1366 Tasting Notes
Stacy sent me a sample of this with my 20 questions winnings. Thank you!
I was really hoping to like this one better than I did. The sip starts out with a tart lemon taste, followed by a bitter almond note and something savory that I can’t quite identify. Maybe it’s the amaranth? I’m not really sure what amaranth tastes like, but the internet says it’s nutty and malty and that sort of describes the weird flavor here. It sort of reminds me of rosemary. There’s a pleasantly tart, almost minty fresh taste that lingers long after the sip. The front and back of the sip are lovely. The bitter and savory notes in the middle kind of ruin it for me. Alas, I didn’t have any sugar around to test out what that would do to the flavor.
The second steep tastes very similar to the first, though slightly less lemony. I added some honey, which brought out more of the lemon tartness at the front of the sip.
The third steep gets closer to a macaron than any of the others. Zingy lemon up front, with a creamy element and some cakiness coming in towards the end. The creamy lemon taste lingers long after the sip. It actually reminds me of Wissotzky’s Lemongrass Cream Infusion, which I love. Towards the bottom of the cup there’s that almond bitterness again. Blegh.
The fourth steep tastes about the same as the second. There’s no lingering creamy or tart notes, just that weird savory flavor again.
I’m sort of doubting my tastebuds here, given how much everyone else seems to love this blend. Rating reserved until I get my hands on a little more so I can play around with adding sugar and trying it iced.
Preparation
Whenever I visit my family abroad, we go to their local outdoor pool. We spend the morning there, swimming and enjoying the sun before it gets too hot. My uncle always brings tasty food from home. I love it. There are two things that always remind me of those times: garlic toast prepared a certain way, and the smell of freshly cut grass. So it makes sense that I associate grassy teas with good memories and warm weather. Today was definitely warm. Sencha time!
This particular sencha is one of the better ones I’ve had. It is just wonderfully light and grassy. I enjoyed it as my morning travel mug tea today. Mmm.
Cold steeped in the fridge for about 18 hours. This makes a fantastic iced tea. It has a sweet and natural peach smell. The flavor is likewise sweet and peachy. It’s fresh and light and just slightly dry. My dad thinks it’s too light, but he’s not a tea person so what does he know. It reminds me of bottled peach iced tea minus the sugar.
Until I run out of this blend, there’s always going to be a pot of it cold-steeping in the fridge. I like it that much.
sipdown
I brewed the rest of this hot and stuck it in the fridge overnight. It still isn’t stunning, but it is substantially better iced than hot. The flavor is now natural strawberry instead of generic berry. The end of the sip is grassy and a touch bitter. I’m willing to chalk the bitterness up to user error. Overall, this makes for a decent iced tea. Thanks to Christina for sending it to me!
Thanks for the sample, Christina!
This blend is ok. It’s aptly named. The dry smell definitely evokes a spring morning. Clean and fresh. Brewed, it tastes generically of berries. There is a pleasant juiciness. It really isn’t bad, I’ve just come to expect a lot from flavored teas. Generic berry juiciness just doesn’t cut it. This could be really good iced, though. I’ll try it that way before delivering my final verdict.
This was my favorite tea before I really got into loose leaf. The spice is gentle. The sage lends depth. My brother drinks it with a ton of honey, but I prefer it straight. It’s a little drying at the end. That’s not usually a problem for me. Right now it’s too darn hot to tolerate dryness though.
I think this is a sipdown. It’s hard to be sure. I had another teabag, but it’s gone missing. I suspect my dad of purloining it.
EDIT: It’s confirmed. My dad drank the other bag. He was amusingly surprised that I even noticed it was gone :-)
I picked up quite a bit of this during BrewTEAlly Sweet‘s stash sale. I had high hopes, but it’s turned out to be pretty meh. The base is fine – just a nice woody rooibos. The flavoring is bad. It smells and tastes extremely artificial. I’ve had unflavored teas with more realistic honey notes.
This tea is drinkable, but it’s not actively enjoyable. I used it mostly as a bedtime tea because I tend to fall asleep before finishing my cup and I never felt wasteful letting this one go cold. It doesn’t actually taste any better cold, fyi.
Oh well. Sipdown.
Whoa. The dry leaf smells just like black cherry soda! Brewed, the scent is a rich, creamy, chocolate with a sheen of Maraschino cherry. But the flavor doesn’t quite live up to the scent. There’s no chocolate! There’s dryness and a heavy mouthfeel, but no particular taste until a lingering Maraschino cherry note comes in at the end. When the tea cools, it just tastes like flat black cherry soda. I have real black cherry soda in the fridge, thank you very much (Dr. Brown’s, of course). Although… maybe this would be a good candidate for a tea soda. Not an impressive showing so far.
At some point I will write a proper tasting note for this blend. This is not that point.
I have this with the regular black tea base and with an oolong base. The flavor is pretty close between the two. I’m actually not usually a big fan, but yesterday my tummy hurt and this tea really hit the spot. Also, the vanilla flavor becomes more prominent as the tea cools.
