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This was my first real experience with matcha. I didn’t really know what to expect. I opened it up and got a pleasant smell of caramel and the fresh fragrance of green tea. It dissolved quickly and nicely into the warmed milk as per the instructions and didn’t leave any sort of chalky taste that i would have expected from a powder. Defintiely has peaked my interest toward other matcha powders. Not an everyday thing definitely a treat, but a great tasting one at that:)

It’s here!!! Finally after all the looking at them and reading about them, i finally bought one! It was on eBay as a matter of fact, and i got it for about 25.00$ cheaper than everywhere else i’ve seen them, so needless to say i was extremely happy about that! I tried it tonight, absolutely amazing!! I thought i was making some great tasting tea, and just the difference between this morning and tonight was night and day difference! It does it all!! Its a hot water kettle, its a tea maker, it has the auto start, what more could you ask for?! I am just so in love with this thing!! Thanks to all my friends here that helped me and pushed me to take the leap, now i couldn’t think of drinking tea any other way!

Well this is my first cup of tea with my new Breville!!! So after tasting the difference between the cup of this tea i made this morning is huge! this one has some great color and awesome re-steepablity. Initially, I noticed the grassy flavor that is often easily recognizable in green teas. However, i noticed this green really has that fresh flavor, not overpowering but fresh and crisp. I don’t know if its just me, but i noticed the taste of edamame (soybeans)…and normally that would come off as really strange, but this time it just added to the freshness of the cup. I was pleasantly impressed by this one. As i am normally not a huge fan of greens, the folks at Shan Valley seemed to do a good job with this one:)

Nothing is more nice than waking up on a single day weekend with something to make it feel somewhat worth it. This cup had that crisp citrus scent and zing that a slice of lemon usually brings to a hot cup of tea. Now i don’t know how they were able to mix the gentle subtleness of white tea with the gentle tones of green tie, while achieving the nuances of an Earl Grey. Granted its not the Earl Grey that you normally think of, but this gets the merit for the technicalities and the flavors that pronounce themselves from beginning to end. The second steep was much more mellow on the flavors of the tea which can be expected from a green-white blend, but the citrus notes of the lemon and bergamot hold true. Good cup to wake you up and make just say, “Ahhhh” :)

Another tea opened and down:) this one didn’t have the subtle mess that I expect from a Darjeeling. This one hit me with that nice refreshing “ahhh” that I’ve noticed only Darjeeling has. The steep was the normal amount, the color was good, great for re steeping. Tasted wonderful “black”, although I usually at least add sugar. This one was really pretty impressive, just a nice subtle floral then I think a little nuttiness and darker flavors you get from black tea. A good tea, not the champagne of teas but definitely a good one.

This one was a pleasant splash of color on a wintry day. The kids liked watching the tea bloom at the bottom of the carafe. As it began to bloom it turned the water into the normal light gold color with a hue of subtle red. After steeping a bit, I poured a cup and was surprised but the smell of strawberry and the slight taste of strawberry followed up by the gentle taste of white tea. I’m not normally a white tea kind of person, as it often comes across as too light, and is often overpowered by the accompanying flavor. In this case it was strawberry. I noticed this particular tea can’t steep past it’s allowed time or you can end up with the flavor of a strawberry potpourri which can be a bit off putting. However if you want to get more of that strawberry flavor this might be your best bet. If was different and I enjoyed it more for the aesthetics than the taste. Worth a try though:)

This one wasn’t as bad as I had been prepped for. I opened the bag expecting to be hit with an overwhelming scent of jasmine…it was surprisingly subtle. After steeping for about 3 minutes. I poured a cup of a nice golden subtle and light flavored green tea. The jasmine was noticeable, but not overpowering which was nice, but still a little to subtle to rate it higher. It didn’t have much of a crisp finish…the clean taste of the green tea came through, nice coloring, good mellow cup for a cold morning…but just a subtle cup.

This was one of those, “hey look free samples” kind of tastings. Now granted one small sample became a small cup. I was pleasantly impressed by the flavor blends of subtle peach sweetness with the fresh tartness of strawberry finishing with the light crisp clean finish of white tea. Now I don’t know if I could call it a go to, but it was a pleasant change of pace from my norm. Very impressive and tasty:)

Overall, I was a bit disappointed by this cup. When I opened the package I was surprised with a refreshing citrus note that was expected with a earthy Ceylon scent…but the broken leaves and tea dust threw me for a bit of a loop. Obviously I still granted the benefit of a doubt, because I’ve been pleasantly surprised by worse in the past…but to little avail. After letting steep at the appropriate time…still nothing. A bit of the normal earl grey flavor but it left quickly along with my expectations. The combo of tea dust, non re-steepability, and poor taste just really put a damper on the experience:(