Kally Tea

I thought that I had to try this one again. I steeped it for only 3 minutes this time and added some rock sugar. This made it much less hibiscus. It is definitely a sweet, fruity tea, slightly creamy, but I would not say it was orange. I still get the rockets candy flavour. Overall the tea seems really weak becuase I steeped for less time. But it is better than when I steeped for longer.

Thanks Sil for this sample.

On first smell it is very delicious orange creamsicle smelling, then BAM – Hibiscus! I figured I had to give it a try anyway, sometimes hibiscus can be deceiving.

I am unsure of the smell of this tea. I can’t quite put my finger on what it smells like. Maybe creamy hibiscus.

I am also having a hard time describing the taste of the tea. I am getting the Rockets taste, like Raritea. There is creamy vanilla, citrus, hibiscus, slightly floral, but not necessarily rose. There is a sweetenss to it but it is also tart. Knowing the name of this tea I can certainly understand why it is called sweet orange cream. But if I had this tea in a blind taste test without knowing the name, I am not sure I would come up with sweet orange.

Overall is a good tea, but it feels a bit all over the place. I have some left and will try a cold brew to see how that tastes.

Hmmm. It seems 3 min was too much. Better stay with 1-2 min!
Too thick and not enough berry goodness. Good to know :)

Having a reward cup of pu’erh after 2 hours of making kimchi.

I was up to my elbows in reddy spicy garlicy sauce! Phew, so much work but so worth it. I used this recipe http://www.maangchi.com/recipe/easy-kimchi

I did a really short steep of 45 seconds, so I can have a lighter cup, but with a bit of tropical flavor. yum! My roommate likes this tea way more than I do, but I love the bold pu’erh taste mixed with tropical combination.

Slight bitter note at the beginning of my sip. Milk and sugar fixed that right up though. Good as ever.
Without additives, never go beyond 3 min.

Aha! shorter infusions work so much better here. 2-2.5 min. Yup, makes all the difference in th “pop” factor. Bumping my rating a few points.

I started tasting this and quickly decided to read the Steepster reviews. This is NOT typical earl grey so don’t let the name confuse you. This is highly caramel and with the strong black base it comes off as kind of burnt caramel. Very nice. The fruity flavors stay way behind and add support to the cup. Like. Thanks Nicole.

oh yeah baby! Sipdown! come to mama 155, come to mama! lol I steeped this one a little too long today but that made the re-steep much more pleasant. This is a pretty decent plummy tea, though the spice is slightly overwhelming in the first steep. This might be the one tea i’ve had where i generally prefer the second steep.

One last cup of this before i send it off in a swap! YAY for sipdowns! I’m glad i got the chance to try this, and man Kally tea has got some super customer service and some incredible boxing day specials…take note! lol

Cold brew of this one from a few days ago. also a SIPDOWN! since the last little bit i have is off in a swap! See previous tasting notes :)

The tastebuds they are a changing! I’m less of a fan of this one when I first had it. Now, part of that may be the cold brew that i decided to try with this one but i’m just not loving it as much anymore. I’ll try and have a cup of it hot later but i’m just not feeling it. That’s likely because of the whole white tea thing i suspect since it’s just kind of a wimpy tea lol

I had a cold brew of this tonight since i’m not really able to drink much of anything with whatever the heck is going on with my mouth. Once i added some sweetner to this is was good, though the banana part was missing in this brew up of the tea.

I’m kinda over it. This was ok, but I didn’t really care for it over the other cup I was drinking. It was so plain, and a hair plastic like. Caramel? sure I got that to, just not enough. Ah well, time to move on!
Lowering the rating a bunch of points.

Backlog!
I’ll be sad when this is gone. I have a ton of other rooibos in my cupboard and yet I keep reaching for my Berry Chocolate!

So this tea? This tea totally reminds me of the persimmon tree’s green caramel. Though truth be told, i think i prefer this version. This version seems to be less….watery? than green caramel. Maybe it’s the rice that i happened to notice this time around hahaha. Not honestly sure how i missed it the first time around. :)

This tastes like something else that i’ve had before. It might be vanilla berry truffle from the persimmon tree now that i’m thinking about it a little harder. Which suits me fine because i also like that tea :) This one might be a little more berry like. I still don’t really taste the chocolate piece of this tea, but i’m ok with that given that i enjoy the tea. :)

Treating this one as a sipdown because there is no way i’m going to finish this tea. Might drop it into my swap box (or just toss it), though i’m not sure i want to subject anyone to this tea. It still tastes like i licked a pile of potpourri, so yeah, not a fan lol

Eh….. Sil & Indigobloom, both of you clearly like this more than me. A 3-minute infusion, and I’m getting HIBISCUS. And a bit of orange. Some hibiscus. Maybe cream, if I think about it. HIBISCUS.

Yeeaaaaaah. I definitely get where Raritea is coming from on it tasting like Rockets though, because I just caught that exact flavour. Tart citrus.

So anyways, I don’t really like this tea. Too freakin’ much hibiscus. And hibiscus, to me, tends to smell and taste a bit like… barf. Maybe if I picked it all out, I would like it. Sil – would you like the rest of this back for iced tea in the summer??

Ok… my taste buds are influenced because I just brushed my teeth…. but I kind of like this one. Less sweet and more flavourful than other rooibos’ with similar flavourings. I’m getting a bit of fruitiness as well, but it’s really tough to tell what my minty toothpaste is contributing (although I have to say, this combo isn’t too bad, especially compared to how awful nearly everything else tastes post-tooth brushing!)

I just wanted a few non-caffeinated things before bed, so brewed up some options…. and promptly went for a shower and brushed my teeth. Not the cleverest one, sometimes…

Giving this a tentative rating for now; it may increase when I try this again properly. I certainly feel like I’ll be wanting this again at some point! (Side note: I used 2 tsp of tea for 8-10 oz. I have been overleafing rooibos’ lately as they taste better that way IMO.)

mmmm made some of this as a cold brew on the weekend and just getting around to trying it. As expected i love this way more cold! I will likely finish up the rest of my small amount of this tonight to have tomorrow after work. Even my other half was onside with this as a cold brew, so if there’s a kally tea order in future it will include this one :) tangy, tart and sweet all in one :) (though less orangey this time around to be fair)

Figured that I should probably try this tea since i’m sending it out for a swap lol. Not that i haven’t wanted to try it, it just kept getting put to the side since i have a bajillion unopened teas in my house.

I am totally digging this one. I really like how the plum is blending with the spices to make it better than your average spice tea. Looking forward to other steeps since the plum flavour comes out moerso for others.

1000th note right here!
So I thought I’d do something special with it and chose to make gingered peach potato pancakes with my Aunt. I love cooking with her.
And the pancakes… oh my! It was quite yummy. The ginger really shines through, while the peach added that sweet zing that really made the pancakes pop. Sour cream and sugar (traditional way to serve it) made it almost like a peaches and cream dessert. Yum!!
My Aunt quite enjoyed the tea as well, so I gave her the rest of my packet (seeing as I don’t like it at all!)
Spending the day with my aunt was fun. We had a great time!
Oh and we also made Strawberry Pu-erh pancakes but those came first and we made a few errors when prepping so they were less flavourful. I wish we hadn’t used up the last of my sample on that. Oh well, I can always grab more.

Threw this in a travel mug this morning; it’s ok, but not amazing. I probably underleafed and/or brewed it incorrectly. It was a last-minute grab, when I couldn’t find a straight black that I wanted (didn’t want to use up a whole packet of Anxi Fo Shou black or something, couldn’t find Laoshan Black…. urgh my room is a tea disaster).

Had a cup of this tonight because I need to start cycling through more of the teas that i have large quantities of. I’m sitting near 300 teas in my cupboard and a friend of mine just dropped off her whole cupboard at my house “to store” because she’s pregnant and can’t stand the smell of tea in her house (nevermind that she’ll be limited in what she can drink anyway if she does get back to wanting tea). So i’ve got a lot of tea at home. I’m hoping that this weekend, or next i can get my swaps organized.

This tea? It’s still an average cup of tea. While i enjoy it, i likely won’t re-order because i still wish it were even more creamy and toffee-ey.