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I always have some of this in my cupboard. It’s a guest favorite and warms me up late at night. Good with honey, It’s also a good stand in when I’m feeling under the weather. It’s definitely more mild than the triple ginger herbal I have, but it’s good because it’s mid. My crowd pleaser tea for when it’s too late for caffeine!

Visited my family this past week, and my parents still have this tea in a ceramic canister in the back of their pantry. To my surprise, this tea has aged really well since I first left it there years ago. It’s taken on more of a floral front on the dry leaf, which carries itself to the brew. Almost thought that it was jasmine tea for a minute! I grampa’d and gongfu’d this tea all throughout the day during my visit, super content with each steep. There was a bit of astringency with the earlier steeps each time I brewed, but by the third of fourth time around most of the bitter sting was flushed out. Maybe it’s good that I slept on this tea, it’s only gotten better with age.

I’m so so disappointed with this one.

When I heard about this tea in Red Blossom’s teashop, the idea of a matcha made from Lishan oolong material was so exciting to me. They even grind it in house! I kinda wish I had asked more questions like, do you remove the stems to simulate tencha, like matcha? How often is the oolong ground? Maybe it was the marketing that got to me, because this tea powder is a terrible stand in for matcha, as it was advertised.

I was very careful to make this to the package suggestions, making sure that the water temp and ratio was just right. I sifted the powder and was hit with a very strong floral notes, just like you’d think a Taiwanese oolong would have. I slowly added water and then let my whisk do it’s frothy thing. The resulting brew was grainy and bitter as hell, with the strong floral at the forefront making way for the grassiness and bitter bite underneath. I tried my best, but I couldn’t even finish the cup. Now I sort of wish I had made it into a latte, perhaps I could have finished it then…

I think i remember trying some powdered oolongs from The Tea Kings eons back… come to think of it, it was weird then too XD

Since I don’t have a booze-inspired tea to line up with Ashmanra’s 3/2 tea prompt to celebrate Irish Whiskey day, I made myself a fancy hot toddy of sorts for myself and a friend. Blended 50/50 Melbourne Bfast from T2 and LS from Camellia Sinensis, added a touch of honey and an appropriate amount of Suntory Hibiki Whiskey. Not Irish, but it still hit the spot. The smokiness from the Lapsang and creamy vanilla from the Melbourne Breakfast really punched up the whiskey so dang well.

Added some Trader Joe’s vanilla bean paste to this tea today and um… YUMMM. Now I need to add a vanilla green to my list of cupboard must-haves!

Found a small hoard of aged oolongs in a corner of a tea bin recently. I remember going on an aged oolong buying binge because of a mind blowing sample long forgotten. Bummer that none of them really cry out to me anymore, curse my changing tastes! Since I am so out-oolong’ed that I doubt I’ll be able to go through what looks like 250g. I’ve been thinking of ways to not let them go to waste. Thankfully, I’ve been able to rehome some to Barsomm and PamelaOry. Hope they get a kick out of them!
I had made some of this tea grampa style in a thermos to take with me to a friends birthday get together. Ended up leaving it at their house, and I picked up back up from their place after a few days. I opened up the thermos expecting the most rank smell in the world, but… the tea smelled delicately more delicious than I’ve been able get from my usual gongfu attempts with this tea. it straight up smelled like bananas. I couldn’t not drink the rest!! The super long cold brew (well, eventually) was so freaking good, it had an excellent mouthfeel, so rich. It brought out not onlt the banana, but some pear, and a mineral bite that kept me coming back. now i know I have to cold brew this tea and leave it in a friends apartment for at least four days to extract the bet flavors from this tea XD

Is that bad? Well, over 24hrs later and so far it hasn’t killed me… Only time will tell

Sipdown! Brewed this up using the last teabag and all the dust left in the bag and added a touch of honey. The brew was rich, crisp, and toasty. Bummed I never got any yuzu zing from this (I think I remember not getting it when I first purchased as well.. hmmph). Still, this tea snuggles me up better than my blanket and book can. Late winter is when hojicha hits best for me i think… something about the warmth is reminiscent of early autumn that just lifts my spirits. While I won’t repurchase this exact tea again (if it still exists on the Yunomi website) it does remind me that I will have to pick up some hojicha as soon as I can get my hands on Spring 2023 sincha

This is The People’s Work Tea XD Nabbed some from work to try as a latte with my espresso machine method I mentioned in another note. Surprisingly, I hadn’t tried it with a green tea yet. It produced a big ole cup of NOPE with the fannings of 4 teabags. I’ll just stick to using this as an emergency tea on the job

Loved this tea growing up, it must have been one of the first teas I’ve ever had. Just finished a box a bought on a whim a while back, and in order to finish the box I have been using these bags to make crazy delicious lattes. I am quite fortunate to have access to an espresso machine throughout my life, thanks to working in foodservice for almost 15yrs and having a partner in the coffee industry. Espresso machines aren’t too expensive, if you know where to look and are into finding ways to get your latte fix in. The past week or so I’ve been petsitting for a couple who have a really nice Breville machine, and i have been going ham on it every morning, making myself as many tea lattes as I can drink. figured I would use this review to put my recipe.

MiepSteep’s Tea Latte
This recipe is for those who have access to an espresso machine btw
I typically use the smallest filter basket in the portafilter if possible, since you wont need too much tea… relatively. It’s very important to flush out the group head and wash out the portafilter before adding tea to the portafilter basket, so no lingering coffee smells taint the brew. Basically, all I do is rip open 3-4 teabags and empty the contents into the portafilter. No need to use a tamper to squish it down, since the leaves will do some minimal expanding as the shots are pulled. I have also used other types of tea, like rooibos (the messiest), honeybush, CTC, and spices. I’ve also been using T2’s Melbourne and New York Breakfast for lattes this week as well.Have yet to use green tea, maybe I’ll try that this week!

The idea is to make a concentrate. After filling the portafilter basket with leaf fannings or what have you, either pull for twice as long as you would for an espresso shot (around 10-15seconds) or if your machine has a 1shot/2shot button like the Breville does, pull the equivalent of 5 shots into your cup. Steam some milk of choice in there and enjoy! Tastes just like a cookie to me :)