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Smelt “tea” in the bag, but once I poured it into my pre-warmed gaiwan, I got a strong whiff of honey peach.

This is also kind’ve an excuse to test the little bamboo strainer I got from them as well. I usually just use a teaball-half as my strainer, but my inner need to buy tea accessories finally caved for this little bamboo one. It fits into my travel gaiwan bag well enough, and kinda matches the wood teaspoon I got with my Justtea oolong.

The leaf was surprisingly small (I don’t remember this one having a sample-jar in front of it), but the tea itself doesn’t seem to suffer any bitterness from it. Lightly green and toasty, not getting any peach from it but it’s only the first steep. Three’s usually the best. First steep was ten seconds.

Second and third steeps ~6 seconds. Eliminated the toastyness a bit with the shorter steep. Keep thinking I’m getting maybe hints of something fruity, but not sure.

Will try and post something more in-depth when I get a better chance to sit down with tea.

The dry leaf smells assam-like; barley and malt. It brews up a nice bright orange.

I don’t know what linseed tastes like, but this is a bit herbacious with mint that lingers into the aftertaste. Faint astringency, no bitterness. There’s a grainyness to it as well. Wouldn’t call it malty though.

The barley smell, coupled with the briskness makes me think an assamica leaf. The tea itself isn’t too heavy though, or very malty.

Smells like honey, tastes like honey; naturally sweet and candy-like. Not astringent.

Well now this one’s just nostalgic. But maybe it’s just because I poured it into the little chipped teacup my great grandmother gave me growing up.

Smells like honey. Taste is similar, honey slightly tannic, I get what the package means by citrus. Slightly astringent slightly acidic. Hand in hand with ‘ceylon’. Orangey, almost. I could see this with a slice of fruit.

Smell of the dry leaf is a deep assam kinda of tea. Brewed, it smells sharper and brighter, like a ceylon. I know I do a lot of my notes in terms of other teas, but I’m better at comparing, I guess. The package suggested five minutes, but I did four on account of snooping the few existing tea blogs that reviewed russian teas and hearing about it being pretty strong.

Wow, this is surprisingly vegetal. The brew is amber, but the taste is light, spinach, no bitterness or astringency that I can find. The taste makes me reconsider my initial thought on the smell. There’s still ceylon there—spinach with honey. Will have to try the full five minutes in the future.

I picked this up a while ago, because I like black currant flavouring. And although it hasn’t been particularly bad, there’s just been something ‘off’ about it. Maybe it’s something in the artificial flavouriing used. It certainly tastes like the ‘black currant flavour’ I like, but there’s something else that I’m just not liking about it. The ceylon base is nice enough, though.

I don’t know what I’m not liking about this, but. Something metallic, maybe…

Thiiiis I like. The smell is deep, syrupy drop fruit; plummy. The taste is chocolate, caramelly, darkly fruity. It’s malty and a bit astringent, but definitely not bitter. It’s a very fragrant tea, and definitely an assam varietal (Burma).

Actually, I get what they mean by mint too. I thought it was a bit odd when I went back and read that, but there’s a sort of vegetable menthol flavour (definitely not the artificial kind).

While I was in the popup shop that sold these teas (the company sparked my interest enough for a Tea Adventure—they’re currently sold in a popup shop off Robson’s), the owner of the brand was working there and let me try an icecream that was made specifically from this tea. It was /delicious/ by the way. I wanted to buy a freakn’ tub of it, but there were only about three tubs made (very small-batch), so they were only selling by the scoop.

Edit: Second steep (four minutes) is chewy, bakey malt. Less fruit, little less sweet but still with a faint cocoa.

When I see “honey” I usually connect it to “Ceylon-like”, because it’s usually true. It’s got very long, twisting leaves, a bit like a strip oolong; the taste is bright, honey oak (again, very like a ceylon). I get a caramel note if I sort’ve just let it sit on my tongue a bit, but otherwise it’s a little too “bright” for caramel, I think. Smooth, barely even astringent.
Edit: Second steep (also three minutes) is sweeter, I think. Though there’s still that bright oaky honey ceylon.