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I’ve had this for a while now and haven’t written a note on it yet. I’ve actually made it twice before, but both times I came out weirdly bitter so I figured I’d give it a couple more tries before rating it. It’s a mixture of chamomile flowers, cinnamon bark, and pieces of dried apple with peel. It smells very strongly of apple and only lightly of spice. I steeped it for 5 minutes.

The aroma is nice. I get a lot more cinnamon than in the dry leaf, then chamomile and the sweetness from the apple. Unfortunately, I got the same odd bitterness this time as I have before. I can only assume it’s from leaving the peel on the apple pieces, although no one else has mentioned this in their notes so… I’m not sure what’s going on there. It makes it hard to drink, even with sugar added. So disappointed… :(

I got this sample for free with my Adagio order. All I had to do was share on Facebook, and since I changed the setting the “private”, no one even had to see it. Win/win! Dry tea looks like honeybush with yellow flower petals and a few dried fruit pieces. It smells very artificial – like apricot candy. Steeped 5 minutes.

The aroma is fairly ho-hum… Just honeybush and apricot candy. The taste is even more so. There’s not enough apricot flavor, even with added sugar. So it mostly tastes like peppery honeybush and a little fake apricot. No thanks. :P

Aw, the very last Star Wars tea! To be honest, I was not very excited for this one, mostly because it’s all white teas with coconut and I felt going by color was quite juvenile (all white items because storm troopers are white). And to continue with the honesty, the smell is quite weird. Visually, it’s broken-up bai mudan leaves with some shredded coconut and small pieces of apple tossed in. For some reason, it smells very tart and odd. I think it must be the pear flavor, but who knows? Not super appetizing. Brewed for 3 minutes.

Luckily, the brewed tea smells nothing like the leaf. I smell the soft hay of the white tea which blends well with the cucumber. I also get sweetness from the apple and a hint of coconut. It tastes pretty good, too! Very mild of course, but the cucumber and the creaminess of the coconut meld together beautifully. There’s a pear crispness at the beginning of the sip, too. Very light and I’m sure this would be extremely refreshing as an iced tea. I will definitely have to try it that way! :)

As for the fandom element, I think I just have a different concept of how to assign a tea to a character. The creator claims this is for storm troopers because it’s relaxing after a long day of work. I guess that’s valid. If I were to make a tea for a storm trooper, I would go with the concept of a strong breakfast tea blend to fuel them up for taking orders all day! :)

Edit: Adding a short rant since this is the last tea of this sampler for me to try. So I went to review these teas and get my rewards points, but I couldn’t find any way to review it. So I sent Adagio an email asking about it, and they informed me that fandom samplers can’t be reviewed… “Our technology folks are aware of the problem, but the solution has so far eluded them.” So basically I get to miss out on the 36 points I could have gotten from these teas because I bought them as a sampler and not separately… Annoyed.

The final tea from my Simple Loose Leaf July box. Honestly I had no idea what to expect out of this one since I have little to no experience with Chinese green teas. The leaves are cute, they’re quite thin and they look rolled, then shaped into little “U” shapes and hoops. The color is on the grey side of green. They smell a bit musty and vegetal, and there’s a tart fruity scent that reminds me of dried cranberries. I steeped for 2 minutes and 30 seconds.

The brewed tea smells vegetal and a bit grassy with a hay note. The flavor is quite mild, which seems to be a common factor in Chinese green teas. It’s a bit grassy and reminds me of a lighter version of sencha. I also detect a hint of floral and there’s a fruity element mid-sip. It’s quite astringent for a green tea. As I let it cool, I started to get more sweetness and a white-tea-like hay note.

Overall, I’m glad I got to experience a new-to-me tea, but this isn’t really something that I would enjoy drinking on a regular basis. It’s a bit too light for me.

I purchased this from Shadowfall in her recent stash sale. Had to scoop up those Whispering Pines teas! I’ve actually never had a keemun before but I was willing to take the risk for such a reasonable price! :) The leaves are small, short, and extremely dark. I would describe it as “generic black tea” and I don’t mean that in a bad way. Dry, it smells a little musty with honey and raisin notes. Steeped for 3 minutes.

My first impression of the aroma was that it smells like an English Breakfast. There’s a little smoke and honey in there. The taste is quite bold! The strong flavor is the main event but it also has some very nice subtle accompaniments. There’s a lovely honey quality to it, and a very light smoke in the background. It’s a tad malty. I added about half a teaspoon of sugar and it brought out some lovely dark fruit notes that remind me of raisins or dates. This tea is a bit bold for me, but the sugar really helped the round out the flavor and I’m sure it would take milk very well.

A great experience for my very first Keemun! Thanks Shadowfall!

One of my requested free samples from Angel at Teavivre. I was very surprised when I saw this tea. Usually when a tea is called golden tips it means there are golden tips included. This one looks like it’s almost all golden tips! It smells malty and there is a strong apricot scent along with some honey.

First time, I did a 4 minute steep at about 190 degrees. The aroma is very malty with honey and a light stonefruit note along with some raisin. It tastes like yummy toasty bread with some honey over the top. Maybe a tiny bit of peach or apricot jam. Very tasty!

I saw that a lot of people had mentioned sweet potato so I tried a 3 minute steep. The flavor is definitely lighter, but it’s still primarily malt. I can see how it might be a little sweet potatoey. The honey is still there but I don’t really taste fruit anymore. Overall, I think I preferred the longer steep, especially with a touch of sugar. And it doesn’t seem to be astringent in the least.

Thanks again TeaVivre!

Edit: I forgot to mention that I also received a sample of this from TeaTiff! Thanks lady! :)

This was the last sample from Harney & Sons that I hadn’t tried. Eleven samples in about a week or so, not too bad! This is my first straight bancha, but I’ve had it in genmaicha before so I kind of knew what to expect. The leaves are flat and similar to sencha, but rougher and more broken. Smells like grass, grass, grass with some hay and dry leaves. At first I steeped for a minute, but did a quick taste and then let it go another 30 seconds.

Brewed, it smells similar to the dry but with the addition of a little spinach. Wow, the taste! It’s extremely bright and grassy in the beginning. Almost sharp, but not unpleasantly. It’s like spring! The back half of the sip is more vegetal and I get that autumn leaf taste. Overall, not bitter and not as “rough” as I might have expected. I can see this being good with a meal, though it’s not something I’d drink daily.

Need to get back into these Japanese green samples I haven’t tried! Feeling like a nice mellow green after having several cups of black this morning. This is my first kabusecha, which is a green tea that has been shaded for a short time before picking. This tea was shaded for two weeks according to the website. The leaves look and smell like sencha, though they are maybe a little bit of a richer green color.

This tea is actually surprisingly light, and I am enjoying it a lot. It has the same butternut squash, spinach, and grass notes as other senchas. There is a definite creamy buttery quality to this though, and it’s quite mellow and smooth. Quite tasty, thanks Yunomi! I would absolutely drink this as an everyday green tea, and this may have to be a reorder.

TeaTiff was nice enough to send me a generous sample of this tea. It says on their website that this tea is from Yunnan, but the leaves look Taiwanese to me. They have that long, twisty, spindly look and they’re quite dark. Smells strongly of dry, unsweetened cocoa and honey with some maltiness.

Initially, I followed the directions on Hugo Tea’s website and steeped for 4 minutes. The aroma was malty with honey, but there was also a kind of peppery, herbaceous quality that reminded me of fennel seed. And it turns out, that’s exactly what it tastes like too! Very similar to pumpernickel or rye bread with a strong fennel seed taste, along with some malt and an aftertaste of dry cocoa. Wow, this tea is so unique-tasting! I kept taking sips just to experience the fennel phenomenon again!

After reading some of the notes on here, I decided to also try a 3 minute steep since a lot of people did that and mentioned more chocolate and caramel notes. Aroma was more cocoa and honey and less fennel this time. It definitely tasted less fennel-y, but I didn’t really find a lot more cocoa or honey in there. So I definitely prefer the 4 minute steep! And it’s much more honeyed with just a small amount of sugar. Pumpernickel bread with honey smeared over the top, mmmm!

Thanks so much to Green Terrace Teas for the free sample! I’ve been excited to try this one since I saw Marzipan’s lovely note about it. :) I now wish I had requested the Li Shan black tea as well! Oh well. This is a Taiwanese black tea, and the only other one I’ve tried is flavored (very well flavored, thanks to Butiki!). This type of tea receives a lot of love around here, so I was keen to see what all the fuss was about. The leaves are black and spidery, perhaps a bit shorter than the other, and there are a few stems. They smell more like maple syrup than honey to me, which is not a complaint! There’s also a strange metallic scent that I think might be from the foil packaging? I did about 3 minutes at 200 degrees.

The aroma is definitely all honey now! There’s maybe a hint of malt and some fruit. Tasting this, I’m unsure how to describe the main flavor besides to say that it tastes like a very smooth and mellow black tea. It’s not malty or bready, maybe a touch of raisin? But in a very light way. There is a definite honey taste, and a tart fruitiness. It’s listed as “peach and plum” on the website and I must say I agree with that description. Tartness from the plum but also a nice juiciness from the peach. I added a touch of sugar to the second half of my cup and it seemed to bring out a floral note? Perhaps I’m crazy! The lovely honeyed fruit taste lingers pleasantly after I’m done sipping.

Overall, very delicious and a wonderful experience for my first (plain) Taiwanese black! Thanks so much to Green Terrace Teas for allowing us to sample their wares for the very low cost of a review! :) I would definitely purchase this tea.

On a side note, I would like to suggest that steeping suggestions be added to the packaging just to make it easier for the customer. Even with a sample, it’s a nice touch and I feel like it wouldn’t be difficult to include. Thanks! :D