New Tasting Notes

Single serving.

There was a lot of blackberry leaf dust in my teabag, and unfortunately the resulting cup is undrinkable. So cloyingly sweet and musty, and doesn’t taste like caramel or popcorn. It almost tastes like pure stevia.

I think I must’ve chosen this tea based on the cute packaging, as I tend to avoid teas with actual chocolate in them. Thankfully, there didn’t seem to be much, and I don’t notice the steeped cup being oily or cloudy.

I’m surprised that I taste so much strawberry here, as the ingredients list claims there is no strawberry flavoring, only “bits”. Seems unlikely to me that a few sparse dried strawberry pieces would contribute this much flavor, but who knows. It ends up tasting like a mild milk chocolate and strawberry tea, and I don’t really notice the vanilla or specifically ice cream notes.

I’m not really a chocolate tea person, but this one is pleasant enough for me to have no trouble finishing the sample pouch.

When it’s warm, I notice a decent amount of chamomile. When it’s cold, I taste a lot of floral flavor, plus some fruitiness. My partner noticed some honey notes. This was much better than I thought it would be, though not something I’d need a whole box of.

White2Tea experience #2:

First of all – This is advertised as being 7g per mini. I weighed this, and I only have 6.40 grams here. That is a very large variance. I think it would be reasonable to expect a range of 6.95 – 7.05 grams or maybe 6.90 – 7.10 grams at the most, but a full .6? That’s a big deal. You are my drug dealer and you are under-filling my baggies. I am going to have to come over and open up a can of “Florida Man” on you or something.

I’ve bought small quantities of more than 20 of these minis from White2Tea, so lots of reviews on the way! Despite being a little pricey for me, I do like the pricing model in that you can buy very small quantities of teas to sample and you usually don’t get punished very much on the pricing if you compare price per gram to that of buying a whole cake. But if there is such a variance on the weight of the minis, not sure that type of analysis will hold up.

Steep #1 (16oz water at 205° for 1 minute) – Similar to previous reviewers, I get honey, some walnuts maybe, some autumn leaves, not a whole lot else. Kind of boring, maybe, but enjoyable enough.

Steep #2 (16 oz of water at 195° for 2 minutes) – Holy moly, this tea has really come alive on second steep. Now I get a really rich, kind of oily mouthfeel. Strong dark and woody notes – maybe rosewood? Kind of a pistachio-like flavor as well. This is really nice. Maybe the additional years of aging have been good to this tea?

Steep #3 (16 oz of water at 195° for 3 minutes) – More rosewood, more pistachios, still very nice. This is a great tea experience, my best one in a little while!

July Sipdown Challenge Prompt – a floral tea

I finally opened the pouch I got for Christmas! My cupboard is getting low enough to allow myself to open some more teas.

Originally given to me by Youngest, this pouch was a Christmas gift from Ashman, who drank a Tea Grotto tea with me, liked it as much as I did, said it might be a good Christmas gift for me, opened his phone and made note of the Fruity Puerh we were drinking at the time, and then forgot the note existed. Then he was googling for tea to buy AliasHali and myself for Christmas and ordered precisely the two teas I loved, thinking he had found a new tea company we had ‘t tried. Christmas Miracle Tea.

This is first and foremost FIG. Sooooo figgy. Figgy, figgy, figgy. Open the pouch and KAPOW goes the fig. I love it. It is absolutely delicious. I am using this for the floral tea prompt because the lavender is definitely there but I admit it is a lovely, quiet companion of the fig rather than running neck and neck and yelling “look at me!”

The black tea base is solid, not too strong but strong enough for breakfast for sure. Now I wondering how this would be iced and whether I would even want to sweeten it. I drink it plain hot and it comes across as fig jam sweet already. Stay tuned.

Okay, jumping on the White2Tea bandwagon here – A little late to the party, I guess. The company with the flashy and gimmicky packaging, often amusing but also frequently in bad taste. And a really horrible brand name. Not sure what it means, but doesn’t sound all that cool to celebrate whiteness. Especially in times of Trump and the resurgence of fascism worldwide. I was really worried I’d be wasting my time and wouldn’t like this brand, but I went ahead and took the gamble.

Well, so far so good. This is my first brew of White2Tea’s offerings, and this tea was kind of a make-or-break tea in my evaluation of the overall brand, as young raw pu-erh is my primary interest. Being their lowest-priced non-huang pian production of raw pu-erh, this one really needed to be a winner for me to be happy. White2Tea’s prices overall seem to run roughly 2X what I typically would pay for tea, so I’m expecting I should be able to enjoy these teas about 2X more than usual, or else forget it. I’m already really happy with Yunnan Sourcing and I’ll stick mainly with them if that is the case. But would be nice to have an alternative brand to change things up ocassionally.

This tea being their “budget” offering of raw pu-erh, it is still kind of pricey in my book, as it is running roughly $65/lb which is expensive by my standards. I’ve bought teas at $40 or $50/pound which I’ve thought were pretty darn fancy.

I am pleased to be pleasantly surprised so far, as this 2023 941 mini is a winner, in my book.

At $1 per 7-gram pearl, I can afford to drink this every day and it has a flavor profile which delivers the kind of things I want from a raw pu-erh. It also works well brewing with my hybrid “Dave-Fu” method. Brewed at 205° in 16 oz glass mug for 1 minute on first steep, and 195°at 2 minutes, 3 minutes, and 5 minutes on subsequent steeps. The fourth steep was maybe a little bit closer to dirty dishwater than I would like, but maybe I can play with the parameters a bit and see if I can smooth that out. If I can get three good steeps using my method, I’m a happy camper, and a fourth one would be icing on the cake. Don’t need more than that.

“Sweet grass” as described by vendor is an apt description, and I would add that I get some of those cotton candy notes that I enjoy plus hints of apricots, and some light and fuzzy florals, perhaps dandelions to go along with the grassy theme. The tea has a good amount of astringency with some light bitterness which don’t detract, but help to keep the tea interesting throughout your brews. I would consider this good everyday pu-erh for sure.

Another single serve.

Not sure why I picked this one up, to be honest. It’s almond flavored and I don’t generally like amaretto type teas these days. Thankfully, the flavoring isn’t crazy strong. I do taste a little of the toasty, leafy hojicha, but mostly it’s a mild marzipan/amaretto red rooibos to me. I don’t notice the cinnamon at all.

I love the rosemary in this chai! It adds so much extra intrigue. I resteep almost every tea, but usually only once. After the resteep, the leaves still smelled so strong I had to go for a third! I enjoyed this best warm with soy milk and sugar. For an herbal chai, this is quite satisfying, and I appreciate having a different combination of ingredients.

July Sipdown Challenge Prompt – a French tea

I love this tea in both the green and black tea versions. I tend to tend more black tea but somehow I am drawn to green tea on these insufferably hot and humid days we are having right now. Perhaps it just feels lighter, or perhaps the lower steeping temperature and therefore cooler drinking temperature appeal to me.

I think this is one of my favorite flavored green teas. I am trying not to hoard my Dammann Freres but it is so hard.

Single teabag.

This came out very weak, which honestly doesn’t surprise me since it seems to be Darjeeling mixed with an orange fruit infusion. Fruit infusions tend to require a lot more volume per cup, which I don’t think they accounted for in the sample size. And since it’s a blend, there’s not enough Darjeeling either.

I do taste a bit of the Darjeeling, and then the orange part is very artificial and tangy, similar to Tang or Emergen-C powder. I’m not sure they go together, but it’s difficult to tell since the overall flavor is so light.

I forgot how good this flavor is! This is the HT sachet version, which might be the same as other versions listed on Harney’s site, or the several duplicated and mis-spelled entries here on Steepster. At first, years ago, I thought it tasted artificial; really that is just how black currants taste! Even more delicious when taken with nibbles of chocolate-coated Butter Keks. Even though my tin passed the FB date years ago, it retains the wonderful aroma and taste! Oh yea, I can taste the base black tea too, but it’s not the point of this tea. I’ll rate it as 81, and recommend.

Another tea from the Chicago Tea Festival. These guys are fun to talk to. Unfortunately, whoever was walking around taking pictures caught my face in an extremely weird angle and pose while talking to them.
Anyway… a bird got stuck in my bunny netting, and it smelled awful. I’m taking a timeout to drink some tea.

Dry aroma: There is a hint of something, but it is far too faint to really give it a name.
Rinse: Old wood house (1800s) and charcoal
Flavor: 1800s wooden house. Cream of wheat. Charcoal. When steeped longer, the charcoal notes really punch you in the face. There are also notes of wet wood after a fire.
Mouthfeel: Very smooth with less time. On longer steepings, there is some astringency that hits with an almost acidic type of feel. (Don’t worry, it’s not as bad as it seems, but that is my best way to describe it.)
Aroma cup: What is going on in here? It’s like dark red berries are having a bonfire. Not quite cherry but more like a currant perhaps? I want to travel more just so I can smell all the things.
Wet Leaf: Musty 1800s house. A bit of water damage. Slight fruity with charcoal.

Steeped my second and final bag of this for 3 minutes. Prior notes still hold true, but I find the tea really flat this time. Lacking sparkle. To some extent it’s expected in a straight, unflavored tea, but I simply want better, even from a paper tea bag. Reducing my rating a point, to 59.

Readily available, reliable, inexpensive and adequate. Foil wrapper keeps the freshness and sanitation during travel. Odd that Bigelow tells us more about the bergamot than the base tea! The only clue their website gives is lip service to 1 bud / 2 leaves, and being from “high in the mountains.” It does have a smooth finish and my 2-min infusion was not astringent, yet was full-flavored. I got no assamic maltiness, nor spice and zing of Keemun, nor cedar or mint of a Ceylon. But for some reason I’m leaning toward it being a Ceylon, possibly blended with a less famous region such as Tanzania or Myanmar. But the bergamot stars here, and it’s nicely balanced. I must admit that I buy it frequently because it’s easy to grab at the grocery store and keep in the desk drawer at work. And I like it. I can’t rate it less than 80, and feel compelled to recommend — lest I become a bigger hypocrite than I already am!

TTB 2025
I brewed this hot and stuck it in the fridge. It’s fruity and buttery with a hint of mint. Is it the morninga I’m thinking is buttery? It’s refreshing and not a whole lot of rose. Thanks for adding it to the box.

Wuyi Ensemble. Adagio.
Lot no: 85424. FB: n/a.

Variously called Da Hong Pao, or Big Red Robe, or Rock Oolong, this is a type of tea I’ve battled before from several other vendors. I prepared Western style, as directed, using the entire 3.5 grams of dry leaf (smelled of seaweed) in 8 oz 190°F spring water for 3 min, resteeping once for 5 min. Yes, I could taste toastiness like toasted rice, minerality, floral and vegetal notes, aroma and flavors of kelp, and a sweet lengthy aftertaste of fruity flowers. It was like a floral sushi roll: a bundle of wilted orchids rolled up in toasted sesame rice in a nori (seaweed) wrapper, dipped in soy sauce. But only a quarter of the strength you are imagining. The flavors were too subtle for my liking, even though it was many times stronger than the BRR from Tealyra that I disliked and reported on two weeks ago. The resteep was similar but weaker. I would not waste time or spring water running a gongfu session on it, and I can feel my resentment toward this type of tea building, so I better stop here. Rating as 25 and not recommending, out of spite (toward the tea type, not Adagio which is likely blameless!)

July Sipdown Prompt – your oldest green tea

I love this tea, so why did I let it get past the best by date? I have such a tendency to reach for black tea or flavored greens that I don’t get around to my unflavored greens.

Nowhere near a sipdown, but I will continue to drink this as a big glass of cold tea this summer so I will have an excuse to buy fresh…and drink it on time.

I’ve gone through my bags from Whittard quickly. I combined 3 teabags, and used a nurri vanilla protein shake as a cream. Weirdly, it worked. This is the first time a protein shake combo with tea didn’t taste terrible.

I got this two months ago, and I can’t decide on how I feel about it. I nearly picked a Taiwan Baozhong done in a Dancong style. I had too many Dancongs samples I’ve barely touched, so I opted for something I thought was going to be sweeter.

I’ve only done this western once and gong fu once, though I didn’t get to many differences. Gong Fu was a little bit more floral, western was more filled out and preferable. In terms of taste, it’s a bougie tasting Dianhong that’s not super expensive. Extremely woody and heavy on the sandalwood department in a bright red malty body. I can kinda see the coconut. Not so much with the lavender, but it’s got a floral quality that’s bordering herbaceous like some lavender.

Main criticism was that it was drying. Granted, I already know I prefer Taiwanese and Fujian Blacks anyway. Weirdly, I thought it was better cold. I should cold brew it some time. I recommend it for yunnan lovers for sure, though I’m not decided on my rating or enjoyment yet. I was expecting something a little bit more comforting.