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Another sick tea I brought back from Taiwan! I can’t really taste any ginger in this, but I quite like the lemon. It’s sweet, gently tart, and juicy in a way that I just realized reminds me of a very robust lemon water. Not sugary enough to be mistaken for lemonade. More of a natural fruity sweetness. The black tea base is completely inoffensive and barely noticeable. I actually literally didn’t realize that this was a black tea at first, because the lemon overpowers the base and the box only says “ginger lemon tea” in English, not that it’s caffeinated or has black tea in it. Another lesson to use translation apps early and often!

So somehow I don’t think I knew amber oolong existed until this recent trip to Taiwan? I grabbed a bottle of Family Mart convenience store brand amber oolong because a) there’s no sugar in it and b) it has actual tea leaves in the bottle, which I don’t think I’ve ever seen in the states. It’s definitely a nice medium amber color, so I can see where the name comes from. It’s got a sweet honey note and is a bit dry at the end of the sip. I meant to take more notes but I was really thirsty and drank this faster than planned!

Among the many wonderful meals we ate in Taiwan was hotpot at Tianwaitian Hot Pot. They’ve got a vegetarian soup base option and a dizzying array of ingredients to choose from. Plus great desserts, including ice cream, soft serve, and so much fresh fruit! Taiwanese pineapple is sweeter and less tart than what’s generally available in the U.S.; it’s so so good and I ate it at every opportunity. I didn’t even see the hot tea station until we were leaving, but I had iced jasmine green tea. Honestly it was probably one of the lowest-quality teas I had during my trip. It had that weird taste on the back end that’s present in jasmine teas that are flavored rather than scented. It was a totally adequate complement to a meal full of strong flavors – sometimes the tea doesn’t need to be the centerpiece – but in retrospect I would have gone with a hot tea or the iced oolong instead.

Second sipdown of the day! I’m still coughing, so sick teas remain in heavy rotation. I had the last cup of this one intentionally oversteeped for maximum effect, plus I added a whopping dollop of manuka honey. So it came out tart and a bit medicinal from oversteeping the licorice root, with a cooling, menthol-like effect after the sip. Not ideal from a flavor perspective but somewhat helpful in soothing my throat!

Sipdown! I didn’t actually plan to finish this off today, but I had too much leaf for one cup and not enough for two so I made a large mug as an oat milk latte. The dry leaf smells of cinnamon and brown sugar. For some reason I also sensed something spicy, like clove, but there’s nothing like that in here. Brewed up, it tastes of cinnamon, brown sugar, and a bit of maple. It’s got an almost chewy creaminess that feeds into the cookie butter effect. I think that’s coming from the interplay of the oat milk and the coconut. Huge thanks to Cameron B. for sending me this! I wouldn’t have bought it myself but I’m really glad that I got to try it.

My sense of smell and taste is coming back! I must have sniffed half our spice cabinet to confirm it! I’m probably at about 80% of where I was before, but that’s a vast, vast improvement over the 20% I was at when symptoms were at their worst. So this is a joyous day indeed!

I’m celebrating with this sakura leaf that Nazanin at Tea Thoughts included in an order a while ago (she is truly excellent at the art of the bonus item). It tastes just like sakura mochi, minus the sweetness. The flavor is clean and light without being weak or faint. It’s got a slightly savory quality that I rather enjoy, which is stronger on the second steep. The sakura flavor lingers for a while after the sip, too. Just a really enjoyable herbal.

My sense of smell/taste remains covid-dulled – I was just drinking DavidsTea’s Cold 911 and couldn’t smell it at all. But I can pick up some really strong aromas, and the rose in this tea packs a punch. I had two mugs of it this afternoon as really lovely oat milk lattes. I know this tea well enough to know that I’m not getting the full depth of it right now, but it’s strong enough that I was still able to enjoy the floral rose scent and flavor.

Technically a sipdown but I only had two teabags, squirreled away years ago from a hotel on a previous trip to Taiwan. Honestly I should have finished these long ago, they’re stamped 2017! Whether that’s the production date or the expiration date, either way it is too long to let a green tea lie around. So this seemed like a good moment to enjoy them: they’re past their peak and not my best jasmine anyway, and I have been really craving florals even though my smell/taste are still dulled. I could still make out a pleasant jasmine and a hearty green base, which is just all I really wanted or needed from it.

We went to Yong Kang Street a few times, exploring different parts of it. One time, we went into Tea to Tea, a prepared-tea shop that had some loose leaf as well (a pretty common setup, think Ten Ren if you’ve been to one in the U.S.). After the unfortunate start with the bottled Ruby 18, I assumed that this leaf would be of similar quality and intended to have sugar added. So I was pleasantly surprised when I tried to order it with boba and 30% sugar and was told that neither was an option; that this was one of a few teas on the menu that could only be customized as hot or cold, no sweetener and no toppings. I ordered it iced and waited the requisite time for them to brew it fresh. And it was a noticeable improvement over the bottled tea: super smooth, a little woody, with a much more pronounced cinnamon note. They gave me the leaves in a special little to-go container so I could rebrew them, so I cold brewed them overnight when I got back to the hotel for a really lovely second brew.

Hohocha Ruby 18 is the other sugary bottled tea I picked up in Taiwan before I started checking ingredients lists. While it’s sweeter than I would like, at least it’s real tea and only has a few ingredients, unlike the random sugar bomb amalgam of the rose berry herbal tea. It’s just water, sugar, tea leaves, and preservatives. And it’s pretty tasty, albeit too sweet for my liking so I took a while to finish it. The sugar definitely drowns out some flavor, but it is smooth with a hint of cinnamon. It kept reminding me of Arizona iced tea in the 99-cent cans, even though I haven’t had one in ages. They’re totally different base teas so my best guess is that it’s a comparable level of sweetness.