437 Tasting Notes
I must admit that i really like this tea, it capture the high notes champagne mixed with the fruity notes of slightly sugared crushed srawberries . It smells a little of strawberry cordial. The base is a fairly light slightly grassy sencha, whose grassiness is tempered by the chamomile that acts to also increase the fruitiness of the tea. I steeped the tea for about the two minutes suggested and the tea did not become bitter, there is a little astringency but all it does is act to mimic the dryness champagne can leave in the mouth.
The tea re-steeps well with the champagne weakening and the chamomile strengthening.
Preparation
This is a tea that benefits from a little exta leaf and a slightly stronger steeping time than i use with tea, but once i discovered this i really do like it.
The base has a bright piny minty top note and is quite refreshing. This is a tea that has lots of flavour notes that you discover as you drink. At first you get a smoky flavour mixed with the minty pine that reminds me of the way that the air tastes when in a recent forest fire zone, this is followed by a bright and fruity citrusy note that lightens the tea and keeps it from becoming heavy. The lemongrass tones down any bitterness from the smoke and the minty tone helps to tie it all together. It does remind me a little of early mornings in early fall when I worked out of Racine Lake near Chapleau Ontario.Just what I needed right now. A nice accomplishment a smoky tea that manages to be light and refreshing as well!
Glad you’re enjoying this! Also, I love when my teas are effective at evoking the natural memories they are inspired by. :) Enjoy!~
Thanks! They’re really good memories too, I had two fabulous summers working on a Black Bear project when I was in University.
Ohhh, that sounds beautiful! :)
Curious, what steeping time and leaf amount per 8oz of water did you use?
For black teas I usually use 1-1.5 tsp / 8 oz, but I think I used two heaping tsp. Instead of steeping for 2-3.5 minutes, I think I steeped it for closer to 5 ;).
Wow! That’s a lot of leaf!
I know it might not have been quite that much I kind of had to extrapolate a bit because I brewed it in a 5 oz gaiwan to make one teacup for testing, and it has been a few days!
I needed a bit of a pick me up and I was craving something fruity but not overly desert like so I decided to try this tea. It delivers well on the first part after a cup I am pleasantly buzzing.
The dry tea consists of a nice dark congou blended with calendula petals and dried fruit. It brews to a nice maple colour. The scent of the tea very much reminds me of this peach apricot tea that I have:
http://steepster.com/teas/big-active/35473-essence-tea-yunnan-with-peach-and-apricot. However while the Posti tea is kind of rugged this one has a much smoother and subtle base and a lighter flavouring.
The tea smells more of mango than apple. It smells faintly peppery with a hint of that slightly starchy fruity scent that mangoes can have. The Mango becomes even more distinct as it cools with some bright accents peaking through from the apple
The tea base is very smooth with a slight hint of dark chocolate malt underneath a dominant top note that is very bright and light which melds with a mango note and something that is almost floral. The apple is not distinct but it might be contributing to the floral hint and helps to prevent the mango from becoming heavy and overly sweet. This tea is easily drinkable, but not heavily flavoured. The peppery notes become more distinct as you drink the cup. It has an interesting slightly raisiny aftertaste. A pleasant afternoon tea.
This is a very nice rose scented black that has a similar flavour profile to my favourite rose white:
http://steepster.com/teas/big-active/35474-white-tea-with-rose-petal
hence I’m already disposed to look on it favourably.
It brews to a bright copper colour, and has a scent of tea rose mixed with a deeper , slightly bready tea scent.
The first taste is of rose water with a slight metaliic ting. While it captures a similar flavour profile to my favourite rose white tea it lacks a bit of the sweetness and most of the citrus notes the white possesses. The tea underneath is quite smooth with very little astringency, just enough to leave a freshness in the mouth. The base tea has green vegetal that blends well with the rose flavour as top
notes that dissipate into a sweet fruity, raisiny base with biscuit notes. The tea is not powdery or overtly perfumy. It resteeps quite decently with the rose becoming a little more peppery and the base developing a faint hint of liquorice. I would enjoy keeping this tea in my cupboard.
Preparation
The name of this tea is French Vanilla Bean but what it actually reminds me is of good white chocolate (which is a good thing, I like white chocolate). It brews to a clear copper colour and the liquor smells of cocoa butter, mixed with a buttery warm vanilla with a hint of baked almond and coconut over sweet potatoe finished with a soft floral hint.
This tea has a medium body tea base which is sweet and slightly fruity with a touch of mild bitterness dissipating into a mix of cocoa butter and vanilla. I think that for me the coconut and almond seem to be working together to make the flavour that reminds me of cocoa butter as this tea does not taste like coconut and is not strongly nutty. The vanilla in this tea is a little bit heavier and warmer than other vanilla teas i’ve had with a faint aftertaste of vanilla and yam. As the tea cools it becomes less bitter, and bright red fruit tones appear in the base tea. A warm vanilla with floral hints and an intensifying sweetness lingers in the mouth for quite sometime after drinking. The tea is not astringent, but I think I will reduce the brewing temperature and time the next time to see if I can bring out more of the creaminess and sweetness often present in green tea. Very nice.
Preparation
This is a really nice blend that offers the calming impact (for me a sophoric)of Jasmine with the cleansing and refreshing impact of mint blended so both are muted to create something that is deeper and sweeter and fresher, over a creamy slightly smoky sweet green tea with hints of spinach which creates a nice mouth feel and adds depth. The tea has a really nice body and the flavours blend nicely. The second steep still has a nice creamy body with the jasmine a little more prominent but the flavours still compliment and blend nicely. The scent of the dry tea at first reminds me a little bit of graveyard blend which is ironic as their is no licorice root either in the blend or the flavour. Their is a mix of green teas including some with really beautiful long twisted blades and the tea brews to a light saffron colour. I’m off to enjoy a third steeping.
This tea brews to a blush pink / beige colour with a scent of citrus accents over sharp berry floral and something slightly earthy that
gives the tea some depth. There is a sweet almost minty undertone followed by lemon verbena and a slight tartness. There is also a sweet fruity floral with a bit of slightly deeper tang as a result of the citrus peel, rosehip, and hibiscus. The oolong lends a fruity sweetness to the tea and smooths out the base and gives the tea a slightly thicker creamier body. It has a pleasant tastes almost like a well balanced herbal that leaves you with a feeling of pleasant alertness. The floral taste is almost like the scent of yarrow and leaves a slightly earthy aftertaste, so it reminds me of sunny days and picnics in the countryside. I re-steeped this tea four times. This tea tastes a little bit like sumac lemonade if you’ve ever had that.
I am trying to rate and review some of the teas I’ve had for a while before opening new ones. I’ve had this one for a while now and while it is enjoyable I still find myself making my own chai when I want spice rather than drinking my chai influenced blends so I am better off not buying them. Saying that this is a nice representative of it’s genre.
It brews to a copper colour and has a scent that reminds me of graham crackers mixed with gingerbread cookies. It smells of cloves and nutmeg and a biscuit tone with a hint of ginger over something sweet with a hint of vanilla. It smells closer to the store bought pumpkin pie I’ve had rather than the homebaked ones in my family which usually smell brighter in someway.The tea has a smooth slightly sweet and refreshing base over laden with cinnamon, then the deeper tones of nutmeg cloves and vanilla mixed with vanilla that remind me a little bit of cream followed by a bittertone from the base tea mixed with hints of sweet pumpkin. There is an aftertaste of cream, spice and sweet tea and pumpkin.
The spice especially the cloves are not overwhelming as they can be in this type of blend. However this blend still makes me think more of graham crackers mixed with a slightly stronger bite of ginger and cinnamon rather than pumpkin pie for some reason. It re-steeps decently well, maintaining a decent body and has a nice spicy flavour.
Preparation
This is the second straight Keemum I’ve tried. The first I tried (Zen teas) was a little picky if over leafed or steeped too long it was very smoky but when you got it right it had a nice body and an interesting mix of flavours but it isn’t something I drink on a regular basis.
This one is quite nice. It is very sweet and refreshing and the smoke takes a back seat. I brewed this tea in a western style according to the instructions on Whispering Pines website. 1 tsp per cup for 3 minutes at boiling water. It brews up to a maple colour hinting at copper. The tea smells of smoke, mint, sweet caramelized potato and plum hinting into cherry with a hint of lemon.
At first sip it tastes of caramelized burnt sugar and sweet potato, opening into a fresh smoky and slightly minty flavour, underneath a slightly sour sweet plum taste with a hint of artichoke. The tea is pretty refreshing and might make a nice ice tea. Later sips reveal floral notes of rose as a top note. It is a fairly smooth tea with little astringency and a thin to medium body. There is an aftertaste of burnt sugar/ dark honey, with sour stone fruit notes. This tea is a nice mix of sweet and sour and refreshing. The mint might be the result of contamination from a tea it was shipped with or might be how I detect the pine notes this tea is supposed to have, but it actually is a nice addition to the tea if it is. This is a nice everyday tea.
Preparation
This is a strong tasting and very fruity version of a high mountain Jin Xuan that has not been flavoured. It is quite resilient and can last well over 10 steeps with strong and pleasant flavours. Throughout a brewing session there are dominant flavours notes of pineapple, peach, cream, and gardenia with notes of peaches and cream corn, clover, hay, lemon, artichoke and grass appearing through out the brewing process. The tea retains a relatively thick and creamy mouth feel for about half of the brewing session. This tea would probably be enjoyed by those who love fruity green oolongs, the floral notes are present but remain mostly in the background blending into the cream. On taste alone I would probably rate this tea around 95. However at $38.00 per 150g it is hardly the most affordable Jin Xuan available. Mountain tea’s option is $13.00 for around the same amount and Teavivre’s would cost around $17.20 for the same amount. I am curious to compare this to Mountain Teas once I open it and will probably adjust my ratings then.
Below are more detailed notes
Dry leaf – lime to spruce green tightly coiled leaves, with a fruity, peach, pineapple, cereal/hay scent.
steeped at 60s, 40s, 50s, 60s, 65s, 80s, 85s, 90s, 95s, 105s with water temperature between 85-95 degrees Celsius (increased for later sessions)
Tea consistently brewed to a bright green gold yellow colour.
60s scent – sweet pineapple peach, cream, hint of gardenia and corn.
taste – pineapple tempered by warn peach, hint of cream, hint of gardenia hint of hay, smooth, medium to thick bodied, light freshening feeling at front of mouth. Aftertaste of pineapple and hay.
40s scent – pineapple peach, hay, cream faint floral notes
flavour – stronger vegetal notes of hay ,and floral spice of gardenia, still strong notes of pineapple and peach, creamy buttery mouth feel with stronger hints of cooling at top and front of mouth. Aftertaste is similar to original with slight floral notes.
50s scent – cream, peach pineapple faint hay
taste – gardenia mixed equally with peaches and cream with a hint of pineapple over a faintly bitter vegetal note. Slightly thinner body but still creamy.
60s scent – same
flavour – fruit/gardenia and hay thinner and slightly more astringent, clean feeling in mouth including back of mouth, aftertaste of eating peaches with clover. sweet and slightly spicy.
65s scent – fruit and gardenia and cream
taste – cream, peach mixed with gardenia and faint artichoke, slightly less sweet, and more vegetal with a hint of bitterness.
80s cream gardenia and faint fruit taste consistent with smell plus a hint of hay and a vegetal bitterness. slightly more astringent aftertaste of peach and pineapple and clover.
85s scent – same as above with a hint of lemon.
taste – thinner still with a light creamy floral note over peaches over a now stronger bitter artichoke note and a hint of grass. mildly astringent.
90s smell – sweet cream with a hint of floral
same taste touch thinner with slightly more grassy aftertaste.
95s same scent
taste – more sweet fruit with a hint of floral spice mixed with artichoke.
105s scent – corn, cream and a hint of peach with floral note
taste – sweet green tea with fruit and cream tones followed by bitter tones followed by spicy floral notes with a slightly grassy aftertaste with a hint of lemon.
spent leaves – fairly large with hints of brown along the edges.
