243 Tasting Notes

86
drank Chocolate Chai by Adagio Teas
243 tasting notes

I enjoyed this chai very much. The aroma of the dry leaves is slightly spicy with a chocolate scent. When brewed, the aroma of the tea is enhanced: stronger spiced scent with the hint of chocolate. I tried this in my usual array of chai teas: hot with no additives then sugar and milk one at a time.

Brewed hot without sugar or milk it is enjoyable. There is a spice flavor with a sweet undertone. When sugar is added, it enhances the very slight chocolate flavor that was the undertone and makes it more prevalent. When sugar and milk are added it makes for a delicious creamy, spicy tea, with a suggestion of chocolate.

What makes this tea stand out from the rest of the Adagio Chai teas is not the chocolate, or the natural sweetness along with the spice; it is the fact that the tea is still delicious once it cools. This is a true rarity for me, as I do not like when chai tea cools, I feel the spices become overwhelming and you lose all flavor of the tea. This is not the case with Chocolate Chai, the spices are stronger when cooled, but they are still mellowed by the underlying sweetness of chocolate, which allows the true flavor of the tea to still shine through.

Overall, this is my favorite chai tea. Highly recommended. Definitely going to need to get more.

Preparation
5 min, 0 sec

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90
drank Vanilla Mint by Golden Moon Tea
243 tasting notes

I got this tea with the iced tea set. I bought the set for the Coconut Pouchong and the the iced tea pitcher and the Vanilla Mint was an added bonus. I like green and black tea blends, when they are combined with sweet vanilla mint it makes for a fantastic tea in multiple ways.

I first had the tea hot with no sugar. It has a sweet vanilla flavor with the cooling mint aftertaste. The mint can be tasted upfront in the tea, but it is the cooling mouth feel after that is the selling point.

The tea is also good hot with sugar, however the sugar actually makes it too sweet for me to enjoy.

However, my favorite way to enjoy this tea is iced. The flavors are the same, a rich green and black blend with vanilla and mint, but iced it is sweet, cool and refreshing.

Preparation
4 min, 0 sec
Cofftea

I love blends, but I can’t figure out how they expect it to taste as good as it should when black and green teas have different steeping parameters. Good to see it turned out well in spite of that!:)

Cinoi

Yea, I agree, that especially concerns me when I make my own blends. But nonetheless, this one seems to work with the median brew time.

Cofftea

For my own blends I’ve been known to steep one tea, decant, then use that tea as the liquid to steep the other… but that’s insanely putzy!

Cinoi

That does make sense and it is how it should be done, but I am very lazy so I usually go for the median brew time. :)

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82
drank White Ginger by Golden Moon Tea
243 tasting notes

So I decided to open up the Golden Moon Tea Sampler today. The first one I tried is this one. The leaves do not have a strong aroma, but I also do not have a lot of tea to smell here.

I steeped it hot for four minutes. I tried it with and without sugar, but really found very little difference between the two. The tea is very simple. It is a complex white tea in that it makes a pale liquor, with delicate veggie fragrance but a strong white tea flavor. The ginger is mostly lost in brewing, but you do find it as an undertone note in the tea. Which is good, because overpowering ginger would not be enjoyable.

Overall, I found this tea to be very enjoyable. I would definitely buy a tin of this.

Preparation
4 min, 0 sec
Cofftea

This is the tea that got me really interested in Golden Moon, but unfortunately my local tea shop doesn’t carry it. I’m getting the sampler as soon as I have cupboard room. I love ginger:)

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74
drank Rooibos Strawberry Cream by Wegmans
243 tasting notes

These were tea bags, so the dried unsteeped leaves do not really have an aroma. Once steeped, the tea did not have very much aroma either.

The first time I had the tea, I brewed three minutes, hot with no sugar. It was a sweeter tea, being rooibos and strawberries, but with a slight creamy after taste, it was a pleasant surprise. There was not a lot of strawberry flavor, but I think it did add to the overall sweetness of the tea.

I tried it again, I steeped it for five minutes, hot with no sugar. This was sweeter than the shorter infusion, but still very little strawberry flavor. However, the longer brew time increased the creaminess of the tea.

It was a decent tea.

Preparation
5 min, 0 sec

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82
drank Rooibos Vanilla Chai by Adagio Teas
243 tasting notes

This tea was very good. I’ve had it a few different ways, and feel that it is enjoyable most of the ways. As I have stated, I enjoy spiced teas hot, I do not like them once they cool or when they are iced. So, I had all of these teas hot, and drank the whole cup before it cooled to room temperature.

The first way I enjoyed this tea was hot with no milk and no sugar. The spices were prevalent and blend well with the Rooibos for a rich Chai. This way however, I feel the spices overpower the vanilla and it gets lost.

So, I tried it again, hot with no milk and some sugar. Adding the sugar lessened the blow of the spices and allowed for the subtle hint of vanilla to shine through the spice. This was probably my favorite way to enjoy this tea.

Finally, I had the tea hot with milk and sugar. This way was also enjoyable as the sugar softened the spices and the milk helped to meld the spices with the tea to make a smooth spiced infusion.

I especially liked this tea because it was so versatile. You could have the tea a multitude of ways and each one enhanced an attribute of the tea without compromising the tea as a whole. However, as per usual with chai, I cannot enjoy it cooled, nor can I resteep without sacrificing flavors and for no fault of it’s own, the tea loses points for that.

Preparation
7 min, 0 sec

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66

This is an herbal tea with lemon. Since I am still suffering the cough/sore throat affliction I figured lemon tea might help. I brought the sample (3 bags) to work to share a pot with a co-worker. We brewed two bags hot with no sweetener in a larger (32 ounces I believe) pot at work. The first cup I had after it steeped for about five minutes. This was a dark amber honey color. The lemon flavor was mild, but enjoyable. I had the second cup after about 20 minutes. The color was now a deeper amber almost red color. The lemon flavor was much more powerful and had a slight bitter aftertaste.

The two cups did seem to help my throat, but again that could have been the fact that it was warm soothing liquid. Overall a tasty tea, but I would probably enjoy it more in the summer months when I feel better and just want to relax with some tea.

Preparation
5 min, 0 sec

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64
drank Thai Chai by Adagio Teas
243 tasting notes

For the most part, I like tea one way. It has to be hot, it should be slightly sweetened, but not too much, and milk is not necessary, it depends solely on the other flavors involved.

That being said, the leaves for this one smell very good, coconut and spice. The brewed tea smells similar, faint coconut and spice. The flavor, when fresh brewed, is slight sweet coconut with a hint of lemon grass and spice to meld the chai with Thai flavors. This I must say (slightly sweetened) is delicious. As it cools however, the spices become overpowering and the once sweet coconut flavor, is lost, leaving plain chai. This goes the same for the second steep, all the coconut and lemon grass flavors are gone and you are drinking chai.

So, I have learned a valuable lesson about my personal taste in chai: I do not like chai cooled or cold, I feel the heat dulls the spices and heightens the flavors added to the tea, in this case the coconut, either I need to buy a warmer to keep my pot constantly temperate, or I need to drink it really fast so as to not let it cool. For now, the latter will suffice.

Preparation
5 min, 0 sec

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66

I love pumpkin, we have covered this, pumpkin pie is one of my favorite pies, and tea is one of my favorite drinks, so how could the combination possibly go wrong? Well, let me tell you.

This tea was decent, it was aromatic, smelled like real pumpkin as dry leaves and steeped tea. Now, anyone that has cooked/baked or done pretty much anything with real pumpkin knows just how bitter pumpkin can be. This unfortunately was all over the tea. It was a strong (and unfortunately bitter) pumpkin flavor with an inkling of cinnamon. The cinnamon flavor was almost completely lost instead of being complimentary and the bitterness of the pumpkin prevailed in flavor.

This tea was taken hot with sugar, perhaps more sugar and/or milk would have helped to mellow the bitterness and help blend the tea together more. Oh well, next time.

Overall, I do not think the tea was bad, it was quite good actually, it just missed “pumpkin pie” mark. It did hit “pumpkin” dead-on. Alas, my pumpkin tea search has ended, but the pumpkin pie tea search continues.

Preparation
5 min, 0 sec
Cofftea

Interesting… I saw this and thought exactly what you found “I wish it’d taste like pumpkin, not pumpkin pie”. It’s my opinon that pumpkin pie and pumpkin pie spice teas are all about just that- the pie or the spice. Not the pumpkin. My inspiration for my search of a pumpkin tea goes back to the double chocolate pumpkin cookies a former co worker of my mother makes. 1 package double chocolate (chocolate cookie base w/ chocolate chips) cookie mix and one can pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling). You can’t really taste the pumpkin, but it completely changes the texture of the cookies transforming them into fudge! I always thought finding a pumpkin flavored tea and mixing it w/ a chocolate flavored tea would be a wonderful companion for these fudge cookies. I’m sorry it wasn’t what you were looking for, but maybe it’s what I was looking for. I hope your pumpkin pie tea search comes to a delicious end soon, but in the mean time- thank you for bringing this tea to my attention.

Southern Boy Teas

Hmmm. Pumpkin Chocolate Tea. Interesting. We could do that.

Cofftea

Pumpkin Chocolate black tea would be amazing, but pumpkin chocolate matcha would be even more amazing:)

Cinoi

I would love pumpkin chocolate matcha!

Cofftea

Oh Fred… hehe;)

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76

As stated before, I love pumpkin, I especially love pumpkin pie, but a close second is pecan pie. I did not know that pumpkin pecan pie is a tradition in the south, and without a doubt, I will have to find myself a piece, but until then, I had this tea.

I had this tea right before the Pumpkin Pie Tea by 52teas.

This tea smelled like pumpkin, but more like when a pumpkin pie filling is completely combined and ready to go into the pie shell. So it had creamier, sweeter smelling leaves and brewed tea. That being said, the tea tasted like sweetened pumpkin, not bitter natural pumpkin, it was a mellowed flavor (this is probably from the pecans) and the cinnamon is definitely present.

I had it hot with some sugar but no milk. Again, I think more sugar would help to sweeten it more (probably more like the pumpkin pecan pie would be) and milk might help to blend the flavors together more for a smoother tea.

Overall, this was a good tea, definitely more like pumpkin pie than just a straight pumpkin tea. I am hoping to pick up my own stash of this to keep on hand :)

Preparation
5 min, 0 sec
Cofftea

Wow, you’re full of good information today! I’ve never even heard of Pumpkin Pecan pie!

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62
drank Throat Comfort by Yogi Tea
243 tasting notes

I am not feeling so well today, so I decided to turn to tea to try and soothe the problem. I found this one in the organic section of my grocery store and decided that it could not possibly hurt. However, before I get too in-depth, this is not actually a tea, there is no tea in the ingredients, it is an “herbal supplement”, so please forgive when I say “tea” but I did treat it as such. The smell of the tea bag is almost overwhelmingly licorice. The brewed tea has a licorice scent, but it is subdued by light fragrant spices. The tea itself starts with a mild licorice flavor (I do not like licorice) that is blended well with spices, ginger, cardamom, clove, pepper and cinnamon followed by a slight aftertaste of orange. This tea is incredibly sweet, I brewed hot with no sugar (luckily).

While drinking, my throat actually did feel soothed. This probably had everything to do with warm liquid with the large amount of organic extracts and sweet calming flavors. My only complaint is that when it cools, some of the tea seems to settle, when drinking the settlement, it actually agitated my throat more and caused me to start coughing, which did not help the sore throat.

I will continue to use the tea to see if I feel any better and furthermore when I am better to give a better rating and description of the flavors.

Preparation
5 min, 0 sec
Suzi

How is it working several hours later? I’m coughing like crazy and looking for a good throat-soother :)

Cinoi

I had another cup this morning, still coughing, but throat is feeling better, definitely does not hurt as much.

takgoti

Tea helping or not, I hope you’re back to healthy soon!

Cinoi

thank you!

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Profile

Bio

I am a sarcastic perfectionist, a computer nerd, a game geek, an avid reader, a gadget guru, a wine (and tea) enthusiast, and (in my spare time) a chemist.

As I mentioned, I am a chemist, research and development to be exact, so when evaluating tea, it is much like evaluating my products: I will find the flaws and do my very best to fix them because it is what I love to do. Along those lines, nothing is perfect, but can have perfect qualities, I will highlight those also.

I made a preliminary guide to my rating scale:
0-19 – Did not like anything about the tea, feel it cannot be saved without being reformulated.
20-40 – Did not like the tea, it can be saved with extreme amounts of tweaking (i.e., sugar, milk, honey and or blending with another tea)
41-60 – Neutral about the tea, it can be helped or hurt by additives or blends, varied temperatures and steep times
61-70 – Decent tea, needs a little bit of help to get it in the place I like it, but definitely not out of reach
71-80 – Quality tea, liked it, will try again
81-90 – Really enjoyed the tea, high quality, will continue to drink the tea, not looking for something better
91-100 – Loved the tea, will continue to brew and drink and spread the word about the tea to everyone

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NJ

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