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I received this tea several days ago and waited until Christmas Eve Day to give it a try. It came with my very first epic A&D order (I purchased several sets — sigh, I’m gonna miss Select) and I wanted to wait until I had a day to thoroughly enjoy this. I was already adoring the packaging (Geek that I am, plus the spray cans and sparkly snowflake sticker and the cool holiday letter enclosed in the box. Thank you A&D for all the wonderful packaging on top of the well-named teas/company). Oh, and that shiny-shiny sticker? It’s kinda mesmerizing to look at while the tea steeps.

Anywho, WOW. I didn’t get to try the Yunnan, but if it’s anywhere near as awesome as this, then damn, am I disappointed that I didn’t get me some before it went away. This is just heavenly. It’s bold with a strong earthiness that I’ve only associated with pu’erhs before. I’m yet to be converted to a pu’erh fan, but for some reason I am truly and deeply digging how rich and earthy this is. It’s like this tea is smirking “all your soul are belong to us” as it sucks my soul.

I may be going a bit overboard since I haven’t taken time to brew a proper cup of tea in months (all of it has been at work or on the run), so this reaction may be a bit of a fall-out from 1. controlled tea-brewing conditions, 2. several days off where I get to decompress before getting back to the grind, 3. the warm-fuzzies of the holidays, and 4. having given blood yesterday afternoon.

But I do believe that if this were crap tea, then I’d know it. I just think that this is marvelous and I’m in tea nirvana right now. TG

I received my order of this (along with their Sugar Caramel Oolong and English Breakfast) yesterday — and I totally did a happy dance. At work. In front of my tea-hating boss who just rolled her eyes.

Ah, just perfect for a chilly gray afternoon. I’m starting to get the tea-warm-fuzzies again. Huzzah! TG

This was part of the single-steep package I bought along with my Kati (which I still love). Um…I’m gonna hold off rating this one right now until I can control the conditions a bit more. It really smelled and tasted medicinal and kinda icky. I got hints of its potential, but I wanna hold off total judgment until I bring some home to try with good water and an accurate kettle. But until then, M.

Yeah, so this truly is very Assamallamadingdong-ish. I was really enjoying it at first, but then it seemed to become too aggressive for me. A line was crossed and I kinda felt “blerg” about it. Also remember: I pretty much drink my tea straight up, so perhaps additives would help this a great deal.

I do have several more single servings of this, so I may try to tweak it a bit steeping-wise. And I do plan on finishing the single servings, but I think that it’ll take me awhile. M

Wow — I get a bit inactive and all this craziness happens in the Steepsterverse! (Okay, so it was a lot inactive). Well, today I brought my newly purchased Kati cup-thingy and single-serving samples from Tea Forte to work (putting the packets in my newly purchased Tardis cookie jar!). Then I chose the Earl Grey to try my first cup in the Kati. Then I steeped. Then I had a small rush of patrons and got back to the cup several minutes later. Yeah. Undrinkable. I think that I may also need to rinse the leaves first since even when I went back and had a second much-shorter steep I was getting the “Pledge-furniture polish” sensation. But I did finish that cup. But I’m able to rate this fairly — so no rating for now.

All that said, I’m really loving this cup. It’s been crazy-cold in our library and the warmth of the cup was a bit of heaven on earth. I realized that with my other mugs I tended to turn the mug so that the handle was facing away from me. So this is the perfect mug to hold like that with no handle in the way.

I also started to get that feeling of “nom — tea is nummy” that I haven’t had for most of the summer. I’m hoping to get back to posting more often, at least between now and when I need to buckle down and focus on getting accepted into the Master’s Program.

I was mourning the fact that I was out of my Jasmine #9, but then realized that I have a sample tin of this still hiding in my cupboard. So I busted it out and have been enjoying it today – it works very well in my JoeMo (unlike the Rosy Earl Grey which is a fail in travel mugs – it tastes like soap). It still has a sweeter taste than I like (a la Tootsie Roll Pops), but ahhh…it’s jasmine. ::contented sigh:: NE

And a quick update: I found out the other day that I got the Assistant Library Director job! So starting in November I’ll have a single full-time job! Woohoo! I’m going to have days off again! :D

Okay, yes, I’m in no way shape or form being consistent on here — but life has continued to be uber-crazy for me (rescinding my resignation, putting in my notice at my new library, and awaiting a possible huge promotion at my original library etc etc). At least the weather’s getting chillier so hot tea has sounded so much more appealing lately.

I ran out of GTC’s perfect-for-summer Weight Loss Tea, have a few scoops left of Adagio’s Jasmine #9, but I have a huge stockpile of this fou-fou joy. So fou-fou joy it is! I’ve been using my JoeMO travel thermos almost non-stop and it did really well with the former teas I mentioned. I think that Rosy has trouble with that sort of confinement and long steeping times. It’s still good and I get my tea fix, but the tea seems more “flat” and almost fakey-frou-frou (like what Barbie would drink if she drank tea). But overall, it still is a great girlie drink to help me get through my hectic 2 part time job days (which may become hectic single full time job days). Overall TG, but in the traveler it’s NE.

I actually tried a new tea last Friday, and it’s only taken me ::counts on fingers:: five days to log it! I guess this shows how out of it I’ve been because when I tried it I thought it was supposed to be smokey, so I was utterly unimpressed. But adding this tea to the database I realized it was just a blend of blacks. Woops. So I feel that I cannot give it a true rating (plus I drank it while having an important meeting with my librarian mentor — so I was even more so distracted). NE

Yes, I live (sort of)! I miss my Steepster and more importantly my Steepsterites, but post-GRE life has gone from crazy to head explodey. I’m out of my nummy GTC Weight Loss Tea (I made my weight goal – huzzah!) so it’s been all about Jasmine #9. I did go wild and finally tried Samovar’s Four Seasons courtesy of JacquelineM, but it was at a librarian retreat and I had no control over water temp — it was good, but I could tell that the water was too hot. Anywho, tea life has been extremely unexciting. Sorry :(

I also want to reassure everyone who was gracious enough to share contact info with me — I do promise that I plan to send out packages! I humbly apologize that none have gone out yet, but if I would have known how insane my life would become in these few months, then I would have held off (I’m still working at both libraries and the library director at one just resigned, and my mom was in the hospital — she’s doing fine). Just know that I do see a light at the end of the tunnel and I’m 90% sure that it isn’t a train.

Well whaddaya know? I’m actually drinking something besides Jasmine #9, Weight Loss, or Rosy Earl Grey and I’m writing a note! It’s gonna be a short one since I’m now T-minus 6 days to the GRE. My mind is swimming with Analogies, Antonyms, and other Quantitative crap (i.e. math stuffs) and I really needed some zen-like tea. I haven’t had this in awhile since the last time I steeped some, one of my brothers was visiting and he compared the smell to a certain type of liquid medicine. I needed some time to not associate it with that — it’s still hovering in the back of my mind, but I’m still enjoying it. ::sigh:: NE