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When I opened the pouch, i was hit with a sweet roasted scent. I brewed western style, and the brewed tea gave me notes of grilled stone fruit followed by a sweet berry aftertaste that lingered for a while. Very enjoyable.

My husband and I purchased this tea about a year ago after trying a sample at a tea festival. It’s smoky, but not as much as a Lapsang Souchong typically is. The tea is very tightly compressed, so it can be a bit difficult to pry a chunk off. The taste is very savory and pleasant.

I’ve owned this tea for a while now, and enjoy it. I have to say it has aged well.

I prefer this tea gong fu style with boiling water, starting with a brief rinse and then resting the leaves for a bit to let them open open up. I like to drink the rinse for this one.

In today’s session, after I did the rinse, the early steeps tasted sweet and citrusy. Later steeps had notes of citrus and honey.

TTB 2025 – When I added the leaves to my strainer, I saw a beautiful dried orange piece and could smell the spices. The fruit and spice flavors were present in the brewed tea without being overpowering. Overall, I enjoyed the taste, but my only complaint is that it left me with a dry mouth feel.

TTB 2025 – This tea tastes sweet and lemon-limey. I drank it plain and did not get any notes resembling cheesecake, but I still found this tea to be enjoyable. It kind of reminded me of drinking a lemon lime soda.

TTB 2025 – Nice pleasant jasmine flavor. Very similar to other jasmine pearl teas I’ve tried, so not much else to note.

TTB 2025 – I’ve never seen a black, ripe puerh, oolong, white tea blend before, so I decided to give this one a try. This blend is incredibly smooth. There is no astringency or bitterness. It is earthy, slightly roasty, and has a note that reminds me of bran cereal. It made for an enjoyable cup of tea.

TTB 2025 – To me, this blend does not taste like a cookie, but more like the spices that would go into a Christmas cookie. It’s somewhere in the realm of gingerbread cookie spices, but not really ginger forward. I think it’s a tasty blend, and the little snowflake sprinkles are adorable.

TTB 2025. I’ve never had this type of oolong before, so I had no idea what to expect. It’s roasty, sweet, and has strong notes of mixed berries. I really enjoyed this one! Unfortunately, there was only 1 serving left, so I used it all up.

TTB 2025 – I had high hopes for this tea since I tried qimen from Jesse’s tea house a couple years ago in a Reddit TTB. That one is still the best qimen I’ve tried. Unfortunately, per their website they switched to a different Qimen. I found this one to be just ok. It tasted smoky and a bit fruity, but not nearly as good as the old version.