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Afternoon sipdown for me. I am not feeling too productive today though I did manage to get my taxes done. Finishing off this nice oolong after waking up from a nap. It is so creamy and light. Very refreshing on a sunny day like the one we are having. I’m not sure I will be buying this again soon because I have a few other green oolongs to get through right now but I really enjoyed trying it… quite delicious like most things that come from Mandala tea. :)

Finally getting to try this Wymm tea sample today. I don’t want to try new teas unless I have time to really sit and savor them properly, and since I’ve been office working the past 2 weeks that hasn’t been really possible!

Thanks to Wymm tea for sending me a sample of this to try. For a young sheng, it is definitely on the sweeter side and less bitter than most. There is a bit of bitterness in the finish but that is kept at bay by doing some nice short steeps.

This sheng has a lot of really lovely flavors. It is more reminiscent of a green tea than many shengs I’ve tried. There is a definite vegetal note with some sweet peas and floral. I am also getting the custard-y and buttery notes up front but it’s the bitterness that lingers a bit in the back of your throat. It has a lot of relaxing energy as opposed to a kick-your-butt kind of experience.

By the third steep I decided to use slightly cooler water which brought out more of the buttery notes in this tea. It has a very enjoyable flavor, but sadly is quite out of my price range at the moment.

Backlog – I didn’t like this too much when I tried it yesterday out of the store. I think this tea needs to be prepared gong fu or at least with short steeps to really appreciate the flavor. I could pick up some of the classic Phoenix flavor but mostly it got bitter and muddy after it was steeped for around 3 minutes. So I can’t really rate this either, but I feel bad for anyone whose only experience of a Phoenix Mountain oolong is trying it this way.

I got this tea at Peet’s yesterday morning to try it. I still think it’s difficult to taste a tea properly when it’s in a big paper cup and a t-sac.I did think this was a nice Ceylon, however. It had a very good, citrusy/lemon note that lent the tea a lot of brightness. I had mine with soymilk and sugar but I think it might be really good as an iced tea and definitely a good chpoice for an afternoon tea. Won’t rate it for now, however. Might need to pick up a tin someday to do a further investigation.

This is a sipdown for me, it’s been a decent morning tea for sure. The tin is so pretty too. I don’t know if I need to buy more of this as I have a lot of teas to get through now, and I have been drinking a lot less tea now that I’m at work trying to look productive. Now that I’ve been at my job for a few days I think it would be ok to bring in some loose leaf tea and maybe some t-sacs. =)

This teabag came in my Lupicia Happy bag/holiday set that I got right after Christmas. It looks like they don’t have this on the US website anymore. Has anyone been there recently? It seems like they greatly reduced their number of non-flavored green teas to the US market. Maybe nobody was buying them? Well, booo.

They still have this on the Australia Lupicia website. It is described as “well-balanced blend of Matcha and Yabukita sencha from Shizuoka. Boasting a refreshing flavour and bright green water-colour, this tea can be enjoyed alongside any meal or dessert”.

This is quite a nice green tea. I would agree it is refreshing, somewhat mild and sweet for a sencha. It is definitely on the vegetal side with grassy, spinach notes but it also has a sweet pea flavor in the finish that I am quite enjoying. And not much bitterness as well. I wish I could get my hands on some more of this but for a nice, bagged sencha there is always the Organic sencha from Den’s.

First day at my new temp job. Missing my tea collection already… :-P

Today was a true test as I found out when I got there they have a big project due tomorrow and they hadn’t even started it yet when I arrived. Oy… I almost walked out the door after I heard that but stayed. Pretty unfair as I don’t know them, their projects or anything about the job really. It took me most of the day just to get the documents organized, not to mention what needs to go in them. Well I guess after tomorrow they may throw me out the door but it really wouldn’t be my fault as their expectations were totally unrealistic.

So I got this tea on my lunch break as there is a Peet’s nearby. Honestly I cannot rate this because tea was not made to be consumed in a paper cup with a tea-sac. I thought it had a light, vegetal flavor with a bit of bitterness but mostly I just tasted paper and vegetables.

There is a tea kettle in the new office so I will try to bring some teabags with me tomorrow, I will def. be needing a tea break or two at some point during the day.

This free sample came from the Lupicia newsletter. The dry leaf smells kind of funky, like rooibos and peach liquor.

Brewed, I am not terribly impressed with this one. Maybe I should have used a smaller cup instead of a 12 oz mug, but I’m just not getting much flavor from this aside from a rooibos flavor. Not too impressed but won’t rate for now since this could be a user error :)

Sipdown, for me…
I’ve had this tea for a while, possibly too long as I think it’s been 3 years since I got it from my brother for Christmas. This isn’t one I drink too often because of the hibiscus and it is tart, but thankfully the hibby is not that strong in this blend. I still wish I could taste a little more of the oolong underneath which seems to be more of the Eastern beauty variety.

kind of glad this is gone and don’t think I’ll be repurchasing.

This tea came form the great Marzipan stash sell off! Like I need anymore tea? I should be selling off some of my own!

My first tea from Golden Tips. I’ve only had a few Temi teas but recall I generally like them. I’m not really a fan of autumnal flushes though usually. This tea steeps up to be a dark reddish brown and is very woody in nature. I am also picking up some fruit flavors, specifically cherry and citrus. There is a bit of astringency in the tea I’m not enjoying so much but perhaps that would be remedied by a shorter steeping time. It strikes me that this might be really good as an iced tea with a bit of lemon and sugar. I will have to try it that way soon.