236 Tasting Notes
This tea has a very strong scent of cinnamon and that musty marsala scent (but the cinnamon has clearly beaten the tea and the marsala into submission). My opinion is that this blend takes the worst aspects of cinnamon, wine, and black tea and brings them out. If you are such a cinnamon fanatic that you would suck on cinnamon bark, you might like this tea. It’s a bit too much for me.
Preparation
A nice tea with a buttered vegetal fragrance and taste and that slight nutty taste I’ve come to associate with Sencha. There is the slightest bit of something that might turn into bitterness if steeped too long or at too high of a temperature, but in my cup it is just fine and good with a slight tang.
Preparation
A nice mellow Assam tea with delightful toasty notes and a slight sweetness. While it is not as complex as some full caf Assams I’ve had, it is nonetheless very nice. It makes a soothing cup to accompany me to bed. No bitterness. No astringency.
Preparation
My office has free tea along with free coffee, but since discovering good teas I haven’t availed myself of it. However after the Tavalon Dragonwell, I needed something to clear my palate, something to wipe the weird, numbing coating from my tongue. So I chose this since I generally like white teas and since the tangerine should function quite nicely as a mouth cleaner.
It steeps into a murky orange brew with the fragrance of tangerine candy. It tastes like tangerine as well. There’s not much of a white tea taste, but I purposely understeeped it to avoid any bitterness. It’s an ok tea and great for my purposes today but it is profoundly a one-note tea. There is no complexity here.
Preparation
Do you have a blog? As a fellow Vegetarian I would LOVE to swap teas with you at some point if you are willing!
No current blog. But we could certainly swap teas and vegetarian recipes.
Ooooo! I’m sooooooo interested. Where/How do you do that!?
Must think on this. It’s hard to be both diligently staying away from the Internet and communicating on it at the same time.
HAHAHA I know, it was a WEIRD one, right? Not my favorite Tavalon tea at all.
It’s been over a month but I’m finally courageous enough to try takgoti’s Dragonwell tea, the tea that began our tea swap. This Dragonwell is quite different. To start with, the leaves are heavy, flat spears, while Dream About Tea’s are light fluffy things.
She’s right, this Dragonwell has a slight peppery smell, like carnations. It has a stronger vegetal taste with something that makes the top of my tongue feel slightly numb. Interesting. But I like Dream About Tea’s Dragonwell better. It fascinates me that tea of the same name can be so different. I very much appreciate the chance to make the comparison. Thanks takgoti!
Preparation
Oh Carolyn you tempt me hehe;)
Did you see my rating? Not my favorite of the teas that takgoti has sent. I understand now why she thought Dragonwells were not very good.
Yeah I did, I just was talking in the general dragonwell sense:)
Yeah, this would have scared me off of Dragonwell as well, from what I’ve read of the tasting notes of this one. I’m happy you were able to send takgoti something that tasted way better, Carolyn!
Me too!
I’ve only tried one Dragonwell but it had a very light, delicate taste, so your account of this tea makes me curious as to what others might taste like. :)
I really love a good Dragonwell but there can be a lot of variation in the flavors, from grassy to sort of nutty. They can sometimes almost taste like rubber. That same rubbery flavor can be found in some Japanese senchas, which is interesting since both sencha and dragonwell are wok-fired/wok-ironed, which is why you end up with the flat, broken up leaves. Something about the hot metal must add that taste?
Or it might have something to do with the cooking process itself maybe?
Dude. You have totally, totally spoiled me on Dragonwells now because I am comparing ALL of them to the one you sent me and all of them are really paling in comparison. I’d call Andrew and Dunham’s a noticeably distant second place.
This is a wonderful tea. It has it all: beautiful leaves with flowers and fruit mixed in, lovely buttery grape fragrance, and light nutty butter grape taste. Mmmm!
Preparation
This sounds delicious! I’ve been meaning to order from Den’s Tea for awhile.. maybe it’s time to pull the trigger.
You can order their little sample pack for $3. They included the apple sencha in that one. (I personally think the pineapple sencha is the best of the three I’ve tried but all three are good.)
Nice review this does sound good I have never had grape in a tea.
@silvermage2000, I’m going to be mailing you the tea this afternoon. I think I still have a little room in the box (it’s a small box). I’ll add a sample of grape sencha for you to try.
Made a hot matcha, banana, and soy milk smoothie and it is yummy.
Like the smoothie idea. Not the banana part. But a HOT smoothie…? That sounds weird. A whole pan of brownie points for creativity for it though.;)
Yes that does sound quite good.
My opinon of a hot smoothie may just be a temperature thing… I think some things are gross at a cold temp, and others hot.
oh man, that sounds great!
Have you ever used almond milk in your matcha?
@LENA, It is wonderful.
@Cofftea, Not with matcha but with other teas. I make my own almond milk when I run out of soy milk and haven’t run out of soy milk lately.However, almond milk is generally good in everything.
Oh no! I accidentally deleted Cofftea’s post. I didn’t think I could do that. I thought I was replying.
What I meant to do was to say that buying Almond creamer is more expensive than making the almond milk. To make almond milk you combine raw almonds and hot water in a blender and then blend on high. Add more water until it is the consistency you want. Easy, cheap, tasty.
oohh, that sounds good too. I love almond butter, but it is super expensive (like $17 for a fairly small jar)…but now I’m inspired to make my own.
@Carolyn- how the heck did you manage that one! :) Almond creamer is more versitile so I’ll try that. Our blender is out of my reach anyway. Almond creamer is something I can do myself.
@Cofftea, Sounds reasonable. As to how I managed to delete your comment, for some reason I now have delete buttons next to every comment. I thought they were reply buttons. :(
This is near identical to my matcha shake recipe. I sometimes add a little honey, though I’ve never tried it hot. Might need to do that some time.
I love the buttery pineapple fragrance and flavor of this tea. I usually do very little resteeping, but these flavored Senchas from Den’s Tea just beg for a good resteep. Also, since they call for very fast steeps (30 seconds to 45 seconds) they last really well over time. Lately I’ve taken to drinking one of these all afternoon with many resteeps.
Preparation
I swear to god, dealing with my inner self is like dealing with an ADD-afflicted five-year old. I pointed out that I had open packages of Apple Sencha and Pineapple Sencha, both of which we love. I pointed out that opening tea exposes it to air, which speeds the staling. But my inner self wanted to try the new flavor. Demanded to try it, in fact. So here it is in my cup. And it is a beautiful, sweet. buttery, grape-scented golden liquor. The leaves themselves are beautiful as well, with dark sharp green leaves and sprinkled purple and pink blossoms. It has a very light sweet flavor with the merest hint of butter and grapes. Quite, quite nice. I’m glad I didn’t choose to spank my inner self and tell her to fly straight.
Preparation
You don’t find grape-y teas very often, but I love them…Canadian Ice Wine is another of my favorites (Culinary Teas).
That sounds wonderful! You may enjoy the Champagne Infused White Raspberry Tea by Red Leaf Tea.
I agree that finding grape flavored anything is unusual. Lupicia makes a grape green tea called Budou. From what I remember, the flavor is pretty spot on.
Sounds good. I’ll have to look for it.
This has led me to wonder what spanking your inner self would look like. Shuddering? Twitching? But I digress. This sounds good!
Carolyn, does this taste like grapes or raisins? I’ve been thinking about buying this, but I hate raisins :/
Not like raisins at all. It’s more grape juice like.
If it’s more like grape juice, I’m in! Mmm.
So cinnamon is a bully? lol I totally just imagined a cinnamon stick body slamming the tea;)
Oh, that is exactly what it is like. The cinnamon in this tea is a total thug. It’s a very violent tea.
Thanks Carolyn, I still feel like crap, but this post gave me the laugh I desperately needed. Not to mention a tea I might be interested in trying.
I love this post, thank you for a morning giggle! I hate when cinnamon decides it HAS to dominate!
It makes me sad when any tea with ‘monkey’ in the name is bad. Shame on that cinnamon!
@Auggy, ditto!
It is a little known fact that monkeys can be very violent.
… and fling poo…
You beat me to it, Auggy.