wombatgirl

I had this hot, and I thought it was ok. Then I had this iced, and really liked it. I’m surprised, but I’m finding iced green oolong teas amazing lately. As summer is now starting, I think this may be where I get my tea for the hot season. :) Maybe not this green oolong, but definitely other green oolongs.

Ok, so I’ve been putting off rating this tea for a while. Because everyone loves it, and I initally didn’t find it particularly special. I wasn’t getting the amazing dessert overtones that everyone else got.

But, it’s been growing on me. And now, I really like it. Especially when I have it with half and half and sweetener. Fruity, smooth, and just pleasureable.

Yum.

Oh, I get it now.

Yum.

I finally got to try this tea with the proper amount of tea to water (i.e a heck of a lot of tea to not much water) and the right temperature of water and I get the flavors others are talking about.

The floral and fruit overtones. The not really buttery but the feeling that if it got a little closer to a cow, we’d be in sweet cream territory flavor.

I like this, I like this a lot. Thank you so much Lena!

This was pretty interesting… very full-bodied and bold. The smokiness was surprisingly yummy, and the sweetness sneaks out from behind the smokiness as a lovely afterthought. I think I may need more of this tea…

I saw this in the local Asian grocery store and bought it, pretty much just so I could try it and log it here.

This tea takes me down memory lane. Set the way-back machine for longer-than-I’d-like-to-admit-ago. The summer of my junior year of college everyone I went to school with was getting an internship somewhere. And I had NO idea what I wanted to do. I didn’t want to just go home and spend the summer doing odd jobs, but I didn’t have a clue where I wanted to go and work.

I ended up getting bored one night and reading the endnotes in my personal organizer/calendar. It was one my mother had bought me, called WeMoon. And something caught my eye – they took interns! The calendar was produced out of a women’s commune in Oregon, near Portland. I’m not a particular radical anything, but when given the chance to live on a commune? How could I pass this up? It was such a different experience from pretty much anything else I’d ever experienced that I remember much of it very clearly.

One particular memory, relevant to the issue at hand is of this: one of the women who visited boiled some veggies for dinner, then poured the cooking water into a glass to drink later. When I looked at her funny, she said it helped increase the amount of vitamins you got from your food. It struck me as odd, but hey – do what you want.

So how does this relate to tea? This corn tea? It’s really the essence of roasted corn in a glass. Like you took a roasted ear fresh off the grill and managed to distill it into a glass. The smell is just like smelling corn boil on your stovetop. Or popcorn from two rooms away.
The taste is a naturally sweet corn flavor. It’s a little jarring to get it from a cup of warm liquid rather than gnawing on an ear, but it’s good.

This won’t become one of my staples, because when I’m drinking something warm and wet, I tend to want it tea flavored rather than vegetable flavored. But this was a really interesting experience, and a wonderful way to be reminded of that summer in Oregon.

Hrm.

I gave this a while between samplings, because I wasn’t sure I really had my mind made up. But I do. I’m just not that fond of this. It’s a really interesting experiment, of the sort that makes 52teas such a fascinating company, but it’s just not my cuppa. I think it’s got too much malt in it for my tastes. I do like genmaicha, but apparently I prefer mine straight up.

Got a sample of this from the fabulous Lena, and was really excited about it, since it was a Mariage Freres tea. I like Marco Polo, and wanted to give more of their teas a try.

I didn’t get quite the flavor hit out of this tea that I did Marco Polo. I tried it with and without a milk additive, and it just didn’t do it for me. It was a good flavor, and a nice tea, but not something I’d seek out, or spend money on.

hrm. I wasn’t particularly impressed with this tea. I wanted to be, I love vanilla. But it really didn’t have much of what I identify as that flavor. More came out once it cooled, but not initally. It was pretty tannic.

Overall, it just didn’t stand out for me. I tend to hold Samovar to pretty high standards, partially because they cost so much, and partially because so many others hold them in such high esteem. And this just didn’t make it.

Ah well – more samples to go try. :)

While I’ve had lots of Earl Grey in my life, I’ve only had two Earl Grey’s with lavendar. The other I thought to be a little wussy – I could barely tell the lavendar was there. No so with this tea. The first thing that hits you is lavendar. And this is not your grandmother’s closet sachets. This is a strong, self assertive lavendar. This lavendar has its own tools and can change a tire by itself.

The tea used in this blend is strong and tannin-y. The lavendar knows what it wants out of life. I’m not as fond of the bergamot in the blend. My first sips were very bergamot, but it did calm down later on in the cup.

Overall, this is a very good tea, and a very robust Earl Grey. Yum.

Brewing this a little stronger didn’t really change my scoring. Good tea, nice and minty/creamy.

Meh.

I am just not finding this tea impressive. I’ve had bad luck with cherry flavored teas – can’t find one I like. I’m finding this one hard to brew without bitterness, and there’s very little that stands out as yummy. No happy flavor of tea leaf, no creamy from the vanilla, and no juicy cherry flavor.

I’m just not impressed.

Another sample from the fabulous Lena. This tea was weaker than I expected. I’m not getting much cherry or much tea flavor out of it. I think I may have left the sample out in the sun for a day after I got it, so I think it may not be at it’s best. I’m going to leave off rating it, but merely log that I drank it.

From the fabulous Lena, I got a sample of this. I didn’t bother reading the instructions first, so I made this with 3 tsp tea and 16 oz water. Next time I’ll try the tablespoon per cup it recommends.

It’s very clean with a hint of creamy sweet in the background. The vanilla isn’t prominent, but it’s definitely there. And I’m not tempted to sweeten, which is surprising for me. I can’t taste that the black tea is pu-erh rather than just black, but it blends well.

Nice tea. I think I like it. I don’t know I’ll buy more, but I like it.

My general rule of thumb is as follows:

Herbal tea – sweeten
Black tea – milk and sweetener
Green tea – no sweetener
Oolong – no sweetener

So, true to form, I tried my first cup of this without sweetener. It was a bit harsh. The green tea components were fine, but the flavorings were a bit sour and overpowering.

Second cup, I sweetened. YUM!!! For me, it made it sing. The ginger plays the low note to the lemon high note, and the whole thing blends with the green in the background. I can see this as a lovely iced tea or after dinner tea, or pretty much an “any time I want something yummy tea”

My first real cup of tea since getting back from vacation and a business trip. Not a bad way to jump back in! My pot brewed up dark – I added my entire sample to my zarafina, and I think I should have cut it back.

The flavor is smooth yet high in tannin, and has a slightly drying mouthfeel. This may be because of too much tea leaf, but I didn’t mind.

Yummy, dark, and smooth. A good morning, wake-you-up tea.

Jade Teapot sample

Zarafina brewed at the black/loose/strong setting

Smells divine – the vanilla blends into the tea base aroma beautifully.

I drank it with milk and sweetner, my personal preference for the darker teas, and it was lovely. No bitterness, full mouth-taste, and the flavor of the vanilla blended well with the milk.

Lovely tea. A mellow, soothing tea.

Like the others, I got my sample from the Jade Teapot. Unlike the others, I was having a harder time tasting the blood orange through the rooibos. I think that I’m more sensitive to the rooibos taste than most, making some teas that are amazing for others tasting overly woody to me. This tea was good, but not one that is inspiring song and visions of large orders.

I do just need to say that the free sample from the Jade Teapot was very generous and shipped quickly. I’m very much hoping I fall in love with one of my samples, because I want to give this company my custom. Thanks Jade Teapot for being awesome.

No notes yet.

No notes yet.

Nice, standard Earl Grey – a little heavy on the Bergamot, I think. I drank this bagged, with milk and sweetner.

Had this, bagged, in my meeting yesterday, and it was the one thing that was making it livable. However, it wasn’t the best of teas – it was just decent. I drank with milk and sugar, and would probably not like much without because there was this background “blea” to the tea that I can’t put my finger on – possibly the black tea base? Icky vanilla beans? Not sure. However, it is a heck of a lot better than the bad coffee they’re offering, or the incessant soda cans.

Hrm. I’ve been looking forward to having this iced. Tonight my hubby decided that’s exactly what we needed to do, so he made it up.

Yeah, this batch needs some help. It’s gonna require a light hand – too strong a brew and it tastes… off. Too light, and there’s no flavor. I will need to experiment with this more. I’m not touching the score because warm, it’s still a good tea, but so far, iced – not so good.

Nice, clean tasting oolong. Smells woody and rich. Yummy. It’s a great workplace tea (Multiple resteeps, doesn’t require sweetner or cream, looks pretty). Not that much of a complex flavor, but nice and warm.

The dry leaf smells slightly smokey, the steeped leaf smells seaweed-ish. The brew is browny-green, and it smells.. not really seaweed-ish nor really green. A mild scent of green tea with a hint of something more, and a hint of seaweed.

The flavor is on the bitter side, and vegetal. I need to try this again with a thermometer – I just used the pouring cooling method to get it close. As it is, I’m not fond of this tea.