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Thanks to Teavivre for a sample of this tea! I haven’t tried too many dragon wells yet, so am happy for the opportunity to try out another one and see how it compares!

The aroma of the brewed tea is light and sweet and a bit like boiled veggies (although that’s really only a hint). Unfortunately, I think I really underleafed this tea (forgot I was using a bit mug, and probably only scooped in ~1.5 tsp), and I am not getting a lot of flavour from it in spite of oversteeping it by over a minute. What I can taste is a bit of rock sugar sweetness in kind of a boiled veggie broth. Not astringent at all (but I’ve found that dragonwells don’t seem to get as astringent as some other greens for whatever reason). I’ll have to give this another shot later, but it’s certainly promising!

This tea is surprisingly tasty! A hint of ginger and yes, artificial fruity flavours that make it taste like a light fruit punch. But it’s somehow quite delicious. I drank the cup before writing this note and now can’t remember everything, so I’ll have to fill the rest in later. But, I think that will come quite soon as I think I may travel mug some for tonight :D

ETA: Second infusion is light and a bit citrusy. It’s good! I think this tea is what I want herbals to be like – light on the fruit so it’s not overpowering, and hibiscus-free! Seriously, if any of you ordered this one from Caraway, I’d recommend you give it a shot. My expectations weren’t high, but this is pretty darn good. I wouldn’t say it’s anything special, like a Butiki blend, but it’s good for what it is!

So, I inadvertently brewed up two peach blacks this morning, as I was unaware that the tea I received from Sil had peach flavouring as well! (Actually, it just occurred to me that the third sample I brought down is also peach! But it’s Peach Ginger White, or something to that effect. I guess I had peaches on the brain…) This sample was of course generously provided by Azzrian! Thanks for the chance to try out your custom blend! :D

Now, a disclaimer. I hate beer. I probably don’t like hops. I am apparently picky about peach flavouring in tea (well, it may just be DavidsTea’s peach flavouring). However, this is too cool to pass up!

Brewed up, it smells a bit peachy, and there’s another flavour I can’t quite put my finger on. Perhaps it’s the hops, but I don’t really know why they’d be familiar. Or maybe it’s peach flavouring from another tea? Oh wait… it kind of smells like…. Butiki’s Apricot Guayasa! I think that’s the association I’m making. Anyways. The flavour is definitely interesting. I’m getting some bitterness but not really astringency… is this the hops? They are bitter, aren’t they? Bleeehhhhhhh. I can taste some delicious peachiness in there too, but the bitterness is making me sad. I suspect this is a yum tea for beer drinkers, but not so much for me. So bitter my mouth is getting all contorted, haha.

On that note, if anyone I’m swapping with in the near future is curious to try this tea, I have a couple cups’ worth to send off! I wouldn’t suggest trying it if you dislike bitterness or beer. :) No rating because I should have known I wouldn’t like it (and therefore a 30 is soooo mean!)

Ok… I have to be honest. Sil gave this to me in a swap when we met up far too long ago, and I had pretty much dismissed it as a random black tea, meh, not my favourite, but something I will eventually try out of curiousity. I had thrown it into my “try these!” box a while back simply because it was a tea I hadn’t tried that I happened to run across, because my teas from Sil & Indigobloom never found their way into separate boxes like everything else did, and so they were sitting out on my never-used desk chair.

Anyways, I had a good sleep last night post-crappiness and am enjoying an excellent morning of working on research stuff at the dining room table with the house all to myself (I think). Either way, no interruptions, music’s up, and things are feeling pretty good :D So I decided I’d tackle a bit of that box to make myself feel even better! Since it’s early in the day, I decided black teas would be fantastic, and pulled this one out.

As soon as I opened the bag, I was hit with an aroma I was totally not expecting… this is flavoured tea? I definitely thought it was just a breakfast blend sort of thing (yes, there are bits in it, but I guess I didn’t consider that). Instant regret for not trying this sooner, because gosh this smells tasty! It smells a little fruity to me, and sweet with some sort of delicious flavouring. Once the water hit the tea, it smelled even better :D And the verdict is….? YUM! I really kind of like this! I would swear that there’s a fruitiness in here, but apparently it’s just vanilla/caramel/maple…. Haha, actually, I see juuuust above my tasting note box, now, that this has peach in it! Yes, it totally tastes like peach!! Oh man. This is tasty! The flavouring isn’t super in-your-face, but it’s quite present enough to make this tea delicious. The only downside is that I’m getting definite astringency, and I would prefer none of that. I might try a shorter infusion, but I’m worried that it might impact the rest of the flavours. There’s a great sweet peachy aftertaste, but unfortunately it’s a bit marred by the astringency.

Thanks so much for this one, Sil! More proof that I need to stop being silly and just try all the samples I have, because you never know what things may actually taste like!

Comparing two cups of this tea from different batches; one from the first(?) batch, and one from the second(?) Or at least, that was the intention, but I’m having a bit of a breakdown/freak-out instead, so I will just drink them. Honestly, they taste pretty similar anyhow, and are tastily chocolate. Perhaps the newer one is a tad sweeter, the older one a tad more bittersweet cocoa. The leaves were certainly different – not all black, some were more golden and/or green.

Either way, it’s a great tea, but I think I prefer the Laoshan Black.

ETA: Re-steeped each for 2 minutes this morning. The newer version is still pretty good and chocolatey, but was maybe a touch oversteeped. Unfortunately though, the older version was definitely oversteeped, and is quite bitter/astringent. Very interesting! I’ll have to either milk/sugar it or dump it though :(

I think I’ve fallen victim to stress today… sick to my stomach, tired but agitated/anxious which prevents me from sleeping, and generally in a bad mood. I have lots to get accomplished this weekend, and have little motivation to do it :(

Anyways, I needed some of this tea. My pouch is getting dangerously low, so I’m crossing my fingers for a re-blend really soon… :(

I picked up a sample of this one from Persimmon Tree a while back, and was looking for something different to take to work this morning, and there was enough in my sample to allow a full thermos of this plus an additional cup (or more) under more ideal brewing conditions!

There’s essentially no aroma to my cup of tea… and the flavour is absurdly light! Believe it or not, I could hardly tell this and 52teas’ Maple & Brown Sugar Oatmeal apart. Both just tasted like generic, sweetish but mostly flavourless black teas. As this one cooled, though I could catch the french vanilla notes a bit more. However… way, way too weak. I guess I’ll have to try this one again!

… Brewed this one up today and it literally tastes like nothing. I mean, I can tell that I’m drinking more than hot water, but beyond that? Nothing but a touch of sweetness. I used two rounded teaspoons and steeped for 2.5 minutes in near-boiling water, so I have no idea why it’s so flavourless. Apparently when I tried the sample from (CHAroma?) I thought it was alright, but this is from the package I received from 52teas’ Grab Bag sale a while back. Hopefully I can coax some flavour out of it next time with a longer infusion/more tea?? :(

Ok…. I drank some of this a few days ago and apparently forgot to log it… but anyways, the reason I was looking for the log to add to it was because I just brewed up the second infusion, daaayyyyysss later, and oh my goodness is it ever deliciously butterscotchy/caramelly! YUM! This is definitely one of those delicious blends that for some reason, everyone isn’t raving about (and I don’t understand why!) My only guess is that not too many current Steepsters have tried it?

The only downside is that it’s not super chocolatey. But the caramelliness totally makes up for it…