TeaGschwendner

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Recent Tasting Notes

77

Straightforward and relatively mild black tea, tasty and inexpensive. Makes a good daily brew.

Can be a bit sharp if overbrewed or overleafed, probably due to the smaller leaf sizes. Still, nothing like a bad or bitter flavor just strong. I’m burning through this 100g size pretty quickly! It’s cool that I bought Vietnamese tea in Germany and I’m drinking it in The US. :)

Flavors: Wood

Preparation
10 g 5 OZ / 150 ML

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drank Almond Milk by TeaGschwendner
2466 tasting notes

Tiny sample from a TTB. Something in there tasted a little off, but otherwise it was just slightly desserty honeybush. Old almonds maybe? Very mildly flavored; didn’t taste like almond milk. The rancid almonds showed up a lot more clearly in the resteep, though since this was from a TTB, who knows how old it is. I’m sure it was better fresh.

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94
drank Shogun by TeaGschwendner
1 tasting notes

Smells so amazing. One of my favorite teas.

Flavors: Fruity, Rhubarb, Vanilla

Preparation
165 °F / 73 °C 1 min, 30 sec 3 g

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76
drank Cream by TeaGschwendner
6444 tasting notes

Sipdown (220)

This seemed like a pretty obvious choice for a cream flavoured tea for Mastress Alita’s scavenger hunt. And it ended up being a surprise Sipdown. Yay! Thank you Sil for sharing this with me. It’s smooth and nice. I don’t know if I would have gotten cream without knowing the name but the more I drink it, the more I can see it.

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76
drank Cream by TeaGschwendner
6444 tasting notes

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75

I passed this one on to someone else today but I had some good times with Bossa Nova. This kind of roasted oolong pairs so well with nutty flavours (in this case hazelnut). It’s kind of creamy, smooth, and sweet – giving rise to thoughts of Nutella. It’s a comfort tea but I can’t help but think it could step up its game a little (it’s kind of.. pasty textured? I don’t know).

Flavors: Chocolate, Creamy, Floral, Hazelnut, Roasted, Roasted Nuts, Vanilla

Preparation
195 °F / 90 °C 3 min, 0 sec
Evol Ving Ness

Sounds like the one Zen Tea Life used to have.

Crowkettle

Yeah, I think they are on par if not identical!

Evol Ving Ness

This post has been very helpful to me (to track down wanted teas). Thank you.

Did you order from TG directly? If so, was shipping free with minimum or charged on top? I did go on TG’s site. Shipping to Canada is not clarified. It gives the impression of free shipping with minimum. I filled up a dream cart and it looked like shipping is included. BUT just checking if you have insights to offer.

(Also, I do not need more tea, but yanno..)

Crowkettle

Take my comparison with a grain of salt because it’s been ages since I’ve had Zen (I also think the old Teaopia Nut Oolong is similar) - but it’s worth a shot! They have some pretty cool flavours/aromas paired with “English tea grandma” style bases (if you want to try some of O’Connors Cream and Gina Amaretta to get an idea, let me know).

I got TG during a Canada Day promotion from their US store. I think shipping for that event was waved but they also used UPS and I got dinged duty (see if you can contact them about using USPS instead; I believe they were open to it after we complained :P). I’m subscribed to their newsletter and they are always offering promotions/deals, but I haven’t seen one that’s worth it or waves CAD shipping, so I’m sitting.

Crowkettle

Just looked up the facebook flyer: it was a promotional $5 dollar flat rate on orders $60>.

Evol Ving Ness

Thanks for the feedback, CrowKettle. Much appreciated. I’ve no need for this particular one (as I still have some), but they carry several others that Zen carried that I may order one day—in a weak moment.

Evol Ving Ness

You know how those weak moments go.

Crowkettle

I’m overly familiar with the weak moments, yes.

Evol Ving Ness

Hehe, yes. I am fighting off the full cart thing as we speak. It started innocently enough, of course.

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drank O'Connor's Cream by TeaGschwendner
2967 tasting notes

I had enough left from ashmanra’s sample for one more cup. Final verdict: this is heavier on the cream than the whiskey aspect. It reminds me a great deal of Adagio’s cream, which I liked immensely. Still quite good if you’re just looking for a sweet cream tea that needs no milk.

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drank O'Connor's Cream by TeaGschwendner
2967 tasting notes

Ashmanra shared a little sample with me, which I gratefully enjoyed outdoors in the glider. (Cooler! mosquitos are on hiatus!) The cream scent and flavor definitely take the lead here, with the bourbon-iness sneaking up on you from behind. Very sweet; very pleasant; and Tazo-approved. He liked the scent and sat on my lap sniffing while I drank.

ashmanra

I have really enjoyed this one and may re-order soon. I like the cocoa in it. The new Irish rum one doesn’t have chocolate so I will probably get some to try just to see how it differs.

ashmanra

Ah, I see now that the Irish Cream Rum tea is originally from Capital Teas! Tin Roof buys most of their teas from tg but they do have other suppliers. It is nice and convenient to be able to go in and give a sniff to the actual product, or have them make a cup to go.

ashmanra

Third and final comment! It is MUCH cheaper through Tin Roof Teas.

gmathis

(…and it was perfect for Pirate Day, although I wasn’t aware of it at the time!) I’ve got enough left for one tiny cup—I’d like to put it side by side with my TeaMaze Irish Whiskey; they’re very similar.

Crowkettle

Good to know about TeaMaze and Tin Roof Teas when I finally look to restock :)

gmathis

If we can ever get our calendars coordinated for an Ozarks run, TeaMaze is the primary destination!

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Sipdown (1457)!

I don’t know why, but I had just assumed this was straight cacao shells when I started steeping it; I really just didn’t look closely at the leaf at all. So, when I took my first sip I almost spit it out. Not because it was unpleasant, but just because all of the notes of spices caught me so incredibly off guard. Like thinking you’re going to take a sip of apple juice and it turns out it’s coke instead.

I did enjoy it though once I kind of adjusted to what I was tasting. Admittedly, I still didn’t realize there were quite so many spices – it really just tasted heavily to me of cacao with cinnamon, ginger, and a peppery sort of finish. I feel like chocolate and black pepper is actually a severely underrated combination so I was amused to be getting that combination of flavours.

Thanks VariaTEA for sharing!

VariaTEA

You’re welcome! It originated from Sil!

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80
drank Gina Amaretta by TeaGschwendner
1445 tasting notes

I had a happy accident happen to me: I accidentally knocked over my cup sitting on my bedside table and got this tea all over my carpet and the hard to reach areas between the bed frame and the baseboard moulding. So, areas that… let’s just say I should probably clean a little more regularly than I do.

Why was it a happy accident?

A) This tea smells amazing. It’s literally the best and now it’s over everything;
B) the mug also knocked over my lavender oil (that was on my bed table too?), which also smells amazing and pairs surprisingly well with amaretto;
C) there was still plenty of the delicious tea remaining in the cup; and
D) bedroom cleaning and de-cluttering occurred! Huzzah tea!

Flavors: Almond, Amaretto, Malt, Marzipan, Stonefruit

Preparation
Boiling 3 min, 45 sec
Mastress Alita

Now I want to try lavender paired with Amaretto!

Crowkettle

I’ve never tried the combo myself but am also curious now. A quick google search reveals some intriguing but untried cocktail, crepe, and dessert recipes

Leafhopper

That sounds like an interesting combo. Glad your tea-related accident was so productive. :)

Martin Bednář

Not sure if I should cry over the spilled tea, or laugh that you found positive notes on it!

Veronica

This is the most positive spilled tea note I’ve ever seen. Love it!

gmathis

Wanna come spill some tea all over my house? ;)

Crowkettle

Oh, gmathis, if I spilled tea at your or anyone’s house I’d die from embarrassment on the spot and the floorboards would swallow me up. Whether the spilled tea would be efficiently swallowed with me is a coin toss D:

Lexie Aleah

Love this!

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79

Sipdown (1418)!

Finished this one off and, again, enjoyed it a lot. Love the roasted nutty notes paired with the base and this time around I felt like all the flavours were pretty equal in intensity. Coating, sweet chocolate mixed with hazelnut and warming cinnamon in a “Nutella” style medley of decadent goodness – just more roast.

If I ever found myself placing an other with Tea Gschwdfhigaihglkn I would probably consider adding this in. I don’t know if I’d crave it heavily because of the chocolate, but the roast/hazelnut combo is definitely very appealing to me.

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79

Morning cuppa!

I really like how roasty this tea tastes! So many chocolate/hazelnut blends leans much harder on the chocolate but this seems to embrace all of those toasty roasty nutty flavours so much more heavily – maybe not SUPER clearly hazelnut, but the spirit is 100% there! Not unpleasant chocolate, either & that definitely does not hurt.

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77
drank Caramel by TeaGschwendner
6444 tasting notes

Sipdown (287)

Thank you Sil for sharing this one with me! It has been fun the past couple of times to try it as it is a really nice caramel tea. It’s got a thickness to it and a lot of rich and sophisticated caramelized sugar notes. It’s good and I think it would have won had this not been a sipdown. However, since this one is finished, the Genmaicha wins by default in my sipdown tournament. Check out the note for that tea here: https://steepster.com/rachel12610/posts/416356

Sil

lol glad you enjoyed it.

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77
drank Caramel by TeaGschwendner
6444 tasting notes

Today’s battle is between this tea and Butter Brew by Bird and Blend. Essentially a battle of the caramel teas and if I am being honest, these two are both delicious and super similar so its a hard call. They both have a dark caramel sweetness. This one has a little less base coming through than Butter Brew which gives it a slight edge, thus winning the battle. Check out the review for Butter Brew here: https://steepster.com/rachel12610/posts/416012

Thank you for sharing this with me Sil! I know you love it so I am grateful you were willing to part with some.

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