1711 Tasting Notes
It’s the first day of National Black History Month! I looked through my teas and couldn’t find a single tea that was from a black owned company! :( Second best thing is this tea, which is picked by Kenyan farmers. Jamilla is the farmer who is featured on my tin.
I’ve gone through half this tin in two years. It’s a good tea, but I usually want more from chocolate than just chocolate alone so I feel like I really have to be in an extra chocolatey mood to appreciate it. It’s very raw dark chocolate like. It has that sour tang that dark chocolate gets. Maybe it’s the addition sugar that usually mellows that out? It’s more of a raw than a refined chocolate taste. It reminds me both of the smell of walking into a shop that actually grinds their own beans to make chocolate and the biproduct of the process, the shells, that get sold in giant bags for gardening purposes. I’ve bought a bag of that ground cover before and it goes through stages of smelling really good and chocolatey like this tea and going a bit sour when it starts to decompose and stay damp under a few layers. I can’t pick out the tea in this under the chocolate domination. I’d love to see this company expand on the use of cacao shells with chocolate orange or chocolate mint combos, much like Tikal used to do. So few companies experimenting with cacao shells!
I can’t figure out what I think of this! It starts out as a deep rich strawberry flavor, reflecting the scent. The finish is that same flavor. Some of the sips are great while others fall flat. When the cup cools it’s all flat as well. It’s like that alkaline mineral taste creeps in there, but it isn’t consistent. I wonder if a shorter steeping time would help. I’ll have to play around with this one!
Preparation
Hoping for a good night’s sleep with this tea! I got a single bag of this tea to push me over the minimum order for a delivery and didn’t pay attention to the CBD vs THC levels. This is higher in THC with 3mg per bag and no CBD. I’m not a fan of the effects of THC, so I’m only drinking half this cup. I also didn’t notice that this contains valerian. I don’t recall if it’s valerian or melatonin that leaves me in a mind buzzing almost asleep but never quite able to fully pass out sort of state. My desire for sleep might backfire. Taste wise, this is fine. It has some sugar in it so it’s sweet with cooling peppermint and chamomile for flavors. It’s probably to mask any cannabis flavors, which I can only pick out faintly if I’m really trying. The mint is really domaining. It’s a nice enough evening cup. Nothing outstanding flavor wise. I’ll have to update in the morning on how well I slept. Fingers crossed!
Update: Well that sucked! I suspect it was the valerian and not the THC that kept me from fully falling asleep for a couple hours, despite being tired. Also woke up several times throughout the night. This tea is fired!
Preparation
What the heck? On the dashboard, the little photo for this tea is shuffling through different photos!
tea-sipper I have noticed that as well. At first I thought it’s a new feature; but honestly I just think it’s a gif?
When I was making the profile for this tea I grabbed the only picture I could find of it off their website and it was this shuffling thing. I think Martin is right, it’s probably a gif. I don’t like how much motion it brings. It’s distracting.
Oh, I thought it was a new feature too, that Steepster would shuffle through all the pictures of each tea that everyone adds (which might be fun, but yeah, also distracting.)
I don’t see it, but if it is an animated gif, that would make sense. I have add-ons installed that make those stationary images for me, since they can aggrevate my chronic headache condition.
Preparation
Hmmm… not sure about this one. It smells very fruity. It doesn’t make me think of fresh bright peaches, but maybe it’s more of a deeper dried peach. When I sip it I get a bland fruitish flavor that goes a little tart/sour on the sides of my tongue near the back of the sip and then there is that alkaline flatness to it at the end. If I hold the tea in my mouth I can kind of get dried peaches. The finish is dried peach for sure. It leaves my mouth with that dry feeling. I’m not liking this and that surprises me because I’m usually such a huge fan of Theodor teas! I’m not giving up though. I’ll play around with the steeping parameters and also try a cold steep too. There may be hope yet!
Preparation
I’ve had this tea for a while and decided to do a restock on this recent order. I’m puzzled why I haven’t written a tasting note before and why it gets a thumbs down in so many reviews. It’s lemony for sure. I don’t know that I get a bright lemon, more of a baked or defanged lemon with deeper caramel like notes behind it. I get a little tartness in the sip on top of the deeper flavors of the tea base. Towards the end of the sip the lemon starts to come out and lingers into the finish. I suppose it could have a little more going on in it, but I enjoy it as is.
Preparation
I got it as well! A new one for me. I must try it again, I think I brewed it too hot the first time. I do like it, it is a delicate lemon and lemon is almost never delicate…
Theodor teas seem to be quite temperature sensitive! I’m glad they come with steeping instructions. I hope your next cup is better!
It’s funny how you can sip a tea and taste one thing, then read the description and totally pick up on other flavors. I was totally tasting peach in this cup. A bright juicy peach. The start of the sip is a little bland with a hint of tart and then it turns into an almost gummi peach flavor. After reading the description, it totally morphs into melon with a bit of pear. It tastes very similar to Lupicia’s Momoko and I wonder if I’d taste melon in that one if I thought about it. Still need to try this cold steeped and after just having bought a bag of this, I’ll have plenty to play around with.
I forgot to mention, google translate says the name means “cute sin”. LOL! Does peach translate to cute?
Preparation
LOL! “Pêche” is peach and “Mignon” is cute. I think it’s a play on words, as “Péché Mignon” apparently means indulgence (literally: cute sin).
I think “mignon” translates to cute. This could be a play on “pêche” meaning “peach” and “péché” meaning “sin,” or it could just be Google Translate making a mistake. :D
Also, I wouldn’t get half the flavours I notice in tea without having them pointed out in reviews by other members.
The French seem to really enjoy their play on words, which don’t translate well to English and leave me confused. LOL! I do like the idea of indulgence being a cute sin.
The best translation for péché mignon seems to be “guilty pleasure”! The name apparently comes from it originally meaning a sin that was too small to be punishable by the church, LOL! Just a cute little sin…
Like others said, mignon is the cute, fluffy, sweet part.
There are two french verbs this could be playing on. Pécher is to sin, but Pêcher is to fish. I think this is more like “fished cutesy” because Pêché with the circunflex accent on the first e really is the past participle of the verb “to fish”, not “to sin”. With no fishy connotations though, more like “to catch” rather than fish as a smelly thing. If this makes any sense.
I’ve been trying to learn French while I sleep by listening to audio lessons all night. This is making me realize the breadth I have yet to go! :)
Carrot?! Really?! Huh! Okay. You know how some companies call their flavored teas perfumed teas? Well it seems really fitting for this tea. The flavors are very light and aromatic, but have a depth that balances them. Theodor is so good at blending. It’s fruity, but I can’t pinpoint what fruit. It’s not berries and I’m not familiar enough with yuzu to know what that flavor is. I’m reminded of the flavors in Theodor’s Cours Mirabeau. Maybe I can cross reference the ingredients in that to figure out what I’m tasting here. This cup was good hot and it’s also just as nice as it has cooled.
Preparation
Sipping down! I had a cup of this last night and I’m resteeping those leaves with the half serving left in the bag. This has a really nice rich warm nutty flavor. It’s definitely better hot and seems to loose a lot of the magic when I let the cup cool. I like it enough as a decaf option that I’m considering ordering more so I have something besides herbals to turn to in the evenings.
Preparation
Ooh…that does sound like a really pleasant departure from minty evening stuff!
I don’t normally like decaf tea I either like the caffeine level whatever the tea is naturally or a just get an herbal tisane. But I looked this tea up and the ingredient mix sounds nice. Onto wish list it goes-I’ve never had anything from this company before :)
It’s nice to have a break from mint and chamomile!
This order was my first exposure to this company. I feel like the teas have been alright overall. I found a few I liked and a few I didn’t. They offer smaller samples which makes it easier to explore.
I’m getting close to a sipdown on this tin, yet I haven’t made a tasting note! I had a sample of this at the SF Tea Festival a couple years ago and bought a tin based on that. I’ve had it many times over the years, but I was steeping it like I would a regular black tea and getting a mediocre cup out of it. I recently looked up the company’s instructions, followed them and got a much better cup. 1c water to 1 scoop tea simmered on the stove for 10m, adding a 1/2 c of milk and letting it simmer for a few more. The pepper came out nicely with that preparation. I added a little more cracked pepper and sweetened with some ginger flavored honey and got such a wonderfully spicy warming cup that I sipped through what turned out to be a 3hr long family yoga zoom class today. I’m likely to make this tea daily until this tin is done. It’s perfect for warming up in cold weather.
