46 Tasting Notes

70

I had this sitting around for a few months, and while looking through my stash for any samples I might have overlooked, I found this.

It was fine. Better than any teabag/grocery store tea, but not really memorable. I think I had too little in the sample to get a good taste…I greatly reduced water in my pot and sugar and while this tea wasn’t bad tasting, it didn’t really catch my attention. Maybe I should learn to brew by the cup for when I get small sample-sizes like I had of this. Maybe that would have helped? But as it is, neither pot I made really caught my attention.

Still rating it a 70, because there was no bitterness, no off-flavors…nothing worse than the crime of being a good tea that was unmemorable when compared to other good teas in its weight class. Still very drinkable.

Preparation
170 °F / 76 °C 3 min, 0 sec

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90

I really like this. I was alternating pots of tea (over the course of a few days) between this and What-Cha’s Assam Heritage Green Tea and the Taiwan Green Dong Ding Oolong, and this hit a good balance between the two of those. I use sugar in my tea, and this tasted like a bit like white chocolate to me. The package says “gentle nut tones” which I agree with. It’s a little bit savory, as opposed to floral or sweet or fruity, but it’s not at all astringent.

I think I’ll eventually add this to list of regular-buys.

Preparation
170 °F / 76 °C 1 min, 30 sec

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80

Got a sample of this with my order of mystery teas. I’ve made two pots of it. First obviously had most of the taste, and I definitely enjoyed it. Second is a bit weaker (expected as I didn’t start out with much tea) but still good. I like it.

Preparation
160 °F / 71 °C 3 min, 30 sec

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70

I got this white tea with a bunch of other “Mystery Teas” I purchased from What-Cha.

At first glance, I wasn’t particularly excited about this tea. The tea is broken leaves and dust, and very floaty when I poured water into my pot…I had to stop pouring a few times because the particles were clogging my infuser’s holes. (Usually that only happens with certain chais…)

Once brewed, I expected it to be terribly bitter…I much prefer whole leaves since I have to abuse them more in general before they turn bitter.

But it’s actually it’s a completely serviceable tea. There is a tiny bit of bitterness, but I think that’s because I overbrewed it because I half-ignored it while cooking breakfast. I think I left it brewing over 5 minutes. It’s a white tea, and my tea came out looking red…if I hadn’t known better, I would have thought it a lighter black tea. I expect if I don’t abuse it, the hint of bitterness wouldn’t have been there and my white tea wouldn’t have been a reddish color!

Overall, I’m not terribly excited by this tea, but it weathered my overbrewing better than I expected. I’d be perfectly content to drink this if it’s given me, and I expect to use up the rest of what I have.

I’ll leave another tasting note when I brew it under better circumstances. I did brew it once prior to this, and I recall liking it just fine.

Preparation
170 °F / 76 °C 5 min, 45 sec

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74
drank Assam Heritage Green Tea by What-Cha
46 tasting notes

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100

Got this in an assortment of mystery teas, and it’s delicious. It has a floral scent and taste. Smooth, no bitterness or astringency. I could drink it every day.

Preparation
170 °F / 76 °C 2 min, 45 sec

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74
drank Assam Heritage Green Tea by What-Cha
46 tasting notes

I got this tea in an assortment of “mystery” teas from What-Cha. I find this to be an…interesting tea. I didn’t pick up the fruity or citrus taste that the bag claims, or that other reviewers tasted. Instead, I got a taste that reminded me of the pu’ers I have tried, but much fainter. I’ve found I don’t like pu’er teas at all…but that taste in this green tea was actually interesting.

I do think I over-brewed this one a bit—either my water was too hot, or I let it steep too long. But I am enjoying it, because it’s interesting but not overpoweringly interesting! (Ha.)

Preparation
170 °F / 76 °C 2 min, 0 sec

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33

I received this tea in a mystery tea assortment from What-Cha. This was the first tea I tried out of all the mystery teas I’d gotten, and I admit it made me do a double-take on the wisdom of buying so many mystery teas at once as my very first order.

At first glance after opening the bag, I was charmed by the idea of all these little white/yellow buds. They were interesting to look at, and faintly fuzzy. I hadn’t had any tea like this before. But when I brewed them, the tea was rather bitter, but not the type of bitterness one usually encounters with tea. It has a peculiar taste that I can’t identify, and you can actually smell the bitterness when you sniff the unbrewed tea in the bag. At the moment, I won’t recommend this tea to anyone, but I’ll probably do another brew at a lower temperature later and see if my opinion changes, as it’s entirely possible I just didn’t brew it properly. Or maybe I’ll use the buds as decoration in a glass jar, as they’re pretty to look at…

Preparation
180 °F / 82 °C 3 min, 15 sec

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88
drank Azores Pekoe Black Tea by What-Cha
46 tasting notes

I received this in What-Cha’s mystery tea collection (among a bunch of other teas). I’ve been rotating through the other mystery teas, but I’ve already drunk all 50 grams of this, so I count this one as a winner, even if I’m undecided if it’ll go on my permanent “buy” list.

It brews well, only the teeny tinest bit of bitterness when I brewed it for a very long time with a large amount of leaves, but is head and shoulders above other unflavored black teas I’ve had.

The packaging says “Gentle brisk tones with a malt finish” and I won’t disagree with that.

Preparation
Boiling 4 min, 30 sec

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drank Laoshan Black by Verdant Tea
46 tasting notes

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New to the tea world, but avidly exploring new tastes all the time!

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