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It’s been a while, Steepster! I am doing an Instagram tea challenge, #SeptemberSipdown, and it’s gotten me back into drinking teas :) huzzah! This tea fit the bill for a tea I bought but haven’t tried yet (my bad) – so I am doing a gongfu sesh with my Bitterleaf gaiwan on this fine Friday morning. Did about a 15s rinse with boiling water (upon reading reviews, will lower the water temp for subsequent steeps), then two consecutive steeps of about 12s each to fill my small mug. Fruity, a bit sharp, but also mellow. This is good stuff! Smooths out as I drink more of it. Lots of energy in the first few sips as well (hello Friday!!) but seems to be mellowing as I get more caffeine in my system haha. Won’t overdo it with my caffeine intake, but enjoying this one. I do get apricots.

Happy to be getting back into some tea this month – I really should be taking advantage of this working from home thing more to be having more gonfu tea sessions!

Well Steepster, it’s been a while again lol, I fell behind with logging my Advent teas, but today I have to log this tea since I’ve had it for ages and don’t think I’ve ever written a note!

I have been very minimal with my caffeine intake as it has been tough on my anxiety, but today I am craving a white tea and usually white isn’t too energizing for me, so it should go well. This tea I decided to do in my gaiwan, which reminds me I need to get a new one, as a while back somehow my lid broke so I am using a substitute Ltd that is too heavy and threatens to break the whole thing lol. Time to get teaware shopping!

Anyway, I used just under boiling water for a quick 10 s rinse, then did 50 s as recommended for the first steep. The smell is heavenly in the gaiwan, so much honey! In the cup it is a bit less pronounced, but a lovely linen note pops up, I love that crisp clean meditative scent in White teas! I should note – the ball is just starting to unfurl after 1 steep, so it should have some longevity for the afternoon of steeping!

As for the flavor, this is very delicate and floral, with a mildly sweet aftertaste. Very pleasant and perfect for a lazy Saturday. I look forward to a few steepings and sharing some with my husband this afternoon.

Thanks to Angel at Teavivre for the lovely sample!

Day 3 of the 24 days of Tea Herbal Edition from Westholme Tea Company:

Ah, a familiar one! I did order a bag of this about 4 years ago and went through it, enjoying it, but neglected to write a note on it! Well I will this time, this is a nice smooth cup of rooibos, I like the vanilla and lavender combo here, it is not overdone but helps tame the woodiness of the roobios quite nicely. I didn’t do any additives as this tea really doesn’t need them, but I could see honey going nicely in here. Very relaxing – this is a before bed go to. I enjoy this, and am happy to have it in my cupboard again.

Day 2 of the 24 days of Tea Herbal Edition from Westholme Tea Company:

This one I was leery of, since hibiscus and me are not good friends. It did end up being a bit too tart for my liking, even with honey. Next time I will tone down the steeping to 2 minutes – I did the recommended 5 minutes and while it was a gorgeous colour, it screamed hibiscus too much haha. I won’t judge it too harshly until I try the shorter steep time. No rating for now.

I ordered the 24 days of tea Herbal calendar from Westholme Tea Company this year for my advent calendar! I will try to keep up with logging them every couple of days or so :)

This was Day 1 – very spicy, very energizing for no caffeine due to it being spicy, and lovely and warming. I like chais, and this is a good caffeine free option. Would like to try it stovetop next! I did add a bit of honey to it :)

Hello tea people! It has been a while since I have logged a note…and so much has happened in that time frame haha. So what is new with me, let’s see..I got married and went to Iceland this past August, did my first 10K running race back in June and promptly stopped running so I want to get back into it here soon lol, am still enjoying my new job a lot, and yeah..finally have been getting back into tea slowly! I went on a crazy coffee kick in Iceland (coffee there is pretty good though, I must admit), but that somehow kind of nuked my caffeine intolerance, so now I am kind of okay with caffeinated tea again! :D

So as I attempt to rejoin the community, or at least update a bit more frequently, I will log a SIPDOWN today of this tea. I finished it off at work, yes a caffeine free one, but it was quite good and herbally rose as usual. I need to get my palate more fine-tuned here, it is finely attuned for beer tasting now but lacking in the tea department lately I feel like haha. Anyways, this was a warming cup at work, and I hope to log more cups on here more often :) and post more tea things on Instagram as well!

Ok so I finally organized my tea stash for this year and made a spreadsheet with quantities, so far they are mostly matching up with my updated cupboard on Steepster! My goal this year is to drink through all the lovely free samples I have received over the years from Teavivre <3 I have so many and have yet to complete reviews on a bunch as well! That is the goal, so hopefully I can get that accomplished, because I doubt my sheng / shou stash will decrease at all, and luckily those age well.

Anyways, while I was organizing my cupboard I made a cup of this tea, since I forgot I had it haha. It is okay, not aging the best, all the more reason to get at my cupboard. But a decent low caffeine cup this morning. See previous notes.

Hello tea people!! It’s been..half a year since my last note? :P I have been slacking at drinking tea and even worse at logging notes..well maybe I can get back into things! And this is a sipdown so hooray for progress!

This tea is great as usual, eventually I will probably get some more of it, as it’s a sweet delicious morning cup.

And now a life update, if anyone cares – so since June, I’ve started a new job, which was one of the BEST decisions I’ve made so far in my career haha. I am also super close to getting my professional designation in my career, which is epic. Wedding planning is going well so far, busy but fun, getting ahead of the game as our date is next August. What else..went to Hawaii with the fiance in October, that was a good time, got our engagement photos done before that..and yeah, that’s mostly what I’ve been up to haha. Now getting ready for Christmas, and trying to also get back into tea so I stop drinking decaf coconut milk Flat Whites from Starbucks, perish the thought, but I probably drink more coffee than tea now :( but trying to change that in an attempt to start slimming down for the wedding and to save some money haha, since I still have my Gigantic tea stash. Anyways, that’s the life update from me – hope everyone is doing well on here. Hopefully I make a habit of actually writing notes again!

Hooray for new tea! I finally got a chance to try this one from my order last week, I’ve had a terribly rough 5 days with taking my poor cat to the vet for bladder stones and a UTI..lots of stress and worry, and he’s still not 100% so the worrying will continue this week :( however he does appear to be on the mend, so I will focus on that, and on drinking good, relaxing teas to help us get through this rough time.

Anyways, onto this tea! Wow, I’m the first note on this one, and of course I babble about my cat in it lol..oh well. So when I saw this tea on Verdant’s site, as I was placing my order for my restock of Yunnan White Jasmine (a favorite of mine and the fiance’s), I saw this tea and was like WOAH. MUST TRY. Two of my favorite things, Verdant’s delicious jasmine, and Golden Fleece, which I haven’t had in ages, but the last time I had it, it was amazing! So I was pretty excited for this tea.

I used the recommended Western steeping parameters of just under boiling water (around 205 degrees?), and a short 25s steeping. This tea smells delicious when brewed, and is a nice golden color.

As for the flavor, I like how this is very similar to the Yunnan White, but with a twist! The forefront of the flavor is very jasmine, and it’s Verdant’s signature delicious jasmine that I love. At first it’s like oh okay, this is Yunnan White..but then in the aftertaste…the Golden Fleece emerges, with a delicious honeyed note and a mild maltiness. Mostly the pronounced honey is what hits, with some waffle! It lingers quite some time as well! The second steeping is quite similar, maybe I can get through one more tonight to see if the Golden Fleece comes out more, but I have to watch my caffeine intake. Oh, a note though, this tea has a calming effect for me, which is surprising for a black tea, and with all the stress I’ve been going through as of late! Must be the jasmine in there :)

Overall, I am very pleased that I have a bag of this to keep drinking! It is just different enough from Yunnan White Jasmine that I enjoy it, and similar enough that it’s comforting and delicious. A winner for me, and as close to a blend from Verdant as I can get (man, I miss their blends, Laoshan Village Chai, Ginger Sage Winter Spa Blend… :( bring those back!). Happy that I picked some of this up.

Yay for new tea!! A huge thank you to Angel at Teavivre for this sample! I don’t think I have ever tried a yellow tea so this is exciting! Hopefully I’m not up all night from having caffeine so late haha.

The smell of this tea is delicious! Very similar to a dragonwell green I’ve had, bit with a toasty and slightly sweet almond note. Smells so Good! I steeped probably 1/3 of the packet in 185 degree water for my mug for 2 mins. I also made the fiance a mug right afterwards with another 2 min steeping. The steeped liquor is a very pale yellow, and smells very deliciously like dragonwell again but with a strong buttery note.

As for the flavor, wow this is good!! Very much like sweet, crisp corn on the cob, with corn silk and a buttery, slightly toasty note. It’s like a green tea in the first taste, then it morphs into the nutty corn flavor. So much butter! And a sweet note of crisp sugared corn creeps in at the back of my throat after a while. So satisfying!

Overall, I am very impressed with this tea, my first yellow tea. Buttery, silky corn, it truly reminds me of harvest days in the autumn, the sun shining down on corn silk, cobs bursting and ready to be harvested. So yummy and warming on this chilly spring evening. Once again thank you Teavivre for the opportunity to try such a unique tea!