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Sipdown, 149 (yay!). Didn’t remember that this one only had one serving left in it, but I discovered that once I opened the pouch up to check.

I’m not sure what happened when I got this in the store, but I’ve never in my life seen so much tea dust in the bottom of a pouch of oolong. Maybe the sales person was scraping the bottom of the bucket and I didn’t realize. In any case, I had to give this a very thorough rinsing with cold water to get most of the tiniest bits out that would go through my infuser, and then I only steeped it for 2 minutes given the obviously rapid infusion from the tea bits.

Yeah, this is far more on the green, grassy side of things than on the sweet vanilla floral side of things, and it must be the dust. Freaking tea dust! Ah well. It’s still good enough that I am enjoying this last cup.

Sipdown, 150. (I would love to sipdown to 146 before my Verdant reserve club order gets here, but I don’t know if that is possible! Based on past history it could get here as soon as the 8th, but I might have until the 10th).

I decided I needed the energy of a white tea this morning. I think it worked reasonably well; I managed to get a fair amount done this morning even through my relative exhaustion. Let see if I can keep it up this afternoon.

The first steep of this tea was quite nice, and I definitely got that bready, squashy flavor again. I went for a resteep for 3 minutes, but I didn’t enjoy it as much. I think it was a tad more hayish and green vegetal, as well as just being less flavorful. Still this is perhaps my favorite white tea that I’ve tried so far, and the only one (that’s not jasmine flavored) that I would consider reordering at this point.

It’s going to be one of those mornings. I couldn’t fall asleep for a little while last night, so this morning I am exhausted. I had a bowl of matcha, and then, because I was waiting a bit around the house this morning, I decided to break into one of the reserve club black teas I have. Brewed western style, of course (I don’t have the energy for gongfu in the morning, especially not this morning), which seemed ok to me since I knew it would be a black tea. First I thought of having the Qimen (keemun), but I sniffed it and it smelled smoky and keemun-y to me in a way that was not appealing. Perhaps another time. This one, however, smelled honeyed and perhaps a hint chocolatey, and I immediately chose it.

I’ve never actually had a jin jun mei tea, even though I have loved all the Fujian blacks I’ve tried. I can’t remember why, but I think there was something about the descriptions of some of them that didn’t appeal to me. I steeped this one up and it smells very malty, with a bit of molasses grains but not as strongly as a tan yang, say.

The flavor is lovely. Very bready, very malty. There is kind of a honey-ish flavor, but while that can mean a natural sweetness in some teas, it is definitely not in this. If anything the tea is slightly drying and a touch brisk. I was struggling this morning to try and figure out what that extra something was to this tea, almost a vegetal quality, and then I saw sweet potato notes and that was totally it. Almost a cross between a Fujian black and a Yunnan black. This was quite tasty and I would definitely try another JJM in the future, not to mention enjoying the rest of my packet of this tea.

Thanks to Teavivre for this sample for tasting! I am so glad that I my enjoyment for unflavored green teas has gone nowhere, even though I can’t get behind flavored ones so much anymore.

I think I oversteeped/overleafed this one a bit. Looking at steeping cup, I meant to only brew it for 1 minute but got distracted and it got an extra 30 seconds, so it is edging on too bitter-greens for me. Still, this is quite tasty. Very nutty and buttery, with a smooth, silky texture. A bit grassy, though I think that is accentuated by the oversteep. I am enjoying the later steeps as well, though for some reason they are still edging on that bitter grassiness. I’ll probably cut the leaf when I try this again; I’ll wait until then to rate it.

Sipdown, 151. Cold brew. It was fine, but not anything I would seek out again.

I swear, every sipdown of one of these MBSC teas feels like a triumph. Now that this one is gone I have just three left of the giant order that I placed years ago with a groupon. Next company up to get rid of is Georgia Tea Company… I think then I will have finally cleared out most of the now-regretted early purchases, besides a few one-off teas that I no longer care for very much. Goodbye, old tea!

Mmm, this one to start out the morning. After this I have one pouch of this left which I am reserving for a gongfu session (perhaps this weekend, if it’s not too hot out). I am running out of very easily sip-downable teas… almost everything has 3-4+ servings in it. It is slowing me down but I am still making some progress.

Once I pare down my stash to the basics, this tea will likely have a place in it. I really love a good tan yang, and this one definitely fits that description. Malty, grainy, with notes of molasses, a touch fruity, and basically just very delicious. Definite yum.

I love jasmine, and I was super excited to get this tea in the Reserve Club package a while ago, so why have I never opened it until now? Well for a while I didn’t have a good way of brewing green teas at home, but that’s still just an excuse because I’ve had my variable temp kettle for a month now. It is true that I haven’t had a chance to really sit down with any of my reserve teas lately because I’ve been running around a lot on the weekends. Also, I think I wanted to brew this one in a gaiwan (instead of my small pot), although I don’t have one now. But today I finally decided to break into it, and I am even drinking it western style (though with many infusions).

Of course, my taste buds still seem to be a tad compromised from lunch, so who knows how this will go. The first infusion was lovely and jasmine-y, but not anything more outstanding than some good quality jasmine pearls. I am looking forward to doing these more gongfu style (and I won’t rate them now). Right now they are beautiful and delicious, if not mindblowing.

Sipdown, 152. Sadness!

This tea is delicious and just makes me anticipate my trip to Paris this July that much more. It is really like drinking liquid toffee caramels, and that is without sugar. I am enjoying this last pot so much I may have to get more in Paris, even though I wasn’t originally planning on it. I already have a list of more than 2kg of tea that I want from them (since you can only buy in 100g amounts), so picking and choosing will be hard!

Sipdown, 153.

Today was an unexpected work at home day. It also has cooled down quite a bit (enough that I am wearing a sweater in my house this morning), so I can enjoy some of the teas I have at home. Fortunately I have a lot more teas at home now than I used to, and I had brought a few home recently as well. I used this partly in a failed cold brew combo, and had just enough left for another pot.

This is a pretty tasty tea, although it is very light on the flavors. This is a flavored tea for people who love unflavored black teas already. Back before that was true of me, I didn’t really like it. Now, I quite enjoy it, even if the flavors have probably faded further with age. Still a tasty pot of tea this morning.

I really should get around to reviewing the rest of my samples of Teavivre’s spring harvest in a timely fashion. Thanks so much again to Angel and Teavivre for sending me a sample of this new 2013 spring harvest.

The dry leaf on this one reminds me almost of dragonwell in that it is long, flattened and kind of broad. The leaves are quite dark as well, a very rich green. The freshness is really evident in the strong aroma, which is leafy and buttery. Steeped, it smells of butter-sauteed snap peas, spinach, and slightly of chestnuts. Overall the flavor is very mild and as others have mentioned, it doesn’t linger much. It is as ephemeral as a beautiful spring day.

This is a very pleasant green tea, although I have to say it doesn’t leave too much of an impression on me. It’s mildness is nice and welcome, but it means that I don’t really think about this much as I drink it. It’s a tea that I probably wouldn’t ever crave, but I’d still happily drink it every day if it was served to me. I’m glad I got a chance to try it!