2145 Tasting Notes
I got distracted by unpacking this morning and only managed a sip of this while it was still hot. I ended up drinking it at room temperature with lunch after I remembered that I had left it in the bedroom, whoops!
Hot this really didn’t impress me, I thought the oolong was weak and I hardly tasted the peach at all. It was a slightly different story after it had cooled off and sat around for several hours. I really tasted the peach, it was such a nice sweet flavor that hit the spot after a week of subpar teas. I really wish the oolong would have come through more, this really wasn’t as good as I was hoping it would be, but I consider it perfectly drinkable. It might make a nice iced tea so I’ll have to play with that next.
I wasn’t really thinking when I made this today that normally I use 1 heaping Tablespoon with Adagio teas and only ended up using 2 heaping teaspoons. This would probably be more to my tastes if I had prepared as I normally would have and not following the directions on the package.
I should also mention that this really didn’t resteep well for me. I increased the time by 1 minute for the second steep but it was pretty flavorless. I didn’t get any peach at all and only a hint of oolong.
Preparation
I find that I don’t like this one quite as much as the traditional Jasmine Green tea from Ito En [in the round bottle]. This one is noticeably lighter in color and flavor and the ascorbic acid gives it an off taste that I don’t notice as much in the traditional variety. I find that I generally notice the ascorbic acid more in the Teas’ Tea varieties for some reason, I’m not sure why. I do like the design of the bottle better because I can fit more of them in my cooler.
I’ve noticed the same “off” taste in their teas — it must be the ascorbic acid! I never really knew what that tasted like, so I couldn’t put my finger on that strange taste all their teas have.
Ascorbic acid is really bitter, I use it to clean out my hot water pot, but you find it in a lot of bottled teas used as a preservative because it is water soluble and natural. At least it gives you 100% of your vitamin C for the day :)
While this certainly doesn’t compete with loose leaf this is hands down the best pre-bottled jasmine green tea I’ve ever had. When I’m traveling I like to stop by Whole Foods and pick up a few bottles to keep in the cooler. It has a very strong floral flavor and scent to it that I like and I find it very refreshing. It is unsweetened and I think it is perfect that way, but I have added honey on occasion when I’m craving something a little sweeter. This is nice at room temperature or iced but I do tend to find this a little more astringent when it is room temperature.
The scent is pleasant, but hard to smell unless poured into a glass. For some reason my bottle of tea smells like maple syrup and this is really messing with my head every time I go to take a drink because it makes me crave pancakes. It also keeps me from smelling the wonderful jasmine scent from my tea.
This is one of those teas that fall in the what in the world were they thinking category for me. It managed to be both sweet and bitter at the same time and the final product really doesn’t taste at all like tea. It had such an awful artificial taste to it that I ended up dumping it out.
My mother laughingly called me a tea snob after I turned my nose up at it, but then she took a drink and spit it in the sink. Hey, at least I swallowed mine.
Preparation
YamaMotoYama teas have always been my go-to bagged tea while traveling. You can pick them up at any Asian market for next to nothing, I paid $1.99 yesterday for my box of Oolong at the Olive Farmer’s Market in St. Louis.
What I love about them is that they’re pretty much impossible to screw up even if you leave the bag sitting in your cup for an extra 15 minutes (not that I would ever do that). This tea also doesn’t care that you don’t have the right temperature water (I have absolutely no clue what temperature I used yesterday I only know that it was marginally hot). The tea also works well hot, iced, or room temperature and you can’t say that about a lot of teas.
Even with my poor brewing standards this week I still managed to end up with a really solid cup of tea that had a nice smokiness to it. The only thing I don’t love about this tea is that it doesn’t resteep well, but at $1.99/16 bags you won’t hear any complaints from me.
P.S. I miss my Zojirushi water pot and my ingenuiTEA, I need to stop traveling so much. At least I know that when I get home I’ll have a new tea pot and set of Japanese cups waiting for me to play with.
