New Tasting Notes

Thanks again, Angel!

This is a backlog from Saturday afternoon and……..I really, really, really hope I steeped this wrong. Truly. I don’t even want to put a note out yet, but feel it can pass as my cry for help. Because………..I couldn’t even stand to drink this. It definitely had that fishy smell and it tasted like that. It was just….not good.

I’m not rating or reviewing this until I know I have it right. So this is my call for help. HOW DO YOU MAKE THIS RIGHT?? Please. I’m begging. All of the other Teavivre teas have been awesome so far, and I don’t want to mess this up.

A very interesting and lovable tea! It smells really like butter/almond cookies – very sweet, buttery and caramely – but there’s no cookie flavour in the liquor at all. Taste-wise it’s a sweet and intensely aromatic black tea. It’s like you are having tea with some freshly baked cookies even though all you are having is just a cup of this! I mean, how can Lupicia manage to do this??? It’s simply amazing, if not magical! A must-have for people with a sweet tooth but are currently on diet ;)

I have had a bunch of different teas from the Charleston Tea Plantation sitting in a drawer, and with the exception of Plantation Peach – which was YUMMY! especially iced – I have failed to taste them! Gmathis inspired me this morning. When I saw her review of this tea, I thought, “Hey, I have that!”

I used two sachets in an 18 ounce Stump pot and steeped for three minutes. The liquor was orange/ amber. There is a light sweet potato scent that intensifies when your kid adds a bucket of sugar to her cup! As is my habit, I took it plain first because it was my first time drinking it, and it was a smooth enough cup of tea to be taken without milk. There is a slight hint of breakfast tea bite that would probably be stronger if you want it just by adding more tea or increasing your steep time. Not bad, and it comes from an island just a few hours drive from me that I still haven’t managed to visit!

I tried it next with a bit of sugar, and I thought it odd that sugar increased the sense of bite. If you like an Assam to kick your butt into gear, you would like that! Next I added a splash of milk to smooth that bite. It was a decent cup of tea that way as well.

Overall, I think I liked it best absolutely plain. My daughters were not wild about it, but they add LOTS of sugar and milk to most of their teas so they tend to like things with more Assam in them.

Enjoying this cuppa from Rare Tea Republic, a delicious and hefty assam! I was eyeing more assams in the Upton Tea catalog last night which inspired me to reach for this one. It’s cold and foggy here today. Sorry to hear about everyone’s problems with Steepster, let’s hope it gets better…

My 17th tea from The Book of Tea! It’s also my second CTC tea. I know, I know, CTC is generally used for tea leaves of lower quality… but guess what, I like CTC tea, at least this one and Kilimanjaro (also from Lupicia)! This tea had a decidedly fruity aroma, whether dry or steeped. The fruity flavour was rich in the liquor too – the tea could be described as on the sweet side by the standard of black tea. It reminded me of plum, though I believe it’s more because of its dark brown liquor rather than its actual taste :P I did detect mild bitterness in the tea; I wasn’t sure whether it’s because I had oversteeped it accidentally. But still, it’s an enjoyable cup. Would make a lovely companion for scones!

I’ve been traveling recently, which is why I’ve been so quiet again. This is another short trip, though, so I’ll be back in action relatively soon.

My parents don’t have a tea kettle so I have to boil water in a pan on the stovetop, which isn’t so bad with a small pan. I’ve been tea deprived for several days now, so it’s nice to settle down after violent thunderstorms with a hot cup of Dammann tea (in an air conditioned house, of course… it was over 90°F before the storms!). I love having these tea bags around for traveling.

I use to refuse anything pumpkin. I wouldn’t have pumpkin pie, cookies, desserts of any kind really… So, when a (now former) coworker that I couldn’t stand told me that if I love tea, I had to try this, I didn’t want to and didn’t want to believe that she knew anything about me whatsoever. Somehow she convinced me to try this one. I didn’t want to, but I did. She got me this tea, double double with cream. I never drink tea with cream. EVER.
But this tea was amazing. She finally got something right.
Since that time, I’ve been on a pumpkin tea kick that hasn’t really stopped. And for that, I’m happy ‘cause it’s delicious. I’m still not a fan of pumpkin desserts, but the tea I’ll drink religiously.

I get this one when I need a quick pick-me-up and I don’t have time to make my own. I also get it when travelling. It’s a simple tea, but delicious.
I always get it two milk, one sugar, bag in. One milk never seems to be enough when I leave the bag in. It gets strong quick. And I don’t know about others here, but all the Tims around my area always seem to do really big amounts of sugar. One is sometimes too much. Meh, It’s still good. I still enjoy it.

I like teas for their aroma-therapeutic properties and their health benefits and just the simplicity of sitting down for a nice cuppa with a friend. I’ve been looking for a good digestive tea and was quite thrilled to find that this tea is green with peppermint AND licorice. That’s exactly the blend I was hoping for. I like that it has that zen green feeling with the refreshing peppermint and the licorice flavor. Sometimes I find peppermint too strong on it’s own and green too boring. This is a great tea for upset stomachs. To me it is offers a healing, calming, and yet invigorating feeling.

First let me start by saying that I’m not a tea connoisseur. I have been drinking tea for years but never really realized how much I like tea and that it might be worth taking the time to learn more about, try different varieties, etc. So my perspective is a bit novice. That said, I really enjoy Precious White Peach by Teavana. What I like about it is it’s subtlety. This is the kind of tea that I can drink frequently and not get tired of it. I really enjoy the lightness and soothing feeling I get from this tea. The aroma of peaches. It is never overpowering. Just very relaxing.

Before brewing, the leaves have a sweet, molasses-like scent that reminds me of good pipe tobacco.

After brewing, it becomes a light, but slightly smokey, good basic black. It stands up on its own without sweetening or milk/cream. It can steep forever in my Lock & Lock tea bottle where the leaves stay in, and it doesn’t get bitter.

This is my go-to at work for something that can be taken straight, allowed to cool off and still taste good.

Thank you IndigoBloom for this Sample!

I got to sleep rather late last night. Could not settle down! This morning I was up early as usual and turned on Puccini Arias (picked from my granddaughters playlist I might add!). Opera and Oolong. Why not!
This sample comes in little pillow teabags…but I decided to snip one open and pour the contents into a fine mesh steeper and brew in that manner for maximum flavor.
The oolong is bold and assertive, barely astringent and pretty evenly balanced between vegital and floral lilac scent and taste. The vegital flavor is welcome. Usually it is so far in the background with a delicate oolong that you never pay much attention to what part it can play in the enjoyment of the tea. (Still, no pomegranate flavor for me)
The creamy effect begins to increase as soon as the tea cools. I looked forward to the silkiness that I knew would come. My lips and whole mouth tingled with small sparks of peppery heat. Where the heat came from I do not know but I liked the feeling. It had begun earlier…I pushed the thought aside…but it kept coming back to me.
This is not the richest, most exotic or elegant oolong for sure. But, I am now wanting a full bodied oolong with a kick (like this one) in my cupboard. It pairs precious well with Puccini Aria’s…with love songs for breakfast.

http://youtu.be/iW1w1ryYQDw Pavarotti

Looks like I liked this when I had my first sample about a year ago; I’m liking it even better this morning. It has some dark and just-barely sweet cocoa personality that’s kin to super-fine estate teas from outside the U.S.

All the Charleston Plantation teas I’ve tried have rated a pretty good or better, but at least for this morning, this is nearing superlative.

The aroma is of a malty, slightly sweet black tea with a hint of fruitiness. It’s not discernible as strawberry to me, particularly.

The flavour is malty and creamy, and the fruitiness comes out at the end of the sip, so it’s definitely a lightly flavoured tea. There’s also delicious creaminess at the end of the sip. Again, I’m not particularly picking out strawberry, but it does taste like a berry sort of fruitiness. My short steep time avoided too much astringency (there’s just the slightest touch), so I would definitely recommend going with a short time with this tea.

Overall, it’s tasty and I love the creaminess, but I do wish there was more strawberry flavour (as with the Raspberry Apricot Green Tea Delight, however, I may be experiencing issues with Mango ‘n Friends being so sweet as to have temporarily contaminated my taste buds). I personally think it would be enhanced with some freeze-dried strawberry pieces though.

Overall a tasty tea and I will finish my sample, but probably not one I’d want an entire package of as my preference for flavoured blacks leans towards stronger flavours (but the base and creaminess here are fantastic). Thanks for sending along a sample of this one, Rachel!

This was included in an amazing free sampler package from Teavivre. Check them out! So it is a little foil package that contains enough tea for a few infusers full. (Well i see other reviewers here using an entire package, but my infuser isn’t that big!) Then there is another plastic piece holding the tea, as this is sticky with honey. It’s a bit diffiult to get the tea into the infuser, but I find clamping the infuser onto a bit of the bag and sliding the bag out works well! SInce this is an oolong, I can get multiple steeps out of this:

First steep:
The sent of the dry leaves aren’t overly honey-like but they are sweet. The steep color is a nice yellow. Oolongs have the most diverse flavor, ranging from a mild, floral, peachy to a stronger flavor. I think this one is in the mid-range of flavor strength. It has a nice floral sweet flavor. but isn’t a mild one. Again, the honey isn’t too present. The lack of honey is kind of disappointing, as it was one of the reasons I wanted to try it. If you try it not expecting much out of the honey, it is still an amazingly delicious oolong. The directions say 212 degrees, but I like gettiing the temp a little lower, especially on the first steep (so that the flavor can be stronger the second steep!)

Second steep: I may have kept the infuser in a little too long this time, but it’s still good. This steep it seems more floral and less sweet. The flavor is more pronounced.

I almost want to go back and start giving my oolong teas a flavor strength rating… where a one would be light and floral and peachy and a 10 would be a bolder flavor… maybe I’m the only one who will know what I’m talking about?? But really, it all depends on the temp and the steep time. Even the same leaves will result in entirely different cup.

My wife is headed back East in a few days with our daughter to visit the family, and as a result our work schedules are ridiculous over both the last few and the next several days. I work days and she works nights, so the few hours of togetherness over the weekend were fleeting and gone. And so it was with a heavy heart that I turned to this month’s order from Verdant and specifically the Mi Lan Xiang – hoping to find a spark of inspiration in a sullen night.

I am truly blown away by this tea. Please don’t stop reading the review as I will go into more detail shortly, but my overall impression begs to be stated ahead of how I got there. So much of the experience this tea delivers is in the range of ethereal and doesn’t translate well in terms of trying to describe its flavor profile. Sure, those elements are there, and it is a lusciously juicy and intricate tea in its own right. To say that it is positivity in a cup would sound over the top and nonsensical if you are reading this but haven’t tried it yourself. Please do so.

I measured 5g of Mi Lan Xiang into my little 120ml gaiwan and then put my new Secura thermo-controlled boiler to the task of making my tea life easier and more fulfilled. (After watching David’s video sessions using a Zojirushi, I opted for the cheaper but more practical-for-my-wallet Secura.) Two successive flash rinses warmed the wares and it was time to see if the outlook for my night was going to improve.

Boy did it ever.

The thing that struck me first was the weight of the tea in my mouth. It has an almost simple syrupy consistency and reminds me of the way that a wake will lap at the sides of a boathouse in the cove after slowly rolling in from the thoroughfare. At first the bright taste of an undefined melon is there, and the combination of the scent and the flavor is intoxicating.

As the number of steeps move into the high single digits, a prevailing numbness and dissipating of any negativity builds and washes through my psyche. The flavor arc dances like a dervish, humming and swaying between nectar and spice never-ending.

This is the first tea that I have actually journeyed deeper into the teens with. I have tried with only one other and lost interest not in the taste but in the lack of change between steeps. To date, this is the most singularly enthralling tea that I have had the fortune to experience. Why is it after midnight and where can I put this moxie to best use?! This is one transcendent tea!

The dry tea smells fruity with a metallic twinge of sencha. I’m not a big fan of green teas with that flavour, so hoping it doesn’t carry over into the flavour.

Whew, there’s no astringency or bitterness, so the metallic aroma mustn’t be linked to those (it was in my mind). Cannot put into words how relieved I am about that – so many times with green blends I’m getting unpleasant flavours from the sencha. Initially I’m mostly tasting sencha, which is pleasant enough, but not what I want. I think the flavours are coming out in the aftertaste, but I feel like I have too much fruitiness going on in my mouth right now to pick them out. I’m also drinking this warm/hot (unusual for me), and I’m wondering if the flavours will come out better when it’s cooled…. only problem, I’m not sure the tea’s going to last that long. I’m enjoying the pleasantly fruity, buttery sencha regardless.

Ok, I’m giving this one a temporary rating because I’m enjoying it whether or not I can taste raspberry or apricot (can’t pick out either right now). I expect that another time, when I try this cooler and with an untainted palate (I’m blaming Mango ‘n Friends here), the rating will be upped. I’m also interested to try this iced and cold-steeped. Haven’t cold-steeped a flavoured green before (other than DavidsTea’s Lime Gelato, which hardly has any green tea in it to begin with).

ETA: Resteep, 175F/2 min is similarly of buttery sencha, albeit weaker.

Thanks Stacy for sending me such a unique sample!

As green teas go, the Blue Nettle is a standout performer. It reminds me of the spinach and artichoke dip that we whip up for football parties, and that is definitely a good thing! Other reviewers have already alluded to the shape that the tea is rolled into, and the glass bodum pot that I used to brew it up let them twirl like a slow motion spinning top. I was a bit worried about how weak the flavor might be because of the faintly pale yellow liquor it had produced after its 3 minutes were up but I guess strength of color and strength of taste don’t necessarily go hand in hand. As tasty as this one is, I can only imagine that it might be hard to source down the line as its popularity grows since it is thankfully one of the fair trade and small farmed teas. I would order and experience it while you can!

Received yet another package of tea today… this time it was my order from iheartteas.com!! Exciting! I ordered a few of Rachel’s custom blends (and some Golden Moon Coconut Pouchong), and am trying to make some good headway on trying everything this evening, even though I should be sleeping/working on things (but I’m so stressed out all I can do is post mindlessly on Steepster… thank goodness it’s working again!)

The aroma of this one is pretty familiar, steeped. Luckily, it’s familiar in a good way. Malty and caramelly/vanilla-y. I can see why someone (is it Angrboda???) is questing for the perfect vanilla black. So decadent.

With 3.5 minutes of steeping, I’m getting more astringency than I would like, yet the tea’s a bit weak. I think I may have overdone the water a bit, and should drop the infusion time down to 3 minutes. However, in spite of the astringency I can taste some really nice caramelly/creamy notes. Definitely looking forward to my second attempt! During which I should also brew up some of 52teas’ Pot O’ Gold and Market Spice’s Rum Butter for comparison. No need to have a plethora of similarly-flavoured teas in my cupboard.

In spite of the astringency, I’m definitely enjoying this cup of tea – it’s nearly gone already. It’s tempting to add some milk and sugar, but I think that would ruin me for drinking flavoured blacks without! Nom nom. Off I go to brew up another new tea before I toodle off to bed for the evening.

ETA: 199F for an accidental 6.5 minutes is surprisingly not astringent. Obviously not as flavourful as I’d like, but worth the second round :)

Steepster is so lonely… there are hardly any notes on my dashboard between the notes I managed to post last night, and the one I’m posting now. So few it only took me a couple minutes to get through. So sad :(

Cold-brewed the rest of my sample of this one overnight in a cup of water. It is so crazy sweet it’s ridiculous. I highly doubt this is a calorie-free tea. It’s almost too sweet, actually. Anyhow, it’s pretty good iced, but there’s a lingering bitter flavour that I am not enjoying. It’s possible that it’s from the orange slice in the mix, but I’m not sure. Turns me off a bit; although this one is ok, I don’t think it will make a reappearance in my cupboard. But thank you again for giving me the chance to try it, Azzrian!

Side note: the fruit somehow still tastes quite sweet! So I ate some :D Usually cold-brewing sucks everything out, but not this time apparently!

Thanks Stacy for this unique and invigorating sample!

I feel slightly out of place here as the first to review the base Guayusa from Butiki.. If you have never tried this variety, please be aware that the leaves are very finely minced and will benefit greatly from a quality strainer like the ForLife Extra-Fine one that I use with any of the teas that like to drop floaties through my other strainer. But I digress.

This was actually quite a diversion from anything else that I have tried to date. It has a grassy sweetness that doesn’t really parallel the grassy taste I get from an actual green tea. Would it sound silly to say that this one tastes like a different kind of grass altogether?! There is the slightest earthy aftertaste that lingers in the back of your throat like the very first infusion of a gaiwan-steeped Pu’er that was given the four second treatment and hasn’t actually put down its roots. I don’t know that I would give it an extremely high score on my preference of its taste alone, although I could see it steadily growing on me and wouldn’t be surprised if ordering an ounce or two might bring me around. I liked it less in the yummy yummy sort of way and more in the intrigued and captivated sense. Overall it is well worth a try if for no other reason then to expand your horizon a bit and for the clean alertness it delivers without the jittery buzzsaw effect that some other beverages with similar caffeine levels usually inflict.

Thank you Stacy @ Butiki for sending me this delicious sample!

Although I had never tried a Guayusa before (which is not proper tea but is still tasty), I was very excited to give this one a go since I thoroughly enjoyed the Pistachio Ice Cream from Butiki and now have high expectations for everything Stacy is working on in the Northeast. I must say that this did not disappoint! The tangerine flavor doesn’t taste artificial in the least. In fact, it tastes very much like biting into a bit of dried real fruit. I found the creaminess to be slightly muted and more of a mouthfeel than a flavor but half a spoonful of agave turned a great fruit forward base tea into a delicious creamsicle of a dessert treat!

This one is going right back on the shopping list and the extra oomph from the added caffeine was just what I needed to get the afternoon going. Well done Stacy!