LiberTEAS

This is nice! The jasmine is just right: soft enough so that it doesn’t come off as soapy, but, strong enough to offer a distinct jasmine note.

Sweet, exotic and lovely. The jasmine is so soft and sweet, and the green tea has a light, fresh taste to it that melds very nicely with the jasmine. A very pleasant cup.

My full-length review of this tea will publish tomorrow evening on SororiTea Sisters: http://sororiteasisters.com

I was excited to try this blend because I love apricots, and the idea of a brandied apricot upside down cake sounds positively drool worthy. But after reviewing the tasting notes on here, I was a little worried that my expectations might go unmet because while the ratings are not really LOW on this one, they aren’t exceptionally high either. That suggests to me that this might be average tasting, but, not super-duper (I have no idea why I felt the need to say super-duper there).

But you know, this isn’t bad at all. In fact, it’s actually quite yummy. For those of you who have tried this already, I suggest trying it again… while I realize I’m not you and don’t have your taste buds, I think that often people try the teas from 52Teas in an excited hurry as soon as they get them and don’t allow the blends to cure for a while. I think that this might have benefited from the curing time.

Because I’m liking what I taste. It’s not exceptional, but, it’s really really good. The apricot is sweet, and taste as though fresh apricots have been simmered in brandy and then caramelized in butter and brown sugar before being put into a baking pan and topped with cake batter. I taste all of the notes as suggested in the name: I taste the brandy, I taste the apricot, I taste the cake. I taste the caramelized brown sugar. I taste notes of butter. I even taste the faintest nutty note from the honeybush. And all of these flavors come together in a way that does not taste fake or overdone, it’s all very smooth and deliciously desserty.

I like this one quite a bit.

I didn’t drink a lot of Matcha while I was sick … and I realize that it was probably the best thing I could have consumed while I was sick, but when I’m down and out like that, I was just too lazy to actually do the preparation. Sounds silly because there’s not a whole lot to it, but, there you have it. I wanted something as easy as possible, so thank goodness for my breville which is basically one step tea making. Measure the tea, push some buttons and walk away… a few minutes later, there is tea.

But, I’ve missed Matcha. I had some Matcha every now and then, mostly in smoothies … but, not as often as I probably should have while I was under the weather there, so this is almost like a welcome back Matcha for me.

I combined, in equal ratios, the Bavarian Cream Matcha and the Strawberry Matcha, and I also combined it with equal ratios of hot water and warmed milk to make a yummy, luscious, strawberry Bavarian Cream treat in my chawan. Love it!

This is a wonderful black tea blend – perfect for a breakfast blend or an anytime blend, really. It is rich and robust enough to serve as a that important first cup of the day, but, it has a crisp lightness to it too, making it a nice choice for afternoon sipping, especially when it’s cold and the wind is howling like it is this afternoon! It has a nice coziness factor!

Very pleasant – rich, smooth, almost creamy. Would make a good latte if you wanted one, but, I like it just fine served straight up too. A really good blend!

Thank you Azzrian for sending me some of this tea! I’m glad I’m finally feeling healthy so that I can start trying some of these marvelous teas you’ve sent me!

Oh this is good! I do love a good Golden Yunnan and this one is certainly just that. The sip begins sweet, with notes of caramel, cocoa and grape (yes grape!) that seem to intertwine to create a taste that is so very pleasantly sweet. By mid-sip, the sip transitions toward a more savory taste, with hints of pepper that prepare the palate for a freshly baked bread kind of taste … but not just any freshly baked bread. Imagine one of those artisan loaves, with the olives baked inside? Yeah… that! It tastes so rich and savory, and that hint of olive is so surprising and delicious.

Throughout the sip there is no sign of bitterness, and there is very, very little astringency (as in, it’s difficult to notice any at all) to this cup. This would be a great tea for those who generally avoid black teas for fear of bitterness or astringency, because well… there’s next to none. Just delicious, rich, smooth flavor. Amazingly good.

I’m liking this alright. I’m not going to say I prefer it over a black Earl Grey because I don’t, but, I do like the differences it offers. It is lighter and crisper than a typical black Earl Grey, and that’s very refreshing. I’m not loving it … but I like it alright.

This tea is LOADED with currants! It’s also got a fairly large amount of hibiscus in it, so, if you’re not a hibiscus fan, beware.

I generally am not a fan of hibiscus, but, I’m not minding the hibiscus too much here. The flavor of the currants seems to meld well with the hibiscus. But I wouldn’t recommend oversteeping this – I went with six minutes and that seems just about right. I think that had I gone longer, this would have ended up syrupy or too tart.

As it is though, it’s pleasant enough. Tart, yes, but, not overly so. I like the flavor of the currants, it gives it an almost wine-like taste. Kind of cozy. I think it would be really good if some spices were added, to make it like a mulled wine kind of taste … or maybe if it were combined with warmed apple cider to lighten the flavor a bit and add just a bit of spice to it. As it is, I like it, but I wouldn’t say I love it.

Wow! I’m liking this!

The dry leaf is gorgeous. The tightly wound, deep green leaves (they appear to be a Tie Kuan Yin) are blended with tiny, beautiful, red, perfectly formed rosebuds. So beautiful … I almost didn’t want to brew it! But, even a tea as beautiful as this isn’t going to stop me from submerging it in hot water! It IS beautiful, yes, but, I want tea!

The flavor is really nice – very floral, as the rose is pretty evenly matched with the flavor of the Oolong. The lemon and the ginger are very subtle background notes … so much so that they are almost overwhelmed by the rose, but, I like that they are accent flavors. Kind of like a drop or two of lemon juice squeezed into the cup.

A really tasty, relaxing tea, I’m enjoying this very much.

Hurray! My taste buds are back in action!

I was really starting to get worried there, when last night I could still sense that my taste buds were still not quite working right. But, today, my husband took me out to breakfast and I could taste everything, and while I don’t quite have my appetite back to what it was (I couldn’t finish breakfast), I could taste all the wonderful flavors again.

But after breakfast I was still feeling a little weary so I needed a nap … so believe it or not this is my first cup of tea of the day! (The tea that they served at the restaurant was not worth drinking) And what a lovely cuppa this is.

This is a fantastic Darjeeling, MUSCATEL! A lovely muscatel note – sweet and fruity, with a fermented grape like flavor (wine-y), and also a very clean … almost effervescent kind of taste that ties into the astringency. That is not to say this is overly astringent, in fact, I find it to be very lightly astringent when considering this is a Darjeeling and I often find them to be more astringent than this. But the bubbly, I almost want to say it tastes almost like sparkling mineral water … and this taste together with the slight astringency gives it a very light, crisp, clean taste that is really quite lovely.

Notes of oak in the background, vaguely earthy … these flavors are especially noticeable in the aftertaste. A beautiful, complex cup.

It’s so nice to have my palate back!

I’m not sure exactly how this little bit of Strawberry Zabaglione found its way back into my stash… I was sure that I had sent the last little bit out somewhere. But, I’m glad I found it, because I wanted something like this so that I could test out my taste buds to see how they’re functioning.

I’m feeling so much better than I was, my ears are still what I want to call “cloudy” – where it feels like I’ve got ear plugs in my ears or something because everything sounds muffled. My throat feels better, my eyes are still very itchy and it takes every ounce of willpower that I have (and I haven’t a lot of it) to keep from rubbing them. I still have the occasional cough, but, really, the most difficult thing for me is my taste buds, because I have tons of tea to be tasting and reviewing here, and I need my taste buds to be functioning!

Well, I can definitely taste the strawberry and the creaminess of the custard. It’s yummy, although, it does still taste a bit muffled. sigh I guess no reviewing for today. But, it does give me hope for tomorrow. I think by tomorrow, I should be back in the saddle. At least I hope so!

I think that my taste buds are back. I can taste all the elements in this tea, and they don’t seem like they’re buffered at all. I can taste the maple and the brown sugar, and even the oatmeal … there is a creaminess to the cup that comes from the malty tones of the Assam in the blend. I can even taste the slight fruit notes to the tea as well. If they’re not 100%, I’d say that they’re certainly well on their way … and doing much better than they were a week ago, or even a day ago!

Finishing off the last that I had of this tea … I enjoyed it while I had it!

I am slowly getting better. Today, I felt like I needed something warm and soothing for my throat, and I couldn’t think of anything as ginger-y as the ginger & honey crystals that I have in the cupboard. So I brewed up a cup of my ever changing breakfast blend and added about half a pouch of the crystals. This is very gingery, but, it feels so good on the throat.

I’ve been sipping on this since I woke up, I’m on my second infusion. The tea holds up pretty well in a second infusion … then again, my taste buds are quite impaired so take that for what its worth. At the very least, I find that the spice notes here are enjoyable and warming and soothing for my itchy throat.

Backlog: I actually found myself feeling unable to sleep last night, so I sought comfort with a cup of this tisane. I found it to be rather enjoyable and it could be my muted taste buds but, I seemed to really enjoy the way the flavor of the rooibos melded with the warm spices. It was a nice cup – soothing – and just what I needed last night.

This is the tea with which I’ve spent most of my afternoon … infusing the same leaves, no less. I managed four flavorful infusions – well, as much flavor as my taste buds allowed me to experience, anyway! I could taste the tea, though, and the lemon and the cardamom. This tea was very good company to me.

Backlog: I started my day off with this tea. Unfortunately, with my taste buds being the way that they are, the only flavor I could pick up on was the cayenne and so the best way I can describe what I tasted was like drinking cayenne tea. At first, the burn was a pleasant one, but by the time I got to mid-cup, it became a bit too much for me especially since I wasn’t picking up any chocolate or tea or other spices.

I liked this a lot better when I wasn’t sick …

Backlog: I started my day with this. It was very mellow and smooth, but due to the condition of my taste buds, I noticed very little mint taste. But I could taste the delicious bergamot, and I think that’s what inspired me to drink the lemon cinnamon tea that I had later.

Backlog: Another tea that I’ve been enjoying as I deal with whatever ails me. I could only taste barely there notes of the jasmine and the green tea, but I found it a comforting tea.

Backlog: This is what I drank most of the day today. I resteeped the last of my leaves at least four times, and each were tasted, which is kind of nice given that my taste buds are compromised at the moment. Moreover, the tea was really soothing and I really needed soothing.

Well, I finally caught whatever bug my hubby had last week. I felt good yesterday, but, at some point while sleeping, I woke up and my head felt like a bowling ball and my throat felt like it had swollen shut and every time I’d try to swallow it felt like I was swallowing razor blades. UGH!

Hopefully it won’t last long.

So, until my taste buds return to normal (right now, it is as if my palate has been covered with a blanket and very few flavors manage to filter through) I’ll be drinking teas that are not new to me, so that I don’t feel like I need to write a review if I’m not feeling up to it. Also, I don’t want to form a bad opinion of a tea.

I can barely taste the rose and the cinnamon and just a hint of the orange with this tea. I can also barely taste the black tea. At the start of the sip, I notice the flavors, but before I even get to “mid-sip” it just feels like liquid is passing over my palate, with very little to no flavor at all.

So… if you want to know more about this tea, I’d recommend checking my previous notes, or you can check out my full-length review of this tea here: http://sororiteasisters.com/2011/02/11/steamy-cinnamon-rose-from-talbott-teas/

I am enjoying the fragrance of this tea … I could probably just sit here and smell it all evening and not tire of it. It smells warm and cozy, and that’s just what I need on a night like tonight, it’s cold and wet outside, and I feel like I can’t shake that cold feeling from my bones. I’m hoping that this will warm me up.

And it is doing that. This is good … the citrus is bright and juicy and the cinnamon is not overwhelming. The white tea tastes a bit different than I expected, it is more earthy than I’m used to from a white tea. Perhaps it is this combination of flavors that brings out the earthiness.

I like this – it’s good, but it isn’t great. I think I can toy around with it though, and make it great. I think that the spices need a little more dimension.

Thank you to Azzrian for sending me some of this Oolong.

I’m enjoying this. The main flavors that present themselves are a combination of sweet and sour, reminiscent of a slightly under-ripe plum with notes of peach and apricot in the background. There are notes of wood, earth and flower in there too, in the distance. Really quite pleasant, what I’m liking best is that it is such a different tasting Oolong. I love the other Oolong teas too, but, it’s nice to come across something a little different once in a while!

This is a fantastic green tea from Life in Teacup. That comes as no surprise, really, though, as I am always quite impressed with any tea that I try from this company. I can’t recall ever trying something I’ve disliked from them.

The description of this states that this is a roasted tea, and with the first few sips, I don’t really taste any distinct roasted flavor to this, but as I continue to sip, more toasty nutty flavors start to emerge. The first few sips are really quite refreshing, tasting fresh like spring and evoking thoughts of dewdrops on new spring leaves. Sweet and light and crisp. As I continue to sip, those fresh notes remain, but I begin to also notice the nutty notes, sweet and toasty, but without a real STRONG roasty-toasty taste. Just a sort of baked, toasty warmth that would emanate from something that is roasted.

Really lovely.

2nd Infusion: some vegetative notes begin to emerge … still not overtly vegetal but more significant than in the first cup. I am also noting a distinct smoky tone to this cup … yes, I taste more of a roasty-toasty and even a slight smoky charcoal-y note now. Here is where the roasted note really comes in to focus.

I think with this tea, as much as I enjoyed the lightness of the first cup, this second cup is even better! Definitely worth the effort to brew this one a second time.

My bowl of Matcha for the day is a combination of Cinnamon Matcha from Red Leaf Tea and Peanut Matcha from Red Leaf Tea. I did a ratio of 2:1 with the Matcha (2 parts peanut Matcha and 1 part cinnamon) because I remembered how strong the cinnamon Matcha was. This is really tasty, it reminds me a bit of a cinnamon candied peanut. Sweet, cinnamony, but just enough peanut taste too. And a lovely Matcha taste coming through as well. I notice more Matcha taste here than I would with the cinnamon Matcha on it’s own, but less than I would have with the peanut matcha on its own.

Yummy… not my favorite combination, but it’s certainly tasty.