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(SAD) SIPDOWN! (104)

Aw, my very last cup of this tasty tea (for now). Gotta love the light and delicious pastry notes, the honey, the mild fruitiness. Sigh… Soon it will return to me! I want to try gong fu brewing with this one, since the name pretty much demands it.

I also found out today that Tan Yang Gong Fu (also called Panyang Congou apparently) comes from the same varietal as Golden Monkey! They’re also processed in the same way, apparently Tan Yang is slightly higher grade though. Interesting! They were listed as the same tea in The Tea Enthusiast’s Handbook, so I looked it up and found more information here:

http://www.cantonteaco.com/blog/2013/07/a-trip-to-fuan-and-golden-monkey-tea/

Gotta love learning! I will definitely be repurchasing this tea when TeaVivre’s black and oolong sale starts! SOON.

Sipdown! (105)

Another lovely fuzzy tea from Nicole. I did the 1/2/4m method tonight, and all three steeps basically tasted the same to me, which is interesting. They all had that nice cucumber/honeydew in the beginning of every sip, and then turned into lovely light bread and pastry notes. There’s definitely a very light floral at the end somewhere, maybe a mild lilac? Overall, this is definitely a unique tea. I would absolutely consider stocking this just because it’s nice and light and refreshing. Lovely for afternoon or early evening. Thanks Nicole! :P

Sipdown! (106)

This tea is so delicous. :3 I used water within the recommended range this time around. I’m definitely getting a fruity note that I don’t remember from before, it’s kind of like a golden raisin (sweet and syrupy, but not as intense as a regular raisin). Very lovely. I will definitely be adding this to my list of teas I must repurchase! And I would like to try this with the 1/2/4 method or as a gong fu session. Thanks so much to Nicole for introducing me to this tea and to Yunnan Sourcing in general! :D

Sipdown! (107)

Used the yyz method (1m/2m/4m) although I didn’t actually do the third steep this time around. This tea is still very unique, it has that fennel seed herbaceous flavor that I’ve found in a couple others. But I feel like this one is more savory. It’s very dark rye or pumpernickel bread with the seeds over the top. Butter, maybe, but not honey.

Delicious, but not something I absolutely need. :P Thanks to TeaTiff for the sample..

Sipdown!

I finished this one off this morning using the new method that I got from yyz! It’s a 1 minute steep, then a 2 minute steep, followed by a 4 minute steep. I am really liking this method. I guess it’s somewhere between gong fu and western-style? I tend to love the lighter/more golden Yunnan teas and this kind of emulates that flavor even with a darker Yunnan. I will definitely be trying this with a lot of my other black teas. Thanks so much, yyz!

As for this tea, it’s a good one. But there are other Yunnan teas that I like as much or more that are cheaper (and more accessible, there is only one tin of this left and then it’s gone forever). Thanks again Nicole for letting me try this one! :)

My stomach is sloshing from all this tea!

Sipdown!

This is definitely my favorite of the Della Terra teas I ordered a few weeks ago. A few of the others had really artificial flavors, which were okay for the first try, but after that I found they made me a bit nauseous. This one does have flavoring, but I actually enjoy it. The blueberry is more of a blueberry jam flavor than fresh. The cream is kind of vanilla-ish and it’s definitely stronger than the blueberry, which is okay, but I would prefer if the blueberry were stronger. It’s not overly rooibosy, and I don’t taste the black tea at all.

Overall, a relatively good dessert tea but not a very good blueberry tea, which is what I’m looking for.

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Yum, toasted rice! It’s been a while since I’ve had a (traditional) genmaicha. This one is definitely my favorite out of the three I’ve tried. It’s the smoothest and has a lot of yummy toasted rice flavor. I can taste the green tea in the background but it’s not rough or grassy like other genmaichas can be. I still don’t taste the matcha. I don’t feel that I necessarily need a traditional genmaicha in my cupboard right now. I have Laoshan Black Chocolate and I think it about covers my lovely toasted rice tea slot.

I still really need to try that buckwheat tea! I bet it’s just like this but without the green tea flavor at all. OM NOM NOM TOASTED RICE!

Sipdown!

I’ve been pretty underwhelmed by milk oolongs so far, I find they don’t have the level of creaminess that I expect. I do enjoy the peach notes, but green oolongs in general tend to be quite floral, which can be okay but it’s not something I’d choose. Sarsonator put forth the suggestion that I try them western style but with a lower temperature and longer steep, so I figured I’d try that with this one.

The taste is nice but it just doesn’t say “milk” to me. I don’t have much experience with green oolongs so maybe I’m just not seeing the difference here. It does have good peach notes and the floral is at a minimum with this preparation, so that’s nice. It’s mildly vegetal and it reminds me of squash. The aftertaste is all peach and apricot. This tea is quite nice but I think the genre in general is just not for me.

Sipdown!

There was definitely a bit more than a teaspoon left, but I decided to use all of it because it didn’t look like enough for two cups. And it doesn’t seem to have come out super strong or anything weird, so I guess more was okay! I am definitely a fan of roasty notes in tea, and this is as roasty as they come. However, the flavor is definitely more “rough” than other similar teas like genmaicha, some blacks, roasted mate, etc. It reminds me of drinking dry autumn leaves. And while I do find it enjoyable, I tend to prefer the softer roasted flavors of the other roasty teas. So I don’t really feel the need to keep a houjicha around at the moment. Still good though, and thanks again for the sampler, Den’s!

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I half expected this to come out horribly bitter, since it was the bottom of the packet and there was quite a bit of dust. But it didn’t! It’s quite lovely, and the bergamot is subtle but I can still taste it (unlike Paris). However, after trying Nosy Bey, the peach and vanilla elements are just nowhere near as amazing. Although I do concede that this has a slightly different flavor profile, I wouldn’t feel the need to stock both of them. And Nosy Bey definitely wins! This is a lovely tea, but sometimes those Frenchies just can’t be beaten! ;)

I will, however, increase the rating to 85 (previously 83).

Edit: After finishing this, I realized it was mysteriously missing from my Steepster cupboard. And thus I was denied my moment of triumph! Poop!