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Sipping this in a mug as well. Tart and tannic. Cranberries, honey, a faint woodsy undertone. Subsequent sips, the sticky honey note gets stronger. After some thought on it, I agree ‘maple’ probably works, but I wouldn’t have thought about it if I hadn’t scanned the description first.

As it cools, it gets a bit more oaky woodsy. And an acidic taste that sits on the back of the tongue, and maybe vanilla as I exhale.

I’ll always spring for trying my black teas gongfu, but I always enjoy them better in a mug. Waste of leaf or not.

I got a dry cocoa immediately, subsequent sips sweetening it to a dark chocolate. There are subsequent notes that remind me of Sri Lankan blacks. Right off the tasting notes, oak is there. Sweet woodsy. Fruit… Not quite. Maybe within the cocoa. A sweet nuttyness that reminds me of Keemuns, but without the smoke. A baked sweet potato taste, more than fruit. With the slightest floral aroma when I breath out?

I definitely want to get more small, local companies onto Steepster. Tea Lani… I thought I added, but they don’t have a central website/a source of photos (these are from her Facebook and Instagram) so I guess I hadn’t.

I first encountered her in university. One of our buildings allows vendors to set up along the main hallway to sell stuff. Often people selling homemade jewellery, knitted projects, small stuff like that (some resellers). That’s the first time I bought this tea (at the time called Lavender Earl Grey). It was an instant favourite, because it was a Lavender Cream Earl Grey. Plus a tea seller right on campus!

I was a little sad because I didn’t see her again after that, and I finished my jar.

Fastforward half a decade to the Vancouver Tea Festival: the past two-ish years she’s been there, and I’ve bought a new jar every time.

The smell is a creamy earl grey with light lavender, body about the same. The tea base has a bit of body, Ceylon likely, but carries the flavours well. Lavender as a top note, body largely vanilla London Fog. Bright, citrusy, a bit harsh. The lavender is faintly herbaceous (there is a lot of it), which trails into the aftertaste.

I don’t drink it with milk, but it’s got enough strength that it would probably do fine with it. This is a tea I pick up fairly often. I’m halfway through the jar I bought from the last Tea Festival already.

…Could have sworn I added this to my cupboard and wrote a review on it, but it wasn’t even in Steepster’s database, so. Clearly I mindlapsed. Natural Redhead, too.

Wasn’t too careful with weighing since I just wanted to sip and space out with my writing, but have been hitting about 10-20 second steeps. To me, this does muuuch better western than gongfu, so I really packed the gaiwan today. Thinking about bringing some to work in my tea libre. …Which I would need to dig up.

Got this a few sales back. I find it a bit weird. Pungent, but not strong—it doesn’t last. But soupy. The black tea is the dominant flavour, and it’s more like the white tea… Doesn’t so much add anything, as dial back the long-lastingness of the black tea? Maybe add a sweetness? Though it could make it interesting to age.

It’s very tart. A bit of sweetness, but not much. Like fruit juice… Astringent on the tongue, very fragrant on the nose—it SCREAMS that juicy Assam berry note. Strawberry-like, similar to Redhead. But taste is more like fruitjuice, hibiscus, not too grainy. Some honey notes. Some grape notes, wine—or maybe more cider.

Welp, lost my tasting note. Classic mistake. Let’s see if I can’t retype this from memory.

I don’t see mint black teas very often, so I snapped this sample up when I saw it at the till. Smell-wise, it’s peppermint heavy, no tea aroma, and you have to squint for the chocolate. Maybe a faint creamyness. That carries into the taste. The peppermint is dominant, but not overbearing. Chocolate comes through if you squint for in, mostly on the breath out after each sip.

This would have benefited maybe from a bit of vanilla to add a creamy note… I wonder also if chocolate mint would have worked.

What’s this? Two days in a row? Don’t expect a sudden Commitment. I still have a blog post to write. When I checked out they had some even tinier sample pouches (2g) for free at the till, so I grabbed this and Chocolate Mint Black.

Smell is that same ovaltine chocolate, with a faint overtone of cherry and rose. Taste is definitely more rose. It’s pretty mild, but it was also a little sample pouch and sometimes those end up being a bit more stale.

Very mild, floral rose with a smooth milk chocolate taste. As I sip it I basically lose any semblance of cherry I thought I’d tasted before.

Probably a shame to review this when it’s sold out. But I’ve still got a little left in my personal cupboard.

This was such an interesting tea to drink, and to look at. Most fine-pluck tippy teas have a smattering of gold tips amongst black tips. But with this one, each individual leaf has some gold and some black on it. Very careful sorting, almost all of them delicate whole buds.

Brewed this in a gaiwan, rough steeps of 15-20 seconds as I like a strong black. The cup is a deep red (the photo doesn’t do it justice, that’s much too light unless you’re intentionally trying to brew it light), and if you catch it in the light, you can see the fuzz from the leaves floating. The smell and taste is remarkably unique to me—burnt sugar and/or buckwheat honey is the best I can describe it. Very rich and sweet, with a kind of syrupy mouthfeel that lingers. Lighter steeps almost bring out a muscatel, winey note, alike but very different to any Darjeeling I’ve ever had. There are little notes of… I want to say grain or malt that verge into the ‘burnt sugar’ description.

I find this doesn’t get bitter, but it can get STRONG, due to the small size of the leaf material. Second steep really filled my mouth and nose with aroma. Wine. Fruit? Something of that sort, thick honey—it was given the name ‘honeysuckle’ at the importer-level due to that unmistakable syrupy honey flavour; I specifically wrote down ‘buckwheat honey’ in my own notes, because if anyone has ever tried THAT. It’s downright molassesy, and definitely still applies here.

The muscatel/wine notes in particular come through at the end of the sip, sort of lingering on the tongue.

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