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This was wonderful!

The gaiwan lid smelled of lilac which surprised me. I don’t think I’ve ever smelled that from a tea before (in my brief tea career). The liquor was buttery and light and refreshing. I must have had at least 10 infusions from the same 3 grams of tea and it just kept going and I didn’t want to stop drinking it.

This was the final type of green tea from my Teavivre sampler pack and, alas, the only one I didn’t really care for. From the moment I opened the sample, the dry leaf made its presence known. It was strongly vegetal and spinachy, almost pungently so.

I let it steep and the liquor was still quite spinachy smelling. I love spinach but while spinach is the closest word I can come up with to describe the smell it isn’t quite accurate.

The taste, while not as strong as the smell, was dominated by the pungent vegetal taste. It started our sweet but then became hyper spinachy. As the tea cooled, the “spinach” became stronger. It also became more astringent as it cooled, something it wasn’t at all when hot, so, perhaps 2 minutes was too long for the first infusion. I didn’t bother with a second since I didn’t enjoy this one.

The dry leaves and the brewed tea smelled absolutely wonderful. I brewed this deliberately on the lighter side and it showed in the taste but even so needed a touch of sugar to overcome the tannins. I think that brewed stronger this would be a very bold pick-me-up for a morning tea.

This was a sample kindly send to me by a steepster to aid in my quest to find black teas I could enjoy without sweetener. I’m beginning to suspect that for me there are not such teas., but the learning process is fascinating.

This tea is intense. Even smelling the brewed infusion smells intense, kind of a sharp, intense smell that almost seems too intense to drink. Without sugar, it is too much for me, but with sugar it got me going pretty quickly.

This is probably not something I’d have bought for myself but I was given a box of “Orchard Oolong” samplers from Adagio for my birthday.

Upon opening the foil pack the smell of grapefruit is quite intense. So much so that I was worried about the final result being too fruity. However, I needn’t have worried. The resulting infusion did taste of grapefruit but only mildly so. The resulting beverage was inoffensive but it also wasn’t spectacular. However, t was something I could easily drink.

Overall, I enjoyed it more than expected.

This was my breakfast tea today and it was kindly supplied by another steepster (thanks!).

This had a sweet smell though it didn’t translate into the taste. Like most of the black teas I’ve tried I ended up needing to add a bit of sugar, though not too much. Wit the sugar is was very nice and quite warming. Overall, very enjoyable!

My nephew and I brewed this up yesterday evening. We both really enjoyed it. The first steep was 3 minutes and the second was 5 minutes. The first was the best. Not at all bitter, very smooth, no astringency. There was a honey-like sweetness to it. The second was brewed for 5 minutes and though it came out much darker than I expected, it was still quite good.

This was from a sample kindly sent to me by another steepster to aid in my quest to find black teas that I wouldn’t need to add sweetener to.

This one was not at all astringent but the level of tannin still sent me to the sugar bowl. Still, the tea was delicious and got me going this morning!

My nephew and I enjoyed the second Teavivre sample of this yesterday. He gave up after a few steeps. I think he liked yesterday’s tea better than today but for me this was the favorite yet. The third steep, in particular, was creamy and smooth and really yummy. Most of the steeps were quite short (5-10 seconds).

I did several steeps of this. They first was 5 seconds and the others were 7-10 seconds. The first was a little light, the second was just a touch astringent but the third was wonderful.

The was very light and refreshing. I enjoyed it so much I took some of the leaves and put them in a glass in the fridge with water to cold steep. I suspect the iced tea tomorrow should be great!