New Tasting Notes

I’m having this one right now…courtesy of LiberTEAS…thanks girl!

I really WANT to like this one…I do…and I was optimistic because of the amount of Almonds…but…all I’m tasting is ginger, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg…blah…and A LOT OF IT…

I might cave and try and add milk or something to it…YES…me…the one that NEVER adds ANYTHING to her tea – even Chai! I might try it.

For now…I am going to put a lower rating on it but that may change.

The spices are too over powering for my palate – but if that is what you are into you would LOVE it. It’s just too much spice and not enough tea or almond or other flavors blending in to mesh for me…it’s almost bitter.

However, I am still sipping on it so at least it’s not one I will dump down the drain…

Perhaps it’s like some BEER…your first sip of a specific beer may be too dark or harsh for your liking but after a whole bottle (or 5 bottles – LOL) they start to taste better (or not phase you! LOL)

Slight green, mostly straw colored with a nutty aroma and taste. Very nice.

Still a favorite. I’m having this hot with breakfast.

Rachel sent this to me a while back and I thought I tried it but it was a different Chai I tried from her Signature Blends over at Adagio! So…here goes!

WOW! This one is a pleasant surprise! It’s VERY SMOOTH…I can taste the cream but it’s also sweet. It does have a bit of spice but it’s good with the Rooibos partnership!

First of all, a huge thank you to LiberTeas for giving me some of her stash of this currently-unavailable tea.

The tea is fascinating to look at – dark green, shiny, needle-like leaves of sencha and tiny little dried sakura blossoms still bright pink in colour. The tea has that fresh, grassy sencha smell, but I can also smell a delicate floral, slightly cherry-ish, scent.

The cherry blossom flavour could stand to be a bit more prominent, although I like that the tea isn’t tasting like fake cherry cough-syrup. It’s just a very natural, delicate, floral/fruity hint at the start of each sip. It’s actually easier to taste it in the second steep when it isn’t competing with the slightly unami flavour of the sencha.

This tea is really growing on me. The tea is brisk, robust, and malty. I get honey notes and a raisiny sugar smell from this tea. This blend of assam teas is actually smooth and mellow, not something I can say about other assam teas I have drank. No bitterness or astringency, just smoooooth.

Green tea very sweet and pleasant. Drink throughout the day.

I found this tea at T.J. Maxx (1/2 price) to take on vacation next month. It has a unique steeping system built in to the tea bag. The bag is very large and has wings that pull out on the sides of the bag that fit over the sides of the rim on your cup. It actually works very well. The tea is typical assam. Its robust, brisk and malty and a good wake up tea. However, it just doesn’t match Mountain Malt. It doesn’t have that bready notes that I find in very good assams. The tin suggested a steep of 4-5 minutes, I used the latter. It did have some astringency so next time I use 4 minutes. Its still a very nice tea just not up to the fanatical standards I use for judging assam teas.

It has been A-While since I’ve had Jackee. I woke up this morning and didn’t want the Tiger or Caravan. I went through my teas in my head and decided on Jackee. I refreshed myself with my tea notes on Steepster to get the delicious caramel.

I sip. Whaaa?! There’s a little caramel but more briskness than I remember. I keep sipping as it cools. Midway down the cup, the caramel comes out. There is relief. I will have to remember to let this one cool a bit before drinking. The second steep was light but caramelly good.

2nd steep: 5 min 30 sec.

It could be my imagination, but this doesn’t taste as sweet as the other caramel rooibos blends that I’ve tried – which is a good thing! Comfortingly caramely, this makes for a delicious dessert drink if you add a splash of milk.
Take note rooibos haters, that woodchip/piney/some-part-of-a-tree taste mostly takes a back seat for this one, so drink up!

This was a great pick for a relaxing late night cuppa. The mints blend nicely with the tea and don’t whack you over the head with their minty selves. Glad I can still taste the green tea through them. I should have saved the leaves for an iced cup after the morning workout, but too tired to think clearly. Very fresh cup o tea. Maybe I’ll dream of winter…sounds good in the sweltering heat wave we’re currently under!

Another TTB from Teachat tea. Glad for the opportunity to taste so many signature blends!

Another very fine brewing of this tea. This time it was a gaiwan for gongfu cha, and it responded beautifully. I started with water at 170 degrees, and the first infusion sat a while because I was interrupted; by the time I was free to drink it, it was not very hot or very good. After that, I brief infusions from 10 seconds increasing gradually to one minute, water from 160-170 degrees, and the flavor has a lovely warmth that is almost oolong-ish, but still a bit of astringency and with that first messed up infusion, some distinct bitterness marking it as something closer to a green tea than an oolong. Still haven’t had the best I think it can give, but if my next infusion can take place without interruption or audience, I should get it right. I would start a little cooler, with 160, then moving warmer as I continue to infuse.

I love mint. I love mint leaves. When I was little, I used to chew on spearmint leaves at my grandma’s house. Ever since then, I’ve loved mint candies, mint teas, mint foods, mint everythings. Unfortunately for this tea, my real love in life is spearmint, not peppermint. I do like peppermint, though. And since I couldn’t find any reasonably priced spearmint teas and my mom was putting together her chai order from Teavana, I plopped this on it for free shipping.

What I love about this tea is that it tastes like a really light vegetal flavor when you first get it. Once you’ve swallowed, though, your whole mouth tastes like mint. It’s a lot of fun. I love drinking it hot because of the cooling effect, but it is also very refreshing cooled. Over all, I’m glad I bought this. I’ll probably restock when I run out unless I find an equally as good spearmint.

Comparative to a straight up lemon myrtle tea, this was a bit muted, but still very bright and lemony, both in fragrance and in flavor. Good iced!

I personally didnt think that this tea doesnt taste that bad. I have one more tea bag of this tea so i’ll see how that one somes out.

Not great, not horrible.

Not a bad tea; not my favorite. Apple overtones, which is not my favorite base flavor, but I do like the black tea/green tea blend of teas.

Very pleasant lemony tea, slightly muted lemon fragrance and taste; not as strongly scented or flavored as a lemon myrtle, but still very bright with a strong lemon fragrance. Would like to try it iced.

Lightly fragrant black tea, lovely light rose scent and flavor. Although I normally add milk and sugar to my black teas, doing so to this tea overwhelmed whatever rose fragrance and flavor there was. Good tea, although I’ll keep looking for other rose-scented teas that may hold up better to milk and sugar.

Great taste, don’t have to steep it too terribly hot so its good any time of the day. Don’t oversteep it or it will taste bitter and woody.

Rawr! This is my kind of tea! I kind of wish I would have ordered this tea in a large tin instead of the osmanthus silver needle one, oh well! Anyways this tea is a strong/bold white tea with a natural juicy peach taste… and of course jasmine! I often mix a peach tea with my jasmine pearls, but this tea tops any blend I have had before. This tea has depth and isn’t overly powerful on any of the flavors. They all compliment each other perfectly… and this tea resteeps well! Ahhhhhhh this is nice, too bad I don’t have anymore :-(

This is the first I’ve tasted from the Flavors sampler, and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised.

I think this is the first apricot tea I’ve had. I’ve tasted teas that have apricot notes, but not from added flavoring. And apricot is a flavor I like quite a bit.

Not sure what the orange petals are, maybe they’re from apricot flowers? The tea smells strongly and richly fruity, rather like the fruitiness of apricot jam. It made me think of the filling of apricot hamentashen, though that usually doesn’t have an aroma this rich.

The liquor has a pretty Ceylon reddish color, though it’s not the most striking of the Ceylon colors I’ve seen. This tea was probably a good choice as an apricot base, as it contributes some fruity aromatic notes of its own, separate and apart from the apricot.

It has a thick-ish mouthfeel that along with the flavor, does make it seem a reasonable facsimile of an apricot pastry, tea-style.

It isn’t overly complex, but it’s more interesting than some flavored blacks I have tasted that are stuck in a single or at most a dual dimension. This one has more to it than that.

Will be interesting to see how it compares to other apricot blacks, like the ones from Harney & Sons and American Tea Room.