New Tasting Notes

Decided to drink (one of?) my sample of this today. Possibly Monday too, if I decide I can stand having the tea sit out for that long. Probably not though. I can’t remember if this was a free sample or one I purchased so I’ll just throw a shout out to Verdant anyway.

I haven’t liked oolongs much so far, but I’ve had incredible luck with the teas from Verdant in broadening my horizons with really good tea. This one is slightly roasty, and sweet. And I can definitely taste the bready-malt taste in the aftertaste. Like you’ve just eaten a really nice dense bread with nothing at all to go with it. Sometimes I eat sourdough like that. I don’t really get much floral from this, though it’s showing up more as the tea cools down. This is a very interesting tea.

Strong lemon flavour, the fruit turns this tea a dark red. Great to drink anytime hot or cold. My favorite when i have a sore throat.

I’m leaving my rating marker in the middle. I like it because they mixed the spices together nicely so that not one is too overpowering. Anyone who has a thing for sarsparilla will enjoy this. I’ve tried a couple tea’s with sarsaparilla and they were undrinkable. Despite all that I’m just not a terribly big fan of it. I will drink it till it’s gone because cinnamon is good for you and it’s gross outside right now but I won’t buy this for myself. Mom you can keep the rest. Sorry.

This tea was calling to me this morning! “Drink me, Drink me!” And so I did.

I think my tastebuds were a little muddied by the chai this morning because I was not picking up all the subtleties I was on Tuesday with this tea. Still yummy though!

Having a cup of this this morning with a rice crispy treat with M&Ms in it. My coworkers brought them for my birthday treat! My birthday is actually tomorrow, but I’m off work so we’re celebrating it at work today :D Anyway, very tasty combo, heh.

Amaretto is a rooibos tea that tastes exactly like it smells. Some teas smell great but then don’t transfer their flavour to the actual tea but not this guy. Amazingly similar to the delicious booze. I use it as an evening dessert, lots of people use it to lose weight for the same reason. Allergy alert, this does contain almond slices.

It’s Thursday. That means green tea frap. Even my sweet tooth had too admit this was too sweet today. Tasty anyway.

Welp, it’s a gray yucky morning, I have things to run around and do this morning before I go to work, I got to bed too late last night, and I’m still feeling the burn from my first bike ride in 15 years yesterday. Good a time as any to try my first keemun!

This was the tea I was the most excited about in my new order. The leaves are fairly fine, as far as tea leaves go, dark, and sweetish-earthy-smoky smelling. The liquor is a pretty amber color, which surprised me because I was expecting a darker color. Guess not all black teas look red in the cup. Newbie lesson, newbie lesson.

I’m not quite sure how to describe the flavor profile. It’s a bit of an earthy taste, but not like you’re drinking dirt. It’s not malty; maybe just the sliiiiiiightest bit smoky. The item description compares it to wine, but I don’t drink alcohol so I couldn’t tell you. But it’s a satisfyingly deep flavor and a good, solid breakfast tea.

Just the morning pot. Or is that “potta” to coincide with cuppa? Either way, it was/is one of those mornings where one cup will not do, so four were made.

The sweetnessa and juiciness from the lychee juice is fantastic.

mmmmm…another chai i figured i should try this morning since it’s a colder spring day today and i much prefer drinking chai when it’s cold. Let me first start off by saying that this smells like licorice. Black licorice. Which happens to be my favourite. Jelly beans? gimme the black ones! Again, i didn’t add anything to this, preferring to keep it simple and straight but i might be tempted to in future just to see what’s what. Thank you boxermama for this delightful and unique creation!

I asked the lady at the counter for something strong this morning because my mind was foggy from too little sleep this week. She suggested this and it smelled good, so I got it to-go with a little with soy milk because, hey, it’s chai!

This was an ok chai. I’ve had worse and better. It was fairly smooth and I liked that the cinnamon was prominent. A little ginger added some heat. I’m finding that I don’t like anise in Davidstea blends.

Also I really don’t know if it woke me up very much because I’m still wondering vaguely whether it’s Wednesday or Thursday. Then again, caffeine has never really had an overwhelming effect on me, which is why I can drink black teas at night and still sleep soundly.

Trying my best to have a lazy day as I’m just not feeling tip top today. While packing some tea swaps today I got the craving for some puerh and chose one on my shelf at random. Dragon Tea House have a wide range of pu erh and I make it my mission to try them all.

This puerh cake is dark brown and golden brown in colour with a sweet earthy and floral scent.

Steeping with the following times in my Gongfu Teapot -
5 steeps:30s,1m,2m,3m,4m 100ºC/212ºF

Steep one – 30 seconds – Colour is yellow/green with a thick earthen clay aroma. Flavour is subtle and floral with a hint of sweetness and dryness. Also a little muddy and wooden.

Steep two – 1 minute – Sweeter in flavour and more floral. Also more honeyed and wooden. Lost some of it’s earthy clay taste and is smoothing out very nicely.

Steep three – 2 minutes – Even less earthy and more floral, almost perfumey and musky. Also sort of ricey and gluttonous but mildly.

Steep four – 3 minutes – Light red/brown now in colour. Quite astringent and musky with a dry, floral after taste. Still has some wooden sweetness but not as much in comparison to the first few steeps.

Steep five – 4 minutes – Smoother than the previous steep and once again very mellow overall. All that is really left is a wooden musk and sweet floral hue that become dry in the after taste.

Overall this tea is very pleasant and is suitable for multiple steeps without becoming too harsh and bitter. It’s a very musky puerh but I think it has real charm. Not one of my favourites but definitely something I would be happy to share with friends and family. Plus I have a warm glow after drinking this tea and a bit of a buzz :)

mmmmm thank you Cavocorax I was hesitant about picking this one up from Frank as i haven’t had a lot of success lately with the blends that i’ve picked up. So when Cavo offered to send some my way to try I was excited! I’ve missed my opportunity to pick this up, which is a little sad but i can safely say that this is pretty darn tasty!

I brewed this up in my usual 52 black base fashion – 2 mins, lower than boiling temperature. The tea is a nice lemoney chai. The spices aren’t too overpowering and the lemon stays present throughout the entire cup. Not that i typically add milk or honey to my chai’s – i think in the case it might make the cup even better with the addition of a little sweetness. I’ll have to try that next time!

thanks cavo!

It’s going to be one of those mornings. I couldn’t fall asleep for a little while last night, so this morning I am exhausted. I had a bowl of matcha, and then, because I was waiting a bit around the house this morning, I decided to break into one of the reserve club black teas I have. Brewed western style, of course (I don’t have the energy for gongfu in the morning, especially not this morning), which seemed ok to me since I knew it would be a black tea. First I thought of having the Qimen (keemun), but I sniffed it and it smelled smoky and keemun-y to me in a way that was not appealing. Perhaps another time. This one, however, smelled honeyed and perhaps a hint chocolatey, and I immediately chose it.

I’ve never actually had a jin jun mei tea, even though I have loved all the Fujian blacks I’ve tried. I can’t remember why, but I think there was something about the descriptions of some of them that didn’t appeal to me. I steeped this one up and it smells very malty, with a bit of molasses grains but not as strongly as a tan yang, say.

The flavor is lovely. Very bready, very malty. There is kind of a honey-ish flavor, but while that can mean a natural sweetness in some teas, it is definitely not in this. If anything the tea is slightly drying and a touch brisk. I was struggling this morning to try and figure out what that extra something was to this tea, almost a vegetal quality, and then I saw sweet potato notes and that was totally it. Almost a cross between a Fujian black and a Yunnan black. This was quite tasty and I would definitely try another JJM in the future, not to mention enjoying the rest of my packet of this tea.

its a really light fruity/flowery taste and its something to enjoy on a hot summer day. I have also used it as part of recipe to make tropical rice and it worked really well.

Fox Farm (local health food grocery) has significantly expanded its tea selection (oh, darn!) so I am dutifully sipping away at all my scraps and samples in order to justify a significant shopping excursion soon.

This one isn’t top-of-the-heap but it is tasty and an easy steeper, maybe leans to the more astringent side. A good inexpensive staple.

woaaaaaaah I LOVE this tea… I got this in a swap from scribbles… I believe I have tried one tea from tealish, back when I still lived at home.. and I loved it.. but I haven’t fallen for a tea this hard, in a very long time. It starts out with a punch of orange, and then levels out with an amaraettoish/marzipan taste, that lingers slightly… I find that neither flavour overpower each other…. I tried this hot and can’t wait to try it iced :)

I liked this tea, but felt that it lacked body. I loved the vanilla and apricot undertones – maybe I should have brewed it for longer…but I felt that it was warm, inviting and comforting.

I did have this tea black with honey, and still felt that it lacked solidity and structure, but I know it’s a very popular tea and with some tweaking could be a lovely blend.

Lovely tea, lovely flavour but sometimes it has a tendency to be over-powering or easily become bitter, however its cosy caramel and cinnamon palette can definitely be recommended. I would certainly sweeten this tea with something like honey or sugar, purely because its black base can be tart.

Don’t brew this tea for too long, 3-5 minutes and you should avoid the problems of an overly-potent black base and bitter-almond aftertaste.

I went to bed at 11. I have been awake since 2:30. At 5:30 I gave up trying and got up – sort of. While staring at the ceiling I decided I would start with a Vicony tea. Grabbed this one. Didn’t think about what I was doing and steeped it like 5 minutes. Uhmmm last time I used a 10 second steep. So it is a wee bit strong. Besides being sort of coffee like this is still intensely good. It is a LS but only hints of smoke. Mostly it is everything I love about Chinese black teas – chocolate, honey, malt, sweet potato. This is just the whole package. Last time I had this I steeped it 4 times. Given the length of the first steep today, maybe not as many. A truly excellent tea.

I adore this tea. It has a deep, bold, black tea base with a minty flick. I generally add honey, but I also fancy it black. It’s my steady, go-to tea when I can’t decide what to drink – it’s full-bodied like a winter evening, but light enough to never be bitter. It’s not particularly sweet, and that’s what I like about it, but the cornflowers make it smell wonderfully floral.

It’s very distinctive, a tea I can alway recognise, and I’ll never say no to a cup.