I tried this last night in my little gaiwan, but I think I need more practice before I start writing notes about teas I made using it. I’m not convinced I used the right amount of leaves, for starters. Plus, I meant to look up steeping times as I know for the little gaiwans they’re pretty short. I just sort of winged it.
Today I’m going for more formality. This is another sample, I believe from the first set rather than the second. This one had been segregated into my oolong box and it wasn’t until I decided to be systematic about my TeaFrog tastings that I went looking for all of my remaining samples and found this one.
The leaves look similar in color to the Upton Formosa in its oolong sampler. There are some things that look like stems among the leaves, and some of the leaves are small and mulch like, but others are larger and more distinctively curly. I couldn’t really tell what they smelled like in the sample packet (in previous notes I’ve mentioned I have run into some trouble as the packets seem to have taken on the smell of the strongest smelling sample that they were packaged with. Unfortunately for me, I had very strong smelling fruit tisanes in each of my sample orders and now I smell fruit in all the sample packets even if it isn’t there…)
The tea brews to a dark amber, and smells toasty with fruity notes. After tasting, the aroma became more defined and yes, I can get a peachy note. It’s not a strong, fruity taste like a flavored peach tea, but it is reminiscent of the nut of the peach.
Second steep, three minutes. A sweetness has come out on this steep that mingles with the toastiness.
Third steep, four minutes. Still nice, but I’m not seeing a tremendous development from the last steep to this.
This was a pleasant and tasty drink, but it didn’t blow me away. I think if I didn’t already have some of the Upton Formosa samples I might be tempted, but this one didn’t surpass those or the Golden Moon for me.
I got the Canadian Berries with my sampler order and I have the same “smell leak” with my other bags. I’m grateful that it’s not affecting the taste, but I’m sad that I can’t get the true smell-o-leaves from sniffing the packets.