New Tasting Notes

Ok I wanted something different from English Breakfast so I brewed a cup of this haha :)
Funny thing is with this sore throat the teas don’t taste that different even though I know they really are a bit different. Of course I added honey and almond milk to this too. If anything at least I will be hydrated. This is a really finely cut Irish breakfast tea so you need a very fine mesh filter or even a paper tea sac filter. This is nice strong and dark tea.

This is a good basic English breakfast tea. I have been drinking tea non stop and have been comsuming anything that I could add honey to because of my sore throat :( Anyways I made a small pot of this delicious black tea after I got off work at 3pm. Bonus is there is no caffeine (or almost none). This tea is always stocked in my tea cupboard!

I’m still not completely sure I was in the mood for an oolong, but alas, I brewed this one up anyway.

Initially I only tasted oolong tea, which albeit, is delicious, but I was hoping for more strawberry. A few more minutes passed and as it cooled a very subtle strawberry taste came out. Just enough to taste it in the background of the oolong. I’m quite enjoying this so far. Just steeping a second steep now.

I’m going to be reducing the amount of caffinated tea I’m drinking, so herbals it is! My husband picked out a tea kettle for me today. It’s cute!
This actually tastes almost exactly like Adagio’s Berry blues tea. I really liked it. It mainly tastes like tart, fresh berries with some hibiscus. Pretty great for me!

Lol, this tastes kind of strange after eating lemon hummus! Anyways, I have a massive, massive headache due to how freaking windy it’s been here today, so I am trying to tame it with some caffeine, if that will help, I have no idea, but I also wanted this tea. Just going to wait til the hummus taste is gone before I have any more sips lol. Still tasty underneath though :) see previous notes on this tea!

I had a lovely moment today where I was drinking this tea in the dark on the balcony in a glorious thunderstorm and an amazing downpour. It was just a wonderful calming moment. <3

As for the tea, it was delicious! I was worried the coconut could be overwhelming, but it was just a delicious afterthought instead. Lovely!

Sort of a mini sipdown since I used up the last of my sample from lala sadly also likely the last cup of tea for the evening since the power just went out lol. Really glad that I had the chance to try this one and of course pick more up a the sloane sale the other week. I should be just about done with it by the time I run out :) still need to try this cold brewed but I’m still loving the creamy peachiness of this!

Oh forgot to add this this morning. Made a nice strong cup of this to warm me up from the freezing cold bus ride. I have to be careful about this tea methinks. Too much vanilla does not agree with me. I swear it makes me a little hoarse.

I stopped at a little French bakery after my finals review this morning and picked up some delicious macarons! I’ve NEVER tried them and have been wanting too forever just never knew where to get them and me being a baker have ALWAYS wanted to bake them. So finally I splurged!
http://m.flickr.com/lightbox?id=8784778263
The flavors I picked up: Pistachio, Raspberry, Lemon and Lavander.
So why not have the Pistachio one with this cup of tea!! Paired perfectly! The tea had the nuttiness of the pistachio and the macaron had the sweetness of the pistachio ice cream part. I love pistachio Ice cream and this tea did not let me down. Definitely a good idea to pair it with green tea. I loved it and thank you Shelley_ Lorraine for another amazing mystery swap choice!
http://m.flickr.com/lightbox?id=8784790537

Took this one to class with me this morning for my finals review sessions. This is another one of those teas that is so simple but a staple tea. One to go to if your indecisive. Loved it black and also loved it with a little honey. Got me through the morning and I love it. Thank you Shelley_Lorraine for this mystery sample. I will definitely keep this one as a morning go to:)

http://m.flickr.com/lightbox?id=8784975223

Wow, interesting. I knew this was better cold than hot. I’ve hot brewed and then tossed in the fridge before. Last night I put 3 tsp of this tea and 3 tsp of cherry tisane (Wild Cherry – Teaopia) and 4 cups of water in the fridge to steep. I left it there for about 18 hours, and what I got is something between cream soda and cherry Kool-Aid. I think I overdid the cherry it’s almost drowned out the “cola” but I still get the “chemical” taste that makes it seem like soda. I can drink this, it’s not GREAT, but getting close to good.
I changed my rating from 1 to 36. I still think this is really nasty on it’s own, but I’m going to keep tweeking the cold brewing and see if I can find the right ratio.

soooo this is an oolong alright. a milk oolong at that but it’s nothing amazing, wonderful or otherwise OMG over the top imo. I’ve had better milk oolongs and worse. At the end of the day i think i prefer Sloane’s oolong and there’s at least one other that i’ve tried as well. Not sure what else to say about it besides milk oolong? check. :)

After developing a taste for iced coffees, I finally talked myself into having tea instead of coffee. I brewed up the last of my chocolate mint tea (that may or may not be from the actual chocolate mint plant) and added milk.

In the words of Takei, Oh my!

This is delicious! Lovely and minty and chocolatey. The milk brings out the mint and chocolate more and then it makes it creamy. Like mint chip ice cream! Decadent~!

I had the last of this a few weeks ago. It was lovely and tasty and I will miss it. There are just too many teas that I like.

Second mini sipdown of the day. Green/Black tea mix which I had high hopes for since I’m always on the lookout for a green tea I’d enjoy. Granted this is a mix, but I figure small steps.
It’s got a very fruity smell dry (yes I know I say this alot, but it’s all I know. Lol). Brewed the leaves keeps their tasty smell with just a hint of what I’m guessing is the green tea. And the tea smells like pineapple papaya goodness. Drinking this unsweetened I wasn’t too impressed so I added a bit of truvia and it made the fruit pop. Definitely get the pineapple with a hint of papaya but no strawberry that I can tell. Also I don’t notice the green tea that much if at all more than support to everything else. The same could be said of the black tea whatever this base is. Astringency isn’t too bad overall, though it’s noticeable enough.
Might try this iced to see how the fruit holds up. Possibly cold brew it just because.
When I get the rest of my stash down, I’d definitely consider reordering this one.

This tea smells perfect dry—lusciously creamy earl grey without the harsh vanilla extract burn note some EGCs have. Just fresh, heady vanilla, flowers, and black tea. Brewed it just smells richer than many EGCs too. The flavor is strong but not too overwhelming, and with milk it’s so rich and creamy both texture and flavor-wise it’s almost shocking this is tea (looks and tastes almost like a vanilla coffee latte). Yum.

SIPDOWN!(274) I’m still trying to make sure i get at least one sipdown a day to help get my cupboard to a manageable state so that i can do more swaps and try more of ALL THE TEA! I quiet enjoyed this one from me swap with kallieboo, though it’s not something i need to have in my cupboard or love like some others do :) still though, the base is smooth and complements the minty marshmallow goodness well.

thank you kittyloves tea for a sample of this. sadly i’m gonig to hold off rating it as i think it was contaminated by either teas in the house or by it’s travels. I pretty much took a sip of this and held it in my mouth until i could get near the sink. It tasted like a mouthful of perfume..which this tea is CLEARLY NOT. so i’m fairly certain i can chalk this up to contamination. Ah well! another time! i still appreciate the share :)

awe yeah! cinnamon swirl bread is in the house! 4 oz of it. So yes…i’m a happy camper, especially with the resteep value on this one. It was the perfect tea to go along with today’s work fiascos in the morning. I’m really glad i have this now when i want it instead of jsut the memory of it from my swap with tastybrew :)

trying to catch up on my logs. sadly work has been increasingly busy meaning i have time to DRINK tea, most of the time, but not time to write about it.

hallieod sent this one to me in the hopes that I would enjoy it more than she did. I’m pretty sure that experiement was a success since i’m finding this one really nice. Now is it a better tea than #49? hells no! but it’s still a nice black and more than suitable for my morning rotation. This is slightly malty but not overly so. It’s a robust tea that might have a bit of astringency but i’m thinking i steeped this for way less time than most. I’ll have to have more of this one the weekend when i can dedicate more time to it.

thank you so much for sending this my way hallieod

I’ve had this tea a few times and liked it, so I decided I would make a few cups for my after-work tea. I heated the water, put the leaves in, and steeped it for three-ish minutes, maybe a tad too long. Went to smell it… and there was the faint, familiar, turkey-like aroma of Yet Another Oversteeped Dud. Damn. Let it cool for several minutes, then went for a sip… it’s just on the inside edge of being oversteeped!

It’s a good jasmine fix, if you like jasmine (which I do!) The only other thing I have to compare it to is the Jasmine Dragon Phoenix Pearls from Teavana, which is my hands-down “Calm the F*** Down” tea. It’s a lighter flavor of jasmine without being too light for my tastes. Floral, soft, jasmine, yadda yadda. Bit cheaper alternative to my beloved Pearls. Will probably become a standard.

Mmmm… the dry bag smells like frosting! That’s a good sign. I was very disappointed to discover that all the teas I ordered from Harney & Sons were artificially flavored. I must have overlooked that on the website when I was ordering! I’m bummed. I’m trying them anyways, of course! Not worth pitching a fit over, but I wish I’d known before I ordered.

I decided to try another tea after my first one did not quite hit the spot. This was the only white tea in the bunch and I wanted to try to get a little less caffeine this afternoon.

I’m not going to lie, I totally bought this because of the ‘Tea for Marriage’ angle. Let’s hope it brings a little luck my way in that regard! I am looking expectantly at my ring finger as I type, hahaha. Oh well, a watched pot never boils! Unlike this tea water, which is more than ready to go.

Mmm… the warm tea smells less like frosting and more citrus-like. It tastes very much like lemon and vanilla, which are not flavors I usually like in my tea but I don’t mind them in this tea. I keep getting caught up on the artificial flavoring thing, though. This tagalong tea tin is beautiful and would be a good wedding favor. If you love vanilla frosting or lemon then this tea may be for you.

I forgot to post this! I had a lot of tea today! I made this one iced, since it wasn’t that great hot. I had great expectations that this would be good iced, but alas, it was not better. It still is too perfume-y of a pear tea for me. I was actually first surprised by the taste of the black tea, because I haven’t iced any black teas yet at home, so it threw me off, even though I’ve had iced black tea before. The dry leaf is so cute, with it’s little shiny ball sprinkles and petals. Oh well. You know, I think if it had something to round it out, it would be better. Maybe like vanilla or caramel?

Iced the last of this tea to see what that was like. In this case, the pink color makes me think it’s raspberry lemonade, but the flavor is still Forever Nuts. Still not a fan. Such a weird tea! Happy that this is a sipdown… I won’t be buying more.

Decided to do a mini sipdown of a handful of teas since I suddenly have an overabundance of tea that I still haven’t tried. Pretty much I wrote down all the untasted teas I have on strips of paper and tossed them in a jar, then pulled a few out. Otherwise I have a hard time deciding what I want to try.
So this was tea #1 for today, thanks to Shmiracles for the swap!

It smells fruity and just a bit flowery-ish in the bag. Brewed…I’m not really sure what to think about this. If I had to identify something, it’s got a smell kinda like overripe bananas, which is a bit odd to me, but it’s the first thing I can think of.
A fruity taste, maybe a bit nutty but there’s a taste in here that I’m not really sure how to explain. It’s all a bit mixed together and I don’t have much of a desire to keep drinking it to see if I can figure it all out. I’ve never had whisky since I don’t drink at all, so maybe the taste that I’m not able to identify is what’s supposed to taste like whisky. /shrug/ It also might be the stevia that’s been added. I’ve never had a tea with it added so I’m not sure what to expect.
Overall, I’m pretty sure I don’t like this. I certainly don’t care to finish off this sample or order this myself. It’s just not for me.