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Got a sample of this with my order from Butiki a while back (thanks, Stacy!), finally got around to doing a sample sipdown today.

I think I’ve only had about three or four darjeelings ever (never had much of an opportunity to try them due to price and other teas distracting me), so I’m not going to give it a numerical rating. Plus, I’ve just been drinking this somewhat absentmindedly while studying for a midterm on Tuesday, hence the short note. A bit of astringency in the first steep, which mostly disappears with the second steep. Fruity/melon-y, bright, and crisp. I enjoyed it!

I think it’s been a while since I’ve had a Taiwanese oolong. I’d almost forgotten how delicate they were! Gongfu style brewing with a mason jar, strainer, and mug, since I’m too lazy to pull out my yixing (which I’ve sort of been using for black teas, anyway).

Very light and smooth, with almost no astringency. Has a slightly creamy or buttery mouthfeel. Sort of like velvet? I should probably brush up on my texture descriptors. Sweet, a tiny bit vegetal, also with a slight floral hint. Sort of reminds me of a mix of tieguanyin and jin xuan oolongs, but it’s been a while since I’ve had a tieguanyin so I can’t be certain.

Gosh, I need to get back to drinking more oolongs! But I should probably deal with my exploding tea trunk, first…

(Sample sipdown!)

Whoops, I finished this ages ago and forgot to decupboard it. Apparently I forgot to write a note of it. :( I remember thinking it was tasty, though!

Nice, basic flavoured black tea. Kind of reminds me of a weakened version of coffee with hazelnut creamer, which, from reading the description, seems to be the point of the blend.

Overall, pleasant and probably good for mornings. Nothing mindblowing or surprising. A forthright, reliable tea, just like Captain Anderson.

When I first brewed this, I didn’t really like it, but it’s beginning to grow on me. Could be due to the seasons.

The cinnamon really overpowers most of the bergamot. The Irish Breakfast provides a strong base. Not bad.

In a bit of a hurry, but thought I’d write a quick note about this before I head out. Will write a more thorough review in the future.

Smooth, creamy, can definitely taste the caramel/coconut. A bit too sweet for my taste (then again, I try to keep my sugar intake on the low side). I got the lower grade version that’s on sale— still very impressed. The mix made from the good stuff must be phenomenal.

Made with 2% milk shaken up in my coffee/flavoured tea tumbler. Since my flatmates and I never did get around to buying a new blender when ours broke. Whoops. Still managed to get a bit of froth by shaking for a minute, to my surprise!

Even though it’s a little too sweet for my tastes, still good for the occasional drink— very enjoyable and ridiculously simple to make! Can definitely understand why many are raving about it. Glad I got to try it out!

I requested a sample of this with a recent order I placed with TeaVivre. I’ve been meaning to branch out and try some more greens (my stash primarily consists of black, oolong, and pu’er teas at the moment), and this seemed to be one of the basic green teas I haven’t tried until now.

One of the first things I’d heard about gunpowder was that it had a slightly smoky aroma, which gave rise to its name. I was a little sceptical of that (the etymology, not the taste), since lapsang souchong is probably known as the smoky tea, so it would make more sense to me if that was called gunpowder if the name was just based on flavour. So, I did a quick Wikipedia search, which yielded some unsatisfactory (read: uncited) results. Basically, other origins for the name could be from the appearance and how its unfurling sort of ‘explodes’ when brewed, or it could be from the Mandarin phrase for “freshly brewed”. The most reasonable etymology to me seems to be the one regarding its appearance, but I’ll have to continue looking into that.

Anyway, I wound up drinking the entire cup while looking up the etymology of gunpowder tea and so I don’t have any specific notes on it. Oops. I do remember thinking that it did have the slightest hint of smokiness in the background, along with a bit of astringency and a light vegetal sweetness.

I’m on my second steep now, and the smokiness is gone, as is the astringency. Very smooth cup. The sweetness seems to be more prominent. Might not be an everyday cup for me, but I’d definitely get some more sample sizes from different companies to see the variation in this type of tea, since it does seem like a nice tea. Thanks for the sample, TeaVivre!

A sample of this came with my order from Whispering Pines. At first I wanted to have this as my morning tea, but I got distracted by a random sencha I came across in my tea box and brewed that up instead. Then the very blah morning turned into a very blah afternoon, so I thought it would be the perfect afternoon tea. As I was steeping this, one of my friends (and his flatmates) stopped by for a quick visit, since I’d been planning on giving them a box of various teas to try out (a few of them are tea drinkers). We chatted for a bit, and when they left I suddenly realised that I was starving, so I thought I’d cook up an early dinner.

Well, as it turns out, that ‘quick dinner’ turned into ‘cook enough food for the next two or three days’. So on the plus side, yay, I have lots of food now, but oh no, I realised that I’d oversteeped my tea by a few hours.

So I rushed back to my room, which smelled like a warm apple pie, and took the strainer out of my mug. Since the tea base is an oolong, I had hope that it would still be drinkable. It still smelled great, after all!

I took a sip and was totally wowed by the flavour! With a tiny bit of sugar, it would basically be the liquid form of a freshly baked apple pie. It still tasted amazing plain, though, with a hint of sweetness. The apple and cinnamon flavours were perfectly balanced. The cinnamon actually tasted sweeter than what I was expecting. Or at least I think it was the cinnamon. It may have been the apple.

I’m so glad I got to try this out, even if I oversteeped it by a lot! I think I still have enough of the sample for another cup. Hopefully I won’t be so distracted then!

Just wanted to say, Whispering Pines Tea’s customer service is great! There was a minor issue with my order that was quickly resolved by Brenden, who also sent me an additional sample of this new tea. Thanks, Brenden!

I managed to get three steeps out of this tea and took brief notes of it.

Steep 1: The mint is pretty strong, but I can still taste the chocolatey goodness from the Fujian Black. Tastes really similar to the ice cream flavour. Yum!

Steep 2: The black tea base is becoming more prominent now, with the mint starting to fade into the background. Sort of like a minty hot chocolate, I’d say.

Steep 3: This really reminds me of a chocolate mint now. More dark chocolate with a subtle hint of mint.

So, it appears that I’ve rated this tea but have never written a note for it. Whoops. I shall remedy that right now!

I basically just rediscovered my pouch of this when trying to clear out space in my teabox (really more of a large storage bin). Based on my memory and its description, I thought it’d be the perfect tea to accompany me as I did some of my homework readings.

This tea seems to have held up quite well considering it’s been hidden away for several months. The marshmallow aroma is still apparent, and pairs very nicely with the spearmint to create a soothing flavour and sensation. The green tea lingers in the background, like a good soundtrack to a film— you know it’s there if you pay attention to it, but otherwise it blends in seamlessly with the rest of the movie that you barely notice it.

All in all, a lovely cup that will definitely continue to accompany me in my late-night readings until I run out.