New Tasting Notes

After my Gurmans disappointment I put everything I could into better storage. I have about a half dozen samples left with a cup or two’s leaf in them that I will work on drinking up soon. This and the Gurmans both came from Ashamanra (thanks again). I am not going to let this one reach wimp status. As soon as water hit this one, I knew it was good to go. Need a little Deep Purple to go with this one. Air guitars everyone – Smoke on the water… followed by Highway Star.

One spice in this tea is really strong – I think it’s the licorice, but I’m not sure. If you brew too long it’s almost nauseating, so keep an eye on this one. It’s a decent minty green, but theres not much chai spiciness.

I grabbed this one for this afternoon to share with a coworker. I knew he would get it. Sadly, you cannot keep this in a plastic bag and expect it to still have a lot of heat after several months :(

It was still good, just not face melting. Lesson learned knucklehead. Put your stuff in better storage containers. Doh.

My first oolong, it has a really distinctive nutty taste that is quite pleasant. However, more than a few sips and I start to grow bored of the flavor. I think this would be a fine base for blending.

I’m glad to be at work today. Well, I am kind of just glad to be. Ok, it’s not that serious. It stormed all night. Usually that knocks me out, but last night I couldn’t sleep. It was very dark and pouring this morning, when I left home. The lightning was awesome. I live on a one lane road about a half mile off the highway. This morning it was like driving through the jungle. Leaves, limbs, puddles. Puddles? Puddles! I haven’t seen one of those in ages. Now they are everywhere. I get to the highway, thinking I got it made, except the road is so black and wet. There is steam hovering just above the pavement. Am I in my lane? Am I going to drive into the ditch? I don’t know. I can’t see… Here comes a car. Now I really can’t see. I hope they can. Then the lightning strobes and it lights the world up like daylight for a moment. Followed by the dark. My eyes aren’t adjusting fast enough. What a ride. Made it safely. I need tea.

I started this one yesterday. I wanted to continue steeping it today before recording it on Steepster. Yesterday I had three mugs from 1 ½ wooden spoons of leaf. It looks like white tea and tastes pretty much like white peony but a little bolder. Each cup has gotten a bit more complex and sweeter. The third is the first to develop any mild puerh characteristics.

Today starting at mug number 4. This has wonderful creamy feel. The taste has a mild nuttiness. It is no longer white tea but has morphed into warm earthy tones. There is no hint of bitterness or astringency. This is just mellow goodness. Mug 5 (all 12oz) continues with a some of the white tea traits returning. Pretty sure this would go another round but I am stopping here.

If you like white tea and are terrified of puerh, then this is your tea. I know you hear that all the time. I am serious. There is nothing scary or unfamiliar about White Moon, and it just happens to be really good.

Thank you Helen at In Nature Tea for this wonderful sample.
Longer review, without the car ride, should be on my blog tomorrow.

Another tea I haven’t had in ages! That I logged in February, therefore must have bought this package then…. getting old!

The aroma is kind of fruity and rich; I could be convinced that it’s fig. Although I used to eat fig cookies all the time, and have eaten figs, I’m not actually super sure as to what sort of aroma they have!

Oooh, this is oversteeped :( A little astringent for my liking. It’s also a little… weirder than I remember. The flavour’s a bit floral, almost, although more fruity. That’s probably the fig, though. I can kind of taste the oolong background, but the astringency is really ruining it for me here. Astringency gives me an unhappy tummy. I’ll finish the cup, but… bleh. Probably not a loss that DT discontinued this one.

Grr, my data is being all stupid. What’s the point of a program that does automatic calculations of area under the curve when it doesn’t work properly and you have to do it manually anyways!? GAH!

In other news, this tea is delicious. I feel like I should stop drinking it so that I can keep it around longer so I don’t have to buy more, since I need to not be buying tea…. which kind of makes sense, but really is more backward than anything! :P Ah well. It’s one of the best replacements I’ve found so far for the sugar and fat-laden coffee beverages I used to buy from Second Cup a little too often…. and it comes without the upset tummy! Joy!

Free sample, hurray!
The aroma on this is beautiful. If I could wear this as a perfume or as a bath and body product, I would. It’s appley and rosey all at once; very pretty.
As for the taste, it’s okay. I taste no tea in this, which is fine because I don’t usually love green tea anyways. What I do taste is a sweet, slightly floral apple. They did the rose nicely here, it doesn’t taste like a bath bomb. It’s more like apple slices that were soaked in sugared rose water. I would never guess there was pistachio in here, I can’t detect it at all even though there was a nut in my sample.
I’m drinking it hot because, well, I felt like hot tea. I can see this being absolutely wonderful iced too though.
It’s a very easy to drink tea. There’s not a ton of flavour, but what there is is pleasant. The scent is very uplifting as well.
I don’t know if I would buy a whole 50g bag of this, but if I could buy a smaller quantity to keep on hand I would.

I’ve been sick for days, but today it is starting to clear up.

Been kinda worried because it was a sinus cold and my sense of taste became bitter for everything! ARGG! So I stopped drinking tea and began crazy creations (straight grated ginger and chili pepper). Today, my sense of taste is returning, but my sense of adventure is still there.

I drank all of my uji genmaicha earlier, so I was thinking of making my own.. if that works.
So… a basic Genmaicha + light dusting of Red Leaf Teas “Raspberry matcha, white matcha” = nutty rice, with a tart bit of raspberry, with a slight astringency from the white matcha. Fun! I think this would of turned out better with a green matcha, but I wanted raspberry.
I suggest others to give this a shot with a flavored matcha!

My next plot: 52 teas Cherry Cheesecake genmaicha + Red Leaf’s “Cheesecake Matcha”

This tea does start off very tart and sour with notable cranberry flavour. I am not a fan of cranberry at the best of times in honesty and I find this mixture really isn’t for me.

It’s not smooth and there is just one level of fruitiness which keeps it tart all the way through, a touch of sweetness would have helped slightly. Great if you love the idea of warm cranberry juice with added sourness from the raspberries.

Adagio’s version of English Breakfast does its best to distinguish itself from this workhorse of black tea blends. Touches of smoke and pepper come through with the steady malt flavour. A good choice for a casual drinker who wants branch out into more adventurous tea tasting but isn’t quite ready to leave the comfort of the familiar breakfast-style teas.

Today the weather is cloudy, rainy in Paris. Rain is the Automn’s side I don’t like. I was looking for some solace…

I found Pomme d’amour…Toffee apple in English ? The kind of sweet things we can buy in carnival. Let’s go for joy !
On the other hand, each time I see a Pomme d’amour…I think about Snow-White and the very red apple…as attractive as poisoned…

So verdict : Pomme d’amour is a joyful poison (addictive poison !)

To me this tea is closer to oven-baked caramelized apples than Toffee apples – it is really fruity and sweet but natural.

The dry leaf is amazing : very very dry and shinning.
Dammann is generous, a lot of petals and big pieces of apples are mixed with it. The smell is just fantastic.

The color of the infusion is really beautiful and the mix of the 2 black teas (Ceylan + china) is a perfect base to reveal all the flavours , so sweet but always natural.

I love it ! Sure it is a great antidote to the gloom of the Rain.

Oh, man this smells amazing in the bag, pineapple and flowery, a touch of Hawaii for sure. I could hardly wait to try it.

I steeped this for around 3 minutes at 180F and got a very light yellowish/green tea liquor. This smells very pineapple-y and tastes lovely, really like pineapple juice especially in the finish. I’m not picking up much on anything buttery but I am getting the orchid notes for sure. I will have to play with my steeping parameters a bit on this one. This will be a great one to experiment with as well, I bet it’s really good with soymilk added or maybe some rum extract. Virgin pina colada tea… yummy! I don’t sweeten too many things but I thought this was better with a touch of sugar. =)

I got a second steep out of this one and it is still flavorful.

This tea smooths out the stronger edginess of straight peppermint tea with the lighter coolness of spearmint. I like to steep this for longer than recommended because the aroma just gets better! A great everyday addition at the end of a good meal as mint is good for your stomach and digestion. Plus it fights the whole bad breath thing. Always a plus in my book!

As you may know, I am on the quest for the perfect grapefruit tea. There are a lot that I love, but many of them have other flavors added that while they do go well with grapefruit (like Zen’s Orange Grapefruit) prevents them from being the one. You know, the one tea I’ll give my heart to and we’ll run away and live happily ever after in a castle by the sea in France. Uhh I really like grapefruit. And I also love Butiki, so I have been eagerly awaiting this tea for months, as soon as Stacy announced she was working on it! Of course tragedy struck and I shipped my order to the wrong place so I was supposed to get it LAST Tuesday but had to wait until yesterday when I could take a trip up to my parent’s house. Stupid paypal, why do you default to my billing address! Depriving me of tea!

In any case, I was ridiculously excited to open this one up and made everyone around me smell it including… one of my cats. My little girl (well, she’s my mom’s cat, but we handraised a group of kittens from 10 days old so I consider the three of them “mine” haha) LOVES tea leaves and was very fond of this blend. She’s always trying to eat them but I think the citrus prevented her this time, though she did take a big whiff. The smell is delicious, like fresh grapefruit. It’s not as strong as I assumed it would be, very subtle and nice.

I cold brewed this one because, come on, I can’t drink grapefruit warm! It’s like… a travesty against all that is natural. Grapefruit must be ice-cold with just a teeny teeny splash of sugar. I can’t drink sweetened grapefruit juice to be honest, it has to be the regular stuff (which no one else in my family will drink haha), BUT I did put a pinch of sugar in as this was brewing, just to bring out all the flavors.

Oooh man, this is grapefruity heaven. Sweet, tart, citrusy. And nothing else is competing with it, so it’s all grapefruit all the way! Well, of course there’s a lovely dragonwell base which adds some interesting nuttiness and grassy freshness. It’s perfect, sweet grapefruit. Ruby grapefruit! The tartness is right on point, not overpowering but also still there. In my book, grapefruit teas need a little bite. They’re just not right without it! And this is perfection. Oh grapefruit tea, I’ve found you! Never leave me! Thanks so much to Stacy for coming up with this amazing concoction. If you like grapefruit you NEED to try it. But no I won’t put samples of this in a swap, it’s mine, all mine, bwahaha! One of those treasures you guard carefully and savor every last leaf.

I just took this out of my online cupboard because we just finished off the tin at tea party time! Today, this was paired with one of the most quintessential tea treats – cucumber sandwiches, with crusts off. Of course, we still had our cookie plate as well. We have to have the cookie plate.

This was a nice, solid black tea that isn’t astringent but is very smooth and has enough presence to pair well with food. I shall miss it! I need the check their website and see if they still sell this one.

2 teabags, 1 Venti sized Starbucks Mug. I’m falling asleep, been running on little sleep and I need to wake up, fast. Today’s brew is beyond “kick you in the teeth” – this is “kick you in the teeth, dragged down the cobblestone road by a team of horses, and then dump you in a trough” type of goodness. Hot damn, I love this tea.

As if crafted by the Michelin Man himself, you can taste the soul of a marshmallow in this blend.

Slightly cloudy due to the melted mini marshmallows.

A treat on any day of the year, but holds a particularly warming quality ideal for the fall season.

I enjoy this tea every now and again. You can really taste the chocolate in it and it all comes together to taste similar to a mocha capuchino.

Went to my favorite local tea room today and had a delicious chicken salad sandwich paired with this tea.

This is a small tearoom, they don’t specialize in selling tea but they have GREAT tea! I have been there 3 times now and have never had a bad tea. I’ll hopefully get around to adding my reviews of the others soon as you all need to try them!

Let me start by saying that I do not like lemon in my tea, in my water, not at all! This tea smelled so good though I just had to try it. I love ginger in tea and figured oolong would give it a twist. I don’t know how they do it but they create the right blend of lemon, ginger and oolong so that you taste all the flavors without one flavor overpowering the others. It tasted great with and without sugar….I can only imagine how wonderful it would be iced!

If you’d like to purchase – all their teas are $6.95 for 2 oz. They accept phone orders at 763-422-4160. They did tell me they are working on getting their teas on the website but they’re a small family run place so they’re dependant on the website developer.