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This tea was provided for free in exchange for review, thanks teasenz! You can find it here: http://www.teasenz.com/golden-yunnan-tea-jinjunmei#.U-lC6PldXX8

Wow, the picture on their website does not do this tea justice! I actually said “wow” out loud when I opened the packet. It consists of the most beautiful little golden-orange fuzzy tips, and they’re very light and fluffy. It almost reminds me of yarn, but with a slight metallic element. Here’s a picture, I couldn’t resist! (http://i.imgur.com/vi6lJGv.jpg) The dry scent is light malt with sweet honey and cocoa notes. I did my usual 3 minute steep without looking up any instructions (such arrogance!).

Brewed, it smells sweet and malty with a definite cocoa note. I also get rich molasses and dried fruit, and a slight herby presence. Yummmmmm! Lol, I sound like a Furby… I wouldn’t call this tea super complex, but the quality of flavor is divine. It’s quite malty and bready, and slightly sweet in the raw honey sense. There’s a little bit of peppery interest, and an herbaceousness that is almost definitely reminiscent of dill. I find a tiny bit of dried fruit if I specifically look for it, but it’s not very prominent overall. Lovely smooth and mellow tea with a clean finish and no bitterness or astringency whatsoever! This one is absolutely going into my permanent cupboard, right this second.

Wow, I am very impressed with teasenz so far, and I am so glad that I sent that email requesting samples! And this tea is only $9.95 for 70 grams, what? Definitely an amazing value as well as just a great tea. :D

Sipdown! (148)

This sample came from Nicole, and it made me laugh a little bit. First of all, I love the way that Nicole labels her little sample baggies. Instead of writing on the bag or using a sticky label, she writes the name of the tea (etc) on what looks like a piece of an index card (it has graph lines which makes it extra cute) and puts it directly into the bag with the tea. And her handwriting is lovely! This one in particular made me giggle a bit because it said something along the lines of “I think this is Butiki’s chai, it was in a tin with no label”. Thanks for the giggle, Nicole!

I used the recommended 1.5 tsp and brewed it in about 6 ounces of water so I would have room for milk. Added a little bit of sugar and tasted, it’s actually quite mild, which I didn’t expect! I still added the soy milk just to see how it would come out. I’m finding it a bit weak on spice flavor with the milk added. So I suppose next time I would use more tea if I’m going to add milk, or drink it without.

However, I do enjoy the blend of spices here. I can taste the ginger, but it’s not overpowering the cinnamon and clove. I’m definitely enjoying my cup, even if it is a bit mild. I’m not going to give this a rating because I feel it wouldn’t be fair since I added the milk. :P

Sipdown! (149)

Aww, I’ll miss this tea! But it’s more important right now for me to reduce the number of teas in my cupboard instead of hoarding tiny samples. I can always order this one later, especially considering that Yunnan Sourcing is absolutely at the top of my list once my hiatus is over. This tea is so good! Rich and fruity, grainy and with a touch of herb or spice flavor. Definitely on my list for purchase!

On a side note, I would like to give a shout-out to Mandala for their Smart Soak. I got an ounce of it with my ripe puerh sampler, and it works very well! One of my poor little noble cups had a stubborn brown ring stain from tea sitting in it too long, and I wasn’t having any luck with trying to wash it out. So I mixed two cups of water with a teaspoon of the Smart Soak and filled the cup, then let it soak for probably about fifteen minutes or so. Stain gone! No scrubbing required! I was so happy. :D A question though, the package just says to rinse the teaware afterward, but should I be washing with soap and water? I’m not sure what’s in the Smart Soak, but I guess it must be safe for consumption if they’re only recommending a rinse. Just wondering! :D

Trying this tea again after I painstakingly removed all of the hibiscus petals from it (ugh). It’s definitely much better than it was before, I’m glad I bothered picking through it.

It now tastes mostly of apple, which is okay with me. There’s a bit of marshmallowy flavor in the second half of the sip and in the aftertaste. It’s like apple juice followed by marshmallow – not the best combination but much more palatable than that hibiscus nightmare. Interestingly, I’m getting a slight cooling sensation on my tongue after each sip, though there isn’t any mint listed in this blend. Odd! Not going to change the rating since this is basically a custom blend now…

Daily Summary: 6 sipdowns, 150 teas remaining in cupboard

Miss Stephanie was nice enough to send me a sample of this tea. It’s a fairly famous one around here, and I’ve been curious about it for quite some time. I generally love almond and brioche is delicious, of course! So even though I’m not loving flavored teas as much these days, I was still excited to try this. There are some slices of almond mixed in with the tea, along with those tiny red flower petals that seem to be in every flavored black tea lately. Dry, it smells quite lovely and sweet with a definite almond influence.

Honestly, I wasn’t terribly impressed with this when I tried it straight. Sugar helped a bit. But milk (in my case, vanilla soy) is certainly the secret ingredient here, it makes this taste infinitely more pastry-like and buttery. I can definitely taste the almond, but it’s not a marzipan taste, just nutty and buttery almonds. There’s a little dash of cinnamon, and it really adds a lovely dimension to the tea. I’m almost reminded of French toast, but made with brioche of course! I think next time I’ll brew this a little bit stronger so it’ll stand up to the milk better.

Right now I don’t think I would order this, mostly because I don’t tend to reach for flavored teas as much. Also, I haven’t tried anything else from American Tea Room, and I can’t imagine making an order for just one tea unless it was the best tea ever…

Sipdown! (152)

So the stevia taste in this bothered me plain, but I did find a way that I really enjoy it. I brewed it with a little bit less water and then added some sugar and vanilla soymilk. Tastes like a blueberry muffin, yum! Still on the hunt for the perfect blueberry tea… :P

Sipdown! (153)

I’m undecided on this one! It does have a lovely honey flavor, especially in the aftertaste. However, there’s a little bit of floral and it’s leaving me with a soapy taste today. Mm but that lovely creamy honey! Delicious.

I still need to order a round of samples from Green Terrace with my free-shipping-for-samples code, as I really want to try their Li Shan Black. Obviously, it’ll be a little while since I’m on hiatus, but the code says it doesn’t expire so hooray! I may order another sample pack of this tea too, so I can make my mind up about it. :P

Sipdown! (154)

Aw, the last of my little sample packet from the 3rd anniversary sampler. Thanks again to TeaVivre for letting us humble tea-drinkers try so many of your teas for free! You’ll always have a following here on Steepster because of your delicious tea and awesome service!

As much as I enjoy this tea, I don’t really see it being something that I’ll order, simply because it’s one of the priciest black teas and there are others that I like just as much. I’m really glad I got the opportunity to try it, though! :)

Sigh… So I’m feeling pretty cheated by the Blends club this month… I was so excited for the premise of vanilla-centric blends. They reeled me in! And then they gave me a licorice tea and a floral tea. The third tea sounds like it’ll be good, but vanilla is not the main flavor there either. Ugh!

So I figured I’d get this one out of the way already, since I hate licorice root. Honestly, the dry scent isn’t horrible, but there’s quite a bit of ginger and I can definitely smell the licorice. And it actually smells really nice when brewed – like apple cinnamon oatmeal! Yum.

Unfortunately, it’s very licorice. I can’t stand that weird sweet aftertaste that licorice gives, it makes me want to gag. The other flavors in this tea aren’t bad, and I might actually enjoy it if it hadn’t been ruined by the evil emperor himself. I’m not going to rate this considering there is a large amount of bias in play here.

So, straight into the rehoming box it goes. If anyone is interested in trying this, just let me know, I have an ounce of it.

Daily Summary: 4 sipdowns, 155 teas remaining in cupboard

So after having a nice little conversation with Sarsonator, I decided to break open one of my many puerh samples from TeaVivre. She recommended a pseudo-gong fu method of combining three steeps into one mug and then repeating that. The dry leaves are in small chunks and flakes from being broken off of a cake. The color ranges from dark evergreen to slightly purple. Dry scent is rather strong smoke, which surprised me! Also eucalyptus or menthol and slightly mushroom notes.

So, I did a 10s rinse. Then 10s, 15s, 20s steeps combined into one cup. After that I did 30s, 40s, and 50s combined. I found then to be quite similar so I’m just going to consider both cups as one experience.

Brewed aroma was pretty much the same as dry, but much milder on the smoke and methol. The taste was much lighter than I expected it to be. There’s a mild hay or grassy flavor that forms the base, and I can definitely see the “barnyard” descriptor here, but in a good way. The smoke and the menthol hit at the back of my tongue and throat, along with a slight peppery taste. All three are quite mild. There’s a definite dried fruity flavor, comparable maybe to dried apricot or prune.

I got an interesting tingly feeling in my mouth that I wasn’t expecting! I wasn’t sure whether I enjoyed it or not, to be honest. It somewhat made my tongue feel like I’d eaten too many sour candies… And I could definitely feel it making a difference in my heart rate and a little bit in my head. Interesting! Now my chest kind of hurts, so not sure what that’s about…

Thanks Sars for all the advice! :) I’m really unsure how to rate this, so I guess I’ll just go for it?