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Check out the steep time…yah, forgot about this one. It actually cooled off while steeping. Decided to give it a shot anyway…no pun intended, but my coworker asked me if I was doing “shots” when he saw me take a drink . Wow! I’ll hand it to Adagio though; even though the tea was waaayyyyy over strong, the flavor of their Earl Grey came through loud and clear. I ended up diluting it 50/50 with fresh boiling water and brought it back to something approaching only mildly oversteeped…a testament to good tea, I believe.

Having this over ice this afternoon. Quite tasty. The smokiness helps it stand up to dilution by the ice.

Searching for the correct temp and time to brew this tea. 180 deg F for 5 minutes didn’t get much into the cup. Has a slight garlicly aftertaste today….not sure why.

This morning’s cuppa…was in a bit of a rush and grabbed this. I have it in tea bags direct from Harney & Sons (and not those foofoo silk pyramid excuses to charge more type of bags). My earlier post on this tea said that I thought it was a bit weak and that I could do better with the loose variety. I still think thats true, but I did let this tea bag steep a bit longer and it made all the difference! This tea has an excellent balance of tea and sweet spice. The convenience of the tea bags works well and I would recommend it as a good “tea bag tea”

Resteep. Again a long steep…flavor isn’t as intensely green as the first go around, but still veggy. This cup is a nice oolong, but its not being slapped in the face with an oolong like the first cup.

Have a new office hot water dispenser…it only hits 118 deg. F. Not hot enough for a good black tea (and the office microwave takes like 3 minutes to get the water any reasonbly hotter; I can’t be expected to wait another 3 minutes for tea, can I?). So, I tried going green with it. This is a green oolong that I purposefully oversteeped in deference to the cool water. Very good! Still brews pale and clear, but the flavor is intensely concentrated. Not so much of a floral overtone, but strong green vegetable, like asparagus or spinach. No it doesn’t taste like spinach…but the flavor is intense, concentrated like that.
I have some green tea that a friend brought back from mainland China…no idea what it is as the label is in Chinese…when it steeps, in unfurls to an actual twig with tips and one or two full leaves…this reminds me of that tea.

I’d have to put this tea amongst my favorites at the moment. I normally like a fine Ceylon, but don’t have any at work. This tea is a wonderful substitute. It is only lightly oxidized and is noticably light colored when dry; the leaves have a brown and green color when brewed. Its flavor is not as clean or crisp? as a good Ceylon…more in line with Indian teas, but lighter weight…a medium strength tea. It has excellent complexity. It brews a light color, don’t let it fool you into going to long.

And yet another resteep…that’s two for those counting. I suspect I could get a 4th cup (3 resteeps) from the pellets, but I’ve had enough…time to move on :-)