New Tasting Notes

Thank you Vicony Teas for this free sample!

I’ve heard quite interesting descriptions of Tunlu tea; some prefer it as an “every-day tea” while others choose not to drink it as much. I suppose I’ll see which party I belong to.

Leaf Quality:
The yellow-green leaves were rolled into small, floral gems. The scent was a bit strong for a green tea, which hinted at its flavor. The brewed leaves smelled very sweet and astringently floral.

Brewed Tea:
The tea’s color was light yellow. The flavor was milder than I suspected, but the aftertaste lasted a while. Upon my first sip, I noticed the great floral qualities of this tea. My last sip ended with a pineapple-like finish that I hadn’t noticed in the previous sips.
Second Steeping
The second brew was sweet, fruity, and astringent. It already seemed like a good tea to relax with.
Third Steeping
The third steeping was quite delicious. Fruity, sweet, and floral. The aftertaste was still quite astringent.

If I had enough of this tea, I suppose I would drink it as an “every-day tea” in the evenings. It’s quite enjoyable.

on the 11th day of christmas, I gave to my fellow tea friends a tea that i’d never tried before! At the time that i purchased this tea I’d never had ANY sort of smokey tea but I figured that the 12 days of christmas tea swap was a good time for sharing favourites AND trying new things. So i picked this one up. It was an unplanned purchase as I’d originally been thinking of getting a blend with the name of a mountain range in them..david’s tea was my first thought because so many people in the US seem to enjoy/want their teas.
However, after running through a bunch of david’s tea’s unflavoured black teas, i was not impressed. Especially when comparing them to teas like Butiki’s zhen Qu (i hadn’t tried her assam at that point) or even golden fleece/laoshan black from verdant.

I’d also decided i wanted to get tea from a local place, or at least a place that was mainly in canada – to try and give my US (or non toronto) friends a chance to try a different tea place.

While stopping for tea at Majesteas, the name of this blend caught my eye. The gentleman who was assisting me (and hearing all about the swap) was like “are you sure you want to expose everyone to that…people pretty much love it or hate it” What caught my eye was the comparision to a single malt scotch…which i have been known to drink on occasion :) So i bit the bullet and said to hell with this! let’s try it! Of course that’s also meant agonaizing over the choice for the past month or so now especially since the smell has managed to permeate through everyone’s packages lol

So on with the tea? Let me preface by now saying, i’ve tried a lapsang before…even cooked with it to make a really neat soup. This tea? It’s both smokey and not. The aroma reminds me of the way your clothes smell when you get home from a day of camping…

The initial sip, really does have a subtle citrus note to it and i can barely taste the smokiness..and then it climbs all over your tongue and the smokiness comes out. But it’s a milder smokey that is actually pretty yummy.

Hmmm.. i actually think i really like this tea. It’s not for every day drinking but I could sit back and relax and enjoy this tea like a good cingle malt whiskey.

A surprise from a swap with Mel (thank you!) which I saved till it was just the right occasion. And oh this is nice and also feels very british. A very nice Christmas tea indeed – I got orange, lemon and cinnamon, and also crazily something apricot like? A very strong base though still smooth. For somebody like me who seems to have a prejudice against Christmas teas this was a winner!

I had this this morning, which just happens to be Christmas Eve! I used the bagged variety. I really like the strong note of clove and cinnamon. It’s perfect for a relaxing tea that still has a strong kick of Christmas flavor. Let this one steep a long while and the notes come out stronger. The only problem is that the mint starts to turn a bit bitter, a sacrifice I’m willing to make for a stronger taste of clove. I added a bit of sweetener as well.

I am using my last sample of this excellent pu-erh from Tea Vivre. I got it as part of the Pu-erh sample assortment. My initial tasting notes from last summer indicated at least 9 steeps which I enjoyed hot, at room temp, and cold. Nice and earthy, and especially good with a little stevia. Today, I had 7 gms which I rinsed twice to open up the leaves, then steeped in 6 oz boiling water at 30, 60, 120, etc. I haven’t had pu-erh in awhile, but wanted to share this with my son while he is home from school. It really hits the spot, and I highly recommend it, especially if you haven’t had pu-erh before. There is no fishiness, and I think it is a great example of what a good ripened pu-ehr is like. The Teavivre site shows low quantities of this. If you haven’t dealt with Teavivre before, I can recommend them as a company that provides excellent service and they offer free samples with your order.

Second steep. Wow, delicious. Sweet black tea taste with peppermint in the aftertaste. Definitely getting a tin of this.

I got this as a christmas present from a lovely friend who enjoys tea as as well.

I MUST learn not to sweeten David’s Teas without trying them first. This didn’t need any sugar, and the little bit I put in almost overwhelms it :(

This is REALLY cranberry-ee. Which is good. A good real cranberry taste, not an artificial one. And I was a little worried when I saw cinnamon in the ingredients, I’m not a fan of spicy teas. This is not overwhelming, and balances out the flavors nicely. Yum!

GEMBER ROOIBOS (Ginger Rooibos) – I just tasted it but it was not good as I imagined. I feel pretty welle the particular taste of the ginger in my mouth but each time I take a sip my throat starts to tingle for a bit, and this is quite annoying!

On the 11th day of Christmas I give many thanks to Sil for sending us this particular tea. Well, here we are Christmas Eve and I’m still waiting on packages to arrive (before the hubbins gets home) to wrap. But Amazon assures me they will arrive today…fingers crossed! So I got up when I normally would for work knowing I had wrapping and cooking in my future.

We’re going to my hubbins “Aunt’s” house for dinner and she never has anything gluten free for me to eat. So I made up a cup of this tea (in a new hot pink mug from our friend’s daughter) and then I got down to making some gluten free turkey meatballs and sauce. (Which smell/taste awesome.) This tea had a nice smokey kick to it…this must have been the tea I was smelling when I thought it was Day 9! Oddly enough I also enjoy a good single malt whisky and this is just wow. I see where the comparison comes in!

Sorry this review is all over the map…I think I’ve had too much of this tea this morning! :)

I used 1 tablespoon of dry leaf for 375 ml of water.

In the aroma of the brewed tea I am detecting buttery and root beer notes. Black tea scent is present and smells a little bitter however it does not take over the other scents.

The black tea is a tad bitter and the bitterness slightly overpowers the other flavous. Otherwise, I’m getting a very buttery taste along with the root beer flavour in the background. It’s almost like a bakey-toffee type flavour. The black tea taste is present closer to the end of the sip. I’m not detecting any licorice root flavour. The brewed tea does not taste as sweet as the dry leaf scent.

As the tea cools, the astringency isn’t as noticeable. The root beer flavour seems to have been toned down but is still present. I’m getting mostly the buttery flavoured tones.

As the tea cools further, I’m getting a fizzy mouth feel. I think that this might be from the chicory root.

I like this tea much better with some milk! It’s become my morning tea.

This is probably the seventh tea I’ve had from the DavidsTea advent calendar. And probably the third tea I’ve actually had on its actual assigned day. I am SO BAD at this stuff! And don’t get me started on my 52teas’ 12 Days Of Christmas which I may or may not have ripped into every single packet four days into the thing…

Sigh. ANYWAY. I’m very picky about peppermint in my teas. I think it’s because peppermint tea reminds me of being in hospitals as a kid (I always got it with lunch). I can still drink it but I prefer if it’s mixed with something else. That being said, this tea is perfectly mixed (well, according to my tastes, that is). There’s the refreshing peppermint that is blends perfectly with the spicy black base. And the sprinkles are too cute!

I appreciate the opportunity to try Immortal Springs Laoshan White as a sample with my order. I prepared it as advised on Verdant’s website and enjoyed 6 steepings. It may have been possible to get more. I would agree with the product notes which describe this as silky with honey and sugar snap-pea flavors. The taste is sweet and vegetative, reminding me somewhat of some green teas I have had. There is no bitterness whatsoever. If you are a white tea fan, take advantage of the fact that it is currently on clearance. I think you will enjoy it a lot.

Mus(･∀･)catel!!

>with aromas of spice and fruit, and flavor nuances
of dark grape, spice and wood.
mus━━ヽ(ﾟωﾟ)ﾉ━━catel???

Anyway, I don’t care if I’ve really experienced a kind of muscatel or not, which was a faint “flavor nuance” at very least.
<del>mus(･∀･)catel!!</del>

(　ﾟ∀ﾟ)o彡°dark! grape!

Special thanks to Alphakitty for this one!
I haven’t seen this one on shelves where I live so I’m always up for a new-tea experience. I’ll try just about anything once! LOL :)

It’s mostly lemon and ginger but there is a little something extra in there, perhaps, it’s the licorice. This one isn’t bad for a bagged herbal tea. It’s not something I would buy but I’m super excited I got to try it. The colorful packaging is sort of neat, too!

Amy Oh and Nicole had me curious about this one so I got it! Glad I did! It’s way different than I was expecting but that is what I like most about it. The various black teas used in the base make up a flavor of its own and it does have notes of grape and/or currant as others as well as the product description noted. There is a bit of smoke but more notably the peppery black tea popping thru. And there are fruity/floral notes, too! This is very different but quite good, indeed!

I am going to have to label this as a favorite of hubby soon. We had it with Asian buffet take out again last night and he emptied the pot before I hardly had any! Then he….yes, HE….resteeped. I don’t know if he has ever made loose leaf tea by himself, but he went in the kitchen and made another pot. He was being sweet to me so I could have seem more, and of course he sat down and had more as well.

It is hard to describe how good this is with food. I am surprised I like it so well with food because it is a mild tea that you would think would get lost under the flavors, but instead it swirls across your palate and tastes so fresh and sweet, like sweet well water. I think this would have to go on the “if I could only have ten teas” list!

So, remember when all the fall teas went away and this one didn’t? I actually don’t know what the plan is. Like, is it in store for good? Are you going to take it away from me soon? ARE YOU GOING TO GIVE ME ENOUGH WARNING TO BUY FIVE KILOGRAMS OF THIS?
these are the things that keep me up at night

Tea is very fragrant! During the year the taste significantly changed, became more acute, bright, a little honey. The fragrance of flowers is of secondary importance. At the forefront of sweet aroma of spices, and nectar, which are difficult to identify.

This is one of my favorite teas. The aroma is bright, sweet, sugar cane, dried apricot and caramel. Tea infusion color orange. A delicious tea!

it is jasmine enough for me ^^ not too keen on the green component of the tea anyhows. for the 2nd steep, i combined it with loose chamomile that i had earlier today. nice combination :D

Note to self: Honey makes this one drinkable. Still bland, but at least I will be able to finish the box.

This smells exactly like mango hi chews! Only tried it hot today but I imagine this would be great iced!

Dry Leaf – Sweet and faintly earthy.
Wet Leaf – Sweet, creamy with citrus notes
Liquor – Dark Bronze / Brown

Gong Fu in 5oz Porcelain Gaiwan 6-7g
1st 5secs – Clean and soupy/bread/pastry taste up front. As it washes down it becomes sweet and peppery. The aftertaste is sweet like sugarcane and lingers in the mouth.

2nd 3secs – Creamy and sweet up front. As it washes down it becomes slightly savory with bread/pastry like taste that is smooth with slight puckery pepper finish. The aftertaste is sweet, creamy with citrus hints.

3rd 4secs – Creamy, pepper and sweet up front. As it washes down it has a creamy, bread-like taste followed by some citrus notes that linger through the aftertaste. The aftertaste is sweet and refreshing.

4th 4secs – Creamy, sweet, citrus notes and peppery up front. As it washes down it is creamy, bread/pastry/like that lingers. The aftertaste is sweet and refreshing.

5th 7secs – Creamy, sweet, citrus up front. As it washes down it becomes peppery and has a savory pastry/bread taste that lingers for a bit. The aftertaste is sweet and refreshing.

6th 11secs – Creamy, sweet and smooth up front. As it washes down it becomes peppery and has a savory pasty/bread taste that lingers, a citrus notes appears before the aftertaste takes over. The aftertaste is sweet, smooth and refreshing.

7th 16secs – Creamy, sweet, smooth and slightly citrus up front. As it washes down it has a smooth pastry/bread taste that linger a bit before turning peppery. The aftertaste is sweet, smooth and refreshing.

8th 22secs – Creamy, sweet, smooth and citrus up front. As it washes down the liquor has a faint bread taste with smoothness that turns peppery. The aftertaste is sweet and refreshing.

Final Notes – This cake is beautiful, small.. but beautiful. You can easily appreciate the fact that is hand made as the pressing is not too tight and you can easily separate the buds. This was completely hand made which is the main reason I decided to use short steeps to ‘better appreciate’ the teas as it opens/changes. I will try it later with longer steeps but I doubt I will like it more than I did this way (I might prove myself wrong).

The liquor is very sweet and clean with a slight creaminess/smoothness that makes it pleasant. The camphor is light but strong enough to notice. It took 10 steeps pretty well with the 10th (1 minute) being slightly weak in depth but I since the tea is sweet it allows you to to have a sweet break even if other notes are faded.