Kittenna

Sipdown! Thanks Lynne-tea!

This mostly tasted like a light, pleasant jasmine to me last night. Sometimes, I do quite like jasmine, and it really worked for me yesterday. I wish I could taste a bit more of… anything, though. Couldn’t really taste the oolong, and although there was definitely at least one goji berry in there, I couldn’t taste it either. Oh well! One more tea down, over 800 to go…

Thanks to Lynne-tea for a sample of this one, which I think I’ve had previously, though not brewed myself.

This is a lovely example of an earl grey cream. Light on the bergamot, heavy on the creaminess and vanilla; I would swear that someone put cream in my tea. No bitterness at all with a 3-minute infusion. This is pretty darn delicious – delicious enough that I may very well pick this one up as my go-to EGC once I drink down what I have (which consists mostly of small samples from various places, including Upton).

Very tasty. Thanks again for the sample, Lynne-tea! Much appreciated :D

Ahaha, apparently I’ve also tried this one previously! Pretty much the same comments as last time; it’s smoky but a bit sweet, and quite nice to drink without additions.

Ha, I thought I had tried this one before! But since I’ve been craaavvviiing milk oolong for a while, and this was from my swap with Lynne-tea… I totally felt justified in drinking some. Still have enough left for another cup, too!

Anyhow, this is a yummy milk oolong, as I said previously. It has likely lost some flavour, but I’m still quite enjoying it. A big bonus here is a complete lack of that “flavoured” taste that comes through with some milky oolongs. Not to say that this one isn’t flavoured, but it doesn’t have that accompanying chemical taste, which is perfect.

Thanks again to Lynne-tea for a delicious tea sample :D

I was most interested in this tea because it contained dragonwell (and I adore dragonwell), but now that I’m a bit more knowledgeable, I know that the flavours of dragonwell really don’t lend themselves to flavourings. However, this tea works quite well. It’s basically coming off as a strawberry-flavoured green, which is quite pleasant (although…. tiger town???) There’s a hint of green tea flavour lingering in the aftertaste, but the base really isn’t very prominent. Overall pretty tasty, but not something I’d purchase myself.

Thanks to Lynne-tea for some of this one! I’m making a good effort on my box from you today :D

So, lately I’ve been off of cinnamony/orangey teas, but I figured I’d give this one a shot anyways. And to my surprise, I really like it! I suspect the flavour is a bit muted due to age, but for whatever reason, I am really enjoying how everything works together. I’m tasting chocolatey flavours plus just a hint of spice and floral. I suppose that I haven’t actually ever had a cinnamon/chocolate/rose tea before. There was one “loop” in the infuser for this cup… I’m not sure what flavour(s) it may have contributed.

Either way, this was pretty tasty! I’ll probably enjoy my second cup of it in the rather near future, since I found it to be so enjoyable. (Yay, that means sipdown is imminent! The only problem is that none of these teas were in my cupboard count, as this swap arrived when I was very busy last year, and I just didn’t get around to noting down everything that I was sent. Sigh.)

Thanks for this one, Lynne-tea! I’m hoping to get through everything you sent at least once by the end of tonight (assuming nothing has been misplaced elsewhere. There was a random sample from momo in the box too, which was odd.)

Made a cup of this one (hot) the other night and left it in the fridge to cool to make “iced tea”… it definitely has that characteristic cacao shell flavour, but now that I’ve had straight cacao shells, there’s definitely too much rooibos hindering the delicious cacao flavour. I ended up sweetening it with maple syrup, which tasted pretty decent, but it definitely wasn’t as good as I remember (and I suspect it’s directly related to having had better teas since, not because it’s a bit older!)

Sipdown! Thanks to Raritea for a sample of this one.

I like this rooibos! It tastes very much like a blueberry muffin, light on the blueberry but with a tasty baked goods flavour and little rooibos. I haven’t had a lot of luck with blueberry-flavoured rooibos in the past, so it’s nice to have one that really does work. That said, I think I prefer the blueberry/black tea/rooibos blend from Della Terra.

ETA: Second infusion was also pretty tasty, and the infuser smelled like there was potential for a third, but I opted for a new tea instead :D

Hmm, this tea tastes quite a bit like coconut oolong, but without the oolongy flavour. That is to say, it’s very much a kind of toasty coconut, which is really quite good! I wish I could taste the green tea a bit more, so next time I’ll lengthen the infusion a bit – I kept it to 2 minutes to prevent any possible astringency, which I did succeed at. This is definitely one of the better coconut greens I’ve tasted though… highly recommend if that’s something you’re looking for.

I feel like this would be a great blending tea for use when coconut flavour is desired (but when oolong is not)… so perhaps that’s what I’ll use it for! Or maybe I’ll ice it. Hmm, the possibilities…

Oooh, finally a tea that has some good, strong, positive reviews for it!

Anyhow, brewed up a quick mug of this for curiousity’s sake (bad time of the day to drink it probably, I know), and it’s quite enjoyable! I kept the infusion time at 2 minutes so I wouldn’t have to add anything, and that was a good idea. So was using only about 1.5 tsp for a 10 oz. mug. Anyhow, the result is a strong yet smooth and mellow cup of tea. Even if I hadn’t been told that this is a blend, I think I would likely suspect as much, because again, although I’m not super clear about different flavours of tea that belong with different regions, this certainly tastes like a mishmash (in a good way). There’s some light smokiness, a bit of classic “black tea flavour”, some maltiness… I don’t think I’m picking up chocolate, which is about the only profile that my head thinks is missing (I’m probably wrong). [Oh hey – the description mentions smoky! Yay! I always kind of cheer internally when I get a descriptor “right”, even one that obvious.]

Anyhow, given that I’m enjoying this straight, I feel like black tea lovers would really like this one. A definite win for this month, I’ll say!

This tea is pretty good for a rooibos! Definitely tastes chocolatey, in a chocolate liqueur sort of way, which is surprisingly tasty. Enough rooibos flavour that I can tell it’s there, but it’s not objectionable. Overall, it’s a reasonable selection that I’ll finish off, but not repurchase.

Also, sorry for the very short tasting notes lately. I’m feeling very uninspired…

ETA: Also a good second infusion.

Sipdown! This one had lost a bit of flavour, but was still pretty decent. Unfortunately, it got dust/cat hair in it (after my first few sips) so down the sink most of the cup went. Ah well.

Brewed up a bunch of this quite strong for icing – I’ll see how that fares in the morning! In the meanwhile, I’m enjoying a second infusion, which, possibly because it’s more than double strength, tastes much like a regular first infusion.

Anyhow, I used 2 tbsp of leaf for about 10oz and steeped for 1 min, then diluted that with probably another 10 oz. of cold water and stuck it in the fridge.

ETA: Yum!! Not only was it pretty darn delicious cold (very dark chocolate), I added sweetener (yep, maple syrup is the current sweetener of choice for cold beverages as it’s the only liquid sweetener I currently have), and I sucked back the cup in no time. It didn’t necessarily need it, I just wanted it to be sweet. The maple syrup really brought out the dark chocolate notes, so it was very satisfying. I’ll have to try some other blacks this way! I haven’t been drinking as much tea lately (only want cold drinks) and my water/liquids intake has been dwindling… iced tea is clearly the remedy.

Mmmmmmmm. Still adore this one. About a cup’s worth left of it now too. I hadn’t had it with proper water and such lately, since it sat at work for quite a while, but since I do most of my writing from home, I brought it here to enjoy properly.

Mmmm. Sooooo nutty, and just sweet enough. Just a cup’s worth of this left now, which makes me kind of sad (but it’s not like I don’t have plenty of other tea to drink too!)

A couple tasty cups of this between yesterday and today, sweetened with maple syrup and with a bit of milk added. Sooooooo delicious. Not a traditional chai, but satisfying regardless!

Sipdown! 778. Another cold brew to finish this one off. Must admit I’m glad it’s finally gone, as it really was not my favourite at all.

Sipdown! 779. Well, that’s what the non-updated number on my spreadsheet says, anyhow. I’ll have to have a celebration when I hit 750, or something. Haha.

Anyways, cold-brewed the last of this one, and it was pretty good. It’s one I wish I could pick up more of for summer cold-brewing, but really, I can make do with other teas so it’s ok that it’s discontinued (but I’ll probably keep on the lookout for a fruity, gingery, hibiscus-free tea!)

Another cold brew! Yum :D

Sipdown! Thanks again to Raritea.

The aroma of this one is misleading… even with a properly timed infusion, I was getting a bit of a metallic too old/oversteeped aroma. But it’s not present in the flavour at all. I recall that happening last time too, even though in that case I had oversteeped it. But again, not present in the flavour (or maybe it was a bit, but less than the aroma indicated).

Anyhow! A tasty dragonwell. I do so adore dragonwell.

Ok… I have come to my conclusion on this tea. I have never had strawberry pie, but this tea doesn’t really taste like what I’d imagine it to be… HOWEVER, I really, really like it! Bumping the rating, because as soon as I saw the baggie, I started craving it like crazy. I love the candy-strawberry flavour, grounded with the non-astringent, strong yet controlled black base. Mmmmmmhhhh. Delish. I only have one serving’s left now, and since I’ve decided that it’s not worth keeping teas that are in baggies around, it will be probably be consumed sooner rather than later (easy access… it’s downstairs by the kettle :D).

Sipdown! I thought I had more of this one left, but apparently not.

Anyhow, cold-brewed this over the past couple days, and it’s quite tasty. Green tea, caramelly, and a bit nutty (more likely from the tea than sesame, I think). I also think I prefer Tokyo to Bangkok… hopefully that’s the same conclusion I came to prior. One day I’ll get more of it, but that day is an awfully long ways away.

Also, my sipdown list is quite mucked up right now as I haven’t been properly updating it lately. Gotta add my new Butiki teas, perhaps delete a few teas I left with my mom, and then I’ll be back on track. No significant increases or decreases, thankfully… Butiki order added less than 10 teas, the majority of which are not significant amounts (other than the 4.5 oz. of PTA/PTA blends).

Mmmmmmm. Travel mugged some of this yesterday and it was pretty amazing. All deliciously chocolatey with just enough orange. I think I overleafed though – no measuring spoons at the boy’s place. Still tasty, just a potential waste of tea!

Bleeeccchhh. Had some of this again last night, and I’m convinced that my first sample was amazing, and my second had some serious off-flavours. Possibly from the stevia. Either way, this was quite disappointing, and I have to dump the rest of my mug out. It had a kind of soapiness to it… very gross. :(