ssajami

I just realized, as I drink the last of my stock, that I never logged this tea. Surprising, really, as it is one of my all-time favorites (along with the Cantaloupe & Cream).

Here in Israel, watermelon is a very popular fruit and it is so abundant in the summer that it’s almost a national food. For me, this tea, even just the aroma wafting up from my mug, always brings up memories of summer days at an the beach, hot sun on my face, warm Mediterranean water at my feet and a big bowl of cold watermelon. Heaven.

The flavoring is gentle, sweet watermelon on an exquisite white base. A perfect pairing. It’s sweet without any additives.

I am very well suited to the Middle Eastern weather. I love the blue skies and the heat. However, these last few days have been chilly, I pulled this tea out today to give me that sense of summer that I’m craving.

Sadly, I’m all out of it now, and I do believe I will break my tea-buying hiatus and order some more. I also only have one cup’s worth of the Cantaloupe&Cream and also of the beloved Tamarind Pop, and well, there are some teas I just can’t be without, hiatus or no hiatus :)

Today is Memorial Day here in Israel. It is a very serious day for us. Military service is mandatory, and there is hardly anyone here that hasn’t been touched somehow by the destruction that is war.

It is a sad day today – so I need a happy tea.

I’ve not had much green tea lately. For a long time now I’ve been having, almost exclusively, blacks, unflavored with milk, and rooibos. Just the mood I’ve been in.

This morning, while rummaging through my sample drawer, I found a sample of this that I had forgotten I’d ordered. I remembered how when I had first discovered tea my favorite pick-me-up tea was TGY oolong.
So thinking that maybe a green will also pick me up, I brewed a whole pot.

Yes. This is it. This tea is perfect.

Such a gentle and light Dragon Well. I’ve read that other’s found it nutty. Maybe my taste buds differ, because I’m not tasting nutty, only grassy, vegetal green goodness. It’s delicateness makes me think of something pure and innocent. And that is exactly what I need right now.

So, I’m down to my last teaspoon of this tea. Not having any more of this is a sad sad thought. And just like when I had the last teaspoon of Butiki’s Cantaloupe & Cream, I know that this tea needs to be on hand always.

It’s amazing :)

To start, Butiki teas always smell wonderful. Appetizing even. Like I can even put off tasting the tea, just continue smelling it. But it doesn’t end there. The walnut is in perfect balance with the sweet maple. It doesn’t overwhelm, yet is clearly present. The maple, divine. It is dessert-like, without being overly sweet.

A very well crafted tea. Clearly I need to put in another order with Butiki.

This is an incredibly delicious and unique tea. I don’t think I’ve ever had tamarind, so I have no basis to determine if it actually tastes like tamarind. However, regardless of accuracy, this tea smells and tastes divine. It’s not like any other tea I’ve had before. It’s smooth and sweet by itself, but with a tiny drop of honey, it really pops.
Very well done Butiki Teas!

I need to preface this note with a declaration: Butiki Teas are AWESOME. I ordered quite a few teas lately (taking advantage of the very generous Black Friday sale they had). I have not yet written notes for most of them, but I have tried almost all. What I can say is that they are works of art, each and every one. The look, the aroma, and the taste. Oh, the taste – the taste of the Tamarind Pop tea has even appeared in my dreams. So yeah, I’m mighty impressed with these teas.

Now this one is cantaloupe through and through. I am usually skeptical about flavored white tea. White tea is so gentle, it’s flavor very subtle. Flavoring often is either too light or overpowering the gentle white taste. This one is not like that. The taste of the Bai Mu Dan comes through and is enhanced by the juicy taste of the cantaloupe. The tastes really compliment each other without taking over.

and WOW, this is so very cantaloupe! I really don’t know how she does it. It smells like cantaloupe and it tastes like liquid cantaloupe. There is also a faint creaminess about it, making it a bit softer, rounding out the edges on the fruitiness.

Amazing tea! Honestly, I’d be happy to just sit and savor the scent coming out of my cup, but it tastes even better than it smells.

There are many good flavored teas that I enjoy, but some just seem to be above them all. This is one of them.

I don’t have time to write much but I just had to write a few words. Just because I am seriously amazed at the size and beauty of these leaves. I brewed the tea in the Teavana Perfect Tea Maker and when I came to get the tea I was amazed to see enormous tea leaves all over the inside of the tea maker. I rarely see leaves this perfect.
I couldn’t help myself – I stuck my hand in and took out some leaves to admire. I even showed them to my daughter, who was less impressed (how little she knows…). Me? I just stood there touching the leaves and oohh-ing and ahhh-ing.

Even when still dry the leaves were long and twisty, like dark oolongs, but with the malty Assam smell.

I admit I probably looked a little loony to anyone but other tea fanatics, but I really enjoyed these leaves.

Now I’m usually not a big fan of straight Assam, but this…this is different. It’s gentler, yet still hearty. It’s malty, but not overpowering. There are other flavors there that I have not yet recognized (OK, so yeah, I probably drank it too fast – but it was good!) I need to spend more time with this.

I just re-ordered this, after not having it for about a year. Something has happened to this blend. It is not as I remember it. I remember an intoxicating coconut smell (I even wrote about it in my previous note) – now I am getting only honeybush. I remember a creamy cheesecake tartness and rich coconut creaminess – but now I’m getting only honeybush. Basically it’s plain honeybush with a faint hint of coconut.

I’m sad because I ADORED this blend and was looking forward to having it again. It’s nothing like it used to be.

Taking the rating down, but I will still give it a decent score for it’s past greatness

No notes yet.

No notes yet.

I’ve never had yellow tea before, so I have no basis to compare this to any other yellow, and so I can only describe how this particular tea is for me.

At first I was a little confused with the instructions. 5gr of tea for 100ml water. Seems like the quantity for gong-fu brewing. But the package also said a 2.5 minute steep, which is odd because that sounds like steep time for western style brewing – I had been expecting 30 seconds or a minute. But that’s what it said, so that’s what I did.

The leaves are light and fluffy and seemed to fill up almost half my little yixing pot. I added less than boiling water.

Wow! This is so sweet! If I was one to sweeten my tea, I would have thought that I had already put in sugar. But since I never add sweetener, there is no chance of that. In the description of this tea, it says that it is initially slightly bitter. I got none of that. I got initial sweetness.

This is one great tea. It is delicate like a white tea, but it’s flavor is more prominent like a black. It’s slightly vegetal like a green. It has a hint of floral. Luckily not more than a hint, as I’m not a big fan of the floral teas.

Sweet and gentle, a little nutty, a little floral, a little vegetal.
Wonderfully balanced and refreshing. I am looking forward to seeing it develop in the next infusions.

I will be getting more of this!
Thank you Peony Tea S. for the sample

This smells DIVINE!
I took the lid off the pot to remove the basket and the deep, rich chocolaty smell of hot cocoa wafted up at me. If I hadn’t of known this was tea, I would have really thought it was hot cocoa.

This is one of the most amazing chocolate teas’s I’ve ever had. It’s like creamy cake. I added a little milk and it’s made the chocolate taste a little richer. There are raspberry pieces in the tea, but I can’t make out the taste of them – maybe because of the milk – so for me it’s more a chocolate cake tea than a Red Velvet cupcake. Nevertheless this is outstanding!

I also like the lined brown bag packaging the tea came in. On one hand I love nice tins, however it always brings up the already exorbitant international shipping costs. So I’m happy when vendors package simply.
The only comment I have is that the ingredients are not marked on the package and I have to go online to look for them.

But the tea? I can already see this is going to be a contender to take over the top spot in my “favorite chocolate rooibos” list, because of the cakey aspect of the tea. I will definitely need more than the 2oz I ordered!

I know everyone really loved this tea, but somehow it didn’t impress me as much. I brewed it western style. I brewed it in my gaiwan. It was good, yes, but something about it didn’t sit right with me. Eventually I put it in the cupboard and sort of forgot about it.

Until David of Verdant Tea put up that iced tea post,I had never even considered making ice tea with anything other than blacks and fruity teas. As it seems he had good results, I decided to experiment a little. Out came this tea – and a few other oolongs – from the far corner of my tea cupboard.

I cold brewed it overnight and the results are quite unbelievable!
This is iced tea perfection. It tastes and smells of pine trees. May seem sort of odd that something tastes like pine trees, but it’s subtle and refreshing and very good. It brings back memories of childhood, running around in the forest collecting pine cones.

It has a quiet elegance that I find is characteristic of many Chinese oolongs (I know this is not an oolong, but it’s gentle flavor reminds me of some oolongs).

From the corner of the cupboard to front and center!
I am in love with this tea.

Oh, and so far I’ve cold brewed these leaves 3 times and it’s still great. The first pitcher wad brewed for about 8 hours, the second for about 12, and the third for 24 hours. I wonder if I can do yet another….

A few years ago, when I first got bitten by the tea bug, I purchased a few oolongs from LifeinTeacup. They were so good that I fell in love with the light oolongs.
But somehow I let the whole oolong range fall to the side this past year. Maybe it’s the few less remarkable oolongs that I subsequently purchased from other vendors or maybe it’s the chinese black tea kick I’ve been on this past year. At any rate, I forgot how much I love a good oolong, how light and sweet they are, how refreshing.

Then this tea came along and reminded of me of all that I love in an oolong. I ordered it because of all the great reviews. It did not disappont!

I don’t really get the milky aspect, but that might be because my oolong tasting skills are a bit rusty. Either way, this tea is delightful. Buttery and vegetal.

The first infusion disappeared way too fast. I think I need another.
What a treat!

This tisane is delightful! I love rooibos, even more than honeybush actually.
That characteristic rooibos flavor, often described as woodsy, is very pleasant to me.
Many flavors go well with rooibos, but most cover up that rooibos-y taste. While that may be preferable to those less enamored of rooibos, but not so for me. I want the flavoring to leave room for the rooibos.

That’s this tisane. The subtly sweet date flavor here compliments the rooibos so well, both prominent without masking the other. The walnuts are welcome added note.

Very good!

The picture of this tisane has whole chocolate chips in it. The sample I received did not.
No real chocolate smell nor much chocolate flavor. Not a bad rooibos, just not chocolaty at all.

Actually I thought that maybe the sample had been mis-labeled, because I was getting a slight tart fruity taste in the rooibos. Not a prominent note, but there nonetheless. Together with a distinct lack of chocolate had me wondering. Some black fruit, I would guess – currant or black berries. But if it were a black currant tea, I would expect a more dominant fruity flavor.

Confusing tea….

I have finished my sample of this amazing tea. Sad day :(
Such a rich, complex tea! So soothing, and not just for breakfast. I actually prefer it after lunch. It invigorates me.

The Laoshan Black is such a unique black that it really stands out – in both taste and aroma, with the other teas rounding out the flavor. This is an outstanding blend!

I really need to get more of this when it gets back in stock.

No notes yet.

The first thing I noticed about this tea was that it was it was CTC. I have not seen flavored blacks that were CTC before. Not that I mind, but it was odd for me, as I’m used to seeing full leaf. The smell of the dry leaf was pleasantly coconut.

Now the taste. I have this feeling that 52teas coconut cream pie, being so amazingly delicious as it is, has spoiled me for other coconut teas. I can’t help but compare, and they all fall short.

This tea is nice. The coconut is prominent, the vanilla a nice companion. All in all quite a pleasant tea, just not so memorable as to be purchased again.

I’ve been remiss in my tasting notes. A few weeks ago I made a large sample order at Chado Tea. See, I have a love of rooibos and am always looking for vendors offering unique flavors. More often than not international shipping is horrid, so I search for vendors that offer a variety, allowing me to order many samples of rooibos in one order.
Chado Tea Room as a large variety of rooibos. Many are identical to other vendors (same wholesaler, perhaps), but some that are unique, and of which I ordered many. I have tried almost all of the samples, but have yet to rate any of them. I will do that for each on my next round of tasting (sample sizes are generous, so that I can get quite a few cups from the sample).

It’s unfortunate that I’m starting my reviewing from this tea, because it is the one I liked the least so far. Most of the teas were good, some even great. This one is not.

I like the idea of banana and cinnamon, reminding me of a dessert I was served at a restaurant a while ago. Bananas in a creamy sauce with a hint of cinnamon. However the cinnamon here is so overwhelming that I am getting neither banana nor rooibos. Had the flavors been better balanced, I think the combination of banana and cinnamon could have been a winner.
It was so heavily cinnamon that I could not even get past the first sip, which is very rare for me.

Giving it a second thought, perhaps I oversteeped, although 6 minutes for rooibos is mostly standard. I will try this tea again soon, with a shorter steep time. Maybe it will redeem itself. The low rating on this tea is by no means representative of most of the other Chado teas I have had.

I’ve had this tea about 3 times now on separate occasions, each time hoping that it would get better. unfortunately it did not.

Oh, how I had wanted to like this tea! Oatmeal raisin cookies are some of my all-time favorite things in the world. However I am getting neither raisins nor oatmeal in this tea, only lots of grape. I am not a grape fan.

52teas blends are some of the best teas I have tried, but sadly this one misses the mark.

This is so much better than I had expected. I love coconut and I love chocolate, so this tea is right up my alley. The fact that it’s herbal had me a bit worried. I wondered if the lack of black tea or even rooibos would make it weaker somehow.
I think maybe it is even more impressive because the flavors stand on their own.

I agree that it needs to be brewed stronger for it’s full effect. But then, WOW this is one good cuppa! I downed the whole pot before it had even cooled. Chocolate and coconut! There’s also a malty flavor there, maybe the barley or the carobs.

I really like this!

This is much better than I had expected from a supermarket bagged tea.
The aromas after brewing were fascinating. When the cup was on the table, I got a strong orangey smell, but from close up I smelled mostly ginger. The taste was one sip orange and one ginger. The green base is good, but not nondescript, and it’s the orange and ginger that make this pop.

This is a good tea to keep on hand for quick tea making (I often turn to tea bags when I’m in a rush).

What a wonderful mate! Nuts, cinnamon and pumpkin…to me that is always a wonderful combination. I think the pumpkin blend flavors are much better suited to a roasted mate base, as the roasted flavor adds that extra touch to the overall flavor (as opposed to the honeybush/rooibos sweetness, which is good too, but not as good as the roasted mate).

I am enjoying this very much (and already getting nervous that my pouch is running out)

I am wonder what mystical powers Frank has, or what magical process he submits his teas to, but this tea is spot on. Maple sweet and doughy. I’ve having my breakfast in the evening, and it’s so much fun! I’m having it unsweetened, but it is so pancake-y that it is actually as satisfying for my sweet tooth, as having the sugary item itself.