New Tasting Notes

This is my favorite tea on Earth. Granted, I love anything cinnamon and slightly spicy, and this is the perfect example. Needs nothing but a splash of milk for the best taste. Somehow, Hot Cinnamon Spice is slightly sweet all on it’s own, so it really needs no sweeteners, but I sometimes add a touch of honey when my sweet tooth is raging. It’s the perfect tea when I’m craving dessert, but don’t want the calories.

Loose
Appearance: sorghum and rice noticeable, balanced blend with the bancha
Aroma when Dry: sweet (eastern) nutty, slightly toasty. Rice notes
After water is first poured: nutty, toasty,
At end of first steep: nutty, toasty, earthy, sweet (eastern) chewy
Tea liquor:
At beginning of steep: light green
At end of steep: mossy, foresty green
Staple? Type yes, will buy this brand again gladly
Preferred time of day: any, could drink buckets of this
Taste:
At first: nutty, toasty, earthy, sweet (eastern) chewy, hints of floral
As it cools? gets a bit buttery, slighty sour tang, a bit more floral less chewy, keeps other notes
Additives used (milk, honey, sugar etc)? No
Lingers? Yes, all notes stay, it gets slightly creamy, mildly like chestnuts

Also good chilled

It’s been a while since I have been in the right mood for an Oolong but I am craving something light and floral at the moment. A while ago I bought a sample of most of the Oolong’s from Tea from Taiwan’s website and this one was chosen at random for my steeping tonight.

Raw this tea consists of dark green leaves that have been rolled into small balls with a sweet, creamy and vegetal scent. Just what I have been craving.

Steep 1 – 1 minute infusion – gongfu style
Pale yellow in colour with a sweet and creamy with buttery notes. It reminds me a little of fresh cabbage water so it is vegetal and green tasting but also sweet and light.

Steep 2 – 2 minutes
Increasing strength this is now very vegetal and reminds me of sugar snap peas. Also getting a bit of dryness on my tongue. Still very sweet.

Steep 3 – 3 minutes
It’s definitely sugar snap pea’s, I snack on them from time to time and it has the same flavour and sweetness. I can only describe the flavour as green but cannot explain what that means…natural…vegetal…a little floral…when you see green planted food you imagine what it tastes like and this is the same as that. Not sure if I made sense there :/

Overall it’s a nice Oolong in taste and quality but at the same time it’s very similar to plenty of other Oolong’s available on the market. I would not go out of way my to buy this again but if I ordered from Tea from Taiwan again I would seriously consider it.

I was in the mood for something a little stronger for the morning, so last night I mixed this tea with some Kusmi Russian Morning Tea No. 24, and woke up to deliciousness. This tea is a nice medium strength (I think?) alone, and the Russian Morning tea just gives it a little more body, which I like in the morning. But really, it’s just as delicious by itself. I like it the more I drink it. It’s sweet and comforting in just the right way. I love love love the smell of it. Makes me smile when I take a sip. Butiki Teas are wonderful~

First time to try any Rooibos tea, so I don’t know how others of this type taste. An interesting scent and flavor, somewhat nutty. I prepared it same as with black teas: with a splenda packet, and a little half and half. Very good taste; tastes more like a black tea than other herbals do, and great for an evening tea — without the caffeine.

This tea smells so yummy! At first the scent reminded me of bubble gum, but then I realized that it smells like those sugary fruit instant oatmeal packets. I can’t really detect the individual fruits… it’s more like a big blob of mixed fruits: strawberry, mango, orange, peach?

Sipping… wow, the fruits really come to the front of the cup! It’s a little bit tart and sweet with beautiful tropical flavors. With all of these fruits flying around, it’s very easy to forget about the green tea itself. It’s there, though, and adds a faint grassy note. I like how this tea prickles the tongue in the same way citrus fruits do. I almost think that all of the flavor fades quickly, but it actually lingers in the mouth for a good while.

This is a very delicious, very fruity tea. It borders on being a little bit like fruity bubble gum, but it’s still something fun to drink when you’re in the mood for an interesting tea!

So far, has to be my favorite traditional black tea. It has the lighter smoky tones of the golden monkey, but darker and stronger, I find. It can get a tad bitter if oversteeped but not undrinkably so.

You guys I am so close to becoming the Battlestar Galactica episode of Portlandia but with Doctor Who. I started back on September 14 (thanks Netflix activity history) out of just pure curiosity and now I’m to the point where going out to mail things was like a serious problem in continuing to watch. I am not even writing tasting notes at the right times hahaha. And what do I do when I get to the end of what’s on Netflix??? WAH

Ok so had this last night. It is a bit blueberry muffin-ish I suppose, all I really got was blueberry with a hint of cake. I guess it makes sense since you just put streusel on top of a muffin, so muffin is a perfectly acceptable thing to say. Eating streusel by itself is kind of iffy. At least for me.

Maybe I could use this a little sweeter, it doesn’t seem as wonderfully blueberry as Blueberry Cream Cheese Danish. But there’s butter and brown sugar notes and definitely cake. I will have to experiment a bit before this is up there in deliciousness for me.

I think I know what it is that throws me off about this tea: it kind of smells pickled. Both the dry leaf and the steeped tea have this kind of pickle-ness that is just weird in tea. After that first cup I’ve been avoiding this one a bit. Not because it is really terrible, it just has a very intimidating factor. This is a really “dirty” tea, in that even with my finest mesh this leaves a huge amount of floaties in my cup. I hate that. I find tea floaties and oily blends visually displeasing.
Today this tea smells much more juicy than my last one. I tried to make sure I got equal parts tea and extras. Today the tea seems more spicy with equal parts juicy fruitiness. It is okay; just okay. I can’t pin down what type of fruit this is supposed to be even though mango is in the name. It is not overly citrus, berry, or mango. It seems like the tea that can’t in a way. It wants to be this tropical, spicy thing and almost does just that, but fails because it is just a weird jumble of lots of things that sounds tasty.

Still my favorite black tea!
:)

Drank this one at my buddy’s Reqwer’s place.

It’s an oolong tea from China, gave me a lot of surprises!

Really great oolong, much better than any oolong I’ve tried before. Reminded me of a pu-erh a little bit, some earthy and malty notes were definitely there! I drank it with a tad of sugar, but I think it would be great without it too. One more thing that was surprising, was that it didn’t have a strong smell! I expected a fairly rough smell, but it had just a nice little aroma, reminded me of walnuts a bit.

Oolong gets some bonus points from me for this one!

I’ve been trying to be better about logging my teas, but I haven’t been doing a very good job! I have to work on it. Lately, I’ve noticed that I’ve been drawn more to oolongs and white teas, when I used to always want black teas and very sweet flavors. Perhaps my tastes are changing.

This tea was one I received for Christmas from my mom. I’m still not too experienced with white teas, so I won’t be able to give the best review of this. The steeped smell is a very nice creamy smell. The first taste of the sip is a creamy vanilla-ish flavor. I can really taste the white tea once it hits the back of my tongue. I’m not really picking up much pineapple with this. I think I got this a bit too hot, so that is probably affecting the flavors. I’ll definitely mess around with the steep times and temperatures.

Resteeped as well, yummers. Preferred the one that Cavocorax sent me from Tea Desire, though.

14/05/2013
it’s like when you love a song so much that you wanna play it for the world to hear!
i wanna play this tea for the world to hear.

today i’m buying more.

09/01/2013
seriously!
this tea is ONE of a KIND!
Lapsang, Candy Cane Tea, and Ginger Tea?!?! all in one cup.
i still laugh when i read the ingredients, but it is really an amazing cup. not upsetting in the least. but it is quite feisty. and precarious. the lapsang is big on the nose, but really it’s the ginger that carries the whole cup. a little cinnamon pinch on the cheek & marigold flowers to pat you on the head.
smaug is a complex and quite lovable dragon.

19/01/2013
smaug you are one crazy tea dragon and we will be friends forevah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

25/01/2013
obviously i am the only one drinking this tea.

i never give teas actual ratings because it’s seems arbitrary to me. i mean it uses so many people and so many diverse opinions and tastes and they all end up in the same 15 point range that i don’t see how it’s very helpful. but whatevs. i’m not complaining, just explaining why i don’t really rate stuff.

BUT I’M GONNA GIVE THIS ONE 100 BOOM cuz everyone needs to try it at least once.

from the website:
1. lapsang souchong – famously smoky aroma and flavor. clean and slightly cool smokiness in the aroma, like menthol. Sweet, refreshing smoky flavor, crisp and edgy.

2. candy cane – Premium black tea from Sri Lanka flavored with minty candy canes.

3. ginger – Fresh, warming heat of ginger with the rich tang of Ceylon black tea.

GROWL!

Drinking this as the first tea that has ever been brewed in the new (2nd) Breville One Touch that I bought for my work desk. 1000 ml pot, though I won’t be doing that again, I just don’t drink it fast enough. I’m on my second steep now, same amount of water. I’m glad I gave away most of the first pot though because I’m not through my second mug and it’s pretty cooled off by now even with the ‘keep warm’ feature which doesn’t last nearly long enough.

Anyway, I think I put more leaf in than I normally do because it’s stronger and at the same time a bit more bitter than normal. Perhaps it’s because I’ve been drinking it all morning and I’m getting tired of it. Normally I do like this tea though so I’m not going to change my rating. I think I’m going to slosh by the time the day ends.

This has become my default morning tea to brew before I get to work and take the rest in a travel mug to drink along the way. Why, you might ask? Because it was on top of the pile.

This tea is pretty good for a wake up tea, strong flavour but not a confusing one. Since I drank it this morning and I usually do my tasting notes during the drink and not after, I can’t really remember exactly what I picked up other than I liked it. Drinking (tea) while driving is not exactly conducive to savoring the subtleties, unfortunately. I was glad to have it though.

I’ve learned to be wary of chocolate teas over the years. They always seem to promise a lot more than they deliver. Republic of Teas chocolate always tastes artificial and waxy, and Teavana knows no restraint when it comes to sweetness.

Enter a sample of this tea. What’s this? Simple black tea with real quality chocolate curls (I may or may not have tasted one straight out of the packet) and a hint of vanilla? No mockolate flavor? Only 3 simple components? Promising!

This might be one of the best chocolate teas I’ve had. It isn’t perfect; there’s a certain dusty aftertaste that I’m not loving. But the chocolate melts into the tea, giving it a smooth and creamy texture, and the tea and chocolate combine wonderfully. This is not hot chocolate masquerading as tea. This is real chocolate-infused tea, and a very balanced one at that.

I’ve found that adding a bit of milk and cream cuts down the dusty/bitter components. Overall, a great tea for dessert.

I won a 1oz sample of this through a facebook contest! Woohoo!

It totally sounds like an evening tea – something to drink while you’re wrapped up in a bunch of blankets and reading a book under the light from a lamp. I decided to have it now because I’m a rebel! :P

It smells really great. So much cinnamon and vanilla!

The first few sips – it’s really heady. So much vanilla! I get a bit of ginger and cinnamon at the beginning of each sip, but it’s quickly replaced by all the vanilla. It does have a bit of a warming effect though!

I’ll rate it when I’m not sleepy and a little dizzy and in need of some actual food instead of tea in my belly. :P

And here is my 2nd bubble bath tea!

Nice orange flavor