50 Tasting Notes
Earl grey tea bags. Not the Regenerative Organic Earl Grey by Tazo. I wrote a review for that before.
https://steepster.com/cathychiaolin/posts/447308
This one just made me go ??? The dry tea bag smelled exactly like the Regenerative Organic Earl Grey but the taste is completely off. First sip tasted like tap water and the tea only got more chlorine later. After it cooled down the chlorine transformed into astringentcy. Like excuse me? How do two products that look so similar taste so different? I actually made a cup of Regenerative Organic at the same time to compare them and the organic one didn’t have that weird taste.
I don’t think major supermarkets are still selling this and thank goodness. First time I give out an F score on Steepster. Maybe there were some storing issue?
sold for $4.29/20 bags
Taiping Houkui green tea from Zheng Shan Tang aka Lapsang Store. Received this 5g sample pack from my order. The furry dry leaves smell like Japanese matcha, the tea is very orchid and very sweet with slight vegetal mung bean flavor. The sweetness really lingers. The color of the dry leaves is avocado, length of leaves is 3 – 4 in before & after hydration.
This is possibly the clearest tea I ever had, I walked away from my glass cup chatting and came back with a clear topaz cup of tea on the table. Incredible. The taste was definitely was there and stronger than what it should’ve been.
They are now only selling this in sample bags. At the moment of writing it’s $33 for 10 bags.
sold for $60/5g x 10
https://lapsangstore.com/collections/green-tea/products/gt03
A toasty dancong. Leaves gave off a roasted, sugary smell, the first cup sort of reminds me of a Taiwanese dongding but sweeter and with some more orchid, second cup after has more mineral. The dancong aroma, that winey quality isn’t particularly strong with this one. Hydrated leaves are roughly 1 – 1.5 in long.
The tea is good and they lowered the price of this dancong. I bought 2 oz for $23.04.
sold for $16.36/2 oz
https://www.teasource.com/products/honey-flower-dan-cong-oolong-tea-1?variant=46949204984120
Turns out I already wrote a review for this. I’ll write a new one just for fun.
A very aromatic, perfume like oolong. The dry leaves smell like sugar cookies and the tea has a muscat wine quality to it, sweet, very flowery, a bit fruity, a little bit of sandalwood, very light astringency. The hydrated leaves are from 1 in to 3 in long. This tea can handle grandpa style like a champ.
side note: This is also one of my mom’s favorite among all the teas I have.
sold for $34.99/100g
Black tea from Yuan Zheng, a brand owned by Zheng Shan Tang aka Lapsang Store. Smell of sweet chocolate upon hydration, the tea taste of honey, chocolate, and malt candy, the flavor gets more malt forward with longer steeping time. Hydrated leaves are about 1-1.25 in long. The honey flavor of this tea reminds me of Harney & Son’s Songluo Full and I’m still waiting for H&S to have a discount for that. Overall this tea is good, just don’t go grandpa style, it murks up the flavor.
sold for $20.86/50g
Black tea from Zheng Shan Tang aka Lapsang Store. Received this complementary can due to delay caused by shipping issues. A sugary, oriental beauty like scent was activated by moisture from my cup, the tea taste of jujube, honey, and flower like they stated on the website, the hydrated leaves are about 1.5 in long. The first time I made it too strong and it tasted like dehydrated jujubes in a I’m straight up drinking Chinese medicine way. Grandpa style also caused the tea to give a dry mouthfeel. Overall this is a nice lapsang, but I need to experiment with it a few more times.
edit: Moving the score from 89 to 93, the tea taste better after a few months of sitting/aging. Now it reminds me of some purple tea I’ve had.
sold for $35/75g
https://lapsangstore.com/collections/black-tea/products/zst16
Earl grey black tea. The bergamot smells really nice, it’s soft but not weak. The tea base is smooth with light smoke wood and sugary notes, the bergamot brings a bit of floweriness. Finishes with a gentle astringent tartness from the black tea.
I got my 3.5 oz can for less than $6, I’m happy with the purchase! The lid inside the tin is really nice too!
sold for $11/3.5 oz
A rose flavored black tea. The dry leaves have a cool, raisin like smell, the rose tastes natural. Many rose black teas are rose first, black tea second, this one the black tea is main character. The base is a Chinese black and I think it is a decent one, probably a blend, the flavor is fruity and a little woody. Compare to Art of Tea’s Rose Black Tea the rose flavor is not as strong but that is not a flaw.
I loved this tea and have a 1 pound bag at home. I know there are better teas out there but I choose to view this one with rosey lens. (Ayyyy)
sold for $26/1lb
https://www.harney.com/products/rose-scented?variant=29492372678
Earl grey tea bags. The smell is extremely citrus forward, the black tea is overpowered by the bergamot. Gets a little astringent after a while and that is when the black tea win over the bergamot. A powerful tea bag.
Some how this product is not the same as their earl grey, the regenerative version doesn’t have natural flavors and vanilla extract.
Earl Grey product information:
https://www.tazo.com/us/en/products/tea-bags/earl-grey/
Different places sell this at different price points, I’m listing the price I bought mine for.
sold for $4.39/16 bagshttps://www.tazo.com/us/en/products/tea-bags/regenerative-organic-earl-grey/
A sweet black tea. When hot the tea has noticeable wood and malt notes, when cool it has light note of rose. I’m a grandpa style brewer and I could feel the presence of tannin after a while. For the price this is a nice daily drinker, I would recommend going light when brewing the tea.
sold for 14.99/100g
