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Dry aroma: Very similar to jasmine. Soft and fragrant
Dry appearance: Mix of dark and olive greens. Tightly ball rolled.
Inital steeping aroma: When you walk off the plane in Hawaii (in the smaller airports like LIH) you are greeted with a sweet scent. This scent. Paradise…
Flavor: Different from jasmine but some of the similar qualities of tropical fruit and plant notes. The pomelo holds earthier notes with a slight bitterness.

I’ve come to realize that I have holiday anxiety. It also doesn’t help that the last two years have been filled with drama between my sister and I but that is a whole other mess. Hope you all made it through and are able to calm with a bit of tea.

Note: Currently as of 2024 they have two different matchas. This one and the premium version.
Dry Aroma: Chocolatey.
Appearance: Unripe Bartlett Pear. A nice green. An average color for a ceremonial grade.
Liquor Aroma: This is going to sound really stupid but it smells like matcha. To me, this is very nice and relaxing. Earthy, slightly leafy.
Mouth Feel: Very smooth. Slight silt.
Flavor: Nothing needed. Creamy and vegetal. A bit earthy. Very nice.
I could really go for a side of wagashi… maybe a nice warabi mochi

Got this one in a TTB and decided to keep it because it is really nice when you’re feeling under the weather. The Greek Mountain tea flows nicely with the rest of the ingredients. I also just tried it as a nitro and it is very good.

The dry leaf has a rich chocolate color that matches the beauty of the Andes mountains. It is twisted. A mix of mainly leaves with a few twigs. A few fuzzies to be seen as well. The aroma is a hint of raisins and very slightly woody.
I believe the instructions are for mug-style brewing but I just couldn’t bring myself to do that. You can immediately tell that the terroir for this oolong is different. Not at all like its Taiwan and China counterparts. It has more Muscatel notes and while it does have a bit of minerality, it leans more toward bitter rocks. The barley notes are a mix of Canadian and Japanese types. The mouthfeel is very smooth. There is a fair amount of sediment. The wet leaf also has an interesting almost fishy note that reminds me of a young sheng pu er. This area should definitely experiment with dark tea. (They can’t legally call it up er because Pu er can only come from the Yunnan region in China)

Went to a lady’s high tea with my mom and daughter. The food served was decent. Pretty typical for American fare. The chicken salad looked amazing but I couldn’t eat it due to my almond allergy. They only served one tea. This one. Most of the table consisted of coffee drinkers. They seemed to enjoy it. It was good to try one but not one I would seek out. The liquor aroma reminds me of brandy. And the after taste is brandy mixed with different artificial stuffs. The flavor has a bit of cream that is nice along with some odd citrus notes. Just not my thing.

Well, shoot. I’m starting to feel a bit run down. Besides elderberry and a multivitamin, I’m also doing plenty of tea. Sunshine in a cup sure but also tastes like “kick whatever this is in the pants” in a cup as well. Plenty of lemongrass and a mix of happy.

If tea were music this would be a classical piece. It’s a bit too subtle for the pieces like L’Éloignement but I don’t know if I want to be cliche by saying the rose flavor matches with Vivalid’s Four Seasons Spring. Granted I really do love that piece. If you’ve ever been to Delos, Greece you will especially love this: https://archive.org/details/live-from-delos-vivaldis-the-uncertain-four-seasons

First brew: In a mug. 195F.
Liquor aroma: Creamy. Warm milk with a hint of some type of spice.
Flavor: Woody notes swirling with rose. Hint of cacao.
After taste: Sweetwood.
Mouth feel: Smooth. No astringency.

Gong fu: Currently on my second infusion. My first edit of this post got erased on my phone. _ I will tell you that I do like this tea better as gong fu but both are still very enjoyable. Great woody notes highlighted with rose.

After discovering jasmine tea (mostly teabag) I stumbled upon genmaicha. Not bagged. Through the many years, I’ve tried every category of tea, white, yellow, green, oolong, black (red), and dark, and different flavored, blended, and scented teas and tisanes. And while I have many that rank on my rebuy and keep in the cupboard list there is something about genamicha. Not all genmaicha is made the same either. Many are made from bancha which is harvested later in the season. Which isn’t a bad thing but I often find the bite from a it to be unpleasant. However, ones made with a higher grade sencha… ooo so good.

It also helps that I have been to the shop and I know personally just how special this place is. They grow their own tea and then process it on the adorably small machinery in their shop. They even have a small temomi table!

Dry Appearance: Brown rice with an equal amount of pale green stems and pine green tightly rolled leaves.
Dry Aroma: The first time I opened the bag it was like the kind of genmai had appeared.
Flavor: Rice and slight grass.
Wet Aroma: Slightly toasty brown rice, a bit of coffee,

Dry Leaf aroma: Tightly twisted leaf. Dark brown and dusty with light brown fuzzy twisted buds.
Wet Leaf Aroma: Lightly woody.
Still mostly twisted but a few open fully. Standard pluck of a bud and first two leaves.
Flavor: Dry woods. Desert woods. A bit of leather. Winter squash.

The first infusion was a mug with a bagel. I’m learning you need to drink a really strong tea with bagels. This tea could have used a strong first infusion and it would have been fine but I think I prefer it on its own.

Infusion: gong ful style. cue gannam style song
Either hiw the leaf smells I really believe this will be better gongfu. O_O and it is. First sip was fantastico! Light woody notes nicely balanced with raisin wheat bread in the background. As it steeps longer with each infusion there is a bit of smokiness to it as well.

I’m not enthused about trying this tea. I do not like mixing citrus with green tea. But for the sake of adding to my tasting repertoire… Here we go.
The moment you open the bag, you are hit with citrus notes. It is a bit medicinal but not entirely unpleasant. When the ginko leaves fall off trees, they are quite pungent—almost repulsive—but thankfully, they kept it light in this one. The infusing aroma is lovely. Like citrus on a passionate tropical breeze. There are no steeping instructions on this bag. At one minute the citrus flavor is strongest. As expected. I am curious as to what citrus. Clearly, they used a mix but which ones? Perhaps a smidge of yuzu mixed with a bit of bergamot and key lime rounded off nicely with a whisp of lemon. This would make a nice lemonade. But it is not something I would purchase on the regular.