307 Tasting Notes
Today I brewed a bit thermos of this for a rock climbing/hiking adventure! This is always a good thermos tea for me. 1tsp in 20oz @ 205F, 2.5min. Afterwards we went to a Japanese garden park and there was a tea plant area! Thus I got to drink tea while looking at tea plants. hehe. It was very peaceful.
I’m not sure if that’s sadistic or not, like eating eggs while watching chickens.
From the Holiday TTB
I definitely get the spices, and although I could SEE the orange, the scent/flavor didn’t translate for me, unfortunately, and that could have made it REALLY like cider. I associate cider with warm spicy sweet tartness, and while this tea delivered on the spice (although not overwhelmingly, thankfully), it didn’t quite hit those other two notes for me. That’s not to say that this isn’t a lovely tea on it’s own! The green tea is buttery and green and I think was a nice choice as a black tea would have been a bit too heavy. Maybe the cup I had just wasn’t well balanced. It’s not very spicy like a chai, but it is still a nice spiced green tea.
From the Holiday TTB
Another Hawaiian special from Lupicia. You can SMELL the fruit and the ginger and the dry leaf, but unfortunately that didn’t translate to the steeped liquor. I was hoping it would be a fruity spicy tea, but the taste is much more like a typical breakfast blend. At least there’s little to no astringency, and only a little dryness. It wouldn’t be a bad daily drinker for those into breakfast blends, if you’re into that kind of thing (I’m not, it’s not a thing I crave)… that is if you can get a hold of it.
From the Holiday TTB
I didn’t think I’d get a chance to try the Hawaiian exclusives from Lupicia so this was the first one I decided to try. It’s a fruity black tea, but the fruit flavors are a little muddled, even more so as it cools down. It’s quite dark too, in a coffee kind of way. I guess it reminds me of a fruity coffee? With a slight hit of malt towards the end of the sip. It’s an interesting tea, but not something that tickles my senses overly much. I’m glad I got to try it though.
Preparation
One of my friends brought me some of the tea her parents brought her from China. Little jasmine green tea pearls, they’re quite adorable. I don’t have a vendor name or anything though. They’re quite tiny actually, and unfurl into little strands. The taste is not as jasminey as what I would have assumed from the scent, but it’s not that bad. This type of tea makes be want to drag out my big ceramic teapot though.
From the Green/Matcha TTB
This is a white tea? Huh, I probably overbrewed this then, but even if I did the tea is not bad. The coconut lends a slight creaminess rather than a nuttiness to the tea. The base is rather light, which considering it is a white tea, makes sense. I don’t have too much experience with white teas, so I can’t judge. Let this cool a bit before drinking it, it has a short of weird tangy sour note when it’s still hot, like sour yogurt, but that mostly goes away when the tea has cooled.
From the Green tea/Matcha TTB
From the style of packaging, this is from when 52teas was under old management (Frank). I think the changed happened a year ago now, but the flavoring in this tea has held up well.
I was afraid it would be too strongly minty, because it’s too cold for that! But the mint was a nice mellow spearmint, and the marshmallow root lends a touch of sweetness and creaminess to round it out. The base green tea is unfortunately, unremarkable.
It was a nice cup, like a creamier version of a mellowed out Moroccan mint tea. I would order this in my next order at 52teas if I remember.
The official take over happened June 1st of this year. :)
Ohh! Happy 6 months then!
I feel like the transition to the smaller taster size packets happened fairly recently, but I don’t know if that was under Frank or not. This was in the old 2oz packaging with the clear front.
Thanks! Yes, Frank started the smaller 1/2 ounce size and I started calling them tasters because that’s always what I’ve felt I was when it comes to teas – sure I have my favorites but I am very much a taster, wanting just a little bit of this and a little bit of that for the most part – enough to taste it and enjoy it but not really enough to stock it. When I took over, I kept the taster size and I also brought back a larger size which is usually 2 ounces – because there are people who feel like to purchase just 1/2 ounce of any tea is kind of a waste so I have two sizes now. :)
I should say … Frank started the smaller 1/2 ounce size about a year and a half ago.
Hot Kumquat Honey tea from Quickly’s
I’m still sick, but a different sick from last week. Tis the season I suppose. Any artificial citrus today has tasted/smelt distinctly perfumey. For example I had lemon pepper on something today, and it was not pleasant, lol. I thought I was safe with this as I’ve had it before (and I actually ordered it before the lemon pepper incident), and it is usually more honey than kumquat, but alas I was not. So it tastes of honey, Kumquat and Perfume. It’s not as bad though if I dilute it down some more, like 1 part to 2 parts water… Note though that this tea is still normally very nice and if you’re near a Quickly’s location and don’t want milk tea, this is what I usually get.
That sounds like a lovely place! Where is this park?
=D Hakone Japanese Garden in Los Gatos, CA. I HIGHLY recommend the hiking in Castle Rock park, which is up the hill.