Featured & New Tasting Notes

A sipdown! (M: 9 Y: 25)
I have decided to spend remaining 7 grams in a single gongfu session.

It tastes very differently, it is not so mineral and salty; but heavy notes of wet forest floor, mushrooms and different woody notes are still present.

Flavour-wise it is not too complex, but it is suprisingly mild for stomach, despite dark and strong notes that I wrote about in previous paragraph.

Longer steeps weren’t bitter or astringent, it was just like you have doubled the mushroomy (shu) notes. In a certain way this tea reminds me Bancha Goishicha from Japan; which is also in my stash… so I should compare it in a short time, in a time I still have a memory of this one.

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Somehow it wasn’t in my cupboard? I think I have had three packs of it so I must have removed it before they were all finished.

As soon as the water hits it, a sweet orange soda aroma fills the kitchen. So sweet, so good, so fresh and citrus-y. Perfect for summer, or for wishing summer were already here.

This has Earl grey vibes. It’s a little lemony and creamy. It goes well with milk and sweetener. I think it tastes best cold. The final time I had it, I mostly noticed spices that hadn’t been present in the rest of the cups – I guess they had all settled to the bottom! I never noticed the strawberry.

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One of my favorite Jasmine green teas, this was a gift from Melissa.

This goes great with food. It has just the right amount of palate clearing briskness without being sour or astringent to the point of making you pucker if you drink it on its own.

Sipdown! But only of my taster size.

I have recently been on a 52teas favourites kick as the world (well, a specific part of it anyhow) descends into nonsense. Delicious, rich, and comforting. Seriously, Anne makes the best and most perfect flavoured teas.

I had no idea what to expect for this one. The flavor was mostly slightly celery-ish chamomile plus a hit of ginger. Plain, I didn’t love the combination. Sweetened with milk, it was better, though not great. I considered adding flavoring syrup since it was a little plain.

Ashmanra’s sipdown challenge – February 2025 Tea #4 – A spiced tea

A new tea, gifted!  I have only had a couple blends before with cascara cherries.  Mainely Coffee claims that cascara cherries have about as much caffeine as green tea.  Here, the cascara cherries are blended with some excellent spices… some of the spices quite big.  Huge pieces of cinnamon.  A great balance of spices.  This is a very tasty cup.  Certainly spicy enough, but there is also a sweetness there.  I’m not really sure if I can tell if the cascara cherries make a difference in the flavor. It certainly doesn’t taste like coffee (though they haven’t in the past either.)  Not really sure the purpose of including coffee cherries, except that Mainely Coffee is very much a coffee company that also has teas.   But this is a nice addition to the tea collection, regardless.  It’s a great chai!  Guzzled too quickly…
Steep #1 // 1 1/2 teaspoons for a full mug // 19 minutes after boiling // 3 minute steep
Steep #2 // 2 minutes after boiling // 8 minute steep

This smells like almost rancid coconut even though the bag is only a few months old. Luckily I couldn’t taste the coconut, but I also didn’t taste much of anything delicious either. It’s basically just kind of metallic black tea. I added milk, and that vastly improved things. It actually does remind me of a float! The quality of the black tea is sort of like soda, and the coconut and vanilla give the milk an ice cream vibe. This could be done better, but it’s not bad! I’ve been drinking it as a work tea, and I’ve ended up really enjoying it cold each time! It’s weird, but I’ve grown to like it.

Ashmanra’s sipdown challenge – February 2025 Tea #3 – February 14 – International Book Giving Day – have a cuppa and enjoy a nice read!

A blustery yet sunny day.  The perfect day to READ. (Like I need an excuse to read, or a prompt in order to read. hah.) I am currently attempting to read maybe seven or eight books in a row for the Morning News Tournament of Books that begins on March 6th. That’s my mention of the Tournament for this year.  I decided this tea was the perfect tea for the day – Chai but super cozy!  Cozy because it’s toasty!  I had to stock up on a couple of 52Teas marshmallow treat blends when I saw them.  I am occasionally on the lookout for them and a Chai marshmallow treat is definitely my sort of tea.  It’s good stuff!  A nice balance of sweetness, spice and the classic flavor of genmaicha.
Steep #1 // 1 teaspoon for a full mug // 30 minutes after boiling // 1 1/2 minute steep
Steep #2 //  30 minutes after boiling // 3 minute steep

Sipdown 10 – 2025
I’ve been hoarding the last bit of this, as it’s so delicious and unique. Such an excellent watermelon flavor. I hope this one comes back at some point!

Now that I have NOT mistakenly thrown this tea into the infuser with another tea, I can write a proper tasting note.  This blend sounded intriguing, so I just HAD to buy a sample of it.  Mango and coconut!  Such an abundance of these fruits are in the blend itself — huge pieces of coconut.  Huge cubes of mango.   I wanted the starchiness of these fruits to shine.  Sadly, not much starch in the mug.  Really, the fruits here somehow mostly tasted like apple to me (though there is no apple in the blend and no apple flavoring).  If I had to guess what tea I was drinking, I would almost guess it was Simpson & Vail’s Apple Cinnamon French Toast blend —almost exactly.   That was surprising!  A good flavored tea, but not really what I was expecting, as 52Teas flavoring is usually very on point.
Steep #1 //  1 1/2 teaspoons for a full mug // 25 minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep
Steep #2 // just boiled // 3-4 minute steep

A sipdown! (M: 7 Y: 23)
While it seems I am not so fond of this tea anymore; it was still a very pleasant session with slightly smoky note combined with birch / woody note. The impression of Finnish sauna was there and it complemented so well my planning of a summer trip — that will probably actually start there!

I am actually considering my first YS order to get a little more of this; but as I wrote in my previous notes — I need to reduce my stash first and ordering from Chinese company will need of course customs fees and everything related to it.

So, thank you derk for, great tea experiences I am going through with the teas you sent me and I just feel that I sent you, rubbish, if I am using nice words.

I got this 4 oz bag from an eccentric tea shop owner in San Francisco in March. We got to learn about and sample all sorts of teas, and this was our favorite. I’ve learned since then that puerh is too caffeinated for me, so though I find this delicious, even the resteep makes me feel bad. The flavor is quite smooth, and it tastes like you’re drinking high quality hot chocolate. I always add plenty of milk and sugar, though when we tried it in the shop, it was still super good plain. It’s nice hot and even better cold. The only ingredients are puerh and cocoa nibs, but that’s all it needs!

I definitely taste the lemon meringue! It’s not tart, just desserty like a lemon cake. I get the pillowy feeling of the meringue as well. This one is accurately named! I like it cold, and the cold resteep is nice as well. I’m a fan of all the lemongrass here!

Sipdown

This is a sad sipdown! I feel sure I will order it again sometime. This has powerful aroma, heavy on the fig when dry. When steeped it is a very even blend of fig and lavender in both aroma and taste. The base – hallelujah – is strong enough to let you know you are drinking black tea and not a cup of scented water. The base is not astringent or so brisk as to require milk or sugar.

It is a supremely well done flavored black tea and worth a try if you like these flavors.

I wouldn’t call this a chai. I taste the anise most strongly. I also taste clove. When it was hot, I tasted almost nothing at all. I thought a longer steep would do better, but the second time was the same.

I love the lemongrass flavor here. There’s a lot of soft fruitiness. It also tastes quite candylike. The 2 oz bag disappeared super quickly. I’d order this again! As usual, I removed the marshmallows.

Ashmanra’s sipdown challenge – February 2025 Tea #2 – Your oldest black tea

FACEPALM.  I really didn’t want to finish this tea, as I like it, and then I went and mistakenly added it to the same infuser as another tea.  argh.  So hilariously enough, the oldest tea I have of Frank’s went into the infuser with one of my newest 52Teas from Anne.  arghhhh.   Mango Coconut Pancakes, to be exact.  So I guess there are other flavor combinations that I could have added to the infuser together that  COULD have been worse… These two teas are fine together, if a bit jumbled. :/
2025 sipdowns: 9

A sipdown! (M: 4 Y: 20)

Seems I have neglected this tea and when I was asked to brew a tea in a pot, I took this one. And… I never wrote a note before. I know, I bought back then just a small package, 25 grams.

Anyway, steeped 7.5 grams for 3 minutes, 80 °C water, teapot.

Yes, definitely it is past its prime; but still so delicious as all the teas from group buy I made. And I just wonder… what has happened to them as their website is defunct and I haven’t found them elsewhere. If you find anything about Georgian Organic Producers tea association please let me know. I found Facebook page Georgian Organic which has same logo, but if it is them? Hard to say… but they are quite active there!

Ah sorry, I digressed from tea itself.
Honestly, it is stronger than I have been expecting. A little too drying, but liquor is viscous and it is hay-like; with stonefruits and vegetal aftertaste. In some sips there are grassy sweetness, but sadly it is a bit rare; but that’s no surprise considering it is 3 years since harvest.

From Martin, thanks! This is clove and more clove, but it is cold in Chicago so I’m not minding the clove as it warms me up. It is a very one note tea, I can’t tell if there is green tea here or the goji berries. It was very smooth, and not astringent. Glad I got to try!

Gongfu!

I’ve really enjoyed the fireweed I’ve tried from Thés du Nord in past years at the Toronto and Montreal tea festivals (the black tea style is my fave), so when I saw this three year aged version of their original oolong-style my curiosity was piqued – ESPECIALLY when I smelled it because, wow, let me tell you it smelled funnnnkkkyyyy, and y’all know I love a funky tea. Also, just have to acknowledge just how much the twisted dry leaf of this special boreal herb really does look like camellia sinensis at a glance. The steeped look gives it away a bit, but the processing/shaping technique is impressive regardless.

Steeped up, this is just as funky and fun as I wanted it to be! So, so fruity on the nose with notes of apple cider vinegar and red dates. The taste immediately made me think of another weird and fermented tea that I love, which is goisicha. It has that same sort of pickled plum, apple cider vinegar, and yeasted bread sort of tang to it but super doubled down on with notes of honey mustard, mustard greens, and even kimchi. Really, REALLY mustard-y though. I got about three flavour-packed steeps, which was such a bold way to start off the day, even with this being a caffeine-free tea/tisane. I do highly this this would be a really polarizing tea, but there’s simply no denying what a distinct experience it is, and personally, it’s something I would definitely recommend everyone try at least once.

Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DFtIIuEyvL6/?img_index=1

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGfFmAkNxig&ab_channel=EasyHoney-Topic

This tastes like every other boring, lazy fruit tisane. When I ordered a bunch from Teavivre, they all tasted like this. It’s just nondescript, bordering on stale fruit sort of muddled together. It’s mostly tart red fruit. It’s not that it tastes bad, it’s just boring.

This base is a combination of green tea and green rooibos, which go together really smoothly. The flavor isn’t as special as I had hoped. It’s just a sort of fake red fruit sort of vibe. It’s not tart, but kind of candylike. It’s refreshing cold, but pretty one-note.

I had same flavoured tea from Richard company and I have to say I like this one more.

Here are currants (black to be precise) definitely more distinctive, with their slightly tart flavour and mint is just a refreshing element. The base tea is fine enough, but not worth any further research.