1216 Tasting Notes

78

The Great Un-Steepstering of 2020 Review #5 (08/07/20)

My What-cha teas are all really old now (it was a 2017 order) so I’m trying to move those to the forefront. I know green teas are not prime for aging but I really like greens, whites, and oolongs as cold brews, so I opted to cold brew this one. 5g in 32oz of water, steeped overnight and strained to make ice tea.

This is a delightful cold brew. I’m getting a very nutty flavor from the tea, with notes of roasted nuts, particularly chestnut and walnut. There is a brisk and refreshing vegetal background, that is sweet and subtly spinachy. The flavor reminds me a bit of genmaicha… a sweet grass paired with toasty rice, even though this has no genmai in it.

Very tasty and a refreshing cold brew tea! I was going to use the rest of the sampler as a warm cup, but now I think I’ll just make another cold brew batch with it.

Flavors: Chestnut, Grass, Nutty, Roasted Nuts, Spinach, Sweet, Toasted Rice, Vegetal, Walnut

Preparation
Iced 8 min or more 5 g 32 OZ / 946 ML

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62

Last teabox black, from the Discovery Teabox, so thank you to Skysamurai for organizing and all who participated and shared teas in the teabox! (All I have left now are some very old teabox pu’erhs from the very last Here’s Hoping Teabox… and since pu’s aren’t my favorite, I’ve continued to sort of… uh… “let them age”? Hahaha.) Another floral tea, so of course I wanted to try it! Scooped a teaspoon (CBA to weigh this morning), 3 minute steep, 350ml of 205F water for my work thermos. Brewed to accompany my two pieces of toast with marmalade and then take to work with me.

This is a strongly lavender black tea. The florality isn’t perfumy but has a bit of a herbaceous bite, and that is with a short 3 minute steep (I bet any longer and it would’ve gone very bitter, as lavender in high quantities tends to do that easily). This is probably stronger in lavender than any Lavender Earl Grey I’ve ever had… but then, maybe the bergamot is cutting through the lavender some in those cases. I like lavender, but omph, it is very heady here, and if I knew it would be this strong, I would’ve prepared this as a latte (I love me some lavender milk). As a bonified, 100% loves-all-things-lavender fan, and even I feel this tastes like a little too much, I think the blend could’ve either done with a) a little less lavender in the ratio or b) a stronger black base to compensate. I’m really not able to pick out any particular notes from the base black tea against the lavender. That said… the base tea is supposed to be apricot-flavored?! I think that was what interested me the most about this blend, as apricot plus lavender sounded like an absolute win of a flavor combo. But I do not taste any apricot at all! That’s a bit disappointing too. Who knows, maybe it is in there, but with the lavender being so strong, there is just no way to taste it…

I added a teaspoon of honey and a dash of lemon juice to the cup to add a bit of a mellowing effect against the strength of the lavender, and that was actually quite pleasant (I somehow always forget additives are there to save an otherwise meh cup!) I will probably continue that going forward with future cups, or go with the latte idea, since the milky/vanilla flavor will help compliment/cut through the lavender flower as well.

Not one of Simpson & Vail’s florals that I would purchase (it’s no Violet Black!) as without the novelty of the apricot with the lavender, I can easily add lavender buds to any black tea myself, and then control the propotions more to my taste. Definitely glad I got the chance to sample this first, since it’s the sort of thing I probably would’ve bought for myself and then been a bit disappointed that it wasn’t what I really wanted. Thanks so much for the sample, tea_sipper!

Flavors: Floral, Herbaceous, Lavender

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 3 min, 0 sec 1 tsp 350 OZ / 10350 ML
tea-sipper

Yeah, nevermind the puerh. :D

Mastress Alita

I’m not ignoring the pu’erh, I’m aging it! :-D

Kawaii433

Mastress Alita Me too! That’s why I haven’t been drinking or posting about any pu’erh tea. The last one I tried recently was White2Tea’s If your reading this it’s too late. I think it still needs to rest a bit.

Mastress Alita

It was kinda a joke, Kawaii, hahaha. Every pu I’ve tried thus far tastes like dirt or swamp water to me, and I haven’t liked it, so I’m kinda “putting off” drinking them. I’m just “rebranding” the “putting it off” as “aging them” :-P

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80
drank Yunnan Jig by Adagio Teas
1216 tasting notes

The Great Un-Steepstering of 2020 Review #3 (08/05/20)

Some days are multi-cup, black-as-black tea days… my sleep has been “where the hell is it?” lately, and today is one of those days for me. Pulled out this bag which came from Meowster’s cupboard de-stash a few summers ago… thank you, Meowster!

I was a big fan of Keemun Concerto (I do like me Chinese blacks) and have to say, I’m really enjoying this one as well. It tastes a bit like barbecue, but in the best way… there is a hint of smokiness, but not too much, and a sort of tangerine citrus note that reminds me of an Asian sauce, a bit of aged leather that brings out the librarian in me, with the backing of a deep, malty/bread black tea flavor. And it’s really, really smooth. Nice first thing in the morning, but also as my mid-day kick-in-the-pants cuppa, too.

Flavors: Bread, Citrus, Leather, Malt, Orange, Smoke

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 3 min, 0 sec 1 tsp 12 OZ / 350 ML
gmathis

Ditto to your first paragraph! Making a note … I can’t remember if I have tried this one.

Mastress Alita

Last night was another blergh night, but in the time since I wrote that review (the 5th! It’s the 21st! Where is the time going?) I’m already down to about 2-3 servings of the 50g package left! This has pretty much been my morning daily drinker this month, hahaha! No complaints, though.

ashmanra

I love Chinese black tea. I may have to check this one out.

tea-sipper

This tea was the one I was most pleased to see Meowster destashing.

Mastress Alita

It’s a good’un.

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67
drank Lavender Crème by Teavana
1216 tasting notes

Great Steepster Freeze of 2020 Review #2 (08/04/20)

So technically it appears the site is back up, but since I know everyone will be madly posting all their tea reviews at once, I’m going to continue to hold off for a few more days (which really isn’t that big of a problem… I write all my tea reviews externally, saved on a document for safe-keeping and backup, and then copy and paste to Steepster which I can do at any time, really). This is the last herbal from my teabox stash, which came from the Discovery Teabox, so thanks to Skysamurai for organizing and all who contributed! Confession: I had never once had a Teavana tea prior to their closing, despite their major “presence” (after all, I live in an area that doesn’t have any “retail” tea shops, chain or independantly owned). When I saw this in the box, I was curious… and the fact it had “Lavender” in the name (as I love floral teas, and lavender is a particular weakness of mine) pretty much sold me.

Brewed up a cup as my evening herbal. The aroma has a bit of a lavender smell, but mostly it smells sweet and caramelly. And… that is pretty much what I’m getting from the flavor, too. There were a lot of things in the infuser (like several whole cardamom pods!) but really all I’m getting in the flavor is a strong rooibos presence, with some notes of wood, honey, caramel, and vanilla, a very sweel caramel flavor, and a more subtle note of the lavender flower that mostly settles a bit on my tongue late in the sip. I’m not getting any of the more interesting ingredients listed (like fig!) or even the cardamom spice, despite the fact I could see it very clearly steeping in the infuser. It’s fine, but mostly just a caramel rooibos (of which I’ve had before) with some lavender flowers added, and the lavender presence still feels a bit weak at that. But it’s probably ridiculously old, so I feel I’m not in a position to judge it too harshly, and I am happy I got the chance to try it (if nothing else, I can now say I have “had Teavana’s tea”).

Thanks to whoever offered up this sample! I’ll certainly enjoy the little bit I have left in evening cuppas.

Flavors: Caramel, Floral, Honey, Lavender, Sweet, Vanilla, Wood

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 5 min, 0 sec 1 tsp 12 OZ / 350 ML

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84

Great Steepster Freeze of 2020 Review #1 (08/02/20)

Only two black teas left from my teabox stash, so I’m working through my sipdowns steadily! This came from the Discovery Teabox, so thanks to Skysamurai for organizing and all who contributed! I love floral teas, but have never had violet before, so I was definitely curious about trying this one!

I made my 5g sampler as a small 500ml pot of tea, western style, 205F for a 3 minute steep for breakfast. The aroma of the dry leaf is very interesting, a strong and sweet floral aroma, which comes out just as strongly in the steeped tea. It smells sort of like a candied or soda sweetness (though none I’ve ever had). It’s… really good! Easily on par for me with rose and lavender flavors… it’s a really fragrant and sweet floral flavor, and the black tea base is very smooth, with a subtle honeyed note that accompanies the florality nicely. I think this is a tea I could gladly keep stocked, and while I know florals are hit and miss for a lot of people I do wonder why I see violet as a flavor option so little now.

Thanks for the sample, tea-sipper!

Flavors: Floral, Honey, Smooth, Sweet, Violet

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 3 min, 0 sec 1 tsp 12 OZ / 350 ML

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76

Still working through my long overdue backlong of teabox teas, so this is another sample from the Discovery Teabox (thanks to Skysamurai for organizing and all who contributed!) I am a fan of Vietnamese blacks and was excited to be able to sample this one!

2.5g sample brewed Western in 350ml 205F water for what should have been 3 minutes, but I got interrupted so it was probably closer to 5 (longer than I typically brew black teas, so hopefully this didn’t turn out too tannic for me!) It has a lovely malty, honey-sweet aroma, with a bit of a marmalade jam note and almost a barbecue-esque aroma. The flavor has a bit of malt, with some notes of leather, smoke, orange peel, and pepper, with a medium astringency and a subtle minerality left after the sip.

I wish I hadn’t steeped it quite so long since this is a rather hardy black, but it is still a pleasant flavor. A good breakfast tea! Thanks for the sample, tea_sipper!

Flavors: Astringent, Leather, Malt, Mineral, Orange Zest, Pepper, Smoke

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 5 min, 0 sec 2 g 12 OZ / 350 ML
tea-sipper

Yeah, my original sample of this is just not the same. I had it the other day. All of the uniqueness to the flavor is now missing, sadly.

Mastress Alita

Hmm, I have another Vietnamese tea that is really old now… I hope it isn’t in really bad shape from the age.

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76

This tea is sooooooo old now, it’s been discontinued from TeaSource’s website for some time. When it was pulled from their site, I knew that my local cafe that sources some selection of TeaSource still had a tin of it, and I’d often order a cup of it from them on my lunch breaks from work… then a coworker gifted me an ounce she bought from that cafe with a cute coffee cup for my birthday one year. I kinda forgot about it until I was scanning my spreadsheet for my oldest teas and saw this and thought, “Ugh, I should drink that.”

Western brew, 3.5g steeped in 350ml of 205F water for 3 minutes. The leaf looks like gunpowder green tea, small and pellet-like, and even smells a bit vegetal/metallic/smoky in the bag, but brewed up? It tastes very much like a Four Seasons green oolong to me… smooth and very floral, like lilac and honeysuckle but not overwhelmingly perfumy, with a bit of a pear-like note, and a touch of cinnamon spice and sweet honey. There is a subtle, earthy roasted nuts note and a bit of a mineral aftertaste. It’s a very pleasant green oolong that looks quite deceptive from the exterior. I may try a batch cold-brewed, as well.

Flavors: Cinnamon, Floral, Honey, Honeysuckle, Mineral, Pear, Roasted Nuts, Smooth

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 3 min, 0 sec 3 g 12 OZ / 350 ML

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79

This was another sampler from the Discovery Teabox, so thank you to Skysamurai for organizing and to everyone that contributed! I took a 5g sample and used half of it for my travel thermos to take to an early morning staff meeting at work yesterday, and am finishing it up this morning.

The base of this tea has a really lovely flavor that makes is apparent that the black tea leaf blend is using at least some Chinese black… there are those notes of burnt toast, smoke, molasses, and a hint of leather and fruit (cherry? mandarin? a bit hard to peg under the flavoring…) Mostly, the natural slightly burnt/smoky flavors come through, and the salted caramel flavoring in this tea is actually really good. Usually even teas that call themselves “salted caramel” just taste like “caramel” to me and don’t have that distinction to me, but this one does, and I quite like it! With the natural smoky notes and rich molasses from the base, I get a bit of a burnt sugar/melted caramel vibe from it. I don’t, however, get any of the proposed “pumpkin flavor” from this tea at all. I realize pumpkin is a difficult flavor to pull off (especially when you are separating it from all the spice) but with such strong flavor notes in here, I’d be curious what the blend would be like if that was turned up a bit. I like pumpkin. Even savory pumpkin. And it isn’t used enough, it’s always the spice blend that gets all the cred.

So some points off for no pumpkin, but I am still a big fan of this Chinese black-heavy base and nailing a salted caramel flavor. Thanks for the sample, tea_sipper!

Flavors: Burnt, Burnt Sugar, Caramel, Fruity, Leather, Malt, Molasses, Salty, Smoke, Smooth, Toast

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 3 min, 0 sec 2 g 12 OZ / 350 ML
tea-sipper

I really should review this already. I’m glad this found a fan!

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85

My last teabox oolong (this one came from the Discovery Teabox, so thanks to Skysamurai for coordinating and all who contributed!), and also my last milk oolong from my cupboard (booooooo!) until I restock one.

My sample was just the right size for about the leaf-to-water ratio I use when I cold brew a litre of oolong, and I have never tried milk oolong that way (though I have done other green oolongs cold brewed, and typically love them that style!) so I figured I’d go for it. 7.5g of leaf (I usually use 8g but eh, close enough!) in about 946ml of water in a mason jar, left to brew in the fridge overnight, and then strained the next morning. I’ve been sipping it out of a cold thermos throughout the hot (too hot!) day.

Refreshing, still with buttered vegetable notes. I’m getting a bit of a fresh cucumber/zuccini note, which is the first time I’ve tasted that in a Jin Xuan… not sure if it happens to be this particular variety and harvest or the cold brew preparation, but it is very pleasant. The florality feels a little more muted to me prepared this way… It’s coming out a bit as a floral sweetness at the back of the throat toward the end of the sip, but not as a strong flavor. It tastes a bit more green or herbaceous… like a very sweet grass rather than blossomy/perfumy. The butter note is still quite present, and on some sips it really lingers on the tongue.

I’ll certainly miss having a milk oolong around, but know it’ll never be too long before another will make its way back into my cupboards… I love the stuff! Thanks for allowing me to sample this one!

Flavors: Butter, Cucumber, Floral, Grass, Sweet, Vegetal, Zucchini

Preparation
Iced 8 min or more 7 g 32 OZ / 946 ML
White Antlers

Mandala’s is my favorite milk oolong for cold brew. Good for multiple resteeps.

Mastress Alita

Mandala’s is one I definitely want to sample at some point!

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77

There are some things about being a tea drinker that I have learned over the years make me “unqualified” to be a “proper” tea drinker:

1) I don’t like doing gong fu sessions. They take up too much of my time, which I don’t have, and make me feel too “water heavy” on tea. Like, I just don’t need to drink that much tea at once. Even if that is the “right way” to drink a tea, I’d rather make it western because one cup that I can brew all at once works better for me…
2) I hate resteeping me leaves. Call me sacriledge, but I swear they never taste as good on resteeps.
3) No matter how many times I’ve tried, I just can’t seem to warm up to pu’erh. It always tastes like dirt or swamp water to me. And I’ve tried a lot…
4) I seem to like every single ingredient that is universally hated. And that includes hibiscus and licorice root (while I loathe all the “reknowned” banana teas…)

So, this falls solidly into #1 this morning. Another Discovery Teabox tea (thanks to Skysamurai for coordinating and all who contributed!), I took a 2g sample which I know I should brew gong fu, but damn it all, I just want a simple cup of tea for breakfast and brewed it in 8oz of 205F water for a 3 minute steep.

The aroma smells very nutty! I’m getting plantain, roasted nuts, and minerals in the aroma wafting off the cup. Maybe also a little wood and spice. The flavor is reminding me a lot of the Adagio “Fujian Rain” that I’ve been sipping down recently. I’m getting a roasted flavor with a somewhat malty flavor that is a little honey sweet with a touch of cinnamon spice, with a strong roasted nuts, quite walnutty, that fills out the sip. There is a minerality that settles on the tongue toward the end of the sip, and there is a subtle plantain note in the aftertaste.

Satisfying, even if I drank it the “wrong” way!

Flavors: Cinnamon, Honey, Malt, Mineral, Roasted Nuts, Toasty, Walnut, Wet Rocks, Wood

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 3 min, 0 sec 2 g 8 OZ / 236 ML
Roswell Strange

1. There is no “right” way to drink your tea outside of the way that you enjoy it; don’t let people shame you for not brewing Gongfu or any other method: they’re being snobs, and are not worth your time/concern.

2. If you don’t like to resteep you don’t like the resteep – nothing wrong with that. Outside of Gongfu, I don’t resteep either – I want to fill my day with as many teas as possible. In a broader sense, there are advantages to either side of the argument – but those advantage may not apply to you and if so, then fuck ’em! Do what you want.

3. You can’t force yourself to like something – that’s not how taste works. If you’re experimented/tried different things out and you’re still not feeling pu’erh don’t force yourself to keep trying it and don’t feel bad for not liking it. Honestly, you’re saving yourself a lot of money by not getting hooked on it, anyway XD

4. See same point about tastes be individual and outside of your control! Also, they can’t be universally hated because then they wouldn’t be used to frequently in tea. Maybe your tastes don’t largely overlap with a bunch of the people here who very vocally hate licorice or who love banana teas – but your people are out there!

White Antlers

I laughed with delight at your ‘dislikes.’ I have been drinking tea for many decades. Still don’t much care for pu erh after years of trying, prefer not to gong fu, using a gaiwan or having repeated resteeps. I much prefer to make a pot of hot tea or a pitcher of cold and enjoy in a relaxed way. I also don’t have any interest in taking leaves I’ve used for a pot of hot tea and resteeping them as a cold brew. Maybe I am a wasteful tea barbarian, but I don’t care. It’s my house, my tea.

Veronica

Ha! You and I share quite a few ‘likes’ and ‘dislikes’ when it comes to tea. I brew everything western style, I’m not a pu’erh fan (but I’ll still try them once in a while), and I rarely resteep my leaves. Like Ros said, if you enjoy it then you’re doing it right. :)

Leafhopper

I agree with what everyone else is saying. There’s no “wrong” way to drink tea; just do what makes you happy. I’ve tried valiantly to like green tea, but it still isn’t something I gravitate toward. The same applies to puerh, though I haven’t had many of them. If, like most of us, tea is a hobby and not a job, there’s no reason to drink anything you don’t like or to brew it in a certain way.

White Antlers

Ah, Leafhopper. Yes-green tea. Another one that I’ve never been able to embrace, hot or iced. I find it too grassy, vegetal and fussy but I don’t have to drink it, so more for other folks to enjoy.

Mastress Alita

Perhaps I’ve been inundated with too many pretty little gong fu setup pictures lately and feel, as White Antlers put it, like a “wasteful tea barbarian” for drinking my coffee mugs of western brewed hot leaf juice every morning where I promptly dump the leaf afterward. :P Thanks for the smile, y’all.

Leafhopper

Yes, White Antlers, grassy, vegetal, and fussy is also how I’d describe green tea. It doesn’t help that I don’t have a variable temperature kettle, so I have to check the water for each infusion with a thermometer.

Mastress Alita, my usual gongfu setup isn’t pretty and is very utilitarian. I have an inexpensive 120 ml porcelain teapot and some 150 ml cups, and I steep two infusions at a time. The second cup of tea is sometimes cold, but at least I don’t have to heat up the kettle ten or more times during a session. I think for some people the teaware is part of the experience, and it’s fun to use clay teaware on occasion, but for daily use it’s a hassle. That’s all to say that a lot of people don’t have elaborate setups or photo-worthy tea sessions. :)

White Antlers

Since we’re airing our ‘tea laundry,’ and confession is good for the soul, when I first started out trying to drink pu erh, I had no clue what to do with it so I’d break off a small chunk, put it in a pyrex measuring cup, fill that with water then chuck it in the microwave for 2 minutes or so. I’d strain that into a big, heavy, 12 ounce coffe mug and pour in some cream or half and half. In retrospect, I liked it much better that way than gong fu. On the rare times I have pu erh now, I brew it Western style and no tea police have broken down my door yet.

gmathis

Thanks for the note that made me laugh. We barbarians need to stick together.

Martin Bednář

As I used to say: “As long you like it, you are doing it well!”
I prefer to do gong-fu while doing pu-erh, but I did some grandpa brewing too, as well western. No big issue! I don’t mind you guys prepare it somehow else. Tea should make you happy, not too tense about “correct” preparations!

tea-sipper

Yes, you are a “proper tea drinker”, Mastress Alita! Nevermind the snobs. :D

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Profile

Bio

Hi! I’m Sara, a middle-aged librarian living in southern Idaho, USA. I’m a big ol’ sci-fi/fantasy/anime geek that loves fandom conventions, coloring books, simulation computer games, Japanese culture, and cats. Proud genderqueer asexual (she/they) and supporter of the LGBTQ+ community. I’m also a chronic migraineur. As a surprise to no one, I’m a helpless tea addict with a tea collecting and hoarding problem! (It still baffles me how much tea I can cram into my little condo!) I enjoy trying all sorts of teas… for me tea is a neverending journey!

Favorite Flavors:

I love sampling a wide variety of teas! For me the variety is what makes the hobby of tea sampling so fun! While I enjoy trying all different types of teas (pure teas, blends, tisanes), these are some flavors/ingredients I enjoy:
-Dessert/chocolate/vanilla/caramel/cream/toffee/maple
-Sweet/licorice root/stevia
-Vegetal/grassy
-Floral/lavender/rose
-Spices/chais
-Fruity
-Tropical/pineapple/coconut
-Bergamot (in moderation)
-Roasted/nutty
-Tart/tangy/hibiscus/rosehip

Disliked Flavors:

There are not many flavors or ingredients that I don’t like. These include:
-Bananas/banana flavoring
-Hemp/CBD teas
-Smoke-scented teas/heavy smoke flavors (migraine trigger)
-Perfumey teas/extremely heavy floral aromas (migraine trigger)
-Gingko biloba (migraine trigger)
-Chamomile (used in blends as a background note/paired with stronger flavors is okay)
-Extremely spicy/heated teas
-Medicinal flavors/Ginseng
-Metallic flavors
-Overly strong artificial flavorings

With the exception of bananas and migraine triggers, I’ll pretty much try any tea at least once!

Steeping Parameters:

I drink tea in a variety of ways! For hot brews, I mostly drink my teas brewed in the western style without additions, and for iced tea, I drink teas mostly brewed in the cold brew style without additions. Occassionally I’ll change that up. I use the https://octea.ndim.space/#/ app for water-to-tea ratios and use steep times to my preferences.

My Rating Scale:

90-100 – Top tier tea! These teas are among my personal favorites, and typically I like to keep them stocked in my cupboards at all times, if possible!

70-89 – These are teas that I personally found very enjoyable, but I may or may not feel inclined to keep them in stock.

50-69 – Teas that fall in this range I enjoyed, but found either average, lacking in some way, or I’ve had a similar tea that “did it better.”

21-49 – Teas in this range I didn’t enjoy, for one reason or another. I may or may not finish them off, depending on their ranking, and feel no inclination to restock them.

20-1 – Blech! My Tea Hall of Shame. These are the teas that most likely saw the bottom of my garbage can, because I’d feel guilty to pass them onto someone else.

Note that I only journal a tea once, not every time I drink a cup of it. If my opinion of a tea drastically changes since my original review, I will journal the tea again with an updated opinion and change my rating. Occassionally I revisit a tea I’ve reviewed before after a year or more has passed.

Inventory:

My Cupboard on Steepster reflects teas that I have sampled and logged for review, and is not used as an inventory for teas I currently own at the present moment. An accurate and up-to-date listing of my current tea inventory can be viewed here: https://tinyurl.com/xjt9ptx3 . I am open to tea trades (within the United States only!) at this time. Note that I will not trade teas that I currently have in a quantity less than 50g (samplers, 1oz packages, etc.) or any teas that are currently still sealed/unopened in my cupboard.

Contact Info:

Feel free to send me a Steepster PM, or alternatively, check the website URL section below; it goes to a contact form that will reach my personal e-mail.

Location

Idaho, United States

Website

https://teatimetuesdayreviews...

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