Daylon R Thomas Send Message

I was craving a good black tea for the winter, so with the infused chocolates they sold, I got this tea. I thought about the sampler, but I’m iffy with minty black teas and I had a feeling the choice of magnolia may have been too heady for me in a black tea….even though I drink floral black teas often.

Anyway, I’ve had this one western and tumbler style, and it’s very, very good. Bourbon, vanilla, oak, nutmeg, and woody qualities come through easily with a little bit of malt. I didn’t expect how sweet this tea would be. Sometimes, the woody tones meld into a raspberry tone. Even smelling the sample of the plain black tea base I got, there’s a very raspberry quality in the smell, and I got it in the taste for this one.

I peronally couldn’t get much more than three true rebrews of it, while the 4th is weak. I’m going to have to try this one gong fu. I really enjoy it, but it’s just rich enough that I may slow down on consuming this one.

I’ll need to make a page for it, but I’m low on time. Magic Hour recently started selling more straight up tea blends with no flavor this year, and they sold a Dong Ding that they use for one of their green oolong bases for the Yuwa Goddess Blend. It’s floral, creamy green oolong that’s pretty solid. It’s notes kinda lean towards lily territoy that you’d get in some high quality Jin Xuans, but there’s enough depth in the body that makes me think MAYBE Qin XIn. I’m almost done with it and not bad to have around at all.

I do need some tea peoples thoughts-I’m visiting Edinburgh, Oxford, Reading, Isle of Wight, and London this year during December.

SIPDOWN! I’ve had this one for over a year. I had high hopes, but the cinnamon and other spices dry this tea out. Preparation on their website usually turns this into a latte, but I like it better with honey and no other additives. It gets more of a cidery or spiced mead vibe with honey and is much more enjoyable. The ginger is also much more prominent. I personally recommend the White Marzipan and the Cake Batter Pumpkin Spice teas from this collection personally.

I was really excited about the currants for this one, but it clashed a little with the spices despite liking it. Overall, it was a disappointment, but really approachable with honey. Magic Hour has other better blends imo. I honestly prefer the Capricorn if you want maple/fall vibes.

Drinking this one up, it’s very light on the strawberry and more heavy on the tieguanyin floral oolong. I get more orchid than strawberry at first, then it transitions into the strawberry. It’s not fake, but it’s light and candy like. I would have liked a little bit more strawberry that’s redder. It’s refreshing and thirst quenching. Might be better light. Needs more umph.

2024 western, 3 minutes, 4 min, 5 min, and 3-4 grams in 8 0z.

Plumeria heavy in the flavor this time. More floral than last year, but not as fruity. Extremely comforting. Perfect on a summer day slipping into fall at 62 F. Perfect weather. I don’t want to return to anything above 75 F in climate for a while.

I’ve had this one for over a year, and I tried it on it’s own, not as good. Too much cinnamon. Better as a latte, but needs a longer steeping time to get the spices more balanced.

I finally did this Chai Wallah stlye today on the last day before I go back to school. Boiled the pot, put leaves in, shifted back to rolling boil, cooled down, added sugar, rolling boil, lowered heat, added evaporated coconut milk, went to rolling boil, and finally cooled off for 3 minutes then served. I know, complicated, but I’ve found that doing chai this way is better. I added a little bit too much sugar since I made it for my girlfriend, yet still so much better with slightly caramelized sugar from the boil.

I officially like making masalas and spiced chais this way. I was able to get a much better balance of the pumpkin spices and cinnamon without taking away from the cardamom and other spices this blend has. I’m so relieved. This blend is usually to heavy on cinnamon for me personally, so this sipdown was a vast improvement.

This is a much newer season, 2023 spring (?) I think. It’s pretty good. Cedar there, heavier on grass, milk, pear, and florals. I’m saying this a lot, but its yet another favorite I horded. If you ever decide to get a Whispering Pines Tea order, this is my personal recommendation out of the oolongs offered.

I’m being brutal about this one. Definitely one of the better straight black teas I’ve had still. I just have to be in the mood for it. I wanted a softer black. I got some nice cocoa and tannin notes today, with a little bit of citrus. I’ve been shifting back towards flavored teas lately anyway. Can’t put a finger on why. There’s only a few straight teas left that I regularly drink. Granted, they’re mostly Taiwanese. I’m glad I have a slight stash of Gaoshan left.

Sipdown. I’ve had it for two years. I really had about two servings left of it, but I wanted to clear come cabinet space so I gong fu’d it and poured it only about after 15 seconds, though with close to 8 grams or more of tea. Aroma is smooth, and texture is smooth with a slight astringency this way in this first steep. I’m waiting for it to cool off. Some of the flavors were muted even from the dry leaf, but the fruitier ones were more prominent in the pour. I’m glad I did a short steep with it. Age smoothened this one out a little but not too much. I’m going to come back to finish this note later, but I still wanted to note the sipdown.

I only did two more steeps for the rebrew. Had a little bit of a headache. Second steep was more chocolate leaning, but very floral and malty with astringency and some bitterness. Third had a bit of pineappleish notes, malt, astringency, tannin, and not too much. Despite using a lot of tea, it was not markedly different from lesser leaves. Less time cut back on a lot of the potential unwanted astringency and kept enough for a little bit of power.

Still good and glad to have had it. This tea really wasn’t an everyday tea though. I actually was getting a little tea drunk off of it.

Backlog: I haven’t drank this one often because it’s a favorite I want to keep by. I had it a few days ago. If I drink it, it’s one of the few teas of the day because it’s powerful. I do agree with one of the other reviews. This one is kinda floral now that I think about it. It still has a apricot malt vibe to me, and I really like it. I have too many high end teas in my stash that I need to drink more of. I have drank more tea in the summer than in the winter or even spring for that matter.

Oddly enough, I’ve barely had tea at work. I would alternate between having no caffeine because of stress to having black iced coffee to prevent me from snacking during the day. I might bring my Gongfu2go tumbler again. The middle piece of it broke, so I don’t bring it into work often. I’m thankful that my schedule shouldn’t be as hectic this school year, knock on wood.