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I just re-ordered this, after not having it for about a year. Something has happened to this blend. It is not as I remember it. I remember an intoxicating coconut smell (I even wrote about it in my previous note) – now I am getting only honeybush. I remember a creamy cheesecake tartness and rich coconut creaminess – but now I’m getting only honeybush. Basically it’s plain honeybush with a faint hint of coconut.

I’m sad because I ADORED this blend and was looking forward to having it again. It’s nothing like it used to be.

Taking the rating down, but I will still give it a decent score for it’s past greatness

I’ve never had yellow tea before, so I have no basis to compare this to any other yellow, and so I can only describe how this particular tea is for me.

At first I was a little confused with the instructions. 5gr of tea for 100ml water. Seems like the quantity for gong-fu brewing. But the package also said a 2.5 minute steep, which is odd because that sounds like steep time for western style brewing – I had been expecting 30 seconds or a minute. But that’s what it said, so that’s what I did.

The leaves are light and fluffy and seemed to fill up almost half my little yixing pot. I added less than boiling water.

Wow! This is so sweet! If I was one to sweeten my tea, I would have thought that I had already put in sugar. But since I never add sweetener, there is no chance of that. In the description of this tea, it says that it is initially slightly bitter. I got none of that. I got initial sweetness.

This is one great tea. It is delicate like a white tea, but it’s flavor is more prominent like a black. It’s slightly vegetal like a green. It has a hint of floral. Luckily not more than a hint, as I’m not a big fan of the floral teas.

Sweet and gentle, a little nutty, a little floral, a little vegetal.
Wonderfully balanced and refreshing. I am looking forward to seeing it develop in the next infusions.

I will be getting more of this!
Thank you Peony Tea S. for the sample

This smells DIVINE!
I took the lid off the pot to remove the basket and the deep, rich chocolaty smell of hot cocoa wafted up at me. If I hadn’t of known this was tea, I would have really thought it was hot cocoa.

This is one of the most amazing chocolate teas’s I’ve ever had. It’s like creamy cake. I added a little milk and it’s made the chocolate taste a little richer. There are raspberry pieces in the tea, but I can’t make out the taste of them – maybe because of the milk – so for me it’s more a chocolate cake tea than a Red Velvet cupcake. Nevertheless this is outstanding!

I also like the lined brown bag packaging the tea came in. On one hand I love nice tins, however it always brings up the already exorbitant international shipping costs. So I’m happy when vendors package simply.
The only comment I have is that the ingredients are not marked on the package and I have to go online to look for them.

But the tea? I can already see this is going to be a contender to take over the top spot in my “favorite chocolate rooibos” list, because of the cakey aspect of the tea. I will definitely need more than the 2oz I ordered!

I know everyone really loved this tea, but somehow it didn’t impress me as much. I brewed it western style. I brewed it in my gaiwan. It was good, yes, but something about it didn’t sit right with me. Eventually I put it in the cupboard and sort of forgot about it.

Until David of Verdant Tea put up that iced tea post,I had never even considered making ice tea with anything other than blacks and fruity teas. As it seems he had good results, I decided to experiment a little. Out came this tea – and a few other oolongs – from the far corner of my tea cupboard.

I cold brewed it overnight and the results are quite unbelievable!
This is iced tea perfection. It tastes and smells of pine trees. May seem sort of odd that something tastes like pine trees, but it’s subtle and refreshing and very good. It brings back memories of childhood, running around in the forest collecting pine cones.

It has a quiet elegance that I find is characteristic of many Chinese oolongs (I know this is not an oolong, but it’s gentle flavor reminds me of some oolongs).

From the corner of the cupboard to front and center!
I am in love with this tea.

Oh, and so far I’ve cold brewed these leaves 3 times and it’s still great. The first pitcher wad brewed for about 8 hours, the second for about 12, and the third for 24 hours. I wonder if I can do yet another….

A few years ago, when I first got bitten by the tea bug, I purchased a few oolongs from LifeinTeacup. They were so good that I fell in love with the light oolongs.
But somehow I let the whole oolong range fall to the side this past year. Maybe it’s the few less remarkable oolongs that I subsequently purchased from other vendors or maybe it’s the chinese black tea kick I’ve been on this past year. At any rate, I forgot how much I love a good oolong, how light and sweet they are, how refreshing.

Then this tea came along and reminded of me of all that I love in an oolong. I ordered it because of all the great reviews. It did not disappont!

I don’t really get the milky aspect, but that might be because my oolong tasting skills are a bit rusty. Either way, this tea is delightful. Buttery and vegetal.

The first infusion disappeared way too fast. I think I need another.
What a treat!

This tisane is delightful! I love rooibos, even more than honeybush actually.
That characteristic rooibos flavor, often described as woodsy, is very pleasant to me.
Many flavors go well with rooibos, but most cover up that rooibos-y taste. While that may be preferable to those less enamored of rooibos, but not so for me. I want the flavoring to leave room for the rooibos.

That’s this tisane. The subtly sweet date flavor here compliments the rooibos so well, both prominent without masking the other. The walnuts are welcome added note.

Very good!

The picture of this tisane has whole chocolate chips in it. The sample I received did not.
No real chocolate smell nor much chocolate flavor. Not a bad rooibos, just not chocolaty at all.

Actually I thought that maybe the sample had been mis-labeled, because I was getting a slight tart fruity taste in the rooibos. Not a prominent note, but there nonetheless. Together with a distinct lack of chocolate had me wondering. Some black fruit, I would guess – currant or black berries. But if it were a black currant tea, I would expect a more dominant fruity flavor.

Confusing tea….

I have finished my sample of this amazing tea. Sad day :(
Such a rich, complex tea! So soothing, and not just for breakfast. I actually prefer it after lunch. It invigorates me.

The Laoshan Black is such a unique black that it really stands out – in both taste and aroma, with the other teas rounding out the flavor. This is an outstanding blend!

I really need to get more of this when it gets back in stock.