55 Tasting Notes
I’ve been waiting for this red leaf order for a while now so despite the fact that I really (really) should be studying now and not writing tea reviews, I had to open up this package.
Holy smokes this tea has one potent smell. Hella strong. And I love it. All things almond/marzipan/cherry/amaretto you name it – I’ll consume it. I am not a matcha drinker by any means so I was skeptical of all these amazing reviews and kind of intimidated by matcha. (You’re scary, matcha – deal with it) .
Anyways… I made this cold and with milk as per the directions in my magic bullet and I was pleasantly surprised! Albeit the flavour wasn’t too strong for “robust” but I’d blame myself for being scared and not using enough…… Whoops.
Anyways, I’ll write a proper review (later?!) but I wanted to procrastinate document my first thoughts on it while I still had it in my hands. Yay, almondy goodness.
Flavors: Almond, Marzipan
First off – I LOVE this tea. I hate actual licorice but love all licorice flavoured things… candy…sambuca…. hahaha but I can’t eat actual licorice – figure that one out for me!
Anyways this smells AMAZING. I’d smell it all day if I could – unfortunately, I’m not getting as strong of an actual licorice taste from this – not that it isn’t there but I was sort of hoping it would… punch me in the face. (never thought I’d say that)
Added a bit of sugar to it and it brought out the flavour a bit more but I’m thinking if I let it cool off the licorice might taste a little stronger.
And for the price – this tea was such a good deal, I’m glad it came in 1oz sizes vs the 1/2 ounce.
I’ll definitley be hoarding this one for a while. Very good.
We’ve only had a fleeting relationship Butiki, but I hope it was as good for you as it was for me… ;) now, onto my other teas from this order!
It might be because licorice is actually flavored with anise rather than licorice these days. I’m the opposite, I love black licorice and other things flavored with anise, but I can’t stand licorice in tea.
Ahhh, that might be it! I never knew that, thanks!
You’re welcome. I found it a very fascinating tidbit of information, so I thought I’d pass it on.
With it’s high quality and high ratings from the steepster community, I wanted to taste this a few times before I reviewed it. I got this and Laoshan Black as well as a sample of Big red robe in my order from Verdant yesterday. I think this one is a case of reading the excellent reviews and getting my hopes up, because it wasn’t quite what I expected. I love Earl greys so I thought this tea would be perfect for me. The bergamot is not very prominent – I get more of a floral taste before the bergamot which was a little disappointing. I’d prefer it the other way around but there is definitely a lot of rose in this tea.
I TOTALLY get the “natural” chocolate taste though – whenever somebody described that I never understood how that could be but I think it’s really nice and intriguing – perhaps I’ll prefer the regular Laoshan Black when I get the chance to try it.
So overall very nice and I’ll definitely have more, but when I get to order again I’ll probably try something different!
Yay for fancy tea though!
(sidenote: the instructions say steep for 2-5 seconds…..is that right?!)
Flavors: Bergamot, Chocolate, Rose
I’m guessing that the 2-5 seconds thing is off the back of the bag? For this tea, I’d ignore it – those instructions, I think, work best for their oolongs and puerh if you’re using a gaiwan or tiny tea pot (for gong fu cha etc). I think this tea is one of few Verdant offerings that works really well as a Western Brewed tea – I still normally use a generous amount of leaf, but steep (initially) for 30 – 60 seconds (depending on how much leaf, exactly, how much water, how hot the water is etc etc)!
*really works best
(They all work well however you drink them, ofc! But I prefer gong fu style brewing for most (except this one))
(Also (sorry for spamming) – I found my bag of this became increasingly bergamot heavy as I got through the bag – I mixed it up more and it balanced better! Maybe this would help for you, too! :-) )
Ahh thank you! Yes that makes more sense – I ended up actually steeping it for about a minute because 5 seconds just did not seem right, haha.
And I’ll definitely give it a mix before I try it next – the bergamot seemed more like an after taste than anything with my first two steeps!
No worries on the spamming – the more information and advice re: tea I can get, the better!
Thanks Nichole for sending this to me!
I’m not entirely sure what I was expecting from this, but it isn’t what I got. Not that it’s bad tea, but I just didn’t really get any sense of “cream” from it. I tried brewing it at a cooler temperature as some people suggested, but it was still kind of astringent and just tasted like a plain black tea with something added to it. I tried it with a little cream and sugar and I could finish the cup that way, but it wasn’t great. I ordered from adagio a week ago so maybe I’ll try blending it with other teas as this is in most of the blends I’ve found so far. Not bad, but not great – thanks for the chance to try it Nichole!
Preparation
I got this tea as a gift over Christmas but since I generally don’t like chocolate in tea I hadn’t tried it yet until I opened it up recently for a swap. I like spicy chais so I thought I might like this.
Steeped for about five minutes – and I don’t get any strong taste from this tea. Adding a tsp of sugar really brings out the chocolate flavour to this tea – unfortunately I don’t get any spicyness of chai but I decided to make it into a latte anyways (generally prefer chais this way). And it’s really nice – still more chocolate than spice but it’s still a good cup of tea!
So I just got home from a ten hour work day and really didn’t feel like making myself supper so…. tea for supper, I suppose!
I bought a pack of this a few weeks ago due to its excellent reviews (and apparently this is an award winning tea, so how could I not?)
I’m not getting any pineapple flavour (this is pina colada right…? ) but it does have a really nice coconut flavour… way nicer than their coconut cream pie tea, oddly. Now that I’m drinking it more the may be a faint pineapple flavour but I might just be tricking myself into this because I want to taste it. Added milk to it (apparently I’m on a milk in tea kick recently) and it did give it the creaminess you’d want for a pina colada tea!
Anyways, this is a really nice (coconut) tea – but I’m not going to give it a higher rating because to me, this is supposed to be pina colada… and I’m just not getting it. But hey, I’ll definitely drink it again!
Flavors: Coconut
This tea just gets me on the go.
It has a great balance of mintiness and creamy white chocolate flavour. It still kinda weirds me out, adding milk to a herbal tea but it totally makes it.
Oh David, I wish you would bring this tea back!
Flavors: Cream, Peppermint, White Chocolate
Wee! Thank you Nichole for sending this to me!! I’m kind of a hit or miss with chamomile teas – but this flavour just called to me! The tea in the bag smells like honey, not in an overpowering way but in a sweet way. I over steeped this one by quite a bit while I was cooking myself a grilled cheese, but the tea tastes like honey too! I actually don’t really get any vanilla taste from this… which seems odd but I like it anyway! Should be named Chamomile Honey maybe? Haha
Flavors: Honey
Thank you Megan Low for this sample from our swap! I only now got around to trying it as I’ve been sick and everything’s been a little off – feeling less gross today so I think it’s a fair review. This tea smells really nice – like fruit and yogurt, there is a little bit of an artificial smell but overall very inticing! The taste doesn’t really match up to the smell, it’s still a nice oolong flavour and a subtle berry taste but I didn’t get the yogurty taste I was expecting. I mean it was nice and I’ll drink the rest of what I have but I just wish there was a little more to it. Thanks Megan!
Flavors: Berry, Yogurt
