477 Tasting Notes

drank Pomegranate Blueberry by Life
477 tasting notes

As soon as I took the plastic off I smelt a very wine-like pomegranate. Once brewed, the water turned a deep magenta colour, very bold, and the smell was less of wine and just strong pomegranate with blueberry. The blueberry meshes so well with pomegranate though (surprising!) that it’s almost just one whole new scent. This smells delicious and I want to try it iced.

On that note, I found litchi juice at Shoppers. I wanted to get it. Mm.

The taste is not as strong as the smell (figures) or colour, but there is a sharp tangy aftertaste at the back of my tongue at the end of every sip (the lemongrass? You’d think so, but this also contains rooibos, hibiscus, and apple, so it’s most likely either the hibiscus and/or the apple). I smell blueberries when I breathe out. The tangyness gets stronger as it cools, although the pomegranate is there. …Sort of. A little bit. Blueberry is there less-so, especially since it meshes so well with the pomegranate as to be barely detectable.

I haven’t tried very many fruit tisanes, honestly, so I don’t know what I should expect, but I like this I think. Kind of wish the blueberry was stronger. I think a blueberry-pomegranate juice would be pretty tasty. I wonder if there’s some place that sells that.

Preparation
Boiling
asiantea

I need to buy that tea for myj sister ..can you tell me if i can buy it online?

AJ

I don’t believe Shoppers Drug Mart has online shopping.

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52

Sipping this one again tonight and finding that it’s got a sort of sickly sweet aftertaste in the back of my throat. Otherwise I still like the tea, but the way the taste just sticks at the back of my throat is a little… ick. I don’t know if it’s the chamomile or the flavourings for the honey or vanilla.

Preparation
Boiling
Jillian

It might be the chamomlle. I haven’t tried this particular tea but some chamomile teas I’ve tried have been almost sickly sweet-tasting.

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68
drank Zen by Tazo
477 tasting notes

You know, I think I am beginning to enjoy mint. In tea, at least—I don’t seem to like it anywhere else.

This brewed oddly dark, I think, but it’s nice and refreshing—I’ll admit, I compromised my taste buds a bit by having a saltastic bowl of instant noodle soup right before this, so this probably won’t be the most in-depth tasting note, but this tea is light and refreshing. I taste the mint (or rather, feel it, I think—that sort of coolness that is more of a sensation than a taste), with green tea, and a sharp secondary taste of something else. The lemongrass, maybe, since I haven’t much experience with how it should taste (…like lemons?).

Preparation
180 °F / 82 °C 2 min, 0 sec

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86
drank Marco Polo by Mariage Frères
477 tasting notes

This’ the last of this, and to that, I shed a tear.

I couldn’t remember if I’d tried this with milk and sugar yet, although I vaguely remember an instance in which I added too much, so I decided to add a bit to my first cup from the pot. Just a very small splash, and a touch of sugar. It doesn’t need much, and the milk makes it as smooth as silk. It’s actually very enjoyable this way—all the flavours come through quite strongly. Perhaps even moreso than without the additions. Very delicious, even if I think processed white sugar has a weird taste to it. I prefer honey, but I think that would disrupt the flavours here.

So I’ll be removing this from my cupboard, because my tin is now empty (although I plan to resteep, at least), but this’ still on my shopping list.

Taking the rest of this without sugar or milk. Mm. This cup came out slightly strong, since I was using up all the rest of it, and most of it was quite a lot of small leafcrumbs. Thus, perhaps just a tad bitter without milk, although it’s oddly bitter but smooth on the tongue.

Thanks again to the quiet life for sending this one to me.

Preparation
Boiling 4 min, 0 sec

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73
drank Vanilla Bean by Mighty Leaf Tea
477 tasting notes

Having this with a bit of milk and sugar this morning. Didn’t actually add enough sugar to make a different, but the milk pretty much covers up the vanilla taste rather than bring it out.

I would also like to report, I see NO pretty vanilla bean chunks like in the picture.

Preparation
Boiling 5 min, 0 sec
Meghann M

Sad on not having the pretty vanilla bean chunks. I hate when pictures are misleading :(

AJ

I’m sure they’re in there. Somewhere. Just none of the bags I’ve pulled out so far.

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73
drank Vanilla Bean by Mighty Leaf Tea
477 tasting notes

It’s nice. The vanilla isn’t very bold, and the tea itself is quite mild. I’m sure milk would bring out the vanilla a bit more, but I think the tea taste would be lost.

When I first started sipping it I found it a bit bitter, but that seemed to fade with cooling.

Preparation
Boiling 4 min, 0 sec

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70
drank Litchi by Hazo
477 tasting notes

Sipping this right now. I added a bit more leaf this time, but I found that the tea taste is stronger while the lychee is weaker.

Added milk and sugar again. Very nice.

Preparation
Boiling 5 min, 0 sec

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85

And that’s the end of that, sob. I had just under half a teaspoon left, so I made it with about two ounces of water. I will miss you, delicious maple. I will have to pick up a 100g bag next time I visit Tealicious. But I promised myself not to spend away all my money on tea. It’s so hard.

Preparation
Boiling 5 min, 0 sec
Stephanie

I commiserate with you, AJ! But this tea obsession of ours must be fed! :)

AJ

Yessss. I’ll have to wait until Monday, though. I work all day on the weekends aarg.

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69

Just used up the last of my sample today. Slightly different steeping parameters, and I made much more than I was initially going to because my mother spotted me making tea and wanted in. She has never tried an oolong before; hopefully she will enjoy it.

Higher steeping temperature, I think, may be the reason this looks darker. But it also might just be because I poured into a mug rather than a small teacup. I can’t quite remember how this tasted the last time I had it (I’m not going to cheat and read my old notes), but it’s pleasantly light in the vegetal taste, a stronger floral almost sweetness coming through with a sort of milky aftertaste. Sometimes I think I might be getting a nuttyness as well in there somewhere. And occasionally there is a sort of sweet yeasty ’bakey’ness, but it’s hard to pick out as a flavour on its own—I think it’s more of the taste I get because of how the other flavours blend together. Hmm. Especially since otherwise there’s no way I would consider this tea at all ‘bakey’. It’s light, maybe buttery, sweet.

I still think ‘magnolia’ just smells like jasmine, but it’s much lighter, so it’s nothing like A&D’s Jasmine Green, which seems to be much too strong for me to handle.

I plan to resteep this a few more times and enjoy my book. Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell (Susanna Clarke) if anyone wants to know. I’ve been reading this book on and off for four years. I love it, but I just can’t seem to finish it.

Giving this an actual RATING now, because I realized I hadn’t given it one before.

This sips like a good book-reading tea, I think.

And for the record, my mother really likes it and came back for a second steep. This second one seems to have a slight tang to it, I think, but otherwise I’m not finding any significant difference.

Preparation
195 °F / 90 °C 4 min, 0 sec

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70
drank Litchi by Hazo
477 tasting notes

I recognized the powdery sweet, fruity smell of lychee when I sniffed the dry leaves (we’ve gotten them in the store where I work at in the past, so I know the smell, although I’ve never tasted one before so this will be new for me).

The smell transfers to the brewed tea, although there’s also a somewhat green smell as well.

Huh. The taste is very unique. I’ll have to buy the fruit one of these days. The black tea taste is there, but so is a sort of sweetness from the fruit. It’s very interesting. I can’t really pin down the taste of the lychee, mostly because I’ve never had the fruit (I decided to take a chance when I bought this tea). There is, though, something about it that reminds me about Marco Polo. I wonder if that includes a bit if lychee in it then.

There is a touch of dryness on the tip of my tongue when I sip, and then a burst of perfumyness before the black tea taste, and then a bit more perfume in the aftertaste. But not a floral perfume. Hmm.

I like it, but not enough that I think I would get it again in the future. I find that it is a bit watery (I did three teaspoons to two cups of water), so maybe I’ll try a bit stronger next time.

I added a bit of white sugar to my next cup (I usually add honey, but it seemed like it might overwhelm this flavour), and I think it does bring out the lychee slightly more. I added milk next, and it’s actually quite nice with milk. I didn’t think it would be able to stand up to it, and although I lose a lot of the tea flavour, the lychee is definitely more noticeable now. And it reminds me even more of Marco Polo.

Overall, quite enjoyable, although I want to test making it stronger next time. It’s light and very nice with a bit of sugar and milk.

Preparation
Boiling 5 min, 0 sec

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Bio

Disclaimer: I work for Murchie’s Tea and Coffee as a taster and blender. I will avoid putting any ratings on teas from them from here on out.

A tea-drinking transgendered Canadian, university graduate, majored in geology (yes, “rocks and things”). I take most of my tea made straight into a mug, although occasionally if I’m not in a hurry (this isn’t often), I’ll have time to sit down with a pot or gaiwan. It’s the highlight of a good day.

My notes are pretty disjointed because I’m absent-minded, and I also keep a teatra.de blog for reviewing and rambling about tea books/publications, and an instagram for photos. Expect nerding about tea production and history on both.

I’m a Doctor Who fanatic (Jon Pertwee, if you were wondering).

“But you should never turn down tea, when it’s offered. It’s impolite, and impoliteness is how wars start.” ~Eighth Doctor, Paul McGann

https://www.instagram.com/greywacke.tea/

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Canada

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http://artoftea.teatra.de

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