310 Tasting Notes
Chris_s gave me a sample sized package of this as a gift. I really appreciate getting to try it since it sells for $30/2 oz. It’s like gold. And it’s color is also like gold; a light gold anyway. This is a very light white tea. When i first took a sip, I didn’t taste anything. And then, wait for it… wait for it… there. The flavors are present in the aftertaste. And it has a really long finish (a good 20-30 seconds). The flavors mutate as you sit through the finish. In the aftertaste, I taste peaches and something almost floral. I don’t get the orange that others mentioned except maybe at the way end.
I wasn’t sure I used enough tea because it came out so light. Then I stuck the tea leaves back in the water for another minute and that really made a huge difference. So, go with 4 min.
This tea is so delicate that I didn’t add any sweetener to it, because I am pretty sure it would overwhelm it. It doesn’t need it (and I add sweetener to pretty much everything).
Update – So interesting… Now that the tea is cooled to the point where it is just warm, I am getting the citrusy orange flavor.
Preparation
With the rest of the sample that chris_s gave me of this tea, I made a small pot of tea for me and husband. It’s snowing here and I’m stuck up the mountain working from home again. This is a perfect afternoon tea. It’s very very minty. The chocolate is more of a background flavor to the mint today. I really like it… not as much as Florence, but it’s really good.
Preparation
It’s a happy happy day when a co-worker (chris_s) brings me samples of Harney’s teas to try. The first one I’m trying is this Chocolate Mint. It smells absolutely fantastic and after smelling it, I couldn’t stop thinking about it until I got up and made a cup. Once brewed, the cup is very chocolately and everyone in the office can smell it. The mint is mostly present in the sip. It tastes like Andes Candies in a mug. Sadly, I don’t think I brewed it quite right as it is a little weak. It still tastes great even weak. I used 2 tsp for about 3 min at what I thought was boiling water (hard to tell at work with microwave as a kettle). Anyone have recommendations for amount of tea per 12 oz mug or steeping time?
PS – he also brought me Harney’s Spiced Plum, Harney’s Vintage Silver Tips, and Man Teas Maple Bacon… so you can look forward to those reviews coming soon!
Preparation
Yum ! This is really good. I don’t know why this sample has been sitting in my drawer for so long. Maybe just simply because I mostly drink teas/tisanes without caffeine. In any case, I’m working from home today (because I couldn’t get down the mountain this morning to work) and I needed a pick-me-up. I dug around in my tea drawer and voila, Hong Jing Luo.
I don’t think I brewed this strong enough, but it tastes great anyway. It’s earthy, not astringent, and has an interesting floral note in the background. I could also smell this floral (almost like jasmine) before brewing. I’m not quite getting the cocoa notes or raisin notes, but that is probably because its a little too weak. The leaves of this tea are gorgeous too!
Preparation
I’ve been thinking about this tea since I had it at the tea shop and I finally had some money in the budget to order it. I went to specialteas.com to get it and it was gone. I was sad so I went to my local tea shop to see if they had some left (they charge 2x as much). They did but when I mentioned that it was gone from SpecialTeas, they told me that SpecialTeas is closing shop!
Anyway, I brewed some when I got home last night and the rose petals overwhelmed everything. It was awful. Why do tea makers put rose petals in tea to make it pretty? Bleah. Perhaps the pot I had in the tea shop happened to not have any/many of the rose petals in it? I’m going to try it again but I am going to pick out the rose petals before I brew it and see if that makes a difference. I guess I am not as sad about not being able to get more of this when my tea shop runs out. I’ll post again about this tea sans rose petals.
Lowering the rating for stupid rose petals.
This tea really threw my brain for a loop. I think I was expecting it to taste like Celestial Seasoning’s Nutcracker Sweet. It couldn’t be further from that tea. The black tea base in this is really smooth (as always from Harneys). The flavor is truly like a fresh orange with cloves stuck in it. I really like it but I’m not a huge citrus in tea fan so I won’t order any more of this one. But it if you like oranges and mulling spices then you should definitely try it.
Preparation
After a lot of mixed and bad reviews on this I was very hesitant to try it. I ordered a sample anyway as anything with the word Christmas or Holiday was appealing when I was ordering tea last week. I have to say I like it. It’s complex and yummy. And complex. It keeps me thinking about what I am tasting while I drink it.
Initially I taste a nice white tea. Then it morphs into a light orangey creamsicle. Then I get the cardamom. Then I get the almond. And then in the finish, white tea. It’s got a nice nuttiness under the whole sip.
I definitely like it. Not sure I’d want a whole tin, but I like it enough to throw another sample into my cart the next time I order from them.
Preparation
TeaEqualsBliss sent me a sample of this one. Thanks!
It brews to a pretty reddish color and smells a little like blueberry. I’m not tasting much blueberry in it. I really wanted the blueberry to have a big punch. The rooibos is a not-noticable background player. So, meh. That’s my rating.
Not sure if this lost some flavor over the months; maybe that’s why I don’t love it as much as TeaEqualsBliss.
