6106 Tasting Notes
Met up with some lovely Steepsterites today and had a wonderful time! Came away with too much tea, though, and sorely regret not hauling things out of my stash to bring and offload, too.
Anyhow, this tea came from the huge order that keychange made from East Indies recently, and is one she was not fond of, in part because it didn’t taste like cherries. Well, it didn’t taste like cherries to me either! However, it had the cakey sweetness of other teas like Pineapple Upside-Down Cake and Blueberry Crumble, and therefore I found it delicious. Also, sparkles. I didn’t really write down anything more about it, so should probably re-review later, but it was tasty.
Thanks for sharing, keychange!
Preparation
Brewed this a bit overly strong on the weekend, but still quite enjoyed it. Deliciously coconut-creamy chai. Once I retrieve my teabags on Wednesday, I’ll have another cup or so of it. I have also been reminded of the fact that I have a caramel(?) chai from the same company, which is quite good. I’m not sure where it is, but now I want it… haha.
Weekend tea, but this had definitely lost flavour. Oh well. Also, it was the first tea in my newest travel mug, and it seemed to pick up some plasticky flavours… so I ended up actually dumping it out. Very sad.
I don’t mind the flavour of this one overly, but it smelled a bit fishy while I was brewing and drinking it (ew), and the mate is just too… earthy for me. Minus the fishiness, it smells pretty decent, and the flavour isn’t bad, but I much, much prefer Spiced Pumpkin. The spices here are a lot less apparent (to the point where I can’t even really pick out what I’m tasting). Won’t be picking up any more of this tea.
Preparation
This is great, but would be perfect only without the honeybush. I get a bit of a scratchy throat when drinking it, likely for that very reason.
Otherwise, it is pretty much the perfect pumpkin spice tea, IMO. Nutmeg, cloves(?), pumpkin, whipped cream… love the aroma, love the flavour. Despite the honeybush, I’ll probably grab 50g. I love love love nutmeg in teas, and also pumpkin spice.
Preparation
Guys… this is BETTER than DT’s Vanilla Orchid. Fresher, and missing that strange fake-flavouring aftertaste. I would probably prefer it without the osmanthus flavouring, because I’m not a huge fan of floral, but it’s still really good. I wasn’t expecting this. It wasn’t even a tea I really chose – it was a substitution for Dark Chocolate Oolong, since someone bought that out before me.
Pretty happy with this tea. I love a creamy, vanilla oolong.
Thanks for bringing this one to my attention! Sounds like what I wanted Vanilla Orchid to be, which tasted far too artificial for my liking.
sounds delish!
Too bad he’s all out!
The second infusion was a bit more floral, and I didn’t like it as much, but the first was divine.
So I unfortunately oversteeped this the first time I had it (forgot it was gyokuro and needed a super short infusion), but I did still drink it. I’m not sure if it was my imagination, but I felt like I could taste the vanilla, and really enjoyed it. The jackfruit seeds, not so much, though there was one in the infuser. I’ll have to keep a closer eye on it next time. Rating tentatively for now.
Later infusions were really only gyokuro.
I hate it when I oversteep things. Sometimes it is because something else came up and I completely forgot…
No fun when a tea doesn’t taste the way you’d like it to. With nothing to hide, I will say that this gyokuro cost over $200 a kilogram (which means I’m paying for others to try it). I would suggest lowering the steep time to 90 seconds to 150 seconds depending on what method of steeping you’re using. Regardless, sorry this tea was a disappointment.
Oh, I was not disappointed with this one. It was my own steeping error, and really, I could have probably more or less fixed it by adding some more water. I actually am rather looking forward to having it again!
If it isn’t good to you than it isn’t good to you :)
I continue to be unbelievably behind on logging teas (I don’t think I’m ever going to catch up…), but figured I should try to get a few new things reviewed. I just made a few bigs orders, and this was one of the teas I got!
Aroma was fairly floral, which I wasn’t expecting – I was definitely hoping for more of creamy, eggy vanilla (french toast). The tea, while being somewhat chocolatey and malty, also tasted fairly floral; not bad, but again, I was expecting more custard-vanilla, not vanilla flower. Possibly also a hint of cinnamon (but ONLY the barest hint).
Strangely, I did also get the “too floral” flavour from two other brand new blacks I had today (from Taiwan Tea Crafts), so I have to wonder if it’s my tastebuds or something (I have been sick for about 10 days, so it’s possible, though it’s mostly in my chest and I haven’t noticed anything else tasting different than expected).
Anyhow, I’ll withhold rating for now, in the event that it’s a problem on my end, but I was somewhat disappointed in this tea being so floral. I was happy enough with the base, and it wasn’t an unpleasant drinking experience by ANY means, I was just expecting something different.
Preparation
I also got a bit of a floral almost perfumey flavor from this one… Not like the eggy French toast I was hoping for.
Floral French Toast? I’ll pass on that..
This is quite interesting. You taste what you taste, but I’m curious if other dianhongs taste floral to you or do you pick up the malt/chocolate in them?
QueenOfTarts – yeah, that’s exactly what I thought.
Liquid Proust – I usually taste the malt/chocolate, primarily. The floral was unexpected and surprising. I’ll see if it’s still like that in the next attempt. I did certainly taste both of those, but the floral was distracting.
It sounds gross… floral dianhong?
I hope it doesn’t end up that way again!
Just checking back on the status of floral black teas during that time frame; still having the same findings? I’m trying to investigate if it’s taste buds or someone sabotaged the teas!
I’m very jealous of the meet up! We’ll have to figure something out for Christmas this year since I’m in Regina – but it’s a shame you all don’t live as close.
yea :( would have been great to get everyone in one place!
It would have been awesome! also, glad my east indies stuff is being enjoyed by someone!
I’m so gonna try it soon as I kick this cold
It’s tasty.