New Tasting Notes

Tea #45 from Another Traveling Tea Box

Floral with lingering notes of apricot, with a clean finish. There is a little more astringency than I was expecting, and definitely leaves a dry mouth feeling.

If I were going to make this again, I might even lower my temperature further to the 180-185 range.

I made this a while back and forgot to log it, oops. It was an awesome sample Stacy generously packed into my last order (I love samples!).

It was quite tasty both hot and then cold steeped. Very smooth, a little sweet so the green flavor doesn’t become harsh or too grassy, very…clean and bright and spring-y (the name is apt). I really love smooth greens that remind me of being in my grandfather’s vegetable garden eating sweet peas and green beans on bright summer days, and this does. It was really good cold leftover too, refreshing and sweet and silky, a lot like the Laoshan Bilochun Green I love so much.

I may be the first to try out this tea; my DAVID’s Tea order came today, and with it three samples from the Winter Collection. So excited!

Then, I saw the sample size, and thought… what do I do with this? It’s so small. Can I even get a cup out of it? I decided to see what came out of the package (literally, 5 chunks of what looked like grey fuzzy coal), and then steep it twice the recommended amount to get at least a hint of the flavors.

Smells like water, looks like a light amber. Steeped twice for 7 minutes each, just trying my best to milk out everything I could, flavor-wise.

The flavor is so vague and faint, it’s hard to tell what this is. Some spice, maybe? A hint of apple. I added some Truvia to see if the flavors come out to play a bit more. I get apple now, most definitely, and plum oddly. Fig is a bit of a stretch (even though I’m pretty sure those chunks I saw were figs).

Dammit. I need more than 5g to tell if this is something I want to purchase. Right now? It’s just faintly flavored water. Note for next time: less water, smaller cup, extra long steeping for these mini-samples.

Well if I’m triyng Fruit D’Alsace, why not Boston too? I’ve got tin-loads of that one. :)

Having it back to back, I can see that these two teas are VERY similar. Fruity blacks, with the same base. I always forget about the almond in this that mellows it out. This feels more like a fall tea to me

(I don’t know what it is, but these H&S teas seem a bit flatter than I remember. :( Maybe I need to add more leaf?)

I’m on my last oz of this so I thought I’d keep working away at it. I enjoy it, although it’s not for every day. It just has that fruity stone flavour that I like.

Was this the one people would compare to Paris? Because I think Paris is more EG-like and creamier, while this is just sweet and … french?

The more Oolong I drink the more I realize I love the heck out of it. The first time I made this I made a whole pot and boy was I glad. Easy to drink and smooth on the palate, I could drink this pretty much daily.

6g/90ml celadon gaiwan.
wash/wash/15/15/20/20/30/30 @ 100C

Ah, this is good. Last sheng was a dissapointment so this one cheered me up! Powerful astringance, slightly bitter. But well balanced so its not unpleasnt. Did longer infusions this time around and it payed of! Since it late i stopped at 6. The taste lingers long in the mouth, a bit of a tail on this one. Good stuff!

Its finally cold enough for me to wear tights! And a non summer hat! And a cape! So I have done all of those things, and stopped by the local Peets on my lunch break to get a cuppa.
This is what I came away with. You know how in coffee shops, when you ask for tea, you can sometimes see the wheels just grind to a halt, while the poor barista frantically thinks “tea? tea?! Do we serve that?!?!”. Well, I had such a barista today, who undoubtedly could have walked me fearlessly through the land of coffee beverages, but was less secure with tea. So to make it simple, I got this Earl Grey.
I’m not impressed. Its weak, and unmemorable, and even the often too bitter for me bergamot is noticeably lackluster. Oh well, was worth a shot.

So when Robyn was over yesterday, she was kind enough to bring me a sample of this tea – about a tablespoon. I’ve been curious about it for a while since I’m really interested in expanding my herbal teas to include some blends with more unique and interesting fruit flavours. I think a strongly flavoured guava tea would qualify and since I was able to get a sample from her I figured it was smart to take advantage of that.

Dry, the leaf is overwhelmingly guava but there are a lot of other fruits that come through in the smell too: mango is a notable one but also subtle whiffs of pear and something melony. I can smell the hibiscus too – but since the guava is SO strong I’m not worried about the hibiscus dominating the flavour.

I brewed a tsp and a half for about seven minutes, and the liquor is a medium to deep melon pink. The smell coming from my cup is guava first and foremost, but the mango is also pretty powerful too (which makes sense since it’s the other ‘featured ingredient’) along with some appley notes and a sort of light pear type scent. It smells really good – and also really different from anything I have stocked which is good!

First few sips, and the initial flavour is a cool, juicy guava and mango mix with a tart and tangy finish that reminds me of hibiscus and sour apple candy. This transitions into a light all guava aftertaste. It’s really interesting and is playing with my tastebuds a lot. There’s quite a few fun flavours floating around in this blend.

I’m drinking this with a melted down cheese and macintosh apple quesadilla: and the flavours are pairing together in a very fun and interesting way. It feels like a lazy, summer break type of meal and is taking me back to some really fond memories. And, the closer I get to the bottom of the cup the more tangy and sour flavours I’m getting: sour apple, tangy mango, a bit of hibiscus, and the ever present guava! Yum! I like that the level of sour here seems to be intensifying.

I asked my mom to maybe pick me up 50g of this for me for Christmas (tea seems to be everyone’s default gift for me this year, and I’m definitely going to take advantage of that), but if she doesn’t I’m pretty sure I’ll be picking some up for myself anyway. If I can hold out that long.

This has been my go-to tea since I started university two and a half years ago – now my whole family drink it! I’ve only been in Canada a couple of months and was sure I wouldn’t be able to find it, so my parents posted me a package full. This is fantastic when dragging yourself out of bed in the morning – the scent as it brews is therapeutic. I love a full-bodied tea and this is one of the strongest and most delicious I’ve tasted. Perfect with breakfast, and then in the afternoon – especially when you need the energy for studying like I do!

This is a good tea for an afternoon treat. Not something I’d have first thing in the AM, since it’s a little sweet (in a good way though, I promise), but very, very tasty.

I haven’t tried making it as a true chai – mostly because I’m too lazy for the stovetop – but it’s still a treat when simply steeped with hot water from the electric kettle and taken with a splash of milk.

This tea is perfect because I do have 3 wishes 1) To survive 2)To come out of surgery without any terrible permanent conditions and 3) To not have it too stressful for my hubby and family and friends.

Maybe I’ll have 6 cups just to cover all my bases!

Mmmm

I thought I would have a cup of this from the sample JustJames so generously provided a few months ago. I have to say that while I was doing the dishes and waiting for it to cool I was REALLY enjoying the smell of it.

Mmmmmm. Chocolate and raspberry.

It’s a good thing I liked the smell because before I had my first sip I knocked my cup over the stove and spilled most of it down the burners. :O Whoops.

I did enjoy the remaining 3 sips left in the cup, and I have enough for a few more cups. Another day then.

(I wanted this because I ran out of the cocoberry mate and I actually did really enjoy that one! I’m hoping I’ll go to DAVIDsTEA friday to scoop the winter collection, and that they’ll have the fall teas bundled up in $2/5 packs. Maybe I’ll get lucky)

Thanks, Nicole_Martin, for sample of this tea!
Once you try a Kenyan black tea, you dont go back to greens.
http://www.justea.com .
Malty, fresh, juicy
Woke me up in the afternoon
“dark rye or pumpernickel” color
Good breakfast tea
Nice buzz
I would rate as a “Buy” for your tea portfolio

No Sugar, Milk, Honey, needed – WIN

12/19/13 – This tea is tasting great after a big lunch.

Note for posterity: do NOT cold brew this one. The liquorice root, which provides a light sweetness when brewed hot, became sweet in a gross way when cold brewed. Sickeningly sweet, really. I could only drink half my bottle, and only because I was drinking it with lunch.

I’m still steeping the leaves I used last night… I think I’m on steep 3 or so. I’m trying to resist going off and purchasing a whole 4 oz of this, especially considering that I just placed a (small) Butiki order late last week that the USPS tracker is telling me has just gone “Out for Delivery”.

I had a cup of this right before I ran out the door for class. For a moment, in my rushed absentmindedness, I was wondering where the heck I got a delicious pastry for breakfast (considering that there aren’t any good bakeries nearby and I often tend to skip breakfast or just have some oatmeal and a yogurt if I have time for eating). It took me a moment, as I was putting my socks on, that it was the sweet, malty, bread-y finish/aftertaste of this tea!

… Now I wish I had a real, proper croissant. I had a really great almond croissant recently at Petrossian’s in NYC. Lightly crispy on the outside, buttery and flaky inside, with a thin but satisfying layer of marzipan that doesn’t overwhelm the natural sweet and savory deliciousness of the croissant.

This tea is a worthy pastry substitute, though. I’m off to make another pot.

Honestly, I am a steepster in training. I have very little experience with experimenting with steep times and temperature and I probably oversteep my oolong. I really enjoyed this tea, but I do find the fruitiness a bit overbearing overtime.

I’d come over hoping to see others having rated this. To me, it tastes basically nothing like Upton’s description and I wanted to compare to other people’s tasting notes.

Ooop, just took a moment to do some googling and it turns out I’m not alone after all! :)

To me, this tea is quite green, a mix of dark and bright grass colors in flavor… tart almost… the lighter green is along the sides and underneath the tongue, the dark is on the top and back of the tongue with that bitter edge dark greens so often have.

It has a long finish, still of that vegetal taste and feeling along the upper back of the throat and down in it a little. An almost dusky tone comes to the green taste.

It’s satisfying, something I can (and am) drinking a couple big pots of over the past couple of days.

A very good throughout-the-day hot tea but this really doesn’t taste like a white to me as the vegetal flavor is so complete and overwhelming. I actually had to go out and double-check the bag to make sure I hadn’t made the wrong tea!

But pretty yummy, yes.

Sipdown, 135. So glad to get another sample of this from Teavivre because even though I’ve tried it before, I really like it! Also it’s always nice to have teas you haven’t tried in a while to reassess your love of a tea.

This one definitely has more of a buttery/creamy smell to it than the Yezi Jin Xuan I just had. It also has quite a distinct taste from other Taiwanese oolongs, namely it isn’t as floral and has more of a creamy character that grows with each sip, and a very light sweetness playing around the edges. Still really enjoy this one, and it’s still my favorite Jin Xuan so far.

This goes under the category of “I wish I liked it more because it sure is expensive.”

Note to self: mate and hibiscus = ewww

I found a 3.5 oz tin of this at TJ Maxx for $2.99. $2.99. SCORE!

Note to self: gunpowder tea is SOOPER caffeinated. I’m jittery and my heart is racing after two cups. And the second cup was resteeped.

That said, this tea is also incredibly tasty. I don’t normally like green teas but this tea is bold, dark, slightly smoky, slightly dry, and 100% delicious. I love this so much.

I have gotten two steeps from the leaves, and it is still going strong. I can probably get at least another 2-3 steeps in but I think I should stop and let my heart achieve a resting heart rate again first.

I think the worst part of tea is waiting for it to cool before you can drink it. I amused myself by watching Daniel Radcliffe’s audition tape for Harry Potter. You can see it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7KbQLJLBAo

I love Harry Potter. Who doesn’t? It’s a wonderful story in a wonderful world. I recently visited the set at Warner Brother’s Studio in Leavesden, England. It was AMAZING! Here’s a picture of my husband and me on the Hogwarts Bridge: http://instagram.com/p/fDqizKF-iA/

I don’t want to give too many things away because discovering all the sets and costumes was really fun. If you’re ever in London, I strongly recommend a visit to Leavesden. It’s very easy to get to by train, and it’s easily one of my favorite parts of our honeymoon trip. I wish I could go back every day!

The Chamber of Secrets is playing on HBO right now, and I recognize so many set pieces and props! I watch the movies from a completely different perspective now. Knowing the secrets behind the filming doesn’t ruin anything for me. It’s quite to the contrary, really. I’ve always loved movie making, so the studio tour experience just adds to the magic of the films for me. But this isn’t a Harry Potter review. It’s a tea review!

ON TO THE TEA!

The aroma of the dry leaf isn’t anything too special. When I saw whole candy corn pieces in the blend, I was afraid that Frank had just taken some black tea and added candy pieces to it. I was worried that the tea was lacking any additional flavoring and wouldn’t taste anything like candy corn. But the reviews here are glowing, so I’ll reserve judgment until I actually taste it. ;)

The brewed tea aroma is somewhat recognizable as candy corn. I enjoyed the first cup sans additions. It is definitely an enjoyable tea! Without being told that it is candy corn flavored, I’m not sure I’d be able to distinguish that for myself. For the second cup, I added a little honey and a splash of skim milk. Unfortunately, I think these leaves had only one good steep in them. This cup mostly tastes like milk. :/

Whoops. Well, live and learn. I did like the first cup a lot. It’s not the most amazing of Frank’s blends in my opinion, but it is a delicious novelty. And just in time for Halloween too! Who’s dressing up this year?