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Another cold steep of an old blend. Tastes like a slightly earthy Chinese black + vanilla, which does still bring out some chocolatey notes. The mint has completely disappeared, at least steeped this way. It’s fine but I think I’d like it better hot.

Cold brew sipdown of this ancient sample! Very pleasant and refreshing as a cold brew, with the mint and lime predominant – I think the watermelon flavour has faded a bit with time.

Got this in last month’s Tearunners box. You can really smell the orange and vanilla in the dry leaf, but it kind of disappears in the brewed tea? Or at least it’s very subtle, with a nice sweetness from the vanilla and just a hint of the orange. The combination of black and puer in the base is actually really nice – in the first steep the black is predominant and the puer just rounds out and deepens it a little. On the second steep the earthy notes from the puer are a bit more prominent. A nice, comforting start to the day.

Not sure if Tearunners accidentally sent a bag of the herbal kathmandu cosmos mislabelled as the black tea blend, or if there is just so little actual black tea in this blend. I remember when I tried it hot, it was extremely lemongrass-forward. I cold steeped a teaspoon overnight and it was very light in colour and the leaf looked entirely herbal, so I added a teaspoon of random darjeeling and let it go for another night. This is actually quite mild and pleasant: lightly spiced, citrusy, and refreshing. You definitely lose a lot of the aromatics drinking it cold, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

Got this in January’s TeaRunners box, and at that time I tasted it hot, and it was good but unremarkable, you know? Typical African black tea, full bodied and brisk, big assamica vibes. But then yesterday I drank it after a long (nearly 24h I think?) cold steep and I was blown away by the fruity notes that emerged! Like purple grape juice, blueberry compote, blackberries… I’m not sure why I was so convinced that the colour of the flavour was dark purple, but the impression persisted for the entire mug. So I set up another cold steep last night, same parameters (5g in 500ml DavidsTea Nordic Mug) and I was so impatient I had a little taste this morning and… no fruit notes. Hmm. So I’m going to keep steeping and cross my fingers that it wasn’t a fluke and just needs more time. :)

I haven’t been able to figure out where Tearunners sourced this from, which is a bit annoying, because if I can make that fruit thing happen again I’m definitely gonna want more. Most places selling a black tea from Luponde Tea Estate online have it in CTC form (BP1 grade), which I think they’re sourcing from Metropolitan Tea Co, which… excellent, multiple domestic vendors to choose from. But the tea I actually got was definitely orthodox, not CTC… probably FOP or BOP from what I remember of the dry leaf. My best guess is that Tearunners sourced it from Simpson & Vail at some point in the past (actually, yeah, I just went back to look at https://steepster.com/teas/simpson-and-vail/90857-tanzania-luponde-black-organic-tea-fop and the description of the tea is the same) but it no longer even exists on the S&V website (for comparison, their Kenyan black FOP still has a page on the website where it’s marked as being out of stock). What does that mean?? Yes, I know I’m overthinking this. Anyway, if anyone on steepster has the CTC black from Luponde please go cold steep it and report back on your results, lol.

Cha Cha Tea is a little tea shop in Kingston, Ontario, run by a lovely Japanese lady (Kaoru Sato Miller). Most of what she sells is from Metropolitan Tea Co, but she does have a small collection of fresh Japanese green teas that she orders in directly from a Japanese tea garden. So this is one of those.

The dry leaf is gorgeous. The tea leaves are small, thin, a bit broken, and dark green. There is a generous amount of brown roasted rice. The scent of the dry leaf is sweet and fresh. After the hot water hits it, that’s when you get all the toasty aroma (I turned away to do something else while it was steeping, and suddenly noticed the toasty scent several steps away from where my mug was sitting on the counter).

Now. The brewing method listed on the package is as follows:
“Use 1 1/2 – 2 tsp/6oz cup. Pour boiling water. Steep for 1 min. Can be reinfused 2-3 times consecutively.”
I like to brew my tea in a 300ml mug with a brewing basket. I measured two “tea spoons” (the kind that actually hold 1.5 tsp) into the basket and that came out to 12g, which seemed like plenty, so that’s what I went with. Brewing green tea with boiling water is a bit taboo, but it totally works for this tea. I’ve done two steepings so far, first for 1min, second for 2min. The leaf expanded to half-fill my brewing basket after the first steeping and about 3/4 full after the second, so I don’t think I’ll try leafing any more heavily, at least not with this brewing method.

The tea liquor is golden in colour and has a light toasty/grassy aroma. The flavour is very smooth, almost no bitterness or astringency. The toasted rice flavours are nicely balanced with the sencha, which is grassy and vegetal, almost spinach-like. Very warm and comforting. Definitely recommend.

Oh man, this tea is so old, haha. The aromas have definitely faded. I went a little heavy with the leaf and hit it with boiling water to try to extract whatever flavour is still in there. Scent is slightly citrusy and vegetal with just a hint of the frankincense. Flavour is lightly floral and vegetal from the oolong and hints of the other ingredients are fleeting. It’s quite pleasant, but definitely not as interesting as it used to be. I’ll probably do a long second steep to see what else may be in there. Remember to enjoy your teas while they’re fresh, folks!

Got this a couple years ago when an online Metropolitan reseller had a going out of business sale. What is there to say? It’s chamomile flowers and mint leaves. It tastes exactly like you would expect. Actually, I’ll note that it feels like good quality – lots of big, fluffy, intact-ish chamomile flowers, and a lovely fresh mint scent from both the dry leaf and the brewed tisane. I have done two steepings (heavily leafed because didn’t bother to get out the scale and was trying to compensate for how fluffy the chamomile is) and both have been very nice. If you have been drinking a teabag version of this I recommend trying it in loose leaf form.

Freshly brewed it’s VERY cinnamon forward, well cinnamon and clove I suppose, that combination that feels like “winter spice”. As it cools you can taste more of the black tea and orange and a slight vegetal note that I think is the moringa. On one sip I got a slight floral note. Overall it’s decent, didn’t really stand out from other similar teas I’ve tried. Can’t really tell the tea is decaffeinated as any flavour change there is completely overwhelmed by the spice, so it’s a good after dinner or bedtime choice.

I decided to sort/reorganize my teas, which resulted in finding a lot of little samples of this and that and going “holy cow I really need to finish these”. So, nice caffeine free sipdown here, though I’m pretty sure some of the flavour has been lost over the years. A little bit sweet, a little bit creamy, a little bit spicy, generally quite pleasant.