TeaGschwendner

Tea of the afternoon……

And my first tea from this company courtesy of Amanda! Thank you, Amanda!

I will admit I was a little apprehensive when I first saw there was rooibos in the blend, but it really works here. It adds a richness to the black tea base. The chocolate and raspberry are pretty much one flavor rather than being able to pick out one over the other, which makes it well blended in my book. Very good! Definitely worth consideration for me!

Usual mug method.

A very typical, strong, second flush darjeeling. It is selected from possible different gardens each year to have a constant flavor without any special “garden-aroma” like muscatel, extra-flowery, …

Therefore it is a good introductory tea to start an exploration into 2nd flush darjeeling nuances.

Has a strong enough flavor to go alongside some food (breadrolls or cookies, not a barbecue) without the aroma getting completely overshadowed.

Still my overall favorite. This is the tea where, on tasting the first cup, or even just catching the fragrance during steeping, or even just watching the leaves unfurl in a glass teapot, I most often get that “all the problems in the world just vanished” feeling.

I can’t figure out why the aroma is often described as “like fresh bread”, though I have to admit that I lack the words to describe it. Certainly flowery, but there’s this special summer-oolong taste that for me is without equal.

A nice thing about this tea is that it does not care about water quality (as long as it is boiled) or how long you steep it – it’s a true “self-drinker”.

I’ve not tried multiple steepings yet.

I was drawn to this tea on the shelf of a TG shop in Germany – the name was so catchy (“Zum Glücklichsein”) that I picked up a bag to try. It is a delightful, light, minty tea. It’s a nice change from regular peppermint tea, and has a light floral finish to it. This is a lovely tea on a cold winter evening.

Steep Information:
Amount: 2 tsp
Water: 6oz boiling
Tool: Cast Iron Teapot with Mesh basket strainer
Steep Time: a little over 5 minutes
Served: Hot

Tasting Notes:
Dry Leaf Smell: cinnamon, wood
Steeped Tea Smell: cinnamon, cardamom, wood
Flavor: rooibos woody, cinnamon, closes with cardamom kick
Body: Full
Aftertaste: cardamom, hints of wood
Liquor: dark opaque red-brown

Really have no feelings good or bad, it just seemed average.

Rating: 2/4 leaves

Blog: http://amazonv.blogspot.com/2012/02/teagschwendner-loose-leaf-rooibos.html

This is another tea I’ve been mildly interested in for a while, and another I got a big bag of in my recent swap with Infusin_Susan. In the bag this one smelled very orangey, with an orange aroma that was light and fresh. I wasn’t sure what to make of the aroma of the steeped tea since the combination of the orange with the roasted oolong was a little odd! I mean, roasted oolongs aren’t my favorite because of their sometimes charry, burnt, toasted flavor, but in some cases it works well.

After sipping on this one for a bit I find that I am enjoying the combination of the orange and woody, toasted oolong. I’m really not getting any florals from this, but anything described as “elusive” floral notes is going to be too elusive for my taste buds. Sometimes I can find the orange in orange teas to be overpowering, and I think I tend to like my citrus to be brighter in teas than oranges. This orange in this tea is nice and light, so it’s definitely an orange I can enjoy.

I’ve never actually had a tea from this tea company despite the fact that I walked past their storefront fairly often when I lived in Chicago. Oh, the days before tea-obsession. I have looked at their offerings since then and this one always interested me because I love love hazelnut. Almost as much as almond, heh. A while ago I had a LivingSocial deal to the TeaGschwendner in NYC, but it closed before I got a chance to use it! Lame! I got a chance to swap with Infusin_Susan for this tea, so I’m excited to try it now!

The dry leaf smells kind of like Florence (by Harney) even though this one doesn’t have any chocolate in it. Must be that roasted oolong. I followed TeaGschwendner’s steeping directions even though I normally wouldn’t use boiling water for an oolong. Steeped, the scent is very roasty-toasty and nutty, but the hazelnut really takes a back seat to that strongly roasted oolong smell. The flavor of this one is interesting… the main part of the sip doesn’t really stand out to me, but then the creamy hazelnut comes out and leaves a nice aftertaste. I can’t help wondering how this would taste brewed at a lower temp for a slightly longer time; fortunately I have plenty to experiment with. Thanks again for the swap, Infusin_Susan!

I first tried this tea about 5 years ago, when living in Chicago. Now, my brother-in-law regularly brings it to Christmas gatherings because he knows I like it.
And I do like it- the almondy sweetness complements the sencha well. But today I am getting something soapy in here too. It’s strong enough that I am wondering if I somehow got soap on my cup rim. Or perfume.

Am trying to push past this to the delicious almond. I’m even having this with almond biscotti-like cookies. Could it be the orange blossom that can get perfumey?

As you may be able to tell, this one is very inconsistent for me. I wouldn’t pounce on the pouch every year in December if it always tasted perfumey/soapy.
All of this said, when this one’s good it’s absolutely wonderful- the perfect holiday dessert tea. So I still recommend it.

When I want a flavoured tea (which is rare) I always go for this one. I love black currant tea, but it’s hard to find it without added artificial flavour. I understand what people are saying when they say the currant flavour is underwhelming, but frankly I enjoy that over the chemical taste of most other black currant teas I’ve tried. This is in no way a fruity tea. For my tastes it is a perfect balance of good-quality black tea and and aromatic flavour.

This came about as a recent swap with Amanda. Even though she gave it less than stellar reviews I wanted to try it anyway, plus I am always looking for some more caffeine free things.

I don’t love roobois much so I was thinking I might hate this but I did have a strawberry rhubarb tea once from Lupicia that I really liked.

Steeped for 5 minutes with boiling water in my $4 Daiso teapot.

Yeah the smell of this is pretty funky. It’s like a yogurt that went bad. I don’t think it quite smells like butt but maybe… feet? The flavor isn’t quite as bad though thankfully. I don’t quite know if I taste any rhubarb in here. I think it needs something. It was definitely better with some soymilk. And maybe it needs a pinch of sugar. Well I will find some way to make it more drinkable but I won’t be buying any…. :)

This is a simple tea that will neither dazzle nor disappoint, but will not supplant your morning startup cup or take the place of those you crave. The tea is medium bodied and lighter than black teas from other regions. The flavor is muted malt with a hint of spiciness, and it brews quickly to almost an Assam-like red hue and aroma, but certainly not as full in the mouth as an Assam. I do not find myself drinking this tea at the expense of others in my cupboard but instead have become rather fond of using this tea as a component in black and black/green blends, especially japanese sencha. Due to its lighter body, it has turned out to be excellent for blends that include safflower, sunflower, tropical fruits, citrus, marigold, among others. This translates into some interesting and refreshing iced teas that do not consume your more expensive teas which are best served hot.

First…THANK YOU Amanda!!!

Now…

I LOVE rhubarb but this smells REALLY FUNKY.

REALLY FUNKY.

It smells like a weird cheese, plantains, some kind of nut, butt, lime, and strawberry????

Totally random and totally weird.

Stinky.

The Taste…

I can side with Amanda’s comment about a yogurt tart flavor. It’s not good, bad, or indifferent…just something I noticed. I’m not bothered by it. There is a subtle rhubarb and lime-E type flavor I am getting that I sort of dig…so that’s not bad. It is sweet.

The taste is alright! The smell…OYE VAY!

I’ll meet ya in the middle with a rating (while I plug my nose!)

Thanks Amy oh for this one too!

I was going to try this yesterday but I went for the coconut pouchong instead. I think this tea probably set out to be like that tea, but falls far short. It’s not as strong as I would like it, and I think a toasted coconut flavor comes out a bit more than coconut milk. Anyway I’ll stop comparing them now.

I think sencha and coconut go together pretty well, so this isn’t like powerfully flavored coconut. If it was, I probably wouldn’t like it because I don’t like a strong toasted coconut flavor. Instead I think the grassy taste of the sencha meshes really well with the toasted coconut and makes it tasty.

Had a bit of this before passing the rest along – see previous notes

Thanks Amanda for this tone! This is really FAB!

Totally lives up to it’s name! It’s tangy raspberries go perfectly with the dark yet smooth chocolate flavors! I like that this is a black tea and rooibos blend…it adds that little extra natural sweetness to it. Pleasant and pleasing in every way! Delicious!

I am possibly losing my mind or something but I have decided to start cold steeping things that might be horribly bad cold. But really the idea of cold steeped oolong was fascinating so I did this one and I’m letting this other one steep a whole day first.

So this one steeped about 14 hours and I actually like it a lot better cold than hot. Weird. It was just orange to me before. I get the oolong now, and a nice woodsy taste, even the leather mentioned in the description.

Thanks for working so well like this, Orange Blossom Oolong, you have now opened up a whole new world of crazy ideas to spill next….muahahahaha.

I think I prefer oolong by itself…gasp. Or apparently with peach. I don’t know what my thing is with peach, so I figured maybe I’d like orange and got this.

It’s still tasty, but I am just not getting all the things I love about oolong. It’s like they’re hidden behind the orange. It’s a bit more like orange spice than just orange though. Hopefully when it cools a bit more I can taste a bit more oolong! I feel like there’s just maybe a tiny bit of a floral flavor but I require more more more.

Special Thanks to Amanda for this one :)

This tastes like Wood, Blossom, Orange, and Spice.

This is pretty good! I’m always interested in trying TeaGschwender Teas and I haven’t had too many thus far!

The color of this is nice…a gentle brown with orange hue!

I’m liking this one more and more as it has a chance to cool at room temp for just a few moments – More citrus shines thru :)

It’s tart, but it tastes more like it’s yogurt tart instead of rhubarb tart. It’s kind of weird, coming from a tea. (Probably like DavidsTea lime gelato, I’ll have to try a cold brew of it.)

I thought this smelled awesome but I’m not so sure about it. Something just smells weird about it now and I’m like second guessing taking a sip. Maybe there’s a reason you don’t see rhubarb yogurt in the grocery store?

On the plus side, I don’t think it’s got that rooibos-y taste. It’s creamy and tart, but the rhubarb seems more like a vague mixture of fruits. I’m having a hard time figuring it out.

If anyone wants some of this, I’d gladly share. I don’t think I can make it through 100g of it alone.

Now this is a chocolate tea. As soon as I smelled this tea, I knew I was getting some, especially since it was only $6.80 for 100g.

It smells very much like chocolate, and just a bit fruity. It actually tastes like chocolate, and the raspberry isn’t artificial or overpowering. It tastes just like raspberry chocolate…just a bit of juicy raspberry followed by smooth chocolate. This was a good choice.

I almost feel like I’m drinking hot chocolate instead of tea!

This is a very straightforward black tea. Nothing to write home about. However, it smells wonderful before steeping - very rich and fruity (like raspberries). After the steep, the scent is much milder. It reminds me a lot of sweet oranges, which is nice. This fruitiness subtly carries over into the undertones and aftertaste of this tea…and I do mean subtly. Overall, this tea is ok as a light compliment to breakfast. I wouldn’t reach for it any other time though.

TeaG’s signature Earl Grey- the most popular tea in their Chicago shop, they told us back when we lived in Chicagoland. I must admit it’s just about the perfect winter afternoon drink, and now that we live in Houston I’m missing the excuse to indulge in these. This is so smooth that the black tea doesn’t create that awful dry mouth astringency delivered by some black teas/earl greys. I’d actually say this is just about the perfect Earl Grey and I don’t think I’ve tasted a better one, even at Tea G’s Earl Grey tea tasting event in Chicago. Thankfully Tea G does mail-order on some of its items.

A nice splash of soy milk makes me happy.