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So, since joining Steepster (and expanding my tea drinking habits), I’ve really started to dig Green(er) Oolongs. Verdant’s Tieguanyin was a revelation to me, when I first tried it, and all of the Butiki green oolongs I’ve tried have been delicious too – this one is no exception!

I know that it’s a little “darker” than the extremely green TGY that Verdant sell, for example, but it still has all of the wonderful qualities of greener oolongs that I’ve really grown to love. I brewed it in my little ~120 ml Gaiwan over the course of today – I must have gotten… Maybe ten steeps from it?

The first steep was pretty mild (and I confess – I did give it a flash rinse beforehand, too), but had those lovely, mild vegetal notes mixed with the floral, orchid flavour that I’ve really come to associate these teas with. The next handful of steeps were just perfect – floral and refreshing, with just a touch of buttery vegetables.

As the day wore on, my infusions grew longer – by the final steep or two, it was actually more akin to drinking a vegetal and orchid like White Tea. It was smooth, still kinda buttery and sweet.

This tea was just lovely. I’m deffo glad I took a gamble, with my first Butiki order, and went for a little bag of this – it’s well worth it! :D

This was the last tea I made with/for my brother, before he went back to his house after Christmas. Once again, I made it in my little glass teapot (a current favourite brewing vessel of mine, particularly for Oolongs). I used around 2 tsp.

The tea was absolutely lovely! The dry leaves smelled really good – kinda floral, pretty sweet – so I had high hopes. Whilst steeping, the tea was floral and sweet smelling, still – it had that lovely orchid notes that my favourite greener Oolongs tend to. The liquor was lovely, too – it tasted much as it smelled.

We got ~3 pot-fulls out of the leaves last night and I made a further two from it today before I had to throw them out. The later steeps were less vegetal, but the floral notes were still present and the buttery flavour really came through, particularly in the final steep I did.

A lovely tea – much recommended, if there’s still any available!

Happy (late T_T) New Year, everyone! :D

We had a pretty relaxed New Year’s Day (and NYE, tbf) at home, and as part of it, I brought down my lovely little glass teapot (~200 ml, max) and brewed up some of this wonderful Oolong for my brother and me! He’s really keen to try lots of teas, particularly ‘finer’ teas, and I thought this might be a good one to let him try next.

And, once again, he really enjoyed it (as, of course, did I!). It’s such a marvellous Oolong – it really does have that delicious, apple-y flavour and smell. I got a good five or six infusions out of a fairly generous 2-and-a-bit tsp (and, tbh, I could probably get another tasty one or two out of it).

Plus, we got to drink it out of my lovely new cups from Verdant – they really are rather beautiful.

EDIT: I did indeed get another four good steeps out of it – though the last was a much milder cup, it still carried that lovely red-apple note and a general round, fruity flavour. Lovely!

Mmm… Had a large mug full of this delightful tea, this afternoon, whilst doing some chores. It made me much happier.

Interestingly, I think I understood/noticed the creamy flavour a little more, on this brew. I still got all of that lovely melon, but after drinking a potful of the Blue Sky Blend (extremely citrussy, grapefruit Earl Grey, which is still a little creamy), it was a different kind of fruitiness. It’s more like a really luscious fruit ice cream, that’s been made with fresh fruit.

But anyway, the tea was a delight, as ever. Absolutely nothing to critique – it’s just wonderful.

Mmm… So I bought a 250g bag of this for my parents for Christmas. I finally convinced Mum to let me make it for our evening, post-dinner tea (she’s utterly enarmored by Suki Tea’s divine Spiced Citrus blend, so we’ve had little else recently – it’s understandable, though). She was a little reluctant on smelling the dry leaves (though I think the powerful, grapefruit aroma is divine, she wasn’t convinced). But when I added the water and let it brew, she was quickly converted.

I really cannot stress how exceptionally citrussy and magnificently sweet this tea is. It’s just unbelievably good. I used 3 tsp in about 700 ml and brewed for no more than two minutes. The liquor was perfection – no bitterness, mouthwatering citrus astringency and a delicious, fresh-fruit sweetness.

This is still my all-time favourite Earl Grey. I’m not sure it’ll ever be surpassed.

So, after treating myself to that special offer of Teatoxy’s, I’ve been rather busy so I haven’t had chance to write up my thoughts! With all of the intrigue around this tea, I had to try this. To my delight, I enjoyed it so much that I tried it again.

The first time I brewed it, I took a spoonful of tea (taking care to get a full mix of ingredients) and brewed it up in a small porcelain cup for around 5 minutes. This produced an amazingly blue liquid – almost ink blue! :O

The smell was nice enough – an unusual, but certainly pleasant, combination of citrus and pastries (NOTE: when I saw ‘pastries’ in someone else’s tags, I assumed it would just be a mild note – I was so wrong! In smell and flavour, this tea shares a clear resemblance with very buttery, freshly baked pastries :O!!!). The flavour was amazing, though – an initial wash of lemongrass subsides to leave a longer lasting flavour of Iranian pastries (that is to say a lovely rose-water flavour, but not too sweet, with a deliciously creamy, pastry flavour). I couldn’t really believe the depth of flavour.

The second infusion was a little less impressive – I used 2.5-3 tsp in 300ml and brewed for 8 mins. It still produced a refreshing, fruity cup, with delicious pastry flavours, but it didn’t bring out as much of the rosewater complexities of the first.

Still, this is a surprisingly delicious tea with an amazingly dark, ink-blue colour. I deffo recommend trying it :D

I think this is one I’ll experiment with a little more! :D

My sister’s boyfriend’s family came around for Christmas – they don’t drink a lot of tea, but I know that they like very fresh, floral/vegetal, light green teas, so I thought I’d treat them to some of this! My younger brother, someone just discovering green teas, also fancied trying a little.

I always worry a little about serving them tea – as a Chinese family, who only buy good quality Chinese produce, I know that they have fairly high standards. So, with slight trepidation, I got my 600ml red teapot down and brewed up ~500ml, from 2.5 tsp, using boiling water (after a quick rinse). I brewed it for 25 seconds and then poured it all out, into our nicest, small teacups. The liquor was a very attractive pale green colour and it had a fabulous aroma of jasmine and buttery, freshly steamed greens. I offered a cup to each of my guests and then sat back nervously…

To my delight, they loved it! I had to rebrew three times, to make sure that everyone had enough – they were all totally enarmored by this tea’s wonderfully fresh, floral notes and it’s exceptionally beautiful green colour. Even my Mum, the green tea skeptic, was well impressed by the smell!

I upgraded my score to 100 – it’s a truly fabulous light, green oolong that I just cannot recommend highly enough. Perfection.

Merry Christmas everyone! I have a couple of notes built up from the past few days, so apologies for flooding your dashboards a little!

Mmm… I was really craving something delicious, coconutty and kinda sweet, so this seemed like just the thing!

I made it using Stacy’s instructions and it was wonderful! The smell was delightful and it was exceptionally smooth on the palette. Lovely stuff!

I returned this tea a lot over the past few days – I was in need of a pick-me-up, and I could think of nothing better than this! The wonderful flavours of vanilla and chocolate, combining to produce that exceptional fudge like impression, will never cease to please.

This tea is a luxury, and certainly one I’m enjoying to the full!

This tea was the accompaniment for a really great day at the Hospice – we had a lovely group of singers in, for Christmas songs/carols, and had a really nice buffet lunch, followed by a marvellous (but very rich!) chocolate gateaux. I had one cup in the morning and two in the afternoon, from the same leaves.

Ah, I forgot how delicious this tea was! I brewed it up quite strongly today (~2 tsp in a fairly typical British tea cup) and it was just perfect – delicious, gentle malt and chocolate notes, maybe even a reminder of freshly baked bread. Perfect! :D