as strongly. Also, a nutty note. Ashmanra said walnuts. Yep, that’s what I get, too!

Fourth steep, 30 sec. I am looking at the list of flavors I’ve identified so far and am realizing how complex this tea is. It’s still going well on the fourth steep, though starting to get that crispness to the flavor that signifies it may be soon giving up the ghost. Still tasty, though.

I am, however, going to stop here because:

(a) I am impatient to get back to binge watching The Wire
(b) I am impatient to move on to the last caffeinated tea of the day
© I am generally impatient
(d) all of the above

Choose your own adventure.

I need some advice from green tea drinkers on what to try next. What’s your go-to green tea these days?

I’m getting a little excited because I’m pretty close to having at least tasted all of the green teas in my stash. Not counting matcha, that is.

Of course, that doesn’t mean I’ll be sipping them all down any time soon, but it does mean I can start thinking about what I might want to get more of and what else I might want to try.

I’d love to have input on what I ought to try when I’m close enough to order, which should be in the next few months at this rate.

So again I ask — what is your go-to green tea? What shouldn’t I miss when I come out of lock down?

I have been enjoying the Silk Road teas in my stash. This one has a sweet, hay-like fragrance in the dry leaf that replicates itself in the steeped tea’s aroma. The tea is golden yellow and clear. It has a sort of rosy tint that is interesting.

The tea has a vegetal flavor that reminds me of asparagus. I just had some for lunch, and it was amusing to be reminded of my lunch so quickly after drinking this tea. I swear, it was funnier than I made it sound.

The aftertaste is nutty, a little like raw almonds.

It’s a gentle, happy green tea.

Sipdown no. 115 of 2018 (no. 471 total).

I took this to work with me during days 3 and 4 of the offsite, and Friday (which was no longer officially the offsite but was a slow day because everyone was traveling back to their respective locations).

It remains not a favorite though it was serviceable enough as a take it to work tea.

One day I’ll have to try a Mirabelle plum to see whether this really does taste like them.