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Kristal drank Cedar Tips by International House of Tea

415 tasting notes

A re-review of this tea.

Original tasting note: “One of the teas I got from Christmas from the husband :) I wanted to try some different things. I just placed the tips directly in the boiled water and let it steep continuously. The result is a mild woody taste (obviously to be expected).”

I actually brought down the rating from 70 to 60. Reason being: I broke up the cedar tips into small, manageable pieces and mixed them with the Violet Leaf tea I also got from IHOT. I’ve been using up the mixed teas at work (I put measured amounts in paper filters and steep in in my timolino, which retains heat like nothing else) and I find the cedar to be very powerful. I don’t mind mild woody tastes like rooibos of honeybush, but when steeped for too long the cedar is much too woody for my taste. Therefore, I’ve been careful about the steeping time with this tea. I think the reason why I didn’t mind this tea at first was because I just steeped it in a mug where the water cools down quickly and therefore not much of the wood taste is released. In the timolino, it stays at a very hot temperature for a long time and it’s very powerful way to steep.

Flavors: Cedar, Wood

Preparation

205 °F / 96 °C 16 OZ / 473 ML

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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.