Kittenna

Thanks to Stacy at Butiki for a generous sample of this one, that came with my last order :)

This is possibly the best banana tea I think I’ve had. Ok, maybe second best, after Banana Oolong from DavidsTea. The banana flavour in here is so real and perfect (no banana runts here!) and I’m just getting a bit of nuttiness, which is hard to separate from the base, which is great and not astringent at all with the recommended brewing parameters. It reminds me in a way of Apres Ski (DavidsTea), except lacking in astringency in the base, and with more banana flavour and less dry, astringent walnut flavour. (Ok, so it’s not so much the same, but more along the lines of what I expected Apres Ski to taste like). Anyhow, again, this is another tea I probably wouldn’t order a bunch of for myself, but it’s a must-try for any banana lovers out there! (Unless you hate walnut. Or black tea. Although both are done marvellously here, so I’d recommend trying it anyhow.)

I feel like my tasting notes are a bit off tonight.. apologies, it’s the sleepiness and lack of focus :)

Well, this one smells heavenly dry. Brewed it, it tastes a fair bit to me like other caramelly blacks I’ve had previously, except for a big, gaping hole where the astringency usually kicks in. As in, I keep waiting for astringency, and there isn’t any at all. I can taste the characteristic raisiny PTA flavour in there as well… mmmmm. I will admit that I don’t think that this is quite as tasty as I was expecting, but perhaps I brewed it incorrectly or something. I’m quite exhausted (Mexico was far from a relaxing vacation, tbh!) and who knows if I did something wrong. I really just want to fall asleep right now, but I should really paint my nails first… :/

Anyhow! I have half an ounce of this (the rest is Sil’s :P), so I get at least a couple more shots to see how this fares. The aroma is so good, I feel like it has to be user error :P Rating withheld until that time!

Sipdown! Although this hardly counts as it’s a 1-cup sample not even in my cupboard. Also, I only drank 2 sips and gave the rest to my mom :P

I actually rather enjoyed the sips of this that I did have. It’s very floral, but given the name, that’s of course to be quite expected! I definitely caught a large dose of jasmine, along with other floral aromas/flavours, and a bit of green oolong as well (fairly light, though). My mom quite enjoyed it, as I had figured, since she enjoys floral teas, so it may make it into a future Butiki order :) Nothing I’d keep around, but for a floral tea it was pretty palatable IMO!

There were packets of this at the post-rehearsal supper tonight, so I figured I’d try this classic tea! I had no control over water temp (and didn’t worry about steeping time either), and ended up with a rather strong but pleasantly orangey/spicy cup. It reminded me of Christmas – perhaps cloves are part of the spicing? I ended up adding some coffee creamer (powdered stuff – ick!) to mute things a bit, which was pretty successful. I wanted sugar but there was none to be found. Anyhow, I can see why people would like this, as it’s kind of like a bit spicier earl grey. Steeped properly, I’d imagine it’s great without additions. I should have nabbed a second teabag…. sigh!

Having this is a tea latte from the Pearson Airport DT… omg. So delicious! A bit weaker than I would like, but the flavour is fabulous. It was recommended that I have it with soy milk (and I wanted it sweetened as well), and both were clearly great decisions. My only regret is that my Timolino is still icky from the white chocolate mocha I put in it on the way to Cancun (it needs a good scrub…)

Fabulous first cup of tea in nearly a week! Although perhaps I should have gone with a caffeinated one… it has been a loooooooong day…

Cold brew! Used less tea; I may have enjoyed it more? Hrrrrrrm. Anyways, so delicious. I’d bring this along but I feel like it would be even more likely to be confiscated (also, I suspect I don’t have a fridge in my room, even though I’m paying an exorbitant price for it).

Don’t have a clue whether this is a spring or autumn picking anymore…. but it’s tasty.

Anyways, farewell for a while, most likely… life is too busy for this stuff right now! This is all the tea I’ve had in the last two days (oh yeah, a Tropicalia cold brew as well, better log that). If I have internet in Mexico, I’ll snoop around a bit… On that note… anyone know if I should be able to get tea through customs? Teabags, if nothing else? I’m dreading the thought of no tea/cheap Orange Pekoe. Or whatever they give you on Mexican resorts.

Sipdown! Thanks to Sil for this one.

I’m pretty ambivalent about this tea. A 2.5 minute infusion was great for the base, which I’m quite enjoying, but there’s not enough mango flavour for me. On the other hand, what mango I am tasting is much more along the lines of how I’d like it to taste, as opposed to the floral messes some blenders seem to make mango into (there is a difference between yucky floral and fruity floral!! I know mangos are quite sweetly aromatic, but that does not mean that they are flowery!)

Anyhow, with more mango flavour, I think this one could be great. Might be one to try another sample of while visiting Sil for a tea date :D (Unless she sips down that one before I make it there! So much sipping down!)

Sipdown! On the other hand, I brewed this tea up strongly too, and there’s no medicinal flavour. I think it may have lost some flavour sitting around for a while, but I’m actually rather enjoying my cup of it. Sweet and creamy… I kind of wish I had some more to drink right now. I think part of the key here is not to underleaf.

Anyhow, thanks for letting me try this one, Indigobloom :D

Sipdown! Thanks Sil!

Blech. I brewed this one up pretty strong, and that was a mistake; although the strawberry flavour in here is fairly apparent (though rather fake, not that I care about that), I’m getting an overwhelming medicinal taste from the rooibos which is making me gag. Perhaps it would be ok if brewed for a shorter time or with a higher water:leaf ratio, but I can’t undo what I’ve done! (Well, I could add more water. We’ll see.)

Anyways, interesting to try a flavoured rooibos all the way from China! I wish it had been honeybush, sigh.

Sipdown! And dayyyum, this is AMAZING with some maple syrup! So amazing that I’ll probably pick some up in the fall. Wish I’d tried it like that sooner.

Almost gone :( I think there’s maybe a scant travel mug’s worth left of this one now. Luckily, I have a few others to replace it, so I won’t need to pick up any more for a while. This one’s tasty as always, although I think my tastebuds are craving something a bit fruitier right now… I wish I had time to go investigate and find exactly what they want, but I really don’t…

I really should have brewed up Mi Xian black for comparison. I steeped this one a bit longer today, more like 4.5 minutes, and it reminds me a lot more of Gui Fei oolong. Which is great, but I think I preferred a bit of a shorter infusion. Definitely won’t top PTA for me though!

This tea depresses me. It smells so caramely/mapley delicious, so much so that my tiny 3-serving baggie-ful of it made my entire room smell like deliciousness… but the taste just doesn’t match up at all. I used a lower temp this time (probably 85C or so), and about a 3.5 minute infusion and while it’s not terrible, it’s just not very tasty. It reminds me, actually, of Della Terra’s The Malt Shop… similarly malty flavour, delicious aroma, but doesn’t deliver delicious flavour.

Yum. Should have steeped it stronger, though. I really love the nuttiness in here!

Had a cup of this one yesterday. It didn’t quite hit the spot; I guess I wasn’t craving a smoky tea like I thought I was! It definitely smelled like smoked salmon in a cup. Once I have a bit more free time, I am dying to marinate some chicken and/or fish in lapsang… (not this one though. Something less refined.)

No notes yet.

No notes yet.

Oops, accidental oversteep. And then I forgot about it until this morning. But then I drank it anyhow! And it was good and nutty. I should have requested free samples from Infussion when I had the chance. Sigh. Thanks to Raritea for this one!

No notes yet.

No notes yet.

Thanks to Sil for a sample of this one.

Now, this tea is coming off as kind of weird for me. It’s not particularly strong, although I followed the brewing instructions (not intentionally, I just happened to go with a 2-min infusion!). It’s also seeming to be a bit mariney?? The odds of it having been contaminated and ending up tasting like that are quite slim, so I have to assume that it’s an intentional note in the tea… Yeah, this is just weird. The aftertaste is honey-like and nice, but the initial flavour is verging on unpleasant.

I will admit that I did not rinse; I will try to remember to do that next time I give this a shot. I may have also underleafed, though I can’t see how that would have contributed to the weird flavour, just to the seeming weakness.

Thanks to whatshesaid for a bit of this tea, which I previously missed out on! I was curious to see how it stacked up to Della Terra’s Lemon/Lime Chiffon. As it turns out? Not that well. It’s lemony, but the cream I was hoping for was only present in the aroma, not the flavour. It tastes a bit off a well, which is probably an age thing (or possibly, a rind thing, as I sometimes have an aversion to citrus rind). I’m not finding that it’s tart, as most other people did, just that it’s kind of bitter.

Anyhow, can’t say I’m sad that this one’s been discontinued. Even at its freshest I highly doubt it would have bested the Della Terra versions.

I don’t think milk was the best idea, here. Definitely not tasting tamarind; just tasting sweetened/milk-added black tea. Which is annoying because I definitely smelled tamarind when I opened the bag. I think I’ll try a shorter infusion with this one next time, if I remember; perhaps it will bring out more tamarind and less black tea base. (Also, I will sweeten but not add milk. If I remember. Haha.)