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Ok, I’ve been trying to think of how to describe this tea, and this is the best I’ve got: Lipton, if it tasted better, and was slightly sweet. The leaves themselves are dark green with small pieces of what I’m assuming are the osmanthus flowers. It’s kind of fascinating because the flavor is SO familiar and yet different at the same time. If you’re a fan of oolongs, samples of this are inexpensive from Upton. It’s worth a try just to see the amazing variations within Chinese oolongs.

A short and unsophisticated little note about this tea:
Our housemate doesn’t like hot beverages, but does like looking at the tea I make, so earlier this week I found a nice cheap pitcher to make iced tea for him. Last night I brewed up my sample of this as iced tea, and we both tried it today.
Success! Not a lot of sophisticated flavor, but as an iced tea it’s very refreshing, and reminds me of those bottled ItoEn teas that are all over San Francisco. They all taste the same to me even though they’re supposed to be different teas.
The housemate is happy and has been enjoying cups of iced tea today!

I finally got around to brewing up my sample of this, and Rayn and I each had a cup with lunch. It was so delicious! We both loved the creaminess and heavy ginger flavor (especially since our soup had fresh ginger in it). Our only regret was not having more of this tea to make with coconut milk.
Rayn has really fallen for the Chocolate Phoenix Chai as well, and I asked him which he would like to get more of if I put in another order. He said hmmm…both? What a helper. ;)

This is my first time trying a Korean green tea, but for flavor I’d give it a solid B. Beautiful dark green leaves unfold when this tea steeps. I confess I ignored Upton’s directions to steep this for 3 minutes(!) and only let it steep for 1 minute. I think the flavor is fairly pronounced at just a minute, so I can hardly imagine what 3 would be like!
This is a slightly grassy green with a hint of bitterness, which I tend to like. The flavor is really vegetal and I definitely taste seaweed and a hint of the corn mentioned in the description. Overall this is a smooth green with a slightly sweet aftertaste. I think I’d probably drink this again. :)

Two things today, tea and a rant. I’m writing about tea first so anyone who wants to skip the rant may do so. ;)

Tea: I like this! It’s very grassy and slightly bitter, similar to a sencha but a little more toasty tasting. My brain is preoccupied tonight so nothing more to say about this tea for now, which brings me to…

The rant: I took my last midterm today. It was a literature identification quiz, for non English literature majors this is something I probably have to do at least once a quarter/semester. A professor gives you a portion of a text and you have to identify the title, author, and sometimes the date they wrote it or date it was published. Last year I took an Elizabethan poetry class where I got A’s on both tests (out of at least 30 sonnets to remember and some other texts).
The professor said she felt this test would be “quite easy”. I honestly have no idea how I did. She only gave us 1-2 lines, or in the case of the novels we read, 1-2 sentences from which we had to identify the title and author.
She wrote an email a few hours later stating most people did poorly, and she didn’t know why. I wrote back to her (and apparently a number of other people did as well) stating 1-2 lines is really an unrealistic expectation. Her response is that she would “come up with a plan of action to boost this situation” and that all the lines were things she discussed or read out loud in class, so if we studied we should have been able to recognize it.
Well, I know a professor I’m never taking a class from again.

Now, rant hat off! Thanks for letting me blow out some steam, Steepster.

The first steep is a bit weak, but promising. The liquid is a dark yellow with a strong floral scent. The flavor is very floral and I can definitely taste the lilac note, along with a bit of buttery-ness and cinnamon. Nice mouthfeel on this oolong as well! I’d consider this a decent everyday oolong.

Studying for my last midterm tonight, and so relieved that they’re almost over. The professor said our test tomorrow won’t even take the whole class period (75 minutes), so that’s promising as well. :)

Decided to give this another try tonight. I feel like it smells really promising, a lot of strong floral notes wafting up from the cup. The flavor just doesn’t stand out.
I was also thinking today that I’d rather hand out a “grade” for a tea than a set number; so this would get a C+. The tea also starts going bitter as it gets cold.

Having a cup of this to unwind after a long day of school. I love the toasty flavor of genmaicha. When I was a young girl we always had tea in the house, and my mom was really fond of green and white tea. I think that actually made her a progressive tea drinker for back then (late 80s/early 90s). Some cups of tea remind me of curling up on the couch with a book and a cup of tea, watching the rain outside and listening to it splash against the roof.

Good genmaicha is one of those teas. I have really enjoyed all of the teas I’ve tried from Verdant and I think the quality is excellent for the price.

This is good! Not super impressive, but like the pouchong from Adagio for the price it’s not bad.
This is a vegetal and grassy cup of green, and unlike the description the liquid in my cup was closer to a pale green than yellow. This actually reminds me more of a good sencha than dragonwell. It’s a bit sweet.

Note: don’t eat some kimchi right before you taste tea. It takes awhile to actually taste the tea!

Ok, and now about 10 minutes later…
This has a very faint floral scent and a nice buttery flavor. It reminds me a bit of some green teas with a bit of vegetal flavor on top of the butteriness. It’s not the most amazing pouchong I’ve ever had but for the price it’s pretty decent! Nice understated florals. I think the 2nd steep may end up impressing me a bit more.