Dinosara Send Message

Nom nom nom. Funny how I often don’t care for hazelnut in teas (I love it in candy, liquor, spreads) but that is absolutely not the case here. Creamy hazelnut-vanilla goodness. And that’s about all I have to say about this right now.

I am feeling tired and I was suddenly struck with a desire for my most favorite flavored teas. What did I reach for? This one, and Fleurilège by Dammann. My other thought was Caramel-Toffee by Dammann. I guess I should probably be rating them higher than they already are, somehow. This was super almondy today. Love it, and I will be heartbroken when it’s gone.

The cold brew of this one was not successful, really. Maybe I just don’t like EGC’s cold brewed anymore? I used to love them. But the past two I have done have turned out sickly sweet. The first one, I thought it was the licorice root. But I don’t think this one has that, so who knows.

This sample came to me from Sil in a surprise Christmas card! Unfortunately the postal service did a good job of completely grinding this one to nearly matcha. Did someone stomp on it??

I kept it cool and a quick steep. It kinda looks like matcha with all that powder floating around in there! It does smell amazing, however. So floral (I’m amazed you liked this one, Sil! ;)). It’s a familiar floral but I can’t quite place it right now. Lilacs isn’t quite right, but I’ve definitely smelled it in a garden before. The flavor definitely has a bit of a fresh apricot, and I can see where TTC describes an almond-like note. It’s fresh and green and lovely. This is quite amazing, even stomped to bits. I may have to order some bao zhong from them when I do get around to making an order.

ETA: Yeah, I’m going to go ahead and rate this one pretty highly. It’s really that good, the broken leaf doesn’t even matter that much!

I got a random free sample of this with my BF Teavivre order, because apparently I forgot to choose my free samples on that order. I’ve had this before but I’m glad to try it again because looking at my tasting notes I was confused about my samples of this one (namely whether this was light and floral or roasted).

This cup is smelling very sweet and very floral. I do think that the last sample pouch of this one that I had (that I actually logged) might have been mis-packaged, because I found that one to be roasty. The first two were not roasty (that I could remember), and this one fits that profile. It is green, it is floral. It is quite lovely, although dong dings aren’t my favorite green oolong (I prefer the buttery florals of a tieguanyin).

Also even though I have been trying to be less number- and sipdown-focused when it comes to my cupboard (it’s why I haven’t been calling sipdowns and posting my number in posts), I feel myself getting a little bit twitchy about it’s increasing, so I am trying to drink up samples. But then I feel like I am neglecting my other teas in larger amounts. Maybe after my cupboard stabilizes (after my swap from MissB comes in and I know it won’t be growing anymore), I will try to drink everything in my cupboard once before cycling back around! That would definitely be interesting.

Oh, I forgot to log this yesterday. I made the rest of my sample cold brewed, and it was quite tasty, but I think I prefer it hot brewed. It was creamier and the base had more body (this also could be due to the fact that I’m not sure there was quite enough tea for my cold steep, but the other flavors were pretty good). Overall I would purchase this tea again if I wanted a really lemony tea.

I had this tea yesterday after Golden Moon’s Coconut Pouchong but I didn’t get around to writing it up then. I primarily ordered this tea because I wanted to try their coconut pouchong/bao zhong and try to convince myself that not all coconut pouchongs are identical.

The leaf looks very similar, and it smells similar, but would say it smells a tiny bit sweeter and creamier, and less toasted. That carries over to the taste as well. These two teas are very similar, don’t get me wrong. This was delicious, but slightly distinct as well. They are both sweet, creamy, and coconutty. This one has more vanilla and that slight orchidy note from vanilla/pouchong. Golden Moon’s is butterier, toastier, and more like a baked good. I just prefer, personally, that coconut cookie-ness of Golden Moon’s.

Even though I’m not the biggest on yunnan blacks, I ordered a sample of this tea from JK because I do like some (particularly Fengqing, like the black pearls) and I once read someone who drinks a lot of gongfu black tea said it was their favorite black tea. Since I was able to get a sample, I thought I’d give it a try. First trial western steeped, and I’ll do a gongfu session with it at some point.

Well it smells like a yunnan. A bit potatoey, a bit hay-ish. Not quite honeyed, not quite cocoa. The first sips are kind of bitter, but as I drink more the main body of the sip becomes sweeter. The bitterness creeps back in the aftertaste, but it is light. I may try this with less leaf, or less time. The flavor is more like an unrolled black pearl that the steeped tea initially smelled like. This cup is a bit “robust” for me, but otherwise I am relatively pleased with this tea.

A tea I haven’t had for two years, but it made such an impression that I have always intended to get more of it, and I never forgot about it. I’ve even had other coconut pouchongs in the intervening time, but none could come close to the memory of this tea.

Oh coconut pouchong, you smell delightful. You taste amazing. How can a tea taste so much like a coconut macaroon cookie? I don’t know. Sweet, coconutty, with light bakery cookie flavors. So much yum! So glad I finally reordered this one and have it again in my stash.

I have had this tea for quite a while. I drank it once, but I oversteeped it or something and I never wrote a tasting note. I don’t know why, just never got around to it I guess. I am going to try to get through some of my small tins of tea so that I can open new teas from Lupicia (which need 50g tins).

Anyway, this is quite a nice tea. The leaf almost looks like a pouchong, being not quite balled up like other green oolongs, but slightly crumpled. It unfurls into pretty nice looking leaves overall (and a few stems). The flavor is pleasant. The shekwasha (a type of citrus fruit) is light, which I like because it means it doesn’t cover up the oolong flavor, which is very fresh and green. The shekwasha reminds me of a less-tart grapefruit or maybe a pomelo. Citrusy and pleasant. A tasty tea and I just need to remember to keep it in my regular rotation before it ages too much more.