Ovation Teas

The first time I tried making this tea I got distracted and oversteeped it by 7+ minutes. Needless to say it was bitter.

A while later I tried it again with fresh leaves for about 4 minutes. It was very blueberry-ish. It could use more bergamot but still a good Earl Grey. I am thinking of mixing with with some double bergamot for MORE bergamot, or some EG cream because a creamy blueberry EG has to be awesome.

It is good with milk and some sugar helps bring out the blueberry. I might try an even shorter steep time to see if that keeps the bergamot from being overwhelmed by the blueberry.

Had another pot of this tonight. I’m really finding that I like it better at room temperature better than I do hot. It’s more raspberry and less bergamot at that temperature and that’s the way I prefer it. I’ve really been moving away from earl grey over the last few months, perhaps my tastes are changing but I’m really not liking it as much as I used to. This is still a pretty tasty tea though.

It’s sad I’m the first one to write a tasting note for this one. (I think Alphakitty might have a note on the way since I bought some from her— thanks! But I hope we aren’t the only two to try this lovely tea from Ovation.) This one is amazing, as I knew it would be. It has such a smooth, complex, deep flavor. One sip reminded me of a plum with some of the sugar taken out. It reminds me a lot of the assam I also got from Ovation.. I’ll have to try them both again. The perfect black tea!

I have tried this tea twice now, and it just doesn’t work for me. The tea taste both overly sweet and highly astringent. Not a good combination. The second time I had this I ended up with an awful stomach ache. I can’t say that it was from the tea alone, but I know the tea didn’t help.

I can’t see myself drinking this again. If anyone wants it let me know. Otherwise I’ll post it on the swap board later this week.

Mmmm pearls. Steep #2 in progress :)

Additional notes: This was a fresh batch from the Ovation sale! I don’t know how old the other sample I had was, but since this was super fresh, I knew it would taste better. It does! But the first steep was three minutes and wasn’t as good as the second steep at seven minutes. It seems like the longer the steep time, the better this one gets. I really love a stronger bergamot, surprisingly, but this one is mild. But it perfectly blends with the pieces of raspberry and orange in the blend. I’m uping the rating a bit from 82.

No notes yet.

This was the one tea I bought from Alphakitty that I was a bit worried I wouldn’t like (thanks, alphakitty!) BUT it is delicious!! Fresh mint teas are the best! This one reminds me of Zentealife’s Chocolate mint rooibos that I absolutely love, but this has a black tea base. I don’t think this batch had peppermint pieces, but that is fine with me. The other ingredients are great. There are some cocoa nibs and raspberry pieces in there. I really only tasted raspberry on the first couple of sips, then it gets a bit fainter. The chocolate gets a bit overpowered by the mint but this tea tastes like a mintier thin mint cookie. So this will be my go-to mint teas for morning and the Zen will be my go-to mint tea at night (rooibos). I’m very impressed with this one. I haven’t not been impressed with the many Ovation teas I’ve tried, which just makes it sadder that they are done.

No notes yet.

This one came from a swap with Lariel!

This one smells so good. Dry, the blueberry scent sticks out a little more. Once brewed, the black base, bergamot, and cornflowers are more detectable. Luckily, the blueberry is still there, and not overshadowed by the earl grey notes.

Taste: Yum! I love me some earl grey and I love me some blueberries, and this tea delivers on both. All the basic aspects of an earl grey are present; the earthy black tea, the bergamot, the citrus notes. And the blueberry shines through very nicely. Not overpowering, but almost naturally blending with the other aspects. It isn’t artificial in the least. I love this! Too bad Ovation is no more. =(

Thanks, Lariel, for letting me try some of this before it was gone forever. Happy to have tried it.

I picked this one up from the Ovation liquidation sale for its potential as a cold brew in the summertime. Most of my favorite iced teas (for example Cantaloupe & Cream or Green Chestnut) are way too pricey to make in bulk, and while I have a few that I like to make pitchers of I enjoy variety. And with 8 ounces of this one I think it will last quite a while!

This is nice iced, the pineapple is in the forefront and the blueberry a nice burst at the end of the sip. I think I’m going to leave off a rating until it’s hot and really iced tea season, I can see this being so refreshing during the warmer months… especially with a splash of coconut sake.

thanks again, Starfevre for the trade! Another Ovation tea I get to try. What I love with this one is that the steep color is actually caramel colored! After a four minute steep, I don’t find much caramel flavor, though I did see three caramel pieces in the infuser. There is a lot of caramel pieces, at least in the amount of tea in the bag I have. Maybe I should have added sugar for more of a caramel flavor? The black tea itself has a very deep and unique flavor, that I haven’t tasted before. I like it!

Got this in a trade from Tea Sipper and I thought I might try something I’m likely to really like after my wonderful tea experience this morning with 52teas.

From the other tasting notes on this tea, which I really should have read before I brewed it, I could have avoided the bitterness I’m tasting if I had brewed it for less time. The liquid was awfully dark after 3 minutes. 2 minutes would have been better. I have some more to experiment with though.

I don’t think I’ve ever eaten a fig in my life so I’m not sure how to pin down a ‘fig’ flavour. There is a sweetness in this tea, beyond the sweetener I added, that I assume is the brown sugar, but it might be partly the fig too. It definitely doesn’t taste like plain black tea though. Although the black base is really strong and that comes through clearly, must be the assam, that always seems like such a BOLD tea whenever I drink it. I’m not sure I like it as a base for flavoured teas.

Overall I do like this tea, just am somewhat confused by it.

Tea #24 from the ‘Here’s Hoping’ teabox.

Mmmm, this is some tasty tea. It’s dark and malty, but not at all astringent. As the tea cools the fruity flavors become more noticeable. There’s apricot and something else… not cherry, but some other stone fruit. About halfway through the cup I added some milk. The addition seemed to meld all the flavors together. Nice! This is a tea I would like to have again.

Having this again, though I brought it into work this time for some tastiness at work. Good way to get a nice taste in my mouth. First steep came out very burnt-caramel with hints of vanilla and I’m steeping it a second time right now.

Drinking the second steep right now, I think, for the first time ever that I have experienced in flavoured black teas, that the second steep is better than the first. The first steep, the caramel flavour was overwhelming. Nice, but a bit POW IN THE FACE and tongue and the second steep, the flavours are a bit more nicely balanced and delicate. Overall, this a tea that holds up well to two steeps, though I won’t go for more than that.

It smells nice dry. The flavour is a little brown sugar, and kinda like maple. I mostly taste the black tea. It was good with my fig oatmeal.

Since I started a new Stargate SG-1 DVD, I needed some tea. I like having tea with my shows.

This tea smells like tootsie rolls (more so dry). Not sure why. The flavour is sorta generally sweet, with a little caramel. Nothing in it makes me think of praline. I might have to try with vanilla or vanilla next.

No notes yet.

My first tea from the ’Here’s Hoping’ Teabox. It’s a very good choice, if I do say so myself!

The bergamot is not overly strong, but it allows the raspberry to be the star of the show. I like that the raspberry is a fruity flavor rather than a candy one. So the taste is mostly of raspberry with the bergamot being a lovely end note. It’s absolutely delicious! The black tea base is strong, which I also like. I wish more EGs were paired with a strong tea base!

I’ll definitely resteep this tea later today. I wish I had known how good this was before Ovation went out of business. C’est la vie.

A big thanks to Dustin for sending some of these my way because they are DELICIOUS. If only Ovation had a really great sale BEFORE they went out of business, I would have known how nice their teas were. The taste here is so smooth, so delicate and super sweet. It kind of reminds me of a milk oolong. With most jasmine teas, I can’t find the flavor, but the jasmine here is definitely noticeable and lingering! I’m not sure if it was because I hadn’t had tea all day, but I was guzzling this down. The second cup is slightly less sweet than it was before, but it has more jasmine.

Thanks Yssah for this one. I’m agreeing with the other people that recently got teas from the huge liquidation sale from Ovation. I feel like this needs to sit awhile so the flavors can really get into the tea since right now all I am really tasting is the assam and a hint of fig. The assam is good but I just want more fig and I am not getting much from it right now. Think I will give it a week or two and try it again.

Thanks yssah for buying these teas for so many of us Steepsters! This blend sounded divine. Caramel, cocoa, hazelnuts! This blend really has a very unique flavor. Just the black tea alone I’m thinking has a very strong flavor. I’m not sure if it’s because it was just blended or if the hazelnut flavor is making the black tea itself seem stronger. It had a very deep, dark flavor! I saw a couple pieces of caramel hidden in my infuser, covered in black tea. They added a sweetness along with the cocoa nibs giving it another element to its deep flavor. I may have sipped this too late though. I don’t usually have black teas late anymore, but I couldn’t stop yawning. It kind of made me a bit dancey (and I am never dancey) or it could have been the No Doubt show I was watching on TV. Gwen can make anyone dancey! But it was probably a combination of both. I really like this blend and it’s another one I’m happy I was able to try! I’m looking forward to many more cups of this, and apparently the flavor will get better as it settles. I’m hoping I won’t miss Ovation too much after they went out of business and I try many more of their blends.

I’m a little bit disappointed in this tea. Maybe my expectations were too high, given what I thought of the other teas in my order, but I thought this one would be better than it is.

Let me start off with the fact that this is a very pretty tea with a lot going on in the dry leaf with the big what look like freeze dried raspberries and the peppermint pieces. The taste is mostly black tea and mint with the barest taste of chocolate in the sip and I didn’t pick up much raspberry at all save a bit of sweetness in the aftertaste. I really wish those flavours were stronger. Perhaps after the bag has time to sit a little. I’ve heard that Ovation teas need to meld a little to get the best flavour. I’m rating this tea based on today’s pot but I’m open to changing it later, maybe in a few months.

First to log this one I guess. Well I got a pound of this in Ovation’s going out of business sale so this is likely the first of many tasting notes.

The dry tea is very interesting to look at, with large chunks of dried pear in it. The pear flavour is actually more subtle than I expected, given that. I wish it were a bit stronger but it is nice all the same. It is definitely pear though. Not my perfect pear tea yet but perhaps as the tea sits and melds for a while it will be better. I did just get it after all and I have heard that this is the case with many Ovation teas. Maybe a longer steep time next time too.