New Tasting Notes

way better than lipton imo

This is the tea they serve at my favourite local cafe. It is mild, nicely scented and the tea bags are loose and very generous. As an iced tea with milk, it is perfection.

My second choice for cheap Darjeeling because it is the only Darjeeling I can find at supermarkets here. Even then I can only seem to find it as teabags! Not a delicacy, but definitely drinkable. Twinings as a brand is consistent and trustworthy.

Earl Grey has always been my favorite type of tea, but this is the best of the Earl Greys. Bold, smooth, and not too overpowering with the bergemot. It’s good for repeat brews. The aroma is very strong, and the tin it comes in is very well sealed. I do advise caution when opening the lid, though, as I and some of my friends have had trouble getting it off and wound up with tea on the floor.

It absolutely cannot be steeped too long; it’s horribly bitter over-steeped, and honey can’t salvage it. I also think I once got the temperature too high and ruined the tea that way.

I’ve had this tea about 3 times now on separate occasions, each time hoping that it would get better. unfortunately it did not.

Oh, how I had wanted to like this tea! Oatmeal raisin cookies are some of my all-time favorite things in the world. However I am getting neither raisins nor oatmeal in this tea, only lots of grape. I am not a grape fan.

52teas blends are some of the best teas I have tried, but sadly this one misses the mark.

My favourite daily Darjeeling. Cheap but delicious with a nice fruity flavour with hints of floral when you get a good batch. I’m naughty and buy the teabags. Best with a tiny dash of milk.

Once I took a whiff of this tea, I knew I was going to like it! I smells like amaretto (which I love) with a little, barely noticeable hint of cinnamon. At first, it tastes like spices, but it’s not too overwhelming. Then I get the toasted coconut and almond flavor which gives the tea body and fullness. I cannot taste the ginger, however, there is a lingering warmness that I think is probably from the ginger or the pepper.
I like a beverage that can make me feel the way wrapping fresh-out-of-the-drier-comforter around me does; warm, comfortable, and safe. I don’t know how safe it could keep me, but I do get the warm and comfortable feeling from this tea.

Licorice punch, right in the face.

Le sigh.

One sip, the rest down the drain…I hate doing that.

I just don’t think I can do any of the ayurvedic teas due to licorice-y things.

I don’t know how to rate this one. Taste was kinda bland to me, but I used a stick of agave vs regular sugar, so that could have been the culprit. It didn’t taste super fruity, but it did taste rather herbal. Again, this could be related to the method and amount of sweetener used.

I didn’t notice a perceived burst of energy, like a POP! or a BAM! or a WOW! but, I was soooo super tired this morning, and I was able to stay rather focused and it was busy at work. It was a very busy day, and I didn’t crash. But I did still feel tired. So, I don’t know if it got me through, or if it was just pure momentum from adrenalin pushing me through. Curious to try it more with regular sugar. I’ll have to look into the herb more too.

I may come back and raise the rating, but as of this afternoon, I had thoughts of possibly returning it for something else.

just got this tea in! and it was just what i was looking for! i steeped for the recommended time and it wasn’t too bitter. I was looking for something with a very light flavor though, if you’re looking for a strong strawberry flavor this tea is not for you but seems like a great beginner tea if you want to get into white tea! i still love it and don’t regret buying it.

Brewing this up before bedtime thanks to Garret I’ve had this a while just haven’t got to the tasting notes. I haven’t tried too many green rooibos or green rooibos blends. I can make out the combination of citrus and peach the most. It’s good.

Thanks to Ian for sending me this one. Sometimes you need put all formality aside and just say DUDE! I have to be honest I’ve been giddy about getting to try this one. I have had pure Hawaiian kona and it is one of my favorite treats to have in the coffee world. I love my coffee just as much as I love my tea. So my expectations are high knowing the quality that comes from the Island state. Not to mention an American tea that can stack up to teas that have been produced for thousands of years in other countries. The dry leaf is intriguing. There is a sweet aroma emanates almost like caramelized sugar. The tea reminds me a lot of of Dawn(Arunachal Pradesh) from The Simple Leaf. This is a fabulous tea. Second steep with dinner of Salmon and Boxty(Irish potato pancakes). Great

A very nice Chun Mee. Pleasant fruity tones to this and a smooth, thick texture. Very soothing to sip on a cold, rainy evening.

Backlog: I enjoyed the last that I had on hand of this tea a little earlier this afternoon. Here is my full-length review of this tea: http://sororiteasisters.com/2011/12/27/laoshan-northern-black-from-verdant-tea-2/

Thank you to Anne for sending me this sample :)

The tea leaves smell very sweet and enticing. I can definitely smell the cherry sweet aspect of it. This stuff smells amazing!

First steep : 2 minutes, 170 degrees – Not a very strong smell from the tea itself. Very light tasting. I didn’t get much cherry in the first steep, but I really did enjoy the flavor overall. It definitely has a smooth buttery taste to it.

Second steep : 3 minutes, 170 degrees – I enjoyed this steep much more! Will continue to steep for 3 minutes in the future. The full flavor of the tea really came out! I love that this tea is sweet in a way but not overpoweringly sweet and still has a light aspect to it. I’m really enjoying this one. I’ll be sad when this sample is gone.

To me, this tastes like a more strongly fruity, sour-er version of Pink Flamingo. I dunno, they’re weirdly similar to me given they both arrived in the Spring Collection at the same time. As others have said, this tea announces itself with a strong hit of hibiscus in the mouth and leaves you with a tangy, tart fruit aftertaste. It’s fine, but I prefer the balanced notes of Pink Flamingo.

I’m having a large and wonderful pot of this with my husband. He loves the smell and just had his first sip. Conclusion: “mmmmm.” :)
I really love this tea and I hope that its replacement is decent because at some point I’m going to run out of this tea.

Ahhh the color! I am still confused as to what time it is, so I thought it was 10:45 when I made this…nope. Good thing it’s a rooibos!

It smells like oatmeal and grapefruit. When I was a kid, I used to always get the oatmeal with the dino eggs…back then it wasn’t brown sugar flavored oatmeal. Google is not helping me out but I think it was mixed berry or something like that.

And that’s all I can taste. That oatmeal. I am going to have to try this again sometime because it just doesn’t make sense to me. So weird. I taste guava, but I smell that vague idea of “mixed berries” like in that oatmeal, and I guess the green rooibos is giving me that taste.

Between this and Read My Lips smelling like my favorite LipSmackers back in the day, I get a lot of memories from DavidsTea oddly.

I really don’t like drinking “health” teas specially ones for when you’re sick with a cold or with the flu. I really don’t like the tastes of this, and it felt like a mix of a whole bunch of things that doesn’t go well together. It did made me feel a bit better health wise with my cold, but it sure wasn’t a tasty tea at all. It was rather yucky!

I enjoy chais for the variety of flavors presented to me in each sip.
This brews up a rich dark brown color, darker than most I’ve tried recently.
The aroma while brewing speaks to me of clove and cardamom.
With my first sip, I’m overwhelmed by pepper. I did notice clove and cardamom after the tea had cooled some though.

This tea is intense.

I should let you know that I enjoy spicy food to a degree that is likely unhealthy. My enjoyment of this tea hits the same pleasure centers as tastebud-abusing Thai and Indian food.

The name of this tea begins with “Spicy”, and the description says “Our spiciest chai”. They do not kid. The Tellicherry pepper is apparent, intense, and SPICY.

If you make it past the rich peppery bite (as your tastebuds admit defeat), the ginger and clove become more apparent, with just a hint of cardamom lingering in the background.

This tea will wake you up with a start, clear your sinuses, and probably sterilize the back of your throat. It will also accompany you to work tomorrow, because your fiance won’t ever drink it again.

And by you, I mean me.

Onto another tea, fun fun! Tried this one at work before and found it gross (or flavourless, or something objectionable), so brought it home to try here, even though it should be pretty difficult to screw up a black tea, right? Maybe I steeped it too long initially.

So this time, I noticed chocolate chips in the bag. Not sure if I saw these last time, or got any in my teaball, but I made sure to get a couple in there and you can definitely smell it in the steeped tea. Actually…. it smells quite marvelous. Chocolatey with a hint of fruitiness.

OK! This time I’m actually tasting something! Perhaps I should try Fantasy Island tonight too(?) Definitely tasting that lovely chocolatey flavour that IIRC Read My Lips has, but unfortunately, my sense of the fruity flavour is that it tastes rather fake. The strawberry in Strawberry White tasted much more real; perhaps this is a case of either mixed flavours or artificial flavouring that I don’t care for. Ah! I figured out what it reminds me of. It makes me think of cherry candy kisses. Or other fruity filled chocolates, which I’m not the biggest fan of (I prefer nuts, caramel, etc.). Which explains why most people like it, but I don’t (same thing with these filled chocolates!)

So I’m really not sure what happened with my first couple cups of this. Thinking oversteeping (I only did 3.5 minutes with it this time) and a lack of tasty ingredients in the teaball, since I remember only tasting black tea last time.

Glad I got to taste the true flavours of this one, but it won’t be a re-buy. There are other flavoured blacks, chocolate teas, and strawberry teas that I would rather drink.

ETA: Second steep the next day is surprisingly good. Just under boiling water, for four minutes, and I’m getting lovely chocolatey fruity flavours. It’s a bit mellower than yesterday, so tastes less like a filled chocolate, which is nice. Still not enough to make me want to buy it, but it’s certainly pleasant enough to drink, and you even get two steeps!

re-writing this review seeing as the last one was at about 4 in the morning and I was so tired… plus it was rude to run away from entertaining my guests (at such an hour, I know :p) to writing this review, I needed to remind myself of writing this.. so here goes!

First of all the smell.. from the bag.. I get the sweet smell from it, the bakewell tart is clearly the smell of it.. after steeping for about 4 minutes I notice that the sweet smell changed to a more pastry type smell… the sweet smell was subtle.. and now the tea was more creamy, I could really smell the tart in this, coming from this cup, I could detect a little bit of almond and cherry in this, plus the little almond pieces in this tea are such a perfect thing for it..

taking my first sip… the tea is more of a reddy brown than golden, and I was so blown away about the texture, which was the first thing I noticed.. I have never before tried a tea that was as smooth as this!! This even comes up to ‘Paris’ – Harney & Sons consistency!! I was very shocked because at such an affordable price I wasn’t expecting such a tea to be like this!!! The taste – In my personal opinion, I don’t like hugely sweet teas, and I was so relieved to know that this tea doesnt taste like what it smells like from the bag, the taste is a rich creamy, almond, cherry flavour… which I can easily tell that this IS marzipan tea! I gave the tea to my friends and they knew exactly this had to be a marzipan tea, so I’m glad that when you drink it, you know that it is marzipan tea. The empty cup smells like bakewell tarts, the sweetness has come back again so maybe while its hot the creamy pastry smell comes out more… My advice is to try it on its own.. I genuinely think that no milk or sugar is needed,,, I will be trying this tea out again with milk to see if this helps with the creamy smoothness of this.. If anyone loves sweet tea, then go for the sugar but for me.. it’s my perfect sweet creamy tea, I will be buying atleast 5 bags of this… only because it’s a limited edition from christmas,, and they are selling that last few bags, so I need to get down there quick before they go!!!