Featured & Popular Tasting Notes

Yummers! This tea is hitting all those floral notes and more. So good. Plus, the tea brews up to an almost neon green color. I’m glad I still have a ton of this tea left. I drank it just about the entire day yesterday and plan on taking it to work with me again.

http://www.cuppageek.com/index.php/2015/09/11/andrews-birthday-insanity-from-liquid-proust-teas/

Happy Friday Sipping All!

additional notes: This is really such a satisfying rainy day breakfast tea. Sweet from the maple, bit of cardamon, coconut notes… the black tea could be richer IMO, but this’le do.

i wish this one was a little more tangerine. A tasty tea but a little subdued imo.

Enjoying a cup of my homemade roasted dandelion root tea. I love it. The dandelion roots came from my own garden. I scrubbed & trimmed them, ground them up in my food processor, and then slow roasted for about 3 hours. My garden is big, with an unlimited supply of dandelions, and in the spring I eat the greens daily, because they are so good for my liver. I roast at least one batch of roots every year in the fall, because it’s a great tea for me in the evening: all the depth and boldness of a black tea, none of the caffeine.

Over the last few years I’ve been adding more herbs to my garden for evening tisanes, for medicinal brews, and for the bees & other insects to enjoy. I don’t plan on starting a business, I just love gardening and I love tea. :)

Sipdown! (10 | 413)

Merry Christmas friends! I’ve had a holiday tea this morning, and now I’m just ready to jump back into sipdowns, so here we go!

I figured I’d get this one out of the way, since we all know it won’t be my thing ha ha… There were a lot of chocolate chips and cacao nibs in these sachets and not much tea, so I actually used a bit less water than I normally would.

Well… it’s not terrible. It’s actually not that chocolaty for a tea called double chocolate. It’s a somewhat mild chocolate note, more of a milk chocolate than a dark, and then there’s that boozy and artificial chocolate flavoring. Can’t taste a lot of black tea, but what’s there is a bit earthy.

I guess I shouldn’t be surprised to find it a bit bland, since a lot of the mass was chocolate chips, and those don’t really add much flavor. Meh!

September Sipdown Challenge – tea from a favorite vendor

After getting started with grocery store hot tea bags long ago, a friend confided that Harney and Sons Hot Cinnamon Spice was her guilty pleasure. I decided to get it for her for Christmas, and Barnes and Noble was having a buy one get two free sale on the Historic Royal Palaces tins. I picked up a Royal English Breakfast for us and the rest is history.

Having nice sachets on hand is why the new neighbor, Sandy on here, decided to take me to A Southern Season to be introduced to the world of bounteous assortments of loose leaf, and then it was Harney and Sons Golden Monkey that took me from a tea with milk and sugar person to a sans additions tea drinker. It was Queen Catherine that converted my bestie from a coffee only person to a mainly tea person.

So Harney and Sons is dear to my heart.

I am loving this blend. So often anything called Gingerbread has so much ginger or clove that I really dislike it. This one is perfect.I had it sans additions today with lunch, though it is awesome as a latte. It is perfect to lend a cozy feel to yet another super cloudy day.

I noticed that this steeps up light which got me wondering what the base is. I wonder if tossing a teaspoon of the Queen in would make it even richer. Or a teaspoon of Vanilla Black or Vanilla Comoro? Honestly that sounds heavenly and I am out of both of those, but I expect that won’t be for long, especially now.

I really shouldn’t since Superanna is bringing me some Warm Bread Pudding tea from her vacation in a few days…somebody talk me out of it.

LAST DAY for Zentealife.com’s super sale 50-60% off all of their teas. Inventories limited to make way for the new harvests. Coupon code: Steepster

Sipped this one down today. Still delicious! Also sipped down Davidstea’s Root Beer Float (mixed the last with some of Adagio’s Caramel tea!)

Backlog 29 July 2016

Notes taken while playing video games.

Dry leaf: A nice golden black hue to the leaf. Smells malty and sweet.

Wet leaf: Reminds me of baked bread/dark beer. Has a slight dark chocolate note. Very rich caramel note after the third steep. Slightly bitter after the fifth steep; however, it remains rich and tasty. Dry mouthfeel.

So yeah. I bought lots of tea again. And moreover, all in tea bags! Shame on me, as a tea enthusiaist. But my tea bag wrapper collection needs some love and fellow tea bag (for short) collector had a discount thanks to her blog entry. I could bought some loose-leaf. But maybe next time! Thank you CGFoods for fast delivery and a few free tea bags in!

Anyway, I have deciced for this one as first because turmeric in, I said just two days ago I am not that fan of it. But it sounded interesting in combination with cinnamon and orange.

The orange was fresh, fruity and pulpy, as I do like it. The cinnamon was sweet-like and not bitter at all and complements the orange well. Sadly, the turmeric is not present in flavour at all.

Luckily, I haven’t noticed much of hibiscus — not even in colour of the tea. In color it was rather yellow grapefruit like and cloudy.

They suggest 10 minutes steep and I did long steep… however no idea how long. But it was enjoyable cup for sure. However, the turmeric is missed.

I had high hopes for this, mostly due to tea sipper’s love of it. Alas, I also didn’t get to this for over about a year (this is from July 2019 and I just broke the seal this morning) and given the coconut, it’s already showing signs of age. When I steeped it up hot, the coconut smelled rather lotion-y, which to me indicates it is starting to go rancid. Thankfully that doesn’t translate to the taste though. Taste is mostly hibiscus for me with a touch of rooibos. It’s fine but not really my thing. Tea Sipper, if you want 50 more grams of this (less some tsps), let me know. Fair warning on the age though since it’s almost a year old.

It’s been a long time since I posted on here, but I am still drinking tea, I promise!

I made a jug of this in the fridge overnight. I had had a cup of it hot a couple of months ago, and it was nice, but not outstanding. But I really enjoyed it iced. It has a light, slightly sweet, bright vibe to it. Our weather has been all over the place. Upper 80s, then a couple nights below freezing, then back up to the 80s… Ya gotta love North Dakota! Fortunately, I an adjust my tea temperature to suit the weather. I really liked this one iced and I am looking forward to enjoying more iced teas this summer.

Ashmanra’s sipdown challenge – July 2023 Tea #1 – A tea that makes you smile

A Frank blend!  This tea definitely makes me smile.  One whiff of the blend, yet even now, years later, the name is hella accurate.  What a lemon meringue blend!  It smells just like meringue. And I don’t think lemon blends have been appreciated enough from 52Teas — both with Frank’s blends and Anne’s blends. This is a sad sipdown (with a smile) as all these last crumblies in the pouch give a huge deal of flavor.  And a perfect tea for this scorcher of a day. (I think it’s everywhere in the US today.)
2023 sipdowns: 54

How is it already August 8th? Time is flying! My daughter is over six months old now. She’s getting her first two teeth. They’re coming in together and I think it’s causing her a lot of grief. They’re taking their sweet time too. Only the tips have been visible for the past few days.

I held on to this tea for years thinking I could enjoy its caffeine-freeness during pregnancy. Well, pregnancy came and went a while ago and this tea is still around. There’s no time like the present! Might as well enjoy the rest of this now.

The brewed tea aroma is mouthwatering and tart. Yes, I can smell the tartness. It smells like blueberries, raisins, and hibiscus. The flavor is SUPER tart! Think about the tartest hibiscus tea you’ve ever tried and this is probably tarter. The flavor gets stronger the cooler the tea is. This is somewhat wine-like too.

On another note, I’ve finally started to lose weight after the birth. I’ve lost 20 lbs so far and have about another 20 to go to be able to fit back into my wardrobe. I’ve hit a big milestone this week. I’ve lost enough weight that I can wear my wedding rings again! Yes, I was literally so fat that my rings didn’t fit. I forgot how beautiful my engagement ring is. I really really missed it! I can’t stop staring at it. Now that I can wear my wedding rings again, I feel so much more like my old self. Losing weight is a necessity for me. I’m so glad I’m halfway to my goal!

Rosali Tea is just launching a monthly subscription service. I received this and a milk oolong for review. When I opened the box and saw hibiscus on the label, I went eeuuuwww, hibiscus. When I opened the bag to sniff, I expected a tart blast. Instead I got this incredible vanilla orange scent. I poured out a spoon of leaf and immediately saw rooibos. That is often another red flag as it can be throat scratchy rough. I could not smell it until after I steeped. Even then it is light and its sweetness fills in around the orange and vanilla. I see hibiscus. I do not taste hibiscus. I added a little sweetener for science. Holy Wow! This is unquestionably the best blend I have ever tried with either hibiscus or rooibos. So very good.

This particular green tea was recommended on a Steepster thread. I forget which one. It turned out to be pretty good and I don’t usually like unflavored green tea all that much. There is very little bitterness to this tea. There is a distinct grassy note but it is not overpowering. I would say it is a little bit creamy too, unusual for a green tea as I have had them. The color of the tea itself was very light yellow/green, almost clear. I steeped this in a slightly different manner than Western brewing and not quite Asian brewing. Instead I gave the first steep one minute instead of the three minutes I might have given it in Western brewing and a lot longer than a first steep in Asian brewing. Overall I thought this tea quite good and the price was right. $13.68 for 250g of tea. Can’t say I paid too much for this tea. Apparently he runs periodic sales and this was on sale.

I steeped this tea three times in a 220ml gaiwan with 5.1g leaf and 175 degree water. I steeped it for 1 min, 1.5 min, and 2 min.

Not my favourite, but a reasonably tasty tea. As expected, love the houjicha base. It tastes more like a cinnamon chai than pumpkin/pumpkin spice, though. A good fall tea.

Additional notes: heck yeah, cantaloupe matcha smoothie with vanilla yogurt and vanilla creamer (ran out of milk and had too much creamer about anyway…also, poured some of the cantaloupe juice in there.) I don’t think I’ve had a cantaloupe smoothie before, but it was very very good.

A duplicate spotted!

This is one of the teas I have received as a birthday gift from my co-workers. I have 7 or how many more boxes of Basilur teas and I am slowly drinking them there, as tea bags are perfect for work teas. You know, just a little time for preparations, not much time for contemplation about the tea and such. Convenience of tea bag is the key there.

Prepared hour before lunch as I had absolutely no time before.

It is a great tea — mellow orange flavouring, nice floral notes of passion fruit with nice, smooth base. Easy drinking and not bitter, rather smooth and a touch of creamy. But a little bit complexity it those flavours would be welcomed. Yes, it is distinctly orange and passion fruit, but nothing else. Though, I think this will be finished first.

This is definitely an interesting experience. The aroma gets you a hint of that peppermint/licorice/menthol smell found in lots of more generic herbal teas. It also has an oddly rusty smell, almost as if I were drinking from a metal container (which I am not). It’s not what I expected, but that’s not a bad thing at this point.

The first sip is…unexpected. I was looking for a strong menthol flavor and was instead hit by a overwhelming sweetness. I immediately turned to ask the gf if she put a bunch of sugar in it but was cut off by a cough caused by the sweetness that flowed to the back of my throat. In fact, she didn’t add anything to this and it’s just naturally crazy sweet.

A few more sips and I started to acclimate to the intense sweetness of the tea. Seriously, I can’t understand how they make the tea this sweet, but they do, and they do it well. As someone who likes things on the very sugary to the super sweet side, this is something I could drink often – not as often as a good clean oolong, but maybe even like a semi-consistent dessert tea. Now that I’ve had it I can totally understand why it’s served at a salon/spa.

If you’re open to really sweet teas, this pulls it off and does it without help. If you’re a purist, you’re probably not going to like this one.

Additional notes: I’ll be drinking this one and another cup of the Inscape blend today, hopefully while finally finishing up the remainder of NOS4A2 today! I like the book… but I perhaps expected more zanniness from the son of Stephen King? There are more pop culture references that might apply to me, including some unexpected mentions of some David Mitchell books! I’m a David Mitchell fan. Oversteeping this one might be the thing to do…. it remains smooth but gets deeper. And I mean REALLY oversteep — like the infuser I was draining sideways fell in the mug again after I walked away type of oversteep.

Edited to add: Finished the book before the resteeps of Gingerbread Smoke and Inscape! What a trip… it’s amazing to me that the guy who writes the fastest turning pages for me, now has a son that also has me flipping the pages (these might be the only “page turners” I read?)

This curious little parcel inhabits the uncanny valley of the tea spectrum. It’s a huangpian, but it does not have the relaxing nature of 24K, being a punchier example of the style. However, it doesn’t quite have the full spectrum of nuances that a normal leaf tea would (hopefully) entail.

The result is a very fine drink that I have no idea when I would choose to reach for. 24K could be splwndid when wanting tea in a late session, as at least to me it’s very soothing and unlikely to keep me up. A tea as robust as Alter Ego would be better during the day – but it just doesn’t have the flair I want from my limited availability of full-on gongfu sessions.

I may try this Western (gasp!) as a work tea… but being a brick, it’ll require prep ahead of time, which doesn’t generally fit the nature of my work day tea sessions.

A fine brew… but a square peg to my proverbial round hole.

I promise never to refer to my round hole henceforth. My apologies.

Only the slightest hint of pineapple for sweetness here. Otherwise it is minty and forgettable.

I bought this Kamairicha a few months ago. It’s the cheapest one on Yuuki-cha’s website and has good reviews so I thought I would try it out.

I’ve tried brewing this many ways but it still doesn’t appeal to me. I don’t find it a bad tea but it’s not too much like the other kamairicha’s either. This one is more savory. There’s a roasted taste to it. This tea was fired at a higher temperature than a normal kamairicha which explains why it’s so savory and roasty. For those that love roasted savory teas, that explains all the good reviews. There’s a little bit of similarity to Laoshan Green or wild jujube tea.

For me, however, I will woefully make it through this tea but wait in anticipation for the new 2019 kamairicha’s to come out.

This is a queued tasting note.

Bright fruity apricot note that basically punches through everything else! Like drinking liquid happy! Good choice for a commute tea.