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Thanks to Fong Mong Tea for such a generous sample!

First steep (~5s): Very light, almost buttery. Liquor so pale it’s almost like water.

Second steep(~15s): Liquor’s a bit darker, a very pale gold. Light scent of toasted walnuts, maybe a bit of rice. Not like a genmaicha, but sort of as an afterthought. Almost a sort of potato-y sweetness.

Third steep (~25s): Still a very pale gold. Similar to the previous steep. Maybe the sweetness is sort of a lychee flavor?

Fourth steep: (~40s): Very pale, light flavor. Reminds me of a Dragonwell green – light, buttery, smooth. I’m thinking that I should have either used more leaf or started steeping longer. It’s good, but a bit tame.

I love later steeps of this. It’s so clean, it’s like drinking a sort of oolong-scented mineral water. Delicious.

This is the last tea from the ThinkGeek sampler… I hadn’t tried it because I haven’t found a plain Earl Grey I’ve liked in a long time. But A and I had a tea tasting yesterday for our tea party (decided on a Darjeeling, Cream of Earl Grey, Gunpowder and Rooibos), and we did a comparison of this against DAVIDs Cream of Earl Grey.

This wins! I’m hoping it’s the same as Adagio’s Earl Grey Bravo (or at least exceedingly similar), because I really want more of this. It’s balanced well, without too much bergamot but with just enough to give it that coolness. Added milk and sugar as per.

Dry leaf smell – cinnamon cookies. There is no other way to describe this. This is cinnamon cookies or cinnamon coffee cake straight up.

Steeped, it’s a beautiful red-gold. The cinnamon has abated a bit and the almond comes out. It smells a bit like a rooibos, to be honest. I added milk and a bit of sugar, which brought out the cookie flavor of the tea. It’s very creamy and very smooth, and definitely something for dessert!

First of all – thanks to Rachel for such generous samples!

Looks like Dragonwater has gone out of business, which is sad, since this is such a great tea. The label says it’s a blend of Assam / Sencha with peach flavoring. The scent of the dry leaf is beautifully peachy, and it comes out on steeping, with hints of the sencha behind it.

The liquor is a beautiful honey-colored gold, lighter than a typical Assam but darker than a Sencha… which makes sense.

The flavor is predominantly peach, but it highlights the tea instead of detracting from it.

I would write more, but I’m off to work… sigh.

Sipdown. I’m sad to see this one go, actually. It’s bright and fruity. Not really a night tea but it was easy to reach! The pineapple is right there at the front, but it’s not too overpowering – the mallow and apple do a lot to tone down the citrus flavors. Very good iced with a touch of sugar.

Drinking this because I wanted a tea to add milk/sugar to tonight. Just the right amount of nuttiness, a little bit toasty. Beautiful light brown until I added milk, and now it’s an opaque dun color. It’s great for blending, but a bit finicky – it’s very strong, so I have to add milk unless I steep it for <2 minutes.

I bought this tea in Joy’s Teaspoon Ocho Sampler months ago. I love the idea that you get to create your own sampler. It’s so personal.

Anyway.

I had about half of the sample left, since when I first tried it, I really didn’t care for it. But I was craving something dark tonight, and didn’t want to sit through a gong fu brewing, so I figured I’d try this again.

The leaves are very small and broken. They’re a deep, rich black, and the dry smell is something of cedar and pine, with fleeting hints of plum. When brewed, it really is a beautiful purple color. It’s a very pale lavender, not like anything I’ve seen in any other tea.

When steeped, it loses the wood notes in it, and if I hadn’t prepared it, I would swear this was an oolong. There are light notes of cedar, but those take a backseat to the vegetal scents and the sweetness, almost butteryness of the smell. Naomi is right – it smells very clean. There’s a little bit of bitterness in the aftertaste, but it’s not unpleasant.

All in all, I like this tea a lot more than I did when I first tried it. I’m not sure I could afford to purchase it, as it comes in at about $20/oz… but it sure is a good cup tonight!

This was probably the one I was least excited to get in the sampler pack from ThinkGeek. I’ve had Adagio’s Blood Orange before and wasn’t thrilled with it. This doesn’t appear to be the same thing though… there are definitely some green leaves in there, yet ThinkGeek describes it as an herbal tisane. Whatever the mystery is, it’s actually really good.

I brewed about half the tin (~0.5oz – just eyeballed it) as directed (212 for 5 min), then poured it over ice and added a splash of orange vanilla seltzer. Oh, it’s fantastic. I think I may actually order more Blood Orange from Adagio and keep it in my summer stash!

It’s tart from the orange and the sour apple, but the vanilla seltzer gives it a little bit of creaminess. Delicious!

I’ve been craving pu’erh all day, which is odd for me.

But I suppose it’s due to Bonnie and all you lovely people on my dash reviewing pu’erhs that’s made me crave it.

Considering that I haven’t really found it to be to my liking, I don’t have much. But I do have a little sample tin of this one from where I ordered a sampler pack. And you know what? I really like it this time.

It brews a beautiful dark red, caramelly color. And then the scent – very earthy and dark, like walking barefoot through a dark forest, the dirt and leaves under your feet, scent of pines in the air, a lake up ahead. It’s all age and rocks and time.

Oh, and butter and peppermint and sugar snap peas.

I’m a pu’erh convert! More reasons to buy tea… ahha.