New Tasting Notes

Wow.

This is the first oolong tea that I’ve actually liked, and my favourite of the Butiki teas I’ve tried so far.

It smells great in the bag, but that can be misleading, so I wasn’t expecting quite how good it was when I tried it.What a beautiful, smooth, maple flavour. I drank the whole cup before I remembered that people suggested adding a bit of sugar to bring out the maple even more. I’m not sure if it’s possible for it to get better, but I’ll try that with the next infusion.

92 Rating: Awsome, really Green. Makes a good complex brew that lasts in the palate. Love this tea

Dry leaf; A complex grassy aroma. Color of leaf and stem is a beautiful grassy green.

1st Brew: 2 teaspoons tea leaf for 5 oz of water at 175, steeping 1-2 minutes. I love the complexity and depth of this tea. The brew is a beautiful green color. This tea comes in a Select & Premium version. I really look forward to trying the Premium next.

60 Rating: New Package Update, 2/8/2013
Wow, this tea is all of a sudden very bitter! What a let down, as this was a nice tea in the last package. Seems to have inconsistencies between batches.

Loose
Appearance: dark green gunpowder curls
Aroma when Dry: nondescript
After water is first poured: dusty, sweet (eastern)
At end of first steep: vegital, sweet (eastern)
Tea liquor:
At end of first steep: dusty green
Staple? No, will usually drink type if around
Preferred time of day: any
Taste:
At first: vegital, slightly grassy smooth hints of creaminess
Additives used (milk, honey, sugar etc)? No
Lingers? Yes, with faint creamy buttery notes

Haven’t had this yummy tea in awhile but yummmy…mmmm…melon~y goodness :D

I’m very eager to drink this tea as apparently it has a great cakey flavor. The scent is almost like a maple syrup with something in the background that’s a little like pancakes.

Sipping…. I’m tasting more caramel than anything. It’s not like other caramel teas I’ve had as this one tastes a little bit burnt. It’s almost like burned caramel with maple syrup drizzled on top. Ew.

I’ve never had pineapple upside down cake so I’m not sure what this tea is supposed to taste like.. I really don’t taste much pineapple at all and I’m disappointed that I am tasting caramel instead of cake. It’s certainly drinkable, but the flavor is getting to be overwhelming.

OK, I have transgressed and slipped into a cup of cocoa tonight. But in my defense, it’s sloppy, soggy, freezing rain outside, snow to follow, with killer chill behind that. Sitting under a super-fluorescent light at my writing desk didn’t even dent the SAD. It’s chocolate weather.

However, the chance combination part of this little story is courtesy of my hubby. Disappointed by Starbucks’ discontinuation of his favorite Signature cocoa, he started twiddling with cocoa alchemy. Turns out that one packet Swiss Miss Dark Chocolate Sensation and one packet Cold Stone Marshmallow in the same cup approximates the sweet stuff he misses.

Hitting the spot.

Loose
Appearance: dark, knobby tricolored curls
Aroma when Dry: sweet, milky, grassy
After water is first poured: nothing noticeable,
At end of first steep: faint sweet nuttyness
Tea liquor:
At end of first steep: hints of brown
Staple?No
Preferred time of day: Afternoon, evening
Taste:
At first: sour, nutty, grassy
As it cools ? gets bland, sour, grassy
Additives used (milk, honey, sugar etc)? No
Lingers? yes, with sour grassiness

I’m not sure if the pouch I’m using is from a different batch than the 12 days of tea Christmas sample, but it tastes different to me: a touch more subtle. Don’t get me wrong, this batch also has plenty of flavor (as I’ve come to know and love of 52teas blends), it’s just doesn’t taste quite as bold as my Christmas sample. This pouch isn’t much older than the Christmas sample either, maybe just a couple of months older. Hmmm…Maybe I’m imagining it?

Oh well, whether I’m imagining it or not, both are delicious, and make me want to buy more, More MORE! mwahahaha! (That’s my evil villain laugh, in case you were wondering)

I have less than half of my pouch remaining, but I can’t honestly justify buying more tea because I got so much tea for Christmas (not to mention the last 52teas order I still have on the way). Even so, I can’t seem to stop myself from regularly perusing the 52teas site.

This was interesting. I had been looking for a cranberry tea and was excited to try it. The cranberry and apple dominated this green and the star anise showed up in the aftertaste. I’m not a big fan of anything licorice-like at all, but I could barely taste the star anise (which was a relief!). My search for a cranberry tea continues, though. I think DAVIDsTEA has a cranberry pear tea which would be right up my alley.

A beautiful grassy aroma and deep grassy green color when dry, yet when brewed leaves me wanting. I do not read Japanese yet, so if anyone can, please post brewing instructions on package.

Dry leaf; Strong sweet grassy aroma. Color of leaf is a beautiful deep grassy green.

1st Brew: 2 teaspoons tea leaf for 8 oz of water at 180, brewing 3 minutes, then 5 minutes. It took many minutes of steeping to achieve deep flavor palate, yet it leaves me wanting more depth and complexity.

1st Brew #2 try: I bumped up the amount of tea to 2 1/2 teaspoons of tea leaf for 8 oz of water at 190, brewing 5 minutes, then 10 minutes. This tea tasted better letting it steep 10 minutes. A sweet mild taste, with very little astringency. Tea leaves take several minutes to drop to the bottom.

Sipdown #3.

Enjoying my last cup of this beautiful tea. It’s so light and floral. Unlike the movie I’m watching – Immortals. Sheesh. I’ve not watched a movie with this much gore in a long time. People literally smashing other people to bits. I guess the one thing that goes with this tea is the beauty that is Henry Cavill.

It’s not living as such that’s important, Theseus. It’s living rightly.

Bagged
Aroma when Dry: toothpaste, soapy, minty
After water is first poured: toothpaste minty, fresh
At end of first steep: sour, floral
Tea liquor:
At end of first steep: light minty green
Staple? Type yes, this brand no
Preferred time of day: Any
Taste:
At first: flat mint, sour grassy close
As it cools? mint oil starts to be more noticable
Additives used (milk, honey, sugar etc)? No
Lingers? Yes, with generic mintyness

This tea is strong. Smells the way I imagine a breakfast tea should smell. A bit bitter but somehow, drinking this piping hot makes me feel up and at’em! The bitterness increases as it cools down.

I enjoy it very much with some honey and milk – a good replacement for a breakfast coffee in my opinion.

This tea came courtesy of the Victoria Tea Festival last year. It appears to be a limited edition blend as I can’t seem to find it listed on their website.

The leaves of this tea are lovely – long dark twists when they’re dry that unfurl into large, unbroken leaves when they steep. The smell of the steeping tea was a mix of malt and cocoa that reminds me of Ovaltine and the flavour seems to harken back to both its Taiwanese and Assamica roots. It’s a full-flavoured tea that’s lightly malty but with a slight astringent bite and a touch of that bitter cocoa flavour Chinese black teas seem to have.

It’s a very complex, multi-layered tea and I can see why it was a competition winner.

Bagged
Aroma when Dry: sour floral
After water is first poured: sour
At end of first steep: sour, floral
Tea liquor:
At end of first steep: med green
Staple? No
Preferred time of day: Any
Taste:
At first: sour floral
As it cools ? Mellowed sour, floral, then sourness fades
Additives used (milk, honey, sugar etc)? No
Lingers? Yes, cloying sour notes

In all honesty, the first impression reminded me of butterbeer. It’s buttery, sweet, and has a mellow black base. Instead of root beer, however, I’m definitely picking up a “corn” component, along with caramel and toffee; the self description is bang on. It feels like DT’s Movie Night too, although I like this better.

All in all, not bad! I wanted to drink this while watching the Christmas special, but ended up making myself some of that Browncoat Genmaicha for the occasion. As much as I enjoyed the Ponds I’m ready for some new faces.

Every time I reach that point where there are no more episodes out I always get the urge to go back and try to watch the old Doctor Who. I think I was up to The Aztecs (006/F) last time… Going to the beginning is like traveling in a time box. How things have changed! I wish I knew an easier way to get a hold of the episodes.

Edit: Backlog on second steep. I found the toffee component to be very vivid on second steep- the tea held up well! If I hadn’t had a toffee crunch kitkat bar a day before I wouldn’t have been able to pick it out at all; I thought it was from an interesting black base at first. I’m bad at distinguishing things!

The roomie and I sipped down the last of this one from the 12 Days of Tea today. And to make it all the more awesome, I used my super cool new teapot from DavidsTea, and we drank out of my brand new tiny little double-walled glass teacups! So much fun! And she got me a teapot cosy for my birthday (which is tomorrow), so our tea stayed nice and warm while we drank miniscule cups of it.

Oh yes. And the tea itself was darn good. Definitely 100% an artificially flavoured tea, but a darn good one, all sugary sweet blueberry. Yummmm. We’ve had two infusions so far, perhaps will have a third (or I’ll let her just use the infuser in her Dr. Who mug or something).

Wonderful sweet Darjeeling flavor, which comes out even more as it cools down to a warm temperature. No bitterness or astringency that I notice. It is like Twinings, but more intense and rich.

UPDATE: I made a second steeping of this tea, and it was somewhat weaker, but still tasty. I steeped the bag for six minutes.

Thank you Stacy for sending this sample! I believe this blend was retired right after I ordered. I woke up with a bit of a sore throat this morning which has mostly gone away but I think it’s still affecting my taste buds. I spent most of morning and afternoon with a honey oolong and while I could tell it was delicious and fresh and good quality and there were things I liked about it, there was one off note that was being intensified and I’m finding the same here. I like anise but didn’t really get it on the first infusion, it just sort of read as “gum”. I added a pinch or brown sugar which brought out the juiciness of the pear. I just glanced at Bonnie’s note before logging this and I agree with the slightly rough bitter pear skin analogy, but she says it much more poetically than I.

Thank you, tperez!

A blueberry white was the second of my two first loose leaf teas but I never repurchased it for some reason. This one has always intrigued me so yay. I could take or leave the acai but I’m pretty sure acai just tastes like blueberries anyway in 99% of American acai stuff. Anyway.

I made iced tea with this because it’s too warm today. It’s definitely on the light side. It also just completely smells like a cocktail so I covered the leaves in vodka but I don’t think it’s really going to do much, it’s been almost a day now since that.

This does seem like a difficult tea, I would guess you need more than the 1.5 tsp suggested to really get a decent flavor. It’s not a bad blueberry flavor but it tastes like a waste of white tea.

This is a pretty decent tea. It has a little bit of spice to it, and the finish, to me, is a sort of watery citrus that I’m not sure if I like or dislike.

I steep it for 3-3.5 minutes @ 195F and usually get two steepings out of it.

I’m having a cup of this deliciously minty tea whilst reading The Treatment by Mo Hayder. :)

Well I dug myself out of the house this morning and last night, just enough to let the dog out :D then it was snow blower time for the driveway so I could get to work. You know that just screams for me to have this tea :D

SIPDOWN! well basically since the last little bit of this is off to Kittenna to try at our tea swap meet :) Still enjoy this though i think it would be a nice summer cold drink moreso than a hot one.