New Tasting Notes

Sipdown, 123. A sad sipdown! I’ve been hoarding this because it is my favorite Panyang (Tan Yang) after the one I brought back from Beijing. I had a sample of it but I couldn’t affort a tin without a serious discount.

This is a definite yum, although I think I had a bit too little leaf… it’s also a tad weak. Ah well, that’s what happens when you hoard the last bits, I guess. Anyway, I love the sweetness and apricot notes with this along with the honeyed grains. Mmmm. Well maybe someday I will be able to get more of this (or find a tea that will surpass it).

backlog: Amazing how sweet it smells every time.

hello morning

backlog: Steeped it for less time, had less of the sweet licorice flavour. Threw in some lemon verbena from my herb garden ;)

This morning, I’m picking up some nice fruity tones along with the malt. If I were consistent enough to be consistent with numeric ratings, I’d bump it up a few numbers closer to the green smile.

The flavor of this reminds me of sweeter, smoother green beans. It’s delicious! It’s creamier the more you sip it. It’s savory. It’s semi brothy. It’s sweet and mouth-watering. YUMMY!

Recently I received a sample of this Single Estate Black Tea from Whittard of Chelsea. As many of you know I start each day with at least 1 Black Tea and then move on to other tea bases throughout the day.

See full review here:
http://sororiteasisters.com/2013/05/24/darjeeling-happy-valley-2nd-flush-from-whittard-of-chelsea/

Thank you Lala for this sample. I’m towards the end of your samples now, only one or two Rooibos blends to try when I’m in the mood. :)

This has been steeping in my fridge for almost 2 days which is my mistake for putting it towards the back of the fridge to allocate space for food shopping. Whoops. But non the less it was just fruit so hopefully it wont be tart or sour…I hope.

Colour is light amber and the smell is gentle for such a long steep but smells generically fruity.

Flavour is very nice, strong but refreshing and still rather subtle really. Like a flavoured water strength which is strong but not as strong as it could be. I can taste more apple than peach. Still I think the extra long steep has done this tea wonders, it’s taken the juiciness out of the fruit and put it into the water. Yay for over steeping :)

Plus this is so refreshing that it goes very well with my salad for lunch.

I haven’t had much from Yumchaa but I have been wanting to sip on more and after this one I want to sip even more! This is a nicely flavored green with rhubarb and berry notes without being tarty. It has a great sweetness but also an even-smooth to round it out! The product descriptions says to Drink When: Wearing Thick Socks – well, I’m in luck! That’s just about every day! LOL

If anyone has some Yumchaa assorted teas laying around and would be interested in swapping – let me know via PM :)

Thanks!

Go-to Sencha? Perhaps! Backlogging…see other notes!

Backlogging…see other notes…

Not a bad pu’erh.

Thank you Lala for this sample. I felt majorly dehydrated this morning and thought I would have a large glass of iced tea. I brewed this one over night with high hopes.

I’ve been drinking it all morning and cannot get enough of the delicious ice cold peach flavour. It’s not very strong but is so fresh and clean thanks to the cold steep that the hint it leaves behind is amazing. It also offers a little sweetness and a wonderful fruity after taste. One of the nicest ice teas I have had the pleasure of steeping. :)

Shame I only had one large bag of this but certainly something I would buy if I ever got the chance to.

Another amazing iced tea. I’m really on a roll with these, I think! I’m definitely glad I decided to give them a chance, anyway, because they’re going to make my summer.

Thanks to Sil, I tried a sample of the original Rainbow Sherbet black tea a little while back. Needless to say, I loved it. Sherbet is a favourite of mine, and it actually tasted just like sherbet. So does this.

It’s maybe not quite as sherbet-y as I was hoping, but the flavour is still definitely there. As with some of the other SBTs, the beautifully smooth black tea base comes through first, with sherbet emerging more towards the end of the sip. I can pick out the orange, lime and raspberry individually, and then they seem to merge together into a generically sherbet-y taste. There’s something here that makes this taste specifically sherbet-like, and I can’t quite pinpoint what it is. It has a sort of creamy, almost fizzy taste, without actually being either. However it’s done, it’s truly amazing.

I was a bit of a doubter at first, because I didn’t see how tea could taste of ice cream or sherbet, jello or bubblegum. Somehow, though, they do. This one is no exception, and it’s another all-round great taste experience. I will definitely, definitely be buying more or these. They’re just too good to miss!

follow up: 3rd steep was still really good. the 4th steep, a full steep, is still as flowery as the first (the earlier steeps were shorter tho, eastern style) <3

5th is still ok, less tea but still good flower flavor :)

It’s almost two in the morning, there’s a pot of strawberry vanilla bean jam bubbling merrily on the stove (I keep sneaking tastes even though I know it’s not done yet), and this tea is the perfect companion. I got up early today to go to a yoga class (yin yoga, which is new to me but oh so satisfying) and followed it up with a couple hours of rock climbing. It’s been a long day, and there’s another one tomorrow (way too much bureaucratic nonsense to deal with), but right now there’s a cup of tea that reminds me of dusty strawberry fields under the hot sun, and the crickets chirping incessantly, and the scent of jam filling the kitchen, so it’s all okay.

delightful! i made a weak first steep and that was the first adjective that came to mind. subtle and smooth, too..on a 2nd longer steep. i love this! thank you for sharing some with me, Ellyn! hugs all the way from the Philippines! :D

i have a new conclusion regarding this tea… no milk (normally my MO) and no sugar either! simple syrup… about 1.5 tbsp. perfecto!

Thanks so much Momo for that sale you had! I was able to buy a few teas I wanted to try and a few I already knew were favorites that I was running out of. This one sounded nice! I like the sprinkles. I wonder if one day I’ll just be drinking no-frills teas but these are just too fun anyway. I love the idea that there is “fruit” in here but they don’t say what kind. I see orange cubes. A taste test after infused makes me think it’s apricot unless there is more than one type of fruit here. I love the marzipan flavor and the real almonds here. The rooibos is nice too. This might be my favorite from Georgia. Yeah, it’s not winter but I’m loving this tea anyway.

This is another one I bought from Rachel. thank you! I’m trying to taste test all the new-to-me teas since I have two teaboxes on the way shortly and I will have a better idea of the state of my tea collection. I just love my tea collection. I love the variety (and a big thanks is owed to MANY Steepsters who have allowed me to collect such a variety). It is WAY too much variety right now but I’d say at least 93% of each type of tea is under half an ounce. Or so I like to tell myself. But a tea collection is so much fun!

Honestly, I’ve hardly met an Adagio blend I didn’t LOVE. It is getting ridiculous. Everything from their plain black teas to their fruit blends are so good. There blends with hibiscus are some of the best hibiscus blends (or should I say most tolerable). A quick glance at my tea listy thing tells me I’ve tried about 20 Adagio teas and most of them get at least an 80 with a few exceptions (like White Cucumber. ick.) And of course the fandom blends are ridiculously amazing. I know I’ve mentioned before that I thought the fandom blends were just a gimmick to distract from their terrible teas but I was WRONG. If Adagio didn’t have fandom blends, they would still be amazing.

So of course this one is so very good. It has a chocolately Yunnan profile to me. Very deep while not getting astringent after a few minutes. Very burnt dark chocolate like. It seems like a tea I can not live without. This is the stuff that makes me tea addicted. I don’t really get the smoky aspect the description is mentioning. Not really dry grass field or peppery, so I’m not sure why I call it Yunnan-like BUT if no two yunnans are the same, it means I can have a ton in my collection, right?

Tasting note 200! Woohoo!

I had another one of these awaiting me in my Timolino after I finished my barre class this morning. I actually think I’ve been fighting off a cold (this is a major major thing for me, I used to see a cold then be flat in bed for a week with the cold, then also acquire the flu or a chest infection… not fun. Yay for all those veggies I’ve been eating!), so I would’ve loved a spot of honey in this, but alas, I’m playing by the Whole30 rules.

Still a lovely cuppa.