AJ

Drinking this again. Not getting that sort of chocolatyness this time, just light and fruity. It’s not strong, but still quite enjoyable. No milk or sugar again. I’ll have to do another comparison next time; I don’t know if I enjoy it more with or without milk.

The quiet life was nice enough to send this to me, in its own little sample tin (which I love, and will definitely reuse for travel tea afterwards). Another tea from my shopping list! I feel like I’m really doing some work on it.

Anyways, the tea itself smells fruity and sweet and chocolaty (is it supposed to? Huh) and reminds me somewhat of H&S’s Paris (which makes sense because I remember a few tasting notes saying that it’s probably a nod to Marco Polo anyways).

She was nice enough to provide the steeping instructions on the side, so I shouldn’t be messing anything up. Hurray!

I’m trying this plain first. Maybe I’ll add milk and/or sugar to the last cup from the pot, or just wait until next time.

The wet leaves smell just as delicious (and a bit stronger), perfumy and a bit like strawberry, with a good black tea smell in there as well.

First sip… I got black tea, and then a sudden aftertaste of strawberries. The tea taste is strong (astringent, but somehow ALSO very smooth), and is then followed by the berryness, and almost sweetness. The more I sip, the stronger the berry flavour comes (and the more it fades away from strawberry and joins just ‘berry’).

There’s an almost chocolatyness to it as well, I think. Hrm.

Added a bit of sugar and milk to the last of this cup. Okay, maybe too MUCH sugar. I realize I am not very adapt with sugar portioning. But there is definitely a sweetness and taste that isn’t from the sugar in there. The addition of the milk also makes it unbelievably smooth, almost silky. I think just milk and no sugar would taste very nice as well. Otherwise, I would have just jumped past the sugar for the honey, but I assume the taste of the honey would have overwhelmed it.

I went to throw the rest of this cup back and smelt vanilla. Mmm.

Back to no milk/sugar. And I think I can taste that vanilla I smelled a moment ago. I don’t know. Weird. Still, delicious.

I always wish I had more experience with flavoured teas, since most of the tasting notes I read rave about the flavour, and most of what I get is only in the smell, but I’m glad I got to try this anyways (and I still have a fair amount left in my tiny sample tin!). It is delicious and smooth, and the flavours are subtle, but actually there.

Edit: A continuation, as I resteep this. The smell is much stronger now, and I realize that it reminds me a lot of The O Dor’s Place Saint Marc. A lot!

The taste is a bit more evident, which is nice. Although the smell is really reminding me of Place Saint Marc. Berry and vanilla.

Mmm.

Drinking this in class right now. It’s a bit strong, and slightly bitter (and getting more so as time goes on) because—as seen in the picture—it’s pretty broken up, and went RIGHT THROUGH my oldschool non-mesh teaball (although I removed the teaball itself somewhere around two, three minutes).

Still walnutty and nice, and going very well with my cheese scone. Delicious.

The bitterness is very… front-of-the-tongue walnut bitterness. Mm.

Finally getting around to trying this. It’s very pale—when I was pouring it it looked like just water. But it’s a very, very pale green. Based my steep temperature off of a general average of others I looked at on steepster, and did one half a teaspoon to three ounces of water.

Leaves didn’t really unfurl completely.

The taste is very light—sweet but vegetal. I actually like it. It’s green, but not extremely so. At least it doesn’t taste like just hot water. There’s an almost nut (not really nutty—maybe a nutty buttery) taste.

Second steep, the leaves’ve opened up a bit more. I think I need a smaller pot, to give the leaves room to open up a bit more, since I’m using such a small amount of water. The water’s maybe slightly greener in colour, and in smell. The taste’s stronger, more sharply green. Not much different from the top otherwise, I think.

Steeped for three minutes this time. The colour’s the same. Stronger taste, vegetal, a faintly nutty sweetness. Reminds me of Murchie’s magnolia oolong, but fainter and sweeter. I actually kind of like this. I could see myself sipping this in the evening.

Fourth steep—same colour, hasn’t gotten lighter yet. Three minutes again this time. There’s a stronger floral note. Overall it’s been sort of milky. It’s still sweet, but I don’t think I’m really tasting any changes with the steeps. Then again, I’m pretty experienced, so.

Fifth steep, I think it’s starting to get paler finally. Maybe? Hmm. Getting a slight ‘water’ tang taste now, less milky. I’m pretty sure I could continue drinking this for MANY more steeps.

Sixth steep, still not any lighter. The taste is less milky again, slightly more metallic/tangy.

I would go for a few more steeps to see how long it’d last, but I don’t really feel up for it. I decided to take a look at the leaves instead. The edges are a bit degraded, and there are some leaf-halves and stems. The smell isn’t spinachy, it’s just faintly vegetal in a nice way.

The water temperature’s really very low because I was impatient and downstairs waiting for something on my laptop, but also wary around leaving the water upstairs alone waiting for it to boil. So I just hoped it was hot enough, poured it into my pot, brought it down, and stuck my thermometre in it. Bah! I didn’t want to go back up and finish boiling it.

It smells like fruit rollups. Seriously. The kind of strawberry flavouring they use in fruitrollups. It’s making me crave them.

Slighty tart from the berries, and faintly green. A bit meh, but I did steep it at a rather cool temperature. Pleasant, actually. I don’t know how strongly I’d be able to drink this tea, so the mildness is nice. Berry with a hint of green. Less green than I was expecting. I get a very fruity tartness at the back of my throat after each sip. I sort of get the green tea taste first, and then get hit with the berryness.

I wouldn’t mind getting this myself, to drink on occasion. Actually, the deli inside the department store I work at sells Stash teas, including this one, and I was amused (and reminded!) when I saw it.

I’m noticing more tartness the more I sip it. Also, my cat seems to approve, because he keeps eyeing it.

For something that’s supposed to contain matcha, I really don’t taste it. Hmm. Ah well. Still enjoyable.

With this gone, I think the only thing I have left from Jillian is the darjeeling and the white pear.

No notes yet.

WHY DO I KEEP DOING THIS TO MYSELF? It’s like a train-wreck!

I seem to have sworn to find out what’s wrong with this tea and FIX IT. I bumped the temperature down to 180, even though it’s a very black tea, and was very vigilante about my two-minute steep time.

I kept sniffing the teabags and thinking, “does this smell bitter? I think it smells bitter” and then calming myself and telling myself that “it’s just the bergamot”. I got the actual tea, set it on my little teatray, and carried it downstairs.

Tasting it, it’s got a faint tea astringency, and a touch of bergamot. And I think I can SENSE the rose in there somewhere. At least it’s not outright bitter anymore. I’m getting a very slight sort of bitter aftertaste, but I don’t know if that’s just me being paranoid or what. It’s fairly watery (for a black), but it’s drinkable now. Hrm. Maybe next time I’ll try boiling water, but add honey. I haven’t sweetened anything in a while.

Hrm. It gets a little more bitter as it cools. Still drinkable, though. At the moment.

And then it go REALLY bitter towards the end. THIS TEA REFUSES TO BE LIKED.

I couldn’t stop myself, and decided to try this one again. The tea smells of rose. And bergamot and tea, but the rose is what I noticed first this time around.

Lighter cup, because I shortened the steep time to somewhere around two minutes (I didn’t have a timer on me to use, so I stared at my computer clock).

Still got bitterness at first, although not as bad, and it seems to have lessened with cooling. I wonder if it’s the rose. I don’t know. It’s mostly on the tip of my tongue. It’s different. Not getting that artificial numbing taste this time, though. But still very bitter. I had to pour the last cup out. Two minutes! Aaaugh this tea. Why?

Is it the rose? It reminds me a bit of Twining’s Earl Grey.

So this tea confuses me. I looked up the site (this is another tea found in Winners, by the way), and on it, I found that ‘Darjeeling Earl Grey’ was not one of their blends, and ‘Singbulli’ was not an estate they had listed (which may not mean that they don’t necessarily USE it, but…).

I thought it was interesting that the company is so dedicated to the estates. Each tea is not a blend. All the tea comes from a single estate, and the estate is listed on the cat, along with the grade, etc., a bit about the estate, and the name of the actual planter.

Also, it’s earl grey. Earl grey with ROSE.

The dry pyramid bag smelt strongly of the bergamot, and more faintly of rose. Brewed, it smells mostly of tea and rose, and only very faintly of bergamot.

I think the five minutes recommended on the package is a bit of an oversteep (especially since it’s darjeeling), but I tend to do with that first then start experimenting. So it’s somewhat bitter.

I’ve never had anything with rose in it before, but I definitely smell it, and I taste SOMETHING. I’ll have to make this properly next time. I’m also getting a very weird artificial sort of bitter taste that I’m unsure about. It might just be the tea-bitterness, but I don’t know (it’s almost numbing, it’s weird). I really wish I’d prepared this one more properly so I could tell.

I’ll give it a rating next time. I’m sure I’ll end up making it in the morning.

No notes yet.

Usually I don’t like going out and buying teas without first checking Steepster to see what’s been said about them (although I always get a little excited when I find teas that haven’t even been added to the database yet), but I decided to just go for it and got this one. I wanted a herbal, but I also wanted a vanilla. And they had vanilla rooibos’, and vanilla white teas, and other chamomiles, and then a lady came by and slapped a half-off price on this one. I figured it was a sign.

The flavour’s very light, and mostly chamomile, but there’s a sweetness of slightly-artificial-tasting honey in there. The vanilla is more in the smell, although I didn’t really drink it with a Steepster Review in mind, so I suppose I wasn’t really paying attention or searching for it in the taste. I remember smelling it though, and picking up a good vanilla and strong honey, and thinking “I bet this would be wonderful iced”.

After drinking it, the flavour’s probably too light for that, and if you made it double-strength, the chamomile would just overwhelm the honey (and supposed vanilla).

It didn’t make me sleepy, but that may just be because I’ve already felt tired most of the day. Didn’t get much sleep last night. I downed two cups of Murchie’s Assam Pure, then passed out on the couch no more than three minutes later; I woke up about four hours later, finished my statistics homework, and stumbled off to college. Came home, bought this—I like it, but not enough that I think I’ll get it again when it’s done (honey and vanilla are a good IDEA, but they’re sort of muddled in this, and I don’t like it much with the chamomile; maybe I’ll try CS’s Honey Vanilla White Tea next, that looked promising!). I’m still on the lookout for my perfect vanilla caffeine free drink for bedtime (although caffeine doesn’t do all too good a job of keeping me up anyways, but). I actually went to IGA with the intention of picking up a vanilla rooibos, but came home with this instead. Hm.

Sweet, light, oddly fruity, honey taste, but vanilla’s only in the smell. Ended up leaving the teabag in there the whole time. I took it out after five minutes, but decided that the flavour was so light that I’d just leave it in.

I decided that I have been drinking the other two of the set way too much compared to this one. Green tea is okay! I don’t hate it! I need to drink this more. So I decided to make a cup. At midnight.

Also thought it was a good idea to revisit it, since it’s been a while.

Strong jasmine smell still, although I think I smell an earthyness of the green in there somewhere.

I’m not getting the grassy taste as strongly, and I don’t know if it’s just because it’s been a while, and I’ve had some experience, but I’m finding it more enjoyable. Enough so that I might try to drink it more often.

I’ve still no idea if I should be tasting jasmine or not (or what it would taste like if I should be), but there is a pleasant ALMOST floralness somewhere in there that might be it. Otherwise, just light green. I think I made this weaker than I did my last cup. One teaspoon for a cup (eight ounces); I THINK I may have done it one teaspoon to six ounces. Which may have been my problem, because I’ve since realized that lighter teas (oolongs, greens, darjeelings) are best 1/8 instead of the 1/6 I’m used to.

It’s starting to cool, and I think I’m tasting the jasmine more. Hrm. Don’t know if it’s good or bad. Although I’m also getting a very faint bitterness.

It’s gone cold now, and it tastes better (going along nicely with the claim that this would probably be very nice iced), although yeah, jasmine (I don’t drink green teas often—I’m inexperienced!).

I still meant to try it iced. I think it would be nice iced. But I’ve got a LOT of teas I mean to try iced. Some day!

No notes yet.

Drank this on-campus, away from computers, but I carry a little notebook exactly for this reason.

The teabag had a sort of dusty, maybe… fishy? Smell, with that greenoolongblack smell. Wet, it smelt… spinagy green. As did the tea, a bit. In an ‘oversteeped green’ way, maybe. Steeped to a dark greybrown with a green layer over top. Smells fairly vegetably, green, though darker.

I almost didn’t want to drink it because it DID smell a bit… off on top of the very strong green smell. Took a sip when it was still quite hot and got a very green taste. I returned to work, and after a minute or so got this HORRIBLE gas after taste. What.

Let it cool, and tasted it again—this weird vegetable taste. Just sort of off. But also oolong in that it reminds me a bit of the oolong I got from Murchie’s. Just stronger. Gas aftertaste again. Disgusting. I don’t know if it’s the water I used (free water on-campus put in a mug then microwaved until it started boiling). Around this point I didn’t want to finish it.

Continued to sip it though, and the gas aftertaste lessened, and it reminded me more of the magnolia oolong. Just stronger, and the tea was darker. I steeped at the recommended three minutes on the package, but I think this would need a shorter steep time than that.

The strength and the weird aftertaste was enough to make me toss the cup (or rather, go outside and dump), and I did use more water from the campus (boiled in the microwave) to make other teas, and there was no gas aftertaste, so maybe it WAS the tea. It was cheap though (1.20). But I’ll try different steep times in the future or something. Yick until then, though.

Brewed, with the mug just sitting to one side, I can SMELL the peach without even putting my nose in it. But leaning in, I also smell something… vaguely reminiscent of that Ginger Twist. I had a look of HORROR on my face there for a moment. I’m sure I scrubbed my mug well! Nooo.

Can’t really smell the tea. I think I do. Hmm.

Woah. The taste reminds me of peach wine. I’m serious. The peach isn’t that ‘fruity peach’ taste, but that ‘fermented wine’ taste. All it really needs is that alcoholic taste. Huh. Maybe I should steep it for a bit longer. I only did three minutes of the “three to five”.

The best thing about understeeping, I suppose, is that you can always just put the bag back in.

Longer steep… Doesn’t do much. Slightly stronger taste of the oolong I think. Not the peach, though. Still has a serious sort of ‘wine’ taste. Especially at the edge of my tongue. How odd. Unsure how to rate it.

First off, how I finally got my hands on this. Chapters! To the rescue again. I wandered in and went to their little tea section to find, of course, that they had none. Disheartened, I turned to leave but paused to look at a new teapot setup they had near the front of the store. Examining an Alison in Wonderland pot, I glanced up and noticed that, on the opposite side of the table, there was a setup of more teas. Including Paris. I practically pounced on a tin (sachets, not loose, sadly), especially since they were selling so well compared to all the other Harney and Sons teas out. I was also thinking of buying a tin of PURE LAVENDER tisane. Can’t remember what company, but one small tin was thirteen dollars, so I wasn’t sure if I should go for it or not. I have no idea what lavender tastes like, and I may not like it.

Anyways, I kept myself from buying any more books, because I have quite a few (I was considering a Sherlock Holmes novel, though), and only went home with this.

It smells like vanilla, bergamot and fruit. Brewed, you can definitely smell the tea as well.

Ah, it’s starting to go cold I left it so long. I taste the vanilla and tea, not too much the bergamot, but there are some other fruits in there.

I’ve been scaring myself by watching the Slender Man Marble Hornets entries.

Having tea while doing so is always nice. I always have such trouble with flavoured blacks, because I only get a scent, no taste in most cases. The smell of this is much stronger than the taste—which is black with hints of vanilla and berry—but it’s so delicious of a smell, and the taste that I do get goes so nicely with the black that I don’t mind. Mmmmm. This tea makes me happy.

Well, it’s officially too late to drink an actual tea, so I spent some time leafing through my tisanes and decided to try another of the ones Jillian sent me. I wasn’t really in the mood for ginger, but the tasting notes for this all seem to agree that the ginger’s quite weak.

The bag looks… ehr. Weird. Bread-like pieces and leaf shreds, and it smells dusty but herbal. Brewed this in my little teapot, but decided to test out the beautiful handmade mug (and matching tiny dish which I now designate as my teabag/teaball holder) that I got from a nice lady vender from the setup on-campus today. She sold her own-made clayware (and some pieces from friends with permission) as well as her knitwear (and again, a few pieces made by friends with permission). When I walked over there, she was seated and knitting another scarf. All organic wools.

Brewed light. A pale gold colour. It looks like just plain water in my mug, because it’s such a deep maroon colour.

…Ehr… Smells… I think there’s some ginger in there. Smells hot and sour and musty to me, though. Like… one of those ‘wellness herbal potions’. I’m afraid. There’s smells I recognize, but I don’t know from what. Sour smells, though.

It… pretty much tastes like it smells. A bready mustyness, with slight ginger… And lemon. Lemon without the tart, actually, which I assume must be the lemongrass (I’ve never really tasted lemongrass by itself, so I don’t have the experience to pinpoint it exactly).

It’s not BAD, at least. It’s actually quite calming to sip. Although the taste and smell are pretty much identical, it’s better as a taste than as a smell. I don’t like the whiffs I get before I take a sip. I’m not getting the tart and pucker mentioned. It tastes like it’s ALMOST sour—or at least trying to BE sour—but doesn’t quite make it. Also, I taste the mint as an aftertaste. Well, really more of a coolness on my tongue. But I definitely BURPED mint there.

Otherwise, I don’t know. It’s not… bad, but in personal opinion, it’s not really for me. Hurray for my first experience with Might Leaf, though! I’ll finish this pot, but after that, it was only a single teabag, so it’s gone from my cupboard. I don’t think I’ll attempt a second steep. I’m not sure yet. Get back to me when I finish this one.

Sipping this as a morning tea today. The black base makes it a good morning choice, and the maple (especially in the morning!) is always welcome. Who needs pancakes and syrup when you’ve got this? Mm.

This is to help me concentrate on typing out my geomorphology glacier limits and area averages report.

Pear pear pear. Unlike the Doctor (both the Tenth and the Seventh), I like pear. Love it, actually. Especially canned (although I find that many people dislike canned fruit due to the sugary syrupness); it goes well with vanilla icecream. And I needn’t bother with the skins when they’re canned. Plus, the brine is delicious to drink.

The smell of the dry leaves was faint but pleasant. The wet leaves and the tea itself hold a much stronger pear flavour, although it is slighty sugary (that is to say, more similar to canned pears than fresh pears).

Although if you really stick your nose in close, it smells more ‘fresh pear’.

This is another tea from Jillian (how did she know I loved pears!), and I got two teabags instead of one, so at least I have one more to try after this before I have to remove it from my cupboard.

The colour is darker than I expected it to be (I haven’t much experience with white teas except in Numi’s flowering white teas, which brew quite light), sort of a pale black tea colour. The pear smell is delicious, and I think I get a tea smell in there too, but fainter.

Don’t know what to say in terms of taste. Again, I barely remember my last experience with white tea, but this is light, like a very light black. Not vegetable and green (luckily!). There’s pear in there, and it’s pleasant and not artificial and too sweet. I’ve heard that whites can get quite bitter. The pear taste isn’t confined to an aftertaste, it’s there during the sip, but it’s very pleasantly light.

Daaaamn, I quite like this and I only have one teabag left. I wonder how many times you can resteep a white. Hmmm.

No notes yet.

Strong and pungent and GINGER. It helps with my crappy digestive system, takes away my stomach aches, and warms me up. And actually, I’m a little fond of ginger. Although a thick dust comes from the bag and settles to the bottom (making it spicier the more you drink).

I’m sipping this through astronomy lecture because I had a stomach ache earlier. Effectively cured.

Finishing up the last of my sample. I still maintain that it tastes rather… gingeraleish. Plus, it went right through my infuser. Again. The Libre is simply no match for it. I’m makin’ a mess everywhere aaaah.

I feel bad that this one just isn’t too good, because it makes Tealicious look bad, since only two other teas from her have been reviewed on this site (both by me, hahah) and so although I really liked those ones, the ratio of tea I liked to tea I didn’t like is quite small. This will have to be rectified by buying more Tealicious tea.

In the tea’s defence, the sample did come from the big, huge tea tin, that has probably been opened quite a few times (Air! Light! Moisture!). So the tightly sealed, packaged-to-buy ginger tea could taste FABULOUS for all I know. And I will maintain that until proven otherwise.

I stored this in the little kitty tin I bought from Tealicious (I broke down and bought a few of the tiny tea tins for travel-tea purposes), and now that it’s empty, I’m to bring it home, descent it, and fill it with another tea to drink on the go. But what, I wonder… Hmm… Maple?

On a different note, I seriously oversteeped this (eight minutes, near ten? I’m not sure), but it didn’t get bitter at all.

Another tea from Jillian (or rather THE tea from Jillian). The dry leaves didn’t have much of a strong smell, and it steeped to a sort of pale red-orange (not the “rich red” the description led me to believe it would be). The smell is faintly ‘tea’ like, with a sweet smell overtop. Kind of reminds me of keemun.

It’s got a somewhat green taste. It’s light, and I think it has a faintly wine-like quality to it; I’m not getting any nuttyness. Nor any real fruitiness, but it is still sort of wine like taste.

I’m getting bits of sweetness and bits of astringency. When I breath out I am getting a sort of nutty taste now, actually. Yes, definitely getting a nuttyness now. It’s part mouth-feel part aftertaste. Sort of walnutty. That sweet bitterness. Very nice.

Chapters (Canadian bookstore for those who don’t know), I found, carries a LOT of loose-leaf tea accessories (to which I mean pots with infusers, mugs with infusers, infusers by themselves, travel tea tumblers with the removable infusers…), but NO actual loose-leaf teas. All of the teas they have are bagged. Whoops. Although there were still some good teas there (“full leaf sachets”). Harney and Sons being one of them. And I had remembered seeing a tin of Paris sachets the last time I’d visited, and thus I returned today to purchase it—only to see that there didn’t seem to be any (and I don’t say ‘any left’ because I remember, distinctly, that they had four Harney and Sons teas out, and they still did, but none were Paris; maybe I was mistaken?). But I’m sure they had had some! I noticed in their giant variety sample pack for thirty dollars that Paris was included, but I didn’t really want to buy the whole giant chest of teas. Curses!

So I opted for this one, because I always enjoy a good morning tea. Opening the tin the smell is strong and divine. Very tea. It brewed quite light, and the smell of the wet teabag and the tea itself is very faint, and… different.

Granted, I’ve never really tried Keemun (that I know of), thus excuse my naivety. The tea is nice, light, and slightly (but noticeably) sweet. The ‘tea’ taste that I’m more used to IS in there, but it’s mixed with other tastes. Almost a sort of greeny taste (if you removed the vegetable). There’s something stronger in the aftertaste. Robust. Not sure. I really rather like this. I don’ts think it needs anything (certainly not any sugar), but if made a bit stronger it would probably be good with a splash of milk.

Edit: …And also mildly, faintly peppery but in a good way, and I like this very much. And did I mention that I liked this?