New Tasting Notes

Not one of my favorites… it was very tart, which for me is weird in tea, but if you like that then i’d give it a try.

I love watermelon and I love this tea!

Love this tea! I usually sweeten my teas quite a bit, but I find this one doesn’t need any at all. One of my favorite teas!

I really like this tea, both hot and iced. However it is a little expensive, but one of the only teas I have refilled from teavana.

I recently received this tea in the mail as a sample…and I love it. I would say this is possibly my favorite tea. I was quite surprised to see the rock sugar in there, but I liked it. I sweeten all of my teas, so it was nice the sweetener was already mixed in. It was also nice because I pulled out a piece of the rock sugar and tasted it, and it had really soaked in that cinnamon taste. Very good job on this one Teavana. I will be purchasing this with my next order.

This is my first real Oolong! I decided to brew it for 5 min each time at 98C because I thought I would mess it up if I tried gong fu style brewing.

Dry: The tea is rolled into little balls, and the smell reminds me of green tea. It almost smells a bit like seaweed? But not in a bad way…

Steeped: It brews into a nice yellow liquor and it smells good! It’s a really smooth tea that I just want to sip away at all day. How do you describe this though? Each sip tastes a little different and I was wrong about the seaweed – I can’t taste that at all! It is sweet and mild and very refreshing.

2nd Steep: I re-steeped the leaves for another 5 minutes. I realise this may make me a barbarian but it still tastes really good. I am getting more vegetal notes this time around, but it makes me think of a really good green tea.

3rd Steep: Is this oolong abuse? I’m now on my 3rd 8oz cup. It’s getting really mild now but the grassy/vegetal flavours are still strong enough. I sipped away at it, but didn’t feel it warranted a 4th attempt at steeping.

And wow. I just realised how expensive this tea is. 75g (2.65 oz) costs $22. Yowza. Maybe I’ll try to brew it properly next time, but… it’s just such a time commitment that it’s hard to do.

I am looking forward to trying more oolong teas though!
And here’s a picture of the tea during the 3rd steep: http://instagram.com/p/SjvfMVtWvp/

Smells AWESOME in pouch/container, then brews up into a nice calming cup of minty tea with a little sweetness—but not overwhelmingly so—as a good aftertaste. JEAH JEAH JEAH

thanks again momo for sending this one! A nice surprise and I LOVE it. It actually tastes like I thought it would. It has a nice sweet milky flavor with a bit of cookie flavor as well. I wish there was more of a cookie flavor, but the milk flavor is spot on. I have no idea how that happens! I thought the milk flavor would be underrepresented, but it is balanced with the cookie. The black tea is perfect for this blend. There is a bit of tanginess to it, but maybe the “milk” is going a bit sour. haha.

A soft, light, but tasteful black tea. The background flavours blend well and subtly to create a soothing, smooth, almost creamy black tea. Have had it twice now. The first time I think the flavours came through better, may have not steeped enough the second time. Not bitter at all and mild, soothing, calm black tea.

Very, very strong robust Irish Breakfast tea. Unusual looking and I echo the mysterious sentiments below. Definitely gives you a kick start for the day. Care not to oversteep and I add a little sugar to mine. Plenty of flavour and a rich aroma. Doesn’t have much scent before brewing. If you want like your breakfast teas hearty and strong, this is one for you. Thanks to Zen Life Tea for the sample!

Got this in a swap from Rachel Sincere.

I love Root Beer. I am a Root Beer fiend. But, it’s full of sugar and I can’t have it all too often. So, what better way than to find a tea to help satisfy my cravings?

I tried DavidTea’s Root Beer Float, and that was pretty good, but pricey. I was hoping to find a suitable and cheaper alternative. Unfortunately, this tea is not it. I tried REALLY hard to like it, too. I cold brewed it several times, but no dice. I tried to hot brew it and then let it cool (because drinking hot root beer is just weird). But I think I’ve just been spoiled by “Root Beer Float”. This does not satisfy my cravings whatsoever. It has a hint of root beer, but I think the base just isn’t right for me. The tea smells lovely, though.

I really want this tea to find a home since I have a bunch. Would anyone be interested in it? I’ll ship it free of charge, although you can swap if you want to. The tea has quite the strong scent though, so I’d hesitate to send it with anything else for fear the scent would “rub off”.

So I had a little left of the following two samples way-back-when from Azzrian: Buttered Cranberry Orange Scone Honeybush (that’s a mouthful) and Custard-Filled Maple Long John Honeybush (also a mouthful) – both from 52Teas. I decided to combine them to create one super powerful honeybush concoction. I call it … Buttered Custard-Filled Cranberry Orange Maple Long John Scone Honeybush TM .

And you know what? It’s not half bad. I’ve been letting this steep since forever and all the flavors work together. I’m definitely getting orange most of all, but there’s sort of this creamy undertone with it as well. I can dig it.

And the best part is, I’ve cleared not one but TWO samples out of the way to make room for other teas. Now I have to tackle the 500 other samples I have.

So, this was meant to be a comfort tea. I had a less than stellar visit with my local LUSH shop this evening, ended up with a headache despite saying multiple times, no…I don’t want to try that product, especially if it has that scent which is known to be a headache trigger…but, I got duped into trying a tiny bit and within 30 minutes…BOOM…headache.

But then I was distracted by a shiny thing (the Let The Good Times Roll that I got tonight), and I oversteeped the tea. It isn’t horrible, just a bit stronger than usual. I do like this tea, but there are others I like so much better that I don’t think that I will repurchase when it is done. I might get more later, but not right now.

I went to the IRS today. (That should have made even the most cheerful among you shudder!)

There were taxes from my divorce that I didn’t know would be coming and I’ve been trying to figure out what to do. One thing I’ve learned over the past few months is that I need someone to help me organize parts of my life. I don’t understand paperwork so I’ve got myself into a little (or big) tax mess.

Imagine being very competent mentally but waking up one day unable to understand what you’re reading. Like dyslexia. Information is scrambled and makes no sense. This is what’s been happening to me. I can understand if you show me how to do things, but not paperwork and sometimes I go blank on questions. (I don’t have dymentia, thankfully (I was tested for that).)

Anyway, I went to the IRS in the middle of a brain fog with some papers they asked me for. I was handed papers and asked questions and I just couldn’t understand anything. I told the person, “I have no idea what this means, it could be in a foreign language, I can’t explain anything, I don’t know what to say.”
I got a look and comment…“You need someone to help you.” “I’m not supposed to do this but go to the Senior Center and find help.”

Brother!!!

I left and made a ‘B’ line for Happy Lucky’s Tea House.
I looked 3 shades of pale puke…feeling sick and hurting all over from fybromyalgia (which has been a bear the past month!).

Andy (TEA GURU!) took one look at me and said…“Whatcha drinking Ms. Bonnie?”…then he said…“How about a Chocolate Matcha?!”

“Oh YES please!”

I sat at the bar watching the foaming and frothing, stirring in the specialty cocoa…A-n-t-i-c-p-a-t-i-o-n!

Finally a big mug of fluff was set in front of me with a tall tumbler of ice water next to it (thoughtful). Fireworks!

This was thick, thick, thick cocoa Matcha, so creamy and warm with an interesting, almost savory then sweet complex flavor. The foam was playful and wonderful like a puffy sigh of relief.

It didn’t take long for the caffeine and green tea L-theanine to work on my pain and foggy brain.
I’ve noticed for some time that tea helps me feel better. I don’t know how, and it’s not a tea high or anything…but my pain isn’t as bad when I drink certain tea’s, especially Pu-erh and Matcha. This is good! It might not be this way for everyone, but it works for me.

While tea doesn’t cure all my problems, it has given me a way to help with my physical discomfort without resorting to narcotics for pain.

By the time I finished my fine mug of chocolate Matcha, I was feeling so much better and the taste was fantastic!

Why would I post all this here on Steepster. Seems kind of private and personal and inappropriate doesn’t it.
It is personal. And real.
I want you to know that this part of Elder life is joyful, funny, and has challenges just like being young.

“Stand at the brink of despair, and when you see that you cannot bear it anymore, draw back a little, and have a cup of tea.”
― Elder Sophrony of Essex (A Monastery in England)

Tea makes everything better.

I really love the name of this tea, it reminds me of the Nutcracker :) having this tonight to relax and focus on a big presentation this week and a lab report due tomorrow. This smells so gooodd! Please see previous notes on this delectable tea from Della Terra :D

ALSO – unrelated to this tea, but my Yixing pot is finally here from Verdant!! AHHH! No one was home to get it this afternoon, so I tried to get it at the post office tonight but they said to come tomorrow as they didn’t have their stuff sorted yet D: I could pretty much see the box! So anxious to get it! :)

After spending some time in Marrakech,I fell in love with their mint tea and have tried to find a tea that tastes just as good!! As a lover of all things mint including mint teas, I have bought this tea multiple times from Teavana. With some sugar, it makes the perfect minty hot tea; or I can make a delicious iced tea with it. This is one of my top 5 teas to drink.

I actually enjoy this tea! Awhile back, while browsing for a new tea to try, the sales clerk suggested that I try the Joie de Vivre tea. He brewed it with just a tiny pinch of sugar and served it hot. It was delicious! I don’t think it smells very good…but I rather enjoy the taste. With notes of peach and grape, and a few others that I can’t identify, I do enjoy drinking this tea before bed. I’ve had it iced as well and it tasted just as smooth. While it was enjoyable, not sure I would buy it again after my 2 oz are gone.

I had actually gotten this a while back, but realised I didn’t log it. (or might of just logged it with The Jasmine Sutra.)
But I think it’s only fair to do a tea review for itself.
1st smell: Fresh clean smell. Almost too much of a floral smell, I can certainly see why that puts many people off.
1st taste: Surprisingly, the smell almost put me off from the taste. So I worked on ignoring the scent, while drinking this tea. Now, I could not drink this everyday, (Though really have not found any tea I could drink everyday.) But I’d like to have this on hand for when I need to calm down near to bedtime. I don’t remember what temp and time I did this at, but probably as close to recommendations as I could get.

With the Jasmine Sutra: Simply delicious. I can pretty much only have green teas in the early evening unless I will be staying up late.

Lovely lovely lovely. Sweet and lightly creamy with a vague fruitiness. The chamomile really brings it all together and brings it closer to a buttercream (ish) flavour. It gets better and better as it cools, and in fact I like it best iced.

I’m not huge on white tea but I really enjoy this. And to think I left it untouched in my cupboard for so long after a bad first impression. I think I must have just understeeped it on my first try.

Strawberry and Cream!

Dry this tea is a cornucopia of colors and bits and pieces of this and that, this seems to be the case with a majority of Davids herbal infusions. It has a powerful aroma of strawberries and cream that will almost make you want to eat the tea instead of steeping it!

The final brew is a light pink color and has a creamy strawberry smell to it that is just begging to be drank. The taste of this tea is amazing, not so much rhubarb flavor if any, but it certainly does remind me of strawberries and cream. Definitely worth a try for those with a knack for sweet herbals, I will certainly keep some on hand.

Every time I have to read about the subprime mortgage financial crisis stuff I just completely shut off because it just seems so painfully stupid, bunch of dumb banks/nonbank financial institutions (I hate this phrase so much and I have to write it at least a couple times tomorrow NOOOOO)

This reminds me a lot of Tropicalia but not as flavorful and with green tea. It even has pretty similar candy hearts. With everything in this tea I was expecting some fruity mess, but I was pleasantly surprised. I tasted mostly coconut and pineapple, and the sencha added a nice change of flavor, so it wasn’t like being overpowered with sweetness.

I was also surprised it was really good hot. These are sort of the flavors I’d choose for iced tea, but it wasn’t bad at all hot!