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Got this tea at the charming Tree House tearoom, and it took me by pleasant surprise. It’s light in flavour with a fresh note of citrus that I want to describe as “chipper”. There is very little bitterness to this tea, either, making it very easy to drink.
Cold Brew Sipdown (1336)!
Thank you Sewwie for sharing this one with me! It’s definitely got a sweet, though somewhat artificial, strawberry or raspberry type of flavour to it and that’s what I’m trying to focus on because it’s a pretty pleasant taste. However, there green tea used in this blend is very course and aggressively sharp and grassy – like lawn clippings with a bitter edge to them. It’s a bit tough for me to look past that taste – I just hate it so much.
Backlog
Hmm I don’t know what it is, but all of the teas I’ve tried from Eteaket have tasted savory to me, even ones that boast being “sweet”. This is no exception. I had written a review for this a couple days ago but I guess I forgot to post it and it ended up refreshing and deleting it all, and I seem to have lost the rest of my sample so I can’t even have another cup to refresh my memory.
I do remember that unlike orange oolong supreme, this is made with whole leaves rolled up into knobby balls. And that the tea steeped up yellow and was savory and sort of citrusy and sort of vegetal. But that’s all I remember.
This smells like the powdered orange Gatorade mix my mom once bought when everyone got the stomach flu, and then sat in the cupboard for a few years until finally we through it out because the Florida humidity turned it into a sold rock.
I’m so used to oolong being rolled either into spindles or into tight balls that when I see an oolong that’s just flat broken pieces, it surprises me. The aroma of the tea while steeping is no longer orange Gatorade but roasted peanut skins
Sipping, it’s savory roasty and even sort of floral? I’m not getting orange, which is surprising considering how the dry leaf smelled. It’s roasty in the beginning of the sip, and towards the middle a bit of floral comes out, and then goes back to roasty for the end of the sip, with only a bare hint of roast sticking around in an aftertaste.
Like I said before, I’m not big on floral teas, but I figured I might as well try it since I already have it. I steeps this up double strength, and then flash iced it and sweetened it.
It’s actually not bad, the tea is a brownish yellow color, and the aroma is sweet fruity and a little flowery (less like a rose than I was expecting). The front of the tea is sweet and fruity, sort of like apples and strawberries, why meets with a soft floral taste towards the end of the sip, and lingers with a refreshing aftertaste. If you don’t mind floral, and like fruity, then you’ll like this.
I love the smell of jasmines, the remind me of my childhood, and they just smell so happy. I’m learning that I’m not big on floral in my teas, but jasmine seems to be the exception.
Opening this up, there’s a strong initially burst of sweet jasmine, that mellows out after being exposed to air for a minute. The leaves are twisty, with a few silver tips dispersed through out, an a couple twigs.
The wet leaf and tea aroma smells like jasmine, but also sort of savory if that makes since. Less sweet smelling than most jasmine teas I’ve had. The color is a brown veering yellow.
Sipping, not as savory as it smells, but not as sweet as I’m used to. I almost want to sweeten it, but resist out of fear of the sweetener clashing with the savory instead of sweetening it overall. The jasmine isn’t really present till the end of the sip and hangs around with an almost pepper aftertaste. It’s sound more strange than it tastes. There isn’t much flavor coming from the base tea, just jasmine.
As it cools the front sip is almost brothy in presence (as in I don’t taste like in sipping broth but I feel like I am).
Overall not as sweet or as strong as I would like, but would be could for someone who would like a less sweet jasmine tea.
Preparation
This is my first ever flowering tea, so I was excited when I saw that it was included in my samples, I was double excited that they sent the jasmine instead of the rose one, because I am much more of a jasmine than a rose person.
I wasn’t sure how long to let this steep, and I kept thinking it was done unfurling, but then it would blossom even more. It was definitely a beautiful sight to behold. I love watching oolong expand, and this is 10x better. The green tea leaves expanded along the bottom of the bundle, like the skirt of a Christmas tree. Then there were some more tied around a big flower that acted as a base for an arch of beautiful jasmine blossoms that extended up out of the bundle.
I originally drained out the tea too soon, and the first cup came out nice and jasmine scented, but almost clear, and the jasmine taste faded significantly as it cooled. I added more water, and let it steep until the tea had turned a pale brownish gold color. This cup had less jasmine and more depth. With an almost savory green vegetal taste, and an almost buttery mouth feel, leaving the jasmine at the end of the sip.
The third cup was much like the second, but the tea was an almost orange color. Overall, definitely a fun experience.
I had a 50g carton of Awesome Assam at the beginning of this week and have just finished it off. It was an impulse purchase while we were in the Mountain Cafe in Aviemore, driving home from Durness on the north-west coast of Scotland. Anyway, the tea was being sold at about 20% discount on a display next to the tills where I went to pay for our food. Big mistake. How could they possibly put a display with big signs informing me of discounts next to somewhere that I would have my wallet out? It’s not right, I tell you. They should make a law against it or something. At least I did not need to feel too guilty though, because Beloved wanted to buy cakes that were near there too, and they were not discounted! The food in the cafe was great, by the way. I recommend it, and I am not just saying that because it was the end of the day and the manager gave me free bread and scones to take home that would otherwise have been thrown out. They were good too. So, anyway, in my best rambling Abe Simpson manner I should try getting to the point. Yes, now where was I?
Oh yes, this tea. Umm, I finished the carton in a week. That pretty much tells you all you need to know. It’s malty and well-balanced, although I only got two good steeps out of each pot. I did not notice any great depth to the flavour but as a daily brew it really worked, which is good because I have plenty of teas with great depth that require real focus to truly appreciate them, and not enough that I can just quickly make and enjoy. That does not mean that I do not enjoy the other teas when I don’t have time to sit down and focus on them. I do enjoy them but I always feel like I am missing out on something by not exploring the tea in detail. Ah well, I had better add this Assam to my shopping list now.
Flavors: Malt
Just received my Eteaket order today! I was going to try the Sailor of Hamburg blend, but what arrived in that caddy did not match the photo on the website (I think I got coffee leaf tea instead).
I went for my second choice, Highland Fling, a CTC blend that smells like it has quite a kick to it. The leaf bits are smaller than I was expecting and surprisingly dusty – there was a little shadow of fine particles left on the counter when I moved my filled infuser into my cup.
It’s punchy, like the description says. Straight up it’s quite similar to my usual morning black bagged tea – strong and bitter, but with a bigger astringent twang, and somewhat more drinkable, oddly enough. The drinkability improves with sugar (though the 1 tsp I added was probably a bit much). I then added soymilk, thinking a tea like this would take it very well, but it covers up a lot of the appealing flavors. When I was almost finished with the cup I was met with some more particles that had escaped the infuser and expanded to the size of coffee grounds. Blech.
It’s a pretty nice tea on the whole, but it seems a little unnecessary to keep on hand when I have bagged black tea that I like – they take milk better and don’t leave gritty sludge in the bottom of my cup. Maybe I’ll get some paper infusers for this one.
Preparation
What Eteaket calls “tangyness with a hint of fresh grass” is hitting me as “lime with a hint of floor cleaner.” But in a good way, if that’s possible. Not a bit of chemical, but definitely a citrusy-clean thing happening. The way you want your house to smell.
Lovely for a breezy afternoon at Shabby House. Temps in the mid 70’s, clean post-rain sunshine. I want to bottle this weather.
Made up a pot of this for breakfast (2 heaped tsp for ~450 ml). The first cup poured was frankly too weak for milk, and the second cup (poured only seconds later) needed more milk & sugar than I expected. Maybe I need to stir the pot before pouring, or strain into a pitcher and then pour into cups, or just use the one-cup brewing basket like I did last time.
Preparation
1 heaped tsp dry leaf to ~7 oz water. I must have used a different leaf:water ratio in the last note, because at 3 minutes I found it pretty unpalatable plain, but quite nice with 1/2 tsp sugar and a restrained splash of soymilk. Goes pretty well with peanut butter & raspberry jam on toast. Bumping up my rating a bit.
This tea is now a year and a half old, so I’ll see if I can swap it for my normal breakfast tea and use it up within the next few weeks.
EDIT: Resteeped nicely – 4 minutes produced a mellow oaky cup complemented by a little agave. Bumping the rating a bit more.
Preparation
For my first cup of the day, I prefer strong, malty black tea blends with milk & sugar. Breakfast blends generally stand up well to milk, so they’re usually a good standby for me. This, unfortunately, is not one of them.
The dry leaves are very pretty, with several golden tips scattered throughout the chocolate-brown leaves and twigs. The liquor is a deep coppery brown, and when brewed for 3 minutes is actually quite good drunk on its own, like a slightly more astringent Russian Caravan. It’s just not what I would consider a breakfast tea.
I steeped the rest of my pot for an extra minute for my milky cup. It wasn’t bad, but it was dull enough that I was drinking it begrudgingly about halfway through.
Because this tea is so different with and without milk, I feel compelled to give separate ratings.
With milk: 50
Without milk: 82
Preparation
I got some of this from TeaEqualsBliss a long while back. It was such a generous package I’m still trying to finish it up. :) This one was intimidating for me. Chilli cherry rooibos? How crazy is that? I don’t even like cherry flavored things. They either taste like chapstick or cough syrup. Usually. But I’m pretty low and non-caffeinated teas so I thought I’d finally brave this tea.
Gotta say, I’m not too happy with this. I enjoy spicy foods and chili, but I don’t like it in this. Plus the cherry tastes like chapstick. The is pretty pleasing for a rooibos. It’s a nice smooth base for taking on flavors. I’m going to try and finish this mug, but I’m not sure I’ll be able to. I just don’t want my tea to be so spicy…
Thank you TeaEqualsBliss!! This is such a cute tea! It’s fuzzy! I think I liked the feel and look of it more then I liked drinking it haha I love it. It smells so pretty. It smells floral and grassy. The flavor is sweet with a hit of citrus and it finishes off with a melon taste. Mm I love white teas :) it is very smooth. Thank you again!!
Preparation
The last time I had Eteaket’s peppermint infusion, it was whole peppermint leaves in boiling water, and it was beautiful. A few months later, I bought some as a gift because I enjoyed it so much. Unfortunately, instead of whole leaves, the packet contained very dark green fragments of twigs and leaves, which made a chemically, dark yellow infusion with a bitter taste that persisted however long I brewed it for. Horrible, and disappointing. I really hope Eteaket switch back to whole leaves soon.
Preparation
The leaves looked beautiful, all rolled up and bobbing on the surface of the water. I have to say, though, this is not my favourite oolong. I find it not so much grassy as straw-like, and with a very dry aftertaste. It’s almost certainly my palette’s own shortcomings rather than the actual quality of the tea, but I’d not recommend it unless you like seriously robust flavours and possibly grew up on a farm.
This tea is really complex and fresh-tasting; very different from the Second Flush Darjeeling I usually get. It has notes of rose and citrus, as well as an almost green tea-like grassiness that develops more as the tea cools. The tannins are quite dry though; I would suggest a relatively short brewing time (maybe 15 seconds shorter than suggested in eteaket) and a small amount of sugar to balance it.