Cinoi

So this is my first gunpowder tea experience, I have to say, I’m not all that impressed. Right from the get-go, the smell of the leaves, I smelled a strong almost burnt green smell, it reminded me of bitter and earthy green tea, uh-oh.

I brewed the sample hot, 2.5 minutes, no additives. The smell of the tea is very green: vegetal, earthy, rough, a heavy smell that tells you the mouth feel will not be smooth or short. I usually like green tea, furthermore, I usually like overinfused and bitter green, but this is a different beast altogether. The taste of this tea starts as green, very bitter green, but there is an unpleasant smoky-ness to it, not like Lapsang Souchong, like unintentionally burned tea, followed by more bitter and finished with a strangely misplaced hit of sweetness. Surprisingly, there is no aftertaste.

So, bitter, burnt, bitter, sweet, nothing.

There are probably ways to fix this, adding sugar or messing with infusion times. Since my sample is out, I will have to try something else.

This one time, in a magical far away place I had one of those incredibly expensive, smooth, beautiful, sweet sencha teas. Then I woke up and remembered that I actually did have this one from Golden Moon.

I brewed it the first time, hot, 3 minutes, no additives. The dull leaves, covered in a light green powder, brew into something gatorade yellow/green with the familiar sencha aroma. For those who never had sencha, it is vegetal, it is green, it is bright and strong green in flavor, the final note, the aftertaste is slightly sweet. This brew is pretty spot-on. Not absolutely perfect, but a good Sencha.

The second infusion, hot, 2.5 minutes, no additives, is slightly brighter, a little more vegatal, and the sweet note starts a little earlier and lasts a little longer.

Overall, another good one by Golden Moon.

So, got some of this from Ricky, and gave it two old-college-tries before writing the review. First, the leaves a small, dark and tightly curled, mixed amongst them are candied/dried pineapple chunks – first thought: Ooooh! I’m going to love this. The smell of the dried leaves is green, you do not smell the dried pineapple. I thought this was a great sign, because it means no artificial pineapple flavoring was added, this is just tea with pineapple preserved so it can stay in tea. Now for the review:

The first time brewed (backlogging) I infused 1 scoop of tea, hot with no additives, 3 minutes. The leaves after infusing had unfurled nicely into a leafy green mess, but the pineapple chunks appear to have disappeared, they have softened and dissolved and infused into the tea. I noticed the tea itself was bright, yellow brick road color, had a sweetened aroma, but very faint on the pineapple. You can almost smell the pineapple, but it really does taste like a delicate green tea. The taste is very much green tea, slightly vegetal, fresh, crisp, with a touch, and I mean a touch, of fruit flavor.

Second infusion of the first batch: 2 minutes, hot, no additives. The tea definitely lost some of it’s golden yellow color and the aroma seems to have been knocked back a bit too. The flavor is roughly the same, very little loss, still very green with an inkling of fruit flavor.

I thought about the tea without trying it again, was I disappointed that the pineapple was not really there? Should I try and fix this? The answer Steepsterites, is no, I was not upset and I do not think I should try to fix this, because it was a decent tea. Though not strongly pineapple, as in I would probably rename it “Green with Pineapple”, it is still a very good green tea, using natural pineapple to flavor it and not some artificial or oil(s) to try and make it pineapple. It is clean and crisp and definitely vegetal and naturally delicious.

With this thought process in mind, I gave it one last shot, brewed 1 scoop hot, 3 minutes with a pinch of Rock Sugar. The second time around I had similar results with the leaves and with the missing pineapple, as well as the liquor and aroma, the flavor, however changed slightly. The sugar brought out some of the pineapple that was missing. The tea is still clean and green, but the pineapple was brightened, as in I could almost taste it.

Overall, I thought the tea was good although it should be renamed. I do not feel that the sugar added was actually worth the result, I believe the tea was fine how it was as long as you knew you were getting mostly a green tea that had pineapple in mind.

Thanks Ricky!

This was my third time trying this tea. As I had said in my previous review of it, I did not like the tea, I thought it was too weak, almost stale, but I did not buy it, so I could not send it back (believe me, I would have). I attempted the tea two different ways in order to try and fix it’s underwhelming-ness.

The first thing I did, blasphemous as it was, I crushed the leaves, a normal serving amount (1 scoop) in my mortar and pestle into a fine powder. I really hoped this would help to release the oils and hidden flavors within the leaves. I brewed this, 3 minutes, hot water then removed the infuser and ran it through another strainer because the powder was very finely floating.

While this did improve the flavor from previous trials with the tea, it was still in-no-way up to par with what I have come to expect and love from Dragonwell.

The final attempt at this tea, was over-brewing. As I had said in yet another review, I like to let my Dragonwell steep until I finish the cup, getting the most caffeine and flavor out of each and every leaf. I put one scoop of leaves in my mug, added hot water, let it sit for four minutes and began drinking. Over the next ten minutes, while drinking the tea and allowing the leaves to continue to infuse, I did notice an increase in flavor, but still not where I would expect this to be.

Fool me once, shame on you, fool me two (and then three) times, shame on me…I do not blame anyone for the shortcomings of this tea, I find that the leaves could be old, this could be an unrevised batch, something could have happened in storage, as I said, not my sample, not my responsibility, but the tea is definitely not where it should be. This is especially disappointing because Adagio usually does a very good job in getting fantastic tea.

Oh well, I tried to fix it, and unfortunately failed to do so. This tea will forever remain at the bottom of my ratings…

This tea was brewed and handed to me, so I cannot give too thorough specifics on it; all I know is it was brewed hot, probably 2-3 minutes with no additives.

The tea is very good, airy, light, slightly vegetal but crisp and clean. Strangely, there is a slightly sweet aftertaste. This appears to be brought on by the cleanliness of the tea.

Definitely very good and I can safely say, I will be adding it to my next Adagio order

Down to my second to last bag. Was not feeling so great though, hoped this would help, I felt energized and soothed after drinking the rich, velvety goodness that is this tea.

Infused hot, 4 minutes, no additives.

Still chipping away at the Golden Moon Sampler…This tea smelled fantastic, like a rich black tea with a slightly sweet scent. The taste was plain, brewed hot for four minutes with no additives. As it cooled, I noticed an unpleasant astringency, a slight bitter note commonly associated with oversteeped tea. So I added a pinch of German rock sugar and a touch of milk, this made the tea sweeter and smoother.

On the second infusion, fearing the same result as the first, I brewed for 2.5 minutes and added the pinch of sugar up front and milk to taste in my mug.

Overall pretty decent black tea.

This tea is very complex: the dried leaves smell fantastic, the brewed tea does not, however, the flavor is great.

The dried leaves smell rough and natural, like they were not processed or pruned, but they are raw from where they were grown. There is also a spicy, sweetness to the scent. You can smell cardamom and cinnamon.

The brewed tea is very dark, almost unexpectedly dark. The aroma of the tea is more of the rough, natural, earthy smell. The initial part of this bouquet is a little too earthy for me, however, it mellows out into the sweeter and better smell. As the tea cools, the aroma levels out, and becomes more and more of the earthy pu-erh and less of the sweetness.

The flavor is complex: pu-erh, then citrus, then cardamom, then chai, then cinnamon, then ends with more pu-erh. It is complex, it is earthy, it is rich and it is spiced. Very good.

The rating suffers a little because although I enjoy the tea, the earthy aroma I do not like. For me, tea is always all about a complete experience, bouquet and flavor. Here the flavor is good, but the bouquet is off-putting.

I tried this tea a few times, the final opinion is still out on it though. I do really enjoy chocolate peanut butter cups. The odor of the leaves is definitely black tea and chocolate with a slight hint of peanut butter.

The brewed tea, hot, 3 minutes, no additives, smells very fragrant, very chocolatey. However, not so strongly of peanut butter. This holds true in the flavor also, definitely taste black tea and definitely taste chocolate, but no peanut butter.

I tried it again, hot, 5 minutes, pinch of sugar, splash of milk and I got a creamier slightly peanut butter flavor, but still more chocolate than peanut butter.

I do wish the peanut butter was stronger, I think I might be able to get the flavor I want out of it, but I am going to have to try a few things. Consider this an initial rating, hoping to perfect the tea and give it a better rating.

After depleting much of my samples this past week, I did stop in Teavana for some tins, and wound up leaving with a sampling of this.

The smell of the dried leaves is very good. It does not smell so much like apricots, there is a hint of apricot and a faint note of apple, there definitely is a toasty caramel smell.

Brewed hot, 3 minutes, no additives.
The liquor is bright (for a tea) pink, almost a rosy color. The brewed tea smells much the same as the leaves, like toasty caramel with some starchy fruit. To best describe it would be the odor of “buttered popcorn jelly belly jelly beans”. The flavor is definitely a little tart from the fruit acids found in apricots and apples, there is a mild undertone by the green tea and then a warmed caramel flavor.

The tea by itself is alright. I think I am going to try blending it with another teavana tea though to see if I can get more flavor out of it.

Chai teas have definitely been growing on me. I now know the specifics in which I enjoy them and try to stick to those guidelines.

I like my blander chai teas to be hot with no additives. I like my spicy chai teas (ones that are heavily spiced, very aromatic) dirty. This chai, while not being overwhelmingly spicy, I do smell some cardamom, I see a clove, and maybe a hint of ginger, does smell very strongly of licorice. Blegh. I do not like licorice, this tells me that making this chai dirty will be the way to go.

My recipe was: boiling water + German rock sugar = simple syrup, add I scoop of tea, allow to boil 30 seconds, then turn heat off (but do not remove from heat source) for 2 minutes. During the two minutes, add splash of coffee, stir. Strain mixture into glass, add milk to taste. (In this case a fair amount of milk).

While still smelling strongly of licorice, I have added enough things so that I do not mind the flavor of it. When the sugar and milk and maybe even the coffee are added to the chai, the flavors seem to marry, I can taste cardamom up front, and a gingery note in the middle, followed up by a clove flavor, all smothered in a milk base. Overall, decent.

I do prefer chai tea when it has an additional flavor added, in this case it was chai with licorice, though that did not sound or smell so pleasant it turned out to be pretty good.

Backlogging from yesterday.

This was another sample from Ricky. Thanks Ricky!
As we know, I LOVE dragonwell. So I am going to be harsh, because my standards are pretty high. This tea was a little too weak for me brewed according to instructions. I brewed 3 minutes, hot, no additives. I found that the water was the right color and everything, the smell was a faint vegetal, as it should be, but the flavor just was not there.

I have also mentioned in my ramblings about green tea, that I also tend to simply add green, specifically dragonwell to a cup with hot water and drink it without ever straining. Allowing for maximum flavor (and sometimes bitterness) to come out of the leaves. In the case of the Damn Fine Dragonwell, I have to say that leaving the leaves submerged in the cup while enjoying was the best way. I feel we could have also brewed the tea longer than required, but this gives you a few good steeps, without getting bitter so there was no reason to have to make it in a pot and pour it off.

Overall, the tea was alright as long as you let it sit and infuse long enough, however the recommended time was not enough to get decent flavor out of the tea.

Backlogging from yesterday.

Lots of tea this weekend. Including my final brew on this tea (and another to come) from Ricky. Brewed hot, 3 minutes, no additives. The aroma on this is black tea. It is not strong, it is a subtle smell, yet relaxing and familiar. This is what a good black tea should smell like. The taste is the same, gentle and familiar, exactly how a black tea should taste. The tea is smooth and delightfully plain, there is no astringency, there is a faint suggestion of vanilla flavor. This would be fantastic with milk and sugar, though it does not need it. Overall, this was very good.

As a final note, I drank a lot of tea this weekend, unfortunately about five of them are NOT already in the database of Steepster, and since I am uber busy and even more lazy, it will be a few more days before I can get them in. Sorry.

Looking back at this, apparently I have never rated it though, it isone of the first teas I bought from Teavana. Long story short, I finished up this sample today/yesterday because one of my friends bought way too much of it at Teavana on Wednesday (so I inherited some). I did not combine the samples, as I normally would have because they are the same tea, because Teavana decided to “revamp” this tea recently by removing the raspberry flavor and adding actual little pieces of raspberries.

The original tea itself was just plain oolong with no pieces of fruit added, there was some strange essence of raspberry within the tea though. The aroma was faint with the dried leaves, but with the hot brewed tea, the aroma was definitely there. The flavor was mild, it tasted like a slightly fruity oolong. The raspberry flavor was not really describable, you tasted some sort of fruit, but it was not tart or bitter like some of their other fruity teas, instead it was sweet and gentle.

The old batch I rate at a 70.

This “new and improved” formula has little pieces of raspberries in it. You can see the pretty little chunks mixed amongst the darker leaves. The fragrance of the dried leaves is still gentle, but it is definitely stronger in the brewed tea. Also, the liquor is a slightly different color, a little darker than the previous version. The flavor is about the same though, it was really just an aesthetic upgrade.

Warning: I ramble for the first paragraph, if you do not care, skip right to the rating (second paragraph). Yesterday and today the northeast was hit with it’s third (and hopefully final) snowstorm of the year. So once again, I was snowed in and cabin fever is definitely setting in. In the past week or so, since the last blizzard, I have decided to “spring clean” up the house, and by house, I most nearly mean drink my tea that is almost complete but not quite there. You see, I have a nasty habit of opening dozens, hundreds, I-don’t-know-how-many, samples and packs and tins and boxes of tea and then trying it once, twice if I like it, then three times to write a rating and then never touching it again. This is a terrible habit, and every once in a while I step back and assess the mess I have made out of my kitchen and now into my living room. As I began, I have been finishing off teas so as to deplete the mess and with today’s being stuck at home, I got rid of a few teas. They were already rated, no fear, I did nothing special to them, but I am feeling accomplished as I have removed some of them.

Rating: So, now that I have finished open tea, I can go onto new samples. Yay! First up was Kashmiri Chai. The leaves are pretty, dark, and small, they are mixed with large spices; they smell slightly spicy.

First Infusion: 5 minutes, hot, no additives. This chai is very nice, gentle green and black tea blend with subtle hints of spice. I pick up cardamom and cinnamon mostly, maybe a hint of clove, overall it is very good. As with all of my chai, I must drink this hot, because as it cools the flavor of the tea is lost and the spices become overwhelming to me. This was the same for this tea, only the spices were not as overwhelming as other chai teas I have had. When I read “Kashmiri” I knew it meant the geographical region, but when I tasted it, I thought describing it like a cashmere scarf was not bad either, it is smooth and velvety, rich and intoxicating.

Second Infusion: 3 minutes, hot, no additives. I found that I did not want to oversteep for the second infusion, 3 minutes brought about an equivalent pot of tea. Slightly spiced, gentle tea, very aromatic and delicious.

Third Infusion: By this time I was looking for another way to do this, according to Golden Moon website, the tea can be enjoyed with cream and honey for a sweet treat. I did not have cream and due to the Snowpocalipse, I was not going to get any, but a splash of milk and a tiny touch of honey, made this tea extraordinary! The tea, brewed hot for 3 minutes, still had the spiced flavors and gentle tea blend, but now it had creamy sweetness added.

Highly recommended any of the three ways, this was a fantastic chai tea. I feel it was so good because it is not as strong as many other chais, it is well blended and gentle, so it is a good tea for people just starting to explore chai or people not so crazy about the amount of spice normally found in chai.

Tried this tea this evening with Madison, so far so good, I have some more to try for myself in the upcoming days, but definitely have to say that this changes the pu-erh game, if you will.

I have had bad experiences with pu-erh, I have had one great experience, and one “meh” (if you know what I mean) experience. I feel this can be another great experience if I give it a few finishing touches. Will try again and repost/report/update.

Had this matcha this morning with my protein shake and I HAD to post. I was definitely skeptical about the mandarin matcha with milk, however everyone had assured me it should be fine.

I added it to my vanilla ice cream protein shake. 1/2 teaspoon matcha to 16 ounce shake (the shakes are premade). It was a pale green, and the mandarin blended extremely well with the vanilla ice cream flavor, almost like a creamcicle, you know the orange and vanilla swirled ice cream you can get down the shore, with just a hint of matcha flavor at the end of each taste.

Very good way to have this, definitely started my morning off right!

Still more backlogging from the weekend, I slacked with posting this weekend severely, but never fear, I drank tea!

This tea could not be more aptly named. “Mandarin Silk” describes this tea almost perfectly. The mandarin is slight, it is extremely light in odor and flavor. However, it flows through the tea easily. The tea is creamy, smooth and silky. It is sweet without being sweetened and creamy without having any such product in it. I would best describe this silk as the creaminess and smoothness associated with milk chocolate; that melt-in-your-mouth texture and flavor.

The flavor is difficult to describe. You do not taste mandarin, but you can smell it. This is probably because the mouthfeel of the tea is overwhelming, the silky smoothness, is really the only thing you can absorb when drinking it. A faint sweetness lingers in the tea that makes me think more of a white chocolate confection than a tea at all.

This tea was delicious, however, the body and aroma of it were not my cup of tea (pun intended). Worth a try, but I am glad I did not buy it.

Tough day, lots of work today, got home and saw all the comments on the posts. Tried to make this again as a smoothie. A different type of smoothie this time:

1/4 cup frozen Dole mixed berries (strawberries, blueberries, raspberries)
2 tsp. Mandarin Matcha (I will have none left at this rate)
1/4 cup milk
1/2 cup cold water

This was a little thicker than yesterday, as in I used less liquid, and one such liquid was milk instead of all water. The milk worked well with the mandarin flavor in the matcha, I was pleasantly surprised because I had been hesitant all week. This version however, seems like it needs more milk if anything. I am going to look into yogurt for tomorrow and maybe orange juice to give this another go.

Definitely still worth experimenting with.

So I first tried this one on Saturday. We made it thick, with hot water and no additives. It is a dark green color, and smells heavily of mandarin and matcha. The main thing I got out of it was thick and bitter. Which it should be, mandarins are not always sweet, but the thickness of it was off-putting. So I decided not to rate it based on this (because it would not be good) and would try it again.

Tried it again on Sunday, using less matcha with more water. The color and fragrance were the same, but the matcha was definitely better. It was not as bitter, and if flowed more easily. The matcha flavor is strong and tends to overpower the mandarin a bit, I think I need to adjust something.

Today, I decided I did not want to be bothered with making the matcha in the bowl with this whisk and went straight to my smoothie:

1/4 cup of frozen mixed berries (no blackberries this time, avoiding the seeds)
1 tsp. Mandarin Matcha
Pinch of Splenda
3/4 cup of water

The frozen berries helped to keep this thick. I did not want to mix citrus with milk, so I used all water, in hindsight, I could have used orange juice, but I did not have any. I added the splenda because that is what I usually do make sure the berries do not make it bitter, this was especially important because I find the Mandarin matcha to be bitter.

The smoothie was the best way I enjoyed this. The Mandarin actually contrasted the sweetness of the the berries (strawberries, blueberries, raspberries) and then the Splenda helped to brighten the flavors.

I would love to get this right as a straight matcha, if you have any suggestions, they would be greatly appreciated.

Backlogging from Saturday.

I will start by saying, I have no idea what a “mangosteen” is, so I do not truly know how this tea should taste. I am going to research and try and get a mangosteen so I can give this a proper rating. The dried leaves (I bought this loose from Stash’s website) smell fantastic. They are sweet and green, there are pieces of flower petals and lemon grass, there is an aromatic, fruity, fragrance with hints of matcha and citrus.

That being said, the tea tastes exactly how it smells: incredibly aromatic, very fruity, a hint of matcha and citrus, and it is SWEET. This was brewed hot, with no additives. The overwhelming fruit flavor is pear, it is almost starchy and heavy on the palate, almost too much to bear, almost.

I think this will probably do better, by better I mean be less sweet and thick, with a shorter brew time and maybe less leaves. If you like syrupy sweetness in your tea, then brew exactly as directed, that is what you will get. In the meantime, I will play with steeping variations and hopefully get my hands on a mangosteen so I can try and find it in there.

Highly recommended if you enjoy sweet fruit without any sugar added. Enjoy!

Backlogging from Saturday.

So filtering through my green tea experiences, I compare everything to Dragonwell, because as I have mentioned a few times: I LOVE DRAGONWELL. This is especially true when it is done well, and even overbrewed to get all the extra green and vegetal possible out of it. :)

This unfortunately, was not a good Dragonwell. Brewed according to instructions, hot, three minutes, no additives, the only adjective I can think of for it is “weak”.

The fragrance of the dried leaves is muted, almost bland, but this could be to exposure to light or air and can be rectified in a few ways: crushing to retrieve trapped tea flavor or overbrewing to release what is lost. These ghastly methods can also cause bitter/sour tea, and since this is not my sample, I will not destroy the leaves to fix it.

The liquor of the tea is pale green, transparent, almost as if there is nothing at all in there, almost as if it is hot water. This was fine. The aroma of the brewed tea is also weak, a faint hint of green. Finally, the flavor: it can be best described as non-existent. The hot water tastes mostly of hot water and really no dragonwell at all.

As I said, I believe this can be fixed in a few ways: more leaves, longer brewing time, or destroying leaves to release flavor. Unfortunately, I have not tried any such method with this sample because as I said it was not my sample. I did not want to force a possibly bitter Dragonwell on anyone else, but honestly, a bitter Dragonwell would have been better than no Dragonwell at all.

Backlogging from Saturday.

Teavana is such an entrancing place, I go in for something simple like a matcha bowl, and leave with piles tea and accessories I had no intention of buying. In the store, the pearls smelled sweet and fragrant; almost fruity. This would lead to the assumption that you would get a fruity white tea. My companion was intrigued. I was not. I know what happens when you assume, so I avoid assuming anything.

The brewed leaves and brewed tea both smelled earthy and raw, like a tea that was unfinished, unrefined, unfiltered and all together natural. Can we say pu-erh? However, determined to try the tea, it turned out to be not so bad, once you get past the smell. The finished tea, was very silver needle, very plain and white, nothing special at all. The only thing special was the smell.

Brewed hot, no additives.

So packed most of this out to send to Ricky, but saved enough for one last pot for myself. I remembered not liking this, but when I smelled the raw jumble of leaves, I could not resist one last pot.

I say “jumble” because the leaves are quite a mix. There are jasmine pearls, berries, flower/petal pieces and small splinters that look like roobios. The fragrance of the leaves is fantastic, it is sweet and fruity. I remembered bitter though when I drank it, so I decided to understeep it. I brewed hot, 1.5 minutes with no additives. The tea is much better than I remember, still a dark pink/pale red color, the fruit is not nearly as tart and the tea is almost peaking through at the back.

For this, I will raise my rating. Previously: 57.

Overall, much better this time around. Though I still think this is best blended (1 to 1) with the Youthberry tea. It just adds a natural layer of sweetness you cannot get from sugar.