525 Tasting Notes

Ever try to enjoy a bit of pumpkin custard while your dog cries and looks longingly and pitifully at your food? I felt like the hugest jerk in the world not sharing my my dessert with him. So then I let each pup get a lick. Those darn cute faces get me every time. My dogs own me.

Fortunately, they are not interested in my tea so I don’t have to feel bad while I enjoy a cup. :) I had a terribly stressful day at work today. Called someone early in the morning to get some info. She directed me to someone else. That person directed me to yet another person. And so on. Until about 4pm when the last person I get directed to directs me back to the person I had called in the first place. It’s such a classic failed bureaucracy situation it’s almost funny. Now I’ve been directed to yet another two people whom I will call tomorrow morning. Someone save me.

Anyway, despite the fact that I know white tea can get me pretty wired sometimes, I really needed something that tastes soothing and delicious. Jasmine tea is perfect for that. And Verdant is guaranteed quality.

First whiff of the dry tea was heavenly. I absolutely love the smell of jasmine. The scent has me practically salivating. It also reminds me of peach. I can just feel the sticky sweet juices from of perfect summer peach. yum. The liquor is a very pale grayish brown. Not the most attractive color, but it’s all about the taste! and the taste here is fantastic! Juicy and floral and exactly what I need. There is a pleasant drying effect here as well.

Did I mention how I love the dry leaves? They are like little fuzzy twigs. Awesome!

There is a funny taste here, but I suspect it’s my kettle because my mom has a kettle that gives a similar taste to her water. Gotta boil some water in a pot and see what happens. Will withhold rating until then.

gmathis

Endless work loops are funny until you’re the one stuck in one.

Mercuryhime

I can see this situation working well in a comedy skit. :)

Donna A

I can so identify-going through a similar experience since August with my idiotic health insurance company over a claims processing error due to a glitch in their computer system. They say they are’t given access to see the Explanation of Benefits that they send me, which if they could, my problem would be solved. I’ve been on the phone for hours with them drinking endless cups of tea! Great review-this is one of my two favorite white jasmine teas, the other being from Teavivre.

Mercuryhime

The reps don’t have access to info that’s sent out to their customers? Whaaa’? Good thing you have tea to give you the energy for these endless repetitive phone conversations. :)

Donna A

Mercuryhime, you can’t make this stuff up!! I’m an RN and know a little more about jumping through the bureaucratic health insurance hoops than a lot of folks. Yes, I’d go crazy if I didn’t have tea. The one representative who had half a brain and was actually giving me some hope is out for surgery. He gave me his private company email address since you can never get the same person twice with this company. By the way, without naming it, this is a large inefficient company whose name starts with U, same name as my country.

Mercuryhime

Hmm, my health insurance starts with a B. I hope they’re better. :)

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69

I think my wrist may never heal because I refuse to allow my injury to restrict my activities. Just today I had to heave one of those 5 gallon jugs of water into the water cooler so that I could get hot water for my tea. I guess I could have asked someone to help but I have this weird thing about being independent. Anyway, it was a bit painful. Not smart. But tea!

There are tons of teas with this name and they seem to look the same too. I’d wager it’s all from the same source. That’s good in a way since widely available teas would need to be competitively priced. I’m all for not spending all my monies. It’s not a bad tea, but I find the rooibos taste to be prominent and it’s not as smooth as it could be. Vanilla is bordering on artificial, but that might be the funky rooibos. I wonder if my non-caffeine only colleague would like this… I have a lot since it was cheap and came at a minimum of 4 ounces.

Edit: I just noticed that there is supposed to be cinnamon in this…. What? I don’t taste it at all! And what’s with the random almond flakes? Can’t taste almond either. This just excludes people with allergies for no good reason. Blah

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85

So I was sipping a cup of tea this morning and somehow managed to drop my iPhone straight into my cup, speaker end first. For now, it has been turned off and placed on top of the heater to dry. Hopefully, it will still work okay. It does smell pretty tasty right now, at least.

Anyway, this tea! I’m a sucker for any tea that naturally has honey notes. Usually, they come in the form of oolong. A black tea with honey notes sounded super interesting. And I’m just delving into the world of black teas too! I do taste sweet apricot honey notes in this tea, but it is not as prominent as I had hoped. It’s also a bit chocolatey, but not very much. Overall, it has all the qualities that I enjoy in tea, but in small amounts. I suppose one might say that it is well balanced and subtly tasty. There is no astringency nor bitterness. It’s a very good tea, but not outstanding. I’d drink it again without hesitation. :D

Nik

Oh no! I hope your phone survives the ordeal!

Ysaurella

Does the Iphone share the same opinion about the tea ? ;)
hope it works !

Mercuryhime Hopefully the phone hates the tea and spits it all out. :)
Sil

Can always try putting your phone into rice….the rice absorbs the water out of the phone. I have a number of friends who have done this when the phone totally wasn’t working and were able to rescue the phone this way

Indigobloom

Anyone here watch Elementary? that rice trick was in one of the eps!

Mercuryhime

rice trick was unnecessary. Phone works like normal. Yay!

Sil

Yay! So glad to hear that

Nik

Whew, thank goodness for that. I had a similar experience, one time…

One day, I came home and took off my outside clothes and prepared a load of laundry. I started the wash and then had to make a phone call, but couldn’t find my phone. I wasn’t worried—I’m quite absent-minded and this happens frequently. I used the Find my phone application to locate it. The loud beeping enabled me to quickly locate it…inside the running washing machine. =( I hurriedly paused the wash and took out the phone. It worked for a few seconds and died. I tried all the tricks Google gave me for the next 8 days or so, to no avail. Finally, I made an appointment at the Apple store. They asked me what happened and I told them honestly that I had accidentally laundered it. After they stopped laughing, they gave me a new phone, in spite of the fact that water damage isn’t covered by AppleCare. So, I got a happy ending and a good story out of the experience (and a new phone). =) It still makes me laugh to think of the look on my face when I realised the beeping was coming from inside the washing machine.

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92

I FOUND IT!!! Excitement! I thought I had lost this tea and was contemplating getting a new one. Luckily, I thought to look into my tin of hot chocolate. I had forgotten that I had decided to re-purpose the tin for this tea, thinking that the remaining chocolate aroma could only enhance this puer. So happy! I made a big fuss about it to my husband so I decided to share a celebratory cup with him. :D It’s also perfect for post holiday binging. The puer soothes the stuffed tummy and the desserty flavor helps you eat less actual dessert. Good stuff! It tastes better luke warm than hot.

yaaay!

Nik

Wow, it’s funny that you say that, because I recently commented that I didn’t know of many (if any) things that taste good lukewarm. :D

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79
drank Momoko by Lupicia
525 tasting notes

I can’t find my chocolate strawberry puer. Cry. Where is it? :(

Im drinking this instead. I was really struck by just how pretty this tea is. Cute mini flowers and pink sugar crystals. It’s like made for little princesses. :)

I’m still in anguish over my missing tea though! Where is iiiit?

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87

Thanks to Nuvola for this sample! It’s quite tasty! I prefer my oolongs greener and less roasted, but still good! It’s a comfy tea to help your relax at work. I also detected a bit of fruitiness. Like jam and toast. :) It’s like relaxing out in the autumn woods with a comforting hot cup of tea. It provided a nice gentle boost of energy as well, and resteeped very nicely! Good stuff!

I wish I had some of this tea right now because I am exhausted! Baking pies and making creme anglais and washing puppies…ah! Too much after a full day of work! I still have to make chocolate syrup and ginger syrup, but I’ll have to do that in the morning. I can’t do anymore. Still waiting for a pie to finish baking. :( Then off to sleep. sleeeeeep. Then more cooking. It will be worth it! My whole apartment smells fantastic, by the way. :)

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84

I’m in the office and I smell something thats exactly like SpecialTeas’ Almond Cookie tea. Is there a tea lover on this floor? I’m surreptitiously peeking into other people’s cubes but I can’t find the source of the smell! And its another dept that shares our space so I don’t know them well enough to ask. Haha what a unique tea addict problem.

Anyways, I’m having this tea again with three pearls and cooler water. Much better! This leads me to conclude that most people prefer their teas a lot stronger than I do! I’ll keep that in mind in case any Steepterites ever show up to my place for tea. :)

ashmanra

Step up and proclaim, “Hey, what smells so delicious in here!” You may get some weird looks, but you may score a real cookie or make a new tea friend!

Hesper June

I had to giggle. I just caught a glimpse of the gossip at the water cooler in your office today…there is some gal sneaking around sniffing peoples cubicles;)

Mercuryhime

The smell is gone now. Would it be weird to proclaim “Hey, what smelled so delicious earlier?” haha
Also, I hope I wasn’t that noticeable! I Thought I was really subtle! :)

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84

So I heard lots of good things about this tea. Sadly, I don’t find it all that tasty. Did I brew this wrong? It was kind of sour. I do some of those chocolate flavors people are talking about but it’s also kind of bitter. I think I’ll use a lower temp next time. I find the boiling water never really works out for me unless it’s an herbal. I suppose I’m sensitive to the stuff the boiling water brings out of teas. And there’s a lot of caffeine in this. Holy cow.

I’ll try this again before I rate it.

As I was brewing this, husband walked by and said, “I was looking for some tea this morning and I noticed that you have way too much!” He doesn’t touch my stash usually. He has no real idea how much tea I have. There’s more hidden under my desk. muahaha

Donna A

I used 5 pearls with 8 oz water for 3 minutes at almost boiling and really liked it. I read that it can be a little tricky to get right. The other alternative is to brew it gong fu style-some teas that I don’t like Western are great gong fu style.

Mercuryhime

I only used 4 pearls with 8 oz. It tasted too strong for me. Though I think I over brewed it since it forgot about it for a few minutes. Usually when this happens, I add more hot water to dilute it and it works out. If not, a lower temp and lower steep time usually fixes things for me. Hotter water leeches out more bitterness and I guess I’m pretty sensitive to that. We shall see next time! I think I"ll bring the rest of my sample pouch to work tomorrow and try it out there!

Charles Thomas Draper

4 pearls and boiling water and a 5 minute steep and I am loving it

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82
drank Melon Oolong by Lupicia
525 tasting notes

I’m craving fruit, but there is no fruit at home! So I broke into this melon oolong. Melons are so lackluster this time of year. Thank goodness we have tea to tide us over till summer.

This particular tea is like cantaloupe and honeydew. Smells so sweet! I definitely underleafed. Will fix for next time! The taste is very good. Melony and summery with a nice green oolong base. I still want real fruit though.

I have a feeling that this will be good cold. I’l make the second steep a cold brew. It’s time for bed anyhow.

Good night all!

Nik

So, how was the cold brew? =)

Mercuryhime

Tasty! More oolongy with a touch of melon. :)

Nik

Nice! I’m a little surprised, I kind of expected the melon to come out more in the cold brew. Interesting.

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Profile

Bio

I came from a tea drinking family, but I never appreciated the different qualities and varieties of tea until older. All that time wasted! But I guess I needed to be mature enough to appreciate the tea experience. :)

My favorite teas are green oolongs and white tea. I also love greens, especially gyokuro. I have a huge appreciation for rooibos and honeybush as they are often that only thing I can drink in the evening. I am a relatively new convert to black teas. This is unfortunate for my wallet but extremely wonderful for my palate. :)

In any case, I have a love for both flavored and unflavored teas. They are different experiences for sure, but both enjoyable. I find that it often depends on my mood.

I am on a quest to find a tea that will win my husband over. I think I’m making some headway…

My profile pic features my two lovable puppies, Mr. Snuggles and Sr. Caliente.

Location

NYC / Westchester

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