518 Tasting Notes
I love this tea in the afternoon. Nice, delicate, complex, delicious. Easy to drink. I only got a chance to have the original steeping of this one because we then spent quite a while sheltering in place in the hallway on our floor because we were tornado warned. Fun fun. Better than working, because I just wasn’t feeling that today. (I just wanted to get home to my packages. I was stuck at work almost 45 minutes longer than I wanted, and then because everyone was leaving at once, I was stuck in horrible traffic. Sigh.)
Yep, because I left the house early this morning (the guys taking care of the raccoon were coming early, and I was up and out the door before they got there) I wasn’t quite thinking. I forgot to bring other teas with me. But I still had this one at my desk. I like this tea. Just a little roasty, earthy, a touch creamy. Nice. Plus it gave me a little extra energy. It’s all good.
I made this yesterday in my travel mug before heading out the door to see the moms. I like this better in a regular mug than my travel mug, because I can’t smell it that way, but it still tastes good. Drinking it will always remind me of a great day with my mom and sister.
And I saved the leaves ad resteeped them this morning. Still absolutely delicious.
I am just amazed at how much these leaves expand when steeped, too. I will probably have to get myself more next time I’m out visiting my sister, or maybe place an order on line because why not….
This one is better this time than the last, but it’s still not outstanding. I think it needs honey, which I don’t have in the house.
{ETA} Yes, I have decided that this would be much better with honey. It’s actually tasting like a floral honey to me, just missing the sweetness. Ah well.
This is distinctive flavor and I’m really not sure I got peanut butter out of it. I had this as my usual iced latte. I didn’t blend it as well as I normally do, so some of that might have been my fault, but even at the end where I could see more of the matcha than I normally do, it still didn’t have a very strong peanut flavor. Ah well. It was sweet and creamy and just a touch peanut buttery.
I saved my leaves from yesterday morning and had this is my travel mug when we went out to get an orchid for my mom for Mother’s day. She has a bunch, but one died, so I’m replacing it. I picked a dark color one that is similar to a color she told me she liked once. (She drops lots of hints about things.)
Anyway, this really resteeped nicely. In fact, the spearmint was really nice in the resteep.
TTBCr2
Meh. I realize now that I’ve pulled the page to review this tea that it should have had bits of almond pieces in it, but there were none in the sample that I took from the box. Bummer. It had a slight almond flavor, but in general was just earthy. I didn’t think it was bad, but I was disappointed that it had no real almondy goodness to it. Now I understand why it didn’t have that yum I was looking for. It was creamy, though, which was nice.
TTBCr2
I picked this one out of the box because it intrigued me. It smelled really nice when I sniffed the sample.
Fortunately, there was exactly enough to go in my mug. Okay, it was a little short, but I just added a little less water and it was perfect.
I couldn’t really taste the white too much, but the raspberry, slight fake, actually tasted pretty decent. I liked the champagne notes a lot. The directions say to sweeten to taste, but it didn’t need any sweetening in my book.
I liked it, but I wouldn’t get it. I wouldn’t complain if someone else dropped me another sample of this one, though.
While I was drinking this, I was heating up my lunch. I got in from the kitchen and sat down to eat it. It was a little too hot and I burned the roof of my mouth and my tongue. Gah. It’s going to make the rest of the tea drinking I have planned for today a little more awkward.
TTBCr2
This is one of the samples I took from the Traveling Tea Box C, and I’m glad I did. I did this western style, but I can tell how awesome this would be in my gaiwan.
The dry leaves are tiny little not quite balls. .5t/8oz is what it called for, so I had measured out a teaspoon to keep from the box. I put the whole sample I kept into the basket of my curve mug, and added boiling water. After steeping for 2:30, I pulled the infusion basket out and I was amazed at how much the leaves had expanded.
A little sweet, a little buttery, a touch floral. I like it.
Preparation
I feel all this pressure because this is the first review of this tea and I don’t know what to say. I underleafed it. The first infusion was okay but not great. Definitely not enough leaf. Then on the second infusion the water was too hot. I completely ruined this.
