New Tasting Notes

Ok, so I went for the third steep after all. I needed something to wash down the cake I just ate for breakfast. :D

Steep 3: Actually much better. Steeped with cooler water. Less vegetal and more floral. Buttery is fading to plain milky creamy.

I awoke at around 5 and couldn’t get back to sleep. Tired. :( I got up around 7 and set about searching for a tea that would satisfy my craving for something sweet and creamy. This is the last of my milk oolong samples from Tea from Taiwan. It’s taken me forever to get through them, but I like variety.

Steep 1: Lightly flavored. Vegetal and buttery. I’m getting bok choy. It seems the oolongs from Tea from Taiwan are often like bok choy and cooked watercress. Which is ok, since these are some of my favorite vegetables.

Steep 2: Buttery vegetables are more upfront now. A hint of flowers of some sort. There’s a drying effect on my tongue.

Odd, I’m not really enjoying this. I don’t really want to go for steep 3 even though the leaves have plenty more to give. Perhaps my recent fascination with dancongs is ruining me for other oolongs. I also can’t really discern the difference between this and many of the other oolongs from this vendor. I do think a couple stood out as really tasty, but this is not one of them.

ah well, maybe I’m in a hot chocolate kind of mood. Or chai.

Sample six! Only one more to go and I’ll have made my goal. Sort of. It was supposed to be one daily, but that didn’t work out much.

I have enjoyed this one, and shall enjoy the rest of it in bed with some classic british comedy on dvd, and possibly a little WordFeuding on the side.

My fiance bought me this tea for Christmas. The smell is very sweet, like marzipan but in the taste it is a mellow sweetness. With a little bit of agave added it tastes almost like a (almost) calorie free marzipan – a wonderful dessert tea. It would probably be even more like marzipan if I had used white sugar instead of agave. Before I added the agave the taste was very mild even though I had steeped the tea for the full 7 minutes. This is not a tea I would be able to drink every day or in the morning but as a dessert tea this is amazing! I am so glad my fiance chose to bring this tea home to me for Christmas!

perfectly smooth. light flavor. no milk or sweetener.
perfect for afternoon tea with sandwiches and scones.
i drank the whole pot!

I’ve had this blend for a while now… it just sounded a little too weird so I held off trying it. But somehow, these flavors all work together quite well. The peppermint and pecan are strong enough to offset that funky rooibos flavor, and the nutty flavor of the rooibos enhances the delicious flavor of the pecan. The cool, crisp flavor of the peppermint is a nice contrast to the sweet, nutty flavor.

I’m liking this much more than I thought I would.

All week long I was have an urged for matcha since I did not have any last year. It certainly a treat parting from a Trader Jones and having one served hot just soothes after a hard day. Its really tasty kinda like sugarcane minus the intense sweetness but grassy and vegetal. Its another fine product of Rishi and the tea producers!

Having the last half of this this morning for sample finishing week, sample number five.

Language lesson!

Let me guess. Chá is Portuguese for tea?

So para fazer um bom chá might be something like loose leaf of black tea?

Am I close? Wildly off the mark?

(Shame it doesn’t come with a pronounciation guide. I should have liked to have seen my Brazilian’s face when I came to work and spouted Portuguese at her. :p These days when I do, she tends to roll her eyes at me, but it’s her own fault for having taught me to swear! :p )

I like this one, it’s almost like a strong oolong, very good

i LOVE this tea, send yours to me if you dont love it. I am having a hard time finding in stock anywhere… i love the aftertaste it leaves on my tongue…

I have mixed feelings about this tea. I have had it multiple times as a latte from the store sweetened with agave. I bought myself a 50g bag of this for home. I just tried this today and unsweetened without milk the flavour and sweetness is completely missing. Since I have started really enjoying good quality tea I have been drinking my tea`s without milk and sugar and I have enjoyed the majority of them. I would prefer this tea if the sweetness of the smell and the honeybush would come through in the tea straight.

This tea was one of the first Ti Kuan Yins I’ve ever tried, so I decided to try it again to see how it compared to the others I’ve recently tried.

I bought this tea at a local Chinese shop called “Wing Hop Fung.” The shop offers a wide selection of Chinese and Taiwanese teas, as well as Chinese goods and delicacies (bird’s nest soup anyone?). While I do not like the way they store their teas (large clear glass jars), their vast selection, cheap prices, and location (one in Chinatown, LA) keeps me coming back.

I bought about 2 oz of tea. The dry leaves had a mostly dark green color with some lighter green in between. The leaves were slightly aromatic, lightly oily to the touch, and with different shapes and sizes.

Since this tea did not have any suggested brewing guidelines (the store does not provide any tips on how to brew your tea unless you ask one of the sales ladies), I steeped each infusion for at least 3 minutes using 195F water and used a gaiwan.

The resulting brew gave me a clear bright green-yellow cup with a light floral aroma. As with my other TKY’s I tried to steep this tea at least 7 times.

My first cup was subtly sweet, lightly floral, with smooth mouth feel and a very nice nutty hint. My second, third, and fourth cup were pretty much more of the same, but with each subsequent steeping, the taste and aroma became weaker. By the fifth cup, the nutty hint was still there, but the floral taste was very faint. The floral aroma was also completely gone by now. The sixth cup was just a hint of everything that once was and after this one, I decided not to re-steep the leaves again.

The wet leaves were mostly well preserved, with different sizes, and some damaged/broken pieces. At least two or three stems were floating around in one teaspoon.

Now this is what I call an everyday Ti Kuan Yin! While the shop’s description makes it sound like this is a high quality tea, you can safely assume it’s not, thanks to its relative cheap price (around $5 per ounce). Overall, This tea has some the flavor, floral notes, and smoothness of a Ti Kuan Yin, but none of the complexities, intense floral aroma and aftertaste that differentiates the regular TKY’s from the extraordinary ones. I enjoyed this tea mostly for what it is, a cheap everyday oolong.

Another mystery tea! I can’t figure out if I like it or not. I don’t dislike it, I do know that. I like the berry and the current and the rooibos all blending together, but I almost want more current flavour . . . it needs raisins. To me that’s what is missing, that raisin flavour. Maybe I’m crazy, but I think that’d make this tea amazing. Not rating yet . . . we’ll see what a second cup brings first.

This tea has a clean flavour like all of the superfruit brand. this tea naturally sweet but was so great with a bit of stevia powder

I am amazed at how much flavor I got out of such a tiny sample! Of course, I didn’t brew it the way I normally would (using my Breville), instead, I used a T-Sac and half a cup of water. Regardless, I’m glad to be able to try it, because it’s really very good.

A strong floral essence, I definitely taste rose. The other floral flavors have pretty much assimilated into the rose essence to make it a flowery rose taste. I can taste a nutty flavor in there too, maybe almond? It could also be a nutty flavor from the white tea. The fruit is more difficult to discern, it tastes tropical. Papaya, or possibly mango. It has a mixed tropical fruit kind of taste to it. I can also taste a hint of apple in the distance. I think I even taste a hint of spice, especially in the aftertaste.

It is difficult to pick out the individual notes here, because everything is so jumbled … but in a very good way. It’s really quite delicious. I can also taste the white tea here, and with so many other flavors going on, I have to say that is a big plus!

{backlogged review}

Had my last bag of this this week. It isn’t a bad tea, especially considering it is bagged. In fact, until I discovered the peach tea from Charleston Plantation, this was my favourite peach. Now though, it just seems lacking in comparison.

David’s has done it again! So on my third trip there this week I was disappointed to find out that they still hadn’t gotten in the Tea of the Month for January, Splash! However, incapable of leaving empty-handed I had to pick up a few more things (if I didn’t know I had a problem before, after this week, I can be sure…). I had LOVED the sample I’d previously gotten of this tea, and just knew I needed more ASAP. Where to start? It’s chocolately, it’s got just the right amount of fruity flavor to it. I definitely get the chocolate-covered strawberry analogy. It’s comfort in a cup. It was the perfect thing to bring with me to work on this very snowy day. David’s to the rescue once again!

Finally I have managed to find a tea at David’s with lemongrass that doesn’t just taste like that ingredient. I’m not a huge fan of the overall flavour, but it is enough proof to give me hope that it is possible for future teas to not just be one note.

I can see how I would really like this one when I’m sick, it has that “get all better” feel to it. I suspect that’s why it isn’t vowing me right now, I’m in decent health. On the fence with this one. I don’t hate it, but it isn’t telling me I like it, either.

I held off on trying this until I got a sample in an online order, which I gave to my sister-in-law. She really liked it, so I bought a bit to try last time I was in the shop. Surprisingly, I like it – I was afraid it would be too herbal/medicinal, but it’s quite nice and light, with some citrus and ginger tang.

For the first time I think I’ve found a dessert tea I’ll be keeping as a dessert. Normally I just drink ’em anyway since I love sweet things, but dang, is this one caramel sweet.

I really enjoyed this one, but I’m going to have to remember to drink it hot. Hot, absolutely delish. I got distracted reviewing a few other teas as I drank, though, and the last few sips were cold and not as delightful. So yes, drink fast, and drink often I think with this one!

I honestly can’t wrap my mind around the low-ish rating on this one. This is my favourite peach tea I have found in my tea tasting history. And that includes loose leaf! This is a true peach, none of those scents like bath and body works or flavours like peach tang. This, when brewed, tastes like someone has dripped juice directly from a peach into your glass. My only sadness is that this is a small brand that was bought out by Bigelow. Which, yay getting the tea to more people, but still, I wish more independent companies were just that, truly independent.