Kittenna

Not oversteeped…. but not terribly flavourful either! Agh, perhaps it’s my tastebuds.

Wooaaahhh. Not sure what I’ve done here, but this is crazy bitter/astringent too. I think this one was oversteeped… maybe I’ll see if adding some water helps, because this one’s usually pretty tasty :(

ETA: I drank the first infusion anyway, and then proceeded to have two more fabulous ones. I am really, really liking this tea. White tea blends where you can actually taste the tea (e.g. Butiki’s Cantaloupe & Cream, DT’s Strawberry White) are really quite delicious. This has certainly made my list to order 1-2 ounces of in my next Della Terra order. This and Winter Nog. Mmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Woaaahhhhhh this one’s bitter/astringent. I taste pie flavours, and apple, but this is definitely overleafed/oversteeped. I don’t think I’ll be particularly keen on it even when steeped properly though… It does taste like apple pie, but in retrospect, I’m not sure I want a tea that tastes like apple pie! Also, I’m getting some play-doughy flavours that are not so pleasant (strange, I usually only get them in flavoured whites).

Ah well. I’ll give it another shot later!

This is another sample I picked up out of curiousity that I figured my mom would like, and therefore I’m trying it on holiday!

Unlike the Spiced Elderberry Pu’erh, this blend didn’t smell fishy in the packet, nor after the first infusion. I chose not to rinse this blend for fear of losing some of the added ingredients, although I imagine some people do.

So I only got a sip of the first infusion as I gave it to my mom, and I my recollection of it was an earthy, spicy blend. Not too spicy, but definitely flavoured. Actually quite nice! My mom seemed to quite enjoy it too, and polished off the cup. I decided that the second infusion would be for me, and am enjoying a very smooth, richly earthy cup with only hints of the pepper and ginger… but this has got to rank as one of the best cups of pu’erh I’ve had! I have to say that it’s just a touuuuuch fishy (and smelled like that in the infuser), which may be my fault for letting it sit out overnight.

Anyways, I’m starting to think that I’m in general doing something wrong with pu’erhs… perhaps overleafing, which is leading to unpleasant flavours… because this cup is absolutely wonderful (and I think I’m finally catching some of those “angel food cake”, etc. nuances that people have mentioned!)

Uh…. YUM! This tea is delicious. The aroma is distinctly earl grey cream, and the flavour is oh-so-creamy and good. I read Alphakitty’s note on this tea prior to taking a sip, and totally agree that I have trouble telling earl grey creams apart, for the most part, because I don’t have them in a short enough time frame for a real comparison. However, I tend to prefer ones that are heavier on the cream, lighter on the bergamot. Because of its accessibility, the DavidsTea version has become my standby, but when it’s hotter, it’s often not as creamy.

Although I’m having it cold, I think this is perhaps the most creamy ECG I’ve tried. Definitely smells like an earl grey, and tastes exactly like an earl grey with creamer. If not for the clear, brown liquid, I could swear that someone dropped a bunch of coffee whitener into my cup (yeah, my best friend and I used to steal her parents’ coffee whitener for our earl grey when they were out of milk… sooooooo many chemicals…..) The bergamot is definitely lighter here; I don’t know if it’s because of my conservative 3-minute infusion, or just how the tea is. I have a sample of Della Terra’s Saveur de Paris as well, so it’s tempting to mix a touch of that in when brewing this one up next time just to add a bit more bergamot. Not that this isn’t just fine as it is, though!

I’m glad to have tried another yummy ECG, but accessibility likely will still cause the DavidsTea version to win out.

Side note: Although my mom has not cared for pretty much every black tea I’ve made her sample (which would be nearly every tea I’ve brewed up, haha), she said that this one was quite pleasant. I’m tempted to leave her the rest of my pouch of it, but am not sure she’d ever choose it herself over a green/green oolong…

Two infusions of this one today, both quite delicious. Didn’t really make notes on the first, but the second has a lovely caramelly oolong finish.

My mom enjoyed the sips she had of the first infusion, but thought that the second was a bit too strong, so she got the cup of Sichuan Caravan instead. I’m leaving the remnants of this package of tea with her, though!

Hmm, this smells like a chocolate tea. No cherry at all…? Just a bit of a perfumey, possibly floral aroma. The flavour, not surprisingly, is mostly chocolate and perfume. Almost like… rose water. I definitely am not picking up cherry.

I admittedly did just buy this one on a whim (I dislike chocolate-covered cherries, mostly because I dislike maraschino cherries), and although it’s better than it could have been, I was really hoping for some solid cherry flavour! In spite of that though, and the fact that I’ve mentioned that it tastes like perfume, this tea really isn’t so bad. It’s actually growing on me a bit as I sip it, so although I don’t think I’d ever buy it again, I will manage to finish the bag!

Oops, this was another tea I brewed up the other day and didn’t get around to drinking. What a waste! So I started with some fresh tea today to give it another shot.

The dry tea smells kind of appley with a bit of a rooibos aroma. Not bad but not terribly enticing either. Brewed, same deal. Mostly appley, but that rooibos aroma pokes through and makes things a little iffy.

The flavour is definitely a bit different though. The first thing I noticed was a fair bit of creaminess, which isn’t apparent at all in the aroma! I suppose this is the yogurt. The apple then appears, along with a bit of cinnamon, and those flavours linger into the aftertaste a bit. I don’t really tasty any funky rooibos flavours, which is relieving.

Overall, it’s not too bad, and I like the way the creaminess works in here to smooth everything out, but I just don’t think apple teas are ever going to be a favourite of mine. Unless someone comes out with a granny smith apple white or something. That could be delicious.

Brewed this up a couple days ago and never managed to drink it… but luckily this one re-steeps excellently, so I threw out the first infusion, and am thoroughly enjoying #2, and perhaps a few more this evening! Possibly my favourite straight chai!

I have no idea why I ordered this tea. I don’t really like sugar cookies. I’m fairly indifferent about almond flavouring (and don’t really like marzipan). So I assume it must have been near the top of the list of highly rated S&V teas.

Either way…. I have no regrets! This tea smells like almond sugar cookies. Exactly like them. Floury, sugary cookie with nutty almond. NOT marzipan, which too many “almond-flavoured” things taste like (ick). The flavour is quite true to an almond sugar cookie as well… except that it is not sweet in the slightest. An issue easily fixed by adding sugar (and really, who here would appreciate if they had dumped a load of stevia in just to make it sweet?) I didn’t add sugar though… this tea doesn’t need it to be tasty.

The black base here is also quite present, and is contributing a bit of astringency/making my mouth a bit dry, which is a little entertaining as dry cookies can totally do that to you too! I think I may have overleafed a touch here, so that may be the cause, or that may just be how this tea is. It’s not too bothersome though.

Anyways, I’ve now gone through all my new Simpson & Vail teas, and certainly need to make another order at some point, or someone try all the other flavours I regret not ordering!

ETA: Second infusion (same parameters) was a lighter version of the first, but with more astringency.

Ahh, this is an absolutely delicious tea. I grabbed it today thinking it was a dark oolong (yeah, didn’t read the name carefully), and felt silly when I realized it wasn’t… but it was a perfect selection for me today. I steeped it for a bit longer than recommended, as I prefer a stronger flavour, and I think I got it bang on. The aroma is of sweet rock sugar and a bit vegetal (much like Verdant’s Dragonwell-Style Laoshan Green?), but the flavour is sweet, light, vegetal classic pouchong, so with that lovely oolong flavour that envelops your mouth and lingers as an aftertaste. Delicious. The only thing that would make this better would be not having a headache, which I think is because I let myself waaaayyyyy oversleep today.

Had my mom try this one, and not too surprisingly, she thought it was quite pleasant, and went back for a second sip. She made the comment that she seems to have enjoyed all the Butiki teas she has so far tried… I’m not surprised at all :)

ETA: Second infusion (2 min/190C) was given to my mom. I think it was still pretty good, though a touch light. I dumped the leaves out after though, as they had little aroma left.

This smells so strongly like root beer, it’s crazy! And the flavour is the most authentic root beer flavour I’ve tried in a tea yet. I’m drinking this cold because I left it for quite a while, and I think it’s great this way, but I should try it hot as well.

The only downside to this tea is that although I like root beer, I don’t think this is a tea I’d want to drink too often.

Hmm. I think I may have left my sample of this a little too long. Neither the dry nor brewed tea have much aroma at all, even though there was quite a generous-seeming amount of tea in my little sample baggie (thanks Stacy!)

Luckily, the flavour is a bit better than the aroma – I can taste quite a bit of coconut, which lingers nicely after the sip. Unfortunately… coconut is about all I can taste, along with hints of the rooibos base, which imparts almost a sourness. It does remind me quite a bit of coconut pouchong with a different base, though, coconut-flavour-wise!

I can’t say that I’ve yet found a coconut rooibos that I like, and I don’t think this will be the one either! Ah well!!

I admit that I picked this tea up a bit on a whim. I was curious, but the one blueberry-flavoured rooibos I’ve previously tried was vile, and so there were a few bad associations with it. However, this one has creme. And excellent reviews. And then, I needed to round out a second Try Me pack…. so onto my list it went!

Immediately once I opened the packet, I knew I’d made a good decision – this tea smells like real blueberries. Real, creamy, delicious blueberries! This delicious aroma is maintained post-infusion, and has permeated my room (which is surprising, given that I have a very strongly flavoured Root Beer black tea in an adjacent cup).

The flavour, though milder than I would like, is creamy and does taste like fresh blueberries. No off flavours! The rooibos is really not an issue here at all, which is great! I would perhaps use more tea next time (2-2.5 tsp per cup instead of 1.5) to intensify the flavour, but this is pretty enjoyable as is. Another excellent evening tea, and another hit from Della Terra!

So, I was quite curious about the base of the Creamy Eggnog tea (yes, even before trying it!), so had to order this one as well during the Black Friday sale!

Brewed up, the liquor is quite a light beigey-yellow, which darkens a bit as it sits. The aroma is faint lightly of a creamy green tea, that is, somewhat vegetal and distinctly like tea! Haha.

Although I definitely didn’t underleaf according to the instructions (2 tsp/8 oz.; I measured out a generous 2 tsp of the wirey leaf and then ran out of hot water, so it was shorted by probably 2 oz.), the flavour I’m getting here is lighter than I expected, given that I could definitely pick it out from the eggnog tea in spite of the flavourings. However, what I can taste is delicious, light, and creamy, with absolutely no astringency whatsoever. A delicate and delicious cup of tea. The flavour seems to develop a bit as the tea cools, so I would definitely recommend drinking this one more lukewarm than hot, at least once! I seem to recall that was the case with Creamy Eggnog as well, so that’s unsurprising.

All in all, a fairly tasty, light and creamy green, and one that I’ll enjoy finishing off!

I am not sure I’ve ever had a tea that smells quite so true to a baked good! This tea smells exactly like the coffeecake I’ve had before, complete with oaty/brown sugary topping. The cinnamon is lightly present, and I can imagine that I’m smelling apple, although it’s not a predominant aroma.

The tea doesn’t taste quite as good as it smells (mom agreed), and I’m really not getting the apple, but it does taste quite cakey and with that light cinnamon flavour, which is quite delicious. I would like it to be a bit sweeter and/or creamier, and have more fruitiness, but this really isn’t bad at all! I imagine that if this was to be sweetened, it would be bang on coffeecake flavour.

Thanks Indigobloom for letting me thief a bit of this before I hand it off to you!

So from the description, I’m expecting pretty much a black currant-flavoured tea. Which have been rather hit or miss for me – Jane Austen Mafia from Adagio was quite good, although it also has a creaminess, but I dislike 52teas’ blends containing black currant.

The flavour of the cup is more on the side of the 52teas’ flavouring, somewhat candy-like but less artificial. Definitely kind of perfumey, which I don’t think gooseberries actually are. (Funny observation: I think last time I ate gooseberries, they were rather tart, so my mouth is currently watering like crazy in anticipation of eating tart fruits, even though I know the tea will be nothing like that! I should note that this also is more of a ‘dilute-the-tartness’ thing, than an ‘om-nom-nom’ thing. Silly salivary glands!)

The flavour of the cup is milder than I anticipated. Not very fruity at all. The “gooseberry/black currant” flavour is there, as is the perfuminess, but they’re quite mild. This is definitely not an in-your-face flavoured tea!

Certainly not my cup of tea, but I imagine it may be for those who like this sort of fruitiness!

Although I chose to order this as part of one of my Try Me packs, it never seemed to grab me as a tea I wanted to try until tonight, when I decided it was high time for a bit more progress on my new teas (yeah, the ones I received while here, hahahahaha).

I cannot believe how incredibly delicious this tea smells! Like the sweet, caramelized sugar crust around the edges of a pineapple upside-down cake that I used to break off and eat (and get in trouble over). I didn’t want the rest of the cake, just that part! Anyways, this tea smells like that. Dry and brewed. It’s incredibly strong, and soooo intoxicating!

Unfortunately, the flavour doesn’t quite live up to the aroma. When the tea was still warm, there was a strong flat/cardboardy/stale note right after the initial sip, which then faded into delicious caramelized sugar flavours and perhaps a hint of fruitiness (I really taste no pineapple here, to be honest). I found the stale flavour quite disconcerting – it was almost as if I was just tasting the black base, quite weak and stale, before the flavouring hit my tongue. This phenomenon has happened to me before, and it seems to be unique to flavoured teas (so it makes me think it’s something do with flavouring in some way). Either way, the tea has now cooled, and this flatness no longer makes an appearance, it’s just delicious caramelly goodness.

I’m a bit disappointed that I can’t really pick out any pineapple here, but the strong caramelly flavours will make this a great one for the travel mug (although I only have enough for one serving left!)

When I opened the bag of this tea, I was greeted with the most amazing pear smell. I had been expecting ginger to predominate (given that S&V has a pear black, and ginger is first in the name here), however given that one of my “quests” is to find a great pear tea, it wouldn’t bother me in the slightest if this was more pear than ginger!

The aroma of the brewed cup is true to the dry tea… and crazily enough, so is the flavour!! (I say crazily enough because how often does the flavour actually match the aroma?! Not nearly enough, IMO.) Ohhhhh man, this one is good, guys! If you like sweet pears? BUY THIS TEA!! The tea leaves a lingering pear-flavoured sweetness in your mouth which is absolutely divine. I’ve gotta admit that my hopes have been far exceeded here, and the likelihood of me placing another order from S&V in the far-too-near future are rising. I’ll admit that it’s a little on the perfumey side, but then again, so are pears. The perfuminess does remind me a little bit of the Violet tea I just drank, so perhaps it’s a flavouring component.

Oh… and there’s no discernible ginger here. So if you’re looking for ginger pear, I suggest you either add your own, or buy a different tea.

ETA: Prior to the second infusion, I sniffed the infuser basket and definitely smelled ginger, which also was noticeable in the brewed tea alongside the pear. My guess is that a) the strong pear flavouring masks the ginger in the first infusion and b) perhaps the ginger needs a bit more time to infuse into the cup?? Either way, this second infusion, in half the water, was quite pleasant!

So apparently I’m the first person to review this tea!

Anyhow, the aroma is very…. interesting. It smells almost soapy, but not, just more in the sense that the aroma is one that one would more likely associate with bath products as opposed to tea. Flavourwise it’s flowery and sweet (not sugary, though), and I suppose, “spring-y” as the description mentions. Quite an interesting aroma. My lack of palate training is definitely hurting me here! The black tea base is fairly unassuming, strong enough to back the violet flavour well, but not interfering with the flavouring. There’s also very little astringency at the recommended infusion time of 3 minutes.

Overall, probably not a tea I’d re-purchase, but certainly one that has helped to satiate my curiousity as to what “violet flavour” tastes/smells like!

ETA: Second infusion is pretty similar.

Wow, does this tea ever smell potent! It’s rich, strong, caramelly goodness to the max! Almost too intense! Brewed up, it still smells much the same. The aroma is coming off as a bit artificial to me, to be honest, but hopefully that converts to delicious flavours?

Hmm. Well, there’s definitely no shortage of flavour here! However, I’m having a difficult time relating it to creme brulee. The predominant flavour (and aroma) is intense caramelized sugar, which is backed by what is oddly coming off to me as a bit of a cardboardy flavour (which I actually think is the custard). I realize that sounds unappetizing, but that’s how it’s coming off to me. How custard and cardboard are alike, I’m not sure, but I can imagine I’m tasting either when I take a sip! Consequently, I’m not sure whether I love this tea or just like it, but this is certainly enjoyable! And at 3 minutes, there’s a minimum of astringency, which is quite nice.

I suppose I shall see how this does in my travel mug, but I’m excited for another caramelly flavoured black. This is not as good as 52teas’ Cashew Turtle, but the abundance of flavour will probably make it a treat to discover in my mug in the morning (because by the time I get to drinking my teas, I can never remember what’s in each mug!)

Ehm…. this one’s just a liiiiiiittle too weird for me. And my mom. I knew as soon as I opened my (thankfully) sample packet that it was not going to be my thing. It smells quite spicy, and a weird sort of savoury that doesn’t appeal to me. Can’t say I’ve ever had sage in a tea, so that could be part of it, although there are a few “new-in-tea”-to-me ingredients lurking in here.

My mom thought it tasted much like drinking liquid turkey stuffing. She thought perhaps it would taste good consumed alongside a turkey meal. I… thought it tasted less spicy and less strange than it smelled, but… definitely savoury, and rather weird.

Both of us did agree that the aftertaste is quite pleasant, once you get past the sipping and swallowing stages! I think it may be the ginger that leaves a nice spicy aftertaste.

I think I can get why people mix this with a pu’erh or something, but I just don’t think this is something that’s going to appeal to me in any form. Just too strange.

Yay, my S&V order finally arrived today!!! Naturally, I had to immediately get started on trying the new teas! I picked this one to start, as we were heading out shopping, so I had to travel mug it and thought it would hold up.

The dry tea smells a bit cinnamony and chocolatey, and a bit… cakey, which I suppose could be brownie. Brewed up, I recall it being ok although somewhat astringent while hot, but once it had cooled to lukewarm and sat for about 3 hours, I liked it a lot more! I will have to properly review a first infusion in the future. My mom tasted a sip and did not like it at all (thankfully we had made up Butiki’s Strawberry Oolong (which she adores!) in her mug). She doesn’t like chocolate in teas, apparently.

I’ve just brewed up the second infusion in half the water (3 min, boiling) and it smells much like a cinnamony baked good. Not really any discernible chocolate, but it’s pretty tasty! A bit astringent (so maybe 2:30 would have been preferable), but it tastes very much to me like the inside of a cinnamon bun, where there’s cinnamon in/on the bun part but not really any stickiness or icing.

I think this will work nicely as a morning thermos tea for me! That seems to be the best use of flavoured blacks for me, while the more delicate teas are best drank in the evening from a mug :)

This is pretty good! Very much like Golden Moon’s Coconut Pouchong, although it tastes a little more “flavoured”. Basically, you can taste the delicious pouchong base with toasty notes of coconut and as it says in the description, a nice hit of floral from the base tea as well. IMO it’s a bit less subtle than Coconut Pouchong, but perhaps I used more leaf here. My mom likes coconut pouchong (but I didn’t really want to leave my whole package here), and she seems to like this one as well, so I’m leaving the rest of my pouch here.

Thanks to Zen Tea for this sample! It’s nice to know that I can get a good coconut oolong from a Canadian company!