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I thought I would try this one for Mother’s Day weekend!!!
What a beautiful herbal!! It gets 100 for presentation!!!
The salted pink flowers smell like salty plumb-scented candy. They are so pretty!!! Shimmery, light pink flowers.
I included the instructions in the tea notes. You pre-soak the flowers in 140F water for 5 minutes to remove the salt. Then you drain that (and keep that liquid to flavor with) then infuse the flowers in a teacup with boiling water for 3 minutes.
The flowers in the water look like little pink fairy dresses,,,tutus,,,so beautiful how they wisp thru the water. The scent is a sweet plumb liquor.
After the flowers have soaked in the boiling water a while, they open like new and turn themselves and the water a light pale pink.
I added a teaspoon of the salted liquid to the flower water and that was perfect for me. It tasted like slightly sweet, but mostly salted plumb candy.
While drinking, the petals sort of melt in your mouth. They are so delicately thin.
This was such a fun experience!!!!!! I am honored to get to try this lovely drink from Japan.

5/9/14
OK,,instantly addicted to Puerh now!!!! This is my first cake and I love this little one!! I am aging this cake but decided to brew the loose leaves and chisel off a few more for one gong fu session. I got a puerh pick so I could keep the leaves whole and intact.
The cake is from Jing Gu county of Simao, Yang Ta village, China.
The dry leaves are dark brownish-forest green with whitish creamy colored ones mixed in.

Not gonna rate this tea because I am still learning about puerh and will be coming back to this one from time to time and drinking a bit more as it ages. But it tastes interesting and good so that’s all I need to know!!!!
I used 200F water and 3 tsp leaves in my little 4 ounce pot.

1. 20 seconds – rinse
2. 20 seconds- subtle smoke, smooth; liquor is champagne pearl color
3. 20 seconds- wet leaves smell like slightly sweet tobacco as does the liquor. There is a blue poppy seed flavor with smoke and a touch of cream.
4. 20 seconds- the leaves are really open and expanded now. They are very large leaves and then there are buds like silver needle in with them. This cake is made from the varietal Camellia Taliensis and the leaves are white tippy and very large. This is my favorite steeping,, it has subtle smoke with white tea cream qualities, the blue poppy seed, a hint of tobacco.
5. 25 seconds- smoky white tea cream flavor with a tiny tiny bit of astringency coming out now and a tiny tiny bit of bitter.

I live in the desert so I have been reading about storage for puerh a lot. I definitely have low humidity covered but I hope my cake has enough humidity for the organisms to live. There is humidity in the desert, just not tons,,so I think I should be fine.
I will check back here from time to time and date my entries so I can see the tea’s progression :)
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5/17/14
Had some more of this today. 200F 15" rinse then 3 more 15" steeps,,,(last two were at about 180F). Caught a bit of vanilla today, a tangy note like a white raspberry, mulberry, and the sweet tobacco is still coming thru. Lots of layered flavor. Once the leaves open up after about 5 steepings, there is a bit of astringency to cleanse your palette.
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7/1/14
Broke off a bit more today to try. I need to leave this alone to age bc it keeps getting better but I keep drinking it lol.
195F 4 oz gong fu porcelain pot
10" rinse
15"
25"
Flavors are smoky cream with a touch of honey and a touch of tamarind bitter.
There are lots of buds and young leaves in this cake. Giving off a touch of Se Wei but it is mellowing out each time I try it.

I’m roasting some baby eggplant and eating some lovely heirloom tomatoes so I thought I would try this Darjeeling sample that I got from Camellia Sinensis,,thanks!!
Camellia Sinensis has some maps for the growing location of your teas and the Darjeeling garden map showed that the Seeyok growing area is right on the edge of the Mirik Valley region next to Nepal. It is interesting to see the seven valleys and many gardens of Darjeeling. Cool.
The dry leaf looks like tiny brown wood chips and smells a tiny bit of ‘walking in the woods’ woody and like baked sweet roll.
I brewed this Western style at 200F for 3 minutes.
The wet leaf smells like baked dark bread and is in little brown flake-like shapes. I smell a scent of sweet relish as well.
The liquor is a deep clear amber color with scents of baked sweet roll; citrus, especially orange, and raisin.
The flavor is raisin bread and orange zest, which gives a tiny, tiny bit of bitter. On a scale of 1-10 for astringency,,,there is about a 1 or 1.5… so it is cleansing but not harsh at all.
I was drinking this as I was preparing lunch so it was heavy on my stomach and needed to eat a bit of my lunch immediately to curb that,,,so I wouldn’t drink this one on an empty stomach.
I am glad that I got to try another Darjeeling tea to gain more experience with them!! Thanks C.S. !!

Today is The Buddha’s birthday!!!! :) I love the lotus lanterns they hang in Korea in his honor. I am eating fresh strawberries (yay!!! in season!!!) and drinking Fo Mei (Buddha’s Eyebrow) 2013 Organic green tea from Seven Cups which I have already reviewed and I keep in my cupboard.
Have a nice day!!!!!!!! Namaste!!!!!!

From Fujian Province, China.
Yumm!! This is a delicious Silver Needle tea. I brewed this by the cup in my gaiwan which I don’t usually do with white tea so it was more intense in flavor and creamier.
Always love Silver Needle and this one was very nice :)

I revisited this tea because I just had some awesome green tea from Yezi using their proper steeping instructions and I realized that I over-leafed this one the other day. I looked at the wrong section for steeping and today I looked at the right one lol.
This is my old review from the other day that I am deleting but keeping here (because I like to have my reviews for a tea all in one place):

4/28/14
From Nanhu Mountain; Fuqing City, Fujian province, China.
Dry leaves are small black/brown twisted threads with a few golden ones mixed in. They smell malty, like malt-o-meal cereal.
I used a little glass gong-fu pot that I got. I love this little pot bc I could both brew the tea gong fu style and see the leaves and liquor progress at the same time.
The water was at 200F and first steep was 15 seconds then subsequent steeps for 25-30 seconds.
Liquor was a golden-amber color and wet leaves smell smoky.
Flavor is smoky,,,this tea tastes like Da Hong Pao. The dry leaves don’t look like Da Hong Pao but the flavor tastes like it with the smoky, espresso, and cream notes.

5/1/14
I got all those smoky notes on the 28th because I had too much leaf in there. I got a proper Gong Fu tea set too with serving pitcher because you need the serving pitcher.
This tea is delicious with notes of Vanilla and Cream and a natural sweetness of subtle honey. There is a light light touch of smoke but not like when I overleafed it the other day. It is subtle and hardly there.

I kept my old review here because you can see how overleafing can change the taste. I am glad that I had some more of this one to do a re-do. Yumm and I’m glad I know how to brew it now :) lol !!!

7/5/14
Brewed this one Gong Fu style today. Dry leaves are thread shaped and it has a beautiful golden colored liquor. The wet leaves are course, like a Da Hong Pao. They have definitely been twisted and smoked. The flavor is high mountain smoked creamy with not a lot of sweetness. This type of tea always gives me a caffeine buzz too so it is a good one for morning or early afternoon pick up if you are feeling drowsy.
All of Yezi’s teas are so delicious and high quality!!
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7/28/14
Tried this one both Western and Gong Fu this morning. I brewed it at a lower temperature, 190F for 3 minutes in my little glass one cup size pot and then gong fu was immediate rinse, 30-15-30-30
Gong Fu brings out subtle notes and a focus on vanilla, cream, and honey with a touch of smoke. Western brings out a more intense blend of them all but completely balanced both ways. This tea is really really balanced in its flavors. Super good and I like the lower temp for me but Yezi recommends 200F. This tea is good all ways as long as you pay attention to your leaf and don’t overleaf.

gao shan (Gao1 Shan1) = high mountain (高山) or high elevation, especially in Taiwan

This is excellent!!!! I got this as a sample with my purchase from Yezi,,,which I must say has terrific customer service and website!!!!!!!
Grown in the town of Longjing, near the west Lake of the Zhe Jiang Province of China.
I brewed this in a glass teapot.
The dry leaf is beautiful. All uniform, flattened, moss green and yellow tinted raffia-like leaves. It smells so fresh, like green beans and sea salt.
The liquor is a light, light pearl green color and it smells like green beans, and butter as well.
I feel that Yezi’s quality tea and perfect steeping instructions have allowed me to enjoy the best Dragon Well that I have had. I love their instructions. They are on the money with help on best tea ware to use, temp, and amount of tea to water.
All the other Dragon Well teas that I have tried have had a lima bean note but this one does not. It is straight butter, sea salt (not seaweed), green bean notes and it’s good stuff. No astringency either,,,very smooth and creamy. Yumm
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5/14/14 Yumm having some today with lunch,,,my favorite Long Jing
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5/20/14 More with lunch,,,I keep drinking it and am gonna be upset when I run out :(
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6/9/14
Getting low on this :( Drinking again and it’s yum as always!!
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7/9/14
Brewed this in my little 8oz kyusu this afternoon. 175 for 1 minute. Used 5 grams leaf and caught a tiny tiny amount of bitter. I might have put in too much leaf but still yummmm.
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7/26/14
Having some more Western style this afternoon. 175F for 1:30" —definitely a keep on hand tea!!!
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8/4/14
Gaiwan style this afternoon. Always good!! Yezi has great tea.

This one was on sale for 50% when I shopped with TeaSource so I just threw it into my cart.
The dry leaf smells like Moroccan Mint style tea and the leaves are forest green twisted threads.
I brewed this Western style at 175F, tasting every minute until I had steeped for a total of 4 minutes.
The wet leaves are very attractive, long slender, slightly opened twists of moss green,,,still smelling like faint Moroccan Mint.
The liquor is very light, like White tea light,,a clear pearl color and has a mineral and light spring mint scent.
The flavor is light Moroccan Mint flavor but very light. A tiny tiny tiny bit of bitter, not vegetal though.
I paired the tea with black quinoa and some beautiful heirloom yellow cherry tomatoes.
This is definitely an everyday type of tea. I think that I might use it for iced tea,,,it would be perfect for that :)

From the Nanhu Mountain range, China.
In Chinese, Jin Pin means gold personality. The dry leaves do have a fun personality; they are small, thin brown threads mixed in with golden blonde threads that smell malty.
I brewed this tea Western style, tasting at every minute and steeped for a total of 3 minutes at 190F.
The wet leaves smell like baked brown peasant bread with a bit of citrus peel.
The liquor is a dark orange jewel color that smells like malt, honey, touch of cocoa.
The flavor is well balanced with a citrus note up front, a brown bread note, smoke, small cocoa, and a honey note on the nose more than the palette.
Overall, smoky tea with lots of interesting flavors supporting it. Golden personality indeed!!
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7/23/14
Brewed this Gong Fu style this morning. 190F water with short steeps—immediate rinse, 6-4-6-8-10
This tea is smoky. It seems more smoky Gong Fu style than when brewed Western. Still getting the other flavors that I did before but smoky is dominant this way today. Love Yezi teas!!

This is a tea to play with for sure. The dry leaf looks like a crushed mix of all the different white teas. Different hues of green, a silver needle thrown in here and there. It looks a bit like Shou Mei and it smells creamy like it too only it’s wilder and has more colors to the mix.
I brewed this Western style checking at each minute and stopped steeping after 3 minutes at 165F.
The wet leaves look like crushed up leaves from an Autumn leaf pile and smell like potato peels.
Liquor is golden champagne color and smells like honey and spices.
The flavor is sweet, cream, honey, a very light light cinnamon and nutmeg.
Overall, a fun potpourri type of tea with lots of different colors, flavors, and scents going on because it seems to have lots of different styles white tea leaves all mixed together.

I brewed this one at a lower temp but next time I will try a few degrees hotter to see how this one changes.