Featured & New Tasting Notes

Grabbed this very old sample from the final “Here’s Hoping Teabox” which occured right around the time I joined Steepster (thanks to all participants that added tea and tea-sipper for organizing!) Finally drinking this for my “one gong fu session a month” goal.

80ml (shiboridashi) | 4.15g | 205F | Rinse/10s/15s/20s/25s/30s/35s/40s/45s/50s

I gave the tea a pretty long rinse while I was getting all the gong fu stuff ready. The leaf had a very sharp and somewhat bitter wet hay aroma afterwards, which presented in the rinse liquid. My first infusion is more mellow, though (which I prefer) so maybe a long rinse is to my benefit. There is a bit of that grassy/hay quality in the aroma, but it is very floral, and lacking the sharpness. It tastes like a pollen-heavy floral nectar, chased by a little grassy/hay note, and just a hint of bitter melon. The second infusion smells delightfully floral with a bit of a fruity undertone, and a new gold raisin flavor is presenting in the flavor, with an apricot/nectarine sort of stonefruit aftertaste. A green tea sort of beany/smoky note lingers on my tongue, as well. Went through nine infusions before the liter of water I’d heated was out so I wrapped up there, but I think it could’ve given even more.

Another restock of an old favorite! This one is full of large coconut shavings and smells just like gingersnap cookies. It’s nice to have it back in my tea cabinet again. If Satori ever goes out of business, I’ll be so sad. They have so many good blends!

(I think I have the 2020 harvest of this tea, but I’m not certain of the year.)
I love a complex black tea. This one is both fruity and smoky without being overwhelming, reminds me of applewood smoke. Moderate body. Carries a variety of flavors that are all distinct but blend together really well, I’m struggling to describe it – it’s like the brushstrokes in a Turner painting, individually they’re fuzzy and muddled but together they form a clear picture. Towards the end the tea becomes pleasantly bitter in a way that makes me salivate. This one deserves paying attention to.

Coldbrew is soooooooo the way to go with this herbal tea. I wish I had a decent coldbrew bottle for it, and am tempted to use my amazon gift money on a Hario Filter. They always look so pretty. I really shouldn’t because two of my tumblers do have cold brew filter capabilities, and one of the ones I am getting will, but they are a pain in the butt to clean. Anyone have any experience with the Hario Filter bottles? Easy cleaning is the big draw in for me, and if having one means I go through my loose leaf like this faster because I’m cold brewing, all the better.

I will try it again hot, but it’s so much creamier and sweeter cold. Instead of overripe near rotting fruit for me, it’s fresher cold and I really like it. Now to see how the Pandan waffle does.

I can definitely taste the caramel here, but the black base isn’t very good. Once it cools, the caramel flavor becomes quite strong and tasty at first, but then it settles into a sort of weird fake tang. It’s still decent with milk, and it genuinely tastes like salted caramel. Thanks tea-and-cats!

Reaching for a favorite today. Its chocolatey goodness never fails. So reliably good.

Another from Kawaii433! Thanks so much! I was curious why ‘Duck’ happens to be in the name for this, and it looks like the description says that ducks like this rice? hmm. So it’s a decent genmaicha then, with a memorable name. :D A balance of popped rice and green tea. It was never astringent for me, but I was really being careful with the parameters. Everything here that I love about a great genmaicha. I wanted that toasty comfort yesterday, on probably one of the last cooler days of the spring. And for my no caff choice today, Bird & Blend’s Figgy Pud for that same reason. Now it will be hot out today!
Steep #1 // 1 teaspoon for a full mug // 50 minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep
Steep #2 // 30 minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep

This is so good. I don’t like coffee, but this blend somehow takes the best things from coffee while leaving out the worst. So it’s totally like having a coffee latte, but the perfect version for me. The hint of spices could be snickerdoodle – they’re certainly desserty and tasty. Thanks for introducing me to this company tea-and-cats! I will almost certainly have to purchase more.

From Kawaii433 a couple months ago now.  From my wishlist!  Thank you so much!  The first of the new ones that Kawaii sent over that I’m trying. I hope both you and Pachinko are doing okay, Kawaii… 
I love a good banana tea and this is that.  However, I was wondering about the fudge part of the name… I can’t really taste any chocolate, so I started to wonder if they meant not a chocolate fudge, but like a fudge that only tastes like banana… you know, how sometimes a fudge isn’t actually chocolate and there are different flavors, for example: maple fudge.   The only time I really experienced fudge was during a vacation in the Adirondacks, and tried many odd flavors of fudge, so I know different flavors are a real thing!  So maybe this is just straight BANANA fudge… but no.  After reading the description, Arthur Dove does mean chocolate.  ANYWAY, who needs chocolate flavor when this banana flavor is so so good?  Not quite candy banana, but also not quite plain natural banana. But this is one of the great banana teas if I’m not aiming for also chocolate!
Steep #1 // 1 heaping teaspoon for full mug // 29 minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep
Steep #2 // 2-3 minutes after boiling // 3 minute steep

Sipdown!
As others have said, this a pretty nice strawberry chocolate tea. Sadly, not much hazelnut and no pancakes at all.

After seeing all of the rave reviews for Wang Family Tea on this site, I finally pulled the trigger and placed an order last November. Picked up 25g each of Gangkou, Lishan, Shan Lin Xi, and Long Feng Xia. I’m happy to report that all of them were outstanding and having experienced these teas, I get the hype for this vendor now.

Gangkou is the first tea I tried and the sole low elevation tea of the bunch. Wang Tea’s website describes it as having five flavors: sour, sweet, salty, bitter, and spicy. Indeed, this was the wildest one of the bunch as the flavors are all over the place. The website recommends a high leaf to water ratio and “heavily boiling water“ to steep. Despite my better judgement I followed their steeping parameters initially.

Overall, this was a complex and enjoyable tea although a bit challenging at times due to how unpredictable and inconsistent it is.

My final tea of the second pass through the May Sipdown Prompts – a tea with unique or unusual ingredients.

This tea is jam packed full of goodies, but the unique thing about it is that they feature Smoky Assam prominently in the ingredient list and in the description, but it simply isn’t there in taste. The taste is mostly oolong with fruit.

A decadent and delicious tea!

James pulled a couple of teas from the TTB that he really liked, and since I haven’t tried them yet I thought I’d have a cup of each today. This one was from Inkling, I believe. I’m not a fan of green teas in general (broken record, I know), but this one does smell really nice and has fruit in it so maybe I’ll like it.

I don’t. :/

It’s vaguely fruit and somewhat nutty, but mostly just tastes like a plain green tea. James really likes it though, so I know someone will be enjoying it.

For my second trip through the May prompts I am choosing this one as the tea that reminds me of myself.

Magnolias grow best in the Southeast and I have never lived anywhere else, and seldom traveled out of that realm. In fact, I have lived for over fifty years within walking distance of the hospital where I was born.

That also tells something else I have in common with this tea. We are both a bit older! Not sure of the age on this one but Tea Ave sadly went out of business a while back – before the pandemic, even. And I am old enough to be the mom of nearly everyone on Steepster.

The tea is still very enjoyable, and has lots of flavor, and I will enjoy the one remaining cup very much. Hopefully, I am not yet past my usefulness, too!

I like magnolia flavor very much, and I think this tea was my first exposure to it. It is floral yet I think people who dislike some florals could like this one. I don’t detect anything that could be thought of as bubble bath the way some people feel jasmine can, and I feel badly done jasmine can. It is a lower floral note where I think of jasmine as quite high but soothing. It is less oily and powerful than rose to me, although I love rose.

I think it is a happy medium in the realm of floral flavors in tea.

Although I bought some long ago, this particular pouch was a gift from White Antlers. If you see this, thank you again and we miss you!

Received this one from Shae in the Spring Tea Swap. Unfortunately the blueberry flavor is kind of overshadowed by a bitter taste for me even after adding some sweetener.

Iced tea!

Currently sipping on this one with a nice splash of creamer added to it since the office was out of milk today. It’s pretty black tea forward today with a strong malty/bready quality complimented by softer notes of blanched almond/almond paste and a tiny bit of raspberry in the undertone. I’m thinking I might add a little bit of sweetener since I’m finding the flavours a little muted and I’d like them to pop a bit more, but it’s a pleasant cup overall and making for a smooth refreshing drink this morning.

Tea #2 from the AJRimmer advent!
I love anything even remotely Earl Grey and this was a nice delicate cream Earl Grey so I was a fan! Sadly it’s all gone now

I got this one from the TTB and I’m quite enjoying it! It’s nice and creamy with a decent vanilla flavor and some hints of coconut. I haven’t been able to try many flavored black teas due to their usual high caffeine content, but this one says it’s low caffeine. Makes me wish I could try more black teas because many of the interesting flavors I’ve seen seem to use a black tea base!

This is a pleasant caramel chestnut flavor. It’s rather light but has a cozy comforting flavor near the end of the sip and the aftertaste. I may order more of this after finishing my sample.

I love this tea.

It’s been a while since I last had it, but my word does it taste beautifully like sweet creamy persimmons! Like… mandarin orange, honey, and sweet tomatoes kind of all rolled into one but with a hint of creamy yogurt/white chocolate flavour and the nice honeyed graham notes of the base. It’s so good!

Oh heck yes! I’m a sucker for dessert teas, and this one is inspired by one of my favorite baked goods of all time. My mom makes a killer lemon loaf (we called it a “tea cake” when I was a kid) and as such, the nostalgia factor is through the roof with this tea.

I snagged a couple bags from the TTB and my partner and I brewed them up last night. He was handling the prep while I read on the couch, and I heard an audible “mmm” when he sniffed the bag. We were both expecting the brewed tea to fall short compared to the aroma, but happily, it doesn’t. It truly does taste like the essence of a lemon loaf has been distilled into tea: creamy, lemony, and pound cakey, with a hint of vanilla and the suggestion of sweetness without sugar. Love it. I wouldn’t say no to a bit more zestiness (I like my lemon loaves sharp!). I might have to pick up a box and tinker with adding some lemon.

The takeaway: Bagged teas can still delight and surprise. :)

This is a nice EG. The bergamot is strong, and the black tea is high quality. There’s almost a creamy/vanilla flavor, but maybe that’s my imagination. It was better warm the first day, but it was decent cold the second day too. The resteep was good. I wouldn’t necessarily seek this out over other versions, but it’s tasty.

The dry aroma is a mix of white and black tea. The woody earthiness of a black mixed with the farm and barn qualities of a white. Hay and bits of alfalfa. The wet leaf smells of squash. Perhaps closer to an acorn squash? The liquor color is golden orange. Almost a dark amber. The flavor is a bit nutty but the woody overtones prevail the strongest. Decaying woods. I love how the leaves change from dark chocolate when dry to light brown when wet. Do you play with your tea? If not you should. This Jin Jun Mei is especially fun because you can unroll the leaves to find each separate leaf. Two leaves and a bud. And those glories trichomes on the bud. There are trichomes on the instead of the bag as well. Lively body and the finish remain with a slight mineral sweetness like rocks and twigs. Burnt my finger while writing this. Now to grab the cake with proper cake grabbing gloves.

All this time, I thought this blend was a coconut and lavender EG. Turns out, there isn’t any lavender at all! Not sure why I had that in my head, but that’s definitely the reason I tend to avoid this one. I can do lavender on occasion and it’s sometimes nice in an Earl Grey blend, but I hardly ever really want to drink it. Now that I know this one doesn’t have lavender, maybe I can bring myself to finally finish the bag. I got lured in by the “only available once a month!” marketing strategy, and now I have 2 or 3 ounces of it. It’s good but not a repurchase. Not unless I change my mind between now and the bottom of the bag.