New Tasting Notes

This has become one of my ultimate favorites. I’m almost all the way through my 1oz pack that I got on Saturday. I can’t stop drinking it. Good thing I have more on the way!

Smooooooooth. That’s how this tastes. Even my aunt I-only-heart-black-tea said she liked this one. This one is more on the green side of oolong. It steeps up a dark amber, has an almost creamy mouth feel and sweet, fruity, honeyed in taste. It reminds me of the Sweet Silk Oolong I had bought from TeaSource. I’ll have to brew that one up again tomorrow since I still have some to compare—decide which one is the go to light Oolong for me to stock. But this is definitely a contender.

I had all these plans for what I would do with my July tea budget but I think by July I am going to be scrapping most of the plans.

This afternoon I really wished I had ordered the Grapefruit Dragon like I originally intended to. It is beautifully sunny out and I’m making snapper with dill beurre blanc (fancy way of saying white butter dill sauce). I need a tea to go with it as there’s no white wine in the house. So thought to myself “self, you should have bought the grapefruit dragon!”

Oh well, next time.

Onto this tea. I wanted a green tea and I wanted the pistachio ice cream. Oh looky here, the pistachio icecream is a green tea! And to top it off, i had just I bought almond milk. Now I’m sure I’m zapping all the green tea healthy properties by adding sugar and almond milk but hey, it’s my tea.

I did try it without milk at first. I’m not really eloquent with this stuff so I’ll just tell you I get mostly pistachio, which is fine because that’s exactly why I bought this. Vegetal? Forget it. And here I thought green teas were mostly barely flavoured warm water. Nay!

I steeped using butiki parameters because I trust them more than I trust me at his point and I got a almost clear but not quite liquor which tasted and smelled like roasted pistachio. I should really drink this cold so that I am actually reminded of icecream but my ice cubes smell of freezer … wha?!? … so I can’t put any in.

Hurray for green teas, there’s hope!

PS. I also had “with open eyes” earlier, but that’s a whole different note.

This was such a good smelling tea. I used a lot of leaf but it still came out a bit watery to me. I could taste the cinnamon and chocolate though. I like it but wished it were thicker/malty and stronger tasting to enjoy it more. Thanks to moraiwe for the swap.

Thank you for the swap and sacrificing some of this to send me, Stephanie. The pineapple part smells just like the pineapple from 52teas Pineapple & Bacon. I brewed it hot first and didn’t really like it but cold brewed came out better. I can definitely taste the pineapple and coconut. I don’t really like the artificial pineapple smell or flavor I guess. It’s a nice sweet tea though.

I had a really challenging day at work today. I drank various steeps of this tea throughout the day, too. Early steeps started out very much like Laoshan Green and transformed into a tasty green oolong with lots of nice sweet mineral notes as the day went on. I enjoyed it very much and I am glad I can taste Laoshan in it! I am a big fan of anything the He family makes apparently :)

Now this green came as a surprise.
The first thing i noticed was the strong aromatic smell, this tea is superfresh. And the small size of the leaf.

6g / 200ml glaspot
Three infusions
1m/2m/3m @ 80C

I must say the flavour was a surprise. Loads of spinach and a a superb freshness.
I put the flavour as almost identical to a good quality sencha! Wierd considering senchas are steamed. Maybe its the fact that its still so fresh?
As a fan of sencha i am very pleased :)

Trying this tea out again and I can say for certain that I like Verdant’s Dong Ding much better. This will likely be the last cup of thepuriTea Dong Ding that I drink. I’ll let me husband have the rest as he likes it more than I.

I cold brewed this one today because I don’t dare try it hot. Too much hibiscus.. It actually turned out very nice. It has nice pineapple and coconut flavor. The hibiscus adds a touch of tartness and gives it a nice edge. Very refreshing. I’m actually tempted to try making it a little stronger and adding a splash of rum..

Too much hibiscus. Not enough orange. Weird licorice aftertase.

Pu-erh fail! (148)

I might need to steep more H&S to make up for this one. At least I still have half a cup of Bilbo Brew in my other tumbler!

I got some of this in a trade from jessiwrites (thank you!) and I’m really glad I got a chance to try it.

The dry leaf smells amazingly sweet and cake-y, with hints of cinnamon and something almost maple syrup-y. Yum!

Once brewed the tea takes on a life of it’s own and the little silver shards you see in the dry leaf make my tea shimmer in direct light! I feel like I’m drinking fairy water or something.

The taste is very crumbly cake with less blueberry. It’s definitely captured the essence of a coffeecake, but I feel it’s lacking blueberry. There’s a whisper of it on each sip, but it doesn’t ever seem to be fully realised. The base blend is fair and down’t really obscure or enhance the flavors in any way.

I think next cup, I’m gonna go halfway with some Blueberry Syrup tea from California Tea House and see if we can’t make some blueberry cakey magic. But until then, it’s still a pretty awesome crumb cake cuppa.

I’ve had a hard time tasting things recently. Though by “things”, I think I mean mostly tea. Maybe it’s because I’ve been purging my cupboard, so I haven’t really been paying as much attention to what I drink, but it’s really been bothering me.

The burnt tongue yesterday didn’t help.

So I made a pot of this and sat down, and have just been swishing it around my mouth and really sitting on it. It tasted like nothing and smelt like lychee at first. I think I picked up a bit of Keemun in the scent as well, so I’m guessing that’s the base. Someone else suggested that as well, I believe.

As I’ve worked my way through the pot, it’s slowly been coming back to me. The base is Chinese, definitely, the lychee not coming through as much in the taste, but there’s thick smoke and I’m definitely sure on Keemun now.

I needed this.

To me, “Earl Grey” has always meant mediocrity – I thought of it as the boring, bitter, miserable stuff of cheap complimentary teabags. Then, I smelled Lupicia’s take on it…

The aroma hits you like a truck out of the tin, pure fresh bergamot – absolutely love at first smell. Tin sold. When brewed, the bergamot explosion mellows out to allow the smoky smooth keemun base to take the lead. Unlike the terrible greys I have had in the past, the bergamot is fresh, complex, fruity and multilayered, the kind of quality I’ve come to expect from Lupicia. No “someone sprinkled citric acid on some Lipton” here.

I don’t know that I would call myself a fan of Earl Grey just yet, but I am most certainly a fan of Lupicia’s take on it. Fresh, complex, energizing and pure quality.

Good heavens, it looks like I haven’t logged this in almost a year! Well, the flavor of the tea has not suffered one bit! Also, it looks like I only logged it once, and I know I have had it more than that!

On one occasion, this got a little astringent on me, so today we steeped at 203F for 3 1/2 minutes. This was the second tea served at tea party, and since all three tied for how good they were, this one wins “most interesting” for today.

I made a couple of cheesecakes and some home made Magic Shell chocolate topping, and put strawberries on the cheesecake, then drizzled everything with the chocolate. That was served with Zhen Qu Super China Black from A Southern Season. This came next!

The reason this gets called most interesting today is because it managed to cut through all of that flavor, all that sweet richness, and assert its own flavors without being harsh. I tasted the strawberry, of course, but somehow the white wine flavor really shone through and took the stage. This was a great tea to finish the dessert plates and start the cookie plates!

Delicious!

This tea is very very tart, so unless you can drink tart, be prepared to add sugar. I bought this tea to make iced.

Lots of cherry flavor with raspberry, blackberries and hibiscus notes. Iced, the cherry flavor stands out more than the other berryness going on. Both hot and cold, this tea has a tart dryness, despite sweetening. However, I found Pondi Cherry not flat at all!

Full review on my blog, The Oolong Owl http://oolongowl.wordpress.com/2013/06/19/pondi-cherry-from-new-mexico-tea-company-tea-review/

This tea wasn’t bad. I can’t say anything I didn’t like about it in particular. The only problem I do have with it is that it’s very, very ordinary. It’s like the base taste of a tea without any of the excitement. Which is exactly what it’s suppose to be! Original black tea. Judging it on that and not on flavor blend, I’d say this is a good one. If I’m ever looking for plain black tea I won’t hesitate to look here. But will I brew this tea for breakfast? Probably not – I’ll save that space for a more exciting blend.

Goodbye Bilbo Brew! (150)

This was so amazing. I’m basically having it for lunch as it’s so rich and wonderful. If I’d had it earlier I could have called it Elevensies.

Also, that’s a real thing: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elevenses I thought that was just made up for the Hobbit! #themoreyouknow

Nice, chocolate and fruit taste. I thought it was raspberry but I see its supposed to be strawberry. It’s good that this is my last little bit; this time when I made the tea I burned my hand warming up my eggs. Last time I burnt my tongue drinking the tea. Cursed tea.

I keep losing tasting notes! Man this sucks :(

Tea #2 in my birthday tea adventure!

The smell and flavor I get is a lot more intense than the black pearl I just had. That peppery flavor I mentioned is much more prominent and there’s this almost smoky aftertaste I’m picking up that settles on my tongue. Along with being less smooth, this tea just tastes like barbeque to me! Totally tasty but I’d have to be in the mood for it. As it cools down it reminds me of the cedar pine chips my dad uses when he makes ribs.

Second and third steeps become even more smoky! This bbq taste is really unexpected. For some reason I was expecting it to be more like a dian hong.

Overall a good tea but I’d really have to be in the mood to drink it.

Dangit. I really should have converted the Celcius on the package to Fahrenheit. I used water too hot for this tea. It shows. It’s astringent and not tasty.

I want to like rose tea, but I never seem to have good luck with it.

I just have the one teabag that was sent as a sample with one of my Kusmi orders, so I can’t even try again.

Sipdpwn today! How sad…
I have loved this tea and the snowy garden, I think I will end up buying more of both eventually. So delicious. Today I iced this and put in one sugar packet.

Love watching the leaves unfurl in water.

Dear Cavocorax,

I wanted to write and thank you so much for the cinnamon swirl tea you sent me!

I woke up this morning with (and I’ll be honest) a certain amount of dread in my heart. I knew that today I was going to be stuck dealing with provincial government red tape and that it would probably take hours. Before I even got started I put the kettle on. ‘cinnamon swirl’ I determined as soon I perused the tea stash you sent me. It was the sample I most coveted as we wrote back and forth determining what we would send to one another.

My electric kettle clicked off and I opened the little bag of cinnamon swirl. Long fibers all stuck together reminding me of the tasty goo on top of a cinnamon knot… a vague scent of cinnamon, but not the heavy smell I had been expecting. Well, if there’s anything I’ve learned on this journey it’s not to judge a tea before it’s steeped.

At this point I will confide in you something that I hope you find most complimentary: I followed your written instructions! You always hear about different personality types: A, B, etc. people have always told me that I’m an SC which stands for serial contrarian. It’s never my intention to be contrary, and so far as I know I’m not a jerk, I just tend to do things my own way! That said with such a precious sample, did I really want to waste it by serial contrarianing it away? (I just couldn’t risk it especially seeing as I have read frustrations about not tasting what was expected by other steepers). so, 1 tablespoon for 6 ounces of water for 1.5 minutes of steep time…. Really? I thought to myself. Because I am famous for my long deliberate steeps as well as getting distracted and inadvertently making them even longer. Oh well…… instruction following. Yup yup!

The water changed colour and became rust hued, the vapour billowing out of my cup took on a cinnamon slant. I smelled a bakery! Just a second, afk… must take another sip. I’m back. The most remarkable thing happened when I removed my tea ball: mass amounts of red poured out of it! it reminded me of the huge red algae blooms you see in the ocean from space. It just kept pouring out and filling my mug. Wow!

Now, I know the purists would frown, but I added my standard bit of cream and sugar, it is MY cup of tea after all and for reasons that are old and complicated to explain those add ins give me comfort. (and who doesn’t need a bit of extra comfort when dealing with the government all day???)

The verdict: I am drinking cinnamon swirl bread. Cavocorax your instructions were magic! As I near the bottom of my cup there is cinnamon piled there. No floral notes or undertones aside from the warm taste of cinnamon bread. Interesting though because the flavour is warm even as my tea is cooling. This is lovely. Thank you for such a tasty respite from phone calls… and the directions so that I achieved the desired result!

Sincerely,
JustJames

The first thing that I noticed was the sweetness, it seems a lot sweeter than the last few dragowell teas that I have had. The flavor is a lot more subtle with just a hint of grassyness to it. Overall I think this is a nice dragonwell, especially since it lacks the astringency that I find occasionally in them.

Chocolatey, fruity, slightly roasty, and incredibly sweet, this is one of my favorite black teas. For me it doesn’t ever really get the bright orange color pictured, but that doesn’t matter. I’m still floored by how incredible Yunnan Sourcing’s black teas are for their stupidly low prices, this is really a unique and top tier tea. Oh, and it’s just indescribably delicious and aromatic cold brewed, I cold brewed a pitcher of it in the fridge for ~36 hours and the fruity chocolate smell is so strong, and the sweetness is even more pronounced, best iced tea i’ve ever had.