1040 Tasting Notes
The question of the day is – what do mulberries taste like? I don’t think I’ve ever had them, no idea what it should me. So I’m just going to make this up as I go along.
This tea is sweet, sweeter than I would expect from a fruity black. It’s nice though, I’m happy sitting here with this cup. It is a little apricot and then other fruity flavors. I’m not really getting much black base, but that’s ok with me. There is a little of what I call citrus acidic. You know when orange juice is acidic – this tastes a bit like that.
All in all, fun little tea that I am really happy OMGsrsly sent me this sample, thank yous so much.
I’m a little torn with this one. I’m not getting much pecan and nothing that I would call cheesecake. I did lower water temp and went with the suggested 2.5 minute steep time.
My problem is that I really like 52teas chocolate. This is deep dark chocolate rather than the milk chocolate of most chocolate teas. I really like it as a chocolate black tea, but I’m not sure it lives up to the name.
Thank you MissB for sending me a sample of this one. :))
Thank you MissB for sending me a sample of this teea.
I’m not a fan of anything licorice, so I did pick out the two star anise pieces that there were. Even doing that, I didn’t like this at all. I’m not even sure what it was, but it seemed really citrus acidic with strange spices. Sorry, but this was just awful. :(( I only drank about half the cup, no sorry couldn’t do it. Thanks for the experience, but this one is a miss for me.
Had some of this last night and continuing with it this morning. Thanks MissB for the sample.
There isn’t much info about the tea, but it reminds me of Bluebird’s Raspberry Beret. For me there is quite a bit of rooibos coming though. It’s really fruity, and I’m thinking creamy raspberry. I think it’s nicely balanced, a little sweet a little tart. It’s nice. Thanks MissB.
Wow, I seem to be missing a lot of feeds these past few days. Sorry about that!
I struggled to find anything about this tea when I got it. CS has taken it off their site, so I ended up calling them. It’s discontinued, and that’s pretty much all they told me. I even asked the person who gave it to me as a gift what the deal was, and have yet to hear back. So… I had pretty much the same experience. It’s pleasant, a bit rooibos-y, and nice to use as a blend.
I received this in a swap from MissB. Based on her tasting note I really didn’t have much hope for it, but if she was generous enough to send it to me, I’m game to try it.
I’ve drank a lot of chai recently. This isn’t my favorite, but it certainly isn’t the worst. Smooth, mildly spicy, but I’m not getting any chocolate at all. There is a strange spice in here that I can’t quite identify. Read the ingredient list and all that sounds like chai, but there is something in here that is a little strange. I’ve been drinking it for most of the evening, it’s ok, it’s fine, just not special.
Thanks MissB for the sample – I’m not getting the chemical ewww that you found offensive – I think it’s just odd, but not really offensive.
LOL Ahhhhhhh this would be the mint. Thought my sniffer was off the other night, but as soon as the water hit the leaves, I just got a huge whiff of mint. I’ve commented on other tasting notes, and I really believe that it’s true – if you aren’t crazy about (or sensitive to) a flavor that’s the one that seems to stand out for you.
For me this is herbally, minty, fruity (berry – yeah ok, wouldn’t have said that it screams raspberry though). I’m not getting any black base at all, this could be a tisane to my tastes, and I don’t think I’m getting any bakery or cakey.
This is obviously a quality tea, just not to my tastes.
Thank you MissB for sending me a sample of it, really appreciate it.
I noticed the mint ingredient when I was at Winners the other night. So glad I did, or I would have had 100g of no.
Yep, I try and avoid it as much as possible. Not sure what it is, I can do toothpaste, mint hot chocolate, after dinner mints, but as soon as it’s in a tea – I don’t like it…. :((
I just don’t really like mint at all. Chocolate mint teas are ok sometimes. :)
Dammit! I forgot about the mint in here. I wish I thought about that… bad me. Well, I’m glad you tried it at least.
LOL no worries, you can’t be expected to know/remember everyone’s preferences.
Thanks MissB for sending me a sample of this.
MMMMMMMMMmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm this has a lot of the elements that I LOVE about Davids Coffee Pu’erh. I like that the pu’erh isn’t totally masked, it’s there but more as an accent to add depth and mouth feel to the chocolate. Seems to me this makes it more “truffle” than most black teas are able to achieve. I really like this, but it’s not coffee pu’erh. Thanks MissB!!!
Thank you MissB for sending me a sample of this. Good Choice, this is something I should like – I think this is the tea that I think smells like mint. I don’t think there is any actual mint in here, but there is something that smells, tastes like it.
This is another really unusual experience for me. I can’t even begin to tell you what this is like. Chai, not really, spicy for sure – a little medicinal in a herbal sort of way. Odd little tea that I’m glad to have had the chance to try, but I don’t think I would seek this out again.
Thanks so much MissB
It is cold and windy and snowing here tonight. My plan for the evening was to curl up on the couch and sample some more of the teas MissB so generously sent me.
This was on top of the pile, and well, ummmmmm, I’m now working on my fourth cup and haven’t made it any further into the stack.
I really quite like this, I’ve been drinking it all evening and am quite sure this sample is going to get finished off tonight.
Why do I get caught up with the names though…? This is a nice chocolate tea, but I’m not getting any cookie, and not much creamy. A splash of milk solves the creamy problem, but cookie – sorry I’m missing that.
Oh well, I’m just going to be happy with this desserty tea, and thank MissB for sending it to me.
interesting!
Would you say it’s worth trying? I gave up on trying to get to a store and am contemplating an online order, and was considering this one.
Indendiare, were there any other blends you were considering? I have a quite a few different Tea Desire blends since I have a local store – so if you wanted to sample some things we could work out a swap (I don’t however have this particular blend).
I’ve been planning on making an order to restock on a bunch of my favourites anyway, so ordering wasn’t going to be a hassle. It’s just so annoying how whenever I go back to Edmonton to visit, their store would close down and be in the midst of opening a new one at a different location!
**Incendiare
Yeah, that would be a pain. I really love Tea Desire: their Champagne Cassis and Banana Tea “Chocolate Cream” are my favourite blends, by far (and in my top 5 favourites overall). I also really like Buddha Bamboo, Mate Mint, Raspberry Oolong, Chai Apricot, Asia Cocktail, and Victoria Mint (I keep all of those ones restocked). To be honest, their blacks have all been misses for me (part of why I’ve yet to try this one, the other part being that I hate Oreos) – and their greens hit or misses.
I think all teas are personal preference. This is a decent chocolate tea and I think it would be worth trying.
I really like Champagne Cassis too, but haven’t tried the banana one yet. Must be a newer one. I luckily found a few of the flavoured blacks that I like, such as Walnut Truffle and Cinnamon Star (and their Irish Cream is pretty good, although I got sick of it after a while). It’s more their greens that are misses for me, but I love their White Angel. But Dexter is right, they’re definitely a personal preference. I think I’ll give this one a go when I order.
I really enjoyed this one too, although I think the name is off as well. It’s just a really nice chocolate tea. White Angel is phenomenally good (I will forevermore have it in my house), and Chocolate Truffle is another favorite. Chocolate Chai… is growing on me. I’m so glad that you’re enjoying it, Dexter!
I was looking at Tea Desires website and this caught my eye. I am glad to know it is good even if it doesn’t taste like an oreo. I was also looking at Chocolate Loops, Chocolate Truffle, and Cinnamon Star – obviously I had chocolate on the mind when checking out the site haha.
Chocolate Loops is mostly loops, just FYI. I have some Cinnamon Star… I should just open this envelope I have sitting here for you VariaTEA and add these into it for you to try out.
haha as wonderful as that would be, you really do not need to send me a sample of every tea I show interest in. You are really too kind.
Hi my name is Dex and I’m really new to the world of loose leaf tea. I’m hoping that some of you wonderful Steepster members will help me. I am seeking tea lesson, I need to learn more about the different varieties of tea and their characteristics. Any help in this regard would be greatly appreciated.
I received this tea in my wonderful swap package from MissB Thank you so much for sending some of this my way.
This tea is beautiful, large dark twisted leaves with WHITE tips – not golden but pure white. It’s a nice mild, slightly astringent but well balanced black tea, there are some fruity and slightly sweet tones. This isn’t my favorite style of black, but am enjoying the sample I have. OH WAIT – this is an oolong – I’m so confused. This looks like a black tea, this smells like a black tea, this tastes like a black tea. There isn’t anything oolongish about it. I need some serious help…..
This type of tea is also known as Oriental Beauty. It has a relatively high degree of oxidation hence some of it’s similarities to black tea. I am by all means not an expert ( I have 2 but the only one I’ve tried is a cheap box of a higher grade sea dyke brand one from the Chinese grocery store;), the other I haven’t touched yet). This article gives you some history and information about this style of tea though.
http://teamasters.blogspot.ca/2007/02/study-of-oriental-beauty.html
I had this experience with my first and, thus far, only Bai Hao recently! It was hard for me to wrap my head around the fact that it was indeed an oolong.
Thanks for the link yyz. I did read it, I now understand that the sweetness/honey notes come from the cricket bites on the leaves, I understand that it’s highly oxidized and therefore would be closer to a black than a green tea. I’ve had lots of highly oxidized oolongs and they all (other than Black Pearl Sumatra – but that’s another one that makes my head hurt) still have some oolongishness too them. If someone had just given me a cup of this I would have sworn it was a black… Oh well, thanks for the info, I’m going to file this tea under confusing and move on until I have a better grasp/understanding.
greenteafairy – that’s exactly how I feel. It looks like a black, it smells like a black, it tastes like a black….but it’s an oolong…
I remember when I bought this tea; the lady who sold it to me told me the history behind it, and had met the tea farmers face-to-face prior to buying it for her store. I wish I could remember more of the story, however it was (and still is) one of the most expensive teas I’ve ever purchased. I was curious as to what extra money bought (I know it sounds silly, however I really was curious) and so I grabbed 50g of it. The way they made it in-store blew my mind. Somehow it tasted like a black, yet was sweet and fruity like an oolong… I managed to get that out of it the last time I brewed it, however have yet to try again. If you’re really curious, I’m sure the folks at the Tea Centre in Courtenay, BC would be happy to talk to you about it ([email protected]; http://teacentre.ca/bai_hao_oolong.htm)
Maybe I’ll ask my mom to get me some of this for Christmas. :D
There is no doubt this is a beautiful high quality tea. It’s just so strange to me. Can’t comprehend how it can go so far against everything I thought I understood about tea.
I think sometimes that the categorization of teas is maybe a little more fluid than we sometimes like them to be here. I know that on Aliexpress that Dancongs, and Da hong Pao are often sold under black tea vs oolong.
OMGsrsly, I will give you the rest of what I have, if you’d like it
– or anyone else who would like to try some. Oolongs hate me right now, and as much as I love this tea, I’d rather it was enjoyed than just sit in my cupboard.
My mom only buys her tea from there, so if someone further away is interested, share with them first. :)
all i can think of is “all around the mulberry bush, the monkey chased the weasel..the monkey stopped to pull up his socks…POP goes the weasel!”
Only thing I’ve had mulberries in was DAVIDsTEA’s Gold Rush and to me that blend tastes very much like liquid Werther’s caramel.
Mulberries are ridiculously sweet. I bought a bag of plain dried ones on a whim and can barely eat them. :)
The wet ones are sweet and juicy, though if not ripe they can be slightly tart. The trees can be really prolific. We shared one with a neighbour at one of the houses I lived in as a child.
LOL@ Sil…I remember that nursery rhyme.
I love mulberries…sweet and can have a touch of tartness with them…
I love apricot in tea, if it is a good apricot.
This tea sounds lovely to me :-)