Miss Sweet

This tea is nothing special plain, but adding a touch of milk made me swoon! Lets add it to my list, shall we?

List of things that make Amber swoon:
1. Frank Sinatra
2. A perfectly lead lindy hop move
3. A devilishly handsome man in uniform
4. Raisin flavoured tea

Raisin is fast becoming my favourite flavour, which is odd considering I don’t care much for raisins themselves. Both the aroma and flavour are heavenly, I wish I could carry this scent around with me all day! And sipping this at work just makes me long to be at home, curled up in a blanket with a pot of this and at least five Fred & Ginger movies…

Well I was in the middle of writing this tasting note when the Great Wellington Powercut 2010 happened, so let me try to remember what I had written…
The aroma of the dry leaves smells promising, sweetly lemon. Could this be the lemon tea I have been looking for? No. No it could not. Oh my god, why did I take a mouthful instead of just a sip?!?!? Medicinal lemon with a medicinal lemon aftertaste. Yikes.

A rooibos blend with fruit in its name generally scares me, but I figured I should give this a go. I’m glad I did! The aroma is strongly mango, but the flavour that comes through in the resulting infusion is dominated by passionfruit. Even though we are heading towards winter, I’m thinking that the full-flavour of this blend would make an amazing iced tea. Splash of vodka, bit of soda, few slices of orange, lounging poolside, mambo on the boombox… perfection!

A moderately sweet, smooth and natural tasting vanilla – its a shame its wasted on this rooibos blend! The vanilla cuts through that woodchip flavour, but if you thought you had managed to dodge that pesky red bush entirely, you are sorely mistaken! It creeps up on you and lingers, like a long hug from someone you dislike.

Another misleadingly-named tea! The aroma has a sweetness along with the raspberry, so you assume the vanilla will be a discernable flavour. It is not. A perfectly palatable raspberry flavoured rooibos though, perhaps they should just name it “Red Raspberry Rarrr!”.

This is my second tea from 52teas and the second time I’ve had to refrain from just typing expletives in capslock in conjunction with accusing them of witchcraft (I believe I just did the latter in my last tasting note). The flavours really are all there! I managed to pick out the chocolate and strawberry in the aroma of the dry leaves, with the vanilla coming in with both the aroma and taste of the resulting brew. I thought this would be nice with milk, but its already pretty creamy on its own.
Neapolitan ice-cream tea? This guy has nailed it!

Chocolate on the nose, and a delicious chocolate-apple taste that is just begging for a black tea base – I may need to experiment later. But where is the chilli? One shouldn’t judge a tea by its name, but it makes for a disappointing cup. It should be called Choco Apple… Chocapple… Chapple… or something less ridiculous.

Sorry to say, but rose petals make for a fairly dull drink. Rose buds pack more flavour than these if you’re after a rose tea, but the petals are so handy to add to or blend with other teas and tisanes! Sometimes if I’m feeling floral, I’ll add a pinch to my favourite earl grey…

I want so badly to like this tea, but after several cups I have decided to give up and face the facts: I do not like Sweet Lemon at all. It has a strange lemon flavour, reminiscent of imitation lemon essence that you think is okay to use in your cupcakes when you’re out of real lemons, but it ends up ruining the whole batch.
I guess I’ll continue my hunt for a tasty lemon black tea…

Either the tea blossoms or the chamomile in this blend are not agreeing with me at all. I’m unsure what makes this a “Turkish Delight” aside from the rose, which would be nicer on its own than with the addition of other flowers.
Looks pretty but tastes bad, like fondant icing. Perhaps this is the wedding cake of teas?

Chocolate tea. I think no matter what, chocolate flavoured tea will always be disappointing, because its no substitute for the real thing. The flavour is sickly sweet and more artificial “chocolate flavouring” than chocolate. I think if you’re looking for something to sate your sweet tooth you should hit up a caramel or vanilla tea instead.

I wouldn’t have picked this combination to work, but it really does! The spearmint shines through, with the manuka giving it a medium body with an underlying sweetness.
Both a refreshing and comforting cup, kind of like jumping in a swimming pool and getting hugged in a blanket.

This honeybush chai was quite a delight; smooth, sweet with a hint of peppery cinnamon. The addition of horopito pepper puts a kiwi twist on the usual blend of chai spices too, I really wish more NZ tea companies would use native plants.
And normally I love any excuse for a milky tea, but I ended up drinking this plain because I was too impatient to let brew it any longer. Though I do imagine it would be lovely with milk if you doubled the steeping time.
I might even prefer this over the rooibos Red Baron Chai… perhaps this can be Honeybush Viscount Chai?

With the emotionally scarring event of my last cup of Puerh a distant memory, I decided to try this again using the method that Cofftea suggested: 1 gram per 30mls, rinse for 15 seconds, brew for 20 seconds. The resulting tea was surprisngly sweet, while still maintaining its earthy characteristic. Much more palatable than the same leaves stewing in water for 4 minutes, but still definitely not my favourite. I’d encourage you to try this brewing method for your puerhs if you don’t use it already!

Rooibos will just be one of those things in life that I will never understand, like nouvelle cuisine or daggering. Its piney on the nose, medium-bodied with a piney aftertaste. I’m unsure the rooibos itself actually any flavour to it, leaving you just as unsatisfied as a plate of nouvelle cuisine or a spot of daggering on the dance floor.

Lil’ Scrappy once asked, “I got money in the bank, shawty what you drank?”. Well, my preferred green to “drank” is Hon Gyokuro. It has a more lush, rounded flavour than the Kabuse with that buttery goodness that even Young Buck would enjoy (perhaps while driving his Bentley that 50 Cent bought him).

Today’s gyokuro craving was bought to you by those teashow.tv dudes. Unfortunately I don’t have “money long like sleeves”, but this was the highest grade I could get my hands on…

2nd steep: 65C/2min 30secs

I’ve got no one to blame but myself really. See, I knew this tea had been long discontinued when I decided to brew a cup, I couldn’t remember what it tasted like so figured it’d be no big deal. I think this is much nicer than the plain Japan Sencha currently on offer as a replacement! Theres an underlying astringency and it has a much fuller body to it, while still maintaining that delicious buttered-vegetable flavour. Lip-smackingly good. Damnit.

The aroma of the leaves is faint, if you bury your nose right in the tin you can make out a hint of chocolate. The resulting infusion has a promising hazelnut on the nose, but falls flat on the first sip. A smooth, medium-bodied black tea with a ghost of chocolate flavour, which I could just be imagining due to my desperation to taste something, anything!

This is the second Harney & Sons tea that I’ve tried that hasn’t had much flavour to it, contrary to the other tasting notes, so I’m starting to wonder if this is a freshness issue. The leaf is packed loose in the tin (other companies I buy tins from will seal the tea in a bag inside the tin) and there is a best before date for August 2010. A “packed on” date would be much more helpful to me really, is this tea a year old or 5 years old? Just how airtight are the tins? Why isn’t there a decent stockist here? Why am I poking around on Steepster instead of sewing my dress?
So many questions, I’m not sure there are answers…

Oh my goodness. When you first open the tin, the scent that hits you is incredible. It reminded me of the Jasmine Dragon Pearls that I’m rather fond of, strong and sweet without being cloying. The tea itself is much sweeter and smoother than the pearls, with a bold jasmine flavour that springs up in a unitard and says “JASMINE!” with jazz hands. Even the second steep managed to be a sheer delight by tasting exactly like a silver needle jasmine!
Standing ovation Jasmine Green, now let us throw roses at your feet and demand another encore.

As an earl grey connoisseur, I’m incredibly hard to please when it comes to that classic combination of black tea with bergamot.
The aroma of the leaves is citrusy, very sweet and… interesting? Honestly, it smells like no earl grey I’ve ever tried, which was concerning at first. But the bergamot in this is so fresh, distinct and different, its as if I’ve discovered an entirely new drink! This is even delicious with milk, which I know is a cardinal sin but at least its only a splash of trim.
I’m really loving working my way through this series, I suspect by the time I hit the third one I’ll be offering these guys my first born or something. Love you long time Andrews & Dunham xoxo

Usually when trying a tea for the first time, I follow the brewing instructions. This said to brew for 7-10 minutes, but I pulled this out of the water after 4 minutes because it started looking like some frightening syrupy blackened-pink concoction that would come alive if I left it to brew any longer. I suspect that having the brew times exactly the same for all the herbal teas is more laziness than coincidence, but I digress.
The aroma is faintly tart, but I didn’t need to have braced myself before taking a sip. It has more tartness than flavour, but it doesn’t make me pull the “I just put something incredibly tart in my mouth” face.
A good contender to replace your cup of hot blackcurrant when you’re feeling a little under the weather, it would probably be great as a poor man’s Ribena too – iced with soda water.

Contrary to the description I think this is just as sweet as expected, on one of those rare occasions that the tea tastes what it smells like. It is a red rooibos though, which I’m not that fond of, but its almost an exact replica of t Leaf’s black caramel tea which makes for a good caffeine free option. Rooibos hate aside, this is palatable with milk but I think I might enjoy this more without the added safflowers?

Sorry Yunnan Golden Tips, I am officially casting you aside like yesterdays jam.
The aroma of Caravan’s leaves are overwhelmingly smokey, but the flavour rounds out to that perfect balance of tea and woodsmoke with a faint hint of sweetness… I’m completely in love. Smooth enough to drink plain, plus it held almost all of its kick for a second steep – you should order some now before its gone for good.

I’m so cute-ed out by this company, you have no idea. And not just for entertaining my tea gang idea/reality on twitter. Prompt international delivery, rad packaging, awesome wee extras. Can’t wait to patch up and roll through town with my gang, terrorizing people who drink bad tea…

Malty, mellow and smooth – and that is before adding any milk! I don’t find this tea particularily strong, certainly not the strength needed for a good ass-kicking at 9am on the first day back at work after a disjointed 3 day weekend. Adding milk (trim of course) lessens the strength but brings out a hint of that delightful honey taste found in my favourite Assams. More of a late morning or early afternoon tea really… Bay Of Islands Brunch?