Uniquity

I’ve been trying to make this tasting note since yesterday (and this tea for a year!) – the Steepster Gods have not been kind to me. Anyway, I have some of this still from a year ago, though I wish I didn’t. I sent the beau off with the tin to drink at work and I am trying to use what’s left in the bag at mine. This was purchased before I realized that you could buy less than 100 grams of something, so I’ve got an awful lot of it.

Remembering that this is a bitter tea, I steeped it for only a minute in less than boiling water and even threw in a bit of sugar (maybe 1/8 teaspoon) in advance because I am at switchboard and away from the kitchens. Under these conditions, it was tolerable but too sweet so I put the leaves back in for 30 seconds or so. Unfortunately, a tonne of loose “leaves” (aka powder) fell into the tea from my fine infuser while I was doing that, even though I shook out the infuser vigorously – I forgot to mention but this is one seriously broken up tea. I assume that is what contributes to it’s bitterness.

Anyway, after the extra steeping it was bitter. Too bitter to drink. I threw out yet another mug of this blasted tea which I have never managed to make well. Even low temps, less leaf, adding sugar, shaking the powder out and short steeping times aren’t enough to redeem this bad boy. Rating seriously decreased because I know better now!

The beau has been dying to brew some of this up, so I figured we’d give it a go. The first thing I noticed was a lot of “scum” on the top, likely from the chocolate, sprinkles and freeze dried ice cream. Neat idea, but not so attractive in practice. However, I have had a couple DT teas like this, and I’m not worried. The smell is yummy but very sweet – sweet is where my fear comes in here. I rarely sweeten my tea, and it bothers me that this one has stevia built in.

This one is really sweet. Very sweet. Some sips I enjoyed, where most I felt like I was drowning in sugar. Not quite the tea for me, though the idea was interesting. I could sort of see where ice cream cake was coming from, but it was sweeter than ice cream, if that makes sense. When I think of ice cream cake, I think of Dairy Queen cakes, and yummy fudge crumble in the middle with vanilla on the top, chocolate on the bottom and whipped cream icing. MMMM! Also, I did get an alcohol smell from the dry leaf – what does that? Is that the stevia leaf? Personally, I find it a little unsettling, though I have no problem with alcohol. Just not quite my thing.

I got this sample from Joy’s Teaspoon with an order I placed more than a year ago or so at this point. At that time I did not drink chcolate in tea. I thought it was an abomination – but I’ve finally learned my lesson. So, I dug this out and embraced the lovely milk chocolate aromas from the dried (and steeped!) leaf. It smells sweet and appetizing but there is a hint of bitterness in the aroma. I find that even now some chocolate teas (such as DT’s Chocolate Chili Chai) are unappealing and even make me feel nauseous. We shall see how this one holds up – so far, all is promising. For the record, a co-worker just arrived in the switchboard office that I cover from 1 to 2 and said it smells like chocolate – so mmuch so that she thought I was having a hot chocolate, not a flavoured tea.

First sips are not as sweet as the aroma would lead me to believe. There is a bold chocolate flavour, which actually combines the creaminess of milk chocolate and a slight hint of bitterness from dark chocolate. The taste changes on my tongue, but has a very pleasant lingering flavour. The initial sip is darker than the rest, I find. It’s very rich and decadent, though a bit too dark and bitter initially.

I must confess that I have no fondness for dark chocolate. I like the adulterated milky stuff – with sweet Cadbury being my favourite of the commercial brands. I was hoping this would be like DT’s Read My Lips, sans mint, but it’s a different beast. A little more adult and not quite my thing, unfortunately.

Finishing this up today I get a different taste than before. I steeped for about 10 minutes and get a creaminess behind the chocolate and rooibos notes that really suggests the neapolitan flavour. I still don’t get vanilla or strawberry, but as I said in my last note, I find chocolate always takes over.

I did shake the dust out of my infuser this time, though an annoying amount has fallen into my mug. It’s a good thing this is a rooibos, otherwise it would be undrinkable. I am getting a sharp taste of the rooibos in the back of my throat, and for once I almost understand what people mean when they say a mintiness. I must confess I am not found of this strong rooibos presence, but it’s completely my fault. Nice to see another sample finished!

Re-visiting this one today – unfortunately the smell isn’t at all pleasant. Initial aroma is kind of sour smelling and had a sharp scent that reminded me of vomit. It had me wondering if what I initially thought were almond slices might not be shaved coconut. Hopefully they really are almonds. According to my tasting note I found this solidly okay last time, let’s hope this is the same.

The taste is not nearly as objectionable as the smell, but it’s not really helping to dissuade me from my new conviction that this has coconut, not almonds. The initial sip is alright, but the aftertaste is sort of bothering me. As it cools it becomes more palatable, and bigger gulps are actually kind of nice. There is a sweetness, reminiscent of desserts. Almost reminds me of baklava, which is very weird. As I keep sipping I think I get a cinnamon taste in here, but a sweet one. This tea certainly is full of mysteries!

This one came to be as part of the enormous box of samples I purchased from LiberTeas months ago. The smell is very faint, but creamy and a hint of chocolate. Ordinarily I shake the “powder” out of my infuser before steeping (I hate floaties in my cup!) but as I was doing that with this one I came to the conclusion that I might be shaking out the flavourings, which would be pretty dumb. So, I am doing it with all the dust (and there’s a lot of it). Since there’s no proper tea in here, I hope that won’t be a problem.

Steeped, the aroma has a chickory note and reminds me of stale milk chocolate – you know when it gets old and turns white-ish. The liquor is a deep brown and quite fragrant. I’m really just getting the chocolate aspect of neapolitan, so far at least. I find that even in the ice cream though, that’s what happens. The vanilla and strawberry ( my favourites!) get buried beneath the chocolate.

The flavour is fairly bland, possibly because of age/storage. I get a hint of old chocolate, but it isn’t very assertive and if I were blind testing this I might not have got it right. I didn’t get any strawberry at all, and a sense of vanilla could only be present in a slight creaminess. Nothing objectionable at all, but certainly nothing special. I’ve got enough for another cup worth and I think I’ll take it to work to use up.

Eight months later, here I am trying to finish up my sample of this tea. I do have a fondness for some aspects of this tea, but it is just so sweet. I am getting a very strong juice flavour here, with no tea peeking out anywhere. If there were no cost to factor in, this would be high 70s for fruity drinkability. When you factor in the cost, though….this tea just doesn’t deliver. I’ve learned the hard way about most of the DT ‘white tea’ blends, it just took a while for the lesson to sink in. One more cuppa this and we’re through! It;s good to make room, my tea shelf needs serious turnover!

ps – This reminds me quite a bit of the new Spring tea: Daydreamer, which I just tried the other day. I use the term “new” quite loosely though, a lot of the recent blends seem to just be re-creations or gimicks. I think I’m falling way out of love with DT ! : ( Anyway, the faux mango flavouring really makes the two almost indistinguishable. Accordingly, I get a hint of Tim Horton’s peach juice in this one too. Plus, it has pineapple built right in! (my theory being that pineapple juice is what pushes Daydreamer over the edge into peach juice territory).

This is another example of my past tea indulgences. I tried one cuppa in store about 6 months ago and then bought 100 grams of it. Of course, since then I have made approximately 0 cups and have bought probably 50 more teas. I’m glad I have finally learned to buy in moderation, but I wish that lesson had been imparted earlier.

So, for my second sup of this – this is pretty good. I’m not as fond of it as I was the first time (but then, I never am). I find the first few sips to be very bold with a hint of smoke from the chickory and the roasted mate. The flavour improves as it cools a bit, and I get more of a sweeter dark chocolate with an aftertaste of raspberry. It smells and tastes like decadent chocolate treats. There is a very bold flavour that remains on the end of the sip – this, I like. Powerful. I’ve lowered the rating slightly, but this is still a very nice tea. One of the DT successes, in my books!

A side note about mate: I’ve learned that I really prefer the roasted stuff to the green. If you’re wary of mate due to ‘grassiness’ give the roasted stuff a try!

To me, this tastes just like another Canadian classic: Tim Hortons peach juice. I used to drink that stuff as a kid when my mparents went in for coffee (my Mum worked at a Timmie’s when I was very small and my Dad hung out with the bikers in front of the store). The only thing this needs to totally bring me back to childhood is a Tim Treat. Yup, a Tim Treat. Take a donut, add a mountain of whipped cream and stick a sugar candy face on there – BAM! I just liked the whipped cream and sugar, even then I knew that the donuts were big trouble : )

I will be fair and say that I sipped some pineapple juice before having this and it is likely affecting my judgment, but it took all 10 grams to make a pot of this so I likely won’t be trying it again. I don’t think there is anything remarkable about it (other than the similiarity to sugary drinks of my youth) and I would be happy living with a couple other flavoured greens I’ve gotten from DT over the years. I will be fair and say that this smells amazing in store – very enticing. That is what made the beau buy 10 g of this and another 10 of Strawberry Ginger, even though we both know better than to fall for the seasonal tea hype anymore. I need DT to come out with a good rick black tea. Preferably a well sourced pure tea, but a good caramelly black tea would work too. Mmm.

Anyway, this gets a smily face for reminding me of simpler times – though it should cost as much as peach juice would – this isn’t worth the cost.

After another crazy week, the beau and I are sitting down to finally try this sample from Teavivre – Thank you Angel! We are off to visit my grandmother in an hour or so, so we’re just slipping this one in before we continue the madness that this week has been.

The dry leaf smells decadent. It smells very rich, I find it has a chocolate characteristic and it instantly brings to mind the Golden Snail from Harney and Sons (which I have only a small amount of and am hoarding because it has been out of stock for months and months). I might want to try these side by side at some point and see if it’s just memory playing tricks on me. I steeped this for 3 minutes at 85 degrees (package specifications) with one sample package (approx. 2 teaspoons). The leaf has a surprising number of tips, it’s very attractive, even if the leaves are perhaps a bit more crushed than I might prefer. That could be due to shipping, storage, etc.

Steeped liquor is a golden amber, a little paler than I expected, but still with a bold aroma. I find the smell is very similar to the dry leaf – bold, rich, chocolatey. I hope I’m not the only one getting chocolate! (a side note, to be fair: I’ve been in the mood for a beautiful pure black tea that has chocolate notes for weeks – the thought that this one has been sitting idly by while I rushed about makes me cringe. I’m in love with the aroma, so far!)

First sips really match the aroma. So far this is a very consistant tea. This is bold. I do get chocolate in the taste, dark chocolate with a hint of something that could be considered bitter but doesn’t make me pucker. There is a sweetness in the middle of the sip which tapers off to the richness I am experiencing in the chocolate notes. Right now, this is heaven! I think there might be a tiny hint of astringency, as my lips are feeling a tiny bit dry, but there is nothing that tastes bitter or drying. Who knows, maybe this is my lips trying to wake up. : )

General consensus: yum. Very yum. Hopefully I can eke out a re-steep before we leave and see if these leaves can go the extra mile. This is definitely a tea that I am going to want to have on hand and will definitey go on my teavivre order once I’ve tried the rest of my samples. Mmmm!

I can’t believe how many people assume that all tea tastes llike bagged orange pekoe. While I can appreciate the place for bagged OP, I find it so hard to explain to someone just how delicious all teas (and especially black teas) can be. There is so much variety out there – so much more!

Some of my tea friends have probably learned by now that I have a tendency to have a lot of love for a tea at first – only to have my feelings wither over time. It’s terrible. This tea, however, defies my usual tendencies. This tea is still fabulous to me. I love the fuzziness from the mate, the sweetness rocking out all over the place. It’s good hot or cool (room temperature) which is really saying something for me. It is a treat!

Revisiting this in an attempt to clear out some more tea. There is still enough left for 3 or 4 cups of tea, which is sort of annoying because I’m still not super fond. I steeped it at a lower temp this time which helped cut the green tea flavour, but this still isn’t right for me. It is shockingly like an apple pie, but the green tea is blechy and the hint of cinnamon is just not quite right. There is an aftertaste to the sip which I don’t appreciate and actually find hard to describe. It’s almost plasticky or chemically? It almost acts like pie crust taste, but then there is something off about it. I think this one is at it’s best while hot and if I can’t drink it within 15 minutes or so, I should just stay away. Oh well, at least it’ll be over soon! : )

This may just be the best smelling tisane of my whole life. The beau and I steeped up a pot of this in the afternoon, enjoying another generous sample from Teavivre. The dry smell is fabulous – strongly blueberry, hint of tart and a hint of something raisin-y behind that. If I could smell only one fruity thing the rest of my life I would choose this. If this were jam, I would eat it by the spoonful. Oh man, it smells like jam!

I steeped 4 heaping tsp. in 12ish oz of boiling water for about 8 minutes, basically following the Teavivre directions. Lately I have found ymself pulling away from fruit based teas, but berry tisanes still hold a place in my heart, and this one smells like the queen of them all. Oh man, am I excited.

The brewed liquor has a tart smell from the roselle, but there is still distinctly jammy blueberry and raisin underneath that. The first sips are very tart, so we added a drop of honey and that made this lovely. The tartness is there, but it is muted a bit by the honey and the blueberry flavour becomes more rich. It still reminds me of jam and has a lovely aftertaste – this is a treat! I look forward to enjoying the rest of this sample, and likely will be ordering it at some point in the future.

EDIT: Made a second steep (10 minutes) and that was really good – the tartness was totally gone, and though the berry flavour was obviously light, it was naturally sweet and deicious, like over-ripe berries. Loving the lighter second steep to go with the bold first!

This sample was provided to me by Angel from Teavivre approximately 1 to 2 months ago. My apologies in the delay before tasting, life got away with me. I’ve decided to do all my initial reviews on these teas following package directions. Though I would not ordinarily steep an oolong in boiling water for 1 to 3 minutes, I will give it the old college try, and hopefully post an additional note at another time with my usual parameters. For the tasting, I am using my gaiwan with one sample packet and sharing with the beau in our little double walled teacups.

Dry leaves smell sweet, and remind me of hay and grass. The beau proclaims them earthy but as in “of the earth” not dirt. : )

First steep: One minute, boiling water. The liquor is pale yellow with a hint of green, not nearly as deep as I feared. The smell is very vegetal, my first thoughts are boiled spinach and leafy greens. This does not appeal to me, but I’ll give it a shot – once it’s cool enough to drink! The leaves have opened a LOT and are very pretty in my gaiwan. As it cools the boiled greens aroma fades (yay) and the taste is surprising. There is an aspect of green vegetalness (ya, I said vegetalness, what of it? :D) but this is really nice. I am not a green tea drinker and tend to prefer oolongs that are more like black teas, but this is really pleasant. Surprisingly sweet and rich. There is a floral aspect which is very present in the taste, but not overwhelmingly. Reminds me of a few flowering teas I have tried and enjoyed. I’m impressed! The beau, on the other hand, says “it’s kinda plain”. Well.

Second steep: 2 minutes, boiling water. The liquor is much darker this time ‘round though the smell is fairly similar. Let it cool so I don’t burn my tongue and the taste is actually quite vegetal with a hint of bitterness. Jumping up to 2 minutes was clearly too much for me, I should have stuck at 1.5 for now. For an experienced oolong drinker the bold vegetal aspect of this might be appealing, but it is a bit too much for an oolong novice such as myself. Ah well, it’s my own fault! The beau proclaims that this steep is better and he likes it more. He has a recently discovered love for green tea, so this makes sense.

I think I will take a break now to prepare lunch and add any notes about further infusions later on, if I think of it. I have only tried 3 or 4 different Tie Guan Yins now, so I barely know what I am talking about but I found this to be really present and quite bold. Though I feared the boiling water, I think that is what maintained the strength of flavour.

Just tried a cup of Marshmallow Treat Genmaicha (non vegan). Wow, is it ever different from the kind found in the 12 Teas of Christmas. I really enjoyed it with the marshmallow root, but what I just tasted was not the same at all. There was a strong smoke aspect which I did not like and the marshmallow was kind of yucky. After a few sips, I left the rest of the cup for the beau – blech! Numerical rating still stands for the vegan stuff, but this would have got a 40 from me.

Purchased this while in Yarmouth visiting family over Christmas. Apparently a local drug store (City Drug) has started blending and selling their own tea – Very intriguing. The beau and I decided to get a bit of this, but they only offer their tea in 50 gram bags. Bummer (and kind of a strike 1). We decide to get it anyway, despite there being no visible price chart (strike 2). This 50 gram bag came to 12 dollars with tax!!!! First off, no tax on tea in NS. Second off, that is an outrageous price – No wonder the price list is hidden. They also charge more than $10 for a 100 pack of T-Sacs. We won’t be buying any more tea there at those prices, so we had pretty high expectations of this puppy.

We finally rbewed a pot of this up with breakfast, and it was pretty darn good. no bitterness – which is great. There was a rich, creamy flavour which was more caramelly than anything else, but quite nice. The pomegranate they talk about on the packaging was nowhere to be seen, but it was prerty nice. I think I might even prefer it to the Sawadeee Monk’s Blend based on the richness, but at the price it is, we’ll live without when this pack is gone.

Another from my box of teas from LiberTeas on teatra.de – WEE!!! The beau and I brewed up a pot of this while watching the last two episodes of Arrested Development. I know we’re behind the times, but oh well. As for the tea, I’m not familiar with or fond of green tea, but this one appeals to me in terms of flavourings. Hojicha is totally new to me but I’m intrigued to give it a shot.

The steeped liquor is a rich honey colour, and has a chickory-esque aroma. Smells faintly woody/nutty but there’s also a sweetness in the aroma. Fairly appealing, and nothing like any green tea I’ve tried. According to my research, that’s no surprise. First sips are surprising. It’s so reminiscent of chickory! It’s got a sort of pseudo chocolate aspect going on too. There is a faint sweetness with a woody almost smoke note as well. Not getting much by way of pear, but I assume the honey is the reason for the sweetness. Another nice one to have tried and I think I might take what’s left of this one to work to finish up. Yum!

This sample came to me by way of LiberTeas and her big box of samples on Teatra.de. Since I am cleaning house (well, trying!) in terms of samples I opted to use this guy for a pot for the beau and I after work. I’m not getting much aroma from the loose leaves, but I’m assuming this tea is getting older, since most reviews of it are from a year ago or more. I will admit up front that I am very uncertain about banana flavour in tea – Most banana teas involve chamomile which is the bane of my existance, so the opportunity to try banana cheesecake is too good to pass up.

Knowing that Frank’s black tea base and I don’t always get along very well, I let the water cool to 95C and only steeped for 3 minutes. These precautions yield a brick red liquor with very little aroma, though there is a tinge of bitterness underneath (almost coffee-ish). There’s not much by way of banana or cheesecake in the aroma but there is a vague sweetness on top of it all. If I could just get the “top” lawyer of the aroma, this would be a very appetizing smell.

First sips are pretty nice. No bitterness, but also no banana. I’ll chalk that up to the age of the tea and the fact that it was in a little plastic bag next to lots of other teas for a while. The general flavour is sweet and lovely, reminiscent of 52Teas’ Blueberry Cream Cheese Danish. I’m not really getting cheesecake here, but there is definite sweetness. Very nice to have tried!

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is a de-cupboarding! I’ve been drinking the remains of this sample for the past few days in an attempt to finish it up, and am glad to have done so. While there is a fairly authentic raspberry taste to this mate there is also a strong smokiness which seems more intense than it was when I first tried it a few months ago. It’s not particularly offensive, but it is unexpected. As the cup cools I find the smokiness really develops and takes over the sip, leaving a smoky taste in the mouth afterward. Different!

Finishing up my sample of this today – Another one down, wahoo! I must admit that this tea has become less appealing to me over time. I have a tendency to have my strongest feelings about a tea on initial tasting and to gradually come to enjoy it less and less. Such is the case with this one. The apple that was so innovative at first is now too sweet, the mint too mild and the tea too cloudy (it is a particularly fine rooibos – Lots of little bits floating around, it’s almost like matcha in terms of consistency).

The chocolate has all melted in (according to the “oil slick” on top of the tea) but isn’t very present either. I am getting a lot of sweetness and a very slight hint of mint and milk chocolate at the tail end of the sip but I would prefer for them to be more bold. This is still a nice tea and different from most mint chocolate teas on the market, so I am pleased to have had some, but it doesn’t demand a re-order anymore. What is going on with my tea tastes lately??

I feel pretty bad that I added a tea to the Steepster database just to complain about it a bit, but here I am. This is another that I received in my big box from LiberTeas on teatra.de and I steeped up about half the sample tonight for myself, the beau and a friend. Honestly, this tea appealed to me in theory (I am always on the lookout for a good apple tea, and a good caramel tea. If it can be both then that’s great!) but the reality leaves something to be desired. Once steeped I mostly got a rooibos taste with a faint whiff of something perhaps caramellish every once in a while. I tried it on it’s own at first, then paired it with supper (breaded pork strips and homemade french fries) which didn’t really help a whole lot. It was when drinking it paired with food that I got the most sense of caramel, but there was never any apple. Fine enough to drink for something warm, but not enjoyable, per se.

I got this as a sample in my box of teas from LiberTeas on teatra.de and am finally getting to it. In my ongoing effort to manage my stash, the beau and I have been drinking a lot of teas that we only have a small amount of (or don’t really like) to try to cull the numbers a bit. There was just enough in this sample for a good sized pot, so we went for it.

Steeped in boiling water for 2.5 – 3 minutes, this yields a deep brown liquor with a honeyed black tea aroma. It smells sweet and appealing, though not of strawberries. First sips are a nice sweet black tea with a hint of fruity something behind it. Almost like a jam flavour, and it is a thicker mouthfeel. The black tea is nice and unassuming, not too brisk, bold or malty. Frequently I have an issue with 52Teas black tea base, but this works, so far.

I have never had zabaglione, but am loving the jamminess I get while this tea is hot. Having just googled zabaglione I don’t really know why I am getting jam flavours, but that’s okay. I can tell already that this is a tea to enjoy hot because as it cools the typical bitterness I experience in 52Teas black teas is coming forward (which I hate!) All in all, this is lovely while hot but the bitterness just isn’t my friend. I am considering sweetening this to mask the bitterness, but I don’t like making additions to my tea. Ah well, it was nice to try!

EDIT: Added a bit of milk about halfway through the cup to cut the bitterness. With milk, it’s a bit more bearable in terms of bitterness, but it also masks the hint of strawberry I was getting. Now it tastes almost as if I have a generic orange pekoe tea with some milk thrown in, and a bit of something sweet/fruity. Disappointing.

This is another very old sample that I had purchased from The Tea Brewery about a year ago. Finishing it off and finally writing a tasting note. I didn’t really pay attention to the look of the tea before I steeped it, but afterward it is clear that this one has hibiscus in it. It is very red, and probably a bit over-steeped as I didn’t notice there was hibiscus.

The taste of this is berry, but not specificly apple. There isn’t much sweetness, but nor is there much tart from the hibiscus. I’m guessing there was only a touch of hibiscus for colour more than anything else, but it seems incongruous to have hibiscus in a “sweet” apple orchard blend. This was another disappointment, but I could chalk that up to age. I really need to kee cleaning out some of the older samples in my tea stash. It still amazes me how quickly time flies!

This tea is an older sample that I purchased from the Tea Brewery’s stall at the Market, and I am finishing it up today. Apparently I have not made a tasting note for it before and I honestly don’t remember anything about it, so it’s just like starting over! I steeped this about five minutes in boiling water. The liquor is fairly yellow and very mild in aroma, as was the loose “leaf”. The smell and taste are not very present, possibly because it’s age. I get a hint of something appley, and this is enhanced when I have a few almonds as a snack to pair with it. The beau finds this quite pleasant but I see it as a disappointment. It was too bland to be interesting and not really worth absent-mindedly sipping. If nothing else, at least another sample bit the dust! :)