Snow Geisha

This is, officially, my lowest rating yet. I actually feel a bit bad about taking the time and energy to write about a tea that I just didn’t like. Still, considering how expensive this particular blend is (thankfully mine was a random gift) I feel that I should put my opinion out there for people to read if they consider trying it.

First off, I am sure that there will be people who might enjoy this. Everyone likes different tastes and different things, and that is just fine with me. I, personally, did not like this at all.

It smells artificial. If you could make plastic smell like cherry, I am sure that it would smell something like this. It also had some scent that made me think medicinal. Not enjoyable at all.

I have had it twice so far. The first time I had it, I could barely drink it. Unsweetened it tasted a lot like plastic with a cherry aftertaste. I sipped it until it cooled down and then chugged it down once it cooled down to quickly finish it and make something more tasty. The second time I added A LOT of brown sugar. To my surprise it was much better! Not any less artificial though… Sadly, I don’t up the score much because I am sure that sugar did more to make me like the flavor than the actual tea did…

Sweetened it tasted a lot like cherry Twizzlers, the kind that you can pull strings off of and eat it one strand at a time. It actually wasn’t horrible, but I don’t think that you should have to add soooo much sweet to a tea in order for it to be drinkable.

If this were a really cheap tea, I feel like it might make a nice really sweet ice tea. It is not cheap. I will not be purchasing it. Ever. Tough I must admit that I will eventually drink through what I have with insane amounts of sugar or sweetener. Maybe I will try to make insanely sweet and expensive iced tea… Hmmm…

Now I’m off to drink yummier tea! : )

I believe I got this one from CupofTree…thanks!

I can taste a little bit of Cherry with some ‘stale’ type of rose flavor. Sometimes I find Teavana’s Rose(s)/Flavors to be a little bitter or stale…maybe it’s just me…

The very little bit of cherry I do taste with the white tea base is rather nice. The rose is a tad distracting.

Overall – it’s ok. With reading all the negative reviews I thought it would be much worse…intolerable even. BUT…I am positive I will be able to finish this cuppa and I was careful NOT to over infuse. I maybe even UNDER infused as a precaution.

Having said all that. It’s alright…I, personally, would have cut back a tad on the rose but the rest of it’s good :)

Not too shabby!

LOL this clearly is one of those love it or hate it teas!
I am on the loved it side!
Granted it is not the all time best ever tea EVER or anything but its mighty fine if you are wanting something REALLY fruity!
Now I will agree with some who mentioned this tea is a bit artificial flavored and the very first aroma I got from this was a children’s chewable vitamin aroma!
Flintstones anyone?
However I quite needed that little punch in the nose this morning and maybe it was because it placed a smile on my face remembering giving those vitamins from my youth or something.
It literally made mouth water when smelling it with its tart fruity aroma!
It had this bright cherry taste, crisp and cleansing.
It was sweet so no added sugary necessary.
Very berry flavored and I think I could enjoy this but probably only every great now and then.
I had fun with this one!
Thank you Sandy Stith for this sample! :)

Thanks, CupofTree!

Maybe it’s because I was sipping on cherry limeade before I decided to switch to tea, but I quite enjoy this. I’m drinking it iced, and I kind of really love the combination of cherry and rose. Speaking of rose, I got flowers this weekend because why not. Trader Joe’s has 7 roses for $5, so how can you not when they’re this color: http://www.flickr.com/photos/thethrillstheyyield/7875882440/in/photostream/
They don’t last very long though, they were already turning when I got them but they were the only neon red-orange ones and so I didn’t care. Plus I know they’ll die after a few days anyway, whereas my attempts with orchids…that wasn’t an appropriate lifespan.

This really tastes like a floral cherry limeade. There’s not really lime but there’s some other vague fruit flavors than just the cherry. Or floral candy dropped into cherry limeade. Actually what I was drinking shouldn’t even qualify as cherry limeade because it was pretty much just cherry.

I don’t know if I would buy it (I would if someone would call me back for an interview, if you know what I mean, because HI I LIKE THIS) but I will definitely have no problem finishing what I was sent!

Ah. The ingredients say that this contains sour cherry. That would explain it. I got this because it smelled a bit like Mariage Frères’ Sakura the Blanc. But as I continued to sniff it ended up smelling more like cherry LifeSaver. The scent mellows out a bit when it is brewed, once again reminding me of StB, but the tea looks like a mix of pink lemonade and fruit punch. I wish the taste matched up more to the smell but instead I get sour cherry. The sour part hits immediately and doesn’t let go. There’s some really pretty stuff going on behind the sour, stuff that reminds me a lot of StB, but it’s barely peaking out because the sour pretty much beats it to death. Couldn’t just be normal cherry, nooooo, had to be sour.

I’m seriously contemplating picking out all of the non-tea-ness from this mix and seeing if I can get the pretty taste without the sour. Because the sour is really not happening for me.
^10g/20oz

Another stop at the same Teavana.

I was wanting a tea with some real cherries in it and Teavana has this. I knew the reviews on Steepster were pretty bad, but I thought one to-go cup wouldn’t hurt. Don’t know how long they brewed this, but they said brew temp was 175.

This started out okay. I was sipping in store and I didn’t taste the cough medicine-type flavor people complained of. It seemed promising, if not exactly as exciting as its appearance. However, after just a couple minutes of slight cooling, the nasty flavor came through. Not sure I would say cough syrup, but something akin to it-very artificial tasting.

I bought one Teavana storage tin (had to buy an 8 ounce tin because they discontinued the 6 ounce tin inside stores-in a sneaky effort to upsell your tea purchases, no doubt). As I left, I continued sipping until I could taste nothing but the artificial tasting cherry flavor. It was just overpowering. I wound up dumping about half the cup.

The customer service at this Teavana is good and not pushy-I even looked at the cast iron kettles to see what would happen and they just let me look. However, when I asked a question, they were right on top of it. Unfortunately, they had the same 6 boring samples as the last time I ventured that way a few weeks ago-and I’m not spending $12-15 just to try 3 teas in to-go cups, so nothing other than that cup purchased today.

Hard to call this tea disappointing, since ratings are so low, but it’s still kinda disappointing anyway.

Steep Information:
Amount: 1.5 heaping tsp
Additives: 1 teaspoon raw honey
Water: 185°
Tool: make your own paper teabag
Steep Time: a little over 4 minutes
Served: Hot

Tasting Notes:
Dry Leaf Smell: cherry, fruit
Steeped Tea Smell: cherry, fruit, tea
Flavor: slightly bitter, vegetal, cherry
Body: Light
Aftertaste: vegetal, bitter
Liquor:

This tea is a mellow, light, fruity tea. the flavorings are slightly more than subtle. I enjoy this tea but always wish it had a little more punch to the flavor. On the other hand it smells divine.

I had this tea while visiting my mom, being a fan of subtle many of her teas are whites, greens, and subtle flavored.

images: http://amazonv.blogspot.com/2010/04/teavana-loose-leaf-white-tea-snow.html

This is my first white tea. It is also my favorite tea so far and I have waited until finishing 2 oz of it before writing this.

I realize it’s a hated one among many but I seriously wonder if they are brewing it correctly as that’s what helps makes this tea great. But even when I didn’t have my temp control kettle and sometimes brew it bitter I still loved it. I had to add orange blossom honey which made it incredibly tasty but now that it’s brewed correctly, I drink it unsweetened and its the only tea I can drink this way.

First of all, the scent is amazing. I love the soft cherry aroma every time I open the tea canister and while brewing. The tea is very pretty and I enjoy watching how much the leaves expand.
Taste wise, its just a lovely combination of light (cherry?) flavors that is very smooth and relaxing. I don’t get a medicinal association at all that others complain of.

I’ve enjoyed every cup of it and my favorite time to drink it is late at night. Steeped twice as well.

The dry aroma smells heavily of fruit and reminds me most of papaya or guava, though neither exist in this tea. Once brewed the aroma becomes much more floral. The rosehips come out most readily with the hibiscus not far behind.

Producing a very very light yellow-orange liquor, the flavors get complicated. There’s an unexpected astringency here which I blame the citrus peels (orange and lemon) for. I don’t sense any mango smoothness or natural sweetness from the hibiscus. Instead I mostly get the sour cherry and rose petal coming through.

Snow Geisha causes a notable dryness of the palate which I also did not expect for a white tea.

While the aroma was satisfying I would have liked less complication in this blend flavor-wise. Maybe drop the fruit peels and the rosehips and see how that turns out. As it is, I felt this blend fell short of my expectations.

Fans of fruity teas may like this blend, but be forewarned some sweetener may be handy to keep this tea from drying your palate too much.

I bought this tea last year (so before the upgrade) and all I can say is that I wish I had bought less than 4oz. Now I’m down to my last ounce, and I just can’t bring myself to drink anymore of it. Now, I don’t mind the smell—i love cherries! The taste of this tea is what bothers me.

No matter how hard I tried to not over-steep, the tea always came out bitter, extremely bitter. Usually I sweeten my tea with rock sugar, but sometimes this tea comes out so bad I have to pull out an equal…or two just to make it somewhat drinkable.

Some days it tastes better than others , but I have never eagerly made this tea. Mainly, I just keep making it to use it up to make room to buy my next tea.

This is not my favorite tea. However, I find that it is much better when brewed correctly.
When I first got it I was guessing on time and temperature, as I had just begun my loose tea adventure. It was awful, bitter, and even more artificial than a cough drop. This tea begs to have its instructions followed, so be warned lazier brewers!
I have learned since then, and while this is not my favorite, it is an improvement.
The loose tea is really nice to look at, all flowers, cherries and leaves. The scent is still very candy-cherry, little scent of tea itself.
The brew is a light pink-tinted amber, smells less artificial than dry, but still very twizzlers-y.
Taste when properly brewed is light and slightly sweet, with floral cherry at the forefront. Slightly artificial aftertaste. Definitely a candy tea. I added a few crystals of rock sugar to balance it out. This is a much better experience than my first try. I probably will not buy again after finishing this tin which contains about another 2 oz.
I’d recommend only if you enjoy cherry CANDY and floral teas, not if you like fresh cherry fruit.

This is a tea that I have wanted and tried to like many times but no matter how low my water temperature or short my steep time I get an astringent aftertaste that bothers me much more than the cherry cough drop taste most people talk about, not sure if it is the tea leaves themselves or one of the other ingredients. When Sakura Allure was released I tried the blend of the two and it was much better, but I prefer Sakura on its own unsweetened and recommend it to anyone who has tried Snow Geisha. They can discontinue this next year and the only thing I’ll be sad about is that it was a waste of a pretty name.

Luckily, I was not the one to purchase this tea, I just tried some from my brother. It’s really gross! It tastes like cherry-flavored red food dye. Just a very strong chemical taste. I tried blending it with a few other fruit flavors to maybe get something better, but all I could taste was the too-strong cherry.

This tea was amazing. A friend and I had a tea-tasting evening a couple of years ago, and I had just a precious bit of this tea. We ignored Teavana’s ridiculous tea instructions and brewed Snow Geisha for exactly 60 seconds, using water just before it had reached the boiling point.

The tea actually tasted like snow. We sat there and sipped it and were amazed at how bright and dry it was – with a crispness like a fresh snowy day and the very mild, sweet flavor. I think we must have had the original version because this tea was really revolutionary for me, a traditional black tea, milk-and-sugar gal. I absolutely love and and miss it – there’s nothing like your first time.

I enjoy this tea not for the tea base itself, but for the delightful cherry flavor. The upgraded version now actually tastes the way it smells. The older version was more mellow in terms of taste for certain. The tea base is also stronger in that it can be brewed for a longer time without going bitter.

I had this tea twice before I marched right over to Teavana and asked for an exchange. This was one of the worst teas I have ever tried. It smells nice at first whiff, the intermingling of cherry, floral notes, and the subtle white tea, but it was better used as potpourri than as a drink. First sip, it tasted like like I was drinking red plastic. I quickly threw ice and sugar in it and chugged it down like a frat boy. I thought, perhaps, I brewed it too long/hot. Second up, there was no different. I couldn’t even taste the white tea due to the pronounceable nature of the cherry. Seriously, worst decision ever.

The new version is terrible. I loved the previous version

Definitely not “delicate,” as it is described – way too fruity – the intense cherry/cranberry obliterates any of the delicious subtlety of the white tea base. It smelled so strongly that it reminded me of cherry cough syrup.

I admit ever since I went David’s a few years back I haven’t really gone back to Teavana but considering my border-line obsession with cherry blossoms I just had to go. While picking up my Sakura Allure box set (which was the reason I went) this was second on my list of must try teas. For someone who likes cherry and rose teas…I have to admit the scent is powerful.

Once you get past that and the wonder of where they got the idea that this was delicate, it’s not that bad. It’s actually quite good. I was sipping it most of this afternoon while serving tea at the lodge. In comparison to “Cherry Blossom” by David’s it is not the most natural of flavors but I expect that when going into buying blends from Teavana.

So…drinker beware it’s going to be quite the experience. Sip slow and it should have less of a medicinal kickback. Hopefully. (Yes, I am doing my best to convince myself about that. Haha.)

yuck, this is my friends favorite tea, but all I could taste is the flavor of cherry cough drops. Couln’t finish this cup of tea.