Kittenna

:( I tried this one after my massive lack of success with DT’s Cherry Cola tonight, and unfortunately, don’t like this one much better. The aroma is fairly light and mild, with a bit of a familiar and slightly unpleasant aroma. I feel like it’s an aroma I’ve associated with a black tea in the past, but I can’t for the life of me remember which. The unpleasant-ish aroma follows into the flavour – I’m left with quite a light blend, where I can taste a touch of sweetness that’s unfortunately coming off as something a bit rotten, alongside a pleasant black base. I wonder now if it’s the rooibos causing this…

Anyhow, I was certainly hoping for a whole lot more than I got from this blend :( Although there was a lot of orange peel, that’s certainly not a dominant flavour in the blend (in fact, I can’t even really taste it). I can only catch the barest hint of smokiness; given that this is a “campfire blend” I would have expected more. There is a creamy, pleasant aftertaste, which I wish had more impact upon the rest of the blend, but that’s its only redeeming factor (though, I say that as this tea grows on me a little… I’m trying to give it a chance by drinking the whole cup, which does seem to be improving my opinion of it, but not enough to ever re-purchase.)

Anyhow, I do wish I had better things to say about this blend, but it’s fairly bland (I used 2 tsp for ~10 oz. water, and it got a full 5 minute infusion in boiling water) and has a bit of an odd flavour (although I’m wondering if cross-contamination from other samples from Whispering Pines could be a partial cause of this). Oh well!

ETA: Although I just burnt my tongue on a different tea…. grumbles, the re-steep of this one is fairly decent. Half the water, 6-minute infusion at boiling. I’m tasting light spice, perhaps a hint of citrus, and none of yesterday’s wierdness. I will try this one again soon and hopefully it will be better then! Perhaps let it air out a touch.

Crazy. I still can’t believe that I like this one, given that it has my three top despised ingredients in it! It’s a bit overly minty for me tonight, but I’m still appreciating the absolutely amazing chocolatey base and flavour combination. The aftertaste is absolutely to die for here (I think it’s primarily Laoshan Black that I’m tasting). I’m really not getting the cinnamon in here tonight, unfortunately, but it’s enjoyable nonetheless.

What is going on?! I swear I have seen reviews for this tea before, yet for the life of me I could not locate it on Steepster! Anyone have any ideas?!

Anyhow, I was a bit apprehensive to try this tea. Normally a peach-flavoured white should sound quite appealing, but for some reason, I expected it to taste disgusting. Perhaps because I had White Pear from Adagio, which tasted like play-dough. Either way, I decided it was time to get over that and try it! What an excellent decision! The aroma is creamy, which reminds me of Persimmon’s Coconut Creme (which is amazing), and there’s a light hint of actual fresh peach! The flavour completely does not disappoint, either. A delicious, light, creamy white base paired with absolutely fabulous notes of fresh peach and what is coming off to me as fresh apricot. Oh man. I almost wish I had more than just a sample of this tea (aside from the problem of having too much tea in general).

If you are a fan of peachy teas, and like bai mu dan, this is definitely a tea to try! It reminds me of a sparkling peach drink I’ve had at Christmas on occasion (minus much of the sweetness and the fizz). So by that, I mean, it’s pure essence of peaches. Yummmmm!

ETA: Second infusion is a bit lighter, and almost a touch playdoughy, though that could be a consequence of letting the leaves sit overnight. There’s still peachy goodness though! I won’t take this to a third infusion, however.

This came out of my “try this already!” box. And since everything else I had set to brew up tonight (aside from re-steeps) was an unflavoured tea, I felt like a bit of flavouring… although this wouldn’t have been my first choice given the negative reviews of it I’ve seen.

To start with, the aroma from the dry tea is a bit offputting. I would agree that the aroma is reminiscent of cola in a… chemically sort of way. But, I don’t like cola (and especially not cherry cola) to begin with, so who knows, maybe it smells normal to all those pop lovers! Brewed up it smells pretty similar, though not as bad as I was expecting.

The flavour, though, is where it massively crashes and burns. There is just something WRONG with the initial taste. It’s quite strong, and chemically, and truly terrible. Bleeeech. I’ve had seriously oversteeped greens that are more palatable than this!! I’m finding that the aftertaste isn’t completely terrible; it does remind me of coke, but unfortunately, I’m not willing to drink another terrible sip in order to achieve the aftertaste. I was contemplating trying this one with sweetener, but I think that would be a waste of sugar.

My advice? Avoid this tea at all costs unless you have an affinity for drinking chemicals. I’ve complained about flavouring oils and chemical flavours before, but no tea I’ve tried has been quite this bad (ok, other than the vomit-flavoured Pina Colada from Adagio. I would drink this over that.)

Down the drain this goes! Perhaps I’ll run up and grab a Persimmon Tree or Whispering Pines sample that I have yet to try, since I’m still craving something flavoured.

Drank some of this yesterday at work, in a travel thermos. Pretty tasty! A yummy, nutty, caramelly black, without too much astringency. Drinking the re-steep right now, and it’s surprisingly delicious! I think I’m getting some chocolatey flavours today along with the caramel. A good purchase :D

I received a sample of this from Mercuryhime , thank you! I can’t believe I’ve waited so long to brew this one up – it’s such an appealing dark green, and I’m fairly certain that gyokuros have that intense vegetal, beany flavour that I adore (like Laoshan green!)

Sure enough, the aroma from this one brewed is absolutely delightful! Potent and like steamed green beans, I feel like I could almost chew the tea! The colour of the brew is also a fantastic bright green (although the colour fades as the tea sits). Mmmm, yup, this one is delicious. Beany yet grassy and strong. Unfortunately, I think I gave it 15 seconds too long, which has caused some bitterness :( but it’s still pretty good.

Thanks Mercuryhime! This one’s totally up my alley! :D

Giving this one a second shot! This time I decided to double the amount of tea, and keep the infusion time the same. So about 2 tsp of leaf (it’s so hard to measure though, it could have been more than that) in 8 oz. water.

This time, there’s a definite sweet green tea aroma, and plenty of flavour. Yum! It’s not an overtly vegetal flavour; kind of minerally and sweet, a bit like a field of sweet grass? I think I may have overleafed a bit, as there’s a bit of astringency, but it’s reasonably tasty. I prefer my greens to be vegetal and beany, like steamed veggies, instead of leafy/grassy, so this won’t rank in my favourites, but I have found a way to enjoy it!

ETA: So I guess the second infusion of this was pretty good – I drank it all in record time! Yum! And the leaves survived sitting for two days (uncommon for a green, in my previous experience)! Awesome! Trying for a third momentarily…

ETA again: Third infusion is pretty light, even steeped in half the water for 4 minutes. Still reasonable though (and I’m cold, and it’s a hot beverage!) Definitely like this tea much, much better when made stronger than recommended.

Uh…. am I the only one who thinks that this is pretty much the same as CTG’s sticky rice tuocha? Complete with being flavoured by that herb that imparts the sticky rice aroma/flavour? I read through the tasting notes quickly, and only really see one or two mentions of sticky rice, which I think is really odd. I can understand to some extent how it could be mistaken for corn, but I’m surprised that more people haven’t mentioned this…

Anyways, I gave this little guy a haphazard rinse in some 205C water before a 1.5 minute infusion. The tuocha hasn’t yet fully broken apart, so I’m sure I have a few more infusions ahead.

The aroma is light and sweet and smells like sticky rice; the flavour is light and sweet and also like sticky rice, haha. It’s really quite delicious, and absolutely perfect paired with my current guilty pleasure, Hershey’s Cookies ‘n’ Creme drops. (I went shopping hungry…)

The one big difference IMO between this and the sticky rice tuocha I tried from CTG/lynne-tea (or maybe it was the one from Amy oh) is that this one is clearly less finicky and doesn’t get bitter as easily. I really will have to compare the two though, because at least in my mind, the similarities are quite high.

ETA: Whoops, second infusion of this got a touch strong. I meant to stick with 1:30 but it got 2:45 as I didn’t set a timer that beeped. Still good, but just a bit overpowering. I am still strongly reminded of sticky rice touchas, and there’s almost a hint of astringency here, but I’m positive that’s because it was left a bit too long.

Haven’t had this in a while, but remembered it because I purchased it at the same time as Strawberry Rhubarb Crumble. Floral cherry is a pretty accurate description, IMO. However, yet another tea that would be better not steeped in a thermos, and at work…

This one is just not as tasty when steeped away from home, in a thermos. Just, not as tasty :(

ETA: However, I must note that this one is so much, infinitely better when cooled off. In fact, it tasted quite delicious when I finished it off hours later! So brewing it up in the office was apparently not really the problem, it was that I was trying to drink it too hot! :D

Hmm. This was tea #2 for the morning, in a thermos borrowed from my roommate. I quite generously leafed my cup of tea, but still, the flavour is very weak. There’s definitely a coconutty flavour, some chocolate, and a sweet amaretto-y/marzipan almond flavour, but the tea base is just so, so weak here. Perhaps it’s because I had three flavourfully-based blacks this morning (third infusion of Verdant’s Laoshan Black, second infusion of Verdant’s Mi Lan Dancong Black, and 52 teas’ Pumpkin Caramel Cheesecake) that I’m finding it extra noticeable, but I was kind of disappointed. Downgrading the rating a bit. I really want to love this tea, but I think it needs a bit more background for that to happen.

Apparently I overleafed today, as this was pretty astringent for me today (though lovely flavour beneath the astringency). Buuuut it was in my Timolino, and I had nothing else to eat/drink, so down it went. :D

I think, though, that I am going to not re-purchase this one. As good as it is, I have a ton of other flavoured blacks to take to work for the time being!

I should not have brewed this up tonight, I’m way too tired for a proper review. Basically, it’s absolutely delicious, and has the same honey notes as Butiki’s Mi Xian Black (does Mi mean honey or something?) There’s an amazing oolongy aftertaste, and I pretty much love this tea. At first I expected something more like the Laoshan Black (only because the aroma seemed to be kind of cocoa-y), but it’s much different. I’ll try more infusions tomorrow, and still have half my sample packet left to try later. Sleeeeeeeeeep.

ETA: Second infusion was pretty good; third was quite weak. This tea certainly doesn’t have the longevity of Laoshan Black. I will hopefully remember to compare the last of this to the last of my Mi Xian Black to figure out how similar they are/what my preference is!

So apparently I had already reviewed this as a hot beverage. Thought I had only cold-brewed it! Either way, pretty much the exact same opinion as last time, that it’s a very fruity tea with a hint of cooling from the bamboo, and as Azzrian pointed out, it does very much taste like the tea entitled “Mango ’N Friends”, available from various tea companies. I’m getting more tanginess this time than last, as well. Although this is a great “juice tea”, that’s all it is, and I seem to be moving away from straight fruity blends and more into blends that actually have tea in them with a discernible tea flavour. Good for what it is though!

Morning cuppa that I took in the Timolino! Yum! Never fails to disappoint :D I really need a second leakproof mug though, so I can bring along two teas, for those days where I’m stuck in the building in which I have no office…

No notes yet.

Thanks to Teavivre for this generous free sample, and apologies for such a slow review!

I used about 2 tsp of tea in 2.5 cups of water for this tea, as I did with the DT version. This version definitely brewed up more quickly and strongly than the other, and even though it had less than half the time to brew, the flavour is quite similar. The biggest difference I’m noticing between them is in terms of sweetness; this tea is noticeably sweeter, and the sweetness emerges prior to swallowing, so is not just in the aftertaste. Other than that, both have a sweet, slightly seaweedy aroma, and the flavour of crispy fried seaweed, which is kind of toasty/seaweedy/delicious. Very interesting! After a bit of thought, the flavour could be described as quite “buttery”, which is how the fried seaweed comes off because of all the oil present. It’s tough to say which tea I’d prefer; I imagine that Teavivre’s has greater longevity, so if I was to purchase this again, that would probably be my choice, although I doubt I’ll pick this one up again of my own accord.

So tonight I decided that it was high time to sample my ginseng oolong sample from Teavivre, and alongside it, the sample of ginseng oolong that I recently picked up at DavidsTea! I brewed each according to the given instructions to see how they fared compared to each other.

I used approximately the same water:leaf ratio for this tea as for the Teavivre version (about 2 tsp for 2.5 cups), and noticed that the colour/aroma definitely took quite a bit longer to develop in the DT version, which is likely why it required 5 minutes instead of two.

The aroma of this cup is sweet and just sliiightly seaweedy. It’s interested, both my roommate and I noticed that the tea smells and tastes much like a fried seaweed snack we tried and loved last year. Basically, salted and fried up crispy seaweed. I’m wondering now if there was ginseng in it, or if it’s just a coincidence that the two are similarly scented/flavoured. It’s actually quite an interesting, tasty flavour, kind of toasty and delicious, and then an intense sweetness emerges, which must be the ginseng, along with a mild oolong flavour. I can’t say that I’m the biggest fan of the sweet aftertaste, as it reminds me of licorice and artificial sweeteners, but I don’t find it quite as bad as either of those, so can tolerate it. So overall, this is actually a pretty yummy cup. Perhaps not the first tea I’d go for given a choice, but it’s certainly worth trying!

Hrm. I could have sworn that I reviewed on here the cup of this that I got as a free tea from DT on… February 29? Or perhaps I wasn’t yet a Steepster at that point.

Anyhow, I first tried this in last year’s advent calendar, and thought I liked it, then had a bad experience with it from the store (it made me gag a bit, so I went back and had them add sweetener, and I still was gagging, and ended up pouring it out). I picked up a small bag of it to try out myself to see what the deal really was.

The aroma is fruity… but it’s a sort of fruitiness that doesn’t really agree with me. Like another tea reminded me of Mango Diablo (which I dislike), this one does too. I’m starting to wonder if I dislike DT’s dried mango… (is there mango in Long Life Oolong too??)

The flavour is kind of sweet-ish, and with a strange taste, which must be the green rooibos. It’s not as medicinal as the red can be, but still, I’m not really enjoying it here. Yeaaaah, this is not my cup of tea, at all, and as it’s unlikely to be an infusion problem, I’m going to have to attempt to get rid of the remainder of this one (a cup’s worth) through other means. Blecchh.

Yummy!!!! So chocolatey and minty, but not gross whole-leaf peppermint like I dislike, more of a candycane sort of peppermint, which I find completely tolerable in conjunction with chocolate! I thought I would finish off the tin of this from the advent calendar last night, but alas, there was more than just 1.5 tsp in the tin, it was more like 2.5. So I left the rest for my roommate.

Anyhow, I’m drinking this one cold as well as it has sat since last night. It tastes pretty much exactly like liquid peppermint patties, which I actually really like. And aside from the lack of actual… chewable matter in my mouth, this is quite satisfying as a dessert tea! Definitely one to pick up if you love chocolate mint.

Whoops. Brewed this one up and had nary a sip. My bad. It was the last of the leaf too. Ah well, another oldie gone. Perhaps I can get some more in the future.

Finished off the remainder of this packet today (sipdown!!); about 1.5 tsp in 8 oz. of water. A pretty tasty cup of dragon well, for sure – a fair bit of vegetal flavour, though not as much sweetness as had it been fresher, I suspect (this is like, 4-year-old tea, though it appears I only opened the packet for the first time about 4 months ago). Unluckily for me, I just accidentally choked on a big mouthful of it, and spit it all over my bed, marking the second time THIS WEEK that I’ve had to change my bed sheet due to a tea spill, and at least the third or fourth time in a couple months (although this is the first time it was due to choking). I have really got to work on this… not only am I wasting tea, I’m making messes! Thankfully I usually have spilled straight teas that are light in colour/flavour…

Wow. I made the most AMAZING cup of this last night! The aroma was absolutely amazing, 100% a strawberry crisp (rhubarb? not so sure). Oh man oh man! Hadn’t drank this one in a while.

Anyways, I ended up leaving the majority of the cup sitting overnight, and am drinking it now, and it’s just divine. Liquid strawberry crisp in a cup. Delicious light cinnamon aroma and flavour. You could convince me that there are oats in here too, although I think Frank is the only one who puts actual oats in his blends. Mmmmmmm. I can’t believe I ever didn’t care for this one! Clearly I was just doing it wrong. It’s absolutely amazing. Definitely a tea I’d repurchase (I wonder if it’s still available online?) Biiig rating bump.

This tea seriously looked exactly like water when it was steeped. Just the barest hint of colour. There’s a wonderful sweet aroma emanating from the cup. Flavourwise, the tea is so light I can hardly taste it. It’s almost a.. corn nut? corn silk? sort of flavour with a bit of tea aftertaste.

I think I’m going to try the second infusion for closer to 10 minutes. This tea’s just a bit too light for me, personally, although the flavour hints at deliciousness.

ETA: Second infusion (82C for 10:15) has more flavour, and tastes kind of like sweet peas! Like, the flowers, not edible pea pods. Interesting! I think this tea simply needs a longer infusion time for me. Delicious, and so smooth.