cteresa

Well, yes and while I have had it before it does taste better on Easter day.

Happy Easter to all.

The tea itself is very MF, very refined. A hint of bergamot, almond ( the longer you steep it the strongest the note is), something floral, something spicy. Very lovely tea to share a pot on a spring holiday.

No notes yet.

I was right – this is awesome iced. Really awesome. I was not too crazy about it hot, but brewed a pot to chill and it is even better than I hoped. A totally different experience from the hot drink, chilled you get the balance between the green tea underneath, the sharpness of the mint and feel the bergamot just adding some oomph.

I did not brew it exactly right, I should have been much more generous with the tea quantity, it is a bit waterybut awesome.

Upping the rating on this a lot ;)

A tea bag sample kindly sent in a Harney order. I was not crazy about the other sample but this one, which did not seem too promising ( I usually like Chinese tea better than Japanese) is delicious, maybe my favorite of the lot, even better than what I had aqctually ordered (apart maybe from Queen Catherine). A nice simple sencha in a convenient tea bag format. Very nice. Staple-ish tea potential and to buy if/when I order from them again (transatlantic shipping costs being responsible for there being an IF).

A small note – I brewed this with about twice as much water as recommended (hmm, about .7l, enough for two mugs worth) and it was perfectly to my taste just like that – I did use mineral water though! Brewed a second steep and it held up to that as well. If you are making this, or using the loose leaf, might be worth experimenting with being less generous with tea quantity than advised, might work for you as well.

Well, this was a dud for me. I tried a teabag sample, and I love the teabags and the hermetical packaging of that sample, but this is just not for me.

I can only detect the “cinnamon” on the tea, not the tea and not the advertised cloves and orange. Just cinnamon in tea, not a good thing. And I got to admit, to myself foremost, that I am a cinnamon snob. I did not know such a thing existed, but apparently I am one. I used to dissociate the “chewing gum” cinnamon flavour from “real” (to me) cinnamon flavours. And then I found out the reason why, turns out chewing gum uses what is the prevalent “cinnamon” in the USA annd that is a whole different spice (cassia) than the stuff I call cinnamon. (Real cinnamon to me. Ok, wikipedia calls it ceylon cinnamon. It is different seriously). And besides the fact it fails the expectation and that anything flavoures too strongly with cassia will always remind of cinnamon chewing gum than “real” cinnamon, I got to admit that I do not like cassia much on its own, tastes sort of thin and aggressive to me.

This tea being just so one note, and that note being cassia (Not cinnamon! wish we could unleash the pedantism of the european comission on them), this tea was really not meant for me.

Smells sublime when dry, Marco Polo-ish almost. But steeped, just a cup and I am quite uncertain. I feel the bergamot putting it firmly with earlgrey-ish territory (and out of Marco polo territory) and a vanilla/caramel taste. Base tea has some oomph but maybe too much oomph, it is tasting astringent to me. This is just not working for me. Tap water today smelled horribly of bleach, that can not help, must try this with bottled water and shorter steeping time.

I thought I had already tried this! So curious about it, thought I had tried it and find the very generous sample Angrboda gave me unopened. I do have too many teas, it is now confirmed.

I am not too crazy about oolong normally. I do love raspberries though, and this red fruit oolong from a local tea seller works for me in a good way. In all good omens.

The tea did not disappoint – it smells incredibly strongly of raspberry, in a way that seemed a little bit artificially flavoured (but I am paranoid). But when infusing the taste is pure natural raspberry, a little bit tart which is just right for things with a raspberry taste. Lovely! Though I think I should have been more generous with the dosage or skimpier with the ammount of water – and this will definetely get multiple steeps just to see how it goes.

In my country we distinguish between the flavour/scent of almond and bitter almond. Bitter almond is not a depreciative, special trees are grown particularly for them (though bitter almonds do show up naturally in every batch). The bitter almond is the one with the strong smell and taste, sometimes you need a little of the bitterness to make the sweet better. Normal, sweet almonds are lovely, their skins usually holding almost all the flavour, but for that almond scent and a bit of bite, usually we need a little bit of bitter almonds to provide that. Nobody wants to have bitter almonds on their own,besides being bitter they are mouth numbing and I think poisonous as well, but they are needed.

All this to say, that bitter almonds are what we usually think of when we think of almond scents, sweet almonds being almost scentless. This tea is, to my taste, strongly scented with bitter almond. With I think some vanilla, cinnamon and coriander in the background, very subtly. The black tea is not wimpish but I got no clue what kind of tea it is, the almond is STRONG. I like it. Particularly with a little bit of milk. But do avoid if you do not like that bitter almond thing (or almonds in general).

PS – just to add, the tea I got does not at all look like the photo here on steepster. No blue (cornflowers?) flowers at all.

I think I got it right this time, not too hot water, plenty of tea, and not letting it oversteep. And it is very refreshing, strong mint, hint of bergamot to just amplify the mint. The tea, well not feeling the tea strongly.

Very nice if you like this sort of thing – right now, not quite my thing, but maybe I will like it better as I use the rest of the sample. Or when the weather gets hotter and refreshing will be more valued than right now. We shall see.

No notes yet.

This was a tea I just had to try based on name alone. A tea named after a Portuguese woman, a Lisbon neighbour so to speak, the woman responsible for some very cute unicorns (with lions) on occasional bits of the city (I got a weakness for those unicorns). And she liked her tea, so I do have a big fondness for her.

The fondness extends to the tea. This is such a chinese black tea, and that by my book is a very good thing and just my kind of tea. It reminds me a bit of Twinings´s Prince of Wales, the same sort of chestnutty taste, hint of smoke. But for proper taste note, must brew it a few more times and skip the milk. A very nice lady, this queen of England.

Hmm, now I have been kinder when brewing this, and it is indeed lovely. Very very strong, lovely gorgeous natural mango scent in the tea mixture. After brewed, the mango is much less overpowering, just this perfect balance of nice green tea with fruit, not too much fruit and not too little (for my taste). Lots of sunflower petals, not sure what they do to the taste (add texture?).

I did a second steep of this and it was a great idea. The wet leaves smell totally differently after the steep, like cut grass almost, almost a minty tone, and I got very curious about what a second steep would be like. Maybe because I used hotter water and left the tea for longer, it was more mango-ish. The tea also tasted greener, though not the minty-grassy tones the leaves smelled of! Just lovely, at both steeps.

Note: I was checking description right now and it says a chinese green tea base. My original package was from a couple years ago and I remember it, or possibly misremember it, as being a sencha tea base. My new package which is just as awesome (or more) than I remember the old one being does not mention which tea base it is.

Interesting blend, I think particularly good for sencha lovers. The sencha is present, as well as a very noticeable apple. The cinnamon is just a hint, a smidgeon, and it feels right. The almonds, i will take on faith but could not detect. The apple taste is real life, sweet, dried apple taste (from you know, real dried apple pieces aplenty in the tea mix) though maybe I am peasant enough that I was expecting something else, a sharper (i.e artificial) apple flavor. The sencha is IMO absolutely lovely, large, beautifuly unfolding, so buttery. A very smooth, creamy green tea blend.

Weirdly enough, trying this what it makes me really want to buy is their unflavored sencha, since it is the sencha which seems really awesome here. I want to try it on its own now.

I don´t know. My first cup of this, and it´s good, it seems like it might be awesome iced with fruits on it, but maybe it is not going to be my cup of tea. We shall see!

I have been bad, way bad, I was very kindly offered a very generous sample of it (obrigada, T!), and it smelled so heavenly I brew it whichever way the moment I walked through the door at home. Boiling water, and rather uncontrolled steeping time, it deserved better this tea. Even treated so shabbily it forgave me, it is wonderful even without due care.

A gift from Angrboda, thank you so much and it is fascinating, this is so not like my usual Lapsang Souchongs (do not know how to pluralize that). That is not a bad thing, and it makes it extra interesting.

First this LS is sort of a tough guy with a marshmallow centre. It smells very very smoky, very piney (unlike my usual ones, which btw are Twinings and Mariage Frères Imperial LS), very dude. The scent of the brewed tea is much milder, much drier, almost herbal. And the smoke taste is nearly gone on the palate, it tastes sweet, a bit fruity maybe, maybe a tiny bit astringent (or I steeped it too long, a possibility. Though I do personally like this level of astringency), maybe pomegranate-ish? Dunno. This is sort of a puzzle, but I am sure going to enjoy the rest of my sample of this!

This smells absolutely wonderful – and I realized one thing. I opened the packaging ( I am totally envious of the little ziploc foil packets Angrboda sent this in) and my first impression was that this smelled “american”. American not having any value associations, I just smelled it and thought it. And then realized why, it´s the cranberries! Cranberry and a hint of vanilla, it is a smell and flavour I associate with the USA. Though not particularly with late summer, but maybe because cranberries for me are so exotic and rare and not associated with any particular season. It is a a very good late winter tea as well!

And it works, it really works here. Very nice tea. Reminded me a bit of a black version of Thé à l´Opéra. Very nice base as well.

This was part from a wonderful surprise from Angrboda, thank you!

I do not have a good history with Lipton teas. Me and those, we are not destined to be friends. But this “lemon balm” tea is maybe the lowest point in our history just yet.

Some context: cidreira, or lemon balm or melissa officinalis (or something like that, but you know, with spelling) is a plant whose infusions are really popular in Portugal. Like mint, or chamomile, or linden, lemonbalm tea is one of those standard herbal infusions. With good reason, I do not know why this seems unknown worldwide, this is light, delicate, just a very very nice herbal tea.

You can usually buy it pretty cheap from several brands and supermarkets. Lipton is probably the priciest brand, fancy pyramid bags and big stands on supermarkets. Considering my history with Lipton i had never had this infusion yet, but just had it and they managed to spoil it. They added chicory (!) to a light lemony-minty herb. 10% chicory. It tastes muddy. It tastes like chicory overwhelming the poor lemon balm. It´s awful. Chicory and lemon balm, they add nothing to each other. WHY? WHY do this? I truly do not get it.

Resumo em Português:
isto não é chá de cidreira nem deveria poder ser chamado chá de cidreira. É uma mistura de cidreira com chicória. Chicória, que vai muito bem com café mas nada bem com cidreira. Chicória, que adiciona qualidades a certas infusões, mas que na minha opinião, não tem nada de nada a ver com cidreira. Achei esta mistela intragável, especialmente para o preço que cobram. Lipton, porquê esta porcaria?

No notes yet.

No notes yet.

Confession : this is about the teabags. They had no tin of this in stock and I wanted and wanted it now, so the teabags. Muslin teabags in a gold foil box, probably wrapped up by french ladies wearing Chanel couture. Hmph. Yes, it´s like that.

But giving it to them, the teabags are gloriously well filled. The box is 30 teabags, each with 2.5 grams, for a total of 75 grams of tea, unlike most teabags box which have 40, 30 grams of tea usually. These are generously proportioned teabags. They are not skimping on tea here. They are not skimping on the quality of the base tea or anything else. No gimmicky stuff for all the preciousness, there is substance. It costs what it costs, but gosh, I do believe they do care about their tea.

And it´s just lovely. Silky smooth green tea, and red fruits (raspberry? strawberry? cherry?) and vanilla. And a really nice green tea underneath.

I am doing several one cup steeps with each teabag (seriously, it´s a crime to throw one of these tea bags away after just one steep. And good chinese green tea is not at its best on first steep, it is more sublime at the second or third time. seriously. Though maybe my palate is just weird that way, but seriously, do not throw good chinese tea away after one dip. ) and like the best chinese green teas, it can hold up to a number of steeps. The best IMO is the second steep.

This is just my cup of tea. I am infatuated. It is as silky and smooth a lapsang souchong as I hoped.

No real taste notes quite yet, I let it cool to much before drinking, which is not totally fair. But if you love lapsang souchong, this one is something indeed. (If you do not like lapsang souchong, you are not worthy of this one, put it down)

This is an old love, a few years ago i was wildly infatuated with this blend. And it is still lovely, it still tastes the same, but my affections for this thing (caramel, chocolate, black tea) seem to have been unfairly alienated by Yumchaa´s Caramel Sweetheart (milk mandatory). Maybe unfairly, because Caramel Sweetheart is denser, less just-tea, but maybe irrevocably. Lovely caramel tea, but an ex-love.

I dunno. I was trying a sample which had been sitting oxidizing for days (till i felt like trying it) from a tin opened maybe 2 years ago (?more?). It´s not a fair trial. Keep that in mind. But since there seems to be very little about this tea that i can find on google, here goes my 2 cents.

Official description mentions hazelnut and vanilla and citrus. I spotted the citrus, bergamot-ish indeed to my nose, vanilla yeah now that you mention it, but I did not get any hazelnut (old tea, remember. a fresh tin might be another matter). It seems like it has some Darjeeling on it. And it reminds me a bit (bergamot, vanilla) of Thé au Tibet. But it really is not fresh tea so it is unfair to compare.