Art of Tea

This is a very delicious green tea… but it is also very fussy to make. You must be very mindful of the water temperature and especially the steep time, because if you oversteep this tea, it will turn bitter very, very quickly! But if treated just right, this tea has a very lovely green tea flavor. It reminds me of genmaicha, sans the nuttiness of the genmai rice. The leaf just doesn’t seem to come off with that overly astringent grassiness that many green teas have. And the fruitiness of this tea is excellent! What I love about it so much is that it is light and delicate, rather than being so strong that all you taste is this heavy strong infusion; I find flavored green teas of that variety tend to just come off feeling so artificial. You get such a nice green tea flavor here, with these light fruity notes that hit the back of the tongue that give it a lovely combination of fruity sweetness and tart zing. The fruitiness is a bit like a combination of pomegranate and raspberry. So far this has been my favorite fruit-flavored green tea.

Full Review: https://teatimetuesdayreviews.wordpress.com/2017/03/28/tea13/

Holiday Tea-son! Some time ago, I had sampled a Butterscotch White tea that I got in a holiday sampler pack from Art of Tea, which I reviewed here: https://steepster.com/mastressalita/posts/365383 . I really enjoyed it, but instead of restocking it from Art of Tea (since they are quite expensive), I found a close match for it from Tealyra at the time, called “Butterscotch Potion,” as it was on a big discount, so I bought a bag there instead. All the ingredients listed were the same. Tealyra no longer carries the blend, but I know Tealyra gets their flavored blends by wholesaling, so I was trying to dig into where they sourced the blend. I could find lots of other tea sites carrying the same blend, and all of them had the blend as a fall/winter seasonal… the same as Art of Tea. Hmmmmmmmm. This led me to believe that Tealyra, and all the other sites were all wholesaling it directly from Art of Tea (Art of Tea lists that the origin of their blend is an “Art of Tea original” and I’d hate to think they are saying that while wholesaling it too, and I know Art of Tea themselves have a wholesale option). So, I was going to review this under Tealyra, thinking they’d wholesaled some “duplicate” of the Art of Tea blend but… no, I think I really do have a (much cheaper!) bag of the original Art of Tea blend that I had originally enjoyed so much. I even checked all the major blend wholesalers and am feeling pretty confident here. If nothing else, the over-abundance of “wholesale/relabel culture” from teashops does mean you might find the exact same blend under a different name for a waaaaay better price per ounce somewhere else if you are willing to do a little searching around by ingredient list of your tea of choice…

So I don’t usually review the same tea more than once, but that review was from my baby days on Steepster, and I haven’t had this tea in ages. My tea-brewing game has likely changed quite a bit since then, so I wouldn’t be surprised if my brewed cup, palate, and thus rating has changed as well. So I may as well revisit this one.

I know a year ago, I expected very bold flavors, which I don’t expect so much now; in fact, I now actually prefer a bit more nuance, with the base notes coming through more, and the flavors in the cup to taste more natural than really strong or artificial. So I took care to not put too much leaf in my cup, and I am really enjoying this; it actually has a really nice butterscotch flavor, without tasting overwhelming. There is a silky, buttery mouthfeel to the tea that is very pleasant and satisfying; I feel like I pick up a slight coconut milk sort of flavor note, which may have a lot to do with the creamy texture? Before the tea reminded me of Werthers, but that was probably from overleafing or adding sugars, things I don’t do now; I’d say it’s a more subtle butterscotch flavor, present but not overbearing on the white tea, with lots of sweet buttery notes, and hints of caramel. Almost like a caramel popcorn sort of taste that pops toward the end of the sip. There seems to be some vegetal notes lingering in the cup, but the sweetness and buttery notes keep them very muted.

It’s a really nice dessert tea, and very relaxing. I think I like this a bit more than I remember, because I think I can appreciate some of the more nuanced flavors a bit more now than I could a year ago. Raising the rating slightly!

The smell and color of a brewed cup of this tea had me thinking of Werther’s Originals before even taking my first sip! The taste, however, was not quite so strong as that; the tea has a very distinct butterscotch flavor and aroma but it didn’t come off as overpowering to me, but more light and sweet. I did have to use quite a bit of leaf, as the white tea leaves are so light and fluffy, to get a nice, solid flavor, but the tea held up to multiple steepings well. I found it a very pleasant dessert tea, and one I plan to restock now that Art of Tea’s winter seasonals are back in stock.

Full review: https://teatimetuesdayreviews.wordpress.com/2017/02/21/tea08/

This is one of my favorite teas! I’ve had very hit-or-miss experiences with flavored oolongs, but I really enjoy this one! The pouchong base has a very creamy and smooth mouthfeel, and the flavor of the tea is sweet and decadent, reminding me of lemon chiffon cake. It has a lot of sweet vanilla notes, with some subtle citrus in the finish. The tea resteeps well, and I find that often on my second steep I’ll get much stronger lemon notes in my cup. This tea is great both warm and iced, and I’ve even made tasty frozen pops out of it sweetened with honey! My mom didn’t care for this one (she didn’t like the vanilla flavor), but I can’t get enough of the silky vanilla citrus flavor.

Full review: https://teatimetuesdayreviews.wordpress.com/2017/06/13/tea24/

Well, I’ve maybe found the elusive loose leaf chamomile that is as good as cheap bagged chamomile! It sounds like an odd quest, but it just seems so unusual to prefer grocery store bagged chamomile (I buy the 20 teabags for $2 at bulk barn) to the fresher high quality loose leaf version. Although some day I want to try fresh chamomile flowers fresh from the garden.

Anyway, this is a very flavourful chamomile with that classic “chamomile” dried flower taste I really like. As usual, there are notes of dust (in a good way), minerals, lemon, pollen, dried catnip, and dried herbs/dried flowers, and dried hay (in the best way!)

You really can’t get better than this in a pure chamomile tea.

I’m surprised I’ve reviewed this tea before. I don’t recall it.

This time, I loved it. with a touch of cane sugar served hot or plain iced, it is super versatile. I can taste the sweet rooibos and honeybush. I like the mint (not too strong in menthol), plus the cocoa is showing up faintly in the background. It could use more cocoa, but I still think it is superior to mose chocolate mint rooibos blends I’ve tried.

A very strong rooibos with creamy notes of vanilla, cream cheese, and artificial red velvet flavours. I’m not a huge fan of red velvet or cream cheese, so I didn’t enjoy this blend very much. Still, it was nice to try once.

This would be very good as a latte, but it is also drinkable on its own. I’m not sure I would try it cold unless I added something to it, but it’s still a solid blend for those who like plain rooibos and cream cheese flavour.

Flavours: vanilla, rooibos, plain, minerals, dry stems, cream cheese,red velvet, skim milk, creamy

This is a great sweet treat for evening. This tea does actually taste of butterscotch without being too cloyingly sweet (I find that a lot of blends advertising this flavor end up falling short). It’s one of the very few white tea blends that I own, and I really like that I can taste the tea itself in conjunction with the sweet butterscotch flavor. I used a tablespoon of tea for an 8oz cup.

We used to have this tea every week in my reading group and it was loved by everyone equally and promoted thoughtful conversation and good listening! Lovely plain, with honey, or sugar. Bright, fruit without being fake or false or artificial.

I like bananas, but I do not like banana flavored things. That probably explains why this has been sitting in my sample bowl for so long, untouched.
But I am being brave, this November, and am drinking things that have been untasted. Plus, samples are easy sipdowns.
I am relieved to say that this isn’t too banana-y. Its a bit like banana bread, not my favorite, but not as bad as, say, banana taffy.
I’m not going to get any more of this, but it was harmless enough.
Sipdown.

I’m actually not entirely sure that the Cinnamon Fig tea I have is THIS tea, because the lady at the shop wouldn’t tell me where she gets her teas (grrrr), but the description seems close. We’ll go with it.

While I do really like this tea… it just hasn’t delivered the fig flavor I wanted. The cinnamon is a very sweet cinnamon, not a spicy cinnamon, and I’m not sure how I feel about that. Overall, this tea reminds me of a fresh cinnamon scone, with some slight breadiness from the black tea. There is a hint of fruit, but it’s more of a pear or apple flavor than it is fig. It’s tasty, but not one I will buy again.

This is a seriously tasty blend. I picked it up looking for a Meyer Lemon tea after having had a Meyer lemon caradmom iced chai. This doesn’t fit the bill for that, but it’s a really good tea nonetheless. The lemon is strong and natural tasting, with rose a perfect complement. I always prefer green rooibos over red and this no exception. I don’t know that I could tell you what it tastes like in the blends I’ve had it in but it doesn’t add any unpleasant notes. :)

A nommy tea both cold and hot. Makes a really fine granita as well.

Sample from Tea Sipper. Thank you!

This is a really interesting combination of flavors. It’s earthy and slightly grassy but those flavors are juxtaposed with a lovely strawberry flavor that has some sweetness and some sourness. It makes me think of strawberry picking, which is something I haven’t done in years. I think this is the first gyayusa blend I’ve tried that I would be interested in buying more of. A unique and appealing blend. This is definitely a Happy Tea!

I’ve been trying to streamline my iced tea making process, so I picked up a box of passionfruit jasmine iced tea pouches during my last Art of Tea order. What I love about the passionfruit jasmine in particular is that it’s a blend of black and green teas; it’s perfect for those of us who can’t decide which way they want to go. Both the black and jasmine green teas that are used as a base for this blend are mild, which really allow the slight floral notes from the jasmine and slightly sweet flavors of the passionfruit shine. This is one of those iced teas I could drink a lot of and not get bored, but even if I did I still have eight other flavors to choose from.

You can read the full review on my blog:
http://www.notstarvingyet.com/index/2016/6/21/tuesday-tea-passionfruit-jasmine-iced-tea-pouches-art-of-tea

Trying brewed hot first. Though after reading some comments while waiting for it to steep I kinda wish I had just done cold. So far I agree that it is nothing special when its hot. In fact its kinda mediocre hot. As it starts to cool off the flavor is improving. A bit of honey would really make it great!

Seeing as how purple teas are somewhat rare… I had to try this. It’s very smooth. Has a woodsy start with very interesting tones to it. Some I’m not quite able to describe. Though I’m not usually a fan of the darker oolongs even I can appreciate how good this one is.

2023 An Ode to Tea – W

Even the tiniest of tins takes me forever to sipdown. I forgot this was supposed to be cantaloupe until the VERY end of the cup… jasmine was never around in this one. I would have been fine with it being a cantaloupe white. So old it was mostly tasting like “generic fruit”.
2023 sipdowns: 35

Thanks for this one in your sale, Ost! It’s in a cute little tin too. This leafy white tea is supposed to have cantaloupe and jasmine flavors. I think the jasmine might be missing, but the cantaloupe is definitely there and pairs very nicely with the white tea. Not the best cantaloupe tea I’ve had, but I’m always happy to find another one if it actually has cantaloupe flavoring at all.

Endurance is a sweet smelling pu’erh and herbal blend. It smells like sweet plum fruit, cinnamon, mild young pu’erh and herbs.

The infusion is much lighter in flavor than you’d expect from the overwhelming fragrance of the blend- which is bold, and an in-your-face- as you open the package of full bodied fruity and herbal goodness… it smells amazing! The flavor is very delicate, the wet leaves smell like a swampy-pu’erh with cinnamon. Light earthiness in the final brew, with flat tasting cinnamon (meaning that it isn’t warming like cinnamon sometimes is, nor does it have a ‘bite’ to it), with goji, and mild plum flavor.

I dig it, though it isn’t the sort of tea I would usually choose.

Here’s Hoping Traveling Teabox – Round #5 – Tea #24
Not much to say about this one, it’s just okay. Mild black tea with hints of passion fruit flavor but not much jasmine. I think I’m just usually spoiled with Teavivre’s jasmine teas so any other jasmine teas…. the jasmine is just non-existant. I’m surprised there was green tea listed in the ingredients… I couldn’t tell at all.

Sipdown no. 16 of 2020 (no. 611 total).

Another highly rated tea in my collection, and one that I am sorry to see go.

For most of its life in my cupboard, it was an add on to other things. I used it a lot for the “extra black tea” in the stovetop chai recipe. Now I wish I’d appreciated it more on its own.

I sipped it down yesterday. I had just a tiny bit left in the tin, and now I can repurpose the tin for something else. Not sure what yet.

It was a nice follow on to the Nilgiri from Teas Etc. that I also sipped down recently. The Yunnan in the blend was, of course, a plus for me. More detail in my original note, but in general it aged well.

Au revoir, mon ami!

Trying this hot today. Nice earthy smell to the dry leaves. Dark reddish mahogany liquor, and an amazing aroma. At first, it was deep and chocolately, and then became something fruity, plums I think. But such a strong, fruity aroma, almost as strong as I’ve smelled in some flavored blacks. Pretty wild.

The flavor is smooth, and fruity/chocolatey. Almost reminiscent of chocolate covered cherries, but not fakey or overly sweet in the way those cherries are. There is some sweetness in the aftertaste, though. An almost brown sugary one.

The only negative to my palate is a tiny bit of bitterness at the finish, but it’s not a huge downside. Just enough to keep this out of the mid-90s.

I like this one a lot. Tasty and also versatile as a cold brew. I expect it would be awesome in chai as well.