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Been a while since I’ve logged a tea! It’s winter time again, so I expect my logging to ramp up… hopefully.

Anyway, coming back to this one I remember now that I really like this tea. I have way too many teas in my cupboard so sometimes I forget to come back to the ones further in the back. I found this one again this afternoon and I was pleasantly reminded of why I need to get more of it eventually.

Such a smooth, warming, yet pleasantly powerful tea. It has enough kick to satisfy even my mom, who is a typical black coffee drinker, yet soothes the throat with lemon. I love yunnan teas.

Still one of the best teas that I have had, to date.

This is the first time I’m seeing these kinds of leaves rolled into a ball. It’s quite amazing, actually, to see them unravel during the steeping process. I’m using my travel mug so I couldn’t see through the cup to see it all in action, but amazingly the leaves started at the bottom of my infuser when dry, and ended up filling it up all the way to the top when the steeping was done.

The flavour profiles are pretty accurate to both what Samovar notes on their description and also to what people here have noted. Smooth, with roasted notes. I’m not too experienced with oolongs so I don’t have a point of reference to compare to, but this is a fairly darker flavour than I was expecting after seeing how light coloured the infusion was.

The complexities of this tea make it appealing. I’m enjoying this one. =)

I got this tea at the wrong time of the year. This is a fall tea.

This was definitely a surprise for me. It has a really powerful kick in both the smell and the taste, all the way down. It’s all kinds of complexity mixed into one tea and I don’t think I’ve tried a Samovar tea that has been this powerful before.

I haven’t experimented with too many herbal teas since I’m a bit more of a fan of straight-forward tea leaves, but this one is definitely unique. The colour of the brew was a surprise at first (a ruby or purple hue), but then you realize that it’s normal given the ingredients. It’s smooth going down, even if it can be a bit on the sour side, and the taste is not too similar to the smell which is interesting. It’s very soothing and I can tell it could make anyone feel warm on a cold winter night, which is why it’s a shame that I got my hands on it just as the weather is getting warmer.

I’m going to have to play around with this one more to see if shorter steep times or less tea might reduce the overpowering flavours, but this is one to try for sure. I’ll have to serve this to some friends and see what their opinions are.