New Tasting Notes

It is truly a joyful tea. I love it. If you want you can put milk/sugar in though it’s good enough without it.

It’s a nice light tea that has to be brewed at a lower temperature like all white teas.

It is a good combination. I like it. I think it’s better cold on a hot day without any sugar or milk.

It’s nice. Definitely not their best but worth trying.

I really, REALLY needed some caffeine, and this is the darkest tea I have. I actrually forgot about it for a few minutes, so I’m not sure how long I steeped it, but the results were fantastic. The color of the tea is a very deep red, bordering on black. The aroma was very strong, but it was hard to pin a specific scent to it. The tast of the frist cup was much better than I remember despite how strong it was. It’s a very nice black tea, but there really isn’t anything special about the taste.

I happened across a few of these bottled teas in one of our specialty grocery stores today and had to pick one up. There were two different oolong varieties and this one acutally had rose in it. Double score! This is actually a blend of oolong and black tea with rose hips, rose petals and ginseng. It’s totally unsweetened but still manages to seem a bit sweet… though it’s also really tart, and I wouldn’t have minded a tiny bit of added sweetener. Overally it’s a pretty fruity tasting blend, with a hint of floral rose. The oolong is also definitely present in the flavor; it’s vegetal and pleasant, and there’s a hint of more of a black tea flavor as well. Overall it is pretty refershing and I would probably buy it again, though I do think it’s a little overly tart for me to be really enthusiastic about it.

Oh my god, I’ve died and ascended to Fólkvangr and the goddess Freyja. Life is amazing. Life is beautiful. Life tastes exactly like pumpkins.

Very rich and flavorful with a taste that lingers on your tongue. I’ve yet to steep this just in steamed milk, as is how I often enjoy my chai, but prepared as a black tea with a bit of milk and honey added to it as you do, it’s still divine.

I thought this would be a good tea for the afternoon. It reminds me of vanilla and carmel. But there is a really bitter aftertaste and the flavor is really light. There was quite a bit of dust that escaped when I was putting the tea in my teaball. I wonder if that was the reason that the flavor was really, really light. I’m not going to rate this one until I can try it again. Luckily, I still have one more sample, but it is at home.

Another one for further consideration and meditation before writing it up for www.itsallabouttheleaf.com. Makes a nice companion WWII-era coffee-ration drink for what I’m reading…an early review copy of “Mr. Churchill’s Secretary” by Susan Elia MacNeal. Due out officially next month or April, I believe. Female British expatriate mathematician returns to London and subsequently gets a job as a typist to Winston, which she believes to be be beneath her, but … the plot’s still thickening.

Successfully gave it to my girlfriend, who luckily likes it more than I do!!

This is my new favorite tea! :] Love love love the flavor, I could drink it all day.

I was given this tea by my sister’s boyfriend, who visited Nepal recently. This is lovely, fairly similar to my Sikkim Temi. Very moreish

A good daily tea, enjoyable hot or iced.

I think this one might be a bit too heavy on the “spicy cinnamon”, which is the first ingredient listed on my canister- even before the black tea. When I open this container I am immediately hit with a blast of the stuff- sadly, it didn’t make my allergies go away and reminded me of walking into a crafts store.

I think with some little candy hearts in here this could easily be re-branded as a Valentines Day “red hots” tea. As for me, I’m not particularly into it. The cinnamon is so strong that it overpowers the rest of the ingredients, so I don’t get any of the typical complexity of a good chai. I particularly am sad to be missing the taste of the orange peel.

Because of the heavy cinnamon I’m not quite sure what to do with the rest of this- dilute it by mixing it with another chai and risk ruining that chai? Bring it to my department and leave it by the hot water cooler (am thinking yes)? Making it into a bath tea and soaking in it? Cinnamon is stimulating and warming after all, and helps with muscle aches.

Er, maybe I’ll just bring it to my department. Unless someone out there wants to swap me some pu-ehr or nifty oolong blend for this. I know some of you really like strong cinnamon and the “red hots” tea blends out there.

When I saw this booth at the Sidney Nightmarket, I thought it was just another artisan tea blender taking advantage of tea’s growing popularity. Colour me surprised when I discovered that apparently we grow tea on Vancouver Island!

Being born in the year of the boar, and having a soft spot for all things vanilla, I settled on this tea in their selection to see if it was any good.

The tea brewed is darker than most standard green teas, but the first sip tastes like lovely toasty greens in the Japanese style. It has a smooth finish thanks to the vanilla, which allays some of the bitterness I find Japanese greens can have. All in all, a relaxing cup.

Morning Tea…

Well, i mean, kinda. if your gonna argue that “technically” 12:30 pm isn’t morning, my argument will surely be something along the lines of “Oh, Yeah, Well my morning starts when my 9 month old daughter wakes up… to day she woke up at quarter after Noon so now being half past noon, still qualifies as morning.” Anyway… needed a real kick in the but to get moving this morning and i have also stopped drinking coffee, i don’t own any mate so… Black tea anyone?

I like this golden monkey, a lot more in fact, compared to the teavana golden monkey. It’s nice and earthy with an undertone of sweet, which comes out a little more with a touch of honey. Without sweetener, wonderfully bold and dark, a little roasty and a little spicy. Over all, This tea has won a place on my top ten list…

I will probably be on at about 7 to latepost on “lunch” and “dinner”. Till then i bid thee, adue

It’s a snow morning! This winter has been especially warm for whatever reason. This is my first cuppa of the day and I’m glad it’s black! For my Steepster friends: I started a new blog! It’s been pretty fun. :p (http://postscriptforfinales.tumblr.com) if anyone wants to read the ramblings of a crazy girl! :p
This tea is one of the best smelling teas in my collection. I think that one of the secrets to getting this cup right is the steep time. I enjoy this tea more at a shorter steep time.
The flavor of the tea has some very obvious cinnamon notes; but the reason they stand out is because it is warm without being spicy. As much as I love my chai-style teas strong this tea stands out by being more subdued.
The sad thing about this tea is it seems to no longer being stocked. It was replaced by the Amandine rose tea. I haven’t read any reviews on this new tea and I’ve been wondering how it compares to this one. I’ll have to ration mine!

ooh, this one is really nice. It has nice large fluffy leaves and smells very flowery in the bag.

According to my little pouch this tea was picked on Nov 11, 2011. I steeped it at 5 minutes at around 195 F.

Yum! I happen to really like this flavor profile. It has a sweet malty aroma and also seems like it has a lightly toasted or baked quality. Biscuits anyone? I am also picking up the sandalwood aroma and the tea after drinking just gently coats your palette with no real astringency that I can detect. Slightly buttery but this is not one of the main flavors I’m picking up. At times this reminds me of an oolong and at others times it reminds me of a darjeeling but it’s really pretty unique which seems to part of the Himalayan terroir…

Slightly brisk and lingering according to the RTR website. Yes this does seem like an apt description. I do like tea companies that can really sum up the essence of the tea in a brief paragragh.

Very well done, all around. Also very pricey so would have to decide if I really need this in my stash or no…