Teavana

Cold brewed this blend last night. Bought it in store the other day. They were selling it as an iced tea blend. It is pretty tasty. The stronger taste is from the strawberry lemonade herbal tea. The black tea is clearly in the background. It is quite tasty. I bought it specifically to make it into cold brewed iced tea.

Steeped this over night in a 32oz Lupica Handy cooler with 4 tsp leaf.

Bought this on sale at Teavana.com last week. It is fairly tasty but not spectacular. It’s main note is malt as well as something else that I’m not sure what it is, a positive note. This falls into the category of tea good enough to finish but not good enough to buy more. It is fairly tasty but not in any way spectacular.

I brewed this one time in a 16oz Teavana Glass Perfect Tea Maker/Gravity Steeper with 3 tsp leaf and 200 degree water for 3 min.

I tried this as a sample and it was quite good. It tasted fruity with a sour quick at the end. I’m not sure I could have a whole bunch of this tea at one sitting though-will have to buy some and test out my theory lol

Well there you go…I’ve gone and cheated on DAVIDSTEA. I went to one of the malls in Calgary and they had a TEAVANA store and they had 5 tea samples. I just had to try them and I fell in love with this tea. It is the best smelling tea in the world so far and it tastes wonderful too-like pineapples and blueberries. Very refreshing. It is my new guilty pleasure lol

This is a seriously overpriced tea. I only bought two ounces because Teavana was running a good sale, $25 off $60. I split my order in half and got $50 off. This tea cost $30 for 2 oz. It is probably the most I have spent on a black tea. As to the tea it is admittedly quite good. It’s got notes of malt with chocolate undertones to it. It has a strong chocolate taste. I figure Teavana teas are made for western brewing and I was in a hurry so I western brewed it. Just out of curiosity I will have to gongfu this tea sometime soon. Usually I am not fond of Teavana’s straight teas but this is a superior tea. In my opinion it wasn’t actually worth the price though. If it hadn’t been for the sale I would probably never have bought this. I am enjoying it more than just about any tea I have had from Teavana.

I brewed this one time in a Teavana Glass Perfect Tea Maker/Gravity Steeper with 3 tsp leaf and 200 degree water for 3 minutes. My recommendation of this tea is sort of conditional, it is definitely worth drinking, it’s just not worth the price that Teavana charges. It’s one of the best black teas I have had western brewed certainly.

I bought the iced tea tea bags from Starbucks for this tea. Normally I don’t like a huge amount of hibiscus in my tea but this one is actually really good. It is tart and tangy and fruity and refreshing. I really like this. I get a hint of the cinnamon but mostly what I taste is that hibiscus. This is an excellent herbal iced tea. I will repurchase this.

Okay, didn’t have the BEST experience in Teavana today. I’m told they’ve demolished that upselling/overselling tactic, but it still occurred, and he either ignored me or didn’t hear my meek little protest, and I ended up with more tea than I wanted. It sounded like the manager told him off for it though when I left…

But in the end, I’m not complaining because I’m liking this tea so far. He said it finished with caramel, and he wasn’t wrong; it’s a sweet, even-bodied tea that starts with honey and finishes with toasted honey/caramel. It’s bright, sweet, slightly nutty, not brisk, no astringency (granted I took the packages’ recommendation for three minutes to steep). I really have gotten worse at describing teas. This is a very mellow, sweet tea though. It reminds me of some Taiwanese honey blacks—specifically the one Davidstea offered for a short time. That one had a bit of smoke on it though, which was odd. I’ll play around with the steep times for this one in the future, though, since I do have a lot to experiment with.

Teavana has been ushering in a number of single-origin (or country/region specific blends, at least) teas lately, under their ‘Micro Lot’ tab. If their Taiwanese honey wasn’t $30 I would have tried that, although the curled, small leaf makes me think it would be quite similar to Davids’.

Just finishing off Harler’s second handbook, Tea Manufacture, and will be posting a review of it soon on teatra.de, with some comparisons to Werkhoven’s Tea Processing. General “Tea Guides/Handbooks” only offer a summarized view of tea processing and manufacturing techniques, so if you’re interested in processing in India and Sri Lanka, with some brief looks at other areas such as Georgia, I’d pick it up, as well as Harler’s other tea books.

So for this tasting note I am doing a 1 to 5 scale. 1 being horrible and 5 being amazing! I will analyze before and after cupping.

Before Cupping:
Appearance: Freshly grounded. Smells amazing! Loose leaf tea. Clearly brilliant colors no off colors expected. Can clearly see/smell the chocolate and marshmallows – 5
Aroma: Oolong Tea, Cocoa, Chocolate, Marshmallow, Roasted Mate, can’t really smell the rest of the amazing ingredients – 3
Body: No comment – NA
Taste: No comment – NA
Finish: No comment – NA

Overall, before cupping, the tea smells amazing and makes my mouth water. Wonderful aroma of chocolate, roasted mate, and marshmallow. It’s a bit disappointing that I can’t smell the rest of the ingredients.

Overall Score BEFORE CUPPING: 8/10 80% B

After Cupping:
Appearance: No defined line, mixing or blending properly with Belgian Rock Sugar, not cloudy, wonderful earthy colored tone, has a wonderful coffee brown color to it, not real light like most oolong teas. However, I LOVE IT! – 4
Aroma: Interesting! Smells just like before cupping! Yummy! Smells are more defined. Really smell the chocolate and marshmallow with a hint of smokey mate or ginger almost. – 4
Body: Smooth, silky, spicy, wonderful balance! Activated my sweet taste buds as well as my spicy buds. Really spicy and smokey, was not expecting it, which I love! Can really taste the chocolate and marshmallow. However, there’s something else, something spicy, almost like cinnamon maybe? – 4
Taste: It’s wonderful. NOTHING is NOT over powered by the amazing ingredients! Everything is equally balanced. Sweet and spicy. Yummy hint of some spices mixed with the marshmallow in the after taste. I can definitely taste the marshmallow and white/cocoa chocolate – 5
Finish: TASTE LINGERS! THANK YOU JESUS! Nice and smooth and leaves me wanting to drink more! Love how I can taste the spices in the after taste that lingers! Can really taste the vanilla as well as the chocolate and marshmallow – 5

Overall after cupping this tea is inviting, malty, smokey, spicy, and warming. It reminds me of sitting around a camp fire with some mates just talking some shit and enjoying each others company. Wonderful tea to drink when it’s cold out! Love this tea and highly recommend it! WONDERFUL! Was really surprising! Did not think I was going to love this tea, but I love it! WOW!

Overall score: 22/25 88% B+

Combined score before and after cupping: 30/35 86% B

This is pretty good. I seem to like most of these sweet, nutty blends. I think I prefer it as a latte, but it’s not bad on its own either.