84

Yeah, I chose a bad time to brew up four new-to-me black teas from 52teas, since I brought them upstairs and promptly fell asleep for who knows how long. And I’m being a terrible grad student writing these notes up, because I have a TON of work to do on my poster, and am showing it to my advisor tomorrow… eeks! Anyways, this is another from CHAroma!

The aroma of this one is definitely mapley and good, and upon sniffing, I was brought to memories of maple syrup-laden pancakes, so there must be a pancake element in there that I’m also picking up (I’m not actually a pancake fan, so maple syrup doesn’t typically evoke such memories).

… I’m pretty impressed, to be honest. I’m getting enough maple to know it’s there (but nothing like Oh Canada! from DavidsTea, which is fine), and a bit of pancakiness, which I have NO idea how Frank did. And also? No real astringency. A pleasure to drink. I’m enjoying the base tea here, even though it’s not the fabulous new base everyone’s raving about. CHAroma – I’m not sure if you didn’t like this one or what, since you sent me the leftovers from your packet, but I’m kind of thrilled to have more than two cups of this one. I don’t think it’s one I’d buy, but I’m really enjoying it for what it is right now! And did I mention, this one’s also cold?? :P

Also, does anyone know if marigold petals/cornflower petals do anything other than make the dry tea pretty, and get hopelessly clogged in one’s infuser? I definitely love the look of them, and am just fine with them in blends in spite of the clogging thing, but I almost feel like I like (black) teas that contain them more than teas that don’t… but maybe that’s just coincidence.

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 3 min, 0 sec
momo

Well the marigolds definitely aren’t for scents or taste, I learned the hard way today that they smell vile. I wouldn’t want to eat them based on that smell.

Kittenna

I like the smell of marigolds! Summer memories. :P

momo

I’m wondering if there are ones that smell better because these sure don’t. I always wondered why no bees seemed to go near them and today I understood!

Kittenna

Oh, it’s a weird smell. Like petunias have a weird smell. My mom always plants a marigold border along the edge of the garden. Apparently they’re supposed to keep slugs away (although that was only a problem in our first few years in Saskatoon, IIRC).

tigress_al

Those petals sure do look pretty though. I thought they had something to do with flavoring. This is another blend by 52teas that I really wanna try!

Missy

I always thought they were there to hold the flavorings and make the tea look pretty.

Babble

I’ve been hearing good things about this blend. I’ll have to give it a try when I get a chance.

Also, grad students represent!!! What are you going to school for? I’m about to finish my masters in Library Science.

Kittenna

Nice! I’m in Plant Agriculture in genetics/breeding :D

CHAroma

HAHAHAHAAA!!!! You really made me laugh! First off, I love this tea. I just had a second bag of it in my cupboard. So, I decided to give you the tea in the original packaging instead of transferring it all to a ziplock. (I also added a bit more tea from the new bag to make sure you got good flavor and not old, bland leaves).

As for the marigold petals, they do actually contribute to the taste, just not in a big, overwhelming, hey-I’m-in-here! kind of way. So basically, that makes them the opposite of hibiscus. I had to try lots of different teas with marigold petals in them to really be able to pick that out apart from the other flavors. It’s hard for me to describe what it tastes like exactly, but it does contribute to the overall flavor of the tea.

Kittenna

Ahhh, I getcha :) Thanks for that! I’m all for sending tea in the original packaging to save on plastic bag waste, if it’s possible!

I’ll keep trying teas with marigold petals to see if I can pick out what flavour they contribute!

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Comments

momo

Well the marigolds definitely aren’t for scents or taste, I learned the hard way today that they smell vile. I wouldn’t want to eat them based on that smell.

Kittenna

I like the smell of marigolds! Summer memories. :P

momo

I’m wondering if there are ones that smell better because these sure don’t. I always wondered why no bees seemed to go near them and today I understood!

Kittenna

Oh, it’s a weird smell. Like petunias have a weird smell. My mom always plants a marigold border along the edge of the garden. Apparently they’re supposed to keep slugs away (although that was only a problem in our first few years in Saskatoon, IIRC).

tigress_al

Those petals sure do look pretty though. I thought they had something to do with flavoring. This is another blend by 52teas that I really wanna try!

Missy

I always thought they were there to hold the flavorings and make the tea look pretty.

Babble

I’ve been hearing good things about this blend. I’ll have to give it a try when I get a chance.

Also, grad students represent!!! What are you going to school for? I’m about to finish my masters in Library Science.

Kittenna

Nice! I’m in Plant Agriculture in genetics/breeding :D

CHAroma

HAHAHAHAAA!!!! You really made me laugh! First off, I love this tea. I just had a second bag of it in my cupboard. So, I decided to give you the tea in the original packaging instead of transferring it all to a ziplock. (I also added a bit more tea from the new bag to make sure you got good flavor and not old, bland leaves).

As for the marigold petals, they do actually contribute to the taste, just not in a big, overwhelming, hey-I’m-in-here! kind of way. So basically, that makes them the opposite of hibiscus. I had to try lots of different teas with marigold petals in them to really be able to pick that out apart from the other flavors. It’s hard for me to describe what it tastes like exactly, but it does contribute to the overall flavor of the tea.

Kittenna

Ahhh, I getcha :) Thanks for that! I’m all for sending tea in the original packaging to save on plastic bag waste, if it’s possible!

I’ll keep trying teas with marigold petals to see if I can pick out what flavour they contribute!

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Bio

I have always been a tea fan (primarily herbals and Japanese greens/oolongs) but in the last year or so, tea has become increasingly more appealing as not only a delicious, calming drink, but as a relatively cheap, healthy reward or treat to give myself when I deserve something. I should clarify that, however; the reward is expanding my tea cupboard, not drinking tea – I place no restrictions on myself in terms of drinking anything from my cupboard as that would defeat my many goals!

My DavidsTea addiction was born in late 2011, despite having spent nearly a year intentionally avoiding their local mall location (but apparently it was just avoiding the inevitable!). I seem to have some desire to try every tea they’ve ever had, so much of my stash is from there, although I’ve recently branched out and ordered from numerous other companies.

I like to try and drink all my teas unaltered, as one of the main reasons I’m drinking tea other than for the flavour is to be healthy and increase my water intake without adding too many calories! I’ve found that the trick in this regard is to be very careful about steeping time, as most teas are quite pleasant to drink straight as long as they haven’t been oversteeped. However, I tend to be forgetful (particularly at work) when I don’t set a timer, resulting in a few horrors (The Earl’s Garden is not so pleasant after, say, 7+ minutes of steeping).

I’m currently trying to figure out which types of teas are my favourites. Herbals are no longer at the top; oolongs have thoroughly taken over that spot, with greens a reasonably close second. My preference is for straight versions of both, but I do love a good flavoured oolong (flavoured greens are really hit or miss for me). Herbals I do love iced/cold-brewed, but I drink few routinely (Mulberry Magic from DavidsTea being a notable exception). I’m learning to like straight black teas thanks to the chocolatey, malty, delicious Laoshan Black from Verdant Tea, and malty, caramelly flavoured blacks work for me, but I’m pretty picky about anything with astringency. Lately I’ve found red rooibos to be rather medicinal, which I dislike, but green rooibos and honeybush blends are tolerable. I haven’t explored pu’erh, mate, or guayasa a great deal (although I have a few options in my cupboard).

I’ve decided to institute a rating system so my ratings will be more consistent. Following the smiley/frowny faces Steepster gives us:

100: This tea is amazing and I will go out of my way to keep it in stock.

85-99: My core collection (or a tea that would be, if I was allowing myself to restock everything!) Teas I get cravings for, and drink often.

75-84: Good but not amazing; I might keep these in stock sparingly depending on current preferences.

67-74: Not bad, I’ll happily finish what I have but probably won’t ever buy it again as there’s likely something rated more highly that I prefer.

51-66: Drinkable and maybe has some aspect that I like, but not really worth picking up again.

34-50: Not for me, but I can see why others might like it. I’ll make it through the cup and maybe experiment with the rest to get rid of it.

0-33: It’s a struggle to get through the cup, if I do at all. I will not willingly consume this one again, and will attempt to get rid of the rest of the tea if I have any left.

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