New Tasting Notes

I bought these to use for special occasions. There isn’t a lot that is more special than Christmas Eve in this house! I had hoped to entice some of the kids into trying it since it is so unusual, but the diehard puerh drinkers didn’t budge. They DID watch it bloom and appreciate it. No one else wanted tea.

So I ended up drinking three steeps of this myself! This is my favorite blooming tea so far. The flavor is light and smooth and the flowers add a delicate touch, but not so much flavor that you would dislike it if you are averse to floral teas.

Another one from my swap with azzrian. Having this one as my post-Christmas lunch tea. Lovely and sweet, very delicate black base too, not at all bitter. Very smooth. A nice dessertish tea to ease into my Christmas Day belly with no discomfort. And now, for doctor who proms!

I’m sitting here with a candle burning and a nice cup of tea beside me after my Christmas dinner. I had such a nice time tonight with my family. I thought that this would be a great time to sit and write a tasting note.

This tea looks so beautiful in the bag. It’s bright and speckled with beautiful petals. It’s probably the prettiest blend I’ve seen so far! For the past few weeks, this tea has been my bedtime tea. I love the citrus flavor which turns into a bit of a sugared dessert crust. It’s not too sweet and not too tart — just right. This is my favorite lemony dessert tea.

I am excited to see the snow fall tomorrow on Christmas! I hope that it will be the perfect day to spend with family & drink lots of hot tea. Hope everyone is having a nice holiday!

12 Days of Christmas Tea – Day 10

Yes, I’m not really logging these in correct order. This one is actually a backlog, but I have other teas I haven’t even tried yet. So .. uh.. don’t expect them to be numerical, but they’ll get there eventually.

This was a custom blend from KeenTeaThyme and it came in a cute little tin and everything. It was actually quite delicious. The spearmint and cinnamon was quite strong, but I didn’t really taste any guayusa. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. This tea also has gold sparkles in it, which I didn’t realize until AFTER I brewed it in a dark cup. D’oh. Next time, I’ll brew this in a white cup so I can enjoy the sparkles.

As a side note, I actually took a tea blending class in early December. I wish it would have been early enough for my Christmas swap b/c I would love to have designed a tea around my Christmas day theme. But, alas, it was not meant to be.

Nope! Not for me.

Smells like Pledge®. Tastes somewhat better. To be fair, this is the kind of tea that always needs milk.

ok fine…ONE more tea… lol

not sure how i feel about this one. It’s fruity, but i’m not sure i can pinpoint this as being raspberry. It’s tasty though, so i’ll see if i can play with it and get more of a raspberry flavour out of it. I generally have trouble with whites, so that’s not shocking :)

why do I ever drink anything else ever. I can’t believe I haven’t had this is two months. It’s perfection. I always avoid it because it’s so touchy about temperature but as I was trying to pick a tea tonight I realized my water was perfect at that very moment for this tea.
Perfect Christmas Eve tea. Now if only netflix would start working!

This is tea #11 from the sampler. I’m sitting on the couch sipping it while I relax from a crazy day of work at the bookstore. I’m back on Boxing Day too, blah.

I’m not sure what butterbeer is meant to taste like as I’ve never tried any of the fan-made recipes floating around the internet and I don’t think it was ever described in the books. I’m going to assume a similarity with rootbeer as this is what this blend tastes like to me – and that’s totally okay as I love rootbeer. There’s a bit of something more in there that’s harder to define – it’s smooth and slightly creamy with a bit of natural sweetness. Very yummy!

Lime jello salad tea? How fun! I love the flavours involved here too. Lime and pineapple and marshmallow sounds good to me.

The scent when I opened the package was intoxicating – really strong and sweet and bright. Couldn’t wait to try it. I’m guessing this would shine as an iced tea, but I felt like a hot tea and it was still quite good. The sweet candy-like lime jello flavour was spot on, with a nice pineapple in the background an a faint creaminess from the marshmallow. I steeped for 2.5 mins, but I’m thinking it could probably handle 3. The rest of my sample will be flash-chilled so I get to try it iced. I’d happily drink this one again!

This one’s coming off awfully weird too. I had forgotten that people had remarked previously that it tasted a bit like curry…

Anyhow, it tastes like a stale sort of apple to me. Not that I know what stale apples taste like… well, maybe I’ve previously had stale apple candies of some sort. Anyhow, another one that I’ll have to try again while not sick, and I have plenty left to do so!

Thanks my friend Ka Kui for this b-day gift! A very beautiful and sweet flowery tea. It has all the flowers I like (in terms of flavour): jasmine, rose, osmanthus. The flavour of rose is the most salient, followed by that of jasmine; osmanthus is least detectable but I am quite sure it is responsible for the honey-like sweetness in this tea. This is a great tea to start the morning – especially for people who live in a concrete jungle like I do – because it makes you feel being in a garden under soft sunlight. ;)

Hmm. I think trying this while sick wasn’t the best idea. I can smell/taste the marshmallow and a bit of the caramel, but it’s rather weak (that could be an underleafing problem), and there’s a bit of an odd flavour (could easily be a tastebud issue). Ah well, have lots to try again with!

Oh dear, I’ve gotten behind in my 12 teas of Christmas notes once again. How did that happen? Oh well, it’s too far gone now. I’ll just review them as I please :D

I’ve been really enjoying trying a new tea every day though. I’ll be a loyal 12 teas of Christmas enthusiast as long as Frank keeps making them every year! I love a new tradition. Although after seeing everyone’s notes about the 12 days swap, I’m a little sad I didn’t participate. Looks like tons of fun!

This tea smells like delicious malty chocolate cake batter. I like that the tea smell isn’t overpowered by the chocolate, even in the dry leaf.

I tried it with no additions after about a 4 min steep and it was quite bitter. Added a bit of sugar, but still bitter. Time for some milk, and with both the milk and sugar it’s quite nice. Most of the bitterness has been covered up and the tasty dark chocolate and bold black tea notes come out. I enjoyed my cup, but I don’t think I could drink this often. It’s really heavy, without anything to brighten it up. But overall it’s a decent, chocolatey tea.

Alright…i think? this is the last tea for the evening now that I’ve sent my parents off to bed and we can get ready for tomorrow’s festivities. I hoped for a bit more from this tea. It vaguely reminds me of frank’s chocomate, though that may just be because of the toasted mate. I think i may have to pass this on to someone else to try as it appears i’m not overly a fan of mate. However! I will try this again with milk or something added to it to see if that makes it a bit more creamy and delicious.

Fannings are the one huge drawback of teabags. They’re more prone to bitterness and over-exaggerated flavours. This subject is no different- LOTS of fannings. I’d like to think that lower water temperature and less steep time counteracts some of the tea’s “baggage”. (I’m sorry)

Knowing that actually made me appreciate this one a whole lot more because it tastes dead on like delicious cool lychee. Even the astringent streak contributes to the lychee profile. This is another one that would be good iced.

I kind of forgot how easy it is to pop in a ready to use teabag. Thanks ToiToi for all of these fun samples. They’ve made this hectic day a little easier.

So I have to say…compared to Stacy’s maple pecan oolong, this one is nowhere near her take on maple. This tea does however remind me of one of Della Terra’s teas, though i can’t for the life of my place which one it is. Maybe i’ll be able to figure that one out tomorrow. While the maple is there, it’s just not as strong as I’d like it to be. A decent cup, but nothing I’d feel the need to reorder.

backlogging!

mmmm maple tea! I had this one first for a comparison against the next tea – I wanted to see how the new tea i picked up compares to stacy’s take on maple pecan. Not that the other tea is pecan…but the maple part should be ok to compare against. I’m almost out of this one, so a reorder may need to happen in the near future. I need to get through a few more teas first though! haha

mmmm backlog! Had this tonight as well, brewed it for dad even though he didn’t ask for it. I just have no red rose in the house for them to have so they have to be content with what i’ve got to offer lol I really enjoy this one from butiki!

Backlog!

I had this tonight as well as mom wanted to try a new tea. I didn’t brew it properly but that’s ok because there will be plenty of tea and games tomorrow while we cook and spend time together! I’ve been having a lovely time with my parents so far. This is a pretty good tea, though not my favourite now that I’ve had a bunch more :)

Oh my, this is my new favourite dessert tea. I can definitely taste both the chocolate and the cherry in this and the tea base is subtle but there and I wish it could be a bit stronger but it’s okay. The chocolate taste is the strongest I’ve tried so far and I’m still not finished my search for the perfect (for me) dessert tea but this is the best I’ve tried so far. I bought a bit of all of Della Terra chocolate teas and this is a great start.