333 Tasting Notes
This is a very good sencha. While I’m not the biggest fan of sencha and have somewhat limited experience, this one was more enjoyable than most of the others I’ve tried. The aroma is deeply fragrant, a little roasty as well as creamy, with something fresh and intensely green that reminds me of a forest. (I keep saying that teas smell or taste “green” or “purple”—maybe I should just say they taste like chlorophyll and anthocyanins!) It brews up to a bright green color, and tastes quite lovely—with an infusion of 1 min as recommended, it comes out to a very mellow, balanced brew. It has a rich and savory, almost buttery mouthfeel, verging on umami. The grassiness is light and not bitter. The aftertaste is bright and fresh, almost citrus-like. The description on the package said it was reminiscent of a moonlit night, and in a way it is very soothing and brings up images of nature. This is one I would be happy to keep on hand!
This sample is from beelicious as well. I ended up liking it a lot more than the previous minty tea I tried!
The blend contains mint leaves, white chocolate shavings, and little spheres that I later realized were peppercorns. The white chocolate isn’t drowned out by the mint, and is detectable in the aroma as well as flavor, quite nicely creamy. The peppermint flavor is very fresh and cooling, so that it really does deserve the “frost” in its name. The overall effect is refreshing and a little sweet, and makes for a nice little wintery dessert.
Another cool evening seems like a good time to try some herbal teas. The aroma of this one brings up a weird association for me—it has a strong element of mixed spices that reminds me of cooking, and specifically of spice mixtures that are stewed for soup stock in a sachet. So basically the part that is used sparingly and isn’t edible after….
That aside, it has quite a strong mint flavor, and tastes like a mint chocolate candy (or indeed a mint mocha cafe drink). I couldn’t tell that there was rooibos in it until I read the ingredients, so that doesn’t seem to hurt or help the combination. It’s a little out of my comfort zone and I find the spice aroma overwhelming, so I won’t rate it, but thanks to beelicious for the sample and the chance to try something different.
A dark green tea with leaves of varying size. This one immediately smelled soothing to me—there’s just that quality to some green and green oolong teas that is calming and nostalgic. The tea liquor brews up to a light green color, and has a smooth mouthfeel and a gentle nori seaweed taste. After longer steeping, there’s a salty quality to it as well, and a lingering, almost fragrant note unique to green teas. I’m not a big fan of the salt, but it doesn’t detract much from the overall experience. In general, I do like the seaweed-esque green teas more than the ones that have strong vegetal (or rather vegetable) notes—those ones seem to go straight to my head, while a tea like this produces a nourishing, refreshing effect.
Who says you can’t have a breakfast tea in the afternoon?
This one has a lovely vanilla aroma in addition to that fragrance distinct to black tea itself—an intoxicating combination. It brews up quite dark, and is lusciously smooth. The tea base is excellent and full-bodied, with just a hint of the Yunnan “fuzziness” in it. The vanilla is perfect, and the whole thing has a honey sweetness to it that’s just right. Thank you beelicious for sharing this sample with me, especially since it seems to be one of your favorites too!
There’s just something addictive about this one—the combination of the subtle tea base and the flavors are just right. It hits that balance between creamy and tart, but not in the sense I would use those words for stronger, not-white teas either. It was the first tea I reached for after I got back from the holidays, and one I go back to time and again in the evenings—even though white teas aren’t all low in caffeine as commonly believed, this one does seem to be very light in that regard. I’m glad I still have a sizable portion of it left! (Increased rating)
Thanks to beelicious for this sample as well. A strawberry green tea sounded like a good candidate for making iced tea with, but I wanted to try this one hot first to get a general idea. The dry blend smells like strawberries and cream, as well as having that indescribable “dark green tea” aroma that is creamy in its own way, and almost powdery (am I making any sense here? Maybe I associate it with matcha powder). In terms of taste, the strawberry flavor is very fresh and natural. The tea base has a lot of presence—it’s a little grassy, just a little bitter but in a way that is enjoyable for green teas, and definitely “dark green”. Even more so than the Long Island Strawberry green tea I tried recently from Banff Tea Co, this blend is one where the tea itself doesn’t try to play hide-and-seek. Given that quality, it might actually make a better hot brew than cold brew—I can imagine it being a little too heady for a summery iced tea. But it’s definitely tasty!
This one does smell like maple syrup, but more than that, like apple and cinnamon—in fact, it reminds me of oatmeal with apples and cinnamon added, and just a drizzling of syrup. After brewing, the maple emerges more, and I found the flavor to be very heavy on the syrup sweetness. The tea base is fairly decent, but it gets overpowered by the flavors. I do appreciate that there were no artificial flavors listed in the ingredients. Thanks to beelicious for the sample!
This blend smells just like a chocolate cake—it’s hard to describe, but there’s even that moist, freshly-baked quality to it. In terms of flavor, it’s very authentically chocolatey as well, with a touch of liqueur-like, cherry sweetness. Most chocolate-flavored teas I’ve encountered outside of Butiki are downright unpleasant, so this was a nice surprise. (“It wasn’t nasty” might not sound like high praise, but for teas of this category it is!)
The tea base, however, is not that great. There is not much to be said about it, and it has an acidic quality that makes the blend less enjoyable. So, in terms of authentic flavoring it’s a win, but could do with a better backdrop.
