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Lewis & Clarke TTB

Genmaicha is one of my favorites, so I had to try this one! My serving was the last one in the pouch, so the leaves were rather crushed and I got a lot of tea dust. Dry scent was toasty rice with some grassiness. I considered going for a 2-minute steep, but I was concerned because of the tea dust, so I did 1 minute and 30 seconds.

Once steeped, it smells very toasty with grassy undertones. I was surprised to find a rather strong seaweed taste in this tea, and not at all displeased! It’s also quite grassy. This tea tastes more like green tea than genmaicha to me, which is unfortunate. I can barely taste the toasted rice here, and that may have something to do with the tea dust. I can, however, taste the matcha with its concentrated creamy green tea flavor. A tasty tea, but I can hardly consider it genmaicha because of the lack of rice flavor. :(

A note concerning the rating: My rating for this tea is based upon overall taste, which was decent. However, I am not recommending it because I would not consider it to be good as a genmaicha, which is what it’s claiming.

Lewis & Clarke TTB

Cranberry pineapple? Sounds like the tea of Roswell Strange’s dreams! :P The green tea in here is quite dark, I’m unsure what type it is. This tea smells awesome! Tart and fruity with a little bit of candy sugary scent. My teaspoon had a big piece of cranberry and couple little candied pineapple chunks. The cranberry re-hydrated during the steep and got huge! It made me laugh a little bit.

Once brewed, the aroma is a mixture of buttery, vegetal green tea and tart fruit, specifically cranberry and pineapple. The taste is actually a nice balance of green tea and flavor, hooray! The green tea itself is nice and mild and sweetly vegetal. I can taste the pineapple intermingling with the tea throughout the sip, and the cranberry comes in near the end a bit. There is a tiny bit of that chalky powdered sugar taste here, which is unfortunate. I think my tongue just doesn’t approve of flavored tea now, heh! This one is pretty good though!

Lewis & Clarke TTB

I figured I’d try the oolong immediately after the green, just so I could compare the two more easily. The leaves look very similar, but I think the oolong has more of a yellow tinge while the green version was more green. The dry scent is different, this tea smells very sweet and creamy with peach notes. I decided to do a 4 minute steep this time since 3 minutes was too short with the green. In hindsight, that doesn’t really make sense since the temperature was higher for this one… lol.

Brewed, this tea smells very creamy and fruity with a slight floral edge. There’s a bit of vegetal wavering about in the background, but it’s not the main flavor here. I think 4 minutes might be too long for some people, because mine has a little bit of a vegetal bite, but I actually really enjoy it this way! It’s not really bitter, but the vegetal flavor is stronger and more grassy than it otherwise would have been. The texture is, of course, creamy and luscious, and there’s a fair amount of peach flavor. The floral comes in at the end, as per usual, to rain on my parade. Lol!

Lewis & Clarke TTB

I must admit, I’m fairly enamored with these Tea at Sea teas so far. I love the nontraditional rolled shape (well, nontraditional for black and green teas). This tea looks just like a green oolong, it’s like it’s in disguise! The dry scent screams “green tea”, however. It’s a lovely mild vegetal and sweet smell with a slight grassiness. I decided to brew for 3 minutes just because it seemed like that time worked well for other Steepsterites.

Once brewed, the aroma is quite mild. I can catch some sweetness and a vegetal scent, but not a lot else. The tastes also can out very mild (I probably should have used more tea or steeped longer, but I’d rather err on the understeeped side). The flavor that is there is quite delicious though! I find that it’s somewhere between a green tea and a green oolong. It has that lovely sweet vegetal flavor, similar to butternut squash or mild spinach, and there’s also a light seaweed or marine note. But then it also has a light fruitiness that reminds me of the peach notes common in green oolong. Overall, very sweet, mild, and creamy. Love it! :)

Lewis & Clarke TTB

This is one of the Yunnan Sourcing teas that I was curious about! Funny how that happens. :P I’ve tried two of their other pure bud Yunnan teas and loved them, and I was wondering how the ones I haven’t tried compare. This tea is gorgeous – big fat fuzzy golden buds that are lazily twisted. The inside of the pouch is covered in a thick layer of magical golden fairy dust! Dry scent is (mm…) very honeyed and sweet with malt and stonefruit notes. I brewed for 3 minutes at 200 degrees (I always forget that I should probably lower it to 190 for pure bud teas like this one… oops.).

Mm, it smells amazing! A lovely combination of sweet, honey, malty, fruity, bready – all of the good Yunnan things! The taste certainly doesn’t disappoint. The most prominent flavor is lovely bread and pastry combined with luscious and creamy sweet potato. It’s complimented nicely by sweet and somewhat floral honey and a very light fruitiness that reminds me of golden raisins. There’s also plenty of malt to be had! Because I steeped mine on the longer side, there’s a wee hint of something that’s approaching bitterness, but I actually love it this way, it adds a nice, deep bottom flavor to balance the middle and top. Delicious!

http://yunnansourcing.com/en/yunnan-black-teas/2875-jinggu-golden-strand-pure-bud-yunnan-black-tea-spring-2014.html

Lewis & Clarke TTB

I don’t generally go for flavored teas in the morning (errr… early afternoon) but I just happened to open this pouch and take a sniff… and then I had to make it, lol. It smells amazing. Tart and berry, a mixture of blueberry candy and cranberry sauce. There was also a whole dried goji berry in my teaspoon! The green tea itself looks like sencha to me, the leaves are definitely steamed flat. There are also large pieces of dried lemongrass.

The brewed aroma has much more blueberry in it, which I love. I can still smell the tartness of the pomegranate and goji, too. As far as the taste goes, the berry flavor is a bit too light for me. I mostly taste slightly oversteeped green tea (I guess I should have gone for 2 minutes) with a bit of a blueberry and pomegranate hint near the end. The lemongrass does blend with the green tea and give it some added dimension, which is nice. There’s also a bit of the powdered sugar-like taste that I sometimes get from flavored teas.

Lewis & Clarke TTB

The name of this tea piqued my interest! The leaves definitely look similar to a Darjeeling, with a mix of green and grey colors. They are rather small in size and appear to be quite broken up. Dry scent is musty hay and raw grains – it definitely reminds me of white tea. Their steeping parameters call for a 5-8 minute steep at boiling, but that seemed excessive to me…

Once brewed, the aroma is quite sweet and fruity with a bit of floral mixed in. There’s also some bread with honey on top in there. Happily for me, the floral isn’t overly strong in the taste. The beginning and middle of the sip are heavily grainy or bready with honey notes and a touch of fruit, and the floral comes out near the end and in the aftertaste. I don’t know much about Darjeeling, but it may not be a genre I should pursue based on this – the floral aftertaste is quite strong and definitely soapy to me. The beginning of this tea reminds me of Yunnan, but the end is too floral. :(

Lewis & Clarke TTB

Continuing with my morning black tea spree! I’m actually very happy with the teas that Yunnan Sourcing provided for this box, three of them are blacks that I specifically wanted to try, so it works out well for me! The leaves of this tea are about medium-sized, and they’re got that creepy tree branch vibe going on, long and twisty and very dark in color. Dry scent is sweet and somewhat malty.

The brewed tea smells strongly of honeysuckle, which I was not expecting! :P There’s also strong malt and a little bit of fruit. I also get that honeysuckle note in the taste, and it’s very lovely! There’s a slight touch of earthiness at the beginning of the sip, but towards the middle and end it transforms more into a heavy grain flavor that I definitely prefer. I get a little bit of fruitiness at the end and in the aftertaste, and I would classify it as stonefruit. It goes nicely with the honeysuckle, which stays strong throughout the entire sip and blossoms in the aftertaste. Now, I’m not a huge fan of florals, but I’m okay with honeysuckle since it’s quite sweet and very light on the floral side. However, the floral in the aftertaste here does get a little bit soapy for me, probably because the other flavors supporting it have dissipated. Still a delightful tea! :)

http://yunnansourcing.com/en/yunnan-black-teas/2934-wild-arbor-feng-qing-black-tea-pure-assamica-spring-2014.html

Lewis & Clarke TTB

Tea of the morning! I’ve been wanting to try this particular tea for a long time, mostly because of the hype it gets around here. The leaves look exactly like Laoshan Green but black. :P They’re thin and brittle and curled into little loops in some cases. Dry scent is pure cocoa, yum! I did a 3 minute steep as per usual for black teas.

Brewed, this tea smells very similar to Fujian black teas that I’ve tried – it has that same savory dill note. This tea also tastes similar to my idea of a Fujian tea. It’s strong and has robust flavors with that dill note along with dark grain and some lovely cocoa. This tea, however, has a nice burnt brown sugar or caramel flavor to it that really adds depth. And it’s a teensy bit sweeter, especially in the end and aftertaste, and there’s a touch of cinnamon.

Overall, quite good, but not mind-blowing. :)

Lewis & Clarke TTB

I seem to be the only one interested in these odder teas so far. :P This one literally looks like I scooped up a handful of debris off the forest floor and put it into a cup – it’s large dried leaves, twigs, and these huge shiny seeds that resemble small acorns. It mostly smells like musty autumn leaves with a touch of herbal spicy note. I did a 10 minute steep in boiling water.

Brewed, it smells somewhat spicy, maybe similar to ginger? And that autumn leaf smell is also present. I can also taste that hint of spice, and it kind of reminds me of clove? Maybe with a little ginger too. This tea is quite mild and it has a bit of a roasted flavor, which is nice. It reminds me in some ways of Whispering Pines’s Elder Grove, but without the berry flavor. The aftertaste reminds me of roasted coffee beans. There’s also something here that’s similar to licorice root, because I’m getting a slight sweet aftertaste, but it’s very mild and doesn’t bother me here. Overall, I like this one a lot, which is rather unexpected considering how odd I thought it would be. :)