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These pearls are smaller than normal pearls I’ve had, but that doesn’t mean they lack flavor. They are small, marbled green and silver, and smell softly of sweet jasmine. The jasmine is not overpowering or perfumey or fake in any way. Brewed, the infusion is a pale golden color with the soft sweet jasmine emitting from the cup.

I did not steep the pearls long enough the first time to let them fully unfurl, I usually don’t otherwise you get a soapy bitter jasmine green tea. So, after letting them sit for about a minute and a half, I removed them only partially unfurled.

The taste was a soft, sweet jasmine with underlying notes of apple, melon, a hint of hay, and a soft buttery/creaminess. It is a very lovely jasmine pearl tea and did fully unfurl after the second infusion. I was able to brew them a solid four times before the flavor started to drop and diminish. I got to six steeps before I declared the pearls done of their flavor.

I did not have any of the premium jasmine pearls to compare these too, so I cannot say how much different they are to each other. All I can say is that these are really nice and really good and that jasmine lovers should at least get a sample of these and try it themselves.

I prefer non-flavored green teas, but when I go to my parents I like to dink flavored green teas because their water is so terribly hard, even filtered. So, I decided to try this one since I know 52teas does a magnificent job with flavors, the price isn’t too much, they taste great with my parents water, and the flavors always sound intriguing. The only thing I don’t like about 52teas is that their teas for the most part are very limited.

Anyways, this tea I really liked. You can taste all the flavors from the sencha, to the peach, to the cardamom. None of the flavors over power any of the others. I found this tea to be sweet, earthy, smooth, almost creamy. The cardamom really goes well with the peach and the peach goes really well with the sencha. Then again, I am biased toward sencha. The cardamom does not remind me of chai in this either, in case that was holding anyone back. Also, the peach does not taste fake in any way, shape, taste, or form. Definitely a good flavored tea no matter how terrible your water may be!

Another awesomely awesome tea from Mellow Monk. This tea is sweet, grassy, tangy, citrusy, earthy, buttery, smooth, creamy, and yummy. The taste of this tea depends on the amount of yuzu peel to tea ratio I steep. Sometimes, it tastes more sencha-like, where it’s more sweet, grass, earthy, smooth. Other times, I get more citrus and tanginess and it tastes almost like a creamsicle. I really like it.

I typically make a flavored tea for my thermos when I go to school, and this one holds up really well in it. Again, my only gripe about this is the amount you get for the price, but I’m really enjoying Mellow Monks teas! I also would like to apologize for the sudden surge of notes and that they are so short. As I’m sure most of you know, sometimes life gets in the way of what you would like to do…in this case too much school prevents me from visiting you awesome people. But, there’s always some really awesome teas that you just have to share with everyone, and I had a slight break to let you all know about some of these awesome teas I’ve been drinking!

After having had Top Leaf, someone suggested I try this one. I’m glad I did. This tea is fantastic. It’s predominately grassy and seaweedy, it’s brothy, and has that wonderful umami taste. Yum! I’ve been drinking this almost every morning for about two weeks now. I can also get it to resteep very well at least four times before the flavor starts to diminish. I love this tea so much, my only gripe is that it’s not all that cheap for the amount you get, but I do love it, and I do like their eco practices.

I found this tea to be similar to Verdants’ Fuijian White Jasmine. The jasmine in this is very nice and floral with no honeysuckle. I found the floral in this one to be more garden floral, not hot, humid summer floral with honeysuckle. I could also taste the white tea too, melon, sweet, and hay notes throughout. I found this to be a very nice balanced jasmine tea that isn’t overpowering with its jasmine taste.

A new jasmine tea from Verdant…how could I not try it?! The dry leaves look like green buds with silvery-white hairs on them. The smell is very dominantly jasmine, with hints of grannysmith apple and pineapple. The taste is soft creamy jasmine with notes of other florals, and hints of grannysmith apple and pineapple.

The biggest differences I’m finding between this white jasmine and the Yunnan White Jasmine (also offered by Verdant) is that this one is not quite as creamy, there are other florals in this one (almost like the jasmine is growing in a garden), and there isn’t honeysuckle notes in this one. The Yunnan is jasmine and honeysuckle. There was also a lot of fizziness on the tip of the tongue. The Yunnan jasmine felt like jasmine and honeysuckle growing wild in the humid summer; while the Fujian jasmine was a tame version of jasmine growing in or next to someones flower garden. I also found the Yunnan version to be creamier.

I know this is supposed to be just the Fujian version, but I’m finding it easier to explain it by comparing it to the Yunnan version. I hope it helps. Also, I brewed this Western-style today in my teapot. Yesterday, I had brewed it in my mug. I works well both ways, I just need to try it gaiwan style to see if it produces any differences. Either way, another excellent white jasmine tea!

Drinking some of this tonight. Had a long week, my brain is fried. I had five finals this week; two Monday, two on Tuesday, and one today after my annual medical appointment. Because this week is finals week, a local yoga place I love is having free yoga classes all week. Today was the first day I could go. I needed to go. I was so glad to go.

For an hour and a half I sweated harder than I ever have doing any other exercise, including running. I love yoga, so I guess I put more into and I get more out of it. Afterwards there was a 30 minute meditation session. I stayed for that as well. The yoga instructor for todays class is the one I prefer to go to, he plays the harmonium…it’s beautiful. Plus, he gives out hugs…who can pass up free hugs?! I came home afterwards in complete bliss, but I still felt a little twinge creeping back up into the front of my head from all the stress over the past week. I wanted something soothing, something that I didn’t need to focus on, something without caffeine. I went for this tea. I found that adding honey really makes this tea shine.

I wasn’t able to fully go back to that blissful state, that twinge in the front of my brain is still there, hopefully after a good nights sleep it will go away. Until then I’m drinking this and listening to this video, which is the one I find most resemble what my yoga instructor plays and sings. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wgkgXR_LMg

I’m sad to see this go. Is this where I say sip-down? This tea is fantastic. It’s not like any other white tea out there that I’ve ever encountered. It’s a lot like Summer Laoshan Green, but lighter. It’s super smooth and creamy, I love it. This was my morning and early afternoon partner today for studying…finals are coming.

This is another one from the reserve club. I brewed this one in my yixing, which has a 4-8 second pour depending on how full I fill it. I used 205*F water and went on for 12 steeps. The when I opened the bag I mostly smelled the roasty notes. The dry leaves are mostly shades of brown with a few olive colored leaves thrown in. The wet leaves smelled roasty and cinnamon apple. The infusion was a nice dark golden color and smelled roasty and woodsy.

The tea started out almost like a Mi Lan. It was very juicy and held roasty notes along with fruity, floral, woodsy, melon, and a campfire minus the smoke. It was quite nice. This lasted for a while and around steep four I started to get an interesting thickness in the aftertaste in the back of my throat, this lasted and got stronger as the steeping continued.

Shortly thereafter, the tea started to mellow. There were still roasty notes and a juicy quality, but not as strong. The floral notes started to get stronger and the fruit notes started to fade out. An herbaceous and vegetal note started to come in too around steep 6. Also, the thick aftertaste in the back of the throat started to consume the top-back part of my palate and had a slight almond taste to it.

Then steep seven changed completely. The tea went very floral on me, gardenia, with a note of melon dew, and a vegetal note. The thickness was slowly crawling forward, coating my tongue. No note of fruit or juiciness, no roasty qualities either.

Steeps seven and eight were the same, but a spice note started to come in, focusing on the tip of my tongue. Cinnamon, or nutmeg perhaps, I couldn’t be sure.

Steep ten through twelve did another 180 on me, going back to the beginning steeps, although it was mellower this time. It sounded the return of juiciness, with notes of fruit, spice, with a hint of vegetal hanging around.

I really enjoyed this tea and how it changed. It’s what I like and look for in dancongs. Their ability to have so many notes, the ability to change so drastically, their ability to surprise you in pleasant ways!

This was another sample I received from the rewards points. This is another dancong I have never tried from anyone, and I have no idea what the translation is. I doubt it can be as amusing as the “Big Hemp Leaf” (Da Ma Ye) that I had the other day! I brewed this the same way, in my 3.7oz yixing that I have dedicated to dancongs. It has a pour rate of 4-8 seconds depending on how much I fill it with water. I did 12 steepings at 205*F with mostly 6 second steeps and made my way up to 10 seconds by the 12th steep. I do find a hint of bitterness with this because I can’t do 2-4 second steeps, but it’s tolerable and doesn’t take away from the rest of the tea.

The dry leaf was charcoal color with some olive color mixed in. They smelled wonderful. There was a floral note and the best way I can describe the rest of the scent if a grilled stone fruit (like a plum) with cinnamon on it! The infusion was golden and held notes of roastyness, a sweet spice, floral, and fruit.

I didn’t find this tea to change dramatically, no whiplash, no wtf moments, no what am I drinking moments. This one rode quite smoothly for me. Sometimes one note would fade in and another would fade out, but nothing drastic like with the Da Ma Ye dancong I had.

It started out fairly floral, with a nice amount of stone-fruit (again I’m going with plum here), and a small pleasant roasty note. These notes (besides the roasty note) lasted throughout the entire session. Sometimes a juiciness would appear and the stone fruit would become a little stronger, sometimes the floral note would come in a little stronger. But those two notes remained fairly constant.

Very quickly a citrus note appeared giving a taste of citrus peel and some pith to add just a hint of a bite, but not making it off-putting, just making itself known. With this citrus note, a note of tree bark came in. Trust me, I know what tree bark tastes like, when I had dendrology class (tree id class), tasting and smelling the tree bark and under the tree bark was a useful way to ID some of the trees. If you’ve never tastes Sassafras or Sweet Birch, I suggest you go do so.

In the earlier notes a slightly thick mouthfeel came in the aftertaste. Not nearly as thick as a tieguanyin, thick enough to still taste everything else and be pleasant. This came in around steep three and lasted for the rest of the infusions but did mellow out the further I took this tea.

Eventually the citrus dissipated and a sweet spice note came in, cinnamon or perhaps nutmeg. It grew stronger as the steeping continued and became more cinnamon than nutmeg.

I like this tea, it was a very nice, well mannered tea. It was like this is what I have to show you, to offer, I hope you enjoy it. It did so without shoving anything in your face or being cocky or being overzealous about it. While it may not have taken me on a fantastic roller-coaster ride, it did take me around to see some of the less visited sites along the scenic route, and I cannot complain one bit.