Madison Bartholemew

On first taste this was AMAZING! My first pot managed to be juicy and sweet and delicious and everything I could have possibly wanted from a light based peach tea. Nothing was too overwhelming but the flavors were strong and pleasant and went well with the tea base. There was nuance. Delicate tendencies. You get my point.
So I geared up for my second steep all happy and excited… and then it tasted all watered down in comparison.
I can’t get this tea to re-steep correctly. I’ve tried extending times… hotter water… colder water…. leaves in the cup while I’m drinking… EVERYTHING. It just doesn’t want to do it.
This tea would have been rated higher if I could get more than one cup/pot of of the leaves.
It is totally yummy though. But the price is making this a treat tea for me.

And I’m Back! Hiatus over! And I’m sooo angry!
…BECAUSE… every tea I LOVE is a limited run or gets discontinued. Like this one.
Moving on!
This is not something I would have ever normally ordered but I was dealing with a lot of crap in my head and read a lot of reviews stating that matcha and high grade Japanese greens can help with things like seasonal depression and other things like that. Was that vague enough? ;) So this was my lets drink it every day… it’s being discontinued so I can’t beat the price… experiment tea. I should probably add in here that I’m not usually the biggest Japanese green fan so when I first got it I did not like it.
But! for the sake of behavioral science I kept drinking it. And now… I like it. I know that the flavor puts a smile on my face but I have no idea if those studies mean anything. I guess if I suddenly get very sad starting tomorrow we’ll have an answer.
So yea! I’m actually finding I like it better than matcha because I’m learning I’m not the biggest fan of the texture of it. This kind of tea gives me that kinda flavor with out me choking on my own saliva. AWESOME.
Also like matcha… if you let this tea hang out in a cup or pot too long it does develop some bitterness. So I try to drink it as quickly as I can without burning my esophagus to a cinder.
:)

mmm today this tea is reminding me of gouda cheese… isn’t that horrible.
I think it’s just the smokiness of it.
Again this tea is very smooth with nothing in it but, today the smoke has a sharpness to it.
Still yummy. Still not an every day tea.

Do you like coconut curry? I like coconut curry. This tea is OMG coconut curry. Don’t put milk in it… Gosh I’m frenetic today. Do you like rice? I like kitties. Seriously though, no milk in this one. blech

When taken hot and with sugar… I’m consistently looking at the bottom of my cup trying to figure out where they put the chicken. It has to be in there! This tea is just as savory as coconut chicken curry. Weird!

The coconut is really strong too. Reaaally strong but, I love coconut so I’m perfectly fine with that. The lemon grass is just the right amount to add a sour quality and have it accent instead of annoy. Good job Adagio.

After that it’s just plain chai though. Is there tea down there? Yea. Do I care? no. CAUSE it taste like chicken curry!

This tea is amazing! And I really thought I was going to hate it. Yum Yum, Yum.

You know when your cats are looking into a container of some kind because there is a threat waiting to pop out of it. Their tails going methodically back and forth. Eyes unwavering. That’s me over my cup right now looking for the chicken. I swear I’m going to find it.

Weird… I just uploaded this to my website today!! Synchronistic thought processes scare me!

This is so nice and smooth! I usually turn away from drinking many black teas because I usually find the flavor combination of floral and spicy to be a bit too much for my palate.

The cool thing about this tea, which might give me the desire to try other blacks, is that it has another flavor profile that helps to smooth out the over all taste. I really starting to notice this great nutty flavor coming from the tea as it began to cool down.The nuttiness brings both the floral and the spicy completely into check rounds out all of the pointer edges of this tea. I think i like this one best iced.

While it remains hot this is still pleasant and I can drink it comfortably with no milk or sugar. The spice and floral flavors do play nice together even if they can be strong. They are never “put down that cup” strong, but as a fan of oolongs and greens some times I feel black tea flavors are just a bit strong in general. So the fact I didn’t feel the need to put anything in this tea says something.

mmm I"ve had this twice now with drastically different results…
first was at 160 degrees with a 2 minute steep time and it was sublime…
second was at 175 with a 2 min steep and I thought it was too spinachy…
How strange… so I’ll be experimenting with this more to figure out all of the little nuances.
Also it seems like using too much tea can drastically impair this teas flavor… more testing to come… obviously…

It’s growing on me. I’m getting the raisins the most but, I’m getting hardly any cinnamon or toast.
If you put milk and sugar in it it is much better. I think that was my problem the first time around.

This is a good tea sometimes… and a alright tea some times… it depends on what chucks of stuff you pull out for a particular cup…
This is why I’m not liking teavana’s stuff very much…

Ohhh my…
Nutty and sweet. It first I thought is was going to just be a nice white tea like all of the others… and then I hit the after taste.
I’m getting hint of floral sweetness and honey? I feels like a richer sweet than just sugar…
In a couple of days I’ll have this tea all figured out but, until then I’m just gonna sip.

Well! I have finally ordered something from samovar! To many glowing recommendations not to honestly.
So this is my first tea from them ever!
It smells smokey like a lapsang. I really was not expecting that but, it’s all cool man.
Since my boyfriend likes bacon so much I called him over for a sip and his first comment was that it smelled weird. I explained what a lapsang was and then he got it. Suprisingly to me, he didn’t like it. I figured he wouldn’t mind it since it was more manly. Oh well.
Anyways… I tried it plain first and I am really pleasantly surprised by the fact it needs absolutely nothing for me to enjoy it. Usually I need smokier teas to have a little sugar to bring out the under lying sweetness and take away some of the tannins.
This needs nothing at all to be extremely flavorful and smooth.
The flavor hits in three parts with an initial smokey burst followed by a smooth black tea impression and then it’s surprisingly sweet.
I’m gonna go enjoy my pot now. Yum.

Bad… but not that bad.
The jasmine flavor is not strong enough to block out the green tea flavor completely so there is some kind of balance… I didn’t say it was a great balance but whatever…
It’s better than bentley’s.
It’s got a cute little disney flower picture on it… that’s nice.
Yea I didn’t like this one. But… it’s not horrible…

second attempt and half strength!
still bad… it’s no where near as strong… (obviously) but the lighter flavors reveals more of the soapy weird sweet taste I was getting before. So i’m thinking it was better strong because the soapiness couldn’t come out through the overbearing jasmine thickness.
Geeez… Again the warmth of the tea can cover up some of it’s flaws so should you ever NEED to drink this (I think I know what my personal hell would be) drink it hot.
At least hell is hot… that will spare me the cold down after taste ickiness.

oohhh god… well I’m trying to give this company a shot… but they keep messing it up.
brewed at normal strength it’s way too strong. The mouth feel is excessively heavy and the perfume is waaaaaaaaay too strong. The nose is also oddly sweet… oddly … weirdly… sickeningly sweet.
I’ll try this half strength…
Also this has the same curse as all bentley’s… DO NOT LET THIS GET COLD… IT’S HORRIBLE COLD.
bad.. very very bad cold.
shudder

I took a break from this tea to see if I was accidentally trying to taste banana… I’m back and I’m still getting banana.
sigh
This is still pretty yummy, but the banana is killing me!

Today I made this with only a little bit of sugar and the creaminess of it was fantastic.
bumping up the ratings a little bit.

I received a free sample of this and was not excited about it as this isn’t one I liked the sample of in the store but, when I made it at home it was pretty good.
At least it wasn’t as bad as I remembered it.
more notes to come

WOW! This was my first experience with Damn Fine Tea and I am very pleasantly surprised. Admittedly I wasn’t sure what I was in for, as I am not too familiar with the descriptor of Nepal, but, I was expecting a plain, strong and generally normal black tea experience. That is not what this is at all.

Bottom line… this is an amazingly complex and BEAUTIFUL black tea. The tea is so very, very light with minimal tannins and the only bold, typical black tea flavors in the blend at all come at the very tail end of the flavor profile. The first flavors to hit your tongue are all honey and smooth sweetness and remind me of french pastries. Not the doughy part of the pastry but, the way that chocolate and vanilla can blend with caramels and hazelnuts to make a unique flavor that stands on it’s own. The initial impression is honey but, as the flavor develops it shifts from creme brule to hot chocolate and caramel. And even with all of it’s complexity it remains delicate and well balanced and fricken fantastic. Can you tell I’m in tea love?

At the end of each sip there is just a little bite to remind you that this is a black tea and not an oolong. This is seriously the lightest, sweetest most complex black tea that I can have with no additives and still be the happiest woman on the planet drinking it.

After the little tannin nip at the end the after taste fades into toasted caramel. sigh I wish they would put this out again so I can have more.

I’m trying to like this tea…
theoretically I like everything in it but something about the way the raisin works with the tea is just hitting me really wrong and making my face go into sweet tart position…
I’ll keep trying until I can take it anymore but I don’t think I like this one at all… It tastes like a worse version of vanilla date to me.

I was much more happy with this tea than other fruit mushes because it isn’t as tart tasting. There is something a little more mellow and smoother about this than x-random american fruit in a cup.
And they didn’t use hibiscus which make me way happy!

this is the first cup of tazo anything that I’m really enjoying.
I actually wanted to try this before I picked up the pack of tea from the asian market that has a lotus on the box that all of the people who don’t really speak English are giving me the thumbs up sign for.
At least now I have some kind of an idea what I’m in for.
The florality of this tea is nice, but what I’m finding surprising are the buttery notes. So when I try the real lotus tea I’m gonna be looking to see if that is something tazo put in or if it is an actual quality of the lotus in the tea.

oohhh I like this one. I was brought up with peach tea and this blows black+ peach tea away.
It’s smooth and not bitter at all… there isn’t much sugar in it either which I really like.

having it now with out sugar and the hint of banana is still there… I find it interesting that it wasn’t due to excess sugar

wow… this is pretty amazing.
So far I like it better hot than iced because I almost get a little tinge of banana when it’s iced which is probably the left over taste from the mate… but it is faint at best.
When it’s hot it really does taste creamy without any milk in it which is awesome.
more notes to come.

I think this can be really good or relatively bad depending on how you make it. If you make it thin I think the flavor is good and sweet.
If it’s made to their recipe I think it becomes a little bitter for me.
I’ve been brewing it at 140 and that takes off most of the bitterness and instead of 1/2 tea spoon I’ve been using about a quarter.
full review will be up on www.mad-tea.com when I’m done with experimenting.