ZenTea

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50
drank Green/White Jasmine Lemon by ZenTea
1145 tasting notes

Sipdown! Many thanks to my friend rashad for the sample.

This has sort of a floral, citrusy smell, which is about what you’d expect from a Jasmine Lemon tea. The flavor is heavier on the citrus than the floral. It tastes like lemon tea with a flowery undertone. And it is flowery – not distinctly jasmine. That might have something to do with the fact that there are a lot of other flowers in the mix. What are rose petals and lilac doing in a jasmine tea?

Overall, this is acceptable but utterly mediocre. Finished the cup, glad I tried it, not going to miss it.

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71
drank Russian Spice by ZenTea
46 tasting notes
I’ve begun to really enjoy this tea as a staple tea to have with my breakfast. The spice is pleasant, and the flavor has enough body that it stands up well to a hefty eggs and bacon breakfast.
Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 3 min, 0 sec

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71
drank Russian Spice by ZenTea
46 tasting notes

I bought this on a whim after a rough day at work. It smells quite spicy and I wasn’t sure I’d really want to drink it straight. I bought it assuming it would make a lovely Saturday morning latte. However, on principle, I brewed it in just water the first time and drank it with no additives, and I really enjoyed it!

Usually, when I have a really spicy-smelling tea like this one, I find that the spice overpowers the tea, and it ends up tasting weak and like spicy water. This tea, on the other hand, was almost just perfect! It was full-bodied with the tiniest hint of sweetness, which I’m assuming is coming from the orange peels, and balanced by the spiciness of the cloves and ginger. The aftertaste is just a light spicy on the back of my tongue. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this tea.

Preparation
Boiling 4 min, 0 sec

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88
drank Belgian Chocolate Rooibos by ZenTea
1145 tasting notes

Chocolate! This actually has chocolate chips in it, which is a bit gimmicky but I like it. The color is definitely chocolate-y, and it smells like dark chocolate. Tastes chocolate-y too. Kind of like thin hot cocoa. I don’t know whether it’s really this good or I’m just projecting my desire for a good chocolate tea. Either way, yum!

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drank Jasmine Dragon Pearl by ZenTea
1598 tasting notes

Note to self/others: do not cold steep in the fridge. Or, if you do, don’t use many pearls.

This is undrinkable.

OMGsrsly

Tastes like soap? :)

Ozli

Hahaha good to know as I love this tea and probably would have tried it cold eventually… :D

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Ok, so I just went outside with a flashlight and picked a whole bunch of honeysuckle for use in tea blends. I’m having this amber oolong with honeysuckle and it’s awesome!!

Stephanie

How did you incorporate the honeysuckle? Love this idea!

My Friend Rashad

You can dry honeysuckle and add them to blends, but what I did for this one was I actually steeped the oolong first, removed the leaves then steeped the honeysuckle separate because it needed a different steep time.

Stephanie

Nice! I love the scent/taste of honeysuckle but have never tried using any of it like this. Exciting!

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So the other day I used the rest of the sample in the TTB-A to make a cold brew of this, & then promptly forgot all about it. I think that was on Friday. I’m drinking it now, with a little stevia, & admittedly, it’s delicious! Very refreshing, kind of like koolaid for adults. It doesn’t really taste like wine to me, but that’s a good thing! :D

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No 8 from TTB

I probably should have waited to drink this, as my sinus are still irritated from the momoko.
I’ve never had iced wine, never even heard of it until I joined Steepster, LOL. Of course, I gave up alcohol (& other substances) 29 years ago, so things that are suppose to taste like wine mean nothing to me.
However, I suspect that this will be really good as a cold brew. I think there’s enough in the sample to try it that way, so why not?
NEXT!

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drank Finest Gyokuro by ZenTea
3219 tasting notes

I saved the leaves yesterday and made a third steep to go with lunch today. The spinach flavor is seriously dialed back but it was still a good cup of tea. I miss the creamed spinach richness of yesterday, though.

Fuzzy_Peachkin

ooh! Spinach? That sounds awesome!

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drank Finest Gyokuro by ZenTea
3219 tasting notes

This came as a sample with the matcha I ordered from ZenTea. I understand there is more than one company by this name. To clarify, this is the company in Canada whose site is ZenTeaLife.

I am having some of the Asian buffet leftovers for lunch and wanted a good green to go with it. I am delighted that I spotted this in my free sample and swaps box. I will get to do a sample SIPDOWN, which isn’t as exciting as for some of you because I don’t put samples in my cupboard, but is still exciting because I have reduced the embarrassing large amount of tea I own by one so I feel a little better about myself. Ha!

The color reminds me of the organic unfiltered olive oil I buy. The leaves in the sample pack are a good size but lots of teeny tiny bits escaped into my cup. It didn’t matter – it didn’t make it bitter. I have made two steeps so far and the second is as good as the first and just as flavorful.

My main thought as I drink this is that if I were chewing, I would know for certain that I was eating creamed spinach. I really like creamed spinach, by the way. So I thoroughly enjoyed both cups of tea and am glad to try my second gyokuro ever. Now I know what to buy for that rich, creamy spinach taste.

Thank you, ZenTeaLife for the sample!

Stephanie

Mmmm gyokuro! Nice sample to get :)

Barbara

Hmmm, have been eying gyokuro for some time now, but don’t think I’ll be trying it anytime soon if it tastes like creamed spinach I like creamed spinach, but with dinner (some potato’s and a piece of meat), not in my tea…. I think …

Stephanie

Do you like other japanese greens like sencha Barbara? If you like sencha you might enjoy it :)

ashmanra

I agree, if you like Sencha, you would love gyokuro!

Barbara

Yes I do like Sencha, at least in the summers… Thanks for your comments. I’ll be trying gyokuro some time after all. :-)

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I like this much more now. After a couple rinses you can taste the puerh much more and the toffee calms down a bit. Add a little bit of agave nectar and we’re in business.

Preparation
200 °F / 93 °C

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I’m actually having this right now blended with Classic Chai from Teajo and Breakfast Blend from MarketSpice. I don’t think I could handle it on it’s own. The puerh base is fabulous but the caramel flavor is too artificial tasting for me. In this blend, however, it works phenomenally. Especially with a tiny bit of local honey.

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Thanks to Amanda and the Traveling Tea Box for this! MustTryAllTheTeas! And I have a strategy! Okay then, chocolate rooibos here we go! Been awhile since I’ve had a rooibos and boy is that liquor ever orange! It also smells quite nice, not chocolately, no, more like warm honey and something a bit floral.

There’s that familar taste, but better than I’ve had before. There is a tinge of tobacco yes, but its smooth and non-abrasive. At first I didn’t get the chocolate on this but as I move my tongue between my lips, there it is, just like licking chocolate off my lips, only I didn’t eat any…

Very interesting. This tea is kinda sexy. And it does feel very Belgian chocolate, not dark chocolate, its creamy and warm and yes I think I’m going to have to stop there lest this note get more racy! Definitely better than Teavana’s Cocoa Praline Tart. Oh and this one is toddler approved!

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drank Black/Green Exotic Fruit by ZenTea
1220 tasting notes

Oops. I wish I had known there was almond flavor in this before I made it. I’ll at least give it a shot but I don’t know what it is about almond flavoring in tea that I just can’t stand. I love almonds by themselves, whatever else, but in tea I can’t stand the flavor.

In here it comes off a bit more like amaretto rather than the flavor I hated in DT’s Secret Weapon, but I still don’t like it. I wish I knew what these exotic fruits were, but such is what usually happens with ZenTea teas. The fruits are so exotic they are unknown. There’s orange, and there’s berry. Other than that I can’t specify even what berry. My first sip was almost raspberry, but raspberries aren’t very exotic.

Off to the swap list it goes too. Hopefully it can find a happy place to finish its life with someone who likes amaretto/marzipan flavors. For me it just sticks out way too much to be enjoyable. If it wasn’t for that, I’d enjoy this. I’m having it iced and other than that, it’s pretty good and refreshing.

Thanks for this, brandy3392

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Comparing to other flavored white teas I’ve gotten, this has some big fluffy leaves for being $2.50 an ounce (roughly). I cold steeped some earlier, just for a few hours, so the tea was overall light. I wanted that though, because I actually really am not sure I even like black currant. It’s the main berry in here, although I got a bit of blackberry too. Even with just a few hours it still had the lightness of the white tea. I think the longer it would steep, the more it would become straight berry.

I’m going to steep it longer, more like overnight, soon and also give it a try hot. It seems like a good tea to go either way.

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73
drank Russian Spice by ZenTea
2201 tasting notes

I got a small sample of this tea with my order from ZenTea, and I was pretty sure I’d want to drink it with milk and sugar because it smelled quite spicy. Actually I might not have had any issue with drinking this straight, but I decided I wanted to have this fairly Christmasy tea (cinnamon, clove and orange, which is standard Christmas-tea fare) with additions anyway.

The spice bend is pretty nice with both cinnamon and clove distinguishable and robust but without being overpowering. The orange isn’t super strong and instead just adds a light fruity note, which is fine because it keeps this tea as one focused on the spice, instead of one focused on the orange. The black tea base seems pleasant enough and it is certainly a major player in the flavor. Overall a pleasant spiced black tea and a nice holiday cup of tea.

Preparation
Boiling 5 min, 0 sec

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84

Sampled a little bit of this today – it was pretty good. Just a hint of black pepper taste – or perhaps – smoke? Very faint, tho, regardless.

Interesting thing happened to me on my lunch walk today. Got chased by a duck! Posted them on instagram. LOL

Ozli

oooh, what’s your instagram nick? (I am ozliotters, but I spam a lot.)

TeaLady441

Haha. That sounds crazy!

CHAroma

RUUUUUUUUNNN!!!!! I bought a pillow for my best friend once that read, “Raising children is like being pecked to death by a duck.” LOL! She has always had a thing for ducks and was having twin boys, so I thought it was appropriate. ;)

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77
drank Pouchong (Bao Zhong) by ZenTea
1629 tasting notes

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77
drank Pouchong (Bao Zhong) by ZenTea
1629 tasting notes

This is from Traveling Tea Box B. I finally got around to trying it out. I love oxidized oolongs. Actually, I love all kinds of oolong teas. This one was difficult to brew just because so many things were going on in my house. In the end, I brewed it for a minute and it was delicious! I wish I could have made several steepings out of this, but once Western style was enough. I love the dark cocoa/caramel tones in this tea mixed with sweetness. The brew was a honey gold color. Good tea overall! :)

Preparation
1 min, 0 sec

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drank Pouchong (Bao Zhong) by ZenTea
812 tasting notes

from Traveling Tea Box B
i love black oolongs. i’ve known this for a long time. i like green oolongs too. basically i like oolongs.
too bad i oversteeped it when a professor came in to talk to me about his running.
but i saved it’s yummy happy face of tea by adding more hot water.
all is right with the world.

TeaLady441

Nice save!

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95

Just getting ready for some of the great Oolongs that I have in the mail! This tightly rolled Taiwanese oolong has some of the savory notes of a dong ding but unfolds into the floral excellence that I love in a green high mountain oolong. Tangy and complex! Gonna sit with this one for a while.

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81
drank Gunpowder by ZenTea
76 tasting notes

Every gunpowder tea I’ve ever had has been basically the same thing. Pretty good, kinda smokey, savory. For some reason it reminds me of mushroom broth. Really dark brew for a green tea. Sediment at the bottom of my cup. It’s delicious but I keep getting this visual in my heard of some massive gunpowder factory in china that supplies all the world’s gunpowder with uniformity year-round.

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95

Days after I suffered the news that my beloved Jasmine Oolong had been discontinued by a certain “Place where tea goes when it dies” I may have found a worthy replacement.

I overlooked this tea a few times because, honestly, dry leaf smell is strong and overly floral. Very very feminine smelling, and I’m a dude I use tools to fix stuff. But on my last trip to ZenTea I decided to just go ahead and grab some. Holy Smokes! I’m glad I did!

The TGY base for this is fantastic. Take away the magnolia scent and it’s easily one of the best oolongs in the store. And contrary to what the dry leaf smell would have you believe it’s not at all over powered by the magnolia scent. The magnolia seems to highlight certain aspects of the TGY, I’m constantly getting a citrus note, and another thing that’s almost coconut but really just reminds me of suntan lotion. I know that sounds gross but I’m really enjoying this. There’s complexity here. I digs.

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83

Stopped by the local tea house and grabbed a few things. This Nilgiri from Tiger Hill is quite nice. It reminds me of a second flush Darjeeling with the fruitiness. It also has a woody, chestnutty character. When it cools it gets a chocolate note. I’m pleased.

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