New Tasting Notes

Backlogging. I believe I got this from Azzrian in part of a holiday gift thank you very much. I taste berry with black tea and abit of sweetness that could be the maple or the sugar I put in. This tea is pretty good the berry a tad tart me but not overwelming,and the black tea tastes pretty good and strong to. I wish i could of tasted more maple though. Thank you very much.

Desert tea!

Scent: Reminds me of the fresh seaweed and cucumber salad served in sushi restaurants. I also get a perfumey, sweet scent as it cools, which the seaweed smell takes a back seat to.
Taste: Unique, I cant quite think of anything similar to compare it to . Fresh, a little sweet, and floral (kind of makes me think of lavender) is the best way I can describe it. I like this with long steeps and no sugar.
Update: the most recent time I had this I got some hints of cinnamon-like notes after it had cooled down quite a bit.

I drank the whole cup and I couldn’t tell you what it tasted like. I blame that on feeling a bit under the weather, though. I think my tastebuds and sense of smell have been compromised.

I do smell some nuttiness when smelling the dry tea, but didn’t get much from the prepared tea. On the positive side, it was very smooth, which my sore throat appreciated, and I didn’t taste any bitterness.

I’m going to hold off ranking this one until my senses are back to where they should be. I have a feeling I’m missing some nuances here.

Here’s another tea I got from the Jasmine Pearl Tea Merchants.

This tea sounded very intriguing to me… a smoky dark blend with orange and spice. I would say the predominate black here is the keemun, along with a bit of lapsang. Then I am picking up the orange, clove and lemon… the rose is very faint. It is a bit like a chai but with more smoke and more citrus. I like this a lot better than I thought I would, it is very warming on a chilly night — especially since the heat is still not on here at full force.

This is yummy afternoon/evening tea that is really good! I like this blend.

Backlogging:

Thanks History Laced for letting me try this tea with you in another wonderful tea tasting.

I tried this tea 1/9/13. I have a little journal that I make tasting notes in and try to put one in every time I remember to do so. I have been in bed all day and finally mustered the strength to get up and grab my journal. I am unsure as to whether this is a sample or something that she ordered online. At this tasting, this was the only tea my boyfriend got to brew before having to leave and handle school matters and consequently the only boyfriend review. Sorry everyone!

Observation 1: My boyfriend prepared this tea, steeping at boiling for 6 minutes. The dry leaves have plum and peach notes with a small hint of floral-ness.

Observation 2: Naked this tea is a bit astringent, but I suspect the kettle was too hot. This tastes sweet and vegetal with jasmine and rose as an afterthought and the black tea base dominating on the palate.

Observation 3: With raw sugar, I am reminded of perfume. The rose water dominates this blend once sweetened. The bitterness of the green tea is more noticeable.

Observation 4: I did not try this with milk or creme due to the green tea in its base, I am not fond of green tea with milk.

Observation 5: After a little while of mulling over this blend, I suffered a perfume headache.

Overall,I just seem to not like black/green blends. It is very hard to steep at the right temperature and requires too much experimentation just to be palatable for me. I think this would be an excellent green tea or an excellent black tea, but not at the same time.

Boyfriend remarks: Tastes like a flowertastic flowerific explosion! wiggles hands wildly

I used 1.5 tablespoons of dry leaf for 375ml of water.

Astringency is not present with a shorter infusion time. Sweetness present. I really like the mint paired with the black tea base. The candy canes gives a soft savoury sweetness that trails into the aftertaste.

Finally! I finally tried a ‘plain’ white tea. It was only .50 so I snagged it.

It reminds me a little of a very light green or oolong tea. I really like it. It’s slightly sweet, grassy and very lovely.

Now when I drink Cookie Dough, I’ll recognize the base.

Time to resteep!

After a very long day, I needed something bracing and comforting. And luckily, since it is Friday night, I can have all the caffeine I want! This is another tea from my recent Whispering Pines Tea Company order and it is great. I love the smoothness of the blend. It is easily drinkable and not bitter without additions, but since I am going for comfort I added a tiny bit of sugar and milk. This tea is definitely bold enough to stand up to those!

This reminds me a bit of Queen Catherine from Harney (which I adore) but without the hint of smoke. I’m really glad I threw this in my cart – it is quickly helping to smooth out the wrinkles of my day.

This was a free sample that was included with the order hubby had me place for Christmas! Thank you, Garret!

We had a busy day. I was up before six to take the foster puppy outside to piddle, in the rain, barefoot. Fortunately it has been rather warm here. Then school with youngest daughter and more rain piddles. Just after lunch hubby came home and we went to Raleigh to pick up a few things and drop something off at my eldest daughter’s apartment.

Now I am so tired I can hardly wait to go to bed! As my mother used to say, “No one will have to rock me to sleep tonight!”

But I really need a late night libation, something special to drink before nodding off. I poked through my sample basket and found this, and apparently I am the first to log it!

Middle daughter just ground some wheat and made chocolate chip cookies and of course I had to grab one or three to much on while I made this tea! Thus, my tasting of the tea may not be perfectly accurate since I began with cookie.

What it does tell me is that I enjoy this tea with food. The tiny pellets expanded magnificently into bright green leaves that filled the little pot. The liquor of the first few steeps carried a sharp, root vegetable scent, but the taste was not sharp. I find it somewhat mineral, which always tastes very fresh to me, lightly floral, and green. It is not astringent or drying.

I am now on steep four and it is smoother and sweeter than ever. The taste is now lingering long, warm and pleasant. There is a taste of delicate green vegetables more so now, but it is a very delicate green taste, not grassy, sour, or harsh. This was a very nice “night night” cup, and I have enough sample left to do this a couple more times!

Thank you again, Garret!

I have to say I was not looking forward to this when I saw almond extract as an ingredient, but I figured it couldn’t be that strong of a player in the tea.

It’s not.

Something about this just tastes off to me. The raspberry smells and tastes odd, it actually almost smells like a savory soup at times, it’s not chocolatey at all, and it tastes like pepper.

Going to try again with this at some point but I’m put off by it right now :(

Has a wonderful aroma that’s warm and soothing. I love drinking a cup of Earl Grey decaf after a long day to relax and unwind. This is where my love of tea started.

Today I’m getting a lot more sweetness out of this sheng. It may be because I decided to wash it a bit more – 2 washes, 1st was 5 seconds, 2nd close to 10 seconds. Before I was really just getting smoky flavor out of this tea but on my 2nd kept steep I can actually taste some apricot and a little bit of cream. Of course, I discover this as I’m running out of this tea!

One of my favourite flavoured teas. I love ginger, and there’s definitely a good bit of it in here. It doesn’t bite as much as it burns on a low level, if that makes sense. I also taste more peach than many people have noted, but it’s definitely dependent on steeping time – I’ll need to pay more attention the next few times I have this. Then again, I’m not a huge fan of fruity teas, so a touch of peach is all I need. Very interesting, versatile tea. I’ll drink it often.

I will reserve judgement until I have this with milk and sugar, like it’s probably best. But my first cup was very meh. Bitter but not in the tasty way, powdery, nondescript.

EDIT: Nope. It’s just a blandly bitter mate with a bit of powdery cocoa. Def not worth it. Davids Tea you are striking out about 85% of the time for me right now.

Beautiful smell while brewing. Definitely malty, with smooth raisin-y flavour, and just the slightest hint of dry smokiness in the aftertaste. Strong, but not bitter at all. It’s very nice, but I’m not a big fan of raisin notes in my tea now.

It’s a cold, rainy night in NY and I am craving a cup of something rich and warming. Something like… cake! As luck would have it I just got a sample of this tea from Chuckieroy, what perfect timing. This tea smells just divine, not just pineapple-y but very much like cake. Often cake blends fail to deliver on that aspect, but I had high hopes for this one since Della Terra seems to excel at dessert blends.

Oh my GOODNESS. This tastes just like cake! The pineapple is strong but tempered by brown sugar and a rich, creamy quality. It’s so buttery and, well, cake-y! Definitely the most cake-like tea I’ve tasted, this so lives up to its name and I will be adding this to my permanent stash for sure. Thanks so much for letting me try this one, Chuckieroy!

This tisane, which came as part of “Numi’s Collection,” tastes woodsy to me, and has a sweet but subtle pine-sap flavor and scent (not like pine-sol), rather than like honey. I added some acacia honey to it and it began to taste like honey, but probably because of the added honey. I thought rooibos actually had a more natural honey taste to it than this tisane. It’s not bad for an evening herbal tisane, but I probably wouldn’t buy it.

Well, this won’t replace Adagio’s TARDIS or Shanti Teas’ Raspberry Earl Grey. I want that fancy fruity mouthfeel those other teas gave me.

Right now I’m getting fruit and earl grey and a bit of vanilla but so much bergamot! So much! So, I’ll just rate this later.

Oh… Oh my. Color me pleasantly surprised. Looking at the ingredients list I had been all prepared for another snarky “Oh look, it’s another Teavana candy-tea” review. And as most Teavana teas are, it is very sweet. Open the package and the scent of an almond cookie wafts right out.

But the ingredients are intruiging: pink peppercorns, entire star anise, slivered almonds. Brewed up to a lovely deep amber, it’s like sipping on a delicious almond spice cookie, and I love it. I can see the chai, kind of, and I can see the thai, kind of, but really let’s call a spade a spade. This is a cookie tea, and a tasty, complex and drinkable cookie tea. It’s plenty sweet with no extra sugar needed. I’m enjoying the combination of red and black tea. It makes for very good sipping.

You’ve done right on this one, Teavana. Let’s hope you can make more like this.

First off, big thanks to Nwolf93 for sending me this sample! I loooove my teaopia teas, although most are sadly gone. There must have been some leftover sugar in my mug because my first infusion was so sweet I thought there must have been stevia leaf in it. As it is it’s…interesting. There’s a certain scent/flavour that’s very familiar, that for some reason my brain is telling me is mint. That could just be the green mate, though, since most mates I drink are roasted or heavily flavoured. I feel like I can taste, and am enjoying the cola nut flavour, but can’t quite pick it out. Allover, definitely I tea I would keep around….if it were still made. Mind you, I’m very curious about mixing my own teas in the future, this might be one I try and replicate.