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8:10 pm Monday Indianapolis, IN

Sometimes you just really love a tea. I really loved this stuff for whatever reason.

Smelled the malt from the first steep.

Tasted smooth honey and almost sheng puer-like earthiness.

A light, fudgy rich aftertaste.

Right now this is at the top of my to buy black tea list. 100!

10:55 am Sunday Indianapolis, IN

Reviewing my first tea from the dark matter group buy.

I seem to be getting into the habit of only reviewing a tea when I find something about it that I don’t prefer. I must like being the bad guy ; ) or I am too picky. Or I don’t want to see you get burned if you buy a tea because you read only good reviews, but then are stuck with something you may not like for a reason no one mentioned.

And this tea is the first one I would not recommend. It’s not that bad, but I tasted a very off putting taste in the first couple steeps, which ruined most of the following steeps for me. It could have just been me (my friend enjoyed the tea) or it could have been my batch, as this can happen.

I started off gongfu-ing this for 4 steeps. Then went into 10 min, 20 min, 30 min steeps. I would recommend brewing with western parameters. It made the weird chemically taste that I have tasted before, but can’t describe, seem less noticeable. It was either the roast (is this tea roasted?) or the high level of oxidation. First rounds very noticeable, last three less noticeable. The off flavor never totally went away.

One thing I did like, the smell towards the end was like real oatmeal raisin cookies. I did like that. I plan to experiment more with oxidized and roasted teas in the future.

1:03 pm Sunday Indianapolis, IN

Yeah I’m going to keep doing the sunny setting at the beginning of my reviews.

Theoretically this is a good tea, right? It’s sweet and delicious. I get that. I didn’t like the smokey flavor and the burning feeling on my throat. It was a little rough. It almost felt like inhaling smoke. I would love this tea if there was a way I could filter this feeling from the tea.

There are plenty of positives though that outweigh the smidgen of negatives. Like I said it is tasty. I like the flavor. I like the qi. Good to good+ amount of qi. I’m feeling stimulated but mostly calm and relaxed. Similar to how the fade makes me feel, but a little more drunk. Several huigans, but nothing crazy. A little bitter but nothing crazy. Maybe that is why people have called it a ‘middle of the road’ puer.

It is cheap enough ($.18/gram) to consider picking up a cake or two and waiting a few years to see if it gets rid of the smokey, throat scratch/burn feeling. But since the tea is this old and still exhibits this, I probably won’t buy more to find out.

4:46 am Saturday Indianapolis, IN

I have been drinking this for about an hour and felt compelled to write a small review off the top of my head.

First thing I would like to note are the few simple flavors. Nutty smells and flavors, I tasted spice (cinnamon, peppercorn) a few times. Although simple, (and yes, obviously delicious) there were many variations to them, if you play with the steeping parameters: temp and water to leaf ratio. I wish I would’ve made notes during my session because the tea is now beginning to fade and I can’t remember what happened while I was drinking it.

I do remember that I used an easy gaiwan, didn’t measure the leaves, and used many different temps and amounts of water. Each steep was enjoyable. To me, that is a testament to the quality of the leaves. You can mess the entire brewing up and it will still come out fairly ok (or great).

I think this specific tea inspired this playful attitude of this session. So I feel that it deserves a fairly high rating. 85 may even be a low-ball rating.

12:20 am Thursday Indianapolis, IN

This tea soothes every fiber of my body.

I enjoyed it western style with a tsp of vanilla syrup.

Although this tea is good, and the bergamot flavoring is definitely a high quality (the smell in the bag is powerful) I believe I like the flavor of the snails themselves better and would have liked this tea more without the essential oil part. Lucky for me Whispering Pines offers Golden Snails in a more traditional style. Along with that, the tea was astringent. The level of astringency wasn’t a deal breaker but it was noticeable and started getting worse after the 2nd or 3rd cup. Next time I will make it gongfu style.

Lastly, I feel like this tea doesn’t have as much stamina as similar teas I have tried. To me, it could have been better in that area. Those are the main reasons why I gave this tea a 79. I think when I try the plain golden snails the score will be closer to 90. :)

Firsty tea of my day and first ever review of tea. I’m nervous.

1:30 am Tuesday Indianapolis, IN

This tea arrived in the mail earlier today with the rest of the Jade Tea Club package. I wanted to try some fresh green teas so I signed up with the intention to cancel immediately. I like green tea, but I favor puer so, I don’t have a need for that much green tea.

My rule is, “if it smells good, eat it.” Of the four I received, the Long Mei smelled the best. This tea smells purfumey, little grassy citrus fruity with a nice bready malty backbone. Very pleasant in the nose. Flavor is similar to how it smells, but you should be careful when brewing. It is a known fact that this tea can be bitter if brewed too hot! If you’re at 170 F or 180 F for this one, I think it will be a nice little green tea. Also a little astringent with long steeps. Not something you want in a refreshing green tea.

I noticed a decent amount of clarity/energy from this tea. After drinking my first 7 cups I also noticed a few springs of huigans in the throat. That could have been a result of me brewing it too hot in the first steep, but that may have been a worthwhile mistake. Since huigans are a new and exciting part of tea for me, I gave the rating a little bump.

I used Adagio Tea’s IngenuiTEA gravity steeper and after steep 7 it appears to be holding up pretty well. I will probably make 4-6 more cups before I toss out the leaves.

Well that’s my first review!