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I wasn’t expecting much from this tea as the first two Music City samples I had tried had been on the not so great side. This wasn’t bad at all. I don’t know what the actual oolong tea was but it was tightly rolled and very green. It tasted a bit like a Four Seasons Oolong I had a week or so ago.

I steeped this western style and it was very pleasant. It was distinctly oolongish and felt creamy in the mouth. I wouldn’t know an osmanthus scent or taste if it hit me over the head but I didn’t notice anything distinctly floral about this. Overall it was a very pleasant cup of tea.

Of the teas I’ve tried in the last few weeks, this one has been my favorite by far (even if I did manage to burn my thumb with the gaiwan!). The tea brewed up pale yellow and was mild and refreshing and altogether wonderful. I can’t say I tasted lots of complex flavors or smelled amazing scents (I suspect my tastebuds and nose are substandard…) but I enjoyed it quite a lot.

First steeping was 10 seconds, then 20-ish (this was where I scalded my thumb), 40, and 60 seconds. The 2nd steeping was my favorite but all were good. No unpleasant bitterness at all.

I don’t feel like I can give this a fair rating for tonight’s tasting. I think I overstepped for the first steeping which kind of threw everything out of whack.

After the rinse I did 4 steeping: 30s, 40s, 20s and 120s. The first steeping came out fairly bitter but not astringent. It tasted like a somewhat milder version of English Breakfast Tea. Drinkable but not anything interesting. Kind of like a song with one note.

The second steeping wasn’t as bitter but also didn’t do much for me but I think my palate may have been a bit overwhelmed by the first cup.

I heated the water back up and decided to do a shorter third steeping to see if perhaps I was just doing steeping that were too long. This one was much thinner. No bitterness but not a lot of flavor either. Figuring the tea was going to need a bit more time I did the fourth steeping much longer and in many ways this was the best of the lot. It at least finally washed the bitter taste out of my mouth.

I’m guessing that I probably should have started with shorter steeping or a smaller amount of tea. If anyone has a suggestion I’d love to hear it!

My box of samples arrived from Teavivre today and this was the first one I tried. I don’t have a lot of experience with tea, especially green tea where it was mostly limited to what I got at Asian restaurants. That was usually on the bitter side or Jasmine tea. So, this was definitely my first experience with this tea.

I did a quick rinse followed by three steeping of 30, 60 and 90 seconds. The dry leaf had a smell that reminded me of spinach even though it wasn’t exactly spinach. I’m frequently finding it hard to find the right descriptors for the smells and tastes and this is no exception.

After brewing the first steeping the now wet leaves had the same smell only much more pungently. The first steeping was a very pale yellow and had the same taste but not as strong. The taste reminded me of sort of a spinach/peas/zucchini combination. As the tea cooled, the taste became a bit more pronounced. There wasn’t any bitterness or astringency in the first steeping.

The second steeping was quite good with just a hint of astringency at the finish but in a good way, not at all unpleasant. The third was starting to become a bit more astringent but was still quite drinkable. At that point I’d reached my saturation for the night so called it quits there.

Overall, though I found the smell of the wet leaves to be almost too intense to be pleasant in the tea it was much more subdued and the overall effect was quite nice.

After last night’s bad experience with Darjeeling I thought I’d give the second teabag from the Teacha subscription a try this morning. I steeped this at work so the temperature is a guess. I’m not entirely sure what temperature it was but hopefully that’s the right ballpark.

I’m not sure if was a lower temperature or the comparison to last night’s experience but this seemed a lot better than the last time I tried it. The tea wasn’t bitter (probably the lower temperature) but the flavors were very mild. Overall it was a very pleasant mid-morning tea.

I’ve tried this tea western style and so far haven’t much enjoyed it so I thought trying it gong fu style might give me the chance to experiment some and see if I can find a way to get more flavor out of it. Today’s experiment rating: meh.

I stepped for 5, 10, 5, and 5 seconds. The first steeping was a bit thin but still somewhat bitter. The second was more tannic and bitter. The 3rd and 4th were a bit lighter but still fairly bitter. None were undrinkable but any other flavors in the tea were mostly masked by the bitterness.

I’m wondering if I might have been sold old tea that has been sitting around for a long time or if it’s just been so long since I’ve had Darjeeling that I’ve thought I liked it better than it seems I do.

Either way, I’ll continue my experiments trying to find a combination of water temperature, amount of tea and steep time that works for me. I’m thinking that the next one I’ll cut the amount of tea down and see what happens.

This was part of a sampler pack I obtained of flavored teas and were wasn’t much info available about it. The leaves are small and the peach scent reminded me of artificial flavoring though I can’t say of sure that this was the case. There are bits of something in the tea that could be dried peach or could be ginger. I couldn’t tell. I couldn’t detect any hint of ginger scent at all.

This probably isn’t a great candidate for gong fu style brewing but I wanted to try out my new gaiwan so I gave it a try. I did a quick rinse followed by an initial steep of 5 seconds. The tea cam out a medium orange brown and was on the weakfish side but not unpleasant. The taste of peach was medium strong but still no ginger to be noticed. There was the normal black tea bitterness but quite subdued. Not at all unpleasant but nothing spectacular.

I did the second steeping for 15 seconds and the tea was a bit stronger and this was the best of the three steepings I did. The tea was stronger and enjoyable but the peach flavor was the weakest part.

The last steeping was 45 seconds and the peach seemed to be gone at this point. The tea was ok but a bit thinner. At this point I decided that I’d probably had enough for now and concluded.

Overall, an interesting experiment but probably not a tea that is worth the time for brewing in a gaiwan. Might make a decent iced tea though. I don’t know where the ginger was. I could neither smell nor taste it so it’s influence was subtle at best, at least on my probably unrefined palate.

The 1tsp is actually 1 teabag since this is a tea from the Teacha monthly subscription.

I’ve only had genmaicha once before and it had such a strong rice component that, as my spouse put it, tasted like hot shredded wheat. This was much more subdued and while the other was drinkable (wish I could remember the brand), this was actually pleasant and quite drinkable.

This is from the Teacha subscription so the 1 tsp in the description below is really 1 teabag.

The flavors and scents are mild but quite pleasant. A bit of floral smell along with a grassy taste followed up by a not quite bitter ending. All together it is a very pleasant way to start my morning.

I’m not really a fan of herbal teas but this was part of the Teacha subscription for the first month. The “tea” is in a large teabag and when dry smells strongly of spearmint. After steeping for 5 minutes the brew smelled of spearmint though not as strongly as when dry.

It was pleasant. The flavor was mild. It left my mouth feeling clean and refreshed. If you like mint then this will probably be enjoyable to you.