Lindsey

Sipdown! Thanks to QueenofTarts for swapping! Finished off the remaining sample by brewing up a nice big mug.

The dry form of this one is so pretty; beautiful, light little spindly curls for leaves. They open up nicely when steeped.

I don’t think this smells like chocolate. I think it smells (unsurprisingly) like a Chinese black tea. The color of the liquor is a beautiful dark mahogany-brown. Tastes predominantly like a smooth & malty black with notes of chocolate. (I think the base tea is also caramely, as I’m picking that up, but can’t imagine they’d add caramel flavoring without labeling it so.)

To be honest, if I was given this tea in an unlabeled/blind taste-test (without ever having tried it before), I’m not sure if I’d be able to tell you “chocolate flavored black.” Perhaps my palate isn’t developed enough yet (w/r/t tea; I’m aces with beer), but I think I would guess that it was an unflavored black that was malty and had caramel and chocolate-like undertones.

That said… ‘tis good. Very good. The base tea in this is wonderful. I just don’t find it overwhelmingly chocolatey, which could be a plus or negative, depending on your tastes.

ETA: Whoo-hoo, I might get down to under 50 in the cupboard today! So what if I have a shipment of 7 new teas due to come in tomorrow? It’s still a goal achievement for today!

Things that are not this tea’s fault:
1. I used a cheap infuser basket that left little pieces of leaf escape into my tea
2. I forget to set my timer, so I have no idea how long I steeped
3. I was impatient, so the water may have been a tad too cool

Things that are this tea’s fault:
1. The chili is a little milder than I’d like
2. It screams for creamer to get a real hot chocolate consistency, which makes me up my calorie intake (But oh-so-very worth it! Decadent!)
3. It makes me crave MOAR CHOCOLATE
4. It always makes me want another cup…or 12. And a chocolate bar…or 10.

This is wonderful, even if it is inappropriate for late May.
If that’s wrong, I don’t wanna be right!

I think I’ve said all there is to say about this tea. It’s great. I’m just logging it because I think that I will sadly soon be out, and I need to keep reminding myself to do a better job at hoarding it!

(My other tasting notes are more detailed, I’m sure.)

Holy sweet tea, Batman! Cold-brewed my free sample of Pom Tango. When I was adding the leaf, there was a HUGE slice of dried mango in there. I decided to steep it instead of just rinsing it off and eating it. (That took some serious self-control, let me tell ya.)

Anyways… this steeped up to a much lighter color than I expected for a black tea. It’s the same gold color as champagne! Taste is sweet. Like, really sweet. Like, “I can’t believe I didn’t add sugar to this” sweet. Like, “you sure this is black tea and not a tisane?”sweet. You get the point.

Tastes predominantly like mango, and not much like pomegranate. Though that may just be because my sample packet was mango-heavy. It’s hard to really get a feel for a tea when you only have a tiny bit to dig through. I’m enjoying this glass; it makes me feel like I’m drinking fruit juice!

Ugh, I am so not in the mood to focus on work today. Maybe a cup of this nice, bold blend will kick start my concentration?

Probably not, but I’m enjoying it anyways.

You know why I love Steepster? (Or, one of the reasons, at least.) Because I learn so much from all of you awesome people. Like cold brewing. I’d never heard of the wonder of cold brewing until I joined here. I used to make my iced tea like a barbarian! Boiling water on hot, sweaty days just to steep and pour over ice. And I’d always over-ice, so I would have to guzzle it down before it all melted and watered-down the tea.

But now, thanks to your knowledge, I just toss some tea and water in a big ol’ Mason jar, let it sit in the fridge overnight, and voila! Perfect ice cold tea ready to go. You’re all geniuses, I tell you, Genius!

So yeah, I cold brewed my sample of this. I’m not normally a huge fan of mate, but this one is good. I think the green rooibos helps to cut the mate taste. It’s very juicy, just like a big bite of melon. When I had tried this hot, I got more of an artificial watermelon taste (Anyone else remember Bubbalicious Watermelon?). But cold, it tastes more actual honeydew! And the smell… pure overripe melon goodness.

I’ve very much fallen out of “love” with this tea. It’s a bit too sweet & floral for my preferences. But, I’ve only enough left for 2 cups, so I shall diligently drink it up to achieve another sipdown today. (Need to make room on my shelf for the Summer Collection!)

Added a bit of milk to the cup to try and mellow out the floweriness a bit, and I have to say I’m liking it a little better this way. I won’t change my rating, because there was time when I liked this better than I do now.

Sipdown! Yay, working my way back down to a manageable 50 (plus a few samples, but those don’t count, right?)

ETA: I fail on the trimming down my cupboard front. I needed a new iced tea pitcher, so just ordered one from DavidsTea… along with 2 individual teas + the entire summer collection. Sigh, I’m incorrigible.

Of course the one morning that I prepare a bunch of cold brew teas, it’s cold and rainy out! Of course.

Anyways, I cold brewed this up last night for my AM drive to work. Even though today was perhaps better suited for a hot cup, I still enjoyed it. Cold brewing seemed to wake up the caramel flavor quite nicely, as I noticed it a bit more than usual. As always, the assam base in this is smooth, rich, and lovely. Tiny bit of astringency, but I did leave the leaves in for 11 hours. Think it would have been perfect around 8-9 hours, but it was still awesome, so I’m not complaining!

Cold-brewed this one overnight and enjoyed it this morning. Delicious! Sweet, buttery and tastes like wonderful, lovely coconut. No complaints.

Popped this into the fridge at work around 10ish this morning to cold brew and am enjoying it now. So, I guess that’s around a 6 hour steep-time?

It’s really enjoyable cold. A little sweet-tartness (in a good way!) from the raspberries, and I’m also getting something creamy, that I don’t quite pick-up as much when tasting it hot.

I’ll have to start cold-brewing this one more often!

No notes yet.

First infusion 4min @ boiling: Smells really unique – almost like musty asparagus. (Not that asparagus can really get musty, but you know, I’d imagine this is what it would smell like if it did.) Color is a really fun golden purple; as if someone mixed apple juice with watered-down grape juice. Tastes… burnt? Maybe ‘roasty’ is a better word. It’s possible that I under-leafed, as I’m getting only a mild taste. I’m not noticing any astringency while it’s piping hot. Wait… now that’s it’s cooled off, it is getting a little astringent.

Second infusion 5min @ 180: Probably would have made more sense to do the lower temp first, but was early in the morning, and logic escaped me. Color is lighter, like a muddy gold. I guess it could be perceived as having a lavender tint, but honestly I wonder if that’s just because I’m looking really hard for something “purple.” The smell is faintly sweet, rather than asparagus-y. I think I like this cup better than the first. It’s a subtle flavor – tastes like a green and black tea blend. I used less water this time around, but it’s still pretty weak (due in part to boiling first, I’m sure) so I don’t think I’ll bother with a third steep.

Overall, this is a very drinkable tea. I’m glad I got the chance to sample it!

No notes yet.

Thanks to Jackie T, I’m finally getting to try this one. (I’ve been curious about it for a while now.)

First impression (dry): Holy cow, this has a LOT going on! I don’t have access to an actual ingredient list (Teavana’s website is so unhelpful), but it looks like there’s peppercorn, dried cardamom pods, cocoa pieces, chopped-up nuts, a tiny bit of rooibos, coconut flakes, and a bunch of other stuff I can’t recognize. Smells good. Like, really good. Chocolate and something a little bit minty? Not sure where that’s coming from, but it smells a tiny bit like a mild Read My Lips, almost.

First impression (steeped): Still smells good. Not getting that odd mintiness anymore. The liquor that this makes up is, well frankly, gross looking. It’s pale and murky – almost looks like dirty, scummy fish tank water. That’s not doing much for my appetite… :/

First sips (no additions): Whoa, that’s sweet! Almost sickeningly sweet. When I was searching for an ingredients list, I read a review that said to add Stevia. Ugh, I can’t even imagine how bad and overly sweet that would taste! Glad I tried it plain first. Seriously, it’s got that whole tongue-tingly feeling I get when I eat frosting or something heavily sugared. It doesn’t taste like a naturally occurring sweetness, so I wonder what they added to get it that way. Sadly, I’m getting no salt.

(Adds milk) Now it tastes more like chocolate. Sweet milk chocolate. And I’m getting a light caramel flavor – like the kind of caramel you get chocolate bars, rather than the thick, slightly burnt, stovetop caramel that I love. Ok, that “minty” smell I picked up before must actually be anise, because I’m tasting crazy licorice, especially in the end of the sip. Still no salt (sad face).

I’m glad I was able to try this one without purchasing it. It wasn’t really what I was hoping for – a thick, dark, chocolatey caramel tea with a punch of salt. Mmmm…if anyone knows of a tea like that, let me know!

Sipdown! Thanks for the sample, JennyFur!

I’m getting mostly orange from this one. Not really detecting too much from the “brulee” aspect, other than maybe some extra sweetness and a little bit of a thicker mouthfeel. (Although that last part is probably from the oolong, more than anything.)

A nice, sweet, citrusy oolong, none the less.

I love this tea. The leaves unfurl to these beautiful, big, dark chocolate leaves on steeping. It’s malty, smooth, and complex with layers of flavor.

I can’t say that I’ve ever perceived cinnamon in my tastings, but I do seem to always get a taste or mouthfeel of caramel – particularly after I swallow.

It’s so wonderful that I can hardly believe I’m not drinking a flavored tea. This is far and away the best assam I’ve ever tasted.

Hmmm… So this is my third or fourth time tasting this one, but I’m still not sure what I think of it.

I wish it was just pure rooibos, and not a rooibos-ceylon mix, because I can’t really tolerate caffeine late in the afternoon, so that kind of limits what time I can/cannot drink it. Anyways, this is a very pretty tea in it’s dry form.

I can’t really make much of it’s taste, though. Sometimes it reminds me almost of bubblegum? Occasionally I can taste something like vanilla, but other sips are just bland.

I don’t know – maybe I’ll play around with sweetening it and see what happens.

A bit of a late start on tea drinking today. I wanted a cup of something sweet, so I brewed this one up, and it did the trick perfectly. This one doesn’t need any additions to taste like dessert in a cup!

This was good, but I found that it had a very mild flavor, which was surprising for something containing cloves! It tasted more like a spice cake (which could be a carrot spice cake, I suppose) than a cupcake to me. Nothing in there to simulate cream cheese or sweet frosting.

I do have to say that it’s an improvement on David’s Tea Carrot Cake, which stunk of artificial perfume. This one actually smelled of the ingredients – mostly cinnamon & clove. It would make a good autumnal tea, with its harvest spices, so it’s interesting that they did a limited release of it during the spring months.

As a side note, what is up with calendula petals in all in my tea?! I was curious about it yesterday, so I did a little research, and apparently, calendula petal is “the poor man’s saffron.” It’s supposed to have a slightly bitter, peppery flavor that can be either tangy or salty, and it’s commonly used in soup stock. Seems like an odd choice for tea, to me! (Not that I think I’m tasting any of those flavors, but that’s the flavor it’s supposed to impart.)

I’m having a very blueberry morning today; oatmeal sweetened with TSTE Blueberry sugar and a hot cup of Blueberry Black (also sweetened with said sugar). Delicious. And the smell… I could huff my pouch of this tea all day long. It’s better than a scented candle.

See previous tasting note for details.

Exactly what flavor do Calundula petals impart on tea? They’re in a ton of the flavoreds that I have – Weeping Angel, Rhubard + Custard, Carrot Cupcake, this one, and on and on – but what do they do? Do they add any flavor or just look pretty? It’s a great mystery to me.

Anyways, I’m sampling this one thanks to QueenofTarts. The steeped smell is that of honeyed vanilla. It actually reminds me more of honeybush than rooibos – sort of a sweet, woody scent.

I took a sip of it plain at around 5 minutes, but it didn’t taste much. So I added some brown rock sugar and let it steep for another minute or so. The taste is still mild, but it’s better. Again it’s reminding me of honeybush. The taste is honeyed, with kind of a vaguely syrupy quality. I’m finding that the vanilla is noticeable more in the aftertaste than in the sip itself.

No notes yet.

So, when I found out that River will be returning for next week’s finale episode, I did a little happy dance! And then I promptly brewed a cup of this tea to celebrate. :-)

See previous tasting notes.