Majesteas

This was a little bitter today, or at least had a bit of bitterness behind the tasty caramelness of the tea. I may have steeped this a bit long though since it was at work and I was distracted. Still a decent blend and something that i’m going to enjoy figuring out how to best brew.

No real tasting notes today since i’m still not sure my tastebuds are back to normal. I tried this one today since i figured maybe a hearty bold tea would cut through things. That seems to have worked as this seems like a really nice tea. soooo yay for getting to drink a few things today!

1 tablespoon for 375 ml of water

The brewed tea has a primary authentic strawberry aroma with tartness. The black tea aroma is in the background. There is a hint of a smooth creaminess.

On the sip, the black tea taste is very apparent at the beginning. There is a hit of astringency that is slightly unpleasantly bitter. The bitterness blooms into the middle of the sip and follows through to the end where the strawberry flavour takes over. The strawberry flavour has a very authentic feel to it without a very pronounced tartness. Mild creaminess follows through from the end of the sip into the aftertaste.

Thanks to Sil for sharing this with me!

Thank you Sil for offering this as your interpretation of 11 pipers piping!

This smells VERY smoky … but it tastes less smoky than it smells. It still has a distinct smoky presence in the flavor, it just doesn’t taste as smoky as the aroma might lead one to believe. The aroma made me think that this HAS to be at least part Lapsang Souchong but the flavor changes that thinking because it does not taste like Lapsang Souchong. It tastes smoky, but, not in the thick, pine smoke kind of taste for which Lapsang is known.

I get the peaty earthiness too… the sip consists primarily of a rich earthiness and the smoky notes, and then the citrus tones come through toward the aftertaste. Someone else mentioned an Earl Grey/Bergamot note, I don’t know that I taste bergamot especially, I definitely do taste citrus though. It is bright, sweet, and tangy. The citrus notes become very clear in the aftertaste.

A very pleasant and unusual blend … very glad I got to try it.

On another note, I was dismayed when I attempted to visit the Majesteas site and could not. (My virus protection says no, and I’m in no mood to try to remove malicious stuff off my computer) I would be very interested in seeing what other teas this company might have to offer.

12 Days of Christmas Tea – Day 11

I am VERY behind on my tealogging (and slightly behind on my tea drinking). This came from Sil and it has a very strong scent – so strong I could smell it through the envelope. I originally thought it was a Lapsang base because of the smokiness, but apparently it’s something different (err.. I’m not sure what exactly).

It’s not bad. I’m not a big Lapsang fan, so I’ve got that working against me. I also think I taste some bergamot, so it tastes more like an “Earl Grey Lapsang” (which I’ll have to check after this note if such a blend exists).

I gave the tea to my boyfriend to try without any prior context (a popular pastime of mine) and he said it tasted like barley. I thought that was an odd comment, but when I did some homework, apparently this tea is like a single-malt whiskey (which is made with barley). I also learned what a single-malt whiskey is, since I know so little about alcohol.

on the 11th day of christmas, I gave to my fellow tea friends a tea that i’d never tried before! At the time that i purchased this tea I’d never had ANY sort of smokey tea but I figured that the 12 days of christmas tea swap was a good time for sharing favourites AND trying new things. So i picked this one up. It was an unplanned purchase as I’d originally been thinking of getting a blend with the name of a mountain range in them..david’s tea was my first thought because so many people in the US seem to enjoy/want their teas.
However, after running through a bunch of david’s tea’s unflavoured black teas, i was not impressed. Especially when comparing them to teas like Butiki’s zhen Qu (i hadn’t tried her assam at that point) or even golden fleece/laoshan black from verdant.

I’d also decided i wanted to get tea from a local place, or at least a place that was mainly in canada – to try and give my US (or non toronto) friends a chance to try a different tea place.

While stopping for tea at Majesteas, the name of this blend caught my eye. The gentleman who was assisting me (and hearing all about the swap) was like “are you sure you want to expose everyone to that…people pretty much love it or hate it” What caught my eye was the comparision to a single malt scotch…which i have been known to drink on occasion :) So i bit the bullet and said to hell with this! let’s try it! Of course that’s also meant agonaizing over the choice for the past month or so now especially since the smell has managed to permeate through everyone’s packages lol

So on with the tea? Let me preface by now saying, i’ve tried a lapsang before…even cooked with it to make a really neat soup. This tea? It’s both smokey and not. The aroma reminds me of the way your clothes smell when you get home from a day of camping…

The initial sip, really does have a subtle citrus note to it and i can barely taste the smokiness..and then it climbs all over your tongue and the smokiness comes out. But it’s a milder smokey that is actually pretty yummy.

Hmmm.. i actually think i really like this tea. It’s not for every day drinking but I could sit back and relax and enjoy this tea like a good cingle malt whiskey.

On the 11th day of Christmas I give many thanks to Sil for sending us this particular tea. Well, here we are Christmas Eve and I’m still waiting on packages to arrive (before the hubbins gets home) to wrap. But Amazon assures me they will arrive today…fingers crossed! So I got up when I normally would for work knowing I had wrapping and cooking in my future.

We’re going to my hubbins “Aunt’s” house for dinner and she never has anything gluten free for me to eat. So I made up a cup of this tea (in a new hot pink mug from our friend’s daughter) and then I got down to making some gluten free turkey meatballs and sauce. (Which smell/taste awesome.) This tea had a nice smokey kick to it…this must have been the tea I was smelling when I thought it was Day 9! Oddly enough I also enjoy a good single malt whisky and this is just wow. I see where the comparison comes in!

Sorry this review is all over the map…I think I’ve had too much of this tea this morning! :)

Backlogging from yesterday.

While I was browsing Majesteas for some ideas, I tried a cup of this tea. THIS is what I want Della Terras orange spice teas to taste like. There is a great blend of orange and spices that mix together to let both roll over your tongue. mmmm tasty!

SIPDOWN!

I tried this one as a cold brew and while it’s still delicious,especially with a splash of sweetner added to it, there are other strawberry teas that i have since had that do a better job of strawberry without the mild astringency that this tea has. I still like it, but i’ll stick to majesteas darker teas i think :)

Tried to cold brew this the other night because a recent hot brew of this just wasn’t as tasty as i remember it being. I think that i’m over this tea haha. I do really like the strawberry taste but there’s something in the brew that i’m not a fan of anymore. Sweeetned it’s nice and i can see enjoying this in the summer so i may tuck this away until it’s hotter :)

I finally cracked open this pouch of tea last night, because I was looking for a fruit flavoured tea to be a bit of a refreshing cup. I’ve only ever had this at majesteas so I wasn’t sure how it would hold up to brewing at home. Turns out that it’s just fine. :) I’m picking up a wee bit of artificial taste this time around but maybe my taste buds are a bit wonky. Either way, it was still an enjoyable strawberry cup of tea.

I was overwhelmed today during my “break” at Majesteas. Too many things i really wanted to try but sadly they pretty much only sell their teas in 100g sizes. While that’s fine if you know you LOVE a tea, it’s a bit much if you don’t know if you like it. So I opted to have another cup while I was htere and give this one a try.

It was great! I really love how fresh the tea is, and love the streawberry flavouring. I didn’t find it astringent at all. Though I didn’t end up leaving with this particular tea, it’s now on my list to go back and pick up sometime when I manage to sip down more of my stash.

Stopped in to Majesteas today after hanging out with the Zombies. It was a bit of a rainy day so I just wanted to sit somewhere nice and have a cup of. This is their fall blend that comes and goes every year. I enjoyed this tea, though I would favour others for the pumpkin spice flavouring. It was a bit on the lighter side, for those that don’t like heavily spiced “pumpkin spice” tea. I’d for sure drink this again though!

Thanks to Majesteas for this sample!! It’s quite lovely!
Naked, and piping hot… this tastes just like any other orange rooibos tea I’ve tried. (ex Kalahari from Teaopia)
With sugar and milk though, it’s obviously a bit cooler so I don’t know if that contributed to the flavour change. All I know is that the cocoa did come out a bit and complemented the orange nicely.
Like a milder version of Terry’s Chocolate Orange. Mmmmm.

I made this for my coworker today. She likes it! a lot, I think?
She said it tasted like moss. and green tea. When I said it was supposed to be floral and peachy, she said she could see where they get that note, though it took some concentration.
When I left the office, she was on steep number two. Not sure if there were more after that, but I hope there were a few

Barely a hint of osmanthus this time, and mostly in the first of three infusions.
The others were still sweet like an oolong, but barely floral, if at all. Also detected were faint menthol and clay notes. Hmmmm.

I got this as a to go cuppa.
No time for adding sugar, so at first, it was really bland. Fruity with a floral hint.
I liked it, but it wasn’t love. But then I got preoccupied and it cooled down. All of a sudden, the Osmanthus came out to play. Oh yum!!
I’ve been looking for a quality, affordable Osmanthus oolong. and here it is!!
I’m not much of an iced tea girl, unless it’s bubble tea (hot tapioca is gross) but for this… I would make an exception.
When I go back, you can bet I’ll be picking some of this up! I’ve had a gap in my tea supply for awhile, with a spot just waiting for this one. too bad I rarely if ever make it out there… :(

Lemon goes BOOM!!!!
Holy citrus baby, this tea got zing!!
I don’t get it… the last time I tried this it was a relatively calm tea, and now? it’s all about the lemon! I mean, I’ve lost my appreciation for Ceylon and Assams somehow, but I naively assumed Darjeeling was exempt from the flavour rotation.
It wasn’t bad, at all… just very potent!
I emailed Ian, the guy who runs the shop and he suggested using less leaf to dial down the intensity but that it is supposed to be citrusy.
So I’ll try that before making any decisions.
I think I was more shocked than anything else… since I expected something more delicate and comforting than the bold confrontation I ended up facing!

This is a surprisingly toasty darjeeling! more of an assam meets darjeeling, I would say- based on my darjeeling experiences that is.
Very mild on the astringency, backed by that darjeeling “freshness” that can make me cringe if there is too much- but here, this is just the right balance.
Now, I did have to add a quarter teaspoon of sugar to bring up the flavour quotient mind you, and it’s pretty bland without the milk… so points taken off for that!! otherwise, I’m pleased, and certainly more impressed than I expected to be!
I think this one has earned it’s Duchess name :)