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(ETA: Here’s another sample from the Here’s Hoping Traveling Tea Box.)
I have to admit that I oversteeped this tea because I decided to pour an awkwardly large bucket of DIY laundry soap into bottles while it (the tea) steeped and I totally underestimated how long that would take. (The stuff was somewhere between jello and snot in consistency and occasionally decided to take a break from actually going through the funnel.)

But anyway, despite the oversteeping this was a very nice tea. I found the floral and fruity notes that I like in assams and I have a feeling that being steeped strongly only brought them out more. It was also a bit bitter, but that’s not a problem when you put milk and sugar in and eat a brownie with it for breakfast. :)

I remembered after steeping this that, since it’s mate, you shouldn’t actually steep it in boiling water no matter what adagio says unless you want it to be kind of bitter. Whoops, lol. Anyway, I still really like it. I’m currently of the opinion that spiced is one of the better ways to drink mate. :)

I’m reviewing another tea from the Here’s Hoping Traveling Teabox! (It’ll probably take me another week or so to finish typing up all my reviews from my notes.) I’m definitely not getting the “artichoke” flavor that others have mentioned, but that’s okay because I don’t think I go in much for vegetable flavored teas. What I mostly noticed about this one is that the green tea flavor is set off nicely by the grain, which adds a sort of nutty note even though it doesn’t really taste like nuts so it’s kind of difficult to explain. It’s quite interesting and really good, though! And I don’t think I’m just saying that because I’m hungry. :P However, I only steeped it for two minutes rather than the recommended five so maybe I wouldn’t like it at all if it was at full strength. Who knows?

The leaves are really beautifully curled and look quite artistic. And it’s pretty cool how they uncurl while steeping, too. It made me wish I had the type of teaware that lets you watch leaves expand, because that would be fun. And after it’s steeped it tastes smooth and friendly. It’s sweet and not bitter at all and has some other flavors that I can’t really describe because I’m not quite that eloquent yet. I’m not really tasting the chocolate in this one, but that’s okay, I have other go-to chocolatey teas so I’m not too disappointed. I was expecting to like this one based on its flavor profile and I’m glad I wasn’t wrong. :)

I’ve had a pretty dreadful week but today is much much better so I’m celebrating by sampling lots of teas. I’ve sampled my way through most of the teabox already but there are still some blacks I’ve been meaning to get to. (I also have notes from some other teas from the teabox that I sampled last week, but I’ll get around to writing those up later.) And Chinese blacks are some of the best! So I’m trying this one.

It’s a nice color and has that lovely elegant fragrance that tends to come with Chinese teas. I’m not so sure about the flavor, though; it’s not my favorite Chinese black, but it does have some interesting points. It does have a bit of astringency and a teensy hint of bitterness. I’ll try resteeping it with slightly cooler water.

The name of this tea reminds me of the book by Kerstin Gier (translated by Anthea Bell), which I re-read last month. It’s a kind of corny time traveling adventure (and seriously, the poetry did NOT translate well from the German) but it made my re-read list so there must be something about it. (On Goodreads last year I completed a 365-book reading challenge, although I did cheat a little at the end by reading some short novellas because I got a bit behind. Anyway, of those 365 books only about a dozen books/series made my re-read list, not counting the ones that were already re-reads, of course).

Anyways. I tried a tea from Taiwan yesterday and liked it, so I thought maybe trying another today would be fun, although I notice they have very different flavors listed. And unfortunately this one was about gone; there was only half a serving left. Oh well. I used about half as much water as usual to make up for that.

It brews up a lovely reddish-goldish-brown color and has a very bold flavor with almost a bite to it. It’s mostly smooth with a little astringency and a little bitterness (at least on the first steep). And it has a jumble of other interesting flavors too that are hard to sort out. The strangest one that I detected had almost a menthol feeling to it, which is new. I also think I can taste a little of the sweet potato flavor that I found in yesterday’s Taiwan tea, but maybe I’m just imagining that. It’s okay (though admittedly a bit strange) with milk and sugar too, and holds up to at least two steeps. I’m not really liking the menthol flavor so much though. I don’t think I’ll put this on my re-read list.

One of the nicest greens that I’ve tried so far, I think. I may have slightly under-steeped it, but in my experience that’s always better than the opposite. It steeps up a very light yellowish-greenish (but mostly clear) color with a delicate fragrance. When I taste it, there’s a hint of a seaweedish flavor that usually puts me off but in this tea it seems to meld pleasantly with the other notes, so that’s a good sign. And, oddly enough, it’s hardly astringent at all and not at all bitter, which I like a lot. It has a tinge of sweetness, too. Overall pretty great! (As usual, I’m just estimating water temp. Ugh. I need to get a tiny thermometer or something.)

(Here’s another review from the Here’s Hoping Traveling Teabox! Actually all my reviews lately are from the teabox although I may have forgotten to mention it once or twice.)

Mmmm. I think this is the first tea I’ve actually tasted the “sweet potato” flavor in. That seems to be the strongest note, although I think I can detect some malt in there too. But it tastes so much like sweet potato I’m thinking of putting brown sugar and marshmallows in and calling it Thanksgiving or something. (Have you ever put marshmallows in your tea? I haven’t. It probably doesn’t go over as well as putting them in hot chocolate.) It’s a very full-bodied flavor and an interesting one, although I’m not sure yet whether it’s going to be one of my favorites or not.

(ETA: I have decided that I quite like it and that it is extremely excellent with milk and sugar and also goes well with french toast.)

First of all let me just say that I really appreciate the specificity here: I was about to measure out 1.5 teaspoons like it says on the package but when I looked at the leaves I realized they weren’t going to fit easily into my teaspoon, so I got out my scale and measured 2.3 grams because the package specifies that’s how much a serving weighs. So easy (unlike all these practically unlabeled teas that are sitting in the tea box with their names and the company they came from but no clue about how to brew them. I’m thinking maybe I should add some supplementary labels based on the info I find on the internet before passing them on. Sure, you can look up the recommended steeping time online, but I don’t want to be rushing back and forth between Google and my hot water which is rapidly cooling and will soon need to be re-heated because I can’t find any info on the company’s website so I have to try Steepster and normally I consider my internet connection to be fast but . . . yeah.)

Also, it is the first thing in the morning and I haven’t tasted anything else today, so if that influences what I’m tasting I apologize. I think the first few sips will probably manage to wake my mouth up, though.

The leaves look nice (like I said, too big to be easily measured with a teaspoon) and do have an obvious gold tone. The tea brews up to be a lovely dark gold/medium goldish brown. It has a dark fragrance of, I think, malt, and the same flavor note is obvious when first sipping. It has a hint of astringency but is on the whole mostly smooth. It doesn’t seem to me to be a very subtle flavor, but it’s not unpleasant (although the package description says it’s supposed to taste like tobacco! I wouldn’t know, never having eaten tobacco). It certainly does have a “sharp” flavor as advertised. I think I’ll go put a bit of sugar in before I finish it off. It’s not my favorite black tea ever, but it seems to be a good solid tea with plenty of merit.