New Tasting Notes

I’ve been experimenting a bit trying to find the exact right way to prepare this flora tea.
Hot, it’s good and fruity but nothing really stands out. While iced, wow this makes for an incredible drink. The great thing is that it can be brewed with cold water and quite quickly; after about 10-15 mn, it was already really fragrant enough.
Thing is the dosage also has to be right. I first used a bit too much of the dried fruits and the brew was really sweet, almost like if I had put some berry sirup into iced water. And the taste was even a bit too strong on the berry, as if "I had put too much sirup for the amount of water, dixit Hubby who usually likes his drink much more heavy on the flavors and sugar than I do.
It’s really perfect for the summertime, very cooling, very natural tasting. It could easily replace grenadine sirup, according to my hubby who wondered why more people were not replacing heavily ladden with sugar drinks with this one.
Last thing, the hot and humid climate is not really great for this tea, which I have to store in my fridge. Lots of moisture went into the berries and I’ll have to finish it soon, which should be very easy.

Another travel mug tea from yesterday. The lack of astringency means that I don’t hate this tea or anything, but it’s certainly not my favourite. I cannot WAIT for my teas to come in from Stacy… I’m getting nearly 5 oz. of the regular PTA in either straight or flavoured form. Sooooooo awesome…

Replenished my stash of this one with help from Sil, and decided to make up a travel mug of it yesterday. Tasty, although I don’t think I like this one cooled as much as others.

This tea caught my attention from the first second I saw it advertised on David’sTeas’ website. Coconut? Lemongrass? Ginger? And white tea? All in the same cup? Yum! Sounds too good to he true.

Tart notes of lemon accentuated with a zap of ginger were the first scents I noticed with the dry leaves. Once steeped for 5 minutes or so, I can begin to smell the warm, creamy coconut seeping through the brighter fruits.

Sip wise, the first flavor to hit my tongue is the coconut, not artificial tasting at all, very silky and rich. Totally yummy! The ginger and lemongrass punctuate with a tart, spicy, clean finish. The back of my throat feels all tingle-y, and even after having swallowed I can still taste the coconut. (In a good way! Not in the bad I-can’t-get-this-taste-out-of-my-mouth-feel)

Fabulous blend! Now all I need is a trashy novel to read and my shades, and I’ll be ready for summer!

This was another tea taken from the Traveling Teabox during its stop at my place. It might be that this sample is rather old and lost it’s flavouring, but I’m not really getting much beyond rooibos and bit of fruity blueberry flavour out of this tea. I can’t taste anything even remotely resembling cheesecake, which is disappointing, especially since this tea has gotten a lot of good reviews.

I honestly didn’t like this one after my first few sips, but it’s growing on me as it cools down a bit. It’s funny, I was trying to think how to describe the taste when I read the 2 previous reviews. I had an ahah moment when I read Tea Sipper’s comment about it tasting like Butiki’s cantaloupe tea. It does, which is really weird, as this is a rooibos and that one’s a white. There is a bit of spiciness at the end of the sip that’s not in the cantaloupe tea, though.

I can’t say that I’m really disappointed this tea doesn’t have a strong pumpkin flavour. I don’t actually like pumpkin that much, so spicy cantaloupe works for me.

Eh. Kittenna, I’m with you on this one. Anybody want this?

The flavour is pretty typical genmaicha- buttery and rich. There’s a bit more sweetness than usual but I can’t say this tastes like s’mores, except maybe in the finish/lingering aftertaste transition- I get a bit of burnt marshmallows. Actually, that last part is extremely cool and I’m impressed.

Still, this tea smells “sanitized” and that rubs me the wrong way. The family was over for a birthday and they all had a good laugh at the expense of me and this tea. Mother said it tasted like wood and other unpleasant things. I guess I won’t be able to pass this one off onto any of them.

I wish I was on board with everyone else who thinks this is awesome. :/

thank you so much Teajo for a sample of this one! There is enough here for many cups. The dry leaves are as black as they could be. I always thought cream was what made me love an earl grey. But this one is so smooth, it is almost like there is cream here (though there isn’t.) This is a very different earl grey somehow. It’s unique… I guess all earl greys are different. This one is citrusy and bright but very smooth. It kind of reminds me of Fruity Pebbles cereal (awesome, in my opinion!) The second steep reminded me of the lemon part of a firecracker popsicle (awesome again). The black tea base is an assam. I don’t think earl greys usually have an assam base.. I’m not sure. But the base here is perfect for an earl grey flavor. It doesn’t disappear behind the earl grey but it doesn’t overpower it either. I didn’t see how there was safflower or cacao in this though. But I do agree that it is silky! I really really like this one. This one tells me that earl grey creams aren’t the only earl greys I love! This is a straight earl grey I could easily buy a ton of!

Alphakitty included some of this in Momo’s traveling teabox. thank you! Now this could easily be one of my favorite green teas! I love this blend. The ingredients really work nice together. Coconut, ginger, lemongrass. I don’t find too much of the lemongrass, but the coconut is sweet and smooth. Before I took a sip I could tell the flavor would be mostly coconut. I usually don’t like ginger but this works perfectly here. It gives the flavor a nice kick, otherwise the coconut might be too sweet. This one is a dreamy, creamy green… and like I said, one of my favorite greens.

Another one off the shopping list courtesy of momo!

This one certainly smelled like a buttery caramel dry, which is funny because all the different components (coconut, red peppercorns) making up the leaf wouldn’t seem to yield that result. Steeped it develops that greasy film that flavored teas sometimes do, which I really wish could be avoided. It kind of looks like chicken broth which is hard to stomach when you’re smelling caramel.

The tea itself was not worth drinking plan. It was caramel without the sugar, with an extra bonus of a slick, thicker texture. The addition of milk and sugar turned this into a more accurate representation of salted caramel. In fact, I think it’s probably the most accurate salted caramel tea that I’ve had (which makes what, two total? So that’s not saying much haha).

Still, the David’s tea salted caramel was more toffee than anything, so I have to rate this semi decent for at least matching it’s description. I’m glad I got to try it without buying the full two ounces, too!

I use this tea to make iced green tea. I like it’s taste, I do not need much tea in my pitchet to make a strong tasting green iced tea and I can infuse it two times before it does not taste anything. I like less the fact that this tea taste a little bit like grass smells, but overall, i like this tea.

I used to enjoy an occasional Earl Grey over ice.
Then I didn’t.
I didn’t really like it hot either.
The bergamot seemed acidic, I don’t know what happened, really.
For a long time I didn’t like any earls…maybe they were just crappy ones that I was sampling.
But Tony loves Earl Grey, so I started picking up samples for him to try, to support his addiction. I took a sip of them here & there.
Then I started maybe enjoying them a little.
It started with the Earl of Grey by The Tea Spot, which Tony didn’t like. It tasted like lemon bars (think lemon curd on a pastry crust…delicious).
Then it was Jubilee from London Tea Room, his favorite, which is heavily laced with Orange, as well as bergamot. I didn’t like this one at first, it seemed really harsh to me, but then I started kind of liking it a little.
Some of them I still don’t really like. Maybe the bergamot is artificial or something.
So that brings me to Mount Gray.
I wasn’t sure if I should buy it. There’s 3 oz or so in the tin it comes in, that’s a lot of tea for something I might not like.
I bought it for Tony to sample. If I didn’t like it, he could have the whole tin.
He doesn’t get to have it. This tea is delicious. I will share it with him, of course, but the truth is, I love it.
The tea base is sufficiently bold & worthy, the bergamot is strong but not acidic, and not fake tasting, & there is a lingering aftertaste that I haven’t quite identified yet, but I like it.
Yay!

Not gonna lie. I’m feeling pretty special right now. It was an amazing day. Weather peaked out around 78. Unheard of and record breaking for Portland in March. After so much rain and gray weather it’s so much fun to see all the people suddenly emerge from hibernation and fill the streets and parks with nothing but laughter and smiles.

After an impromptu bbq at a friends and a few of my other favorite beverage, I got home to find my Butiki order had arrived already. The primary purpose (other than trying some more amazing teas) was for me to sample a few teas that may serve as the base for a custom hops tea that stacy is making for me. But the only tea I had my eye on tonight was the Caramel Vanilla Assam tea. Despite the late hour and my rule about no black tea after 5ish, I couldn’t resist.

This is brand new blend that she wrote about on FB and I asked her to include it in my order. And man am I glad I did. Cause seriously, I love when you have insanely high expectations for something, and not only does it meet your expectations, but blows it out.

This is no ordinary caramel flavored tea. In fact, it doesn’t even taste like caramel flavor. It tastes like if you were to plant a tea plant in a butter caramel and then water it with only vanilla and see what grew. Its as though caramel is actually a part of the tea. I couldn’t separate out the tea flavor from the caramel flavor. Like how the chocolate flavor is just part of LB, not added, but just a part of it. That’s how the caramel flavor is in this tea. It’s not an in your face flavor, but not subtle either.

In case you can’t tell yet, I friggin love this tea. Totally straight. No sugar/honey or cream. It reminds me so much of those individually wrapped in wax paper vanilla butter caramels you can get when you’re checking out in fancy grocery stores.

This is hands down my favorite caramel tea. Thanks for letting me try this Stacy! Please don’t ever stop making it!!!!

Update I had this again this morning and added some sugar per Stacy’s suggestion. The caramel flavor is even more pronounced. I think I prefer it straight though. Either way it’s super good.

Scooped a sample of this out of the bulk bin at Whole Foods, which in retrospect, seems a bad idea for this sort of loose tea -where there are various components of differing sizes, so some things float to the top and some to the bottom.

I think that might have colored my opinion of this tea, just a little. But I did do my best to get a balanced blend. In any case, this tastes like a version of Good Earth’s Sweet and Spicy. Heavier on the cinnamon than Good Earth, so it’s also sweeter.

Ultimately, I think the cinnamon is way overdone and that this tea is too expensive to buy, considering that when I’m in the mood for this sort of drink, Good Earth Sweet and Spicy suits me just fine…

I ordered a sample of this because the last Lychee green tea I tried was by Tetley, and it was horrible. I was curious if Tealux could do better.

It has a very floral smell in the bag. I’m assuming that’s the jasmine. I served this to a friend tonight, and she said that she could really taste the lychee in it. I could taste it a bit, but it also tasted a bit bitter to me, even though I was really careful to only steep it for 2 min, and did so at a lower temp than suggested.

It’s better than the Tetley version, I’ll give them that, but it’s just kind of blah overall. I’m glad I got the sample size.

This smells mainly of lemongrass, but once steeped more of a lemon and lemon zest flavour come through. A little zingy (for a unflavored herbal), overall quite a nice cup to wind down with at night.

Too much Easter dinner at the in-laws. This will help my belly :)

Hot I’m not a fan, but this one is lovely cold steeped. Dupeable as hell, though, so I really don’t have much to say about it.

i found the mint in this to be subtle, and it blended really great with the jasmine.
much more refreshing and classy than i ever would have expected.
undoubtedly lovely for spring and summer.

The name on my package is White Coconut Creme, but on Tealux’s website it’s listed as White Coco Dream. This is one of the few teas I bought in a larger size from Tealux, and I’m glad I did.

The dry tea is quite pretty, with blue and red flowers in with the white tea base. It has an almost sweet smell.

Once brewed, it smelled a bit of coconut. It was a pleasure to drink, as it had a light, creamy, coconut taste and was sweet enough that it didn’t need sweetener.

I brewed it at a lower temp than they recommended, as I was afraid of astringency. IT seemed to work fine, and there was no bitterness.

I’m going to have to do a side-by-side taste comparison soon to find my favourite coconut tea. This one will be in the running.

2013/03/30
snog box!
just watched new doctor who.
drank over half of my sample of this today.
it was just so easy to drink!
the vanilla was subtle for me, but that is great cuz vanilla is so easy to over do.

update: so ya, i just ordered an additional mini sample of this with a new try me pack. i don’t think i love this tea, but maybe i love this tea, cuz obviously i can’t stop brewing it. it’s like i have a compulsion to drink it that is beyond my control.

2013/05/13
i win! bwahahahah!!!
i got a surprise bit of this tea from TastyBrew in our mystery swap, and that would be a ho-hum story except that i LOVE this TEA! i even ordered myself a second sample pouch from Della Terra after i finished my first pouch in record time. and now i have more of it! and i will goddamn hoard it all i want to!! cuz ’’’singit’’’ this is fucking awesummmm

I decided to stop hoarding this so I’ve been treating myself to it twice a week or so. It sure welcomes spring. I wanted to cold steep a jug of this but that would be a little too costly for me right now, so I stuck a mug of it in the fridge overnight and it was super tasty. Very crisp and refreshing. This works so well both hot and cold.