New Tasting Notes

The smell of this tea dry is amazing: it’s such a nice smokey bergamot scent. Steeped, however, this tea has a very strong tendency to go very bitter very quickly, but steeping it for less time makes for an equally disappointing weak cup of tea.

I found the rooibos! It is hardly there…so of course it’s not like it adds anything, typical of every rooibos blend I’ve ever gotten from Teavana except for the beloved Thai Tea Blend. Meh.

Cold steeping sadly did not do this tea justice. The green tea is gets lost, and it just tastes like tropical punch flavored water. I’m sad. I steeped it longer than I normally do so maybe if I cut down the time it won’t happen…it’s still good but it’s just hardly like an iced green tea now.

Had some of this for my morning meeting as I wanted something light and apparently don’t have a lot of options left at work! Although it was good, and smelled deliciously pollen-y and sweet, tasting much the same, I think it won’t end up being one that I restock, mainly because I have fallen in love with Alpine Punch and other sweet rooibos that I prefer as they have a creaminess to them as well. Oh well, about 1 cup’s worth of leaves left for another day.

Another disappointing cup. Just not my sort of tea, I suppose. Further tasting notes to come (they’re on a sticky somewhere).

I’m so excited to be drinking this for breakfast! I have come to really love this blend. I have been waiting to make any more tea orders/purchases until later this year and some of my stock goes down. When that time comes I may be getting this in my cupboard. I really loved it and am excited to try even more of Kusmi’s blends. Their tins are really pretty and I love the two that I’ve tried. Who could go wrong! I also saw recently that they have mini tin sets with an assortment of teas. SO CUTE!!! I couldn’t ask for a more gift-able product.
As for this tea, I love the base of this tea. It is apparent in the flavor of the tea without overwhelming it. I do not always enjoy plain black teas; but I love flavored blacks more than others for some reason. I think that certain blends have this hardy/strong base that helps improve the flavoring. This and 52 tea’s Pancake Breakfast are great examples of this.
Overall this is a great tea. I would recommend it wholeheartedly to any lover of dessert/flavored varieties.

I’m an elementary school teacher, so I have some interesting mental associations with the smell of cake (think classroom parties with 25+ overly-stimulated, frosting-covered children). This tea immediately brought to mind our recent Valentine’s Day celebration and the multitude of confections I was force-fed. Not a good start for me.

I used two bags in my travel mug along with my customary milk and sugar. I was pleasantly surprised by the deep pink color the milk revealed in my dark mug. The scent was strong in my car as I drove to work – not terribly unpleasant, but persistent.

Yep. Tastes just about like red velvet cupcakes. Perhaps I’ll give it another shot this summer when my classroom associations aren’t so vivid. I finished the cup by mostly ignoring the taste. I’m glad I only have a few bags of this – I got it in a Republic of Tea sampler cube. Perhaps part of the problem is that it suffers in comparison to yesterday’s Coconut Cocoa, which came in the same cube.

I absolutely love this tea with milk and sugar, better with palm sugar… I was scared about chai, I’ve had chai that had been too spicy to drink down it burned my throat, so I was glad that this was the perfect spice for me.. and the coconut really comes out and compliments this chai tea.. ohh, I’m buying more of this!! It’s not a bad price neither!!

This is the 3rd tea I got recently from Teavivre and they have all been great and this one is no exception. It has a rich aroma, sweet taste and a wonderful freshly sweet aftertaste.

I was able to make 6 perfectly tasting steeps and the 7th one was mildly tasting so I threw leaves away after it. Steep duration varied from 1 min to 3 min.

Like drinking perfume. I even tried to make iced tea with it, but I couldn’t drink it.

Many thanks to Indigobloom for a package of lovely teas to sample. I chose to drink this first as I have had a long and sordid past with Darjeelings, originally deeming them unworthy of drinking due to thier tendency to turn bitter and over extract, but found myself stunned by Darjeeling Ambootia and finding the error was mine, by lack of water temp, steep time and g. weight control. Once I realized this, I was won over heartily by Darjeelings and now find them to be a benchmark of craft and flavor complexity.

I was surprised that this one did not have an estate assigned to it; this usually meaning that the tea is a blend of 2nd and 3rd flush. The very fine cut of the leaf would also seem to support this.

Indigobloom was kind enough to have send 5g, which I place in a porcelian gawian and transfered to a traditional cuppers cup; using 200 degree water and almost pour directly from gawian to cup. 5 grams allowed for nearly 5 hearty steeps and while normally I would go the distance with aroma profiling, the package it came in also included a fragrant coconut oolong that dominated the other teas and I felt I wasn’t sure what aroma was carried over from that.

Upon first sip I thought perhaps the scent from the oolong had also gotton to the Darjeeling, but after 3 steeps I decided that the fruity flavor I was tasting was actually from the Darjeeling itself. The cup produces a dark caramel liquor, with champagne-golden accents. The flavor is overall very smooth, with a silken body and distinct lack of traditional muscatel, but rather this was replaced by a deep fruity character that combined with the body to have a taste almost like a Mckentosh apple. There was a lack of bitterness or astringency, but I was keeping the extractions very short, but was getting the hue I would expect, so I felt this lack of bitterness was a character of the tea. There was also a distinct lack of spicyness that I usually associate with most Darjeelings and while I missed it, I found the smooth fruity character to be quite pleasant.

The fine cut of leaf did allow for some particulate to end up in the cup, but the leaf was soft and fine and pleasant to nibble.

Many thanks to Indigobloom and I will be sending her and a few others some tea very, very soon.

So on my flight schedule yesterday was Guatemala City to Houston. Houston to Chicago. Chicago back to Akron/Canton. Two hour layover at O’Hare and I need something to eat. Before I settled on the golden arches I found Argo. I love the concept of this place and wish there were more places like it in Ohio. So I order the English Breakfast and the Mate poached turkey sandwich. The tea is not bad your basic English Breakfast tea. Malty and a little bit of that Keemun kick. The sandwich though fabulous! I liked it better than the tea.

In an effort to get rid of this tea (I have trouble throwing out teas even if I don’t like them), I put a tablespoon of it in my smoothie this morning. Unfortunately it was a berry smoothie, and the flavours didn’t go well together. If I made just a plain old banana smoothie, it might have tasted better.

So I am almost, almost done with my rosey teas, or at least the ones that acutally are rosey. I mean, I still have a few that sprinkle a few rose petals into the mix, but nary a rose flavor is to be found. Those don’t count.

Guys, I am almost out of this tea. Like, I think I have less than a cup of leaf left, which probably means it’s getting blended with other things in a cold steep. Sad! I have quite a list of “standard panel” teas that are no longer in my possession, and it will be a while before I can restock; this one will soon be joining their ranks. I love the flavor blend in this, and that it always seems to wake me up even though it’s a black/green blend.

My Plan B tea. My “Old Reliable” tea. It’s starting to look all gray and gross outside so I need a pick-me-up (especially since the day isn’t even half over yet). I just love this spicy cuppa. Made myself a larger cup. Delish!

Smoky up front (and aroma). Really nice flavor that finishes with chocolate.

It has been quite a while since I have had black tea at breakfast. I seem to have come down with a cold, or an allergy attack. Middle daughter noticed and asked if she could make me some tea to soothe my throat. This is what she chose! Good girl! Catherine is just right for giving you a boost when sneezy sniffles have woken you up through the night.

I got this and hot lips while in Canada. To me this is sooo much better. it’s got a nice, earth base – but isn’t nearly as fishy as say, cofee pu’erh – and the cloves and orange add to the overall warming effect. thumbs up from me.

This smells absolutely wonderful – and I realized one thing. I opened the packaging ( I am totally envious of the little ziploc foil packets Angrboda sent this in) and my first impression was that this smelled “american”. American not having any value associations, I just smelled it and thought it. And then realized why, it´s the cranberries! Cranberry and a hint of vanilla, it is a smell and flavour I associate with the USA. Though not particularly with late summer, but maybe because cranberries for me are so exotic and rare and not associated with any particular season. It is a a very good late winter tea as well!

And it works, it really works here. Very nice tea. Reminded me a bit of a black version of Thé à l´Opéra. Very nice base as well.

This was part from a wonderful surprise from Angrboda, thank you!

On Valentine’s evening, I asked hubby to join me for Teavivre’s Two Dragons and A Pearl flowering tea since it was a special occasion and he had given me a glass pot. I was very surprised last night at about bedtime when he asked if we were going to drink tea again! He is a Tetley kind of guy and I knew this was a sacrifice of LoVe! :)

I chose this tea because it is one of the main reasons I wanted a glass pot. I love watching the pearls turn into ittle pinwheels as they open up.

This has such a wonderful, natural jasmine flavor. It sweetens the tea without dominating it completely. The steeped tea is yellow, and remained about the same color through five steeps. Each was also delicious. The green tea base is mild and smooth with no bitterness or bite.

I am hoping that the “tea together before bedtime” thing is going to become a ritual! :) Or at least a frequent occurrence.

looking at everyone other person’s ratings, i see that i am the odd man out. I do not like this tea. I do not even know how to describe the taste. i think i might have to dump it out. This is the second time i had it and i did not like it the first time. So the second try i tried to steep it for less time so that the flavor would not be as strong. Did not help.

This is a fun tea – tastes just like raspberry and dark chocolate, two of my favorite things. (I can’t do milk chocolate, allergic. But luckily NOT allergic to dark chocolate.) I purchased the V-day set to share with my husband…OK, I just bought it for myself. But he can enjoy some of it, if he wants.

My only issue with this tea is that you can’t really steep/infuse it more than once. It’s a great, hearty and delish cuppa, just once. I have that issue with many Adagio teas, but since they are inexpensive I don’t worry about it too much.