Starfevre

Don’t know what I did special today, but mmm, this one is good.

First time in a while with this matcha that I wished I had added sugar. Maybe I put more matcha in than usual. Or perhaps I’m just getting tired of the taste. Or maybe my sweet tooth is overactive, I did have a muffin this morning for breakfast. Who knows. Note to self: sugar next time.

This is a bit bitter, but I also think I overleafed it a bit so it might be that causing it. I can definitely taste the vanilla, though it’s not as strong as I like my vanilla to be in tea. I like to have a STRONG vanilla if I’m going to have something labeled vanilla tea. Exception being the Persimmon Tree’s vanilla black tea because although that flavour is pretty subtle, it’s also awesome. This one is not as awesome as that. It’s not terrible, if I ignore the bitterness, but it’s not what I want from a vanilla tea.

Thanks to KallieBoo! for this sample.

This one is growing on me, I think.

As deliciously smooth as I can make it.

This is actually really good. Usually I’m not a big fan of green teas in general, and this does still have a bit of the green tea flavour that I don’t like, mostly in the aftertaste, but the flavouring and whatever else is in it makes for a nice creamy lime treat. I used up the entire sample on one pot so I’m glad that it turned out well.

Thanks to Pia M for this sample. I made a pot and shared it with a coworker.

This is an interesting tea. I can definitely taste the hazelnut although as it cooled down, it got somewhat bitter. Much better while hot.

Drank this without sugar. Something of a rarity for me.

Just drank some of this while being distracted by Avengers fanfiction.

Got this sample in trade from KallieBoo!. Thanks!

The cranberry is very strong in this one. Really strong. It’s so tart that I think I don’t like it very much. I like my cranberries to be moderated by other things and this one tastes like straight up steeped cranberries, I can’t even taste the tea part of it. There is something else that I can’t identify in the taste and it’s rubbing me the wrong way.

Smooth and creamy and a little bit lemony, but with a bit of a bite to it today.

I haven’t had the pure macadamia nut matcha so I don’t know how it compares with this one, and I haven’t had actual macadamia nuts in a long while, but this does taste like what I vaguely remember that those nuts tasted like way back when. There is also the addition of a bit of sweetness, almost artificial tasting, to the high note of the sip. It tastes much like it smells, nutty with a fair bit of sweetness.

I’d been putting off tasting this matcha for a while because I couldn’t decide if I liked the smell of it or not, the sweetness was confusing for my nose because it smelled (and tastes) right on the edge of artificial for me. Since praline (which I just looked up) is basically boiled ground up nuts with a sugar syrup added, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that the sweetness has no real character to it. It’s just…sweet.

As I continue drinking this, I still can’t decide if I like it or not. There’s a sharpness to the nutty taste that’s sort of putting me off. Possibly it’s true to an actual macadamia nut taste and the sharpness is from the nut itself, but I don’t remember macadamia nuts well enough to tell.

Basically, if you like macadamia nuts, and want something sweeter than the regular blend, this is probably a good one for you. I want RLT to come out with more nutty blends though. I’d love to see a cashew or a pecan matcha.

You can find this matcha here: http://www.redleaftea.com/matcha-tea/macadamia-praline-matcha.html

Again, a little more bitter today, I’m not liking this as much as I did last time. I have more of this so perhaps I should steep it for less time next time, though I did a review of steeping times from the other reviews and it seemed 4 minutes was about average. Le sigh.

I just read through the full description of this on the page and the second paragraph is a little ridiculous. Tastes good though.

Almost drunk the last of this, though I have an unopened packet also waiting at home.

Managed the perfect amount of sugar today. Now if only I had drunk it while it was still warm…

A little more bitter today. I didn’t enjoy this tea as much as I did the last time I drank it. I have another cup left in the pot so I’m going to try to doctor it up with a little more sugar than the first cup. I made it with the same parameters as last time, so I’m not sure what’s going on exactly. I really shouldn’t have to doctor this one up so much because of the amount of stuff in it already. Bleh. At least I’m 90% sure I think I can get my files to work this morning at work after banging my head against the wall for a week and a half. Good, because the deadline is Wednesday and it needs to be reviewed first.

Tasty, definitely cherry and quite sweet. I’m glad this is a black tea because I was honestly expecting the only Japanese cherry flavours to be green tea. Thanks to ToiToi for this sample

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Thanks to Lariel for this sample.

This is pretty good, although I’m not at all getting the berry flavours, neither blueberry nor raspberry, that I had expected. This mostly tastes like an Earl Grey to me, with some extra citrus thrown in there, likely from the orange peels. It’s very fresh tasting. I don’t even like Earl Greys that much normally.

I did oversteep this a bit so that might be where the berries went.

Fairly certain I like the boysenberry better than the generic berry but probably less than the raspberry. Will have to continue experiment tonight.

Thus begins the berry matcha experiment. Do I like the generic berry better than the boysenberry? I don’t know. I wish I’d remembered to bring my raspberry in from home, but black cherry will have to do as a substitute.