It’s hard to go downhill from the grocery store brand tea I was just sipping, with its rice to tea ratio approaching 70 to 1 and its excruciatingly unforgiving tea base. For my first infusion of this tea, I steeped one teaspoon for one minute and found myself feeling dissatisfied after finishing the cup, so I’ll skip describing that and move onto the second. I steeped this more successful attempt at 175 degrees for two minutes. The liquor is light and clouded with matcha. The overall flavour is good, though not much different than just plain genmaicha.

The genmaicha base is smooth and doesn’t have any notable astringency. Overall, the tea has a good flavour and I will greatly enjoy the rest of my sample. However, it isn’t memorable or different enough that I feel driven towards it, so I’m not sure I’ll be getting it again.

The cup is light yet bold, refreshing, and well-balanced. Too often, poor quality, finicky greens detract in tea blends, but this base adds dimension and quality. It has an oily quality I’m not overly fond of, but as I sit appreciating the lingering finish, I crave another cup.

The two-minute second infusion is on par with the first. I thought it might be foolish to steep it for so little time, but I can’t imagine this cup being much improved. The flavour is much more passion fruit than peach or Sencha in this cup, which I don’t mind. I could see myself consistently drinking the first steep of this blend hot and icing the second.

My attempt at a third steep falls flat. It’ll do in a punch if you really need to stretch your dollar or if you’re desperate for a final cup, but overall it lacks the wow of the first two steeps. Otherwise I really enjoyed my session of Immortal Green, and I look forward to the rest of my ample sample.

The website suggests steeping this 4-6 minutes, but I’ve decided to stick with the staple steep for Japanese greens, which is two minutes at 160 degrees. The delicate yellow liquor smells mild and distinctly of how a Japanese green should.

The cup is tangy and somewhat astringent. I want to say the astringency is reminiscent of lemon, but it’s unfortunately a claim I can’t make. Though it is somewhat harsh, this does not overpower the other redeeming qualities of the tea. The notes of berry, while slight initially, linger on in the extensive finish. The flavour isn’t very vegetal and as a whole reminds me of a gyokuro, though it is somewhat simpler, less memorable, easier. it is a more day to day tea.

After four minutes for the second cup, the leaves have nearly filled the entire infuser. This is an excellent sign since it means the leaves have had enough space to expand to their fullest, and the leaves are quality enough that they wanted to expand. This cup is notably vegetal, less tangy, and smoother than the first cup. It has less overall character than the first cup and is less memorable, but it is still a good cup with an appreciable simplicity.

My sample was the bagged version, but I am unsure I would ever recommend buying bagged when loose is available. Though that is just my personal preference, so if I were to buy this, I’d get it loose-leaf. Overall, this tea seems like a good way to get some of the flavours of gyokuro without paying the high price for the fine Japanese green. Thirty minutes after I have finished my cup, the aftertaste still lingers on my tongue and in my memory.

While reasonably priced, the leaf looks and smells quality: Big twisted, deep green leaves with huge shavings of coconut that smell strongly of the tropical fruit. After four minutes in just below boiling water, I have a cup of rich yellow liquor that smells sweet and quite realistic. The cup has sweet and fruity undertones characteristic to the leaf base, a strong coconut finish, and an overall balance. I find that I quickly tire of many of Adagio’s flavoured teas, but I get the impression I would not regret buying a tin of this perfectly-blended leaf.

I iced my second steep and was rewarded with a creamy, refreshing cup. I’m tempted to put on shorts, add a little paper umbrella to my mug, and pretend it’s summer rather than the ice-covered snow kingdom I’m really living in. This well-priced version of coconut pouchong can compete with the best. It’s calming hot and refreshing cold and an all-around excellent flavoured tea.

The base tea looks Assam-y, and after conferring with Frank, I now know the basic base tea to his black blends in a lovingly-crafted “proprietary blend of Nilgiri and Assam teas.” It is an excellent base blend – smooth and quality, adding to the tea overall. The flavouring is well done, but while I get the coconut and cream flavours, I have a hard time tasting all-out pie. The aftertaste is unparalleled in its fantastic coconuty sweeteness. I don’t relish the idea of adding sugar to my tea, but a dash of honey really brings out the flavours.

If I had more leaf, I’d be tempted to experiment with chilling this blend, since I imagine it would result in an interesting and refreshing cold cup. This is a well mixed blend and an excellent dessert tea, an aspect really brought to life by added sweetener. Once again, Frank at 52 Teas/Zoomdweebies has proven that he really knows his flavours.

I steeped a heaping teaspoon with boiling water for four minutes. The cup has an overall nebulous citrus quality, one that I would not brave labelling as specific to orange, combined with the distinct sweetness of peach. The vanilla flavouring is similarly indistinct, reading more as a faint creaminess than anything else. While the flavours aren’t firm, it is still a pleasant cup overall: well blended and distinctly honeybush.

This herbal is extremely well priced, as well as a good one to have iced. I have been trying to find more caffeine free beverages so I can drink late into the evening, and this is one I will have to add to my collection. It didn’t blow me away, but it delivers exactly what Red Leaf Tea promises, and today I’m not asking for any more than that.

Time to pull out the 5-ounce light-roasted oolong yixing. After a quick warming rinse, I put about 5 grams of leaf in the pot. I boil water, pour it into a small pitcher, then pour that into the teapot, so my water is probably around 190°. This infusion is only 30 seconds long and gives me a pale yellow liquor. Sometimes I dispose of this first steep, using it only to rinse the leaves, but today this cup smells brilliantly of osthmanthus and butter, so I opt to drink it. Despite the smooth scent, this tea is not as creamy as I expected. It is thick with a full body and mouthfeel. It is bold yet relaxed with a buttery flavour and floral aftertaste that lingers endlessly, sweet and fragrant.

After this, the shy leaves are still mostly closed, waiting for more hot water. My second steep, about 40 seconds long, is less floral than the first, concentrating instead on the smooth, buttery flavours. It has just a hint of astringency and bite in the underlying sip, but it is not unpleasant. As the tea cools, it mellows somewhat, and again the cup has a long floral finish.

Steeps three through six are all consistent, and with each I increase the time by 10-15 seconds. The seventh gets 2:00, the eighth 3:00, and the ninth 5:00. I suspect I could get one more steep if I leave it for 10:00+, but by the end of cup 9, I feel satisfied and ready to finish my tea session.

This is a tea to think about. A cup to wrap yourself up in. With each pot I finished, I found myself anticipating the next. This is a prime example of why I love light and non-roasted oolongs. If they aren’t your style, I understand, but if they are, look here. At this price, you would have a difficult time doing better.

The nutty flavour blends well with the vanilla – it is well-balanced, allowing the hojicha to come through effortlessly. It is a hearty, peaceful cup, and I applaud American Tea Room’s creative and brilliant choice of hojicha-style kukicha for the base.

Since this is a quality blend, I assumed the tea could stand up to a second, four-minute infusion. This one had little vanilla and further astringency in the scent. Thankfully, the harshness doesn’t carry through the flavour very intensely. The cup tasted more of hojicha than vanilla, and though very different, it was still good and well worth the second steep.

Overall, I did find this to be a brave and well done mix, and while I like it, I’m not in love with it, though I won’t fault anyone for this fact. For whatever reason, this blend just doesn’t strike me. No worries, though, because American Tea Room offers plenty of other teas that I’ve found top-notch. I probably wouldn’t buy this, but if you’re checking them out, it’s a good idea to throw in a sample of this because it is incredibly unique.

I put two teaspoons of the pearls along with 12 ounces of 175° water into my clear glass teapot for three minutes. The tea smells sweet and somewhat vegetal, and the flavour is similar. It is hefty for a Silver Needle, and I had hoped for a more delicate cup. For my second steep, I left the tea for four minutes, which gave me a cup more like what I expected. It was less savoury and more of the delicate sweet white I know and love.

I attempted a third infusion, which I steeped five minutes. This cup had a somewhat tart aftertaste and teetered on the line set between the hearty first steep and the calm second.

Final verdict: A good white tea, but not exceptional. I felt it lacked the complexity of an especially fresh and fine Silver Needle. If you’re looking to buy something particularly stunning, this isn’t a miss, but if you’re wanting to buy based on flavour alone, you can probably do better.

One teaspoon, boiling water, and five minutes yield an opaque deep chocolate liquor. It smells weaker than I expected, more mint than anything else, but the other scents are there. The tea is incredibly well-balanced with the mint lingering on well passed everything else. Pu-erh was an excellent choice for a base tea after all.

The cinnamon is an especially brilliant touch, leading me to believe this would be excellent prepared like a chai, with milk and honey. For my second infusion, I let the tea steep for six minutes followed by the addition of milk and honey. The tea itself is somewhat less exciting than the first cup, though still definitely worth the second cup. I do especially enjoy this with the additions, which is rare for me since I usually prefer my teas plain.

I’m not in love with this blend, but I have a lot of respect for Rishi’s gusto. I haven’t seen (well, tasted) anything quite like this on the tea market. I doubt this will become a staple, but I may pick some up in the future for a change of pace. In the dead of winter, I like to have hearty, warming teas around, and sometimes I’m not in the mood for chai. This seems like a great alternative for the days I’m in the mood for something different.