I just got some new teas but since it’ll take some time before I get around to trying them, I thought I’d share some of the teas I’ve been drinking. This post was inspired by the Teas I Drink in a Day series by Tea Is a Wish and The Tea Library (although I drank these over the past couple of weeks instead of in a day). All of these teas were given to me, either by friends or family, so I didn’t have much information about them. So here are my quick impressions of these teas:

Erbe Di Montagna Bio

I’m actually not quite sure what this is (google just told me it was a tisane) but it was actually really good. It reminded me of peppermint tea without the minty sensation, if that makes sense. I ended up steeping this four times, until there was barely any flavour left.

Sun Moon Lake Black Tea

I was secretly hoping that this would be another Taiwan No. 18 but sadly it was not to be. It was pleasant enough – sweet and not too astringent so I enjoyed this. There was one weird thing – the roof of my mouth was a bit tingly after drinking this. It’s not a good sign (in my opinion) because I’m pretty sure I recognise astringency by now, and if this wasn’t astringency (and I doubt it is) then it’s probably from pesticides or something else.

Aged White Tea

This was a taobao buy from Cher, who’s basically a master at finding reliable tea shops on taobao. It’s a tiny little tea cake, making it the perfect size for one serving.

The tea wasn’t sweet at all – it’s got some woody notes (reminded me a bit of the Yakushima Black Tea) but no malty notes at all. It’s definitely stronger than a new white tea. It’s definitely an acquired taste but I’d be interested in drinking more of this!

Grand Hotel Oolong

The Grand Hotel is a Taiwanese landmark that has hosted many VIPs, including Lee Kuan Yew. The dry oolong balls were pretty small, which seemed promising until they opened up – I realised that this was made from parts of the leaves, not whole ones. The tea seems to be pretty highly roasted, given that the roasted notes were very strong, but it wasn’t bitter at all. Not a fantastic oolong, but pretty decent on the whole.

Moonmin tea!!

Despite the fact that I’ve visited the Moomin Cafe in Fukuoka many, many times, I haven’t actually seen or tried any Moomin-brand teas until now. This is a black tea with blueberries and it smelled amazing. It’s got a lovely fruity scent and reminded me a lot of blueberry muffins – I’ve had other teas that claimed to be blueberry-inspired but this is definitely the best so far.

Out of all these teas, I’d be most interested in drinking the white tea, the Moomin tea, and the Erbe di Montagna bio tisane again.

On a separate note, I’ve been making good progress finishing my opened teas, so hopefully I can open my new teas soon. We did a group buy from Cher’s suppliers and we got a bunch of Chinese teas – including a yellow tea and the famed Duck Shit Dancong! I’m extremely excited to try those!