Bethany

My sweet tooth is taking over this morning, and this fits the bill perfectly.

I do like this. It’s not bitter at all; very mellow, as the description says, and I’m getting more of the toasty undertones this time. I’m just having a tough time with green teas lately. I really, really want to love them, but I haven’t found one that’s blown me away yet (other than my beloved Stash Mangosteen Green with Matcha).

I like this more and more every time I drink it. The sweet, grassy, unmistakable taste of orchid married with smooth, creamy coconut gets me every time. Upping my rating!

Not getting the complexities of this that I did yesterday, probably because I’m now used to having a kettle that gives me water at the proper temperatures for each tea, and now I’m back to using hot water from the dispenser at work. Sad.

Now have two tins of this – one I ordered as a sample months ago, and one that came with my utiliTEA kettle.

I’ve tried this before, but I didn’t really remember it. That’s odd, because I LOVE Yunnan teas. Adagio’s Yunnan Noir is one of my favorites of all time. I love the malty peppery flavor of this, but I’m reserving more judgements until later because it’s tasting a little soapy – don’t think I washed out my thermos enough, hah!

Got this as a Christmas gift from my future brother-in-law. Apparently he walked into Teavana and told the clerk that I liked black tea, and this is what he recommended.

Honestly? I’m disappointed. I’ve been meaning to try a Golden Monkey for awhile now, enticed by the promise of a cocoa flavor and some maltiness. I tasted almost no cocoa in this, and the maltiness was bitter and overwhelming. I’ll still drink this with cream, but I’m sad that it didn’t live up to its promise. As another reviewer said, Black Dragon Pearls are everything this tea should be.

I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m just not a huge rooibos fan. I don’t dislike it, but I just don’t find it all that appealing. That said, the vanilla flavoring in this is good. I have a tough time finding vanilla flavors that I like – either they’re too weak or too sweet – but this is a nice, creamy one, similar to the vanilla in the Monk’s Blend that I had this morning.

Mmm, this was so good. You can definitely taste both the grenadine (I’m a sucker for the stuff) and vanilla; the grenadine is more to the forefront, with the vanilla coming in toward the end. It makes the sip creamy and sweet. I’m not sure what black tea is used in this; whatever it is, it is very light and almost difficult to taste. It’s very, very strongly flavored. May have to order more once my 2oz. bag is gone.

Backlogging, since my Internet has been out most of the day. This is a good, basic black. I like the fact that it’s not as terribly strong as the only other Assam I have in my cupboard. The Assam and Ceylon mix is a good one. Stood up well to cream.

Very sweet, basic green.

My second Rishi tea and my first wuyi oolong. This tastes very strongly of roasted barley to me. I can taste a bit of the raisin sugar flavor in the aftertaste, but not elsewhere. Very earthy and roasty, which is how I like my oolongs. This isn’t wowing me, though.

Resteep. The milk and cream flavor is definitely gone, which makes me sad. Tastes more like a regular old green oolong.

Resteep. Definitely weaker this time, and not quite as creamy. But still really, really good. This one is lodging into my tastebuds. It’s all I could think about as I was drinking that Pu-erh.

My first pu-erh experience, and I’m kind of underwhelmed. This is really good – the blood orange taste is definitely prominent, and I love blood orange – but I can’t really taste pu-erh. I’m not sure exactly what it should taste like, but I was expecting a very heavy, earthy taste. Right now I taste a bit of that at the very end of my sip, but mostly just blood orange and citrus.

It does taste pretty darn good, though. Just tastes more like a flavored black tea than anything else.

Milk oolong has been on my wish list for a long time now, but it’s so ridiculously expensive (especially because the most-reviewed e-tailer of it, David’s Tea, is in Canada) that I haven’t been able to try it. When I found it out that Margaret’s Fine Imports, a tea store in my hometown of Pittsburgh, carried it, I sent my dad to buy and send me some as a Christmas present.

It’s almost exactly like I imagined it – it has an extremely smooth mouthfeel that reminds me of good Silver Needle teas that I’ve tried, except instead of that delicious buttery taste, it has a delicious taste of sweet cream and milk. It reminds me of a less-sweet version of the cream that’s in the middle of one of my favorite candies as a kid, Cow Tails.

The one unexpected note is that it still does taste “green,” as it is a green oolong. This is a good thing, I think. Otherwise it would definitely be a bit overpoweringly creamy.

Since this is so expensive, I probably won’t be buying beyond my 2 oz. bag (which is already nearly half-gone with this pot!), but I’m so glad I got to try this!

This is what my mom bought for me to drink at her place on Christmas, so this is what I’m drinking. It’s okay; can’t taste the jasmine, but oh well.

Got lots of tea gifts, though! I prepared this using my new Adagio UtiliTEA kettle, which I’ve wanted for forever now. Also got some Golden Monkey, Milk Oolong, Monk’s Blend, and Vanilla Rooibos, so there should be new tasting notes soon – not to mention the Rishi order that just arrived. So much tea, so little time!

Used 7 pearls this time instead of my usual 4-5. It’s definitely stronger and heartier, but the chocolate flavor is also coming out more, so I’m a fan.

Going to pick up my sister from the airport. Yay! And yum.

This is another one that I haven’t had for a looong time, and apparently my tastebuds have changed a bit. This has a very, very strong vanilla flavor that completely overpowers the oolong. The dry leaves smell like flavored tobacco, which I actually kind of like. This isn’t awful; I just wish the oolong was more present.

This is one that will probably grow on me. After loathing licorice for most of my life, I’ve become a huge fan of it in the last year or two – not the sweet licorice sticks, but actual licorice root. This tea has a lot of that, as well as cinnamon bark and Indian black tea. The result is much creamier than I expected.

I can taste a slight bite from the cinnamon, but mostly this tastes like a creamy version of a licorice herbal tea that I have (and love). I wish there was a bit more of that refreshing licorice taste, but this is good nonetheless.

Um. Hm.

Hm.

Well, I don’t DISLIKE this. I’m just not sure how great it is. This definitely does have a very strong taste of dates. I’ve never had dates that were not of the bacon-wrapped variety, but I now know exactly what they taste like sans bacon. I can taste a hint of coconut in the aftertaste, but no vanilla.

This is a very, very unique tea. I still am thinking on this.

Still love this. Also, my package from Rishi was due to arrive today and UPS (an eternal enemy of mine) claims that my name was not on the buzzer, therefore they could not deliver it. ?!?!?! I hate them so much.

I didn’t wash out my mug so well from the Lapsang Souchong I had before this, so I was kind of hoping that some of that smokiness would come through in this.. it didn’t. But that’s okay, it’s still great by itself.

It’s Monday morning; I needed something strong. It’s so tasty.