390 Tasting Notes
never had a black like this one! indeed it is very clear and clean…. personally i don’t get malt. i’m getting an undeveloped brown sugar hint that is mixed with a vegetal tone: as though someone cut a swath of a demerara plant and stashed it in my tea as a stir stick.
no astringency, no bitterness…. really a clear green curl. scent wise i do get malt, but not on the palate.
i took advantage of the christmas discounts, i am interested to try the other samples now! (the rest i have saved for my upcoming not for profit course starting in january =0)
Preparation
so sad! sipdown! heavy sigh…..
brilliant, but now it’s gone….. gear change: this tea makes me wonder if H&S is playing with GMOs, because i’m tasting a hybridized fruit in this. really! like a candied strawberry raspberry cross =0)
Preparation
i heard an odd metaphor that applies aptly to this blend: dog’s bowl. weird, right? but if you think about the jumble of stuff in a dog’s bowl it is a good description of the muddle of flavours in this tea.
cinnamon and clove + chocolate? not my favourite, but i like to think i’m open minded. coconut? okay. mate…. which gives me banana (oddball gene), and rooiboos. OOF!
MissB you are braver than i!!! it’s just not a good fit with me, i’m more of a cat guy.
Preparation
bit by bit fauchon i are coming to an understanding. =0)
everyone loves fauchon. i have loved the smells…. but the taste kept falling short. sigh.
i began to create a list of personal rules.
1) i like fauchon greens better than fauchon blacks (who would have predicted?)
2) i like a 3 minute steep not a 4 or 5.
3) i like the water a tad cooler on each.
4) last and most important: i like nothing in them at all. no sweetener, no cream, nothing.
huh.
the orange and apricot are clear, the peach is intermittant….. SOMEWHERE i am getting a hint of chocolate? very, very lightly. which is interesting. i don’t think it would be nearly as nice if it had been on purpose, lol.
very smooth, very light…. nice to know fauchon and i are getting on! thanks to ifjuly for this!
Preparation
I swear my mind plays tricks with me when it comes to a “ghost” chocolate note too. I mentioned in my review that I associate the orange note in here with a Terry’s chocolate orange. It’s the same kind of orange flavour, so it automatically leads your mind to also think of chocolate?
you and i seem to have very similar palates too…. we both get banana with the malted choco mate, remember? we both thought we were nuts….. okay, we may still be, but at least we’re nuts together, lol.
yes, btw, this should be renamed terry’s tea. it’s uncanny.
Yeah, I’m sure Kittenna once mentioned that roasted mates taste like banana to her too. Either way, we may all be nuts, but nuts together it is!
But I’m glad you’re getting that same vibe from this tea. So odd considering how rosy (at least to me) it initially smells.
inception versus evolution can be such a strange journey…..
NOPE! a ‘little’ clove my…. backside! i get no orange, no vanilla- not even any tea…. all i get is clove!!!.
a lovely thought MissB, maybe my sample was just out of balance. that said i am not finishing this cup. )=0(
man, this seriously made me laugh out loud.
i like clove too! but HOLY COW!
I think you mean ‘holy clove’ there, batman. :)
holy SMOKIN’ cloves, batgirl! lol.
Awesome! :D
i could also go the route of gollum: ‘it BUUUUUURNS us preciousssss!’.
Ha!
Smokin’ cloves. Smokin’ cloves?! Methinks Upton slipped in some crushed up Djarums into the mix.
OKAY, not going to lie, had to look up ‘djarums’, lol. could very well be. i would concur.
It’s ok, unless you are/were a goth or hipster, or associate with them, or are so clove-obsessed that you need to get that clove fix to your bloodstream more quickly than ingesting, no one really does know about them.
the most i know about cloves is that they are used naturopathically to deaden nerves in the dermal layer (as well as the tongue apparently) in tiger balm. =0) and that it burns like a very rude word if you recklessly scrub your eyes after you apply it.
Oh yeah, I’ve chewed on whole cloves in the past to soothe a sore throat. Do they ever numb EVERYTHING.
yeah, apparently clove oil is good when you have a toothache…
Fjellrev, djarums! that takes me back. warm fuzzies thinking of my reckless early 20s.
I think that’s why David’s Sugar and Spice kind of weirded me out. As much as I love clove, it reminded me so much of the experimental whole clove lozenge days.
ifjuly, seriously! Especially Djarum blacks. Like smoking four cigarettes at a time. Whew, are they strong.
ifjuly and Fjellrev…. so outside my experience, lol!!!
your dialogue makes me wonder: who would make a djarum tigerbalm cross tea and call it ‘orange spice’?
Oh wow, Djarum…I haven’t heard that word since my goth days in high school, err, a while ago.
i am shamefully behind in my reviews!
a few days ago i came in from the rain, clattering the mail box lid as it was nearly too late. what’s this? something puffy! a puffy envelope in december? always exciting! i didn’t recognize the writing. a mystery envelope! i decided a shake was in order…. something shifted from side to side. i sniffed…. tea! it had to be tea!!
but who from? and which one?
Sil! you sly tea ninja!! i have been wanting to try this blend for ages…. you even remembered that i frequently mess up the first steep (she sent enough for 2 cups).
i smelled rhubarb, cherry, strawberry…. tea, crust….. and the tasty mucky stuff that all that all those elements create together when they puddle. the kettle boiled, the water was ready…. it was going to good! it smelled amazing! i tasted FLAT.
now i know that was me. i was sure of it. sil, if you have been wondering why i haven’t reviewed sooner…a) i was behind, b) i was grumbling.
tonight i got over it….. i cheated…. i added honey. there we go! perfect! wunderbar!
sil, thank you so much…. happy christmas…… xo
Preparation
thank you MissB for this!
dry this smells like xmas to me. oranges and fruit…. spices, (clove especially) and seasonal zippiness. has a lovely balanced smell. however, the balance and robustness goes away when the water is added!!!! it’s a misleading tea! no fair =0(
it’s not bad…. just not what the smell advertised. humph. i think it has unrealized aspirations….
Preparation
thanks so much to elyse for this sample!
blunt saves time i find….
i recently completed a months long study into the operations of fairtrade international. i got a very high mark, much to the chagrin of my prof, by uncovering the fact that the company (via the knowledge i have access to, which is limited) is about as dirty as they come. i found myself thinking that fair trade was echoing communism: the theory and sometimes even the intention were good….. but the systems are too easily corruptible. the endless polls which my fellow steepsters happily contributed to confirmed their agreement FOR THE MOST PART.
different gear, same engine: elyse does not work with fair trade farmers. she works with farmers who have LESS money. i wondered: how would that taste like in a tea? would it reflect? what could i expect? an unexpected conclusion followed: if this is how tea can taste without the added cost of fair trade certification and inspections, then what do we need the stamp for?
this tea is exceptional. it is brown sugar and baking bread with a thick brown crust. it is smooth with no astringency…. literally the possibilities for this tea are endless! by itself, by itself with a bit of sweetener, as a smartypants base mimicking baked goods or cake.
now i am insanely tired, and offering up more of my own personal politics than i normally would in a review but this is how it breaks down for me:
tealet works directly with farmers and sells to us. 1,2,3.
fairtrade international and other Larger Corporations work directly with the farmers, certify the farmers (levy a fee), inspect the farms for compliance (levy a fee), administer a brand stamp which charges a higher amount at and to the grocery store level. okay, a bit of unfairness there adding in the extra steps but: Fairtrade 1, farmer 2, grocery store 3, us 4.
i’m getting better quality, the farmer’s getting more money…. i should support fairtrade (THE COMPANY…. not the philosophy) why again?
elyse, i will buy this from you. not just for myself, but also as my personal calling card this upcoming semester while working with not for profits.
This is so interesting. If you have your research/links you like/etc that you’d share, I’m all ears. We have a lot of farmers at our farmers’ market who grow organic but can’t afford/don’t think it’s a good use of $ for certification too — I see the parallels w fairtrade…
i will pass on as much or as little data (cause we’re talking months here, lol) as you wish. i have simple links, i have evaluations, and i have analyses of fairtrade specifically. elyse petersen, founder of tealet has a unique perspective having come from the peace corps and seen things from a perspective that many don’t. i find her to be an excellent resource and well thought out representative of fair trade PRACTICES.
pm me…. let me know what you want, how much you want! =0)
i can honestly tell you that i thought my project was going one way, it all sounded so good! and then i asked the question: how much do third world farmers get charged for licensing. they stopped taking my calls. in toronto, in london. in berlin? i got an A+ man was i let down at my discovery though….
Fairtrade is a topic my husband and I debate from time to time. It actually started when we were looking for a new place to purchase coffee. The price difference between the fairtrade organic wholebean and just the organic wholebean was almost $5/lb. I felt that it was worth paying the extra money. He believed it was money the farmers would never see, so it was a waste. We have both done quite a bit of reading on our own, but I’d love to hear more about your research.
That is so disheartening. Thanks for sharing. I mean, I kindof knew this unofficially but to see it confirmed again, and to know that you’ve done the research really solidifies my stance. I’m glad people like Elyse are doing something to help!!
Ignorance is the worst enemy, Thanks for shedding some light on a dark subject.
Thanks for sharing James! If anyone has any questions about Tealet’s growers and teas please feel free to contact me directly at [email protected] and visit www.tealet.com
the old statement of your friends being reflections of your is very true in this case— some of fairtrade’s biggest partners? nestle and nescafe among others!
but changing the angle: tealet, justea who are out of vancouver, level ground for coffee. the smaller companies i saw less problem. the problems arose when there was mass amounts of money at stake.
there are lots of people doing lots of good work…. but how often, really, are good works both branded and free?
Oh, I remember that film! The Max Havelaar representative comes across as a right …you know what. I kept thinking that either she had NO idea what was really going on out there or she just didn’t care. Someone once asked me to transcribe the film for them for an article they were writing on their site and hadn’t been able to find a subtitled version. I never actually wanted to watch the film, but I spent a really long time transcribing the damn thing, only to be told after I emailed them that they had found the information elsewhere, so the film was referenced and all my hard work (it took most of a whole damn day!) wasn’t even mentioned with as much as a syllable. I didn’t think I took that long to do it either, I thought they could have let me know not to waste my time.
not cool…. i despise doing citations, but if someone else makes your life easier by doing the grunt work, then you credit them. period.
i had three pages of citations. my prof nearly cried, lol. in my preliminary thesis i actually LOST MARKS and got an A+ crossed out and put down to an A with ‘THIS IS TOO BIG. NARROW. IT. DOWN.’ and then he gave me three options.
brutal, lol.
