Jillian

I’m not sure, but I believe I got this tea from LiberTeas – that’s the problem with my Cupboard; I’ve got so many little samply things kicking around that I don’t remember where and who half of them are from.

This was a pretty mild black tea with a delicate touch of chai-like spice. The maple sugar acted as a light sweetener for the tea without making it too cloying, but still keeping its distinctive flavour. Yummy!

I didn’t really have high hopes for this one – most flavoured rooibos tea I’ve tried tend to be mostly rooibos with not much ‘flavour’. This one was a pleasent surprise however, because what I tasted is pear – lots and lots of pear. Its real pear too, not an artifically-created approximate. I can almost feel the slightly gritty texture you get when you bite into a ripe pear as I sip this tea. The caramel is more subtle, a light sweetness than appears mostly as the tea cools off. I also love that I can hardly taste the red rooibos.

Woah – smells like beer! I’ve never had Kombucha tea before so I expected it to taste similar to an oolong. Actually it tastes more like an alcoholic cooler in my opinion – this is a fermented tea, but it was being sold with all the normal, non-alcoholic drinks so I didn’t think there would be any significant alcohol involved. Huh.

It has a fruity flavour that makes me think of plums combined with something a bit yeasty. It’s an odd mix of sweet and sour and it leaves a strange taste on my tongue.

I’m not sure what I think of this drink except maybe ‘weird’. Really weird.

No notes yet.

Thanks Jaime for sending these around! :D

It’s makes for a sweet cup of chai, although I added a bit more water than it called for so it wouldn’t be too sickly sweet. It’s a bit thin – I might actually use hot milk instead of boiling water for my other packet of this. The raspberry flavour isn’t that strong either, present more a smell than as a taste. Still, it give me a quick energy boost for working on assignments.

The first time I have a new black tea I like to try it plain first, even though I usually put milk and sometimes honey into mine. It’s sort of so I get an idea about the flavour without anything else messing with my perception. Yeah, I’ve got it all down to a science. ;)

This one is pretty plain actually, the Ceylon base is mostly what I taste, although there are sweet hints of maple syrup. It’s not harsh-tasting, other than that it’s a pretty generic Ceylon.

Mmm, that’s better. I used a lot less tea and cut back the steeping time and that improved things immesurably. One thing I’ve been wondering is if this tea is a gyokuro? It doesn’t say anything about it in the tea’s description, but the I’m sure I read that the process of shading the tea (as described here) was what produced the gyokuro’s flavour.

The tea has a smooth, savoury flavour that tappers off into a mildly grassy aftertaste, not nearly as grassy as most Japanese teas tend to be, though. The savory flavour is quite strong, almost like a slightly salty broth – miso soup maybe. Okay not quite, but you get the idea.

I don’t think I’ve ever had a Indian white tea before so I was interested to see if it tasted anything like the Chinese version. The resulting brew was light and very fresh-tasting with the hint of sweetness. Some white teas are so light that they’re almost like water, but this is very distinctly ‘tea’. Its flavour notes are of fruit rather than the walnut notes I get from a good-quality Bai Mu Dan; this makes me think of unripe melon and maybe a bit of diluted lemon. Very unique.

The dry tea smells like cucumber – which I think is the dried aloe vera bits talking – but as it steeps it gradually changes to a citrusy scent that made me think Neo Citron a bit.

It’s has a light, slightly herbal flavour with a bit of the cucumbery aloe vera notes (though nowhere near the strength you’d get from Adagio’s White Cucumber – thankfully). There are also traces of citrus fruits and I can even taste what might be kiwi after the tea’s had a chance to cool a touch.

I imagin that this could make a decent iced tea – green rooibos seems to lend itself to that sort of thing. Hot, it makes a light, soothing evening drink that doesn’t blow my mind, but that I still find enjoyable.

That’s the end of this sample packet – I found that it was an interesting alternative to the usual nutty-tasting Chinese green teas. Despite its sour flavour I have noticed that it gets a bit sweeter as the tea cools off a bit, so it does have some redeeming qualities which was I why I didn’t completely slag this tea. ;)

“Mmmm, chocolate…” is my first thought when I opened the package. It’s not just chocolate though, there’s a richer, nutty scent as well. I’m glad that there was no actual coffee involved in the making of this tea because my stomach is quite sensitive to it. It doesn’t quite taste like mocha either, more like Nutella in diluted liquid form or something. I’m also not getting that distinct herbal flavour that I get with green mate so i think going with the roasted version for this blend was a good move.

This tea could easily become addictive, I fear. ;)

I think I may have used too much leaf for this cuppa – what seemed like an ordinary-sized scoop when dry expanded into what looked like twice the proper amount when I added the water. There’s a distinctly bitter bite in each sip that doesn’t sound anything like the ‘sweet, buttery’ flavour other people have been talking about in their reviews.

The resteep @ 45 seconds is not bitter but it’s a little bit weak and watery.

Meh, I’ll have to try this again before I actually rate it.

This tea is being reviewed for Mike Morton’s tea log – It’s All About the Leaf. Check it out right here: http://www.itsallabouttheleaf.com/

This tea’s appearence intrigues me – long, thin tightly-twisted leaves of black and gold that have a sweet, malted scent. The tes tastes quite light – no surprise considering the steeping parameters. Yet it still has a full, distinct flavour that doesn’t come across as weak or watery at all. It’s malty with a bit of bakeyness and a surprisingly smooth and sweet character for a black tea. It reminds me a bit of Yunan teas that I’ve drank, but in comparison those were harsher, less refined cousins of this delicious tea.

EDIT:
Okay that took a bit longer than I thought it would – I had a hideous headache and had to go to bed. The resteep of this tea is less sweet than the first one but it still carried distintive malty notes. The taste almost reminds me of Ovaltine – that classic malt drink.

I’m really enjoying this tea, it’s a great find and I glad I got Mike to send me some to review. I’ll certainly be sad when my little sample is gone.

This is a very traditional chai in terms of taste and character with cinnamon and cardamom being the primary notes. It never goes over the line of being too spicy, instead it’s a nice, soothing drink with a bit of a bite – just enough to warm me up on a cold winter morning.

I’ve had this random single-serving packet of matcha that I got in some trade or other kicking around in my cupboard for awhile. I eventually figured out, based on the pictures, that this came from Rishi so I followed their hot matcha preparation recipe on their website which called for using 4-5 oz of 75°C water per packet of tea.

Let me say right away that this makes for a very concentrated cup of matcha. It was so bitter and grassy that I added a bunch of water after the fact. So in the end it was probably more like 6+ oz of water. Even with the extra water the tea in my bowl still looked murky and thick – I did manage to get it to froth up nicely even with my dinky little metal wisk, which thrilled me. But it kept its harsh, grassy flavour which made drinking it feel more like eating broccoli or something else that you know is ‘good for you’ but that you’re not really thrilled to be eating. Despite all my wisking it also left quite a lot of gritty residue at the bottom of the bowl which made the last few sips kind of nasty.

I find I’m not really impressed with Rishi’s take on this classic Japanese tea – I’ve cerainly had much better plain matcha prepared for me when I was in Vancouver. This matcha is better off used to make lattes or mixed into smoothies, in my opinion, rather than prepared the traditional way.

This tea isn’t half-bad iced. It’s a little bit on the grassy, vegetal side, but it’s very refreshing and thirst-quenching. Maybe I’ll add a touch of agave nectar to bring out the fruitiness more and counteract all the ‘green’ – I have enough leaves for one more cup.

You know? It’s been awhile and I have to say that I don’t like this tea as much as when I first tried it. The flavouring tastes a bit harsh and artifical, even with judicious amounts of milk and agave nectar. It not horrible – but now I can’t help thinking “I’ve had better” as I sip it.

The first thing I noticed was that the dry leaves smelled like a bag of fresh peat moss – earthy and tannic – which as a gardener isn’t something I find unpleasent. I gave the leaves the standard 30 second rinse to hopefully get rid of any dust or debris and then I brewed it for three mins – the lower end of Adagio’s steeping reccs but I know how dark pu’erhs brew up so I wasn’t worried that it would turn out weak. Unfortunately the brewing tea took on less of a peaty scent and more of fishy scent, which didn’t exactly thrill me.

Thankfully it didn’t taste like fish but it was very earthy, almost like a mouthful of dirt. At first I couldn’t decide whether to gag or enjoy it but as I drank more I found that the flavour became smoother and less jarring to my tastebuds.

I’m still not entirely sure if I like pu’erh or not – it definiatly falls in the category of being an aquired taste but it’s interesting and I enjoy having variety in my teas.

I’ve been eyeing this tea with some degree of trepidation since I got in a trade. Anyone who knows me knows I hate hibiscus, but when everyone started raving about RoT’s hibiscus-based flavoured teas I was curious enough to give it a shot – benefit of the doubt and all that.

The tea of course turned the usual bright red colour when I poured the water into my mug. Initally the steeping tea smelled like pineapple but after it had a few minutes in the water it started to smell more like lychee.

The tea itself…wasn’t half-bad, somewhat to my surprise. Yes, the hibiscus is readily apparent but it’s not as horribly tart as it could have been. It’s paired with a slight sweetness and the fruity flavours of pineapple and lychee are both easy to pick out and they distract my tongue from the evil red stuff. :D

I’m glad I cut back the steeping time a bit because I like this cup better than the last one. It’s still grassy in flavour but not as overwhelmingly as it was before and the sourness isn’t as pronounced either. The sweetness is a bit clearer, and I actually can taste a bit of fruitiness that could be interpreted as the plum flavour people talk about with this type of tea.

I drank this tea with milk this morning and it does taste a bit like an English Breakfast with a hint of malt. It’s not really anything special in my opinion, neither extraordinarily good nor abyssmally bad, it’s just kind of…flat and uninteresting.

I drank this cup with milk which went very nicely with this tea, emphasizing its sweet character and giving it a very smooth quality.

I had another go at the whole matcha-making thing. This time I used less water – 6 oz as oppose to 8 oz (it amounts to about 3/4 of a cup) along with 1/4 tsp of matcha. The result is less watery than before although I’m still not getting that frothy matcha texture I’m used to seeing with ‘real’ matcha tea. Maybe this particular kind just isn’t suited to that sort of thing or (more likely) I’m just doing it wrong – oh well.

I’m finding that the tea tastes mostly like plain matcha – clean and grassy with that faint trace of bitterness, the strawberry manages to sneak onto the end but it’s not as strong as the (wonderful) odor of the tea suggests that it should be.

One thing I’ve noticed with making matcha in an ordinary bowl like I’m doing is that it cools off very quickly. I’m surprised the Japanese monks had time to meditate over anything while they were busy chugging their tea before it got cold! XD

De-cupboarding this tea as well. I’m glad I found a good Russian Caravan that isn’t too astringent or smokey; I’d definitely buy this one again the next time I’m in Vancouver.