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415 tasting notes

In an effort to use up my herbals, I have bought a number of stronger tasting fruit teas to mix in with weaker herbals to create iced tea with. I normally really dislike hibiscus because of how tart it is, but when mixed with the other teas it can be pleasant as an iced tea.

For this 2L pitcher of iced tea, I mixed in 4 “perfect spoonfuls” (about 10 tsp) of this tea with 3 perfect spoonfuls (about 6-7tsp) of plain lemongrass tea. I used boiling water and stuck the pitcher in my freezer for 2h, then removed the filter (which contains the tea), then after another 2h when the tea was cool, I moved it to the fridge to further cool off so I wouldn’t forget about it overnight.

The smell of the dry leaves is VERY fruity and citrusy, but the taste of the chilled tea is more tart with a citrus aftertaste. I don’t think my lemongrass mixture would have affected the taste dramatically; if anything I believe it cut the crazy tartness hibiscus usually has to a more pleasant level. I found this iced tea I made to be tart, a little sour, and a bit citrusy, but overall refreshing. Between my husband, his friend/coworker, and myself this tea will go in no time. However, with that being said, I do not think I will repurchase this one due to the fact the hibiscus tartness is the main taste. I will try to cut the steeping time wayyyy shorter to see if that helps, but overall I know there are better teas i can use to mix herbals with and make iced teas.

Flavors: Citrus, Hibiscus, Sour, Tart

Preparation

Boiling 8 min or more

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Kristal
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Update: I made another pitcher in the same manner as the one in the tasting note EXCEPT I shortened the steeping time to about 7 min. The result is a tea that is much less tart. However, my stance remains that there are other fruit teas (even with hibiscus) that I like better so I will finish off what I have and leave it at that.

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Bio

I used to drink coffee, but it started to hurt my stomach so I switched to tea. A friend of mine introduced me to DAVID’s TEA and I couldn’t stop after that! I’ve now been expanding my scope beyond DAVIDs away from “candy-like teas” into more natural teas or flavourings. Current favourite stores include International House of Tea (iHOT) and Verdant Tea.

When it comes to tea ratings, I usually only ever rate them once. I know a lot of people on steepster do many tasting notes for the same teas depending on their mood, but I prefer to rate once and if my opinion changes, I will delete the old note and rate again. How I rate teas goes as following:

1-49: Teas I won’t buy again. Either the taste is disgusting to me, or it’s too bland, etc. I’m most likely not even going to finish the tin/bag.

50-59: Teas I wouldn’t buy again; I have to force myself to drink the whole cup to not waste it.

60-69: I’ll finish the cup and even the bag/tin, but I wouldn’t buy these teas again. Teas of this rating are “lacking something”.

70-79:Teas that are pretty good and ones I might buy again. Usually these teas are ones I have to be “in the mood for” and drink occasionally.

80-89: Great teas! Ones I will drink several times a week and often have in my stash :).

90-100: Favourite must-have teas!

My favourite types of tea are green tea and different types of “natural” herbal tea (different herbs, natural flavourings, etc). I cannot drink black or oolong teas due a sensitive stomach. I don’t really go for white tea due to its cost and the fact that it has just a little caffeine (if I want caffeine I’ll just go for a green tea and if I don’t I’ll go for a herbal-no sense on just having a little caffeine). I also like to do iced teas in the summer time, and then I’ll gravitate towards herbal fruit blends that are bagged to cut costs and convenience (it’s easier to throw out bags than clean a filter). Flavours I don’t care for include anything too tart, bitter, artificial, overly spicy or overly sweet.
Also, when I have time (usually when I’m not working much) I like to make tea lattes out of different rooibos blends.

My everyday green tea is Gunpowder since it is strong and not sensitive to temperatures or steeping time which is something I cannot be bothered with when I’m getting ready for work. Other greens I enjoy are dragonwell, sencha, and different Chinese greens. I’m not the biggest fan of yunnan greens since they are so finicky (although I do like gyokuro)

On a day to day basis I usually have 2-3 cups of green tea and several more cups of different herbal blends.

Besides tea I also work at a couple libraries (I am finishing my library tech diploma),am in my early 20s and got married in Oct 2014.