Kittenna

First to review this in spite of being sent it from not one, but two people?? Ok…!

Steeped, the smell is definitely reminiscent of DavidsTea’s Creme Caramel Rooibos. Not surprising. Sweet and caramelly and delicious, but not nearly as strong (DT’s is rather overpoweringly sweet).

Taste-wise, this is definitely a bit different. I can taste the rooibos, but it’s secondary to a light caramelly flavour, which is actually quite tasty. Tasty enough for me to have almost gulped down my whole mug already. I think I could have used an extra 1/2 tsp or so of the dry tisane (I used three heaping 1/2 tsps already in my regular-sized mug) just to make it a little stronger, since I like my teas flavourful.

I can’t recall if I steeped this one for four or five minutes the first time, but the second infusion was for quite a while (i.e. I forgot about it). The second infusion has less flavour overall, but the rooibos is even more in the background compared to the caramelly notes. Probably worth the second infusion, but perhaps in half the amount of water to concentrate the flavour a little more.

Thanks for the sample, Amanda!! I think I’ve almost gone through my whole package from you now :D

Dry, this tea really doesn’t smell like much. Steeped, it smells like a fairly standard chai. Perhaps with a bit of creaminess.

Hmm, ok, while I think it could have used an extra minute or two, it’s good, albeit rather weak! I can taste the spices, although they are rather subtle with only 3 minutes of infusion time, but there’s a lingering coconutty creaminess which is nice. I don’t usually like chais without milk/sugar, but this one might be an exception.

Not a tea that I think I’d rush out and buy (mostly because I have tooonss of chais right now), but it’s nice! Thanks Indigobloom!

ETA: Second infusion for five minutes definitely tastes less creamy, and stronger. I’m getting an orange flavour, but that might be from something I just ate. Will have to wait another moment to try… Ok, this infusion tastes much more like a regular chai. Maybe there’s a bit of coconut/creaminess at the end of the sip, but not a ton. Not bad, but I don’t think we’ll continue to a third infusion tonight. I want to try more teas!

Rinsed the leaves at 208F for 15 seconds, then a second brief rinse with slightly cooler water. Used about 7g of nuggets.

First infusion (205F/4min):
Smells a bit earthy. Tastes a bit like dirt. In spite of what I thought was over-steeping, I don’t think it suffered for that extra minute. In fact, I think it could stand to be stronger.

Second infusion (205F/3min):
Less dirt flavour, more sweetness? Still not getting any of the flavours that other people have.

Third infusion (205F/4min):
Again a bit less dirt flavour, a bit more sweetness.

Hmm, ok. This is my first straight pu’er (other than the one from my roommate), and I’m not sure what exactly I think. Wondering if I put enough tea in – my scale may have messed up a bit; it was a nugget plus a couple partials. Or maybe my rinse(s) weren’t done correctly. It wasn’t bad, but wasn’t particularly impressive either, in my opinion. Maybe pu’ers just aren’t for me? Either way, I’ve ordered the sampler from Verdant, as well as 1oz. of another one, so I will know soon if pu’er is my thing or not.

Reserving a rating until I’ve tried this one again.

Oh man oh man oh man. This one smells pretty normal dry, but WOW does it smell delicious while steeping! Floral! Honey-like! Citrusy?! So much so that I cannot wait to try it! Screw normal logging procedures…

Yes. This one is delicious. Honey-like and a bit floral, this is not like green teas I’ve really had before. I steeped the first infusion (175F) for one minute, and I can taste it just getting to be the slightest bit astringent – next time I’d go for perhaps 45 seconds. Delicious green tea aftertaste as well. Ah. Yum!

Second infusion (175F/2min):
Smells floral. Tastes much like the first infusion, which trust me, is not an issue. YUM.

Third infusion (175F/2min):
Losing flavour here, but still good. A bit floral.

I’m very impressed. I don’t know if the flavours here are typical of a Jing Shan, but they are distinct and lovely. My note doesn’t do them justice. I’m just too distracted to write anything better right now.

The flavours do remind me of Treasuregreen’s Emerald (Silver), but it hangs on a lot longer with this tea, and astringency is definitely less of a problem. It’s also less vegetal.

Very impressed though! Another hit from Verdant :D Good thing, since I just made two more orders…

Will have to re-review this one more later, but it’s definitely a “juice” tea! Yum.

It smells tasty and fruity, and tastes similarly. In particular, it tastes like strawberry jam. To be even more specific, it tasted like President’s Choice Twice The Fruit Strawberry Jam. Haha :P Which I do quite like.

The only funny part was that I was tasting a soapiness in the tea. Now, I won’t blame the tea until I’ve tried it in a different mug – my travel mug (non-Timolino) is plastic and sometimes a bit funny tasting. So I’m really hoping this is a one-time thing, because I did enjoy it otherwise!

Tried a little sample of this one today, hoping that maybe it would be THE pear tea I’m looking for! No such lucky, sadly. It was definitely nice and light and pleasant, but the pear was far more subtle than I want. I think I may have to admit that I’m looking for a tea that tastes like a pear Jelly Belly, and infuses reliably. So the one I want will probably have flavouring added. Sad sad.

No rating because I didn’t drink enough of it to give a fair score :)

Awwww! Indigobloom was incredibly generous and gave me her last/close to last bit of this tea to try for myself! As part of an ENORMOUS amount of other samples! So excited; naturally I had to start trying things tonight, and clearly started with this one :D

Short note b/c I shouldn’t be on here at all. Too much work left.

It smells much like Golden Moon’s Coconut Pouchong to me. Kind of a toasty, tasty coconut flavour. Taste-wise it’s similar, but better. In which way, you ask? Damned if I know :P I suspect it’s the base, actually. I don’t recall exactly what I thought of Coconut Pouchong, but although I liked it, I seem to remember feeling like something was off. Definitely not the case here. I clearly should have brewed up about four infusions of it while I was downstairs, but now am going to have to wait until tomorrow (so tired).

Definitely leaving this on my purchase list for some time in the distant future. It is delicious. Thanks again Indigobloom! :D

ETA: Second infusion, same parameters, is pretty good. Quite coconutty. I would like to taste more oolong, but it’s quite lovely. Perhaps I’ll go for a third before I sleep tonight; we’ll see.

Drank this on the way to Toronto to meet up with Indigobloom!

Can’t remember details, but 3 minutes didn’t bring out enough black tea flavour, but the coconut was AMAZING. Started by drinking the second infusion, which was ok, and the first was like coconut heaven. More detailed notes to come next time I drink this.

Backlogging from yesterday morning. Oversteeped this (probably 5-6 mins) and no bitterness/astringency! Very impressed. So good.

Gave my roommate the 2oz. package I bought in my last order since I now have 4oz. on the way. She brewed some up tonight, and there was a cup’s worth leftover, so I nabbed it :D Apparently oversweetened it a touch tonight (tastes rather caramelly), but it’s tasty and spicy. Here’s hoping it doesn’t give me heartburn.

Backlog from late yesterday. It wasn’t as good. But I find nothing at work really is. Stupid hard water and crusty kettle :P

This is again a tea that’s pretty old, but not too old. Only maybe 3 years.

Steeped, this smells a little odd, but definitely like lavender. Lucky, because that’s how I figured out which one it was :D What’s annoying, however, are all the little lavendar flowers floating at the top of my cup. This is supposed to be strained, I guess.

The taste is difficult to place. It’s weird. I think I can taste the white tea… oh yes, it’s definitely in the aftertaste, and I think I’m tasting lavender. Not getting hibiscus at all (this is relieving, actually). Will update this later if I can figure out what I’m tasting.

Probably not a tea I’d pick for myself. I think I like lavender in small doses, but this is a bit much. I’m also not really sold on flowering teas. I care about flavour, not presentation :P (Yes, I know the tea experience is visual as well, but that’s not the biggest part of it for me.)

ETA: Egh, I think I can taste the hibiscus in the second infusion. Also white tea aftertaste, which is good (also prominent in the first infusion, whereas hibiscus wasn’t). The hibiscus doesn’t work here, IMO. So decent marks for the white tea, but minus points for weird hibiscus tart bitterness.

AUGH! Seriously, I keep getting a lavender bud in my mouth and thinking it’s a bug. Ick.

Feel like I can smell some spice tonight, and getting some chocolate taste, but especially compared to 52teas Mayan Chocolate Chai, this is just not worth it.

Tasting much more baked-goodsy flavour tonight, and less strawberry. Sad, I wanted strawberry. Sigh. At least I can taste the green tea, and it stood up to my accidental almost-five-minutes of steeping.

No notes yet.

Well I guess the crappiness of today has a second bright spot – the arrival of my matcha from Red Leaf Tea!

I’ll write a longer note later, but so far I’m sold. Having it as an agave-sweetened regular almond milk latte. The only concern? I swear it tastes like strawberry, not vanilla. But that could just be something funny that I’m tasting. It’s still delicious, and now I’m dying to try the actual strawberry one! And mango. And French vanilla. And…

ETA: Ok, so this was so much better than I was expecting! The flavouring tasted natural, not fake, and the matcha was obviously not low quality. The flavouring also didn’t overpower the lovely matcha flavour (I’m sure that might be a different story if I went for stronger flavouring options – which by the way is SUCH a good idea!) Another plus is that I didn’t find the matcha as bitter as straight matchas I’ve tried, so when mixed with regular almond milk, which is somewhat sweet, I definitely felt like extra sweetener was unnecessary. However, I needed an energy kick, so threw in a bit of agave syrup as well. The reduced bitterness also makes me feel like this might be a good matcha to try straight – which I haven’t been brave enough to try yet!

One of the best parts? I left about half my latte sitting in my car while I went to practice handbells with my group, and when i got back to my car it smelled SO WONDERFUL inside! And the smell is still lingering. It’s delightful. And definitely smells like vanilla, not strawberry, so who knows what’s up with my tastebuds.

Rough day. Good thing I brought this one to work. Sigh.

Truthfully, only picked this one up because I need to TRYALLTHETEAS. It smells like Three Wishes Tea. I think I’m not as big of a fan of rose petals in tea as I thought I was.

Dry tea is perfumey, like rose petals. That’s about it.

The steeped tea smells perfumey, but bearably so. Likewise, that is how it tastes. I was scant on the leaf to avoid feeling like I drank a bottle of perfume, and I think I succeeded. This isn’t bad. For the third time, can’t taste the green tea.

It’s not bad, but I think this will be going into the swap pile. Not my favourite.

I didn’t think this tea was supposed to be out until tomorrow (ok, today), but it was there, so I bought it! I initially thought it would be loaded with juniper and other icky things, but it sounded interesting enough for me to give it a try. I have a weird feeling it’s going to be rather tart though…

The dry tea has a very interesting aroma. I honestly can’t place it at all. A bit of berry tart/sweetness, and perhaps I’m smelling the sea lettuce. It’s quite a strong aroma, as well. Also, the girl at DavidsTea was nice enough to load my package with fruit :D Cost more, but oh well!

Steeped, I’m primarily smelling blueberries. Yup. That’s about it.

Ok – definitely not tart like I was expecting! Actually rather refreshing. Tastes sweet and a bit like blueberries. I’m not placing the other flavours, but it’s cool on the palate. Again, no apparent green tea flavour, but I’m sure it’s there.

I think this one might be good cold-steeped. I think the berries need more time to infuse into the brew, personally, particularly the cranberries as there were a bunch in the infuser and I’m not tasting any cranberry (or if I am, I’m attributing it to something else).

Much better than I was expecting! Pleasant surprise :)

NEW TEA FRENZY! Can’t believe my local DavidsTea had all three out today when I went to restock some Chocolate Cake! Nice surprise :D

Dry tea smells deliciously fruity, and although I might not have figured it out on my own, it does smell like kiwi. Interesting!

Steeped, it definitely has a different sort of fruity smell than usual. A sort of tropical fruitiness, but not pineapple.

The taste is sweet and light, and the aftertaste is of kiwi. No obvious green tea flavour, but I’m sure it adds body. There’s a small amount of kiwi-like tartness and astringency (definitely from the fruit, not the tea).

Overall quite pleasing! Better than some of the other greens I’ve tried from Davids lately. Not likely a re-stock, but I’ll have an enjoyable few cups of it :)

Thanks to Frank for letting me keep this little ‘oops’ in my order – I wanted Strawberry Pie Honeybush, but got this one instead! Now the honeybush is en route, and I get to enjoy an unexpected treat. Yay!

The dry tea and steeping liquor smell amazingly of strawberries. It’s not entirely authentic to me, but I admittedly like fakey strawberry flavours, so I really don’t care. As it has cooled some now, the aroma reminds me quite a bit of sugared strawberries like my mom makes in the summer for over ice cream (i.e. sliced strawberries mixed with white sugar to create a syrup). Makes me really hungry. My stomach is growling like crazy (I don’t think I’ve eaten very much today, oops.)

Mm, it definitely tastes fruity, not as fruity as I was expecting given the intensity of the aroma, but it’s nice. I can’t really taste the green tea, but I’m sure it’s lurking behind the strawberry, and I think I’m getting a hint of pancake at the end of the sip. Hmm, another few sips and I’ve changed my mind to tasting more green tea/buttery pancakey flavours at the beginning of the sip, and strawberry at the end.

I think it’s perhaps a stretch to call this a Strawberry Pancake tea, but it is quite a lovely strawberry green. I am definitely not going to have difficulties finishing off this package! I wonder what it’s like iced or cold brewed???

ETA: Second infusion has predictably less strawberry, but at three minutes, it does make a lovely lightly flavoured green tea! Oh man – I’m even getting the signature green tea flavour! Wonderful. Worthy of a second infusion simply because of that. Third infusion, however, is worthless. Fine by me, though! Makes my life easier :D (Ok, I shouldn’t say worthless. The flavour is just too much reduced for me. I think I’m getting some green tea flavour though, so would do this if I had no other tea around.)

So my first cup of this, waaay back when it first came out, was a major oversteep. This time I got it right…. I thought.

Aroma is fruity… and a touch plasticky?

Hmm. The flavour is a little off. There’s a touch of fruitiness, but mostly green tea flavour. Boo. I wonder if it needed a longer infusion to get more fruitiness, which would probably cause the green tea to oversteep.

Sigh. I thought this was good the first time I tried it, but if it’s not reliable….

Every day I drink an ancient tea (3+ years) from my cupboard, I give myself a pat on the back :D Go me!

So this one’s old, but not too old. As in, I think it is still going to taste reasonably true. Certainly smells like it! The dry teabag had little scent, but once it hit the water it did smell like delicious peachy goodness. I can smell a bit of creaminess too.

I remember as a kid always thinking that the peach-flavoured teabags were the best, and then heaping tons of honey into them because they were never as sweet as I wanted. Thankfully my palate has matured, and I no longer require massive amounts of sweetener, as long as a tea is not oversteeped and has some flavour.

I must say that this does taste like a bagged tea to me. Whether it’s the influence of the bag itself (i.e. papery taste) or just associations of this tea with bagged tea, I can’t tell. It is actually sweet, and the flavour does remind me of peaches, though. It’s actually a little bit like Southern Belle from DavidsTea, although with more peaches and no black tea (duh, it’s a herbal).

Not bad, but not a winner either.

Revisiting another tea I haven’t had in ages. Mmmmm, it’s good. I do think though, that this one may have been bumped by Malted ChocoMate, so I probably won’t be drinking it as often (or restocking much). I do like it, but for a caffeinated, treat-like afternoon-pick-me-up, I think my vote is now going to go elsewhere. No decrease in rating though; I still enjoy the lovely coconut/malty chocolate flavour.