This is a great tea. Smooth, caramel flavor, with a sweet aroma and a golden color. The leaves are high quality, and it shows in the resulting drink, which doesn’t need any sweeteners or other additions to make this one amazing cup.
104 Tasting Notes
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Guess I should have read the instructions on this one first, because I think I over-steeped it. The leaves smell very mossy, with a ‘fishtank’ smell that others have mentioned. The tea itself brews up a deep, dark brown color, with a wood/moss/earth aroma. The flavor is actually pretty mellow, with moss and earth dominating the first steep. Will need to re-steep and see what happens…
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I finished my sample size tin today, so thought I’d log my last impressions.
I enjoy this tea, though it doesn’t have any outstanding qualities that set it apart from other teas. It has a nice golden color, smooth taste and pleasant aroma, though ‘mellow’ is probably the best word to describe the experience.
If you’re looking for a solid, no-nonsense tea that you can enjoy any time of the day, this is it. If you want something that demands respect and grabs hold of your taste buds with a parade of flavor, you’re going to need to look elsewhere.
Killed this tin today, so this will be a fond farewell.
Apparently I have quite the sweet-tooth, because I LOVE this tea! It’s mostly sweet with a little sour, and tastes like an Apple Jolly Rancher. If you’re looking for something to snap you out of a funk, or just don’t want a typical tea flavor, then grab some of this and enjoy, because it’s as close to candy in a glass as you’re going to get.
Plus, it’s easy to steep because you can’t really over-steep it (more time just makes it even sweeter) and it doesn’t need any sugar or other additions, so it’s the perfect cup to make when you’re not looking to keep a close eye on a picky pot.
In sum: I’m definitely sad to see this one go!
Finished off this tin today, so I wanted to log my parting thoughts:
I really like this tea. It brews a deep, dark brown color, and has a rich and smokey aroma/flavor that demands your attention. That said, it’s not bitter or sharp, so you can really sip it and enjoy it without adding anything to it. (The way I prefer my teas.)
Plus, it’s fun to watch the tea unfold and unravel, and you get some odd looks when you’re prepping a pot of tea that just includes a few marble sized balls of leaves.
All in all, a winner in my book.
I’m a big fan of this chai. It has a wonderful sweetness to the flavor, a pleasant aroma, and the leaves have a sweet/spicy smell that is really inviting.
I woke up this morning with a sore throat from yelling at last night’s San Fran Giants game, so I was looking for something soothing that wouldn’t be too strong or potent. Thankfully, this Dragonwell hit the spot, as it has a nice mix of mellow ‘vegetal’ flavor and minerality.
The leaves always surprise me a bit, since they’re so flat and dry, but they do their fair share of expanding when you steep them, and fill up the teapot nicely. The color of the tea is a really light yellow, which looks less flavorful than the tea actually tastes.
All in all, a good choice for a sore throat morning.
Welcome back, Golden Monkey! You’re still a little more bitter than I’d prefer, but that’s probably due to your high caffeine content, so I’ll let it go. This time.
You’re also a little more flavorful than I remember, which is a good thing. You’ve got a well rounded flavor that’s enhanced by a pleasant aroma, which makes me wonder if I didn’t steep you properly the last time we met?
Either way, I’m happy to get to know you again, and look forward to our next encounter.
It’s not the most exciting description in the world, but this is just a GOOD black tea. It’s simple, but the flavors are distinct and enjoyable, and there’s a subtle sweetness that rounds out the experience nicely. There’s also just a hint of bitterness that grabs at the edges of your tongue, but it doesn’t linger long, and reminds you that the tea is there and doing its thing.
The leaves themselves actually don’t have a strong aroma, though the steeped tea has a simple smokey/woodsy smell that’s pleasant, though very light. As such, the taste is a bit of a surprise, since the aroma would have you believe that this is going to be a very mild tea, but it does pack a little punch.
All in all, a very enjoyable tea that should be on any black tea fan’s list.
This is a tea with a spicy kick that will catch you by surprise if you’re not ready for it! The aroma is a pleasant mix of chocolate and spice, and the color is a golden brown that gives no indication of the spiciness within. Even when you take a sip, you can actually hold it in your mouth and not really get the spice that awaits. Take your first swallow however, and it catches the back of your throat with a peppery burn that spreads to the sides of your mouth, and makes you remember what the main ingredients in this tea really are. Thankfully the burn only lingers for a moment, and you’re left with a general spiciness that’s enjoyable, though this is by no means a tea for fans of smooth, easy to drink flavors!
Though I had a cup from a friend’s pot that had been sitting for a few minutes, this was still a very enjoyable tea with a nice popcorn accent and a strong green tea flavor that worked well together.
It’s the type of tea that you can enjoy at any time, because the flavor is smooth and mellow, but there’s enough complexity to keep you interested.
So I brought the water temp down and lengthened the steep time a bit and all I can say is WOW! It’s like a whole new tea. With just those few small changes, this has gone from ho-hum tea to the apple tea that I would create if I had the skill to.
The apple flavor is crisp but not overwhelming, with just a touch of sourness to bite your tongue. It also has a pleasant sweetness that’s not too sugary, and a spicy aroma that’s inviting and invigorating.
In short: When made correctly, this tea is a winner!
Let me just start by saying: This tea’s leaves smell AMAZING!! The coconut aroma is incredibly strong, and the hints of vanilla work really well together.
Thankfully the tea’s taste lives up to the expectation that the aroma sets, because this is a tea that aims to please. The coconut flavor has a unique sweetness that’s almost like caramel, and the vanilla adds just a hint of flavor to the experience.
This one’s a winner, and I’m looking forward to the next cup!
I was really hesitant to try this tea, since chocolate is usually a difficult flavor to get right in a drink, and the leaves have a spicy, almost cinnamon like aroma to them which brought back memories of the shock that you get when you first taste bitter baking chocolate and expect it to be like the sweet chocolate that you normally eat.
HOWEVER, I was actually (and pleasantly) surprised by how this tea came out, as the chocolate mellows out into a subtle accent, with just a hint of the bitterness coming through that does well to balance the flavor of the chai itself. The aroma does tend to be on the bitter side of the chocolate spectrum, but it’s enjoyable when mixed with the aroma of the chai, and creates a really nice, spicy note that accents the flavor.
This steeping had a little more bitterness than the last did, but I actually liked the change, since it took away some of the sweetness that made the last cup just taste like Froot Loops. This cup had a much stronger, flowery aroma, and hints of flower carried through to the flavor as well, which were accentuated by a bite of citrus in the aftertaste.
This is such an easy tea to reach for when you’re in the mood for an easy to enjoy experience. Smooth flavor, a little hint of sweetness and just a touch of smokey accents mix together to form an impressive flavor that’s the perfect start to a cold winter morning.
I didn’t taste any of the vanilla flavor, but there’s no denying the mint! This tea is STRONG in the mint department, and has a wonderful aroma in the leaves that lasts through, and may even be stronger in, the final cup.
It’s also a smooth tea that goes down cleanly and doesn’t leave a lot of aftertaste. There’s a hint of mint that leaves you feeling clean and fresh, but it’s pleasant, and doesn’t overpower your taste buds like the aroma would lead you to believe.
All in all, this is a great tea for any mint lover, and a nice green tea to drink if you’re looking to become one.
I steeped this straight up, just like a regular tea (no milk, no sugar, no lengthened steep time, etc.) and I was pleasantly surprised by a well balanced tea that has a nice spicy kick to it without being overpowering or overly aggressive.
The aroma has a good amount of spice to it, though I’d say that the taste is stronger than the aroma would have you believe. The color is also fantastic, with the rich, golden/caramel color coming through from the rooibos.
The vanilla leads the flavor, with an initial sweetness that’s supplemented by the rooibos base. The spicy flavor hits you a moment later, with a bite on the sides of your tongue, and a woodsy spice towards the back of your mouth. The aftertaste is a peppery spice that lingers until the next sip, and really adds to the experience.
Overall, I would say that this is a really enjoyable tea, and one that I’m going to try different steeping methods with to see if I can bring out even more of the complex flavor.
The leaves of this tea smell FANTASTIC, with a wonderful spiciness to them that’s warm and inviting. Unfortunately, I think I steeped them in water that was too hot, because the spiciness didn’t transfer through to the flavor as much as I would have liked it to. Considering how good the leaves smell, I’m definitely going to be giving this one another shot soon, and will hold my judgment until then. (To be fair, the tin does say five minutes in boiling water.)
This tea is good, though I feel as if my palette isn’t refined enough to pick out specific details of each of the flavors. For me, it’s more of a slightly bitter black tea that has a fruity sweetness to it, and hints of chocolate in the aftertaste.
The leaves definitely look the part though, with large pieces of dried fruit mixed in, and a wonderfully chocolaty aroma.
The taste did expand a bit as the tea cooled, so I’m interested to see what happens with another few steeps using different water temps and steep times.
Today I’m getting hints of peach in the aroma (both of the leaves, and from the tea) as well as in the flavor. This is a very interesting tea, as it has a sweetness to it, but also a mossy/earthy flavor that balances that sweetness. The result is a complex flavor that unfolds with each sip, as well as while the tea cools. Good stuff!
I enjoyed this tea, though I was not wowed by it. The leaves have a great aroma to them, with a sweet vanilla smell that’s accented by a slightly smokey/woodsy smell.
The tea itself is smooth tasting, though a lot of the vanilla flavor is mellowed out by steeping. It’s still got a nice hint of sweetness, and the vanilla is definitely present, I just wish the flavor matched the aroma and was a little stronger.
