Backlogging – this was my most favorite thing I ordered from TeaGschwender – it has been gone for ages. Very smooth, sweet-ish, chocolate-y, rich and delicious. I should like to have some more of this someday.
1586 Tasting Notes
This is a pretty nice English Breakfast tea from TeaGschwender. Very well balanced and flavorful and nice for this rainy morning in San Francisco. This is not really my favorite type of tea – I looked in the cupboard this morning and thought: “Gack – is this STILL here?” But it is pretty good, I just need to stop neglecting it… :)
Another sample from the Harney batch. Not really a favorite of mine – I steeped this for 4 minutes per the instructions of H & S. I fear this may have been too long. The website says this tea is light in body and a mellow brew. I am finding it to be fruity but quite astringent and with a bitter aftertaste. Reminiscent of a Ceylon to me and not an Assam.
I would like more of this to do some experiments on the steeping time but all I have is this one little pot and I won’t be getting more I suspect.
This is so good… it is even better when you follow the traditional chai cooking instructions on Rishi’s website. I used soymilk instead of milk. They suggest 3 tablespoons of sugar? Sugar is not required at all IMO. This tea will not last for very long in my house….
yum yum yum
It’s true you can’t taste a whole lot of oolong here but I am kind of wondering which oolong of theirs they used here as the base, I am guessing the bai hao but I could be wrong.
Again, more hibiscus what is up, I think someone at Rishi owns stock in a hibiscus plantation. Thankfully this is downplayed quite a LOT so the aftertaste is not really tart at all. Or perhaps the oolong is providing a nice counterpart to the tartness of the fruit. I am getting mostly plum here and it is done very, very well. Happiness!!! bliss! It’s fruit paradise!
please note: your mileage may vary… ;-P
I ordered a nice little package of this in my most recent shipment from Rishi. Although I like pu-erh a lot, I also like it mixed with other things sometimes.
I was a little worried about this because there is hibiscus in it. It seems Rishi is mad for hibiscus since it finds its way into so many of their blends.
This is VERY citrusy. When you open the bag it practically knocks you down with an intense fruit smell. I liked this, a lot. Mostly the flavor is of orange and grapefruit so it’s kinda hard to taste the pu-erh in here. I believe the pu-erh is grounding the tartness of the citrus with some earthy dark flavors, kind of like orange chocolate. I am finding it refreshing and delicious.
This is an organic and fair trade tea which is also a plus as far as I am concerned. I only wish I had purchased a bigger bag!
I received two small sample sizes of this from Golden Moon with my iced tea set. I am a bit puzzled by it. The dry leaves smell great but when this tea brews up it definitely smells like alcohol as a few other people have mentioned. It does smell like a melon scented beer. I am not sure if I like the aroma.
The taste of it however is very nice, perfectly smooth and sweet . I am not sure what else to say, it was interesting but not something I would purchase for myself.
I’ve been drinking this tea for a few years now, I like it pretty well but I just finished the tin and I don’t intend to run out and buy any more soon. I am used to drinking my tea strong so I normally put two teabags in a cup. I like the balance of flavors here between the blackberry, the sage and the black tea. Not at all tart and also no hibiscus because it’s really not a favorite of mine. Sage is supposed to be good for people with asthma so I got it for drinking during the winter season.
I have been daydreaming about this tea ever since the lovely Jenn sent me a sample a little while ago. Thank you, Jenn for fueling my addiction, hee hee. I had to buy a tin of it.
This is a yummy flavored tea. I am not usually much of a fan of chocolate in tea but here it works somehow. The hazelnut is definitely there as well, perhaps it’s the combination of the two that works for me. I see a lot of tea that claims to be nut flavored but the nut hardly comes through at all. I have no idea if people drink this kind of tea in Italy but who cares! ha! It is lovely here in San Francisco and taking the chill out of my November morning.
This tea also need to be tried with rum in it or maybe brandy! woo!
This is a free sample I got from the nice folks at Lupicia with my monthly newsletter. It’s one of those pyramid teabags made from fabric that are so trendy these days, blah blah blah.
I almost did not try this because I usually never like anything with red rooibos in it. This is pretty well done though, with notes of japanese sweet potato and pumpkin those flavors seem to predominate instead of the rooibos. Flavor is kind of like a pumpkin pie and I wish it had some cinnamon in it (although you could add your own I suppose). Nice herbal dessert tea.
I stand amazed that I actually like this. Bravo to the folks at Lupicia and please open your SF store again soon! =)
I’m done with this sample and I’m kind of sad to see it go. Luckily I just a pu-erh sampler today from Verdant. :)
One word: meh
Something I picked up on my way to work today, I am not the hugest darjeeling fan but this was supposed to have sweet strawberry zest so I thought the combination of the two would be nice.
Unfortunately the darjeeling and the berry are totally overpowered by the hibiscus. This tea was kind of tart and left a funny aftertaste in my mouth. I had to struggle to finish it but it wasn’t so bad that I threw it away.
Another sample from Harney to try this morning. Oh, the life! Steeped for a full 4 minutes with boiling water.
This is a pretty nice flavored tea from H & S. I am not sure what base they are using here as the black tea but it is very smooth and rich. Definitely smells and tastes apricot-y without being artificial or overpowering. The flavor seems to open up a bit more for me after adding soymilk. Creamy apricot, definitely very nice.
Although I enjoyed drinking this tea very much I’m not sure I will need to buy a larger size of it in the future. It is pretty yummy though. It would most likely grow on me if I were to drink more of it. You should check this out if you’re into apricot and peach flavors.
I was pretty sad when I went into the Westfield Mall recently and discovered the Lupicia store was closed! But then when I went to Lupicia’s website recently they say they are relocating to another location in the same mall. I hope that is true because it was nice to have a tea store close to me that had so many different and fun things to try.
Now, onto the tea. I am discovering lately that I am much more a fan of green rooibos than red and this makes a nice base for an herbal tea for me. There is definitely tropical fruit here but it did not knock me over with the fruitiness. I might make it up a bit stronger next time! But to me it was a very nice zingy and fruity tea I can enjoy at bedtime or anytime. The price is a bit much, I believe I paid $7.50 for a small bag of tea. Kind of makes me want to go back to Celestial Seasonings but all they have is red rooibos. :-P
Just upped the rating a bit after using it as a face scrub and putting it in the bath. A multi-tasker! ha ha
Oh, Lavender white tea… I am not sure what to do with theeeee.
Definitely seems like a good stress buster. I can see this being served at a spa with some new age music playing around. I love the way this smells and lavender is supposed to be good for headaches, anxiety and all sorts of other things. Somehow I like smelling it a bit more than I like drinking it. If you like to drink your flowers this might be just the thing for you.
I still have quite a bit left and I was hoping it would grow on me… but I think I’m going to take it home and bathe with it.
I love black tea and this is truly an outstanding cup. Leaves smell of chocolate, coffee and raisins. Brews up to be a gorgeous dark chestnut color. Has a natural sweetness reminiscent of caramel and raisins. It’s so mellow I can drink it without soymilk which I don’t often do with black teas. I am pretty pleased with this! I will also need to find out more about Bailin Gong Fus.
No notes yet.
I am annoyed at myself. I had nasal spray (for my allergies) before I brewed up this sample and that is definitely affecting my sense of taste. I don’t feel like I can rate this properly.
I am nervous about Assams, I’ve had a few that have turned bitter if steeped too long. I steeped this one for 2 minutes in near boiling water. I admire the dark burgundy color of this tea. There does not seem to be a lot of malt here but one of the reviewers also commented on that so perhaps I am not merely dreaming.
I need another sample, drat!
I have to say that I very much appreciate these samples from Teavivre. And yet when I open the envelopes from this white tea and other ones I am a bit taken aback. It’s packaging inside of packaging inside of a box. The sample sizes are very small and cute but they are individually wrapped and come inside of huge envelopes. I will not complain about the packaging anymore after this review but I felt it was a bit wasteful and this made me kind of sad. Not to say anything bad about Teavivre this is probably a standard industry practice I have not encountered here in the US.
Onto other notes, I do not drink white tea very often but I have been thinking about changing that, especially since I have read many nice things about their lower caffeine content and higher antioxidant quality. This was a great afternoon tea for me. It was very soft and subtle. Naturally and delicately sweet with a lingering of flowers. I felt very relaxed later and enjoyed the tasting very much. This may convince to me to get more interested in white tea in the future, it was certainly enjoyable.
I got this as a sample from Harney & Sons. I think this Tilleul must be an acquired taste or something. I was looking for something to use as a nighttime bev in addition to my chamomile and verbena. This smells like a chlorinated swimming pool and tastes bitter to me. I am not one to sweeten any tea but I needed some sugar to help it along.
Recently I read this is a very popular cold remedy in Europe. I dunno… For sure not a favorite but I doubt this has anything to do with Harney. More likely it’s the nature of the beast.
I received this lovely sample from Teavire to try. I’ve never had a Jasmine Pearl before so I was pretty eager to try one.
In a word: delicious. This is easily one of the best Jasmine green teas I’ve had. The aroma here is intoxicating but the flavor is sweet and subtle and does not knock me over the head tasting like a shower gel. I’m pretty happy. Plus the craftsmanship of these pearls is just so darn cute. I feel like such a lady…
A very nice shu pu-erh offering from Verdant. The purists will scoff at me but I sometimes drink these with soymilk. I am trying this one without it.
Very aromatic leaves after steeping. Smells like dirt, earth and shitaake mushrooms. Aroma is definitely that of a campfire but this is not smoky tasting like a lapsang souchong. Reminds me of a good roasted twig tea when I keep the steeping time to around 90 seconds or so. Not astringent at all, delightfully mellow.
For the third steep I am bumping up the steeping time until it tastes like mud. Ha! I did that last week and it was still delicious. If you like coffee I would recommend checking this out…
Sometimes I wonder if Maeda-en is like the Lipton of tea in Japan?
In any case this is a good basic tea for me which I have been drinking for years, I get it in Japantown and the price does not break the bank. I like the toasty, nutty flavor here which goes nicely sometimes as a breakfast drink when I want something mild.
A nice light offering from Naivetea. I now have 1 oz. of this bad boy which should keep me happy for a while. I have no idea what osmanthus smells/tastes like. There is a slight hint of floral here but not nauseating like a floral scented tea. To me it’s brothy and buttery. I also let it steep for 3 minutes or so, I like it a bit stronger and it does not seem to suffer at all with a longer steep time. Gentle and precious.
