The Tea Smith

Loose
Appearance: dark brown-black, crinkled leaf
Aroma when Dry: slight fruity notes hints of creamy maltyness
After water is first poured: slightly fruity, musty
At end of steep: faint fruity, malty
Tea liquor:
At end of steep: light muddy brown
Staple? Unsure, first tasting
Time of day preferred: afternoon, evening
Taste:
At first: balanced fruity maltyness
As it cools ? Gets slightly fruitier, tea deepens, notes layer
Additives used (milk, honey, sugar etc)? no
Lingers? Yes, with slight tang, fruity, faint metallic note

Second steep (8min)
Taste: notes flatten and weaken, tea smooths out a bit

The chocolate in this tea tastes great! I expected the star anise to clash with the chocolate but it really doesn’t. The anise is very mild- don’t buy this tea if you’re looking for a spicy blend, but it makes a delicious choice for a unique chocolate tea.

When I pulled this up to read the description, I saw Darjeeling in big letters and missed the white tea in little letters. So my first sips surprised me some…typical Darjeeling this isn’t.

Of course it isn’t, silly … it’s a white tea, and a fine one at that. Held up well to nearly-boiling water and a 3:30 steep time. Nice satiny feel on the tongue. Light on the flavor, but then again, I was light on the leaf, not realizing what variety I was making.

My thanks to Azzrian for the sample. Enough in the packet to add a little leaf and give this a more informed tasting.

(We’re 2 for 2 on Tea Smith varieties. Further investigation pending.)

Had a bit more of this today thanks to Azzrian
See previous notes :)

This smells heavenly—like blueberry pastry or blueberries and marshmallow. Which may be a clever trick or a sign of my own olfactory incompetence. Not a blueberry in it. Strawberries and lulo. I wouldn’t know a lulo if I stomped on it :)

But at any rate, this is a wonderfully sweet tea—berries drizzled with powdered sugar glaze. Belongs to the Tower of London/Marco Polo family of fruity goodness. My thanks to Azzrian!

Dang this is GOOD! I mean REALLY good! I have never had a white darjeeling before but there are notes of grape, peach, honey, and a very flavorful white tea leaf here. I am HIGHLY impressed and thank goodness I got 2 ounces as I would totally be ordering more of this stuff right away!
Delightful!
Nice lingering after taste.
I am not a huge fan of white teas but this has won me over!

What an interesting cup!
Sweet but its like the lulo sort of cuts it giving it an almost savory twang.
I need to focus on this more and will probably do a longer review for SororiTea Sisters but right now I just want to immerse myself in the cup.
I just had a really creamy sweet strawberry tea before this tea, and I was almost expecting this would be really sweet too but its not – yet it is – but its not – what the? LOL

Special Thanks to LiberTEAs for this one!

This is a nice, sweet run-of-the-mill-type honeybush. There isn’t anything overly exciting about it but it’s not bad either.

The sweetness makes it, for me.

No notes yet.

My first thought when I opened the bag was dried apples. Its that concentrated aroma that you smell on dehydrated apples. There is a bit of that apple flavor in a tea. It reminds me of a weak apple cider. It also has a natural sweetness to it which is nice. I like it and think next time I will add some cinnamon to keep the cider thing going.

Decided to start tasting my teas from my steepster select box, starting with this one (mostly because it’s 10:30 pm right now, and I think if I were to brew a cup of guayusa, I’d be up all night).

It’s tasty enough. But, it’s a plain, unflavored, rather boring honeybush. I’m glad it’s organic, as I find that organic tastes better than conventionally grown when it comes to rooibos and honeybush. And it’s … alright. But, I’d have been a much happier camper if it were a flavored honeybush. On it’s own, it’s got basically what I expect from honeybush. I light sweetness, nutty tones and woody notes. Tasty, but nothing all that exciting.

SPOILER ALERT FOR THE STEEPSTER SELECT BOX READ AT YOUR OWN RISK

After finishing that last tea I thought, “What the heck! Let’s try another!” I’m saving the guayusa for tomorrow morning (getting up at 5:45 five times a week really kicks your butt) so I decided to make this.

I’m going to maybe be the first to actually come out and say it (or at least the first that I’ve met here on Steepster): I Like Honeybush A Lot
I don’t think it tastes like honey like you would think, but I actually really do like the taste.

This is no exception to that! It’s pretty much just a generic honeybush. There’s a nice…… “dampness?!?!?!” to it and it has a good woody flavor, with a nice and natural sweet flavor that remains in your mouth. This is very nice and a good late night tea!

In short, this was disgusting. Mouth coating in a sickening, medicinal way. Sweet in an unpleasant, sickening way. Just, in general, sickening.

I felt like Marie Antoinette.

I believe this is the tea I’ve recently enjoyed as a part of this month’s installment of steepster select, however I don’t see any mention of it being Organic.

As I don’t see a non-organic version of this on here, I’ll assume this is the correct one.

This is a beautiful tea. I have previously only utilized honey bush to add a sweetness to my brisker black teas. I tend to blend them in with my morning tea, or add them into whatever I’m bringing in my travel mug to get me through the workday. They’re always the perfect accomplice, but I never before allowed it to be the star of the show. I was skeptical because I tend to go for full-bodied, complex teas. And while I have nothing against caffeine-free blends, I usually prefer rooibos, and don’t often go for herbals.

This changed all my ill-begotten misconceptions. This was exactly the full-bodied, multilayered tea I enjoy and appreciate. It was like a black tea, not syrupy or overly sweet, or watered-down and weak with a hint of honey on the finish, as I was expecting. An overall treat that was enjoyed for multiple infusions ranging from after dinner to later tonight. Hats off, once again, to steepster select for broadening my perception of tea.

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I wasn’t a huge fan of this. It smelled like chocolate- then at first it just tasted like a nice light black tea. But then all of the sudden the spiciness really hit the back of my throat and it was almost painful. I had 3 sips and then had to dump it out. I might try it again and steep for only 4 minutes and see how it is. I must admit, I ended up steeping a couple minutes longer than I should have because I got distracted…

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at first, I picked up a springy or lively black tea, not weighted down by its dark fermented flavors. The first cup was a wonderful refreshment.

As the tea began to continue steeping to a darker (but not OVERsteeped liquid) tea, the tea became an overload of tannins.

The tea was pleasant and refreshing, but I will keep it semi under-steeped for next time—- and there WILL be a next time because it was quite enjoyable!

Normally I absolutely love this tea but I felt like experimenting some tonight with another Rooibos (Market Spice Rooibos) that I like to see how the flavors would combine… unfortunately the flavor combated too much for my tastes. I could taste the mint but not really the chocolate in the beginning and it slowly gave way to the spices and the surprising pleasant aftertasteof mainly the MS, but overall not a fav.

Moderately astringent, high on body, yet light on mouth feel. The leaves are whole, large and very dark, but the brew is relatively light. If you are in the mood for a mild tea with lots of body this is your cup of tea.