New Tasting Notes

I haven’t had any dragon pearls for a while, so I was really happy to see them along with the other teas that kaiz sent to me for my birthday. The flavour is a really beautiful balance of silver needle and jasmine. I’ve been drinking these steadily for the past couple of days and I’m not sick of them yet: a love affair re-kindled!

I kept meaning to wait until after a meal to try this one, considering the name, and then I kept forgetting. So finally I just gave up and tried it in the middle of the afternoon.

Weirdly, of all the elements, the rosebuds manage to dominate the flavour – or perhaps I just ended up with a few too many rosebuds in this particular cup. This isn’t a bad thing, particularly, since it did deliver a nice, refreshing cup of tea, but the taste was a lot more herbal than I’d really expected, even allowing for the presence of the peppermint.

I think I need to try this one again and see how it works out using a second lot of leaves.

The 3rd sample from The Jade Teapot that I’ve tried.

The smells of this are very strong. Definitely can smell the pomegranate right off the bat, but with each time I take a whiff of this, I can smell the more subtle things like the blueberry and peony. When comparing to a bag of pomegranate white tea from Argo Tea, the white tea from Argo smells like a much sweeter pomegranate. The blueberry pomegranate tea from TJT smells like pure pomegranate juice almost.

I think this tastes quite nice, but I do agree with Erin that the fruity flavor can be a bit overpowering. But to me, that isn’t a bad thing. I would recommend steeping this at low times and temps so the pomegranate and blueberry isn’t super overpowering. I still find this to be a good, relaxing tea.

The stuff in the mesh pyramid teabag looks interesting; I can see bits of citrus peel in addition to the lemongrass, what looks like some calendula petals, and other bits and pieces – in addtion to the green tea. It smells primarily of green tea and lemongrass and I’m not picking up anything I might identify as cucumber, but what does dried cucumber smell like anyway?

The steeping parameters raised my eyebrows – 4-5 min at 95 ºC – for a tea with (supposedly) sencha in it. So I backed off the temperature a good 10 degrees which might have been a mistake since the resulting tea was disappointingly weak. It mostly tastes like a lemongrass infusion with a few other vague herbally things mixed in. I’ll lay off rating this tea until I give it another go follwing the steeping instructions more closely.

I’m still blown away by the scent and flavor of this tea. Tonight, I’m detecting more of a smoky, woodsy element to the hazelnuts. And the texture seems richer and thicker—again, remniscent of coffee. This reminds me of long study nights at the local coffeehouse. It has a “bohemian” aura.

yo man i just had this tea tonight and it is the bawm dawt cawm. i am not mad at this tea at ALL. i dont know wat jasmin is but on a scale of one (1) to ten (10) its a tastesplosion yeah. it was like i had a dang like there was a flower garden in my mouth it was great. im kind of a tea noob but this kinda stuff the reason id heat my water ya feel me

After tonight, I have enough of this tea left for a scant pot. I’m so sad! The more I drink this tea, the more I enjoy it. I bet this would be amazing iced, so that is how I will try it tomorrow. I think this will be going on the shopping list.

The cocoa is more bitter than normal and a bit chalky…so I lowered my score a little. Maybe there are differences with each tea bag. I wonder how the loose leaf compares?

When I requested a sample of Life in Teacup’s first picked green tea of this year, I told Gingko (LiT’s manager) to surprise me on the two other free samples he offered with the green tea. The teas on LiT are more “serious” looking than any teas I’ve had so far, it was late at night, and I love surprises. This jasmine green tea is one of the surprise samples I received (and you’ll just have to wait until I review the other one to know what it is). I should add, since this my first tea from LiT, that Gingo responded to my email quickly and I was emailed when the teas were shipped. A+ for customer service to LiT.

So, I’ve never had a jasmine tea before. I wasn’t sure I’d like a jasmine tea, or any floral tea for that matter. I worried I’d have to write a “I don’t like this” tealog for tea samples I was kindly given. Turns out I didn’t have to worry, not only did I like this jasmine green, I really liked it. I didn’t expect to like teas with smokey notes (A&D’s Yunnan and Jackee), but I did. I do have to brew them on the mild side so I don’t know if I’d like a truly smoky tea. So far, I’ve liked all new tea types I’ve tried, despite any prior expectations. Good, right? Maybe. I can only store and drink so much tea.

The tea sample packets came with no steeping instructions so I had to look on LiT’s website for them. They are also on Steepster. I did find them a bit vague. My leaves did not float mostly, only a dozen or so with most at the bottom, so I had to guess at steeping time a bit. Luckily, I seemed to have guessed pretty close to right.

I opened my sample packet and looked and smelled. The leaves were small dark, dark spring green curls. There were very few jasmine petals in my sample, but I think such is the luck of samples. The smell was all flower. I’d call it gardenia since I’ve never smelled a jasmine flower. The wet leaves lightened in color a bit and smelled like gardenia’s on a hot summer day after a rain shower. The tea had the same smell and was a warm, bright tan.

I tasted. Flower! Just what I’d expect a flower to taste like if I were to decide to eat one for some bizarre reason. I like flower taste? Really? Weird, but I do! The green tea is light with absolutely no bitterness.

I oh-so-rarely steep a second time as soon as I’ve finished my first cup, but I did. In the middle of writing this tasting note, in fact. Same steeping parameters as the first cup. Lighter in color and only slightly lighter in flavor.

I wish I’d made this tea during the day so I could have resteeped it as much as I could or until I tired of it. (Oddly, after tofu coconut curry leftovers for dinner tonight, I wanted to try this tea. It sounded like it would go with Chinese/Thai foods. As it grew later, I wasn’t even sure I would make tea tonight but I kept thinking about trying this.) Although, I might do a third steep even this late at night. Luckily, I should have two more tries out of this sample to enjoy. This tea makes me eager to try my other samples from LiT soon.

I don’t think I’ve had a berry tea that I’ve ever liked. Needless to say, I didn’t have high expectations. I expected it to be bitter, overpowering, and harsh; this tea was none of those things. It reminded me of very mellow red wine. Since I only had a sample, I will definitely be going out to buy a box.

I can see why Harney and Sons says that people who try this never go back to regular Earl Grey! I was not a big Earl Grey fan, and when this one came with my tea chest I expected the “Supreme” to mean that they had added a lot of extra bergamot. Not so! They put all the Supreme into the leaves themselves! This is a beautiful base of black tea, oolong tea, and silver tips. I believe Mike Harney’s book said they order Formosa Oolong especially for the base of this tea. The bergamot is a lovely addition, but not overwhelming and only enhances this tea. It isn’t there to cover up the use of inferior leaves, as is often the case with flavored teas. This one will definitely be kept in stock in my cupboard.

This is not a bad tea. This is one of the first loose leaf teas I bought since we don’t have any real tea shops around here. I bought mine at TJ Maxx and Marshall’s. As a first loose leaf tea, I really liked it. It is a good morning cup, not exactly full of nuance but serviceable. My 16 year old has to have a 22 oz. pot by her side to do her algebra each morning and prefers this one to my more expensive, more complex teas. It comes in tea bags, too, but we prefer the loose leaf. It is a small particle size, so don’t steep it too long!

A late night cup after singing a two hour concert. Lemon ginger, agave nectar, and a tot of rum. Yum!

Very light and creamy with a small hint of pear. Yummy evening treat!

Creamy and light, in a very comforting and calming way. I really sense fresh strawberries in the taste.

Yum! I was on a search for a very vanilla-y tea and this was a great choice. I appreciate this one for its flavour and that it is my only rooibos, caffeine free! It’s also a great tea to blend with other teas if you are feeling adventurous. (mixing with Teaopia’s Rise and Shine has a vanilla-coke type flavour for example.)

Steep Information:
Amount: 2 tsp
Additives: none
Water: 2 zarafina cups
Tool: Zarafina Black-Loose-Medium
Served: Hot

Tasting Notes:
Dry Leaf Smell: cinnamon imperials
Steeped Tea Smell: sweet cinnamon bark
Flavor: syrupy sweet cinnamon candy, hints of woody bark
Body: Full
Aftertaste: warm sweet cinnamon, less bark
Liquor: translucent but dark reddish-brown

Gift from SoccerMom (YEA) in order to help me see which is the most similar to cinnamon imperials as part of my quest to take over the world…or something similar

I have had the bagged H&S black cinnamon spice at one or two restaurants before, but this was before Steepster and my desire to try all the teas and find which I like best (IMO you can’t find the best because everyone has different tastes).

The tea is very thick syrup, as if you had made cinnamon imperials into a liquid. Delicious! Though I must say the Green Hot Cinnamon is a lighter, more tea like version, it’s not as thick and not as sweet. I think each has their place.

Strangely I couldn’t find the black tea!

Post-Steep Additives: none, though i bet this would stand up to milk well. Whatever you do, do NOT add sugar as you would become diabetic on the spot.

images: http://amazonv.blogspot.com/2010/03/harney-and-sons-loose-leaf-black-tea_13.html

I actually disagree that it doesn’t taste like much…it has a wonderful smell and a subtle flavor that reminds me of something that I can’t quite place…I really enjoy this. I am testing its claim to help with migraines (I haven’t had one since I bought it this week, so I can’t say its effects with migraines yet) but there is a noticeable difference in my daily headaches. It’s nice both plain and with a few drops of agave nectar. Very impressed, I’ll raise the ratings if it actually does help prevent my migraines!

I tried a more traditional approach to brewing my Gyokuro this time – 60ºC water, warmed mug, double the amount normally used, less steeping time, etc. And the funny thing is that I think I liked it better last time. Of course that might be because I went for 1:30 min instead of the 1:00 I maybe should have.

The flavour is distinctly grassier with less sweetness – more matcha tea than gyokuro I’d say. There’s also the faintest touch of a bitter edge to it. The aftertaste is the same, I think I’ve identified as similar (but not quite) to a light genmaicha.

Tsk, you’re a finicky tea, Miss Jade Dew!

The re-steep is a bit better, less grassy, but I think I might have scalded the leaves a tiny bit so I’ll chuck the leaves out and try this again another day.

Overall, this is a good white tea, I just don’t know if white teas are really my thing. I tend to like teas that are stronger and more in-your-face about their flavors. I had this hot earlier, and made this infusion iced/sweetened which was really good. This would be great in the summer. I may have to order more just for iced tea.

Delicious after dinner…almost like an extension of the meal. The taste is savory and almost salty—like a tea “broth”. Yum! :)

good with a splash of almond milk – the nutiness complements the banana. Again, the chocolate is just a hint, but that’s ok with me.

Bought this a few weeks ago and had it once, but it was not enough to write a proper review or give it a rating. I do remember it smelling and tasting very predominantly oolong. So hanging out at home and with the weather today I decided it would be a good time to brew some more of this up.

The leaves are an even blend of white, green and oolong leaves. The smell is the sweet oolong, with a hint of vegetal green, you cannot recognize the white by smell. The aroma of the brewed tea mimics this, mostly oolong with a hint of green. The white tea appears mostly in the liquor, the liquor is very pale green.

The first infusion, three minutes, hot no additives. The flavor is predominantly oolong. It definitely starts with the sweet oolong flavor, then comes the gentle white flavor, very neutral and clean, a hint of vegetal from the green, finished off by more of the oolong sweetness.

The second infusion of the leaves (hot, 2 minutes, no additives) all of the flavors were muted, not gone, but reduced by about 50%. I find this pretty disappointing because for one I usually use a lot of tea in my white and green infusions, so it seems wasteful, furthermore it tells me it would make a disappointing iced tea.

The bottom line with this tea is that it is good, very good, but the accent is heavily on the oolong. Personally, I like oolong tea, I do not mind that Body + Mind is heavily oolong, I would just classify this as an oolong and not a white tea, but Teavana has funny ways of classifying it’s tea. Overall, this was enjoyable and I will thoroughly enjoy the rest of my bag.

The dry leaf smells creamy. I can occasionally catch a whiff of pouching greenness. But the foremost smell is creamy… something. Vanilla, a hint of dreamsicle-like citrus and something that reminds me of calendula. A tingle or something. Hard to describe so I’m really just stuck with calendula.

And duh, I just read the tasting notes and it says it has marigold. Which I think is the same (or similar?) to calendula. So whew, not crazy.

Brewed up, there is more of a pouching smell and that makes my mouth water. Then I get vanilla and calendula spikes with a little dreamsicle sweetness. So pretty much exactly what the dry leaves smell like but in different proportions.

The taste literally made me go ‘wow’. Very creamy on the front end. Very. Then it mixes with a soft calendula and citrus/dreamsicle, then the pouchong buttery green freshness at the end and then, after the sip, a little tingle on the tip of my tongue from the calendula.

Honestly, I’ve gotten to the point that I’m not a huge fan of calendula in my teas, but I can totally work with this. The tea is unrepentantly creamy and thick tasting, – like the thickness that differentiates whole milk from skim – it is thick and it coats my mouth.

It’s a pretty distinct tea so it’s going to take a few times for me to figure out exactly how much I will enjoy this – crave-ability, addiction level, etc – so this score is a bit soft, but I’m pretty sure it will only go up once I better get to know this tea.

ETA: Second steep @ 2:30 and 195°. Pretty similar to the first steep, sweeter once it cooled a little. Third steep @ 3:30 and 195° poured into a cup then into the pot – I’m tempted to dub this the money steep. The sweetness pops a bit more and the calendula tingle is almost non-existent but the flavor of it is still there and blends well with the very faint dreamsicle thing that’s going on.
^3g/6oz

Thanks so much Ricky. This looks black tea with I assume to be pieces of cinnamon. The dry leaf smells like black tea with abit of cinnamon and vanilla. The smell I’s the same way. The taste I’s vanilla with abit of cinnamon and the black tea,The apple was barely there. This I’s a pretty good tea just wish the apple was stronger.

If anyone has anything on my shopping list,wih list and would be willing to trade for abit or something please let me know.