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I need to lay off the after-dinner caffeine. This rooibos has been in a zip-lock bag in my real-life cupboard for a solid 7 or 8 months now, and the flavor and aroma are starting to mellow out. I’d normally add some chamomile (if I had any) and a drop or two of honey but I’m drinking it straight this time.

Steeped in my travel mug from Teas Etc. due to the fact that all my other tea-brewing vessels are in the dishwasher :)

I usually go for Chinese black teas in the morning (unless it’s chai) but out of the A&D Series Two showdown, I think I’d give the title belt to Thomas. I wish this had a little bit more natural sweetness, though I could see it as something that holds up well with a little milk and sugar.

I plowed right through my 3 oz. tin of this. It’s consistently been my morning tea maybe 85% of the days in the past couple months. It has all the characteristics of a solid morning black tea for me: not too light, not too strong either (though there are days when I can’t handle caffeine in the mornings), with just the right amount of natural sweetness. In fact, I think Adagio should change the name of this to ‘Goldilocks’, because it’s juuuust right. It’s definitely something I could see myself drinking every morning for quite some time (though in the interest of coming up with new things to write, I’m going to find another morning black and go with that for a while). In the end, I’m bumping my rating up a few points from when I first logged it, mainly because of its eminent dependability and drinkability.

On a side note, the Adagio 3oz. tins themselves are great! The stickers peel off easily and you rinse them out and reuse them without much hassle.

This tea’s definitely interesting. I don’t really know how to describe it yet. Kind of mellow, a little bit sweet, but that’s all I’ve been able to come up with so far. Rishi recommends using twice as many leaves for the same amount of water than you normally would, and also steeping it for 8 minutes. I need to try some other times to see what the difference is. Until then, verdict’s still out on this one…

My friend Daniel has a theory about anything food-related: if the presentation and harmony of the colors looks appealing, it usually ends up tasting good too. I think this tea fits in very well with his theory.

The leaves, after you remove them from the pot, look beautiful. Bright green mint leaves on a bed of dark pu-erh, with a few smaller light brown pieces of spice and a couple twigs sprinkled on top. Kind of like someone took an oak tree and smushed it into the strainer.

Taste-wise it’s pretty mindblowing. The flavors are distinct too. First you taste the pu-erh and think “hmmm, maybe this needs to be sweeter”, then the vanilla comes in, says “hey guys, what’d I miss?” before the mint sneaks up from behind and leaves you with that fresh, just-brushed-my-teeth feeling.

Which usually means it’s time to take another sip.

I picked up a tin of this when I put in my Steepster Select indie sampler order. This is only the second Gyokuro I’ve ever had, so I don’t have much within the category to compare it to. That said, the smell of both dry and wet leaves is intoxicating, right up there with freshly-harvested Dragonwell. I used the lowest setting on my UtiliTEA kettle to make it, but I see a lot of tinkering with temps and steep times to do.

The literal translation of “xue ya” is “snow buds”, and (someone correct me if I’m wrong) it’s usually a moniker for white tea. Here it’s describing a first-flush green. The smell while the leaves are steeping reminds me a little bit of crab, though I don’t get any of that after I take the leaves out. 2 1/2 minutes at 180 degrees this time around, but I have a feeling it’ll take a bit more trial and error to bring out the awesome.

I’m drinking this from a cafe in Birmingham, MI called “Java the Hutt.” As you can tell by the name, they mostly do coffee, and all the tea they have is in bagged form. I haven’t yet met a mind-blowing sencha, but I haven’t met one I didn’t like either.

Mmm, this is great after dinner too. I’m already dreading the day that I run out.

Also, we rolled out a few minor bugfixes and updates to Steepster this evening. The most noticeable thing is that the “recent activity” items that used to be on the side in your dashboard are now rolled into the main column. Let us know what you think!