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I picked up a few extra 2016 teas from YS when they had their sale until there’s enough of the 2017 teas in. I couldn’t resist this one. It looked really different.

In the picture on YS’s website the dry leaves look a very dark dark green. However, to me they look almost black. It’s hard viewing them from the bag so when I took them out and held them up to the light, they still looked black. I never had a green tea before that had black leaves.

I brewed this one gongfu today. I don’t often use gongfu for greens but it adds a bit more oomph to older 2016 teas.

After the first infusion , the leaves are still black. Did I get the same tea that YS has up on their website? My tea leaves certainly don’t look green at ALL. It brews up a bit golden with a grey overcast. Here, I was a bit hesitant to try this. It’s looking like an oolong or black with the colour of the tea. So I took a sip and it was a surprise. Very mild, a bit roasted. It looks like an oolong but not quite like an oolong in taste (although there are similarities). There’s another element to it that I can’t describe. YS describes it as having a umami flavour. I used 5 g and brewed it 30s at 80C.

2nd infusion – 20 sec (chose less because it appeared to be brewing stronger), 90C
I chose a higher temperature because those leaves looked like they could handle it. It definitely brewed up stronger than the first cup and this time getting more of the purple/grey colour of the tea. Also noticed the brewed leaves are starting to show a hint of green coming through. The higher temperature brings out more of the roasted flavour with a bit more sweetness too. This tea has a bit of kick to it too.

YS describes this tea as “Dan Cong meets Yunnan Assamica Green Tea”. It definitely does taste something like a Dan Cong.

Not your typical green, that’s for sure.

This was a sample Christina gave to me some time ago and I didn’t get around to trying it until now.

I did two quick rinses on this tea and brewed 10sec. This puerh is very sweet and creamy tasting and stayed that way for a few infusions (or at least as many infusion as I could drink , which is only 4). This is one I would like to have a cake of but it’s sold out AND I have too much puerh right now. I am trying to go through any samples I have to reduce my quantity. I plan on trying to get my count down to 15 or less for puerh in my collection.

Sip down of this one today! It is still one of my favourite herbal blends. The elderberries are forefront in this tea with a mingling of different spices. It goes so good on a day like this. The weather is mild but the cold dampness just seems to seep into my bones. This tea is warming and delicious. I will miss it but pretty excited to bring my tea collection down to 93!

I do believe my pu-erh seems to be holding up okay in my homemade storage (which is in a wood drawer with a small cup of water and florist foam). I hope to drink down a few of my samples this year. I reviewed this one about a couple years ago but it was reviewed under the 2013 version of this tea. It hasn’t changed a lot in that time. It is still smooth with no bitterness and a nice light apricot taste to it. It’s not very complex but it does hold up well under many steeps.

This was a sample sent with my last Yunomi order. First brew on this was at 60C for 30sec. The tea was very grassy, astringent and bitter.
Second brew was at 80C for 10 seconds. Still bitter, grassy & astringent. The colour of the tea was a deep murky mossy green. I was not very happy with this sencha. It was too bitter even at low temperatures and the grassiness was too extreme.

Another sip down. Down to 100 teas now. Enjoying the last of this moonlight tea this morning. Trying to wake up but even though I slept well last night. I am so tired. Just can’t keep my eyes open. Even passed up having my green tea to go for something with a little more caffeine but I don’t feel a thing yet.
This is a delicious tea. It’s got the deep sweet honey taste with a malt and a bit of hay. There is supposed to be hints of flowers and lychee fruit in this tea but I am not getting it. On my 3rd infusion. Maybe my taste buds haven’t woken up yet.

So this tea is listed under blacks in YS’s website. Scott writes that it’s a white processed like a black tea. However it’s pressed like a pu-erh tea. Does that make it a pu-erh and does it age?

Sipdown! I am now at 101 teas! How exciting. I hope to be at 80 or less by spring.

So this tea is a chai tea. I am not fond of chai teas and ingredients like ginger and sage make me cringe. However, this tea is quite pleasant. The white tea base is very sweet. The spicy mixture is more cardamon to me with just a bit of ginger and sage. If I was a chai tea fan, I would probably love this tea. Since I am not, I will enjoy this tea today and say goodbye to it.

This tea was so mind blowing good when it was fresh. It has gone from being that good to being barely mediocre. Not surprising since I purchased this in Sept 2015. Still leaving my high rating though. I know this tea is outstanding when fresh. I only have a teaspoon left so not a lot of it went to waste. Looking forward to ordering some of this in the spring.

Wow, I got this tea back in April 2015 and it’s still good. Hard to believe! Royal Tea Bay did not have very good greens on the order I made in the fall of 2016. In fact most of them were so bad (I suspect already old when I got them); I threw them out. Yet this tea is still amazing.

I brewed up today in my red cast iron teapot for Hubby & I trying to used up that small amount I have left of this tea. It’s still a winner. Buttery, milky, floral & sweet.