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Thanks to the appropriately name Tea from Taiwan for these samples. The description says from Winter 2009, so I hope I’m putting this under the right tea name. I couldn’t find anything else, so I’ll just have to go with it.

I couldn’t find any specific steeping instructions, so I kinda just went with other steepsters and made me I own. I did 3g, approximately 8 oz of watr, for 2 minutes. Let’s see how it goes.

Oh man, this is a fantastic oolong, and this is coming from someone who is so-so about oolongs. I’m definitely getting some subtle buttery undertones and slight floral notes, but nothing is too overpowering. It even has some similar characteristics to a green tea. This is a lovely tea, although it is a bit pricey so I wouldn’t have it every day.

The second infusion is just as lovely, with maybe a touch more astringency in it than before. But still a very lovely flavor.

Thanks to Zen Tea for a sample.

Toffee tastes great, but isn’t so great for my teeth. Plus all those nasty bits get left in your mouth and just.. ick. So I mostly stick to toffee flavored things, if I can help it.

When I saw this white tea I was very intrigued. You really don’t see too many candy flavored whites. I’ve seen berries and fruit flavors for whites, but this is definitely the first toffee I’ve seen. I was curious how it would go.

And you know what? It works. The white base really gives a nice smoothness to the toffee flavoring. It’s delicious without sweetener, although I bet the flavors would pop even more if I added some sweetener or milk (which I didn’t). I drank this hot, but as it cools off, it’s nice as a cool tea too. Overall it’s a nice solid white tea that’s good for anyone, as long as they like toffee flavoring. It also makes a great desert tea, especially for people who are not fond of black base.

Thanks to Teajo for a very generous sample of this!

Well, it looks like it’s going to be a ginger day for me and my teas. This is a nice solid green, but unfortuntately I’m getting a little more lemon here than ginger. The green base is smooth, though, and is not at all vegetal. It would be great for someone who likes green tea but is turned off by the REALLY green teas like gyokuru.

Overall not a bad flavored green. Nice, mellow, and great for lemon lovers.

Thanks to Terri Harplady for a sample of this.

I’ve been feeling all sorts of bleh all week, and I’ve been meaning to try this sample. I was especially drawn to this because of the ginger in it, which I know helps with stomach issues. So, we’ll see.

This is a very nice chai. It’s got some nice bite but it’s not overly so. I didn’t put anything in it, so I like chai blends that can stand on their own. I still have yet to brew up the Laoshan Black on its own yet, so I’m curious to see if that will help bring out that flavor even more, but it works as a nice base. Looking forward to getting some solid infusions out of this.

This came in the big box of samples I got from momo a while back.

I’ve been having digestion issues, so I decided to brew up something with ginger. And what better thing to brew up than a chai, right? Adagio does a terrible job of providing a description for this tea. It doesn’t have it’s own page and they don’t list the ingredients anywhere. I wasn’t even sure if ginger was in here. But, one of the reviews mentioned ginger, so it HAS to be, right? ;)

This is actually not bad. It’s got a little more bite than other chais but it’s not SO overpowering. I might have also used more water than I was supposed to, which helped mellow it out. It definitely has a kick, but not too much of one. I think it’s a nice balance.

It’s a shame you can’t buy this tea separately.

For a mid-afternoon snack, I decided to have an odd combination today – pineapple and pu-erh tea. Just like the ancients, did, right?

This is another one of my free teas, so thanks Numi. Once again it’s a very strong pu-erh taste and not a whole lot of jasmine, although I can definitely taste it at it cools. The problem with jasmine, and with this tea, is that it gives it more of a “soapy” taste sometimes. Does anyone else find that with jasmine? Or maybe it’s just me.

Also surprised to find that a record did not exist for this. I had to create one. There WAS one for the actual brewed drink, though, oddly enough.

I love pistachios. Maybe a little too much. They are easily my favorite nut and I have to be really careful when I buy a bag of them because they can get be gone before I know it. Luckily they are pricey, so that helps keep things down. Also, I’m a fan of the raw shelled pistachios, so those are even harder to find.

So, when I saw this flavor of matcha, I was excited to try it. How would it compare to pistachios themselves? I got this with Robust level of flavoring and prepared this in a water bottle with chilled water. I used 1/2 teaspoon of matcha to 16 oz. of water.

This matcha has a very interesting taste, but I don’t know if it’s really true to the pistachio flavor. I think, as another reviewer mentioned, it’s more like pistachio flavoring in ice cream and what not. I’m not really getting the true-to-nut taste that I was hoping for. It’s not a bad tasting matcha, but it won’t satisfy my cravings for pistachio.

I gave my boyfriend a blind taste test and asked him what it tasted like. At first he didn’t what to say, but then he said “it’s kind of got a spice to it.” There’s definitely some spice in there as well. I’m just hesitant to recommend this to a pistachio lover like myself because the flavor just isn’t there like I was hoping. I think people who like pistachio flavored things (which I rarely have) will be more satisfied.

You can buy the matcha here: http://www.redleaftea.com/matcha-tea/pistachio-matcha.html

Went with the boyfriend to a place called “Rollboto” where you can make your own sushi. Sort of like a Chipotle but sushi style. I also picked up this green tea as a drink because it looked exotic. Of course, afterwards I do some homework and realize its quite common (and cheap) but no big. 

Tea was not bad. There was definitely a roasted quality to it that I wasn’t expecting especially since the bag made no mention of it. I prefer more straight greens, but it’s definitely drinkable. 

What amazed me was that I got 3 good steepings out of this puny bag. Okay, more like 2.5 since the third was kinda weak, but for a measly tea bag I’ll take it.  

In my last tasting note I mentioned how the next infusion I would add milk and sugar to help give the chai some oomph. 

So they give you free drinks on the boat as long as you gamble. I got myself a mudslide. Then, I had the brilliant idea to toss it into my already brewed chai. The result? Uh..not much. Now my chai just tastes like mudslide. I can’t taste any chai in here. But it was the second infusion, and the chai wasn’t very potent to start with. It was worth a try.