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Also from Nicole (and I suspect originally from boychik). I figured since I tried the “regular” version of this, I might as well try the imperial grade next so I could compare! These leaves look like miniature versions of the others, but they have less golden color, which I found weird. The dry scent is very mild as well, maybe with a touch more honey? I used the same brewing parameters.

I get the same dark bread and molasses aroma, but with maybe a touch more earthiness and a more toasted scent. The taste is very roasty, which is amazing! Like a slice of dark wheat toast with a little bit of roasted unsweetened nut butter along with the molasses. And I love that so much about this tea! I also get a hint of raisiny goodness. The earth note is still there, but it seems more mellow and refined, I couldn’t compare it to smoke anymore. And I think I catch a hint of floral in the aftertaste? Couldn’t tell you what kind of flower it is, though.

There was a little bitterness in this brew, especially when taking multiple sips in quick succession. So next time I make this I might try a lower water temperature and/or a 2m30s steep. Very good though!

This sample came from Nicole. :) I thought I would try this one since I haven’t tried many Fujian varieties and I would like more experience with them and knowing their “typical” flavors. This one’s leaves remind me of a smaller version of a tippy Yunnan. They’re kind of randomly twisty, half golden and half dark. Their smell is quite mild; I can detect malt and cocoa notes with some honey sweetness. I let it steep for 3 minutes, seems pretty standard for western style.

The aroma is all dark things: brown bread, molasses, raisins, and bitter cocoa. And the taste is quite similar. I definitely get some toasted dark wheat bread with molasses over the top. There’s also a little earthiness that could border on a mild smokiness. The overall texture is very thick and it coats the mouth, further forwarding the molasses note. Overall, a very rich and tasty tea. I see definite similarities to Yunnan with this one, which I didn’t experience as much with Whispering Pines’s Fujian Black. It’s fun to compare! :)

I actually had this one last night, but I completely forgot to log it this morning as I had planned to. I made sure to include this in my recent order, since the last time I had it, for some reason it didn’t come out very well for me. And it’s so darn inexpensive! So anyway, I really wanted to try it at once, but I saved it for the evening since it’s caffeine free. I overleafed a bit on purpose (2 teaspoons instead of 1/2 tablespoon) just to make sure the flavor was strong this time.

I definitely love this tea! The aroma and taste are both spicy and sweet and darkly fruity. I love the way the elderberries end up tasting – dark and syrupy but still sweet and berry-like. The spice is perfect! I can definitely taste the cinnamon and I get a clove-like flavor even though there are no cloves. I have no idea what holy basil is, so maybe it’s the cause of that. Overall, the flavor of this tea reminds me of a nice mulled apple cider with a deeper fruity flavor. Delicious, and a definite must-have from now on! I can’t wait to sip this in the colder months.

Hooray, my new electric kettle came in the mail today! I could not have been more excited. I filled it up, boiled the water, then dumped it out twice just to make sure there was nothing weird inside. And then I selected this tea to try because I was curious about its contribution to the S’mores that I tasted yesterday. The leaves are very long and thin, twisty and jet black. Very dramatic! The dry smell is somewhat malty, somewhat fruity, and a little musty with some honey notes. Brewed according to package directions! :)

The aroma is not what I expected for a Keemun. For some reason I was under the impression the Keemuns are smoky and earthy. Apparently not all of them! It smells of sweet, syrupy raisins with a hint of spice, along with lovely malty bread notes with brown sugar. It’s like cinnamon raisin bread tea! :P On to the taste! The raisin is definitely here as well, and I think I pick up a touch of spice (cinnamon?). There’s a lovely light grain or bread flavor that segues perfectly into a lovely creaminess near the end of the sip. Somewhere in the middle is a nice earthy cocoa note that lends depth and richness to the overall taste.

This tea is not at all what I expected! Much lighter in color and texture than I thought it would be, and the flavor is not heavy at all. I can definitely see this being the graham cracker in the S’mores blend, with some help from the added cinnamon and marshmallow root. And it’s very delicious on its own too!

I figured since it’s now 9:00, I should probably lay off the straight black teas until tomorrow. Which is a shame! If only the mailman had gotten here sooner! So I chose this one out of my The Persimmon Tree sample pile to try. It’s a green tea and red rooibos blend with big spheres of caramel, genmai, crisp rice cereal, flower petals, and some little mystery seeds. Smells extremely sweet and caramelly.

The brewed aroma is… leafy, grassy, caramel. I am definitely not impressed with the taste of this one, which is surprising considering it has a fairly high rating for a flavored tea. The base tea tastes like either a low-grade sencha or a bancha to me. It’s very autumn leafy and rough-tasting. I do taste the red rooibos a little bit, but it’s very mild. The caramel flavor is strong, but there is a definite artificial aftertaste to it… It tastes plasticy or alcoholic. And I just don’t find that caramel goes that well with the green tea base. Nope, not for me!

YAY WHISPERING PINES ORDER! I was getting upset when I thought it wouldn’t come today, but it turns out the mailman just felt like being FIVE HOURS LATE. Come on, man! But seriously, I wonder what happened there… Anyway, this was definitely the first tea to try! I’ve already tried half of the teas I’ve ordered thanks to Nicole and my badly-timed sample order. This tea is very outdoorsy-looking. There’s bark and fluffy white things in there! Clearly it is mountain man tea. It smells quite smoky, and I was surprised by the amount of cinnamon. There’s cocoa in there too, of course.

The smoke aroma is much milder in the brewed tea. And there’s definitely a burnt sugar element (hello, marshmallow!) along with cocoa and spice. The smoke is quite strong in the taste! It blends very nicely with the cinnamon and in turn it becomes sweeter and less harsh. I immediately pick up on the graham cracker in this, so much that I had to check and make sure there wasn’t a Yunnan tea in here. There’s a nice unsweetened cocoa note that stands in for the chocolate, and I get a light sweetness at the end of the sip that, combined with the smoke, could definitely be a charred marshmallow. The aftertaste is refreshing, cooling pine.

Overall, I do get how this is similar to a s’more. But it’s definitely a s’more with bittersweet chocolate and a charred marshmallow. And it needed a little touch of sugar to really connect for me. I can’t wait to try Pine Peak Keemun and then try to identify which teas are providing which flavors in this (obviously the smoke is from the lapsang, and I would assume the cocoa is the Fujian, but what about the graham cracker?).

Sad sad sipdown… :( Drinking the last cup of this make me want to regret sending out samples of it to several people. But then I remember how much tea I have… And then I get excited because I now have an empty tin to use! Hooray!

I still really like this one, even though I’ve tasted a lot of different things since I last had it. I do find myself needing to add sugar because of the bergamot, but that’s more of a personal preference and I don’t blame the tea. I wonder if the Kusmi store does refills on mini-tins… :D

Drinking a Whispering Pines tea this morning in celebration that my order will arrive today. Hooray! GOLDEN ORCHID, I WILL NOM YOU! Anyway, I was curious about this tea since it was described as being very chocolately, and I generally fail at tasting the cocoa in teas… We shall see. The leaves are very thin, dark, and twisty – they remind me of miniature Taiwanese Assam leaves. For some reason they smell like peanuts in the shell to me… There’s cocoa there too. Good sign!

The aroma has raisin and tobacco with an interesting spicy edge. I also get cocoa and honey scents. Hmm, this tea… There is definitely a spice note in here. At first it reminds me of fennel or anise, but there’s also a warming sensation that makes me think of cinnamon later in the sip. Interesting! The main flavor for me is roasty autumn leaves which goes very well with the cocoa notes. Roasty, cocoa-y, spicy… It’s almost like some kind of Mexican hot chocolate without the creaminess, and would probably be exactly that with milk.

I saw that Nicole also got smoke out of this one, and I can see that. The combination of the roasty leaves and the spice could definitely be similar to smokiness. But I really enjoyed that dynamic. ;)

It’s been while since I had a chai (I’m not counting that Thai Chai earlier because it was more of a very mildly spiced condensed milk). And this one is caffeine free, which is lovely because for some reason, I tend to be low on caffeine free options. I can see whole cloves and big pieces of dried orange peel in the mix, along with pieces of ginger root and cinnamon bark. It smells very gingery and spicy, which is a good sign. There’s a little wisp of vanilla. I brewed 5 minutes and added a little condensed milk and sugar.

Even with the additions, it smells very spicy. And it still tastes quite spicy too, hooray! I didn’t kill it! ;) The ginger is very strong, and it makes my tongue tingle! I can also detect the clove and the warmth from the cinnamon. There’s no sign of the rooibos base, and only a very little hint of vanilla. The vanilla would probably be more obvious without the milk and sugar, though, so I’m not going to count that against it.

Overall, I am very pleased with this as a late night option. It’s simple and good chai. There’s a little bit too much ginger in my opinion, but that’s more a of personal taste. Would definitely recommend as a caffeine free choice!

Drinking this tonight because I figured since white tea has the lowest caffeine content, I can count it as a nighttime tea. :P Butterscotch is one of my favorite flavors, so I had to choose this tea when I ordered samples from The Persimmon Tree. The dry leaf is a mixture of (very) broken-up bai mudan leaves, a few golden flower petals, and red peppercorns. I have no idea why there are peppercorns in a butterscotch tea, but I’ll go with it. It smells very lovely and candy-like, with a little bit of spice and an interesting crisp, fresh flavor that reminds me of cucumbers or a crunchy pear. I steeped for 3 minutes.

The aroma is lovely creamy butterscotch and hay from the white tea. There is a tiny bit of spiciness and something that smells like licorice root… Uh oh, I hate licorice root. Well, this does taste like butterscotch, in a very mild way. And it goes nicely with the natural flavor of the white tea. However, this is some kind of weird flavor in here, and I’m not sure where it’s coming from. I guess it could be from the peppercorns, but it really tastes like licorice root. I’m thinking maybe there’s some kind of alcohol flavor element to their butterscotch flavoring?

Holding off on a rating until I try this without the peppercorns in, to see if that makes any difference…