1271 Tasting Notes
YAUPON! What is this stuff? It’s from the yaupon holly plant and is native to the USA. This particular Yaupon is wild grown in Florida. Organic and Sustainable. I was excited to first sample yaupon at the World Tea Expo!
I find the flavor similar to guayusa – it’s got that creamy sweet finish. However yaupon has a wild, fresh, herby, vegetal grassy taste kinda like a mate. Big caffeine hit too – yowza!
Full review on my blog, The Oolong Owl http://oolongowl.com/timucua-yaupon-yaupon-asi-tea/
If you like mate and guayusa, you’ll very much like Yaupon. I find this tea a little hard to rate as this is the first yaupon I’ve tried so far.
Preparation
So I was looking for a black to drink this afternoon. I was digging for a tin in the back, and this tin fell off the shelf. I figured I should just drink this one.
Yum, love the sweet honey maple flavor with nuts. Perfect afternoon pick me up! My review from awhile back http://oolongowl.com/nutty-love-black-tea-steep-city-teas-oolong-owl-tea-review/
From the Reddit traveling tea box.
A really pretty dry leaf with big flower buds and petals. THIS IS FLORAL. Mega floral! Sweet licorice, floral, lemony, mint fresh with a background of juicy white peony. However, the white tea is pretty drowned out. Little bit of a tart bite end of sip. If you love floral, you’ll dig this, but there’s a lot going on.
Preparation
From the reddit traveling tea box!
Phew, I was out all yesterday with 2 food festivals – Watermelon Festival and the 626 Night Market. The former being a complete bust and a crappy festival. So this morning I’m dying for tea. I just had pu’er yesterday to keep me going.
This black from Dryad tea is interesting – I can taste plum and elderberry – which have a bit of tart to it. In the background is the black tea base, herbally notes and some light spices. Definitely an unique tea and would be best iced, but the tart and spice isn’t winning me over.
Preparation
From the reddit traveling tea box.
Oh wow, this is good! This is an assam black with butterscotch candy (that has coconut in it). The assam base is really good, with the sweet, smooth candy flavor finish. The assam has briskness end of sip. This is a great blend for assam lovers. Too bad there was only 1 serving for this tea.
Oh hey, this is a teaspot tea – they were super nice (and busy) at the World Tea Expo. I got a spiffy tote bag from them!
Another from the reddit traveling tea box.
Finally, a Dryad Tea! I’ve been wanting to try their teas for awhile, but I have so much tea I don’t purchase from new sellers all that much.
This tea is yummy – a soft black tea, lots of sweet lemon notes with a bit of strawberry flavor. Very smooth and kind of creamy. Wish I made this iced!
Preparation
From the reddit travelling tea box
This one looked promising – a black blend of ctc and leafy bits. Big cubes of something, marigold petals and lumps of golden rock sugar. Taste? Meh. I’ve had many great Lupicia teas, but out of all the Lupicia teas I’ve had, this one is on the bottom. It’s bitter, roasty, acidic with a little bit of sweetness. It does taste like roasted chestnuts, if I ate one whole with the peel on. I think it might work if one adds milk, or maybe coffee drinkers, but blaaah. Sorry Lupicia.
From the reddit travelling teabox
I’m trying this despite it sounding like a blend I would not like as me and red rooibos don’t get along. Actually, not bad – the spice, all big chunks of cinnamon, is a great level that keeps me sipping. Kind of sweet and vanilla smooth, bit of rooibosy. Not watery. I don’t really get much orange flavor though.
Preparation
From the reddit 2014 traveling tea box.
HOLY HOOTS this pu’er is goooooooooood! Nice thick texture, lots of nectar honey sweet and smooth with a light floral aftertaste that is absolute bliss. swoonswoooooon. Each steeping there’s a peep of astringency adding an accent to the floral aftertaste. Gosh this is smooth.
So, sorry reddit teabox, this one is might be staying with me. Rest assured, I’ll throw in a nice big pu’er sample in return. $79 for a cake? I actually am considering it.
edit: I hit and passed the 1000 tasting notes mark and didn’t even notice.
Preparation
Another from the reddit travelling tea box
I got 72 hours with this teabox, so I’m chugging what I can. This one is quite nice – pumpkiny smooth, spice, sweet, nutty and creamy. Apparently there is candied peanuts in this so the flavor is very unique to a pumpkin spice tea. The only thing I don’t like is there is a stevia sweet aftertaste, but probably because I don’t like stevia. I am also at the bottom of a sample pack, and from my experience on stevia’d teas that weird sweetness seems to be stronger at the package crumbs. The rooibos is fine in this and the blend isn’t watery.
hmm, something new to try!