818 Tasting Notes

I ordered a sample of this…I guess it was last month, and I don’t think I reviewed it yet. I’ve made it as an iced latte and a hot latte, and honestly, I’m not getting much flavor…maybe a little nuttiness. I really seem to have a hard time discerning the flavor from these matchas. I guess I need to order them at the robust flavor level.

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drank Chocolate Macaroon by DAVIDsTEA
818 tasting notes

Wow, this is sweet, REAL sweet, and I like sweet, but this may be way too sweet for even me! As warned by another reviewer and the fact that the ingredients list includes rock sugar, I didn’t sweeten, but added a splash of almond milk, and it’s really freaking sweet! Usually that’s a good thing, but I think I would have preferred to be able to sweeten it to my liking. The sweetness kind of takes away the flavors that you expect from the delicious smell, which is a tragedy.

I think DavidsTea needs to stay away from the rock sugar. Glad I only bought an ounce of this one. It could have been so much better! So bummed!

ohfancythat

Soooooo sweet. :/
I can only imagine how delicious it could have been if they’d let us decide for ourselves how much sugar it needed (if any)

Tealizzy

Ya, no kidding! My coworker said hers wasn’t too sweet, so maybe the portion of leaf she used had less sugar in it? IDK.

ohfancythat

Or maybe she has more of a sweet tooth?

Tealizzy

Maybe, but it’s hard to beat my sweet tooth! Ha!

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drank Milk Caramel by Lupicia
818 tasting notes

Of course, when planning a DavidsTea lunch stop, one must also stop by Lupicia. :)

I really wanted to pick up some momo oolong, but they’re still out, and for some reason I got it in my head that I wanted to try the melon oolong (probably steepster’s doing!), but I also saw this tea, remembered something vaguely positive on steepster, and bought it. Heehee!

I really enjoy toasty teas, including genmaicha and roasty oolongs, but I only had houjicha once, and I think it was before I really could appreciate it. This tea totally delivers. It’s sweet, like burnt sugar, and toasty, like a roasted oolong. It actually reminds me of Della Terra’s caramel oolong, which I quite enjoy. And it’s cheaper! Score!! Now, it’s not like an ooey-gooey caramel, so don’t expect that and you’ll be fine. I didn’t add anything, although I think it might be interesting to see what a splash of almond milk might do. I am currently enjoying the second steep, and I’m happy to say it’s resteepable. Nice!

ohfancythat

This one is on my “buy tea and get it shipped to my American relatives so they can bring it to me this summer when they visit” list! :)

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drank Shooting Starfruit by DAVIDsTEA
818 tasting notes

So, I couldn’t help myself, and totally planned an outing to DavidsTea at lunch today to check out the summer collection. I actually tried looking it up online this morning (at 5am…yes, I eat breakfast then), but it wasn’t on until like 6am, when I was on public transit going into work. Ha! I’m such a stalker!

My coworker gladly accompanied me and we oohed and ahhed at the new teaware and smelled the new teas and also the tea of the month, which smells awesome! I picked up an ounce of the latter, some teabags for work, and I got a cup of this tea iced to go. Oh, and I’m a frequent steeper now! Woo!

I wasn’t sure about this tea at first. The leaf is really like 98% fruit pieces. To tell you the truth, I’m not even sure I saw white tea leaves in there, unless they were the little flakes stuck to the fruit. I really like tropical flavors so I decided to try it iced with a touch of agave. It actually really grew on me as I sipped it. I’m pretty sure I tasted the star fruit, and some other fruit. It was crisp and refreshing. If you enjoy iced tea, I’d recommend this one. For me, I kinda have a lot of tea I need to ice already, so I’m going to hold off on getting some for now.

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Mmmmm, still drinking some of these samples Angel sent me. So happy to be enjoying this right now, and wondering whether this one should have been included in my last order. It’s so delicious, it’s making me into a green tea drinker!

We just got back from a weekend trip to Salt Lake City to see my sister’s graduation from grad school. Pretty great, and I liked Utah too! Guess we’re going to have to go out there more often. :) I brought a “travel bag” of teas with me…pretty much just Lupicia newsletter samples, which come in handy on travel, since they’re in sachets. I didn’t really drink any tea except for the one full day we were there, and I had Cookie, with some sugar and half and half I grabbed from the hotel complimentary breakfast. Ha! I also had Momoko, which I think I oversteeped, because it was a bit bitter. Despite that, it was really nice to have tea from home…it’s like bringing a little bit of home with you. :)

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drank Genmaicha by DAVIDsTEA
818 tasting notes

Before bed tea. So comforting, mmmmmm! It doesn’t always have to be paired with sushi, although it is delicious that way. This is one of those teas I could drink as often as water. :)

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Note to self: Even though you want to enjoy this tea at the office, never ever ever EVER try it again until there is a hot water spout available. Microwaved water will turn this amazing tea into a wimpy sorry mess. So sad! Guess this is a work from home day tea. Until Thursday!!!

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3.5 oz. all for me! Woo!! As you can see, I received my first Teavivre order yesterday, and I’m so freaking happy! I’m enjoying a cup of these pearls right now. I think I’ve figured out the optimum parameters for me to get as much chocolate-y goodness as possible – 7 pearls in 12 oz. water, steeped for 9 minutes. I’ve found that a bigger cup, (16 oz.) doesn’t result in a better cup, even when I add a couple more pearls. Weird, but true.

Mmmm, great ending to our mini stay-cation. We took Wed-Fri off for our anniversary, and enjoyed day trips to Carmel and Monterey (where we hiked at Point Lobos, shopped, and ate delicious Italian food), and SF (where we visited the Academy of Sciences and enjoyed sushi with genmaicha, of course!) I really don’t want to go back to work tomorrow! We need more vacations like this!!

Stephanie

Sounds like a wonderful time :D

Lariel of Lórien

The Academy of Sciences was one of the most fun places I’ve ever visited. Did you go to the Japanese Tea Garden as well?

Tealizzy

Lariel – I know, it’s so fun, especially the planetarium and the rainforest exhibit. We didn’t go to the Japanese Tea Garden this time, but I’ve been there before…it’s pretty.

Lariel of Lórien

I was in Oakland Chinatown today, and it made me long for San Francisco. Did get to try some green teas though.

TeaVivre

Wow, what an enjoyable vacation, you must had a wonderful time. And so glad you have figured out the optimum parameters for you.

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drank Lanikai by Lupicia
818 tasting notes

Sipdown! Man, I’m on a roll lately! This was a good vanilla tea, with a hint of fruit. Making way for new teas, which are on their way!

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drank Cocoberry by DAVIDsTEA
818 tasting notes

This was such a weird tea. I’m calling it a sipdown because I drank one last cup, and gave the remaining cup to a coworker. I always feel a little bad giving her my rejects, but she enjoys getting free tea, nonetheless. She sometimes enjoys the ones I don’t, so I guess it’s a win-win situation, and she’s always free to re-home or toss them if she doesn’t.

I think I’m entering a new phase of my tea addiction. I used to want to try them all, but now I’m getting quite particular and just want to have the best ones around to enjoy. Well, we’ll see how long that lasts!

Veronica

I’m currently trying to figure out my top 30 teas. I’ll still sample things and rotate some teas in and out, but I’d rather have a few rally good teas than lots and lots of teas I’m not crazy about.

Tealizzy

30 sounds like a good number…not too much, but enough variety that you aren’t drinking the same thing every day. :)

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Profile

Bio

Another profile facelift! My tastes have changed a lot from when I first discovered loose leaf tea.

I can trace my tea journey back to October 2012, when I discovered DavidsTea. Before that, I had the occasional cup and enjoyed high tea at An Afternoon to Remember, which has since closed.

I went through a period of wanting to try all the teas, and was really into flavored teas, especially dessert blacks, but my tastes have substantially changed over time.

I still enjoy the occasional flavored black or rooibos, but I’m more into unflavored black teas right now and recently, puerh. Chinese black teas are amazing…with their notes of chocolate or sweet potato, who needs a flavored tea? I had a much steeper learning curve when it came to puerh. I used to dump out cups of puerh for tasting like leather. Now, I am really enjoying them. I think it took finding good quality puerh and steeping them gong fu style to really enjoy them.

I also, on occasion, enjoy a good oolong, white, or green tea.

Favorite tea companies right now include: Mandala, Teavivre, Butiki, Golden Moon, Lupicia, and DavidsTea (for teaware mostly).

Just a note: I don’t rate my teas numerically because my iPad doesn’t like the scroll bar. Maybe someday that will change…hint hint, steepster! ;)

P.S. My profile picture is of one of my 2 cats, Holly, who is a little princess but very photogenic, and she loves boxes, including those that bring me tea! :)

Location

San Francisco Bay Area

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