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Hello Steepster! I didn’t post any notes at all yesterday, which is extremely odd for me. I woke up feeling okay, but then I noticed that my first cup of tea tasted weird. As the day went on, I started feeling like a cold was coming on – headaches, fatigue, body soreness, etc. Luckily, today I feel much better! I guess there’s something to be said for rest, drinking tons of bottled water, taking Emergen-C, and having chicken noodle soup for dinner.

Anyway, on to the tea. This one is from one of my Palais des Thés samplers that I purchased on MyHabit a few days ago. I must say, the scent worried me as soon as I opened this tin (especially since I have three versions of this tea – black, green, and rooibos). It smells like red hots or Harney & Sons’s Hot Cinnamon Spice. The tea itself consists of small black leaves with a few pieces of dried fruit (I assume apple). Basically it smells like cinnamon candy… I steeped about 1.5 teaspoons for 3 minutes at 200 degrees.

The tea liquid smells like cinnamon candy as well… Womp womp. It does have that candy cinnamon flavor, but luckily it’s nowhere near as extreme as Hot Cinnamon Spice. I can actually taste the base tea underneath too, which is smooth and mostly nondescript with a slight wood note. I wish I tasted the apple, almond, or vanilla here… I must say, I am a bit disappointed, as the description presents this tea as more of a fruity/sweet blend with some spice, not as a cinnamon tea. I guess I should have known since it’s basically a Valentine’s tea. :P

This tea came from my swap with Sara. She was kind enough to send me samples of several French teas including Palais des Thés and Mariage Frères. For some reason, Palais des Thés seems to have escaped my attention up to this point, not sure why that is! But after looking through their flavored teas, I want to try them all. This one is flat-steamed green tea leaves with lovely curled cream-colored flower petals mixed in for dramatic effect. Dry scent is sweet peaches with a touch of floral. I steeped a teaspoon of leaf for 3 minutes at 175 degrees. I think next time, I may use a bit more leaf for this one.

After steeping, this has a lovely mouthwatering sweet peach aroma. Yums. Peach is also the main flavor in the taste, and it’s a lovely juicy peach, perhaps with a slight candylike edge. Overall I’m finding this tea a bit mild, though I think I may have not used enough leaf. Curiously enough, the peach flavor seems to grow in intensity, even after I’ve swallowed. It lingers on my tongue in a pleasant way. I think I can also taste a bit of kiwi here, it manifest as a sort of tart and juicy fruity quality. The green tea itself is super mild, but I do catch a bit of grassiness and a subtle marine quality. Lovely!

Huzzah, I got my swap from Mikumofu with lovely Lupicia teas! She was stopping by Lupicia at the end of last week so I just told her to choose whichever teas she wanted to try and send me samples. I must say, I was pretty excited for these barley teas! They’re in sachet form, and dry scent is very sweet and strong plum. Lupicia’s website recommends 16.9 ounces of water per sachet, which seems insane to me. I ended up steeping mine in 10 ounces of boiling water for 3 minutes, and the flavor is still quite strong so 16 ounces might actually be okay for a lighter taste.

Whoa, this is a super roasty tea! I did not expect the flavor to be quite so strong. It almost reminds me of coffee with its strong roasty and almost bitter flavor. The plum flavor is very fruity and juicy, and just mildly sweet. The sweetness here is very clear and refreshing, like honeysuckle nectar. Overall, wow this is a powerful tea, and I might have to try my other sachet iced (which seems to be how they recommend it).

This was a bonus sample from scribbles. Mine is in sachet form. The leaves inside are black and somewhat thin, and surprisingly not very broken. Dry scent is sweet and malty with hay and molasses notes. I let my sachet steep in 8 ounces of 200 degree water for 3 minutes. The string escaped into the cup, harumph!

This one is pretty “meh” in my opinion… The main flavor of it is generic black tea, and I don’t know how else to describe that. It’s somewhat malty and quite astringent, especially as it cools. There is a bottom note of molasses-like richness, and a touch of dried apricot-like fruitiness, and these help to balance it a bit. Still not very impressive for me.

First tea of the morning here! This sample (pouch) came from Blodeuyn as a surprise bonus in our swap. I’m pretty much a noob when it comes to Darjeeling, having only tried one or two others before this one. Oh well, onward! The leaves of this tea are somewhat short and wide, and they’re a myriad of browns with some spots of silver. Dry scent is sweet hay and sunflower seeds in the shell. I used a teaspoon of leaf and let it steep for 3 minutes at 200 degrees.

The aroma is not terribly intimidating – it’s lightly toasted bread with tart fruit preserves and a touch of floral. The flavor is a lovely and light combination of bread and grains. Mostly I tasted lightly toasted bread, raw oats, sweet hay with a touch of mustiness, and a mild floral note. There’s sweetness here, but it’s a very light and clear sweetness, reminding me of honeysuckle nectar. Underneath all of the other flavors is a nice deep roasty quality, I would compare it to roasted nuts perhaps? There is a touch of astringency here as well, which is not terribly unpleasant. Overall, a very accessible Darjeeling.

This is going to be a lazy note for a lazy morning… Boychik sent me this sample, thanks dear. The leaves are fairly broken and dark with only a few scant golden pieces. I did my general black tea steep.

Meh, this one is just okay for me. It’s fairly generic with just malt and some bread notes, along with a fair amount of astringency, which I do not enjoy. Maybe just a touch of honey sweetness on top. Overall, it’s drinkable, but not something I would reach for.

Sipdown!

Boychik was kind enough to send me a sample so that I could give this one a second try (I wasn’t too impressed with it the first time). I must say, I am finding it much more cookie-ish this time around. I added about half of a teaspoon of light brown sugar, and it has some nice dark burnt sugar and caramel notes, as well as a light butter cookie flavor. Not bad, but still not a repurchase for me.

Hooray, it’s here! Miss Mandy mentioned in her note that Paul from Mellow Monk was looking for more people to try and review his teas, so of course, I sent him an email and he sent me this tea! Thanks Paul! This tea is described as being a “honcha”, which means it’s a traditional green tea. I tried to find more information on this type of tea via Google, but I didn’t come up with much in the way of useful information. C’est la vie!

The small leaves of this tea give me the impression that they were allowed to shape themselves naturally while drying. Some of them are rolled into tubes, some are slightly curled, and I even found one that had rolled itself into an oolong-style pellet. Their color is a dark and rich green with a touch of blue, and it reminds me of evergreen trees. Dry scent is quite sweet and gives me impressions of dark grass and hay with a light saline seaweed note. I did three steeps with this tea – 2 minutes, 45 seconds, and then 1 minute. I used 8 ounces of 175 degree water each time.

The first steep (2 minutes) smelled very buttery and creamy with sweet steamed spinach, seaweed, and light citrus notes. Tasting it, I was amazed by how richly creamy and buttery this tea is! It’s silky in the mouth, with mild and sweet steamed spinach, butternut squash, and seaweed flavors. I could detect a light citrus note, and it was especially apparent in the aftertaste (the tea’s description mentions grapefruit, and this seems accurate to me). There was just the slightest hint of bitterness that really served to prevent this rich and creamy tea from becoming cloying and overwhelming.

The second steep (45 seconds) surprised me with a more vegetal aroma of spinach and seaweed and less creaminess. And then I was surprised again by the sweet and mellow taste of honeydew melon. Overall, the flavor was milder with this steep. There was still some of that spinach and seaweed combination in the aftertaste, and I found it to be mildly astringent, making me want to drink more.

The third steep (1 minute) had a similar aroma to the second, but was milder in intensity. Overall, I found this steep similar to the second. It still featured that sweet and lovely light honeydew melon flavor, with just a touch of mild spinach. It was also slightly more astringent than the second steep, and a touch too mild in flavor for me.

Overall, this is an extremely delicious tea! The mouthfeel is amazingly silky and the sweet and creamy flavors pair with it beautifully. I did notice a touch of astringency that developed as I continued to steep, but even at its zenith, it was still very light and inoffensive to me. Thanks so much to Paul at Mellow Monk for giving me the opportunity to try this tea! I have already promised a sample to one other Steepsterite, and any others curious about this tea are welcome to one as well!

For some reason, I’m not feeling the black tea vibe this morning, which is very strange for me. I usually have two or three black teas before I try any other types. Oh well, there’s a first time for everything I suppose! (I did have one black tea before this though…) Miss mj sent this sample to me a little while ago. Her samples got a little bit buried under the mass influx of other teas I’ve been getting from my several recent swaps, sorry! I must say, I was pretty excited to try this one after loving Lupicia’s Melon Oolong so much. This is a different style of oolong – the leaves are left long and slightly twisty instead of being rolled into pellets. Their color is a medium green with some yellow tint and there are dried rose petals mixed in. Dry scent is very mild peach with some sweetness. I steeped a heaping teaspoon of leaves for 3 minutes at 190 degrees.

Yum, the aroma is intoxicating. The peach is sweet and concentrated, more similar to a dried peach than a fresh one. There are also notes of honey and very light vegetal and floral scents. The taste is a bit lighter than I anticipated based on the aroma. There is a lovely peach flavor here, and it still reminds me of dried peaches or fruit leather rather than a fresh peach (not a bad thing!). I could do with a bit more peach, but as is, it really melds well with the oolong itself. I find that a lot of green oolongs have natural peach notes, and this is very similar to that but with the peach amped up. The oolong itself is mild and sweet with a creamy texture. Now, I am not the biggest fan of green oolong generally, but this one is pretty tasty with the extra peachiness. :)

I was in the mood for a French tea after excitedly discussing the Dammann Freres advent calendar with Miss Stephanie, so I decided to give this one a try! This sample came from boychik, who originally got it from CharlotteZero. So, a big thanks to both ladies! This tea has small, dark leaves blended with blue cornflower petals, small pieces of nuts, and some cinnamon bark. Dry scent is cinnamon and honey with an odd tang, maybe from the blueberry? I steeped a heaping teaspoon of leaf for 3 minutes at 200 degrees.

Mm… This tea has a warm and comforting aroma – mild cinnamon and clove with sweet marzipan and a hint of berry. The taste is a tad bit milder than I would like, so next time I will try a longer steep. There’s mild cinnamon combined with a smooth nutty flavor and a touch of berry juiciness. The aftertaste is sweet marzipan. For some reason, I am getting a bit of a chocolate note, perhaps it’s from the base tea? Either way, a delicious and comforting melange of flavors, and I’m sure this one will be even better with a longer steep.