Dylan Oxford

Look, a tasting note!

The base on this is very smooth… its softer than the bases from previous black teas that I’ve had from 52teas. So, bravo Frank!

Now, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a huge bergamot fan to begin with, and I’m especially fond of bergs with a creamy or vanilla bit to them. I’m also fond of cheesecake. That means what we have here is a win/win/win… win.

This tea is fairly sweet all on its own, so careful with the sugar, friends! It’s not cloying, mostly due to the sharp citrus element to it, but I think you could hurt this if you were overzealous with the sweetener :)

Anyway, num nums. Glad I picked some of this up :)

Hrmm. Definitely not something I’m going to finish. It’s flowery in kind of a soapy way. Icky.

No notes yet.

No sir, I don’t like it.

To be fair, I am (at least mentally) comparing this to 52Teas Malted ChocoMate, and it isn’t holding up. There is a bit of a chocolate flavor to this, but mostly I get a very marshy, sweet flavor.

Its weird. It looks like roasted mate, but for all the world tastes like green mate.

At any rate, I uh, I don’t see this one sticking around.

I’m not putting a rating on this one, because this seems very much like a ’It’s not you, it’s me’ kind of deal. But personally, I’m not finishing the cup.

This is a fairly unassuming black tea… dark with a strong flavor, but not too… characteristic? Very straightforward. Would be an excellent iced tea base next summer, yes yes.

Alrighty… guests are out of the house, back to writing about tea!

We bought a sampler pack from Della Terra Teas because Missy really wanted to try the chocolately sampler pack. So we picked it up! And a few custom sampler packs… and there was a promotion that they threw in a Fall Sampler free with two custom sampler packs…

So, even though I haven’t been here posting, that doesn’t meant that I’ve somehow managed my problem. ;)

This tea is quite good, though they had me at graham cracker. It is very chocolately, and the marshmallow adds a nice creaminess to the flavor. A very nice creaminess.

The tea base itself isn’t my favorite though. I’m not sure what type it is (and Della Terra’s website isn’t telling!), but it reminds me a lot of the Hunan black I’ve had in a few blends from MarketSpice, that really just rubs me the wrong way.

Oh well, the flavoring more than makes up for it, and I think this tea will probably stick around. Could it be better? Probably. Is it the best tea with graham crackers I’ve ever had? YES!

Between working a somewhat ‘normal’ shift at work, and doing some crazy house cleaning/reorganizing for Missy’s visiting brothers, I haven’t been updating much lately.

I’m not entirely sure what my mental block is against working the standard business hours of 8-5. Well, traffic is a big part of it, commuting is definitely not all it’s cracked up to be. I digress. Working 8-5 makes me tired, and my tiredness prevents me from writing interesting and witty things in a tea review. This should probably be etched in my mind for those silly times where I think “Hey, I should write a blog, and make witty and interesting posts several times a week!”. It is unlikely to happen.

So this? This was kind of a random herb I threw into my Mountain Rose order just to give it a shot as a tea. I had a somewhat vague idea of what Fennel was, because I know it’s in some Mediterranean food, and it’s rumored to kind of taste like black licorice. I like black licorice, and things that resemble the taste of black licorice, so I’m interested in what it could mix with.

The liquid itself has a light yellow color, and gives off an inviting smell of… well, like an Indian restaurant. It’s not as sweet as what I think of the smell of black licorice being, which probably has a lot to do with the fact that I don’t have any sugar in this cup. Just fennel, all day long.

The taste follows suit with the smell. It is very reminiscent of black licorice, but with a more savory, almost salty flavor to it. A little sweet, almost imperceptibly salty, and with a teensy woodsiness at the end.

I had Missy try a little sip of this (she made it for me, after all). Her review is something along the lines of “It tastes like salty black licorice, and I can’t stand it”. Though, in my experience, I haven’t met many women who enjoy the flavor of black licorice. Not sure why, but it seems to be a trend.

So yeah, this isn’t necessarily something I’d ever want to drink on it’s own, but it could definitely add an interesting background flavor to some blends. It would probably go well in the background of a Tulsi blend.

I really, really love Teavivre’s Keemuns.

For the sake of transparency, I’m technically drinking a Keemun Grade 1.5 tonight, as it was a mix of remaining samples. But I like 2 better, so that’s where it’s getting logged. Nyah nyah nyah.

I drink this, and it pretty much cements in my mind that there’s no real need for Lapsang Souchong in my life. This keemun is rich and smokey, absolutely deliciously so, but without that really heavy smokey pine flavor. Which, all being said isn’t that bad (at least not Teavivre’s version), but is nowhere near as pleasurable as the just slightly smokey flavor of the Keemuns.

Missy’s awesome, she’s letting me finish off the pot because I like this so much. I’m totally drinking more than my fair share on this one… nummy nummy.

Almost out of these little tarantulas… which is probably good, since they’re going to have a birthday here pretty soon. I’ll miss them, but there’s a similar tea from Teavivre that tastes just as good, if not better (and not $10/oz!). Can’t remember which off the top of my head though. I’m sure I have a tasting note somewhere.

How are all you beautiful people tonight?

I may have mentioned on here before that my first experience with matcha was not a positive one. We had bought a pouch of matcha from a tea store that shall not be named, and Missy spent some time looking around on the internet figuring out exactly how much matcha to use for a cup of tea. Needless to say, it didn’t go terribly well. I took one sip, looked at Missy, and said “Are you serious, you actually want to drink this?”. Except it also involved swearing.

I put my interest in matcha on a back burner at that point. Maybe it was something a future, more refined me would enjoy, but definitely not today.

Then, Red Leaf Tea started showing up and making a huge effort to bring in new customers from Steepster. Reviews started popping up about their fantastic matcha, and the awesome flavors that they have. When the Belgium Chocolate Matcha went on sale, I knew it was time to give matcha another try. I figured, if I can’t enjoy half-priced, chocolate flavored matcha from what appears to be the best matcha vendor around, there was probably no hope.

My order options were:

Size : Small
Matcha Quality: Royal (Premium Grade)
Flavor: Distinctive

A side note: I involved two variables here, which breaks my little scientist heart. However, I thought that the best chance to succeed here would be if I used a better grade matcha, and a more prominent level of flavoring.

For preparing this one, Missy used her battery-powered frother, as opposed to the traditional matcha tools. It may be bucking convention, but it really seems to create a nice, smooth evenly distributed cup of matcha. This resulted in a smooth, but murky jade green drink, which is significantly darker than the matcha-that-shall-not-be-named. This makes it obvious that there is true cocoa powder in here, as opposed to just a flavoring (unless there was a flavoring and a coloring, then all bets are off).

It definitely smells very chocolatey, very sweet without any sugar added. It reminds me of a chocolate cake batter, or possibly muffin batter. There’s the chocolately sweetness to it, but the hint of background… well, I suppose it’s the smell of the matcha itself. Anyway, the matcha smell in the background elevates it a little bit to a baked-good smell, at least for me.

The taste is very smooth. At first, it has a warm hot cocoa flavor to it, absolutely delicious. It is inviting, and comforting, with a subtle sweetness on your tongue (much more subtle in taste than in smell). To me, the first drink was overwhelmingly cocoa flavored, with no vegetal taste to betray the matcha lurking below. Each successive drink makes that matcha flavor come out a little bit more. There is a strangely beneficial aspect to this, and that is that the matcha flavor itself slowly builds on you. It’s very crisp and clean, lightly foresty but without that swampy, seaweed taste that some green tea comes with.

As you get to the end of the drink, there is some matcha that has settled towards the bottom. This is likely because I’m a little bit of a slow drinker, sensitive to hot liquids and such. Or, we really have no clue what we’re doing. Always a possibility.

All in all, I would definitely recommend this matcha, especially if you’re new to the world of matcha. It has renewed my faith in matcha as a viable beverage choice.

You can get it here: http://www.redleaftea.com/matcha-tea/belgium-chocolate-matcha.html

Now… to mix it in with a protein shake in the morning…

This was a treat from Azzrian, so a big thank you to her!

I’ve never had lapacho before, so this was a unique experience. I also had to go read a bunch on it, which was kind of interesting.

Per a hint from Azz that you’re actually supposed to steep this for 25 minutes, Missy let it boil on the stove for a while. The result is an earthy, cream-sickle-y, slightly medicinal brew with a bit of an almost-bitter bite at the end. The flavor itself is quite interesting and pleasant.

All in all, not something I would mind drinking. MountainRoseherbs also sells lapacho (under the name Pau d’Arco) for a fairly modest price of $2/4oz. I bet it would taste good with mint or cinnamon. I’d be a little concerned with combining the lapacho with Tea, as it’s most regularly-agreed upon physiological effect is blood thinning, and well, blood thinning and caffeine can lead to a pretty rough night ;)

Thanks again for the sample, Azz!

A big thank you for the sample from Anny Oxident!

This one steeped to a nice pale yellow. The flavor to me is mostly that of a bai mu dan white tea, with that drier, peppery flavor to it. It also has a lemongrass taste to me, which I find a little strange. Missy is saying she tastes the mint, and it’s probably that I’m too used to mint that’s very BAM mint. Which is sad… because a white Moroccan mint sounds awesome.

Maybe I’ll have to make one of those.

So, strangely… Missy made two cups of this, one for me, one for her. From the exact same sample bag from Sandy. And they taste very, very different.

Mine is fantastic. It’s got the perfect lemon drop flavor (there’s some stevia added). It’s tart and refreshing, absolutely delicious.

Missy’s, on the other hand, has this weird bitterness. The lemon flavor (the ‘citral’ molecule), is harsher, more prevalent, and really not as enjoyable.

I’m not sure how it happened, but it did. She brewed it in the ingenuitea, and hers is the ‘first’ portion to come out, mine was the second. She just mixed them together and we both now have fairly pleasant cups.

Not saying I’d every really want to drink lemon myrtle straight. But now I kind of want a cup of straight lemongrass to compare.

Hrmm… kind of light, with a somewhat musty aftertaste to it. I jokingly referred to it as ‘attic tea’, because it kind of gives me that feeling of rummaging through old, dusty boxes of forgotten stuff.

Missy and I bought this sample from Upton because we’re very fond of the Vietnamese tea that SerendipiTea uses as the base for their Colonille vanilla flavored black. This one isn’t terrible, but I don’t think it’s something we’re going to want to keep around. As a straight black, there are just too many good choices that it would be competing with.

It seems like every time I write one of these ‘Hey, let’s try different ingredients!’ reviews, I walk in with some level of expectation that needs to be beaten with a stick. Inevitably, I write some version of “I expected this, but got that”.

Without further ado, I bring you Juniper.

Missy and I spent a little bit discussing how strong to brew this for a 12 oz glass. Originally, I was thinking we should go a little light. This is what I would refer to as ‘being scared’. I didn’t want to down a cup of Pine-Sol. We settled on full strength. At least then I would know exactly what kind of impact the berries would have on any future blends.

At one point during the steeping process, Missy hesitantly asked me whether she really should go with the full 8 minutes that we normally brew herbals at, but we carried forward.

So, after a prolonged period of anticipation, Missy sets a cup down next to me… and…

and…

It looks like water. Honestly, it’s only a shade or two of yellow off from perfectly crystal clear. If it was in anything other than a clear glass mug, you might think that you had a cup of water.

It does have an aroma, a somewhat sweet pine spicy fruity-ness to it. It’s actually a really interesting and pleasant scent. I’m growing more fond of it by the minute.

So how does it taste? Well, still kind of like water. It has an extremely subtle-but-apparent flavor to it, that may or may not actually just be the scent working it’s way across my tongue. You feel the almost tangy pine flavor in your jaw more than you really taste it on your tongue. There’s a light sweetness to it as well.

It really seems like a lot of work for a flavor that would be eclipsed by ice-water-with-lemon. What I definitely do know now, is that I don’t have to shy away from the juniper berries in any mix I might toss together. They’ll add more to aesthetic value than they would detract from flavor.

So, all in all – I expected a purple cup of pine-death, but ended up with a faint but pleasant scented water. I’ll chalk that up as a win.

This tea deserves a much better review than I can provide it at this exact point in time.

You see, we started drinking this about six hours ago, with the first steep. The flavor was pleasant, very reminiscent of the bailin gongfu I so enjoy from Teavivre. But it was smoother, with a little more of a cocoa taste to it in place of the malty, grainy taste of the bailin. Well, the Laoshan has a grainy taste as well, but it is more mellow.

Then we did a second steeping, and we both started doing some cleaning around the house. The second steeping was a little sweeter, and not noticeably any weaker (I should mention that these are western brewings, not gaiwan). I didn’t get the cinnamon notes, but that could be my own personal lack of refinement ;)

Missy did the third steeping while I was making dinner. Again, that same sweet and smooth taste, with a mild graininess. Quite enjoyable. But I sat down with my nice, char-grilled steak, a warm cup of tea, and started watching Boardwalk empire. Three steeps into this tea, and I never sat down and really thought about what I was tasting with enough detail to write a good, handy tasting note.

I do enjoy this tea quite a bit, all of what I’ve heard of the quality of Verdant’s tea is true. This is a very smooth, very crisp, enjoyable tea.

I’ve got big droopy puppy eyes as I’m writing this review, so I’m going to whine about being tired and writing a short review A SECOND TIME.

I really do love this tea, it’s probably my favorite kangaroo blend. Missy prefers 52teas Melange Rooibos, due to the lacking of ginger. I, however, happen to enjoy ginger.

It’s just spicy, and warm, and tasty, and gosh darn flavorful. Serendipitea really does kangaroo well in a lot of blends.

This is not the vanilla tea you’re looking for.

I’m probably rating this a little harshly, as I’m comparing it to my favorite vanilla tea (Colonille from SerendipiTea). The base tea is less smooth, more of a bite to it. Not exactly astringent, but a little bit of a darker tea flavor. Unfortunately, the vanilla doesn’t come through as powerful or as pleasantly. So, I’m not really terribly fond of this as a vanilla tea. I mean, it’s not terrible. It will probably be decent iced. But, it really has zero chance of supplanting Colonille in my cupboard.

Win some, lose some.

Missy sets a glass of this down in front of me.

Me: Is this swampwater?
Missy: Yeah. It tastes like rocket pops!
Me: Rocket pops?
Missy: Yeah! Those orange and red Popsicles that you used to get. They’re not the same any more.

I take a drink.

Me: Does this have rooibos in it?
Missy: Yeah, green. Why?
Me: It tastes very rooibos-y.
Missy: I don’t think it tastes anything like rooibos.

I laugh.

Missy: I kind of want to keep this around just for the color.
Missy: Wait, what are you typing over there?

This is the appropriately named Swampwater, due to it’s brackish green-brown color. I really wonder if they set out to make this tea brackish and scary, or they thought this flavor might work and someone went “Dude, that will never sell… it looks like swampwater”. I’m guessing the later, but I have zero idea what happens in the DAVIDsTEA tealab. If they don’t call it a tealab, they should.

Anyway, this was another tea I got from the awesome prize package from DaisyChubb and her blog of coolness. It tastes rooibos-y and fruity, a little bit nutty, and looks like abhorrent.

All in all, good times. Not so sure it’s something I’d want to keep around, but it was definitely an interesting experience (and the box it came in has an awesome swampmonster thing, and swamp themed stickers I gave to our daughter)

This is part two of truly attempting to understand the herbs and flavorings that I think I know. Spearmint.

From the bag, the loose leaf smells less potent than peppermint. It is a softer, more luxurious smell. It’s cool and refreshing, but with less of the bite that you receive from the peppermint. More relaxed, it attempts to impress rather than intimidate.

Steeped, the liquor is a yellow-amber, almost golden. I was still expecting green. Call me crazy.

The flavor has a sweet, foresty taste to it. It is lush and smooth, but without the pine tang of the peppermint. It’s softer. Flavorful, but not powerful. There is a light, soothing coolness to the flavor, and a sweet candy flavor to the finish.

Part of my whole basis for these experiments I am doing is to make myself more aware of when I “guess” at flavors, instead of actually experiencing them. One of those “guesses” that I think I need to throw out of the window… is my love for spearmint. I’ve always thought spearmint was my favorite. But really, after having a steaming cup of peppermint vs a steaming cup of spearmint, all alone… Peppermint definitely takes the cake.

Part of this has to do with the fact that… spearmint is evidently more prevalent in most of my dental products than I thought. As much as I sat and tried to drink this with an open mind… I thought of mouthwash. I thought of toothpaste. I thought of mint waxed dental floss. I swear in my head that flavor was a candied peppermint, but no, evidently it’s spearmint.

Now, I’m not saying this flavor doesn’t belong places… but I really think that I want it in a slightly lesser abundance than the peppermint. Maybe 60/40.

No notes yet.

I think Missy got this with her last set of samples from Angel, so thank you to Angel :)

Hoooo boy, this hit my tart button good and hard. Wow. I think this one needs a couple gallons of sugar and some ice before I think I’m going to want to keep it around. I’ll have to grab a bit of this and try it sugared up. Until then… I think I’ll skip a number :)

Mmmm… I’m pretty happy with this one. Very, very pear with some nice vanilla flavoring to it. More of a bosch pear than an anjou, which I think may be why it’s hitting the tart button for a bunch of folks. Though, to be fair, I’m drinking this sample and Teavivre’s Water Lily, which is far more tart. The apple surprisingly didn’t seem to overpower the pear, which may defy all rational consensus.

So yeah, if you like a good fruity pear flavor, this is one for you! Sweetened and iced, I’m betting it’s remarkably refreshing.

A very generous sample from Anny Oxidant & the Tea Bullie. Also my first Verdant, strangely.

The Tulsi on this seems to be the most prominent flavor to me, followed by the mint and coriander. I seem to be experiencing this tea backwards from everyone else, like it was made for me by the Time Traveler’s Wife.

It was a very good quality blend, an interesting combination of flavors that was fairly enjoyable. I’m glad I had a chance to try it, but I don’t see myself stocking this one.

Thanks again, Anny!