220 Tasting Notes
Aha! This is the one! A perfect blend of jasmine silver tip with cut peppermint leaves, which somehow manage to compliment the jasmine quite nicely. I’m not normally big on either of these teas, but together they make for a decadant and refreshing cup. High five Steph, this is delicious!
Preparation
This delightful jasmine/peppermint concoction was dreamed up by my co-worker Steph, who couldn’t remember if she’d used the pearls or a jasmine white tea previously. Naturally I made her blend both for me. This is a little awkward to brew, mostly because you need to make sure you scoop up some peppermint along with your preferred amount of pearls. I waited until all the leaves had unravelled in the cup before pulling out my infuser, which may have been a touch too long as the jasmine was a bit bitey and the peppermint overwhelmed a little. The second 4 minute steep of this is perfect though, it mellows out quite nicely!
Preparation
I am always drawn to weird sounding blends and this was no exception. As soon as I ripped off the seal on the tin, I was hit by a deliciously overwhelming peach aroma. The tea itself is fairly medium bodied, with warming notes of ginger and hints of peach. Its not the ginger knock-out you need when you’re feeling rundown, but a nice and light tea nonetheless (best sans milk too). Another tea I imagine would be fantastic iced – can you tell I’m dying for my upcoming midwinter summer escape?
Preparation
In my experience, flavoured greens tend to use a heavy dose of flavouring to hide the fact you are drinking a green tea, making for a rather pointless cup. In this blend the elderberries are more complimentary, letting the sencha base skip along beside it hand in hand.
I can definitely see how fantastic this would be iced, but I think I will save that for a day that doesn’t require one to be wrapped head-to-toe in wool…
Preparation
It just dawned on me that it is winter there. (DOH!)
Here I am grumbling to myself about how the spring and summer are miserable for business and there’s a whole southern hemisphere bracing for winter. I need some more customers from New Zealand, Chile? Peru?
BTW, didn’t respond yet, but I did get your email. Will be taking corrective action ASAP.
Haha it really is prime tea-selling time! Bring on all those warming, creamy, spicy teas… which usually don’t get blended until Christmas (and who wants to drink that kinda tea in the middle of summer??).
& thank you! Thought it was a bit weird, especially as I got the Butter Pecan tonight as well :)
I think the butter pecan will make a nice hot tea too. Though it is thoroughly enjoyable (and IMO,quite ice-cream-like) iced.
Aha! I knew I would like spearmint more than peppermint in tea form (whereas in gum or mints form I prefer it the other way around). A much brighter, cleaner minty taste than peppermint and more refreshing too. I’m looking foward to experimenting with adding this to other teas and blends!
Preparation
The aroma of the dry leaves is a perfect blend of light bergamot and delicious tippy black tea. It seems to be uncommon to be able to discern the tea base under the bergamot in earl greys, which instantly piqued my curiousity. On my first sip it becomes apparant that the brilliant black tea base is the real star of the show, while the bergamot is relegated to lowly chorus-line duties. I was worried milk would mute the flavours too much, but the tiniest splash really bought out that maltylicious taste.
Personally I find this disappointing as an earl grey (due to my extreme bergamot needs), but incredible as a black tea.
Preparation
Another tea that is too bizarre to even contemplate rating! There really should be a weird squiggly-mouthed spiral-eyed Steepster rating face for such unrateable teas.
The aroma is faintly sweet, with the fennel reminding me of a good curry. This is really not a smell I want from something I am about to drink, but I brace myself and go for it anyway.
The mixture of the three herbs together create the most insane sensation in my mouth that I have ever experienced. At first you get the savoury notes of the fennel with a hint of peppermint and you’re thinking, hmm this is a bit weird. Then as you swallow this great syrupy sweet liquorice root thing rises on the back of your tongue and hangs down your throat. After experiencing this 3 times, I couldn’t handle anymore. I might play around with brewing times later when I have gotten over my initial trauma – perhaps this is another herbal blend that should be brewed for a shorter time than recommended?
Preparation
If i may share my experience, when i am overwhelmed by the flavor of a tisane, or tea, whatever, i dilute with water after it’s steeped. Just keep adding water until it is drinkable. Usually there’s a point where it is. Sometimes not. Gives an idea of what it might be like if i use less tea next time, or more water, for making the tea. And then there are these 2 pearls:
Adjust temperature & steep length for getting best FLAVOR from tea.
Adjust water-to-leaf ratio for STRENGTH of tea.
May all your cups be full.
I was too exhausted after 3 mouthfuls of this so didn’t want to experiment with diluting/trial and error with the rest of the cup haha. An adventurous way of going about making something drinkable though! I tend to adjust brewing times first, then vary the quantity if that doesn’t work (at a much later date than my initial tasting).
What a strange beast of a tea! Now let me just say that the orange flavouring in this is bang on and they haven’t added any other weird stuff to make it taste sweeter or creamier, but because nothing else has been added it falls a little flat. What could you add to this to give it a rounder mouthfeel though? Hmm.
Oh, there is also the fact that drinking this makes me feel queasy as it is exactly like drinking hot orange juice. So if you yearn for the taste of warm oranges, then this is the tea for you! Just don’t add milk because that would be all kinds of wrong.
Preparation
Florence, you absolute bastard. After a very disappointing and costly experience with old (literally) Florence, I managed to procure a mere teaspoon of this to see what it was supposed to taste like. Heaven in a cup is what it is supposed to taste like. A perfect chocolately nutty blend of decandance, especially with milk. A definate 100 or a smiling licky face rating on Steepster. I would even go so far to say that if Frank Sinatra’s voice were a tea, it would be this. You better believe I savoured every single moment with this heartbreakingly singular cup of tea, while glaring my pretty but useless and tasteless tin of Florence I had purchased earlier.
As an aside, I do wish you could give the same tea different ratings each time you try it. I am leaving my rating as is because I don’t want to give my first legit bad tasting note for this a 100.
Preparation
You could still up the rating, and people would see this note alongside the older one and understand why the first tasting note doesn’t match the high score :)
Boo for old Florence!!
Or just add a note to the older post about it being old! Seems to me that one’s rating ought to reflect one’s opinion of the tea in a decent state.
I’m still undecided about the rating, seeing as the company is at fault for being unable to maintain the quality of the tea their customers are purchasing. Plus this note was a one teaspoon one-off and my rating reflects the $20 I spent on a dud tea. LOL rating dilemmas~
Did H&S sell you the tin directly, or did another store just keep an old tin in stock? I guess I wouldn’t want to hurt a company’s credibility just because someone else selling their tea is did a bad job of making sure their tea was fresh, but that’s just me—I feel guilty easily :)
From a store, but the tin has the NZ H&S sticker on the bottom proclaiming it doesn’t “expire” until August 2010. I need to send the NZ H&S another passive aggressive email about it, getting to taste proper Florence really just made me more annoyed about the whole thing (I’d almost forgotten about it tbh) haha.
