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This is a solid black tea. Gongfu style for this review. Plenty of malty flavors, along with a yeasty note and a little floral as well. Pretty nice. I may prefer Western style for this one, but gongfu is interesting and tasty. Will have to compare number of steeps between the two.

This is a good basic green tea. Nothing fancy, but sometimes that’s what you need, especially when you don’t feel good and want tea but don’t want to waste the good stuff. I can’t really describe the flavor beyond “green tea” but it is nice and inoffensive. Also, bonus points for the fact that there are nice sized pieces of leaves in here instead of being tiny flakes like most of the other loose offerings from Twinings.

Ok, so I will caveat this review with this brick probably didn’t have the best storage conditions, likely too dry. I have tried to rehydrate it some, and has has improved the flavor, but not enough to really like still. It is mostly a wet wood and wet autumn leaf flavor, with some straggling hints of sweetness. Can’t drink through too many infusions before I want to dump it.

Very nice young sheng, and I don’t always like young sheng. There are pleasant vegetable notes in there and some sweetness. There’s some bitterness and astringency that wants to break through but I mostly kept it low with short steeps and 190F water instead of boiling. Very nice, and I bet it would age well.

Starts off with mostly leather and a touch of bitterness. It slowly evolved into more pleasant tastes but I had to drop the temperature to get the bitterness to subside, as it was turning unpleasant as time increased. This has turned into a very nice sheng.

I goofed up my first attempt at this tea by forgetting that white tea does best with lower water, so I boiled the first couple infusions. Took a few for astringency to show up, at which point I had to let the kettle cool off. I was doing gongfu, and probably also underleafed a tad since the tea is so voluminous when dry. This is definitely an excellent tea so I will try it again soon with better parameters.

Very nice jasmine green tea here. Strong natural jasmine aroma and taste, light green tea tastes. Nice refreshing tea.

Working through my samples of sheng, this one is a real nice one to me. Nice light smokey flavor with something else I see in a lot of shengs this age but can’t name. Very enjoyable. As it goes through more infusions, there’s more smoke, but a pleasant smoke, very smooth.

This is a pretty good oolong. Nice sweet fruity flavors with some floral notes. Nicely rolled with big leaves, though there’s a bit of stem too. I like it, though it may be pricey for what it is, so I will be on the lookout for similar oolongs that are more affordable.

Got back to my collection of samples with this. I’m getting a lot of tobacco and smoke and something else I can’t name. Not a great combination of these flavors, so I’m hoping to try it again with a lower temperature. Still enjoyed it enough to finish the session. I also like the loose compression and whole leaf, it fills the gaiwan nicely.