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The person I’m staying with during my visit to San Francisco had this tea in her cupboard. The peppermint and herbs give it a unique aroma, and at first sip, interesting is the first word that comes to mind. It leaves you with just a trace of licorice on the insides of your teeth, and the sweetness lingers. For a long time.

In Shanti’s review, she said it tasted like “liquid herbs” and I think that’s the perfect description. I’ve had a similar experience with a rooibos/rosemary-blended tea and in both cases, the sweet finish is nice at first, but by the end of the cup gets cloying. To the point where I can’t finish the entire cup.

It’s definitely worth a try, but in the end, I personally wouldn’t go out of my way to pick up a bottle of this (it comes in a medicinal brown bottle) for my cupboard.

This is my first Traveling Tea Box tea! And it’s very nice. The floral and fruitiness remind me of the TWG 380 tea I have, except not as overwhelming (a good thing). It’s slightly tart, and goes great with a sweet dessert. It’s perfect with French macarons—those sugary things that look like miniature hamburgers colored in food dye. This isn’t a tea I’d drink every day, but it’s phenomenal if you can find the right moment for it.

I knew there was a reason this smelled familiar in the store. This is a Rishi Golden Yunnan, which is one of my favorite Golden Yunnans. The leaves have almost a fruit-like smell and it’s a bold black tea that I’d recommend to coffee addicts.

For those unacquainted, the world-famous Zingerman’s is a deli/restaurant/mail-order business in Ann Arbor, MI. You can read more about them in the NY Times: http://bit.ly/6z3j68

I regret only going there once when I was in school at Michigan, but had a chance to stop in again over the weekend (I’m trying to make the most of my last week in Michigan before heading back to New York). It was fortunate, since I haven’t seen Rishi on store shelves (albeit this was dressed in Zingerman’s own playful packaging) anywhere in Southeast Michigan despite the fact that we’re just across the lake from Wisconsin.

So. Yay Zingerman’s!

I gave this another try after Takgoti’s temp/time/cooling suggestions and she’s right! You do get caramel! I tried this at 200 and 180-degrees as well. If the water’s too hot you lose it and if it’s too cold it there, kind of, but it tastes like wet newspaper.

There’s still something off about this keemun to me and if I really wanted caramel tones, there are other teas I’d go to before this one. Maybe just I’m just not a fan of the smoky/burnt sugar taste that others have mentioned. Still, I’m bumping my rating for Jackee up a few ticks.

Happy last-day-of-2009! It took me a couple pots to realize that this actually tastes closer to a keemun than what I’m used to from other golden monkeys. As such, it becomes a late-morning/early-afternoon tea for me. The liquid is bright reddish-orange and I can smell hints of cocoa. It’s really smooth too—I find myself wanting to lick the front of my teeth every time I take a sip.

Upton is 2 for 2 so far and quickly winning me over.

It snowed here in Michigan this week—just an inch or two, which is a light dusting by midwest standards and by no means a “snowpocalypse.” I shoveled the driveway this morning and it was the first time in weeks I’ve been out in the cold for more than a couple minutes (sans automobile).

Anyway, let’s get on with the tea!

This was in my first order from Upton. The other tea that came in the box was a wuyi golden monkey, which I’ll get to reviewing in the near future, but this golden tip yunnan has taken over my mornings and early afternoons. One reason is it still holds up after 3 or 4 steepings, so I just keep refilling.

The liquid is a rich brown and the taste is sweet. You can tell it’s going to be sweet just by giving the bag a whiff. I don’t get the spicy/pepperiness in the description on the site, but there is an amazing caramel (or maybe toffee… I need to get some caramels and toffees from the store to compare) finish. This really comes through at around the second infusion, and it’s so pronounced that I almost can’t believe this is an unflavored tea.

I’m leaving for a cruise (with family to the Bahamas!) tomorrow morning and considering smuggling some of this aboard in case I suffer from withdrawal. Anyone have tea-related cruise experiences?

I’m usually never in the mood to drink gunpowder. In the tin, it smells a little like animal dung and in the cup it tastes like tobacco. Maybe I’m doing something wrong, or maybe I just haven’t found the right occasion for it yet. Any suggestions?

Digging into the back of my real-life cupboard again. I got this last year from Whole Foods. It’s a rooibos chai that comes in a tin of 36 round teabags. It’s okay for me. A little weak, maybe because of the shelf-wear or maybe I just need to try two teabags per cup.

First a disclaimer: I generally hate ginger. Okay, maybe ‘hate’ is too strong a word. It’s more of an intense dislike for anything more than a hint of ginger. In Japanese restaurants I don’t touch the pickled ginger that comes with the sushi. A weird couple exceptions I’ll make are for ginger candies and ginger tea (especially homemade ginger tisane, in which I boil the crap out of the fresh ginger, until it gets super-spicy). I hate cilantro too, but that’s a different story.

Anyway. I like this tea. The ginger’s not too strong, and I do get a little bit of the peach flavor coming through. I rinsed the leaves for about 15-20 seconds to wash out some of the caffeine. Looking forward to trying this iced.