Babble

Whispering Pines recently had a BOGO ounce of tea sale, and I ordered a few teas, and this one I had to try. I actually got one ounce of the light level smoke and one ounce of the medium-light smoke.

This review is for the light smoke. Check future tasting notes for a review of the medium-light level.

I normally do not like smokey teas. It’s not that I hate them, they are just VERY smokey to me and it’s hard to taste anything. So why this tea? Well it really jumped out at me for two reasons:
1) You could choose the level of smoke you want. Since I’m sensitive to smoke, I knew I had to go with the light.
2) Unlike hojicha, which is heavily roasted, this tea was still green, so it was hopefully something that wouldn’t be too intense.

And the verdict? Not bad. Even with the light there’s still a definite smokiness there, but I bet someone used to drinking smokey teas will think it’s too light. There’s no bitterness here and I can definitely still taste the green tea. The smokiness is not overpowering. Not a bad tea, and I’m definitely glad I went with the light version. I’ll have to see how the medium-light stacks up.

By the way – don’t google “smoked green tea” if you’re looking for varieties of green teas smoked over a fire. You’ll instead get a bunch of articles about smoking green tea a la marijuana ;)

Edit: The one bummer about this tea? It doesn’t seem to hold up to resteepings. The second steeping had a bit of smell of smoke, but I didn’t taste it like I did in the first. It was just generic green tea.

I was really excited to try this tea. I am a soda lover, and cola matcha is probably one of my all-time flavored matchas. This one had a few reviews, so I decided to take a chance on it. The package had a very interesting ginger-y smell. I put a 1/2 teaspoon of matcha into my water bottle, as usual, and stirred it up and drank it cold.

I’ve made this a couple times and I’m not as impressed as I was hoping I would be. Part of the problem is that I’m not really getting the ginger ale flavor. It’s more ginger flavored than ale flavored. It doesn’t quite have the “flat gingerale taste” that I was hoping for like cola matcha does. I read another review that said this tasted like Vernon’s but I’m not getting that at all. It’s not a bad tasting matcha, necessarily, but it’s not as true to the flavor as I was really gunning for.

It’s worth mentioning that I did get this flavored robust, as I usually do. I’m wondering if maybe I should have scaled back the flavoring a little and the ginger wouldn’t be so prominent? I don’t know. The flavor isn’t my favorite, as someone who likes ginger-ale, and LOVED the cola matcha, it’s a little disappointing. If you’re like me and loved the cola matcha, and are looking for a similar soda-flavored matcha, this is not it, unfortunately.

Thank you to Nature’s Tea Leaf for the generous sample.

Like other reviewers, I just assumed this had jasmine in it, but when I looked closer I saw that it didn’t. Very neat.

Tea pearls are always so much fun to watch and these were no exception. Even for the 1 minute steeping I did, they unfurled ever so slightly and so beautifully. Very entertaining. 

The initial taste was very light. The package said 1 teaspoon, which I did, but I looked online and it says 2 teaspoons, which makes more sense. So, for my second infusion I brewed 4 oz instead of 8.

The tea has a nice smooth taste and it’s not too vegetal like some other greens. Maybe I’m crazy but I do detect hints of jasmine. This tea does get some astrigency if steeped for too long.

Overall a smooth green tea, especially for those that are turned off by more grassy greens.

No notes yet.

This tea sounded so interesting, when I won a Della Terra Tea contest, I had to go for it. You just don’t see pu-erh blends like this everyday. As others have said, I thought the pearl balls were for show, but they actually melt in the tea itself. Very neat!!

This tea has a very nice taste and is a nice starter pu-erh or good for someone who doesn’t like straight pu-erh. I myself have a hard time drinking pure pu-erh (see what I did there?), and I find this very good. The pu-erh is not overpowered, you can definitely taste it, but it’s not so in your face either. A nice flavored tea.

Still have to try this iced since apparently it’s amazing, according to all the other steepter reviews..

Azzrian sent this to me a while ago, and I’m just now getting to it. My other Steepsters know how it goes when you just get so inundated with different tea to try ;)

Anyway, I kinda ignore this one for a while, but I’ve been on a green tea kick lately, and I wanted to try something different. And, oh my – this tea is much better than I anticipated. I wasn’t really expecting a whole lot out of this tea, but it’s very very good. I’m getting this really smooth creamy undertone on top of the green tea which makes it perfect. I let the BF try it and he couldn’t believe there wasn’t any sweetener in this.

It’s a really good tea. Just one problem, Azzrian got it from a tea store in Ireland. So it’ll be insane to ship. Maybe I can find a local vendor or a similar tea?

Really really good.

I got this in a swap with Queen of Tarts and I’m still trying to figure out how to make it work for me. Right now I’ve found the tea works best on the lowest temperature setting on my kettle (below the green). I’ve also found I have to steep my tea a minute or under or else it gets too bitter too quickly.

But I’m still trying to figure out the ideal leaf for 8 oz of water. Teavivre says 7g which seems awfully high! I’ve been using 4-ish which isn’t bad. I don’t know. I want to make sure I’m getting the most out of it.

What have everyone else’s experiences been with this tea?

I got this in a swap with Reasoned_Melody. There’s a longer story behind how I got this tea, but let’s just say they finally came. Yay!!!

I was dragging a bit this morning and I thought this guayasa blend would be good to blend up. I’ve never seen a chai version before. I checked the ingredients and saw there was stevia, so I proceeded cautiously, since other blends in the past I haven’t gotten along with. 

I brewed this up and since I’m off to a festival with the family, I put it in my Celestial Seasonings mug (so cute – it has all the CS characters on it). The flavor isn’t bad. There’s definitely chai spices, guayusa flavor, and unfortunately my arch nemesis stevia. It’s not as bad as DT’s cherry cola, but it’s there a little bit. The good news is that it’s masked somewhat by the spices. I still feel though that I could have done without the stevia in the blend. I guess they thought that since guayusa is new, stevia will help ease the transition.

Overall an interesting blend, although I’m still not a fan of stevia. 

Thank you to Pekko Teas for this super generous sample.

I admit that I don’t have much experience with Formosa Oolongs, but I wanted to give it a try. This definitely smells like toast, as other reviewers have mentioned, and there is definitely a toast taste when drinking, too, almost like a REALLY crispy toast.

This tea is also very fun to watch while steeping because the leaves are so entertaining to watch. I want to call it “flowy” since I can’t really think of a better word here.

Second infusion at the same time is a bit more astrigent.

Thanks to momo for the sample.

This isn’t bad. Brewed up pure I was getting chocolate but wasn’t getting any red velvet. So I splashed some soy milk into this and it definitely helped bring out that cake creaminess. This is on par with the peppermint chocolate I tried the other night.

This was in the travelling tea box and I believe it came from momo. The name definitely intrigued me. It makes me think of fairies. Speaking of fairies, I think I’m going to buy this for my bf’s 8-year old niece (http://flitterfairies.com/). It seems like something an 8-year-old girl would enjoy, right?

This tea sounded really cool. Green tea AND green mate. For some reason I thought this might be better as a cold brew so I did it over night and .. I don’t know if I’m really feeling it. It’s not as amazing or interesting as I thought it would be. Maybe I should just bite the bullet and brew it hot?

This was in the Travelling Tea box and I believe it came from CupofTree. I’ve heard of these chocolate blends and I’m excited to try them (I have another sample I need to get to as well)

This was VERY minty and had a nice chocolate smell. I do agree with the other that the mint comes through more than the chocolate. Knowing how RoT is, I made sure to not use too much water since the bags are small. This is a nice herbal blend, and I would highly recommend this for anyone who loves mint.

I just let this steep forever and ever in the mug so it got pretty strong.

I also just realized this is a rooibos blend, so I have to give RoT points because I didn’t even taste the rooibos (which is usually pretty strong).

This comes from the travelling tea box. Thanks to ssajami for a sample!

It’s hard to find info on this tea. ssajami wrote (in the handy tea traveling book) “Local blend of black with safe, lemongrass, and cardamom.” This isn’t the exact same tea, since this doesn’t have lemongrass in it, but I didn’t feel like making a new entry.

This chai intrigued me because I rarely see chai’s with lemongrass in them. It adds a nice flavor but doesn’t overwhelm the chai.

This tea blends also says, "The nomadic Bedouins traditionally drink this tea “strong and sweet,” so it is recommended to leave the tea to steep for at least 5 minutes before removing the bag, then sweeten."

I am a wimp about bitterness, so I probably steeped it closer to 2-3 min (I didn’t have an official timer), but maybe next time I’ll give it a longer steep since that’s the traditional way.

Oh, and if you were wondering what Bedouin refers to (because I didn’t prior to this tasting note), wikipedia knows: “The Bedouin are a part of a predominantly desert-dwelling Arabian ethnic group traditionally divided into tribes, or clans, known in Arabic as.”

I wasn’t sure what to expect with this matcha. There’s actually several different coffee matchas to choose from on the website. This one called to me because I know Kona coffees tend to be more expensive and less astringent. I admit I don’t have much experience with it because I’m not a coffee connoisseur.  I always end up adding cream and sugar to it. Lol. 

I was hesitant with this matcha, but opening the package it smells delicious!!! It has a coffee taste but there’s also some creamy notes and smooth notes as well. It definitely smells like a fresh cup of coffee. 

I prepared this in a water bottle, which might sound crazy since coffee is usually hot, but I really do like iced coffee over hot. Also, I just generally like my matchas colder in general. 

It is wonderful cold. The coffee flavor comes through and there is some roasted notes and coffee flavoring. It almost tastes like I’m eating a bean over more so just drinking a cup of coffee. Have you ever had a chocolate covered espresso bean? It’s a lot like that, minus the chocolate. 

Definitely one of my favorite matchas, especially if you like coffee. 

You can buy this matcha here: 
http://www.redleaftea.com/matcha-tea/kona-matcha.html

So I knew I wanted a vanilla matcha, but I was unsure of what exactly to get since Red Leaf offers several different types of matchas. I saw that the Madagascar Vanilla was highly reviewed, but the French Vanilla got some good marks too. People remarked about how the French Vanilla was more in your face, while the Madagascar Vanilla was more subtle. While I love matcha, I do love the flavorings, so I went with the French Vanilla and got myself robust flavoring.

Opening the package, it definitely smells very frosting-ish and reminds me a lot of the French vanilla coffee creamers that I used to use to flavor my coffee.

The matcha itself is definitely delicious with creaminess and velvety texture to it. I’m sure I could bring even more creaminess out with some milk or cream, but I decided to enjoy the matcha flavor pure. Perhaps later when I’m not so lazy, I can prepare this in a fancier style to make the flavors pop even more.

It’s very lovely as just one flavor, although I admit I am anxious to mix it with other things such as cola or cherry or cherry AND cola. I plan to do that soon and report back.

All in all, another solid desert matcha.

You can get the matcha here: http://www.redleaftea.com/matcha-tea/french-vanilla-matcha.html

After a tough battle of matcha sales, caramel popcorn won, so when it was on sale I had to grab it. I love kettle corn, but I was a little hesitant. After all, I already had caramel flavored matcha. Would this be any different? And the verdict is a resounding YES!

As always, the matcha smells wonderful, and potent (that’s what I get for getting robust flavoring). The boyfriend came in and asked if I was baking cookies, but nope, just opening a bag of really strong smelling matcha.

This matcha is even better than caramel because it has a lot more complex flavoring in it. I can taste the caramel, which is nice, but I can also taste the butter notes and the popcorn notes. I would say it’s almost a little more buttery popcorn than sweet popcorn, but then again I didn’t add any sweetener. I bet if you really wanted the kettle corn effect, you could add some sweetener and make it pop.

I put this in a water bottle tonight and brewed it up cold. I wasn’t sure how well it would do, but the flavoring really holds up. Not need to add any sweetener because the flavor just pops. Even the boyfriend admitted that it was very tasty.

All in all a surprisingly good matcha, and this coming from someone who’s not too big on desert matchas.

The matcha can be purchased from here: http://www.redleaftea.com/matcha-tea/caramel-popcorn-matcha.html

I will start off by saying that this is a very enjoyable bagged green. I know I enjoy it, but I’m not giving it a rating right now (read below).

I’m in Port St. Lucie for today and tomorrow with my boyfriend, who is here for a business trip. I’m just hanging out with him and decided to brew up a cup of this because I don’t have access to my loose tea stash (and I have a ton of bagged tea to go through). I took a sip of this and it was AWFUL. I couldn’t exactly put my finger on it.

And then I figured it out – the water quality here is not that great. Blehhhhh. Oh well, I’m only here for a couple days, but it’s amazing how much poor water quality can affect a tea. Maybe I’ll go pull out some bottled water, although it is a pain to make it without all my comforts from home.

I like white tea, but don’t always drink it because of the cost. However, I got a sample from Teavivre and decided to break it open. This tea is so pleasant. I’ve always thought of white tea as very light (almost watery), but maybe I just wasn’t using enough leaf. This tea is rich with so many different notes. I’m getting the melon and butter, as others have mentioned.

Very enjoyable today.

I was a soda drinker for years – at one point I drank it more than water. A few years ago I did the impossible and gave it up to better my health. It wasn’t easy, and there are times when I find it hard to resist, especially since it’s so easily available. One of the problems is that the flavoring is hard to find. You don’t see “cola” flavored things very often. So when I saw this cola flavored matcha, I knew I had a found a winner. Tea AND cola flavors brought together? This is amazing.

And I have to say, it definitely is. Even from the smell I knew I was in for a treat. I used 1/2 teaspoon of powder in my water bottle, shook it up, and then took a sip. It was absolutely delightful. It tastes just like cola (I think it has more of a Pepsi taste than a Coca-Cola taste). I even added some seltzer to give it just a little zing, which also helped.

This is definitely recommended for anyone who loves soda, but wants to indulge in a healthier option.

I can not WAIT to blend this with other matcha flavors like rum and black cherry. I’m also planning to buy a couple more fruit flavors in my next order to mix with this. Hmm… maybe I should have bought a large.

It’s fall, and you know what that means .. TRY ALL THE PUMPKIN THINGS! In all serious, I’m not a pumpkin fanatic, but I do enjoy indulging in the various pumpkin related offerings this season, especially pumpkin pie. I’ve been underwhelmed with a lot of these desert matchas lately, but this one got pretty decent reviews (and it was on sale), so how could I resist? I got this with my usual “Robust” flavoring.

When I first opened the package the smell was AMAZING! It didn’t taste artificial at all and instantly evoked memories of Thanksgiving dinner for me.

Even though I’ve been “brewing” via the water bottle method, I didn’t even bother going that route. I knew this had to be enjoyed hot, so I brought out the gear. I whisked it up, added some milk, and took a sip. And man oh man, is this delicious. The pumpkin pie flavors really pop, especially the cinnamon. I think the spices are a little more pronounced than the actual pumpkin flavor, but it’s a delicious and yummy treat. I even added sweetener to kick it up a notch and it certainly did.

All in all, a fantastic desert and a lot less guilt after having this than a regular pumpkin pie.

As a reminder, you can get the matcha here:
http://www.redleaftea.com/matcha-tea/pumpkin-pie-matcha.html

I’m not much of an alcohol drinker, but rum is one of the few drinks that I like. There are lots of alcohol matchas, but when I saw this I knew I had to jump on it. I got this with the usual “Robust” flavoring, and when I first opened the package the smell was very strong. It didn’t exactly smell like rum though, maybe more of a “bubblegum” flavor? I was worried I should have gotten a lighter flavor level, but there’s no turning back now. Might as well drink up.

I first tried this cold. I put 1/2 teaspoon in a water bottle, shook it up, and I wasn’t getting a whole lot of flavor. So I added another 1/2 teaspoon, but the flavor was still lacking.

So I decided to brew this hot and I think the flavor comes out a little bit more there. I added some milk, which helped a little with the bitterness. I think I was just expecting the flavor to be a lot more prominent based on the smell.

I think it’s better hot, although I still want to try and mix it with other flavors to see if I can coax out the flavor a little more. The flavor is also a tad disappointing for me. I was hoping for more of smooth rum taste but it almost tastes like candy…

As a reminder, you can buy this matcha here:
http://www.redleaftea.com/matcha-tea/black-currant-matcha-clone.html
( not sure why the URL is like that, but that’s what it is)

I normally wouldn’t get a straight black tea but this got such great reviews i thought I would step out of my comfort zone.

And….it’s not bad, but it’s not great. I wonder if I used too much leaf. The site said 7g but maybe that was too much? My steepings were short but I’m still getting some astrigency. Getting some smokey flavor which is turn off for me.

I think people who really love black tea will like this, but as more of a green tea fiend, this is just so-so.

Roobios blends usually lack flavor for me, so I may have added more “tea” then necessary. Nonetheless, I’m getting a strong orange flavor from this and it’s quite pleasant. No sweetener needed. I’m not sure now enthusiastic about the rooibos base, but it’s not bad. I bet this would be good iced.

Oh, and there’s hibiscus in here. And as a total hibiscus hater I’m not tasting any of it. Or it’s meshing very well.

I went back and forth on whether or not to get this tea for a long time, but as the stock started dwindling, I knew it was now or never – so I went for it. And lucky for me, now it’s sold out.

I LOVED Strawberry Zabaglione, so I thought I would give this a try. I cold brewed this as I knew a traditional steep wouldn’t work (strawberry zabaglione wasn’t great as a traditional brew either). As others have said, it’s not exactly as creamy as the strawberry version, but it’s definitely blueberry-y (is that word?). It depends on what you are looking for in a tea.

The black base is also a little more prominent here. It’s got a tad bit of astringency, even with a cold brew. It’s still great without sugar, but it doesn’t quite compare to the strawberry version. Overall, though, not a bad tea.