3986 Tasting Notes
Swap Sample Sipdown! (66)
I had bags of this from both Kawaii433 and tea-sipper.
I admit, I didn’t realize until going to write this note that this is a rooibos-based blend. It’s in paper teabags, so you can’t really see the contents, and it brews up quite dark so I had assumed a black base. It also doesn’t taste overly rooibos-y.
But now that I know, I can taste the rooibos and therefore feel like a moron, ha ha!
Other than that, it has a mixture of banana Runts and more natural banana flavors. It’s a little bit creamy, but I don’t get much in the way of chocolate from it.
Not bad though, especially for a caffeine-free blend.
Flavors: Artificial, Banana, Candy, Creamy, Sweet, Wood
Preparation
365 Days of Tea Challenge – Day 31
Sample Sipdown! (65)
Yay, I made it through the first month of my challenge! ❤
Trying out my new easy/travel gaiwan that I bought on a whim from Amazon. I really like it except for the fact that the little silicone band around its midsection does not stay cool enough when brewing at this temperature, especially as the steeps grow longer. So I may have to reserve this little guy for lower temperature teas.
This is a lovely little Taiwanese tea. I fully admit to having a soft spot for oxidized Taiwanese teas, both oolong and black varieties. This one is a sort of a hybrid between the two, which is intriguing.
The flavor throughout the session was a lovely and comforting blend of baked bread and raw grain/oat notes, along with a big dollop of cinnamon honey. There was also a light floral flavor and a slight earthy grassiness present in some steeps. I loved the lasting sweet cinnamon honey aftertaste that lingered after each sip!
I did smell some tart stonefruit and dried fruit aromas in the wet leaf and the tea itself, but I didn’t really get a lot of fruitiness in the taste. Perhaps a touch of dried fruit? I was surprised by how tart and plummy the wet leaf smelled compared to the flavor of the tea.
Overall, it was just what I’d hoped for from a Taiwanese black. I really do love that freshly baked bread with cinnamon honey butter flavor!
6g – 130ml – 200°F – 5/15/25/35/50/80/180s
Flavors: Bread, Cinnamon, Creamy, Earth, Floral, Grain, Grass, Hay, Honey, Malt, Musty, Oats, Smooth, Sweet, Toast, Wood
Preparation
Swap Sample Sipdown! (65)
Another one from Kawaii433!
Yum, these are really good! I’m practically gulping down my mug-full…
Overall flavor is sweet and smooth with a lovely fresh jasmine flavor. There’s also a nice mellow apricot note from the green tea, but otherwise the jasmine is the star. This tea has a nice refreshing quality to it that tells me it would be great as a cold brew.
Unbelievably sweet! And there’s an almost creamy quality here as well. It’s not often I go back for a second steep when I brew Western-style, but I definitely will for this one.
Yum yum yum. Fresh, fruity, jasmine, delicious! ❤
Flavors: Apricot, Creamy, Jasmine, Peach, Smooth, Stonefruit, Sweet
Preparation
Swap Sample Sipdown! (64)
From Kawaii433, of course!
I’ll be honest, I really didn’t enjoy this one…
The rinse was extremely tasty, with sweet notes of honey and dried apricots, comforting roasted grains, and a light floral overtone. I was excited for the steeps to come!
Unfortunately, all of the remaining steeps had a really strong floral note that was just too much for me. It was almost perfume-like. I don’t know if that’s a normal aspect of da hong pao, or if I just did a terrible job with my steeping parameters…
I stuck with it for seven steeps total, just to see if there was any change in the flavors. I was actually surprised that the taste didn’t seem to change much at all after the first steep. There was still plenty of flavor left in the leaves when I called it quits.
Kawaii did send me another da hong pao sample as well, so I’ll have to try that one out and see how it compares. Maybe da hong pao just isn’t for me!
5g – 110ml – 200°F – 5/15/20/20/30/40/60s
Flavors: Apricot, Bitter, Dried Fruit, Earth, Floral, Grain, Honey, Mineral, Musty, Perfume, Roasted, Sweet, Wood
Preparation
hehe I was just going to write that this one (the Medium one) is way better than their dark roasted one. The best one to me though is the YS one because you can taste the nuts. I hope that was the other one I sent you.
Did you find this one very floral? I feel weird that I had such a different experience.
Nope. I usually can’t stand floral teas… I was re-reading your notes and was wondering could I have mislabelled it. Did it look green or roasted? hehe
It was definitely roasted, looked similar to the other dark oolongs you sent. :(
Better yet, did it look like the picture? I know I sent you one that I found too floral, called the immortal prayer but that one is in its own foil package.
Ok, then that would be it. So strange. I wonder if you did it boiling and longer time period. I did it at 25s with boiling. I sure hope you get to try another DHP though.
You did also send the dark roast version, along with Golden Peony and Shui Jin from Mandala. So I’ll see how those compare!
Ok! :D
Here is a short conversation on Da Hong Pao:
http://walkerteareview.com/dialog-authentic-da-hong-pao-or-big-red-robe/
“More often than not, what is being sold as da hong pao are blends that consists mostly of Huang guan yin, an incredibly floral cultivar.”
Swap Sample Sipdown! (63)
This sample is from VariaTEA!
This one is not terribly impressive to me. I do enjoy the fresh lemony flavor, but there’s way too much herbal presence here for me. It completely overpowers the green tea.
So really it tastes like a big pile of lemon verbena with some added lemon flavoring.
It’s not bad, but very meh!
Flavors: Herbaceous, Lemon, Tart
Preparation
Swap Sample Sipdown! (62)
So I haven’t been keeping up with my sipdowns lately, as I’ve become increasingly engrossed in gongfu teaware… XD So as much as I want to do a session now, I’m forcing myself to drink a couple of sipdowns first!
This sample comes from Kawaii433!
I admit, this sounds like an odd combination, but I do enjoy both kumquats and cucumbers, so I’m game!
The base here is lovely and well-balanced, with delicious and satisfying bready notes. The cucumber here reminds me of silver needle – I guess that’s just the association I make with tea and cucumber together. I’m not sure I get much kumquat, perhaps just a little hint of something citrusy?
I’m glad the chili is very mild. It does give a nice, subtle warming sensation that is very interesting.
I would definitely like to see this base in some future blends! It’s balanced and yummy.
Flavors: Bread, Citrus, Cucumber, Hay, Malt, Oats, Pepper, Smooth
Preparation
365 Days of Tea Challenge – Day 30
Tea & chocolate day! I recently ordered a box of chocolate from La Maison du Chocolat, so I figured I’d brew up a chocolate tea to pair with them. Enter Lupicia!
This is probably my favorite of Lupicia’s chocolate teas. Not to say that it’s super fantastic or anything like that, but more that their other ones are somewhat lacking. This has a nice zingy raspberry flavor, not quite as tart as a fresh raspberry, but closer to a sharp raspberry jam. The chocolate is quite light, as in all of Lupicia’s similar teas. I do taste it though, and it’s definitely a dark chocolate or unsweetened cocoa sort of note.
I’m sure if I were in the habit of adding sugar and/or milk to my teas, I would be more impressed with chocolate teas in general. I can understand how it’s tough to get a really good chocolate flavor without at least some sense of creaminess.
Either way, both this and the raspberry-ganache-filled dark chocolate that I had with it were delicious! Pure indulgence! ;)
Flavors: Cocoa, Dark Chocolate, Jam, Raspberry, Sweet, Tart
Preparation
365 Days of Tea Challenge – Day 29
Gongfu cha time!
Okay, this tea probably wasn’t the best choice for the gongfu treatment as the flavor didn’t change all that much between steeps, but I still really enjoyed the ritual of it all, and it was fucking freezing today so I was craving some cozy green tea goodness!
This was also my first time using my new mini tea tray and double-walled glass cha hai. I very much enjoyed them both, aesthetically and functionally!
The dry leaves were beautiful and had a sweet, soft aroma of alfalfa hay, freshly cut grass, and bean sprouts. I started with a 5s rinse, which I tasted (of course). It was so delicious and full of flavor that I adjusted my planned steep times to start shorter and increase more slowly.
As I said, the flavor here didn’t change a whole lot during the session. The first couple of steeps were very smooth with a strong vegetal spinach note and a lovely creamy, roasty nuttiness reminiscent of cashews. There was also a soft grain note that melded seamlessly with the nuts.
I followed TeaVivre’s directions and started at 185°, but once I started to find some bitterness in the second and third steeps, I reduced the temperature to my usual 175° and had better results. There were some light apricot and floral notes that showed up in the middle steeps and stayed until the end. Otherwise, the flavor remained somewhat vegetal with a nice combination of sweet and savory notes and a strong nutty presence.
As the flavor began to fade, I found the vegetal notes lightened first, which left me with a delicious sweet and nutty infusion that I practically gulped down.
I really do love long jing. I’m sure in the future, it would make more sense to steep it Western-style, but I have no regrets! :)
4g – 120ml – 175/185°F – 5/10/20/20/30/40/60s
Flavors: Apricot, Creamy, Floral, Grain, Nuts, Roasted Nuts, Smooth, Spinach, Sweet, Umami, Vegetal
Preparation
365 Days of Tea Challenge – Day 28
Almost done with the first month of my challenge!
I haven’t tried that many teas from Mariage Frères (if I remember correctly, they only sell in 100g bags and their shipping is even worse than Dammann Frères). I actually bought this one at the Paris airport based on the good ol’ sniff test. And I guess my nose is trustworthy, because I love this one!
This is definitely a French tea – it has that French flavoring sense about it. I’m not really sure how to describe that… Musty? But not in a bad way? That just sounds weird.
Anyway, this one is lovely and smooth with some nice, rich honey and dried fruit notes. In particular, it reminds me of fig and dates. There’s also a nice mellow lemon flavor that really helps lift the blend and balances out the richer flavors.
There is a bit of a light floral note, but I mostly attribute that to it being a French flavored tea. ;)
Flavors: Dates, Dried Fruit, Fig, Floral, Honey, Nectar, Smooth, Sweet
Preparation
I also find French teas to have that distinct… something about them. A good something. Could never figure it out either (although I haven’t had a ton of them).
My theory about French flavored teas is that they tend to be in many ways like French perfumes, all about the layering and supporting characters, with intentional top, middle, and base notes (broadly), and many ingredients that are not always apparent in the tasting (or smelling). They are rarely “bright,” “clear” flavors, although they are lovely as their own thing, and this approach tends to make the Thé Français recognizable in its own way.
^ Agreed. Great explanation of the French tea je ne sais quoi.
I’ve only tried Dammann Frères and it felt like drinking perfume. Way too much going on for my liking.
365 Days of Tea Challenge – Day 27
Yep, it’s Bird & Blend again. What can I say, I’m a bit of a fangirl…
Unfortunately, this one is underwhelming me.
It smells nice, like a rich salted caramel sauce. But the caramel doesn’t come forward as strongly in the flavor. I think it’s partially because this has a rather strong black tea base – there’s definitely some Assam in there, and perhaps also Ceylon. To me, the caramel flavoring isn’t strong enough to compete with such a powerful black tea blend.
I even tried adding a touch of sugar to help coax the caramel out, but it didn’t seem to help much. Plus, I never add sugar to my tea, so it just tastes weird to me! XD
I do have a full 50g of this one (it was one of the teas that popped up randomly during their big Boxing Day sale). Next time I’ll definitely try to play with the steep time, to see if I can subdue the base a little and let the caramel shine a bit more. I’m sure this would make a delicious latte as well.
Flavors: Astringent, Bitter, Butter, Caramel, Malt, Tannic
Preparation
I don’t have B&B’s Butterbrew, but at least with the one I have, vanilla almond milk (sweetened) works wonders making a tea latte. No additional sweeteners needed, just the milk.
Yeah, I may try it as a vanilla soy latte next time around! It’s just not something I often do as a tea preparation. :)
It isn’t my go-to preparation either, but if a tea is particularly bitter/astrigent or a chai overly spicy, it can work wonders.
hehe We had you covered for this one.
Tea friends always got your back! ;)
I think we both just figured you like banana chocolate. :D