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Delving into the box Sil sent to me awhile back, finally!
This tea was a pure pleasure to drink! Very smooth, very light, initially I thought of Genmaicha, but the roasty flavor was more like nuts, especially peanuts, instead of toasted rice, and it also features a buttery quality.
Thanks Tea Sister!! This one is a win!

I picked this tea up several months ago, during the big sales event, and am just finally getting around to it. I haven’t been in the mood to write reviews for several months, plus I wanted to sipdown some of the already opened teas that had already been reviewed multiple times, so now that’s coming along nicely, and I feel like I can open some of the newer packages. My friend Lisa came for breakfast yesterday, and it seemed like the perfect time to do so! Lisa fell in love with this tea immediately, but I wasn’t sure how I felt about it, so I’m sampling it again today, using the gongfu recommendations of:

5G + Gaiwan X 5 sec (+ 3 sec per each additional steep).

The dry leaves are tiny & very dark, with a faint aroma of tart fruit. I heated up my Gaiwan & let the leaf warm up and was rewarded with a richer, fruitier aroma, bringing memories of when I used to cook overnight wholegrain cereal in my crockpot, spiked with chunks of dried fruit, back in my Vegan days (yes I was a vegan for a long time…) The perfume is rich and sweet, tart dark plums, lychee, honey and a grainy malty toast. It rises thickly into my sinuses and lingers. There is also a peppery quality, but not enough to make me sneeze.
On with the steepings…
I’m not sure how to describe what I’m sipping, and I’m actually not sure if I like it. The first round is kind of bitter & peppery, like nasturtium leaves. It’s not what I expected at all, however by the end of the first cup a sweetness has begun to layer into my soft palate & throat with each sip, that has my mouth watering like Pavlov’s Dog. Gradually the steeps get sweeter: Lychee, dried plum, sorghum essence, a sweet incense like aroma that rises into the sinuses almost like some oolongs, but not as lingering. The color throughout is a beautiful dark orange.

The name of this tea translates as Concubine’s Smile, but this isn’t some girly girl. She’s bold, sweetly perfumed, but a little on the bitter side … like maybe she’s carrying a little vile of poison up her sleeve… you know… just in case you piss her off…

I’m finally digging into the most recent box from my Tea Sister Sil, reaching in and grabbing something randomly, and this was the sample of the day.

It’s terrible, LOL. I tried not to have an opinion up front, but I’ve tried similar things, and I knew I probably wouldn’t like it. I even tried adding a little sweetening to see if that helped, but it didn’t, at least not for me.

I should also mention that a year ago I added Nightshades to my long list of foods that I have reactions to, and so I haven’t been eating anything with potatoes, tomatoes, peppers or chili’s since then, resulting in a major improvement in my health, and although I thought I probably wouldn’t have a problem with a little tea, I was wrong. Within a few sips my cheeks started flushing, so I tried to pawn the rest of the tea off on one of my sons, and he didn’t like it either. I always hate dumping tea out, but gone are the days of me forcing myself to drink something I don’t care for! There are so many better tasting teas to drink!

Still, thanks for the opportunity Sister!

I’ve been avoiding steepster for awhile. I’m back.
YS is the company I buy the majority of my teas from, and this one is among my favorites.
Today I’m attempting to compare the Spring and Fall versions of this tea, both from 2015. So far all I can really say is that I enjoy them both, but the Spring rendition is probably preferred over the Fall. Why?
It has a sweeter taste and a creamier mouth.
Also, the Fall version is a little heavier in the kind of grassy hay-like flavor.

Having said that, I will happily drink either one of them on any day of the week!

One of my harp students, who also happens to be a friend now (most of my grown up students end up also becoming my friends) stayed for tea after her lesson today. First we shared a pot of Russian Caravan from The Tea Spot. Then I handed her my Tea Index and let her pick one. The last time she stayed for tea we ended up trying a purple black tea (I can’t remember which one), so today I answered her questions regarding puerh, shou vs sheng, purple teas, etc. Then she selected this one.

She just left, after 6 or 8 rounds in sets of 2, and I don’t really have much to say. (I hate that I’m the first to review this….really?). It’s good: nice buzz, a little bitter, a little sweet, kind of smokey, a little rough on the stomach (I had to take a break after 4 rounds to share an apple, and now after a few more rounds I’m reheating my leftover breakfast soup). There’s a nice tip of tongue numbing, sinus clearing aromatics, and though it has mostly been a savory tea, the most recent rounds are yielding a sweeter taste.

Thanks to Tea Explorer for the generous sample :)

Dark & tasty, but here’s the best part. Tony, my Man, typically doesn’t like any of the teas I drink. He has very narrow tastes, detests Laoshan Black, and almost always either drinks earl grey (ahmad brand is his fav) or Jubilee from London Tearoom (a blend of earl grey and orange). He also likes Chai. And occasionally he’ll sample what I’m drinking, deems it ‘OK’, but not that interesting. Well, he saw me opening this tin, decided to sample it, and he likes it! Seriously, I’m blown away & thrilled!

I used to have quite a few green teas in my collection, but lately it’s been narrowed down to 2: this one, and some matcha. Both will most likely be a sip downs next month, and I probably won’t restock until spring.

I just realized this post has been sitting on my desktop since yesterday! Oh well, here it is!

This really is a lovely lovely green tea, such beautiful presentation, and a sweet gentle taste: honeydew melon, asparagus, pumpkin seed, and maybe a little minerally seaweed. I’ve tried a variety of steeping methods with it, and today I dropped 15 fronds into a clear glass cup, and am just letting them float in there and sipping around them, adding more water as needed (176F).