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This sample came from the generous boychik. There are still many Kusmi teas I’d like to try, and this (along with the Bourbon Vanilla and Cinnamon) was near the top of my list. The leaves themselves are small and somewhat generic, and jet black in color. Dry scent is very mild caramel sweetness. I steeped a teaspoon of leaf for 3 minutes at 200 degrees.

Once steeped, the tea smells of wood and malt with a small amount of caramel. Hmm… I’m not sure how I feel about this one. On the one hand, I really like the flavor of the base tea. It’s somewhat woody and has a nice raisin note. On the other hand, the caramel flavoring is far too light for my tastes. It tastes more like a burnt sugar/brown sugar note found naturally in some teas. I would definitely like a bit more caramel here. So overall, tasty, but not really caramel to me.

This sample came from mj, thanks dear! I’ve had a few more swaps since hers so her teas are starting to get buried under a pile of other flavored teas. :P This one is small, dark sencha leaves with a couple of white flower buds and a single piece of white spiky rock candy. Dry scent is sweet grape with a light floral edge. I steeped a level teaspoon for 2 minutes at 175 degrees.

Once brewed, the tea smells like white grape juice and rock candy! Yum, I’m really loving this one. It’s a nice combination of sweet white grape with subtle jasmine and mild vegetal sencha. Now, I’m not the biggest proponent of jasmine, but it’s used with a deft hand here and doesn’t overpower the other flavors. The grape is authentic and delicous and doesn’t taste candylike at all, and the sencha is quite mild and sweet. There’s some here that tastes a bit spice-like to me, a warming spice like clove or cinnamon? But it’s just the tiniest hint. Overall, yum!

Okay, time to break into these Heritage Gourmand samples from boychik. Actually I’m told these samples originally came from CharlotteZero, whom I don’t know and who hasn’t been around much lately. All I can say is, thank you and I hope you come back soon! :) This tea is based on a financier, which is a French almond and brown butter cake similar to a pound cake. Yum! The tea itself looks like a sencha, the leaves are large and flat and somewhat broken. There are a few toasted almond slices mixed in. Dry scent is sweet with honey and almond notes. I steeped about 1.5 teaspoons of leaf for 3 minutes at 175 degrees, which is my general flavored green method.

Once brewed, this tea smells very sweet and cakey with lovely butter, vanilla, and almond (nut, not extract) aromas. It smells so sweet, it’s almost like frosting or meringue. This one is a bit lighter on flavor that I would like. However, it definitely does taste like a butter and almond cake. There’s something here that tastes like vanilla frosting as well, yum! The green tea itself is just kind of grassy and nondescript, which is a shame. I could see this being very good with a nice buttery dragonwell or something similar. Overall, it’s good, but not great, especially considering the price.

Well since I loved the Melon Oolong so much, I had to try the pineapple version next. This sample came from boychik. Visually, the leaves are very similar. They’re tightly rolled into somewhat small pellets, and the other is a medium brownish green. Dry scent is… very light. It mostly smells like a milk oolong to me, sweet and creamy with the tiniest hint of pineapple. I used the same brewing parameters as I did for the melon version – 3 minutes at 200 degrees.

Brewed aroma is a bit stronger in the pineapple, but it’s still quite mild. I can still smell the sweet and creamy milk oolong-esque notes. Honestly, I’m somewhat disappointed by this tea after trying the Melon Oolong and having such high expectations. The pineapple flavor is too subtle, I feel it needs to be stronger and juicier. This mostly tastes like a mild sweet and creamy oolong with just a little bit of pineapple. Good, but nowhere near the melon version in flavor.

Another flavored tea from NayLynn! I felt like a nice refreshing fruity tea so I chose this one to try. Melon is one of my favorite fruit flavors and I like all kinds. This is a rolled oolong, and the pellets are fairly small and a medium green/brown in color. There are a few little pieces of spiky mint green transparent candy in there too, so I made sure to get one in the infuser! Dry scent is mouthwateringly juicy and sweet honeydew. The recommended steep was 1.5-2 minutes, but I thought that seemed short for an oolong so I did a 3-minute steep.

Brewed aroma is quite similar to the dry – still sweet and juicy honeydew, maybe with a hint of cantaloupe now. OMG, this tea! The honeydew flavor is absolutely perfect and spot-on in every way. It tastes so juicy and full, and the texture is super creamy from the oolong. I taste just a touch of vegetal flavor in the background, but mostly it’s just like eating a sweet, ripe honeydew in the summer. There’s something that tastes very slightly minty and tingly in the aftertaste. Yum!

I ordered 50g of this tea with my big bubble cups from David’s, mostly because I felt silly paying shipping for just one item, and a clearance item at that. So I took it upon myself to choose one tea to buy as well. This was the one I decided on. The leaves themselves are sencha, so they’re rather long and flat and a dull green/yellow in color. There are little pieces of candied pineapple along with even littler pieces of nuts and coconut. Dry scent is really alcoholic, which scares me a bit. I can smell sweet pineapple and coconut but it mostly just smells like alcohol in an extract kind of way. I steeped about 1.5 teaspoons for 3 minutes at 175 degrees.

Once brewed, it no longer smells alcoholic, hooray! The brewed aroma is very sweet and creamy with strong coconut and nut scents. Hm, not bad! Not great, but not bad. The main flavor is a mixture of creamy coconut and toasty nuts (not specifically walnut, but this has almond in it as well). It’s quite sweet on its own, although not in a pre-sweetened kind of way. The combination of flavors is quite rich and buttery, and I can just barely taste the savory, slightly grassy sencha in the background. There’s a slight artificial aftertaste, but not enough to ruin it for me. Overall, pretty good for a blind purchase! :P My only complaint is that I can’t really taste any pineapple.

This tea came from NayLynn! I do like banana, but I wasn’t so sure about the walnut, as walnuts aren’t generally my favorite. But onward, for science! I must say, the black tea leaves in this tea are huge! I figured it was one of the Taiwanese teas, but saw that it’s a Keemun when I looked it up. Wow, I have to try this Keemun plain sometime! There are whole walnuts and big pieces of dried banana mixed with the leaves. Dry scent is sweet and lovely authentic banana with creamy nuttiness. I steeped 2 teaspoons for 3 minutes at 200 degrees.

Once brewed, the tea smells strongly of banana (real banana, not candy) and some other fruit that I can’t identify. I assume it’s coming from the base tea. Yum, this is very banana. There’s also a nice mildly nutty creaminess that pairs nicely with the banana. Honestly, I don’t get much from the base other than a floral note at the end. I wish I could taste it more, but I am happy with the lovely banana.

The first tea to be tried from boychik’s amazing swap package! This tea looked beautiful and smelled even better, so it won out over the other amazing French teas she sent. The oxidized oolong leaves are dark and quite small, and they’re mixed with yellow flower petals and pieces of what look like cacao nibs. Dry scent is super chocolate heaven! It’s somewhere between milk and dark chocolate, so I guess that makes it a lower cocoa percentage dark chocolate. :P I steeped a slightly rounded teaspoon of leaf for 4 minutes at 200 degrees (in my cute new bubble mug, squee!).

Mm, the brewed aroma is still chocolate heaven! There are also some cream and pastry notes there. First off, the flavor of this one is quite light, so I would probably use more leaf the next time I make it. However, the flavor that’s there is amazing! The main star is the chocolate, which actually tastes like chocolate (still a mix of milk and dark). Then there’s the fluffy pastry cream, which pokes its head out midway through the sip and is strong in the aftertaste. In this case, it seems like a mild coconut pastry cream. The overall texture is smooth and there’s a hint of buttery pastry taste that hides in the background. Yum! :)

Next up this morning is a tea sample from scribbles. I think this is third Joseph Wesley tea I’ve tried out of the four she sent. I’ve tried one or two Bai Lin teas before any enjoyed them, so I had high hopes for this one! The leaves remind me of Jin Jun Mei. They’re very thin and wiry and twisty, but they’re fuzzy and soft-looking and they have sort of a tiger stripe pattern going on. Dry scent is very mild malt and grain with some honey sweetness. I steeped a teaspoon of leaf for 3 minutes at 200 degrees. I think in this case, I would use a touch more leaf.

The brewed aroma is dark wheat bread and tangy molasses with some raisin/prune notes. Isn’t it amazing how sometimes the aroma and taste of a tea are completely different? That’s definitely the case here. While the aroma is dark, the taste is a lovely melange of lighter, airier flavors. The bread is there, but now it reminds me of toasted light bread with just that slight crispness. I would also compare it to a buttery pastry. There are some oat-y notes along with the lightest touch of honey and golden raisin. Underneath all of these light flavors is a nice deep caramel richness. Oh, so creamy!

I will say that there is the tiniest minerality here that leads me to believe I made it with tap water. Our roommate makes coffee in the morning, and he uses tap water. We’re out of coffee right now, but this morning there was some water in the electric kettle. I didn’t think anything of it, but it was probably tap water. Sigh.

My first tea of the morning is a sample from Blodeuyn. Keemun is one of the black teas that I want to try more of, since my experience so far is fairly limited. I heard early-on that they’re supposed to be smoky, and I haven’t really seen that too much in the ones I’ve tried. This tea has very small leaves, and they’re thin and black. Dry scent is musty hay with malt and some smoke. These leaves are very easy to measure, so I actually used a level teaspoon this time! :P I let it steep for 3 minutes at 200 degrees.

The aroma is an interesting juxtaposition of creamy and smooth with mineral and smoky. And the taste is the same way! The texture is very smooth and there’s a definite creaminess to the taste, but there’s also a fairly strong mineral note and a touch of smoke in the background. In the middle is a grainy/bready note and some malt, helping to bring the two sides together. A very interesting, almost split personality tea. And a somewhat smoky Keemun! :)