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This is fast becoming a favourite.

Works really well without milk. I like it best with a little honey. Really nice on a cold late autumn afternoon. Brrr.

Drinking it for its headache-fighting qualities this time.

This is a beautiful tea. Pale yellow in colour, smooth and slightly malty to the taste and with a very soft, grassy scent. I got this just exactly right this time: two teaspoons of tea leaves per cup, steeping for one and a half minutes in water at 55C.

The addiction has continued over this weekend. ;-)

The leaves give off a wonderful citrusy smell, and you get a similar aroma from the brewed tea. The first sip isn’t anything like as strong to the taste, so I was somewhat disappointed to start with, but the flavour really builds as you go along. I liked the end of the cup much better than the beginning.

Having a cup of this to get rid of the lingering aftertaste of the Imperial Oolong.

This oolong has a really distinctive aftertaste not unlike licorice. It’s really… interesting and complex, but I’m still not entirely sure how much I like it. It’s worth continuing with to explore further, anyway.

Another Japanese green from my order from raku-cha. I used my default green tea steeping: two and a half minutes in water at 75-80C and it seemed to be about right for this tea. It has a bit of a grassy aroma, similar to other Japanese teas, but it’s not overpowering. It produces a bright yellow brew and the taste’s really not bad – plenty of flavour but a lot less earthy and woody than I was prepared for. I actually like this one quite a lot. All in all, it was a pleasant surprise.

One of the more full-bodied white teas, and one that I haven’t had for a while, so when I was sent a free sample pack it seemed like a good time to revisit it. As with many white teas, I always find the second steeping better than the first. This time I steeped it for five minutes in water at 75C. If you like pai mu tan/white peony you’ll probably like this one, too.