New Tasting Notes

This week’s Canton Tea Club offering had participants trying to decide a victor between Li Shan and Ali Shan oolongs. For an indecisive Libran like me, this was going to be difficult. Why? They look, smell, and (from what I recalled) tasted the same!

So, I subjected both to a Western-style pinting to determine a victor. Ali Shan won by a hair, thanks to appeasing my sweet-tooth. However, the best results came when I combined the two. I was downing the mixture by the pot as a wrote this: http://steepstories.com/2012/11/27/throwing-in-the-towel-after-a-tea-fight/

While listening to M.C. Hammer.

No, really.

I really enjoy this tea, especially now that it’s getting cold outside. I purchased only one tin of this, and now I’m regretting that I didn’t buy a refill to get me through the winter since they are discontinued from their website.

I like that this tea has a nice pumpkin spice taste to it, but not too overpowering. It really makes for a great winter/fall tea. I haven’t tried it cold yet (says on the container tastes great cold), but I just can’t see this being a tea I’d even want to try cold because it’s so good hot.

This tea has a really nice taste. I was afraid the cherry would be too overpowering, but it’s not. I like that you can still taste the almond in the tea. I tried this tea both hot and cold and it was very good both ways. The nutty taste comes through a little more when it’s cold, but it’s still good. I do think it tastes better hot though.

Just finished off the last of this. Still love it. I’m going to buy more when it comes around again in March.

Totally found a wee bit of this left in my cupboard the other day and made this into a cold brew! It was super tasting after getting home later-er this evening and being on my own to try and refrain from making another 129692829743 tea orders for cyber Monday. It’s hard! There are so many teas out there I want to try…I really need to make a conscious effort to do a few more swaps in January to cross things off my list that way.

Ok so I tried this again as a cold brew on a white thinking that might help. Not so much. I it don’t like floral teas. I’m SURE there is someone out there who would love this tea but it is not for me. At least I can say I gave it a fair shot and drop it into my trade box. Yes…I now have a box of teas I need to get around to trading lol

Pretty good. As other reviewers have stated, this is definitely better than Silk Dragon Jasmine. This is perfumey and light-tasting, so much so that at times I thought I was drinking Jasmine Silver Needles. The two taste very similar, though I haven’t been acquainted with Butterfly Jasmine long enough to recommend one over the other. The first steep had a floral and vaguely fruity taste and a nice aroma. After the first steep I had to run out and do errands, so I left it in the strainer to hang out until I returned. Upon steeping it again, the tea had the strangest taste, jasmine at first and then resin and pine needles. Whaaaaaaaat?

A picture of Butterfly Jasmine hanging out in my new mug: http://instagr.am/p/SgqguXykX9/

Mmmm this is once again the tea of choice for this afternoon. I really REALLY want to order some pu’erh today from Verdant, but I’m trying to exercise restraint (also, Christmas present tea shopping yesterday about killed my credit card). Trying to not succumb..so I will enjoy the Verdant tea that I do have haha and wait for my Friday order to arrive! See previous notes for this tea :)

I’ve been playing around with my new yixing that I got a few weeks ago and I’m drinking this western style. I have two yixing teapots, one little 3.7 oz from Zen Tea and a 10 oz one from Teavana that I got a while ago but mostly because I liked it, not for its actual purpose. so, that one is dedicated to Jasmine silver needles and the smaller one for dancongs. The Teavana one is surprisingly absorbent.

Anyways, this tea. I can taste the puerh just fine, the nice pastry notes. I just realized I don’t think I’ve posted a note for the puerh by itself even though I’ve been drinking it…later. This tea now. I like this puerh by itself, so that’s a plus. I hate licorice, but I can’t taste it in this tea, a blessing in its self. I’m not a big fan of ginger, I like it, but in small amounts; i find it easily overdone, same with peppercorn. They are not overdone in this blend. The peppercorn is light, the ginger is warming, the elderberry adding a taste of sweetness. There is a slight numbing sensation on the tip of the tongue that tingles slightly in the aftertaste, from what I’m not sure, I just know it’s there.

I find that I really Verdants puerh blends more than the puerhs by themselves. I have enjoyed all the puerh blends that I have tried, too. I have to admit, this is my least favorite puerh blend that I have tried from them. Even at that, I still really enjoy this tea.

Playing with my yixing teapots, my typically mug I use for western style brewing, and my new teacups from Verdant.
http://i1050.photobucket.com/albums/s410/feralanima/newcups001.jpg

This one is a long time coming, I apologize, it has been a busy year!

The dry leaves were beautifully wound balls, very fragrant and sweet smelling. They were a healthy green shade with some white as well.
As they steeped they unfurled nicely. They revealed full leaves and buds with a damp smell, almost like an after rain smell of jasmine.

The first steep was for 1:30. This produced a pale gold liquid with a light fragrance. The tea tasted strong but not overwhelming of jasmine.

The second steep went for 1:40. The leaves unfurled completely producing a slightly darker liquid with a light fragrance. The tea lost some of the strength of the jasmine but I think that it would have been better if I steeped it longer, still good though!

I’m loving this tea. I feel like the Organic Huangshan Mao Feng and the eggnog flavor work really well together. They work with each other and neither really overshadows the other. Originally, I had designed this blend to have rum, cinnamon, nutmeg, and vanilla and was going to add a lot to it but after trying just the base and our flavoring mixture it seemed perfect and I didn’t want to change anything. This tea might not look so fancy but to me it’s perfect. From sip to sip, I get slightly different tastes. The vegetal notes are still present but the buttery quality of the tea really adds to eggnog. The eggnog is sweet and tastes of heavy cream with an eggy quality. Some sips, I almost get a cake batter flavor. When I add a little brown crystal sugar, the tea is really creamy, rich, and very much like eggnog. Some vanilla notes become a little more pronounced and so do the egg notes and it really is so delicious that I must get every drop out of the cup. One guilty admission, I added safflower because I thought the red safflower with the green tea leaves was a little more Christmas-y.

I had this last night and had to have it again today because it is awesome. This is the redesigned version of the tea, which was redone last month (other notes are months old).

Both times I have steeped it at 3 minutes. For me this is like the nice sweet spot for breakfast teas. With this tea, it means not even needing a splash of milk at all.

It’s slightly malty and sweet, with some nuttiness to it too. It’s bold, but not too in your face. No astringency at all.

Now to just actually have it in the morning. I’m struggling to get through this day so a little boost of caffeine now is just right.

I’m not a Cyber-toothed -tiger! (Cyber Monday in the U.S.A.!)

I’ve been in my pink polka-dot jammies ‘ALL DAY’ because I don’t feel well. Over these jammies, I’ve wrapped myself in a red plaid shawl …and I have red fuzzy socks on my feet. When My body aches I drink tea, go to sleep…drink tea…come here and ’I’m Thankful’ that ya’ll can’t see me!

I can’t afford all the sales that are out there today, sorry to say. Maybe next year I’ll be ready for them. We’ll see. I still have lots of tea to drink in my cupboard and some samples from sTEAp Shoppe to review!

This little tea had a curious combo of ingredients. I couldn’t imagine the tea taste. Sometimes, I have an idea of what I’m about to taste. The ones I can’t imagine can be a disaster if the ingredients are weird.
None of the ingredients in this tea were unknown to me, just never imagined together in a tea. Especially curious to me was the Lingonberry which is sweet/tarte little seed-like berries mixed with Black Tea.

Brew Time:
I set the brew time as suggested (2 minutes). My later comment to Janet at sTEAp Shoppe was that I liked a little longer steep (2.5 to 3 minutes) and a 3 minute second steep worked well also.

Taste:
I didn’t expect this tea to taste fantastic. Lack of respect on my part. I should know better!

At first, before the fruit flavors developed in the black tea, it tasted like yummy Black Tea with Vanilla.
Then, with a little longer steeping…the Honey flavor developed and a little Lingonberry, which was so light, popped up in the background.

Goodness…this tea was so full of rich, layered flavors that it caught me off guard.

Even though there are Maple Sugar Crystals in the tea, you don’t taste Maple. What you taste is Vanilla Honey woven with a Caramel Trio of Black Tea’s and a subtle hint of Lingonberry (like Jam).

This was like having a European layered pastry. A waffle!

So, good. FYI, BTW …(I sweetened my dessert waffle tea!)

Teas like this in my gaiwan are the reason I convinced my mom to get me an electric kettle for Christmas.

I only had two steeps and I’ll probably go back to it later.

First steep was 10s, second 11. I probably should have had the water a bit warmer so I’ll make sure of that next time.

First, I am not a fan at all of darker oolongs like this, but I actually like this one! My problem is usually that they taste of wet wood with all these other flavors bouncing around. This one does not do that.

On these two steeps so far I mostly taste honey. I didn’t get much of anything else. It does have that woodiness, but not in a bad way at all. There was also just a hint of floral.

Ok, steeped 4 more times and it really never started to taste any differently. Maybe it got creamier. I just really need to try again when I have a kettle that makes this easy. Even with a gas stove it took forever to get just a bit of water to reboil for a second steep after the first I’d do.

Now I have to drink water because I ate a giant slice of cake. Ugh.

Oh, Sebastian turned into seed. http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_me4kbi69vG1qz5e5oo1_1280.jpg He is a growing bird though, but this was his 8th meal of the day (my mom kept calling him Bigfoot because he’s so small compared to them)! Also he finally chirped at home, to a Formula 1 video, a German video at that. He is very smart already.

Thank you so much Azzrian for sharing this blend with me.

I really enjoy it, I find the green tea base very subtle without any astringency nor bitterness even if I over-steeped it a little.

This is my second Butiki teas only and I am really impressed with this brand.
The pistachio flavour is the leading role – it is clearly creamy but cannot really say I get an iced cream flavour, much more a creamy pistachio (which is perfect to me)

As my mug is cooling, the flavours become more interesting : the pistachio is more & more present and the creamy note totally invades the aftertaste. I imagine it could be a very nice iced tea as well.

I really loved it – thanks again Azzrian

Thanks lovely cteresa for sending it over me.

but I won’t rate it.
I love vanilla (good ones only ! this is an aroma which cannot bear mediocrity to my opinion)
I love ,but really love, raspberry, my favourite fruit.

So what’s the problem ???…it’s me !!!
I trust cteresa (her tastes & opinions are so reliable), this is surely a very good rooibos. I trust Angrboda as well of course, I love so much your reviews and your notes !

The point is I think I really do not like Rooibos …until now…but will persevere : L’appétit vient en mangeant…as we say in French ;)

I am obsessed with holiday teas right now, and last weekend I found three different ones by Celestial Seasonings. This one is delicious. I put the teabag in a big mug of boiling water and just leave it in there the whole time while I sip. Doesn’t need sugar or anything, it’s much nicer than basic peppermint.

I have to admit, this tea is pretty nice for a flavored rooibos blend. I was drinking all these straight black teas and Puehr, and suddenly really wanted something sweet to counterbalance all the savoriness, & also wanted something without caffeine to counterbalance all the…well, all the caffeine!

I steeped 1 T in a muslin tea bag (from Cheryl’s Herbs), which I placed in a brew basket, and there are no rooibos particles, thank you! I hate rooibos particles, they get stuck in my throat and make me want to never drink rooibos again. But that is not the case today, and this tea is a tasty treat!

I forgot to mention that I brewed a cup of this to sip on while running errands to the PO and such. I’m also resteeping it, so right now I have 3 cups in front of me: This, a small cup of the Fuhai (steeping number whatever), and apricot upside down cake. I think I have a serious problem with obsession/compulsion disorder.

This herbal concoction is quite unique with its quirky addition of lavender. Coconut and lavender: definitely a different combination for me. Delicate, floral, spicy and sweet were adjectives that came to mind. True story: I woke up with a very bad headache, the kind that just settles in at the base of your skull and makes you dizzy and borderline queasy. I had this herbal infusion and voila, my headache receded and went away completely. Voila: the healing properties of lavender! The end.

Someone mentioned I should try this tea, I’m pretty certain is was Jim Marks. I was drinking some oolong and mentioned how I like the lighter roasted ones and he mentioned this one. Out of the lighter roasted oolongs, I prefer dan congs. I’m glad I did try this one.

The dry leaves are a nice dark brown with the mineral-stone notes that I find in all da hong paos. But this one also seemed to have a slight floral note. When steeped, the leaves are actually green with the edges being brown. There was the obvious roasty mineral-stone notes. There was also a hint of a stone fruit.

The taste of this tea is very nice. It’s, again, lightly roasty with mineral-stone notes. There is a juicy quality and some pastry note. I’m also getting a slight floral note that I had smelled earlier. This is a light tea, it’s not in your face with it’s flavors or roasty notes. It’s soft, like a classy lady who wears a dress tight enough to let you know she’s a woman, but loose enough to let you have some imagination. She’s not throwing it all in our face or letting it all hang out. She’s quiet, but not without a mind. This is a very lovely tea that yielded many steeps, and I tried it western style. I’ll have to brew it gaiwan style to see how the flavor profile changes over many steeps with less water. Thank Jim Marks for recommending me this tea!