Featured & Popular Tasting Notes

I keep forgetting about my swap with Evol Ving Ness because it is buried under a bunch of other boxes and bags. The bags that Evol used are pretty good so there is not cross contamination but the samples are on the older side. So fingers crossed this has not gone bad and also thank you Evol for the share, even if I have not given it as much attention as I should.

At first sip, nothing appears rancid. There is a lot of sweet and some cinnamon but not much distinct flavor. I guess dates are naturally sweet and this is naturally sweet but there is not a lot going on here. The more I drink, the more date flavor I get but the more sweetness that builds. So this gets a bit cloying. It is different than many other fruit tisanes but different isn’t always great and for me, this is not a favorite. However, I can see it being enjoyed by others.

In other news, yesterday was an interesting day. And by “interesting”, I mean terrible. I had to go in to my doctor’s office to get my blood test results. Since I don’t have vacation days at work, I started working at 7:30 am so I could leave at 3:30 pm to get to my doctor’s appointment at 4:45 pm across town. My concern was the subway getting packed at rush hour given my agoraphobia so I figured best to leave earlier and avoid the rush. However, that meant waking up at 5 am to get to work on time.

When I got to the doctor’s office, my doctor told me that there was something off about my results and she wanted to run more tests. That meant more blood work. I am terrified of needles so my mom came to pick me up from the doctor, assuming I would require more blood work. In the past, I have almost passed out from getting blood drawn and usually had to lie down but the past few times I have been fine so I got my blood drawn sitting up this time. The technician used a butterfly needle like they usually do for me but it took her a while and she had to keep moving the needle around. They took 8 tubes of blood and by the end, I started feeling very not ok. I asked my mom for a lollipop to get some sugars and they finished up the blood work.

That’s when shit hit the fan. I passed out. More than just passed out though. I had a seizure while I was out. So that happened. Thankfully my doctor is not overly concerned about it but its a pretty unsettling feeling. Plus, it meant taking off a day of work which was not my preference but I suppose its a valid response to having a seizure.

I really love this tea. It reminds me of being in Salem, sipping on tea on Halloween. Such a wonderful trip. Hopefully I can visit again soon!
As for the tea itself- it’s a lovely smoky vanilla. A nice balance of the subtle smoke, and richness of the vanilla.

Additional notes: I’m a little sick of writing tasting notes about ancient teas that say “the flavor isn’t the same”. That isn’t really fair to the tea because I’m a hoarder. But I also think I’ve been a hoarder for so long, that I can usually tell when a tea should have more or less flavor based on the age. I’m also sure Anne is sick of me mentioning aging teas. haha. But I think it’s more of a note for me to keep track of how fast teas age, so I don’t do that in the future.
Anyway… HAPPY TO REPORT: this tea as delicious as when I first had it! It’s a really great combination of ingredients. So mapley! The second steep too. Raising the rating from 84. I’m glad I got a full pouch from a grab bag… this tea might last a while.

I’ve been really impressed with everything I’ve tried from TeaVivre. This is no exception. It’s quite complex and multidimensional, and was an extremely enjoyable drinking experience.
It’s thick and slightly savory. Notes of molasses and white flowers follow. Baked brown bread and raisins are in the finish.

Dear God. My eleven year old niece is staying with me this weekend while her mother is out of town house hunting. I need caffeine this morning! Being single and childless, I am used to having everything stay the same. I mean, when I clean the kitchen, it stays pretty much clean unless I dirty it. Today there is a winter coat in the middle of the kitchen floor. One child sized boot is under the table, and the other is god knows where. I asked her and she got this blank look on her face and said “I don’t know.” She lost her phone twice in two hours. When she does have her phone, she’s on it texting her friends. She uses a different glass for each can of pop she’s had (she was supposed to have ONE) and leaves the glasses in the living room. As a treat I bought her PEEPS. (shudder. I hate those things) and she ate the entire package last night. She told me she gets up really early, so I showed her where the frozen French toast strips were and told her to help herself to breakfast in the morning. I got up at 7:30. She was dead asleep. I made tea (did I mention how badly I needed caffeine?) and took it and my laptop back to my room to let her sleep. At 8:30 she came to my room to tell me she was starving. I now have a far better understanding of my sister’s weariness. NO wonder she looks so frazzled all the time. I love my niece, but I am clearly not cut out for children.
WHY DON’T THEY COME WITH AN OFF SWITCH????!!!

Tea helps. A little.

Thanks again, AJRimmer! (You sent so many teas to try…) AJRimmer was less than enthused about this one, but I’m always up for trying (most) things. A matcha made with rooibos? Sounds weird! I mixed this up with some warmed milk… it IS fairly weird. Looks like strawberry Nesquik. Chalky, beets, a hint of mint. Nothing I would call red velvet. I expected little woody chunks of rooibos, but I couldn’t really tell it was rooibos either. Sweet enough without tasting like stevia, and a good way to use some aging milk.

Weeeeellll… I guess you can’t love them all. A little fairy told me that.

The color here is amazing, like pale amber. And the dry tea smelled nice, but the wet tea had a heavy earthy smell. I did two rinses and some short steeps.

This sample is from AllanK and he did warn me of the strong bamboo flavor, but it’s a bit overwhelming at first. It seems to taper off in later steeps. And even though the earthy flavor gets quieter, it lingers at the end of the sip. I can handle it a little better when it’s at the front of the sip and more pleasant flavors remain in the aftertaste.

I’m really grateful to try this one and I have enough for a few more sessions. Maybe I’ll learn to like it a bit more.

June prompt – a tea smoothie.

I don’t think I have ever made a tea smoothie but I love making new beverages! Lately we have been enjoying orange blossom salted lemonade, as well as a rose version and a plain one. Orange blossom is our favorite!

For the tea smoothie I made blueberry green last night and put it in a glass jar to chill in the fridge. I added frozen blueberries, a banana, some ice, and a tiny bit of lemon juice. This was so delicious. It will not be the last tea smoothie.

Harney’s Blueberry Green was the perfect base for it, too. The blueberry flavor is so strong in it that nothing could damp it down. It is a bit like having an all natural Icee. Good on a hot and humid day like today, where two thunderstorms have already blown through.

I am so excited that my order for this arrived this afternoon. I love this chai! It’s available to the general public – I don’t know if it’s for a limited time or not, but what I do know is that when I contacted them back in October about purchasing a small amount they would not sell to me because I was not a coffee shop or similar. So I was happy when I happened across their website last week and noticed that they’re raising money for Haiti relief by selling smaller (personal size) portions of their tea to the public! woo hoo!

What makes this chai so unique is that it’s a MATCHA chai! I prepare it the same way I’d prepare matcha, except that I heat milk (yes… for this tea I’m even willing to heat milk) instead of water. It doesn’t need anything else… just milk and stirring — you can do this without a chasen, but I do use mine for it because I have one.

The flavor is chai-spicy with the natural sweetness of matcha – it’s creamy and thick and oh-so-good. You can read my review I wrote of it several months ago here:

http://www.teareviewblog.com/?p=8088

Oh wow, this is so good I might make myself a second cup!

This one was very nice cup. Seeing lots of rose petals made me a bit afraid that there will be too much of rose; but somehow they managed very well the level of: black tea base, rose and fruits.

Instead of peppery rose I got sweet fruits, a little strawberries here, a little lychee there. A little vanilla cream notes. And very floral, naturally from rose. The base was a bit hidden beneath all those other flavours and aromas, however it was there giving much needed morning caffeine boost with a pleasant experience.

Not so long ago, I was craving a rose black tea to give it another chance.

This week’s matcha sample is – Cheesecake! I feel like I prepared the ground well enough with “normal” flavours like Strawberry and Banana, so I finally broke out one of the left-field flavours that I’ve been looking forward to forever but still slightly scared of. When I opened the pouch, all I could smell was very sweet vanilla. That had me worried for a minute, but I needn’t have doubted.

I prepared this one as a latte, which has pretty much become my go-to. I used 1/4 tsp of matcha, whisked into 1/3 cup of hot water, and then topped off with milk. The scent lost some of its vanilla as soon as I added the water, and started to smell more like baking cheesecake. To taste, it’s super delicious! It’s creamy and sweet, of course, but with a slightly salty-sour-tangy undertone that really characterises cheesecake for me. There’s still the flavour of vanilla sitting over the top, but it’s not overpowering or sickly. It also avoids tasting artificial, which is a huge bonus as far as I’m concerned. There’s nothing chemically about the flavour of this one, it’s just straight-up flavour-accurate vanilla cheesecake. The matcha is completely masked by it, which is the whole point I guess, so there’s not even a conflict of “green” and “sweet”. It’s truly delicious stuff.

I can imagine that this would combine well with other flavours to make various “cheesecake” combinations, but I’m trying not to have too many samples open at once because they’re not resealable. It’s something I’d try in the future if I manage to get hold of a larger quantity in a tin, though.

For now, I’m just really happy with this one. It’s a desserty treat on a dull work day.

1/4 tsp, boiling water. Prepared as a latte.

I went back and forth when deciding how to prepare this tea. Since the dry leaf smelled so much like soda, I decided to lean into that aspect by having this cold without milk. That sparkly soda flavor is the strongest thing I taste. It’s really fresh and lovely. The chai spices are mild, but a lot of fun when combined with the refreshing cola, and I’m having a delicious time! It’s really, really good. I get three solid steeps out of this one. I didn’t taste as much soda the second time I had this tea, but I’m still really into this flavor combo.

This tea is disgusting and undrinkable. It tastes very artificially sweetened and fake, and this is coming from a girl who’s just fine sweetening her tea all on her own. It’s so sad, because it’s such, such a far cry from the delectable smell of the dry leaf, which smells like a fresh apple candle that you’d set out in your living room to make your place not smell like people really live in it. Actually, I do have the candle for this tea as well, but it’s because I spent an obscene amount of money there the other day and got it for free. I’ll enjoy the candle a lot more than the tea, that’s for sure.

Loved the jays game yesterday, although their loss was devastating. and then mr. keychange and I had such a hard time getting home. It was such a long and drawn out adventure that unfolded slowly and terribly, complete with greyhound being predictably unreliable and uber drivers refusing to take our guide dogs. We were supposed to get home around 8:00 but ended up spending over a hundred dollars on an uber ride and got home after 11:00. It is what it is, but man I do not know how any blind person lives in Toronto and doesn’t want to kill themselves/other people on a regular basis.

This tea sucks. I can’t wait until I get my 52 teas order in the mail.

Crazy morning today! I’m working from home and fielding a bunch of different cross department type things, but also it’s officially a week from when the podcast I’ve been working on for the last few months officially launches!!

More details, and also a sneak peak for Steepster friends, here:
https://steepster.com/discuss/42133-geek-steep-a-new-tea-and-fandom-podcast

I’m drinking mostly bagged teas this morning – in part because of the September Sipdown prompt but also because they’re fast and easy in a very chaotic morning of managing all these different things! Plus, this is honestly the best butterscotch flavour that I’ve ever had in any tea and while I’m sometimes annoyed that this delicious flavour is on a bagged tea instead of something loose leaf, today I’m very appreciative of having such a delicious bagged option!

This is the kind of review that I write once every two months or so and I really don’t like them.
I always try to add positive notes about a tea I have drank along with the crowd that would enjoy it. Unfortunately, sometimes there are products that don’t get recommended such as fish at McDonalds.

This cake can be broken with the pressed of one finger and I’m not exaggerated. I can send a video to demonstrate if you’d like, though that isn’t an issue for me because I’m after taste and feel from a tea.
I pulled out four cups to try different timing with this tea at 100c which is what I always use for ripe. Every single cup to the 8th steep (where I stopped) had a grainy texture to the taste with a little musk. The fermentation flavor is here for sure, but has a lot of friends that I do not like. This mouth feel after is a medium dryness which I can’t get over. It’s about the same as drinking 16ounces of roasted green tea, but all of that into 2 ounces of liquid.

Honestly, the 2015 Green Miracle is a cake everyone should buy because it is absolutely amazing for being such a young little guy but this Hui Run isn’t something I can imagine drinking a year from now… though it will be next year when I open it back up to try again.

If anyone has any previous year to swap I would love to see if this is the same qualities of the other ones and maybe realize some people enjoy these tasting notes.

I’m OD-ing on tea a little here, but it’s because the kids are out of the house and I have nothing on the agenda until they get back. So I have a rare opportunity to play in my tea and write some notes uninterrupted.

I had the idea that this would be a good palate cleanser to transition out of some of the heavier stuff I’ve been drinking this morning, culminating in full blown chai. And also a nice transition from darker teas to lighter ones for this afternoon.

I had to remind myself that FTGFOP means Finest Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe, or it’s joke interpretation — Far Too Good For Ordinary People. LOL

This is a never opened sample that I bought a while back. The leaves are indeed quite tippy, some of them rather silvery looking. They have an earthy smell before steeping.

Steeped, they produce a medium-light brown, clear liquor. But the smell — oh the smell! This has to be what they mean by muscatel, though I’ve never tasted muscatel to my knowledge or muscatel grapes for that matter. The aroma is so grapey, but has that pungent note that takes it up a note to winey. Pretty serious stuff.

The tea is fairly astringent, drying in the sip but smooth in the finish that leaves a fresh, leafy-ness in mouth. It grabs a little at the back of the throat, which is the only downside for me. I don’t really enjoy that sensation.

It’s medium-bodied to light-bodied, and I wonder whether it might benefit from slightly lower temperature, which I intend to try before the sample is done.

The flavor is fairly mild and has some white wine notes that give it a little tartness.

Except for the throat grab, very enjoyable.

Wowza. Thanks to Lexie Aleah, my eyes are wide open from the wood smoke vibes in this unique Harney & Sons variety. Perfect for a nippy morning. Burning damp leaves, wet wood, and as with any well-tended fire, the smoke dies down after a bit so that you can enjoy the brown sugar hidden at the end of each sip. Love the smoky aroma.

I’ve never been much of a lapsang fan, but if it was more like this, I might be. I’d probably never see the bottom of the tin of my own—this is a once-in-a-while instead of a daily drinker—but it was a treat to try it!

Advent 12.

Wide awake at 1:30 am after going to bed at 10. It’s going to be a long work day.

The aroma is overwhelmingly herbaceous-cooling spearmint, spicy cinnamon and ginger, floral-perfumey rose reminiscent of little molded soaps with barely detectable sweet clove. I do not notice the pink peppercorn, maybe it’s hidden by the rose florality and cinnamon-ginger spiciness.

The taste is spearmint-herbaceous-earthy-brassy, cooling-mellow and warming-sharp at the same time. I do not like the aftertaste. Is it slightly bitter ginger-spearmint?

The steam coming from the cup really penetrates my senses. Spearmint and cinnamon combinations are very difficult to get right for me. The rose is really throwing me. Instead of feeling centered, my sense of smell is being pulled in an elemental, multi-directional tug-o-war. I just don’t understand the purpose of combining mint with spicier, warmer ingredients without providing a base to tie together what on my palate are entirely disparate flavor profiles. For an example of successfully marrying many elemental attributes in a similar mint-cinnamon-floral heavy (albeit caffeinated) blend, see Chroma Tea’s Aquamarine.

Chocolate, hazelnut, and orange. Although DF teas seem to hold their flavour very well, at least considering I’ve had these for nearly a year, the flavours in this one don’t really pop. Despite this being my first tasting note, I have had this when it was a lot fresher, and if I recall, it wasn’t particularly flavourful then either. I’m not getting much other than the base. Perhaps a vague nuttiness that is blending in so well with the base that it could pass as a base note itself. Orange? Not much, and the chocolate is faint too.

For a chocolate orange nut blend, I prefer Velours Nacré, which has almond instead. I could be wrong, but I swear the orange and chocolate notes are stronger in it too. Also prefer Coquelicot Gourmand when we’re talking about ultra desserty DF teas. This only makes it easier for me to decide on what to get in the future.

Sitting here this morning checking email with a matcha latte and a bowl of grits that I added a 2 tsp of ground flax and a tsp of chia seeds. (My nurse practitioner said she lowered her cholesterol 40 points using flax)

So I am having my daily starter matcha from Red Leaf and I notice an ad from Amazon where this is on sale for $16.99/lb. I still have about 3/4 pound in my freezer and a full pound of Deluxe Matcha so I am able to resist but man that is a bargain price.

I used to add fruit to my morning glass, but now I’m just too lazy to get the blender out. Milk, matcha, and sweetener. I like the mildly grassy taste. It is better than any of the other starter matcha I have tried.

So would it be wrong of me to consider 2 tsp of powder to be equal to one serving of vegetables? ;) Yeah, I gained 10 pounds this winter and trying to do better. Heard on the news last night about the pizza and doughnut diet. Woman lost over 100 pounds. She ate what she wanted one day and fasted the next. I could do that, especially if they are chocolate eclairs with custard filling.

When I received this cake in the mail I found Streetshop88 had applied tape directly to the wrapper. The wrapper was damaged getting the tape off. They didn’t send another cake, but the did issue a partial refund and sent me another wrapper in the mail. I got the wrapper in the mail the other day so I figured it was time to try this cake and see if the damaged wrapper was a bad omen or not. It turns out that this is an excellent semi aged sheng. At nine years old it is just at the point when teas often develop an unpleasant taste of leather and tobacco. This tea really didn’t develop those notes. They were sort of there, underneath but didn’t really pop out. There was a definite sweet note of this tea’s youth in the first two steeps, then I didn’t notice any more apricots. Instead there was what I would describe as an aged flavor. Meaning a flavor the tea had developed in it’s storage. These can be good or bad. This one was very good. It was smooth and mellow with a very thick mouth feel. I am not sure what to call this flavor. Maybe chestnuts, maybe mushrooms, hard to describe. In any case it was very good, mildly sweet and very smooth. As to tea color this one had developed an light orange color to it. As to qi, this tea seems to have some. While I cannot use the phrase tea drunk, I am very relaxed right now from this tea. After a long stressful day at work a good tea was exactly what I needed. As to price this tea was a bargain. A 500g bing was only about $50 or so. While there are no claims about this tea being old tree, wild tree or anything else, where ever they got the leaves they did a good job with this tea. This is one of the best raw teas I have bought in a while. It is rare for me to actually like a semi aged tea. They all seem to have developed strong taste of leather and tobacco. This one had not but instead had developed a nice semi sweet mellow taste to it. It was good. It will be interesting to see how this one ages further. Hopefully it will continue to develop good flavors.

I steeped this tea twelve times in a 150ml gaiwan with 7.6g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, 1 min, 1.5 min, and 2 min.

oy…back from work travel and trying to get organised. So many things to do to get ready for monday. I am really enjoying this one, esp with a splash of honey. Just a nice balance of fruity goodness without the caffeine.

Hi Peeps! I haven’t written a tasting note in months. Tea friends have been asking if I’m OK. Summer was so humid. I kind of got out of the habit and I have been battling health issues.

On to tea – I told the wife I was tired of soda pop (whatever you call it in your locale) so she bought a glass container with a spigot. It holds about a gallon and a half and sets in the fridge. Then I realized all she had for iced tea was Luzianne and Lipton. Neither of those would do. I dug deep in my stash and came up with Assam 1860 and Ahmad Primetime. Decided to start with Assam 1860.

The color is a beautiful dark cherry mahogany. Has a good clean smell. I never add anything to my iced tea and this certainly needs no help. I made it strong because that’s how I like it. It is brisk without being bitter. The taste is malty and leafy. I noticed the jug emptied pretty quick. This makes a solid iced tea.

I had a couple of samples of this tea left over from a couple of Harney & Sons orders. I’m still under the impression that whoever packs their freebies somehow knows what I don’t like and sends me such things as a joke. The only Harney & Sons freebie I have ever received that I recall liking was their Earl Grey Imperial. Still, I was willing to give this a chance. Though I don’t care for gingko, I do enjoy citrus and green tea, and considering the green tea base is Indian, I was immediately intrigued.

I prepared this tea using a two step Western infusion process. I started by steeping one silken sachet in 8 ounces of 175 F water for 2 minutes. I followed this infusion with a 3 minute infusion at the same temperature.

Prior to infusion, the dry blend presented a powerful mix of lemon, lemongrass, hay, and straw. There was a little bit of nuttiness from the gingko too. After infusion, the bouquet became more integrated and intense. In the mouth, I discovered a powerful, yet muddled mix of dried grass, lemon zest, hay, straw, lemongrass, nuts, and wood. The nuttiness and woodiness of the gingko became more intense on the finish, drying my mouth out and leaving me parched. The second infusion was more mellow, offering more prominent aromas and flavors of lemon and lemongrass before the gingko once again asserted itself and left my mouth and throat feeling dry.

I have to give this blend credit for one thing-it reminded me of why I do not particularly care for gingko. I could not stand how it kept popping up at the end and drying out my mouth. The citrus and lemongrass did not really help matters either. Part of the problem here was that the base tea did not seem all that interesting. It was as if Harney & Sons tried to cover its blandness up with additives that did not work all that well together. To me, this blend just came off as a mess. There was no balance. Everything was out of focus. I highly doubt I will ever have this one again.