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Wow. This is absolutely a wow tea. I was shocked at how buttery, creamy, and smooth this tea is from the first steep onward. Like, audible noises of delight while drinking it. I think my wife and children thought me a weirdo. (Lets face it. They’ve thought that long before this little stint)

There isn’t much more to say about this. It is buttery. Feels creamy on the tongue and throat. There are some floral aspects to it but not strong. Which is great because I’m not a huge floral oolong guy. I’m kind of in love with this tea and now I understand the price tag on it. And now I’m contemplating ordering much more than just a sample of this.

I’m going to be that guy. I bought this tea knowing it was smoked. But I also bought a bit more than I normally might because the top note was described as chocolate. I thought, “Hey! A chocolate-y, smokey tea? I’m in!”

I opened this tea up and it smelled delightfully smokey in that it was faint. Like you came across a camp that someone abandoned a few days earlier and there is still a faint whisp of wood smoke in the air. I brewed it up promptly.

The smell of the liquid also carried that faint campfire scent. So far, so good. But when I took a sip, expecting to be hit with a smoked chocolate flavor, I was a bit let down. The smoke was there, though not overpowering, but the chocolate note was not to be found. There is a bit of cinnamon on the back end. I’m on my third gongfu steep and while this tea is nice, I don’t feel it is quite as advertised.

2016 harvest. When I first read their description about this tea having notes reminiscent of steamed buns I was like, “Yeah, ok.” But actually, I can easily see that comparison now that I’m drinking it.

Very light bready flavor with some possible vanilla notes in there. This is not a “knock your socks off” type of tea. It is subtle and meant to be slowly savored.

I looked this tea up and apparently it translates to Beautiful Golden Eyebrows so that is pretty neat and I can see how that name came about. I mean, thin eyebrows, but I get it.

Overall this isn’t my favorite black tea but I;m glad to have tried this style and I think it makes for a good tea when you get to sit and savor the subtle flavors. I’m interested in tasting more teas in this style to see how they compare.

This tea was sent to me by SuperStarling! She must really want me to try it because she sent a sample to me in both of our swaps so far ;)

I’m glad you did though! Becaaauuuseee I really like it! Yay!

My boy is sick. Yesterday was his birthday and he had a 103F fever with vomiting. I’m sitting on the couch with him this morning. I wanted something warm and fuzzy and comforting. So I reached for Chewie. Save us, Chewie! You’re our only hope!

And saving me he is. Nutty and chocolate is like one of my favorite combinations on this earth so this is really hitting the spot. Plus, my wife (for some unknown and perplexing reason) has a strong distaste for hazelnut. I happen to love it. I try to get that flavor into my mouth whenever I can because it ain’t happening with a shared dish/drink. And this tastes like a toasted hazelnut chocolate tea. Yeeessssss…..

If I seem extra super jacked up it’s because I’m trying to find some sunshine wherever I can right now and this is one of those places/teas.

I wanted to like this more. I did two gong fu sessions over the weekend and wasn’t getting any thing but a weak bland flavor. Decided to do western style just now and heavily leafed it. It is a bit stronger but the malt note is falling short and it has a rather generic black tea flavor. It isn’t bad but isn’t anything special.

Finally using the other 5g of this sample. I forgot how light this tea is for a ripe. I spoke to that in my review almost a year ago but I am finding it is holding true still today. Slightly smokey, with little to no fermentation flavor. If you would have blind folded me I would have guessed this was some sort of light roasted black or maybe an aged oolong. Interesting.

Hey, listen. I’m only two teas into A Quarter to Tea so far but really… Impressive is the word I’m going to use. I was on the verge of dismissing almost all flavored teas but this company/person has revived my belief that there are good flavored teas to be had.

The dry leaf certainly smells pretty spot on with the name of the tea. There is a slight artificial edge underneath. Not enough to be off putting but it gave me pause. Not to worry. The flavor of the tea after it brewed really nails it.

I did gong fu style which I’m sure I wasn’t supposed to with this tea but yeah I do what I want haha. The scent that wafts up from the brewing liquor is pretty amazing. I served some to my mom and wife and they both took notice to how good it smelled from the cup. There is a certain cinnamon taste in the first two or three steeps. Not biting cinnamon but more like a creamy vanilla cinnamon.

What is even more impressive about this tea is that I am on steep 5 (6?) at about 1 minute and the leaves and the liquid both still hold that delicious vanilla cream cinnamon scent. The flavor is only slightly diminished but is still really, really tasty.

This is an exceptional flavored tea.

I finally made my A Quarter to Tea order after having had this tea (and Spumoni) on my watch list for a while.

When I opened up the bag I was greeted with a very strong cherry cordial scent. For me, this was awesome. I love cherry cordials. A lot. Like, I can’t buy them for myself because I will eat the entire sleeve of them in entirely too quick of a fashion. But yes, the scent of this is very strong. If you aren’t as enamored with cherries, this might be too strong for you.

I had to assume that the scent couldn’t transfer to the taste in the same degree of strength. And I was right… but not in a bad way. When brewed, the cherry chocolate flavors are there but mellowed out. A bit of the oolong flavor is allowed to shine through. Which, to be honest, I had almost forgotten about it being an oolong due to the smell being so prominent. But yes, the oolong flavor is there and right next to it is cherry and chocolate or cherry cordial, if you use your imagination.

The flavors all meld together pretty evenly actually. This is during the sip. Much to my pleasant surprise, the after taste is where the cherry chocolate flavors come back a bit stronger. I would find myself almost smacking my lips after and between sips because the left over flavor almost made it seem that I had, in fact, eaten a chocolate covered cherry. I let a cup of this go cold before I drank it and that was still a tasty treat.

Hot or cold, this is one of the few flavored blends that I have come across that even comes close to duplicating the flavor from the scent it gives off. Nicely done.

I’m really sad that this one tore my stomach up. Now, full disclosure if you are new to my reviews, I have an auto-immune stomach disease (UC) and IBS. So, this may not actually be a harsh one on the belly for most.

But, I am sad about it because I had a really good session with this. The flavor was really solid through 8-9 steeps. I first noticed how creamy and apricot/peachy it tasted. Then a few steeps in I noticed slight bitterness. Around steep 6 it got a little peppery. But smooth the whole way through. I would have bought more of that based on flavor alone.

However, I don’t think it was meant to be for me with Sheng. Too Russian roulette like for me.

You guys… something is up with me today.

Not only did I voluntarily pick one of my green teas from my scant green tea collection but… I’m actually REALLY liking it today.

My thought process started out as, “Well, it is going to be abnormally warm for a mid November day in Michigan. Let’s do something different than a black or puerh.” So, I started reaching for an oolong. Then, right next to my oolongs are my greens, so this one happened to catch my eye. “What the hell,” I thought. Lets give it a whirl.

So glad I did. This tea is very tasty this warm fall morning. I’m getting notes of peas, artichoke, and overall light spring vegetable flavors. Not normally my jam but right now it is working. Enough to pump up the rating quite a bit.