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Mmm, this really does smell lovely. Like a rich syrup. I’m not a big Ceylon fan – I tend to find them boring – but this is the exception. It makes me want to eat buttered biscuits with cane syrup drizzled over them. The taste is smooth and this time I’m finding it obviously Ceylon, but the aftertaste is really where it’s at. Sweetness just expands in my mouth after each swallow and I feel like I’ve just had brown sugar. I have to sip this tea slowly just to appreciate the aftertaste. Quite a happy tea for my afternoon break.

I have been accused by three different people of being solar powered and I’d pretty much agree with that accusation. So this winter has been especially tough on me, requiring lots of comfort tea to get me through the day. But now I’ve had almost a full week of gorgeous sunshine, the world is a much happier place for me and I can start my day with an unknown/risky tea without worrying that it will make me grumpy. Because as much as I love tea, the sun totally trumps it. Anyway, since I didn’t need cuddly comfort tea this morning, I thought I’d give unknown (and frankly, somewhat questionable) tea a try.

So yeah, not all that great. Smells a bit like a potpourri ball but a nice one, not a horrible one that reminds me of what I’d find sitting on top of my grandma’s toilet tank. But potpourri nonetheless. I was really hoping for more almond/vanilla/orange taste even with that smell (dare I even hope that there be some resemblance to SpecialTea’s Almond Cookie?) but I didn’t get it. Instead, I got spice. Not really unpleasant but not exactly pleasant either. Sweet and potpourri-y, it reminded me of SpecialTea’s Holiday Dream or Republic of Tea’s Comfort and Joy, neither of which I think were actually good. And this one wasn’t good either but it wasn’t quite bad.

I have a fair amount of this so I’ll probably be forced to give it another shot. I had it with about a teaspoon each of half & half and sugar and I’m thinking the half & half was helpful so I’m tempted to try it as a chai. The spices aren’t quite as rich/deep as most chais but I think it might benefit. I didn’t taste anything other that potpourri spice, not even tea, so I’ll see what happens to it straight too. Maybe I can stumble upon something that will let me enjoy this one.

Bumping up this rating a bit on this one for my final cups. Nice, vegetal and sweet with a little mineral/salt-lick tingle that is nice when it isn’t too strong – and as long as the steep time isn’t too long, the tingle is under control. The second steep still isn’t worth much but the first steep is pretty good.
10g/18oz

My mom gave me this tea yesterday. She’s had it for a while but never opened it and figured I might actually use it. So I decided to try it out today as my after-lunch-pick-me-up tea.

There’s no telling how old this tea is. The packaging is in Japanese so it is from Lupicia Japan which makes me think that my mom got this, at the earliest, last year when friends from Japan came to visit or, at the latest, two years ago when those same friends got married in Hawaii. But hey, it’s a black tea so it can take it!

The leaves look like a Darjeeling (which makes sense) but smell like chocolate syrup (which makes no sense). I let the water cool a bit before brewing. It brews up into a pretty light amber tea that smells sweet, musty, smoky. It smells like some of the milder Yunnans I’ve had but with an edge of smoke. A little chocolaty, bright but a little cuddly. Actually, there is a tea I have that this smells exactly like but I can’t figure out which one but I know I’ve smelled pretty much this before.

OMG at the chocolate. The initial part of the sip is full on chocolate – not cocoa, chocolate. As I sip, the chocolate taste gets a little earthy but it is still there. And the aftertaste is a bit of Darjeeling brightness but none of the tartness. In fact, there isn’t even a hint of tartness or bitterness. There’s a little astringent tingle in the middle/back of my tongue that slowly builds but it isn’t unpleasant.

The chocolate taste keeps surprising me with each sip. It’s pretty strong and almost tastes like it has been flavored. It is weirdly off-putting though I can’t peg exactly why. It’s not fake tasting or nasty. I think it’s just not what I was anticipating and each time I look at the wet leaves and the tea in the cup, I reset my expectations to something more Darjeeling-y than bright and earthy chocolate. Which makes me feel a little like I have the memory of a goldfish.

Ooh, look! A castle!
3.5g/9oz

This morning’s tea experience was a little bit of a comedy of errors. Except it really wasn’t all that funny. I had to make a larger-than-normal quantity of tea so I pulled out my big tea pot – and forgot it had no in-spout strainer about half way through the pouring. Oops. Between pouring the mugs out into the nearest receptacle, finding something to strain the tea with, straining said receptacle and remaining tea, dripping everywhere, using the wrong receptacle and, oh yeah, forgetting to start the timer in the first place, I have no idea how long this tea ended up steeping for. More than 3 minutes. Less than 10. But even with all that going on, this tea wasn’t ruined so I consider that a win.

As for the tea itself… meh. It’s apparently decently forgiving (I did use a little bit of sugar and half & half but less than a tsp for my 12oz) but my unenthusiastic response is really in relation to the flavor. It’s a ‘typical’ Earl Grey. And by that, I mean it is kind of floral and perfumy. I guess I have been a bit spoiled by my recent experiences with Andrews & Dunham’s EG which tastes so fresh and juicy. There was no fresh or juicy with this one.

That’s not to say this is horrible. But it’s nothing special. At least it is pretty forgiving, though.

Found a variety pack on sale last weekend so I grabbed it since I have never had Mighty Leaf tea and variety packs are fun. Decided I’d try this one out so I can have some more tea but not worry about sleeping later tonight. Not too excited about the chamomile aspect but yay for the citrus.

The bag is pretty. I kind of want to stick it in my lingerie drawer but I really wouldn’t want my under-things smelling like this tea. It’s kinda weird. Chamomile and citrus, yes. I just can’t decide if they blend really well so they aren’t distinct or if there is something else that makes them smell weird. But brewed up the smell is less funky but maybe stronger chamomile than I’d want in my idea herbal.

The taste is citrus-y then some chamomile (thankfully not too strong) and then something warm/tangy. Looking at the ingredients, I can probably also taste the rose hip (or at least something that makes me think of my marinara tea, also known as Lupicia’s Rose Hip herbal) but I don’t think I would have pegged what that taste was without reading the ingredients. There is a sweet ending so back to the chamomile. And as it cools, the chamomile becomes stronger.

Eh. I don’t hate this but I don’t really enjoy it all that much. It’s a bit too sweet and light and frou-frou for me. I feel like I need some ginger or licorice or something to make it more interesting. Pretty bag and leaves though so points for that.

Ah! Nice weather! Finally! Today was so gorgeous, after I got home from work I took a book outside to read in the sun. LOVELY! So I’m in a pretty happy, fresh, springy mood and I needed a tea to match. While I was digging around to find a tea to match my mood, I caught a whiff of my super-obnoxious smelling Trident Layers gum (the strawberry citrus one) that lives on the shelf above my tea. It smelled nummy and suddenly I was in the mood for a springy, obnoxious tea. I thought it was a good time to try this one.

So there is this Lotte grapefruit flavored gum that is tart and tangy and bright and easily as obnoxious as Trident Layers. This tea? Smells like that. Which I think is awesome because that is my favorite Japanese gum. Ever.

But the taste is a bit of a letdown. Oh, it’s not the tea’s fault. It tastes like a sort of an okay green tea base that has had a piece of my beloved gum dipped into it briefly. It’s actually not bad but it’s not what I was hoping for because the flavoring isn’t very strong. I know, I know. Normally I give Lupicia two very enthusiastic thumbs up for their light and natural flavorings so I really shouldn’t anticipate anything different. But that smell! I just couldn’t help it.

Perhaps if I hadn’t had a yearlong addiction to Sweetie gum, I would have had different (or no) expectations of this tea and would have been able to enjoy it on its own merits. After all, it is sweet, light, a little tangy and very pretty.

I just wanted obnoxious.
6.6g/12oz

Honestly, my expectations of this tea? Not so high. I mean, sure it is loose and (at least in the US) not your every day stuff. But still, it’s only $6 and change for 4oz and something I picked up at the grocery store so I’m not expecting angels to sing.

And while there were no celestial choirs, this tea surprised me. It smelled cardboard-y and cuddly so that’s good. But I was expecting it to taste a bit flat, maybe a bit rough and bitter. Nope. I did add sugar (one tsp for 12oz) but it had it’s own sweetness out side of the sugar, and I used half and half but really, I couldn’t detect any roughness hiding underneath it (tannins yes, roughness no). More malty than cardboard-y (a little more lightness and rounded flavor is the main difference there I suppose) with a little sweetness and nuttiness, I enjoyed my cup. The tea was strong and a little aggressive but only in a good, robust morning tea way, not in a “mommy, make the scary man go away” way. And the caffeine was sneaky and very there (which is good because that means I can postpone my nap until after lunch).

At some point I’ll give this a try straight but I don’t know how much that will influence my overall enjoyment of this tea (of course, I am assuming it will be less pleasant with no sugar or milk… I could be wrong). This tea pretty much fits my idea of a nice, wake-me-up, robust but not overly special morning tea.

On top of that, it seemed like a good tea to have since this song came up on my iPod this morning: http://vimeo.com/794351 When I say ‘Assam’, you say ‘lovely’!

Yes, because I need more tea today. And yet, I kind of do. Out of general shell-shock-ed-ness I’m not taking this one past two steeps.

This is a happy tea. I could stand for this to be a little stronger but then I probably should have used less water then, shouldn’t I? Yes. Regardless, this one is still fresh and sweet but a bit citrus-y refreshing and it makes me think happy thoughts. Which is sad because finishing this one off means I think I’m out of good Japanese greens. I’ll have to dig around to see if I have one more little bit hiding somewhere but I don’t think I do. But fortunately at least Maeda-en has started to accept shincha pre-orders so I have a feeling my lack of Japanese greens won’t last for long.
5.9g/12oz

Okay, I just spent 2 hours tracking 5 different steeps of this tea and then Firefox crashed and it all went poof. Yeah, I need to write tasting notes in a different program and just paste into Steepster because. Not. Cool. Sigh. Okay, this might be for the best since having to remember what happened will mean that this is shorter than the original. Not short, mind you. Just shorter.

I have no idea what I’m doing with this tea but I’ll do my best to muddle through. Since I have the time and inclination, I’m going to use the whole almost 8g sample and brew it up in my gaiwan. It fills about 1/4th of the gaiwan so this is either the correct amount or not quite enough. Whatever. Muddling.

The leaves look like dark, slightly large Gunpowder. Or very tiny raisins. The dry leaves smell dusty and a little dirty. Like my back porch right before spring cleaning. Gave it a 10s rinse and OMG, not cool. The wet leaves smell like burnt coffee. Badly burnt. Yuck.

First Steep: 35s at 185°. The leaves smell horrible. Thankfully, the tea smells like a blend of non-burnt coffee and pu-erh hay smell. The taste? Wow. Weird. Very weird. It tastes like how I drink restaurant coffee – very sweet and creamy. Specifically, I’d say about 3 sugars and 2 creamers. Crazy. I’m getting a little hint of caramel syrup in the aftertaste.
Second Steep: 40s at 195°. The burnt coffee smell of the leaves is so strong that it is almost a physical blow when I raise the lid to the gaiwan. There is a little more coffee flavor than pu-erh flavor. Now it tastes like coffee with perhaps two sugars and only one creamer but it’s a flavored creamer.
Third Steep: 45s at 190°. The leaves are opening up some and now they look like small angry beetles that will attack me. Now the taste is pretty much two sugars and half of a flavored creamer.
Fourth Steep: 50s at 185°. Really wish the leaves didn’t smell like burnt coffee. This steep tastes almost exactly like the one before but now the creamer is unflavored.
Fifth Steep: 60s at 195°. The leaves are not even half way open and this steep tastes almost exactly like the second steep. This is the tea that will never die.

Whew. All caught up. Now new stuff but honestly? I have no idea how long this tea will last so we’re going keep the same level of detail as the recap above because I have no desire to find out if Steepster has a character limit on logs.

Sixth Steep: 70s at 195°. Starting to transition into something more pu-erh hay-like with a coffee under note.
Seventh and Eight Steeps: 80s and 90s respectively, at 195°. The leaves are opened enough to look like mangled cricket legs… from decently large crickets. (How do I know this? My cats like to pull the back legs off of crickets and then eat the crickets (or so I assume as we ever only find the legs)). Currently the flavor is somewhere between coffee-flavored pu-erh and steeps one and two. This. Tea. Will. Never. Die.
Ninth Steep: 1:40 at 195°. Nope, not dead. The aftertaste if full on sweet pu-erh aftertaste now though.
Tenth Steep: 2min at 195°. Okay, this might be hinting that in 3 or 5 or so steeps, the flavor will start to fade but right now? This tastes like pretty much like all the other steeps I’ve had of this. I’ve had around 40 ounces of this tea. I’m going to be smelling like coffee for days, sweating it out my pores. This tea wins, I wave the white flag.

So now the big question: how does this tea rate?

I have no idea.

Is it high quality? Yes, so a 4/5 stars there which puts it at anywhere over 70. I mean come on. Ten steeps? Seriously? And it’s smooth and sweet and flavorful. Very good quality (in my less-than-pu-erh-knowledgeable opinion).

Would I repurchase this tea (which would give it a rank over 80)? I have no idea. First or second steep I would have said sure, probably. It’s weird but I like it. Not really my norm but enjoyable and something I could dip into every now and again. But after ten steeps (and more left in the leaves), I kind of feel that there is no way I can fully appreciate a tea like this, a tea that lasts this long. So maybe it should be filed under “Good Tea but Too Serious For Me”. (I’d totally make a file folder for that). But at the same time, it is tasty. And I wouldn’t have to do ten steeps each time I had it (and I doubt it would last that long done Western style). So I’ll have to make that answer a strong maybe and I’ll rate it accordingly.

I think I might go soak a leaf or two for a few hours just to see if they are truly capable of fully expanding.

And if you care, a few pictures on my blog here: http://bit.ly/a0iwHM