New Tasting Notes

The ingredients of this tea really intrigued me and when I opened the canister, there were long white, plastic like tendrils in it that made me wary. However, this was a pretty nice tea, it was sweet and a tiny bit grassy, reminded me of salt water taffy in flavour. A sweet white tea that’s almost like a green!
17 down – 483 to go!

For a bagged tea, this was extremely good. I’m picky when it comes to jasmine teas, only because so many companies put too much or too little. This tea was perfect! I enjoyed it so much I ended up buying a box of it!
16 down – 484 to go!

Tea provided by Teavivre for review

First through seven steeps were consistently bold in flavour. I enjoyed how potent the liquor tasted. Lately I haven’t been drinking any strong black teas. This one had a very bold, earthy and malty flavour.

I’m looking forward to trying this western style (probably steeped in a mug). That being said, bold black teas are not my favourite. They’re not something I’d drink all the time, but it’s still a pleasant experience.

100ml purion teapot, 2tsp, rinse and 7 steeps (with Teavivre’s suggested times: 10s, 20s, 30s, 50s, 1m10s, 1m30s, 2m)

Edit: tried this western style, and it’s still quite nice and bold.

Fusion gets my vote for having the most inspired and well-thought out blends! I mean, look at that ingredient list! It’s a bunch of the things you would actually find in a carrot cake! I love a nice piece of carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. I tried to shake up my sample pouch, but I think I got more of the bigger things in my infuser than the actual rooibos. Infused, the color is the most orange I have ever seen a cup of tea! Of course it should be orange! The scent and flavor is JUST like carrot cake! The right amount of spicey and delicious! I think the maple brittle (!) acted as the frosting… because it even seemed like I was getting a frosting flavor there. I think I was even sort of chewing a bit while I was drinking this! Fusion is amazing, as usual!

First let me say I like this much more than I did Mom’s Apple Pie. That one just tasted like apple juice to me. I love apples so I’m always excited when Davids tries another apple flavour, even if the ingredients scare me like this one did. I’m not a fan of pistachios or florals so I definitely greeted the tea with trepidation.

I was glad that I didn’t taste any floral notes. But I do wonder if that’s because the tea is almost all nuts and apple pieces. I don’t know if I even had a single leaf in my cup.

The flavour itself was light with definite apple notes. It wasn’t my favourite apple tea, but it didn’t suck. It isn’t a restock for me, which is sad since I’m almost out of my Baked Apple. I’ll hold out hope that it returns from the dead!

I liked this allot but I’m also a huge fan of rose teas. I steeped this tea for four minutes and added some honey to balance it out and find it very calming and relaxing before bed. So if you like rose, I recommend this one!

I’m still working on perfecting this matcha… I can’t seem to coax the flavours out that I’m expecting… must clear palate, take deep breath, and go in with no expectations! More on that later, I’ll be Bach

Thanks to Kittena for a sample of this tea!

Relaxing this evening with some nintendo DS, Castlevania (order of ecclesia) and tea! Bleh, I’ll lift weights tomorrow! I thought I’d grab a DavidsTea out of my sample pile to switch it up a bit.

DRY: cute orange sprinkles and little black kitties! Makes me think of halloween!

STEEPED: very very weird steeping with my DT Steeper. It looks the typical brown tea. However, when I poured my tea into my cup, it became this weird foresty dark green… uhhh.. what happened? /brain explosion

TASTE: slight fruity tang and sugar sweet. Green rooibos mellow and nutty background. Very nice fruity after taste. Not bitter.

COMMENTS: Very very weird tea. I really like the after taste. Swampwater reminds me of almost bubblegum in a way. The fun factor in Swampwater is super cool, but I’m wanting something more stronger or brighter in taste.

However, I think this iced would be really good and bring out the fruityness.

My tea hating husband got a sip. He was confused about the colour and said it tasted like weird tea and thought it was bitter. (weird)

I bought this sample a while back as part of the experiment described here:

http://steepster.com/teas/harney-and-sons/6603-organic-rooibos

which I extended from rooibos to honeybush.

This sample has been following me to the point where I considered a restraining order. Every drawer I put it in, it manages to float to the top (in that uncanny way that tampons seem to float to the top of any handbag, so that when you open it up in the grocery line to get your wallet, it’s the first thing the attractive man next to you in line sees, amIright ladies?). If I put it in a cabinet, it falls out when I open the door. The only reason I didn’t dig a hole in the back yard to bury it in was because I feared a zombie version would rise from the grave and eat my brains while I slept. (Just kidding. I would never put any sort of tea in a hole in the backyard.) I decided to drink it to put an end to the madness. ;-)

The dry honeybush smells quite woody to me and in fact I can’t really make out anything but wood. Brewing, however, released a lovely honey smell that pretty much extinguished the wood. I got a cloudy, red brown liquor reminiscent of apple cider.

I was prepared to say I wouldn’t drink this again before I tried it, simply because I can think of so many other things I’d rather drink than plain honeybush, even if it is from Samovar. Now, though, I’m not so sure. As the description says, its absurdly smooth, and I can see this as a balm to a sore throat on a miserable rainy stay at home sick day, or a kind stroke to the mouth after a bad visit to the dentist. I do get cedar notes, though not in a sawdust, hamster cage way. More like the smell of a sweater after it has spent the summer in my cedar chest. And something I’m getting that isn’t even mentioned in the description is a nutty flavor, almost like a roasted chestnut aftertaste. It has a sweet little upswing to it, but not a strong taste of honey. There’s a slight earthy/metallic note which I suppose is what they mean by gravel that is evident in the aftertaste, and something that is somewhere between green and wood. It’s surprisingly complex for something I bought to better understand the flavor as a base for blends.

While at the rate I’m going I have enough tea to last me until I’m 100, I wouldn’t turn this down if offered. I can’t justify buying any, but mostly because I can’t justify buying ANY tea. I just spent the morning rearranging the tea that isn’t in cupboards in my kitchen or eight small shoe-box size plastic containers into tubs like this:

http://www.containerstore.com/shop?productId=10010964&N=&Nao=60&Ntt=stacking

Four of them. Insanity. Just insanity.

Mmmmmm…salted caramel. I have been dying to try this one ever since I found out about it. Alas, I had to wait a little bit after my move to first make some money at my new job, and second order online because I don’t have a Davids Tea handy anymore.

The dry scent is amazing. It’s a rich caramel scent with hints of salt. When brewed, it reminded me a bit of Creme Caramel Rooibos but with a deeper scent, which make sense since this is a black tea. Just the same as Fantasy Island, I steeped this for 4 minutes then added a teaspoon of rock came sugar, no milk.

See, I’m trying to test the theory that the reason I feel the need to add milk to my black teas is because I steep them for too long. My theory was proven with Fantasy Island, but not so much with Salted Caramel. My first cup as described above wasn’t as great as the scent would have me believe. It tasted like a “smokier” version of Creme Caramel Rooibos. No, smokey is the wrong word. More “tea-ish”? I couldn’t get any sense of the salt in there either.

I made a second mug at 5 minutes and put both sugar and milk. Much better. It was smoother, and that rich caramel flavour was more well-rounded against the black tea. Still no salt, but maybe we’re not supposed to really notice it. The more I got through the mug, the more I liked it. I think this one will be a keeper.

After a day spent at the annual Saanich Fair checking out the harvest splendors, artisan craft exhibits, midway games and the toasty warm cinnamon doughnuts it was only fitting to wind down with a cup of tea. The one on the top of the list was Buddha’s Blend with its fresh peachy flavor notes. I can only assume that the combination of jasmine and white hibiscus resonate to create the essence of peach for there is no peach to be found in the ingredients. I admit that is a rather magical effect to say the least as well as very delicious.

The wonderful floral perfume is rejuvinating to the spirits and has an unmistakable warmth which works well for those who love their floral teas. Not to mention as well as drinking these romantic offerings while reading romantic literature set in a historical period. A pleasure I do admit to indulging in, especially on moonlit evenings such as tonight. I hope whatever books you all enjoy that this tea accompanies those reading sessions at least a few times. It’s well worth it.

Yum! Pretty robust flavor from leaving the bag in a bit longer, which I really enjoyed. Tasted fantastic with some raw agave.

I have been waiting to review this tea, because frankly, it baffles me. I have never tasted another tea with quite this flavor. Not having experienced Ti Kuan Yin ever, I cannot compare this but to different types of oolongs. Having said that, it is quite a tea. The aroma is very vegetal bordering on almost fresh paint notes. (which I like btw)
The smooth yet hardy roasted flavor is more intense than most oolongs I have tasted. I want to say the flavor is almost metallic but not in a bad way. It makes me feel I am drinking something extremely healthy. This is a very complex very good tea. This will definitely become a staple for me.

It has light floral aroma like Monkey Picked Oolong, but not as strong. Very smooth and full taste.

Nice light floral fragrance like Monkey Picked Oolong, but not as strong. Full and very smooth. I think I can make it better next time, and I’ll add another review.

It has a light malty taste. First time drinking it. I think I’ll try mixing it with another tea. I’ve never mixed teas before, but I heard this goes well with others.

I’ve had this one for quite a while and decided to cold brew it. Cold brewed, it tasted quite similar to a Davids Tea I have, I believe it was Love Tea #7? I got both the rose and chocolate flavors, though nothing that made me think of pu-erh. When I cold brewed another pu-erh, it actually made the pu-erh flavors come out MORE. Overall, I think I actually like this one better cold, but I’m not sure if I prefer this or the DT one.

Loose tea smells of sweet cordial cherries – the chocolate, cherry liqeur, and maraschino are all present. Same goes for the tea – dark chocolate, liquid cherry filling, and maraschino. The cherry flavor is artificial tasting, as any maraschino is. The black tea base is assertive in this one, bitter and strong, but it actually tastes good with the sweet candy flavor. A keeper!

The dry tea bag had a slight sticky feeling, not sure why, and smelled strongly of the plain Sleepytime tea variety. It is pre-sweetened with stevia extract, and the final result is a little sweeter than I usually make my teas, but probably preferable to kids. The brewed cup had a natural tea color, almost like apple juice, and the grape scent was buried beneath a spearminty spice-drop type of smell. The taste is interesting. Minty, with faint artificial grape, though the main flavor is sweetness – a very faint spicy flavor in the backround makess this tea better. Wouldn’t drink it every day, but definitely worth keeping and sampling when bored of the usual cups.

Ohhh, I love this tea. I think it’s the best green I’ve tried so far. It has a light flavor; I sweeten it so I didn’t realize it was sweet on its own. Tokyo is wonderful to drink after the evening meal for a palate refresher and to set you in the mood for the rest of the night. The flavors of caramel and sesame are exotic and delicious. The flavor of the green tea comes through nicely. All around great tea.

Oh… YUM! I’ve had this twice today, actually. The first I served traditional style, in a bowl, whisked with water until frothy. It was good like that. But for the serious YUM factor, you’ve got to do this one as a latte. It gives an added boost to the creaminess of the cheesecake flavor, that if I didn’t know better, I’d swear I was drinking a cup of warm liquified cheesecake. So very good.

Just warm some milk, sift the matcha, add the warmed milk, and whisk (I wouldn’t use your bamboo whisk with the milk, as it might encourage bacteria growth. I’d get a wire whisk or a hand frother) until completely incorporated, and drink. …that last part happens very quickly, as my cup is already empty.

Yummy… and certainly glad I got it. Is it my favorite Matcha flavor from Red Leaf? No. Pear is still the best. :)

So, I didn’t get to taste this infusion, but this tea absolutely saved me today.
I crushed my finger in the automatic car window today and broke the bone. Serious serious pain. Also, gross alert, I know this is a tea review website, not a med school bandage review site or something.
So, my crushed bleeding finger is looking awful, I’m screaming and my sister gets me back in the car and hurries to the ER. Without really thinking about it (again, serious pain), I unscrew the lid to the travel mug that I was cold steeping this tea loose in and stick my hand in.
I kid you not, the tea seriously helped. The cold was soothing and there were so many leaves in there it made a kind of herbal leaf layer around my hand that soothed it as best as one could hope.
I’ve got a splint now and actual medical painkillers for the break and all, but for the first few hours of terrible? It was all Silver Needle, babe. This is my new favorite tea.
…
If only I had gotten to drink it :( No way I could do that after having it open with my fingers in it in a hospital.
Long story short – Silver Needle and I are now bffs. <3

So I’m all better now, and it definitely helped clear out my sinuses, so its a worthwhile tea to keep around. But by golly its intense!

From Stewart’s Point General Store on the PCH (hwy 1 N). Will add photo of label when I get back on areal computer.

This is good stuff, I would consider buying a case. Helped settle my stomach after my husbands driving, and steel me for my turn.