New Tasting Notes

I thought I’d perhaps had this before, but it appears I have not. This is similar to Della Terra’s other black teas with peppermint and vanilla and/or chocolate. In a word, amazing. I’m not a fan of Della Terra’s black teas without mint, but the ones with mint I just can’t get enough of.

It appears my black tea aversion has been cured, as, over the last couple days all I’ve been wanting is a tasty black tea. This has been a great morning in terms of that pursuit.

The resteep of this was also successful.

Sipdown, 153.

Today was an unexpected work at home day. It also has cooled down quite a bit (enough that I am wearing a sweater in my house this morning), so I can enjoy some of the teas I have at home. Fortunately I have a lot more teas at home now than I used to, and I had brought a few home recently as well. I used this partly in a failed cold brew combo, and had just enough left for another pot.

This is a pretty tasty tea, although it is very light on the flavors. This is a flavored tea for people who love unflavored black teas already. Back before that was true of me, I didn’t really like it. Now, I quite enjoy it, even if the flavors have probably faded further with age. Still a tasty pot of tea this morning.

Tea of the morning here. I like my morning teas to be kind of strong and hefty! You definitely need some soymilk (or regular milk) with this to temper it a bit. I added some rock sugar too although it doesn’t really need it.

I’d rather be at home making art than working today — what else is new?!

Thank you Lala for this tea. It’s another unbelievably hot day and after making 8 new pendants I have decided to call it a day. The problem with making wire necklaces is the smell your fingers have after a couple of hours of working with various metals. :( Copper is particularly bad.

A quick scrub of my hands while I prepare this tea. A quick note of the tea bag, it smells herbal and sweet but not lemon per say. Citrus/fruit yes but lemon no.

Once steeped it smells lemony and very sweet, like a lemon flavour and scented hard boiled sweet.

Flavour is not as thick as I was expecting which is a nice surprise. As well as the lemon I’m sure there is a hint of orange in there too and it’s more sweet than sour. It tastes a little artificial but overall I don’#t think it’s bad at all. Will try this iced soon.

Tried a test last night when I was out of ice to make iced tea: due to the rather dusty nature of Tazo herbals, I decided to try cold-steeping a couple bags in a tall glass of cold water. In minutes I got a drinkable cool tea. Works also with Passion.

This is not a tea that I would have purchased on my own based on the ingredients. I would have thought of this one as tangy heavily leaning toward sour. Sage and lavender put to mind vision’s of relaxing spa’s. However, a member on Steepster wanted to try it, and they didn’t have easy access to Teavana, so I had no issues picking this one up for a tea swap. I figured it would be a new tea experience.

I am pleasantly surprised at how tasty this tea is!! The citrus is evident, but not overpoweringly tangy. I get a lovely herbaceous flavour – I guess that’s the sage. Not sure I taste lavender, but that’s ok…is delicious.

This tea can handle a second steeping very well. Flavours are still evident.

Last sips of this

i got a small sample bag of this so i could keep tinkering with my personal sherlock blend. but i put one scoop aside so i could try it straight.
not the best lapsang i’ve had. but still smokey and sweet all at once. not bad not bad at all. just a little flat in comparison to the possibilities. but i wouldn’t be surprised if i ordered the sample size of this the next time i place an order.

I tried to drink this without sugar but it tasted bland and I guess oolong-y. Maybe drinking without sugar is like cooking without salt? Blech.

Moving on… I steeped for 5 minutes and I used a DAVIDs disposable filter (bag) since I’m at work and don’t have all my accessories here. Now I heard someone say that the difference between the bagged loose leaf and the one steeped via infuser is huge so maybe I’ll drink this again at home because… I don’t get what the fuss is with this tea. I certainly don’t get the oh my god peach flavour that others seem to have gotten. Is in the aftertaste, absolutely, and it’s very pleasant, I just wish it actually tasted like this. I only get mild peach while sipping. It’s not a bad tea at all but I’m a sucker for bold flavouring. (The blueberry jam from DAVIDs also disappointed me in the flavour department but that’s another note altogether). Why of why is it that some of these teas that smell so friggin amazing when dry just don’t come through??

24 Hours Later

I resteeped this tea a day later. Is it bad I left it so long? And it was really really good and peachy. I have never tasted this much difference between subsequent steeps. Are all oolongs like that?

My first purple tea! YAY! Thanks Courtney for sharing a little with me so I can try it.

Like other Butiki teas, the flavoring here is very natural and a little subtle but not in a bad way. Mmmm, I love bluberry! The base tea reminds me a little of a green or maybe white tea? It doesn’t have a really strong flavor either, but don’t get me wrong, this tea isn’t bland or anything! It is really quite nice. I’m glad I got to try it. I’d definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a nice natural blueberry flavored tea! I think its the best blueberry tea I’ve tried so far.

So I was a bad person and brewed this Western style and also added a bit more sugar than usual in hopes that this would be palatable to me because I have yet to like a pu’erh, sheng or shu. But I keep trying, especially what Verdant sends me. The whole purpose of the membership is to expand my horizons after all. All of my notes on this tea should be viewed through that filter.

This tea still has that weird pu’erh aftertaste that I always get in the back of my throat, but upfront it’s actually not bad. I taste fig and raisins mostly. Maybe a little bit of vanilla in the tail end of the steep but I can’t tell if I actually taste it or if it’s the power of suggestions since I read the description. In any case, I don’t hate this, so I’ll probably continue drinking this and actually steep it more than once.

This tea is quite delicious. I’ve been pining over the loss of 52Teas Raspberry Cream and this tea is just what this reminds me of, with a hint of strawberry rather than raspberry. There’s is no fakeness of overwhelming flavour – just a lovely black base with a subtle fruit taste in the background that makes for a great cup of tea. I’m just checking out Mystic Brew’s eBay store now to see if this is available.

Thanks jessiwrites!

Update: Just ordered more :) Not much makes me happier than when I can get shipping to Canada. Yay!

Alright – this is a sipdown to start getting me back in the right direction. I’ll be down to 80 teas after this.

As another bonus, this was a seasonal tea so I can’t buy more. Even though when I went on the website to check for sure it was out of stock, I found a watermelon black tea. WATERMELON. BLACK. I’ve only just this year realized I can eat watermelon. Up until now I have been unable to stomach it..it used to taste absolutely foul. Cantaloupe still tastes that way – one bite and it’s like this rancid bomb explodes all over my tongue. So gross.

Anyway, so I had this hot with milk and sugar and am currently enjoying the balance of marshmallow and black tea in my cup. I’m bummed though – I started making this before i pulled up my last tasting note and I had wanted to try blending with the Laoshan chocolate genmaicha. Grrr. That really would have been awesome. Ah well. I guess I’ll just have to hold out until the winter when it comes back and give it a try then! (And put a note somewhere so I can remember to do it for real!)

Lovely tea! This has the creamy vegetal taste that I’ve come to associate with oolongs. I haven’t experienced that in a white tea before. The asparagus quality is sweetened by the floral elements, which deepen the taste and shine in the aftertaste. I could thoroughly get distracted by this tea at work! :-)

I wanted a lemony tisane because my allergies have been terrible lately. I was hoping for a nice, subtle lemon flavor with a little bit of local honey added, and viola: a drink to soothe my sinuses. Instead, the flavor is so subtle that my plugged-up-nose just interprets it as cooked grass, honey added.

This is my first tea in over 24 hrs :)
I had minor surgery yesterday so was not allowed to eat or drink all day :(
I chose this nice roasty tasting tea for my first tea in the morning because I didn’t want anything that I was tempted to add milk to (had post anesthetic nausea and surgery was late so this is my first liquid since coming out from surgery) I am off for the week so I will have plenty of time to drink lots of tea.
Sorry getting totally off on a tangent so back to this tea. Toasty oolongs are one of my favourite teas and this is no different. Just sipping on my first infusion now…so good!

Tastes pretty bitter to me. Tried to subdue it with some milk. It tasted best to me when the milk had settled and the tea cooled down. Although it was drinkable, I’ll probably avoid teas such as this one in the future. I’m left wondering whether this one is representative of most Assam teas.

Sometimes I really hate my life…. why? because I get a fantastic tea like this one…. try it… end up having to use my epi pen…. because there are mangos in it.. WHY!? does BERRY KIWI have to have mango in it!?!?!?!?!? .. LOL…. I really liked how sweet this one is, while also having a little bit of bite… I would have liked to have gotten a better idea of what this tasted like… but unfortunately I had to stop my throat from closing up hahaha

This is my first Earl Grey Creme, and I just learned an important lesson – don’t add milk to an Earl Grey Creme before you try it! I was in a rush this morning, and just made it the same way I make my usual EG: Into the travel mug with the pinch-open infuser ball 1/2 full for 4-5 min, 1-1/2 tbsp Sugar in the Raw, and a moderate dash of milk.

My first sip was like drinking creamer with milk! I sealed it back up and gave it a really good shake, but the next drinks were the same. It’s difficult to even taste the EG at all. I’m deliberately not rating this yet, and I think another cup tomorrow morning is a must in order to suss out what this tea is really like.

Update: Tried this without adding milk, and it was much better! The cream still overwhelms the EG, but at least now it has more of a presence. I may keep a small amount of this on hand for a change now and again, but I doubt it will ever be a larger order. The fact that I can’t see what causes the cream flavor weirds me out a bit.

a kind friend gifted me a bunch of tea recently, including this one. i’m not big on herb/fruit teas, but this one is quite sunny & soothing. i debated adding sweetener, such as honey & i think next time i’ll do so. i brewed for 8 minutes & found the tea, as i tend to with fruit teas, a tad astringent. i can’t taste the ginger per se, but there’s a ginger effect, a bit of spice hitting the tongue. it’s a lively tea. perfect for an afternoon pick me up.