50 Tasting Notes
Rose black tea. Dry leaves smell like Chinese dried plum, the tea taste like charcoal with a bit mint and a weird sweetness, I think they added stevia in this. Rose flavor is not at all presented. No astringency. The wet leaves smell very smoky.
I bought mine for 7-ish dollars and this is a regret buy. I liked the earl grey and had high hope for this. This is the first time I have loose tea with sweetener added and it taste bad. I added milk now the whole thing tastes like burnt rubber. Yeah no.
sold for $11/ 4oz
https://taooftea.com/product/rose-petal-black/
Loose black tea leaves. Sugary smell from dry leaves, yam scent from wet leaves, this one does taste good when you flash steep it and ONLY when you flash steep it. Honey, malt, light fruit.
Problem: The tea isn’t made out of buds, and real Jin Jun Mei is an all buds tea. Most leaves are broken, majority at 0.5 – 0.75 inches, longest at 1 inch.
The tea is reminiscent of a Jin Jun Mei and tastes pretty good if you steeped it the right way, but it’s still not a Jin Jun Mei, like how a good salmon roe is not a caviar. For that reason points are deducted, but this is the better tea from Yunnan Sourcing’s Jin Jun Mei sampler.
sold for $7.50 / 50g
Green tea bags. You can see the rolled up green tea inside the muslin. Gum like spearmint and green tea that’s almost unnoticeable until the very end of cup, this actually tastes fine. This is the best one of the teas I bought from Kusmi, didn’t notice astringency or smokiness.
sold for $12.90 / 20 bags
https://www.kusmitea.com/us/spearmint-green-tea-organic-VMENBIOMASTER.html?v=21651A1120
Jin Jun mei sampler. Spoilers: None of them are high quality jin jun mei, professional sommeliers might not consider any of these real jin jun mei. All the brews came out red or orange instead of golden. The set is $44/200g, it’s on me to think it’s possible to get the real stuff at this price point. The teas taste fine, but these are fancy lapsangs at best.
sold for $44
https://yunnansourcing.us/products/introduction-to-jin-jun-mei-black-tea-sampler
while I’m here is there anyone that can tell me how to get the profile function to work? I’ve been wanting to add a bio but it gets erased every time I hit submit.
I wish I knew! Perhaps someone who is more computer savvy than I can help.
Thank you for trying to help! I appreciate it!
Nobody who has signed up since the Adagio takeover/Great Steepster Freeze (funny, we’re in a mini freeze right now) has been able to create a profile. I think the original intention of the new site admins was to reduce spam activity. You could try emailing info@adagio.com
I wasn’t aware that Adagio runs this site (and that Steepster is in a mini freeze.) Thank you so much for the info! I’ll contact them and see what happens next!
Green tea sachets. The dry leaves look dark and broken, the tea smell of chestnut, grape, and light nori. This tastes too much like a longjing. Savory chestnut, nori, vegetal sweetness, but lacking floral orchid notes. Pretty good for tea bags, would buy again if I went on a business trip and saw this on the shelf. I bought mine from Sprouts for $6-ish? I’m listing the price from the official website.
sold for $9.99 / 15 bags
Jin Jun Mei. Dry leaves smelled like toffee, wet leaves smell like burnt yam, I flash steeped this and the burnt scent still can be picked up from the tea. This might be the maltiest tea I ever had, light in sweetness and fruitiness. However it completely lacks the floral quality a jin jun mei should have, I feel like I’m drinking Horlick without sugar. Doesn’t taste bad, but this does not taste like a high quality jin jun mei.
sold for $8.25/ 50g
Oolong tea bags. Sugary smell upon hydration, taste like a toasty dong ding with nori and light fruitiness. Extremely light astringency, no bitterness. The tea bag performed pretty well.
Is this tea unique? It get rarity points for being from Korea, flavor wise it’s not. Is the tea good? Yes it is. If the price was cheaper this could be a potential repeat buy. I bought mine for $10.49.
Sold for $14.99/ 20 bags
Green tea bags. This tea tasted like nothing. No aroma, no flavor, no bitterness, all it provided was a slight bit of astringency after sitting in the cup for a while. It didn’t make me angry, it confused me. I pulled out my mug of maofeng to confirm I didn’t lose my sense of taste or smell.
I probably should rate this lower for the covid scare but normal people don’t get mad at water, therefore this tea is getting Dasani grade.
sold for $4.49/48 Bag
https://www.traderjoes.com/home/products/pdp/organic-darjeeling-green-tea-074753
Mate & green tea blend, I have the tea bag version of this. I don’t believe in detoxing, I purely buy tea for the taste, and what am I tasting…? The tea smells like caesar salad dressing and taste vaguely lemony with a bit smoke on the tongue, not repulsive, but not exactly flavorful. Yet this is still not the worst Kusmi tea I’ve had, that title goes to their rose green tea. I really want to like this brand but they are making it hard.
sold for $11.99/ 20 bags
https://www.kusmitea.com/us/detox-organic-DETOBIOMASTER.html?v=21640A1120
Floral oolong tea cake. I received a 5g sample pack from my package. The cake is roughly 1.5 × 1.5 in, hydrated leaves are 2-2.5 in long. The tea reminds me of Taiwanese high mountain oolong the most, particularly the strong orchid aroma and the sweetness, but the zhangping shui xian taste less oxidized and does not have the grassy flavor often found in Taiwanese oolongs. This tea also has another flowery note I don’t quite know how to describe, it’s rice wine like?
This is my first time having zhangping shui xian. As an immigrant from Taiwan I think the most fascinating part is seeing the similarities between this tea and Taiwanese oolongs. Made me go “Ah, so that’s where it came from.” Taiwan has been making its tea since the 18th century, this proves that the ancestors did get the method right and it has lived on. Really love the stories and histories recorded by tea.
This is part of iteaworld’s New Oolong Tea Sampler. Currently not sold separately.
sold for $39.99
