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Recent Tasting Notes

67
drank Peppermint by TeaSource
12 tasting notes

How you rate this tea depends completely on how you intend to use it. It’s pure peppermint, so unless you truly enjoy that flavor in large, strong doses, you are not going to rate this tea at 100%. However, the leaves have plenty of flavor and are high quality, producing a strong tea. In that, they’re perfect. I use this more like medicine than I do something delicious to drink, because it works like wonders on my sinuses and any stomach aches I have.

Seriously. Wonders.

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67
drank Jasmine by TeaSource
12 tasting notes

They are totally right about when you should drink this. In fact, I can barely let a warm, rainy day pass without a cup of this stuff. Jasmine green is the first tea I’ve ever had that genuinely compliments a type of precipitation. TeaSource’s Jasmine is lovely for a cup, but too aromatic for me to drink more than one or (sometimes) two.

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42
drank Monk's Blend by TeaSource
12 tasting notes

This is a confusing blend for me, because it smells amazing both dry and when it’s steeped. Small sips produce an average taste with confusing notes. Anything larger is bitter and makes my tongue hurt on contact. I didn’t know I could get depressed drinking black tea, but apparently you can when you don’t like it.

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42
drank Monk's Blend by TeaSource
12 tasting notes

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77

I often order this tea at my local cafe, though its flavors aren’t my favorite. The chammomile is very soothing, but I prefer spicier blends. Still, I like how the mint feels refreshing and balances out the chammomile nicely. For those who love soothing teas or chammomile, I recommend this tea!

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100

By far my favorite breakfast tea. It tastes quite good plain, with sugar, milk, or both. It’s versatile and strong, which is what I look for in my breakfast teas.

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100
drank Lemon Solstice by TeaSource
12 tasting notes

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100
drank Lemon Solstice by TeaSource
12 tasting notes

Still the most delicious tea I’ve ever tasted.

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100
drank Lemon Solstice by TeaSource
12 tasting notes

This is by far my favorite tea—ever. If you love teas that are rich and sweet, this is a great one for you. Without sugar, it still makes a wonderful dessert tea, sweet enough to compliment a dessert but strong enough to bring you down from any strong sweets. But WITH sugar, it transforms into tasting just like frosted or iced lemon cake. I drink this tea with everything but breakfast (okay, and sometimes breakfast).

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100
drank Sencha Uji by TeaSource
98 tasting notes

Bye, Sencha Uji. You’re delicious and grassy and slightly sweet (more evident in the second and third steepings), and you’re everything I could want in a green. I’ve got some Dark Green Needle coming in the mail, but don’t for a second think that that means I’m replacing you. You’ll always have a special place in my heart, and you’re welcome in my home anytime. I’ll see you soon.

Preparation
165 °F / 73 °C 3 min, 0 sec

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100
drank Sencha Uji by TeaSource
98 tasting notes

Backlogging from yesterday.
Man, this is good. It’s got that grassy but sweetish green tea aroma and taste that I’m finally starting to like. Brought some of this up to the Twin Cities yesterday on a trip with the girls. This is going on the shopping list, as the quantity I have is a 1-oz sample.

Preparation
165 °F / 73 °C

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89

I infused this 3 times. Each time the floral flavor came out more and more. The first steep was very sweet and delicious hot. I am now drinking it cold on the third steep and it has a more floral fast and is great cold. I like green teas cold better than hot, there extremely refreshing.

Preparation
175 °F / 79 °C 3 min, 0 sec

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90

This was new territory for me – the ‘Dark Tea’ category puts this tea in the same vein as a Pu-er, they’re both post-fermented and reputed to offer the same benefit of help with digestion, pro-biotics and so-forth, but this Fu-Brick had me fooled. It’s compressed and aged like a Pu-er, but the leaves are decidedly younger and greener. Much more subtle in flavor, fresher, and hay-like, as described.
I steeped it in the traditional way, a yixing pot, pre-rinse, and about 4 minutes. I haven’t really had time yet to scratch the surface, but I get the impression that re-steeps of this tea could yield even more complex sips, likely on the floral end. If you’ve tried pu-er and weren’t impressed, you might want to try this side of the post-fermented varieties. Very drinkable and not so much of the ‘earthiness’ that turns some people away, but personally that’s what draws me to pu-er.

Pictures and more thoughts in my full review: http://latteteadah.blogspot.com/2011/12/fu-brick-dark-tea-teasource.html

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99

Interesting note—the scent of the dry leaf (and brewed liquor, to some extent) is similar to Yunnan Golden Buds by Verdant Tea. Interesting, especially since Nepal isn’t even close to Yunnan Province…

First sip—thick and honey-sweet. I actually said “wow” when I sipped this…
I’m getting a slightly green note and maybe a floral one at the very end of the sip. This is very delicious! It’s not particularly complex, but there’s enough complexity in my life right now with finals.

I’ll keep drinking this all day and see how it evolves. Very tasty.

Update: Got at least six quality infusions out of this, adding about 10 seconds every time. It’s very smooth and nice…like I said before, not too complex, but solidly delicious!

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 0 min, 30 sec
TeaBrat

sounds delightful!

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100

So I mentioned at some point that I “diluted” this with an equal amount of pure rooibos to make its flavor less…like bourbon. It tasted great, but gosh, I had to eat something afterward to absorb the fumey feeling. So I did that and it’s PERFECT. Plus it’ll last longer.

Anyway…I just brewed a cup of half my new version of this and half Azteca Fire. I think the vanilla flavors really accentuate the cocoa well…mmmmm. Now I just need to finish this paper.

Preparation
Boiling 7 min, 30 sec

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100

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100

Got some of this for the first time since last year—I have been acquiring more and more true tea and didn’t have as much caffeine-free stuff on hand. Upon opening the bag, I am awash in the heady aroma of bourbon and rooibos. Mmm, it’s kind of like cookies with too much vanilla (we always add a little extra in my house). I brewed it for about 6 minutes, breathing in the fumes. Since it smells so bourbony I’m going to call it fumes, not aroma…it certainly feels that way.

First sips. In the first second or two, not much happens, but then BOOM—creamy, rich vanilla. It stays in your mouth for ages…in a grandfabulous way. The rooibos lends a toasty note. This vanilla tastes so authentic—like a mixture of pure vanilla bean and the best Mexican vanilla extract my family uses. I didn’t like this one as much when I got it the first time…for some reason. But my goodness, this will stick around from now on.

Winner.

Preparation
Boiling 6 min, 0 sec
potatowedges

By the way, I noticed after drinking this that the vanilla flavor is really strong—strong enough to make me feel like I needed to eat something to absorb the liquoryness. I blended it today with pure rooibos (50/50), and it’s perfect now. Plus it’ll stretch farther!

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drank Puerh Tuo Cha by TeaSource
98 tasting notes

I steeped this a second time and put it in my travel mug just like the first one…then I headed to class. I spilled some nasty citrus-sage essential oil all over my laptop and other possessions last week, my travel mug included, and the top of the mug, which is plastic and not stainless steel like the rest of it, has absorbed that smell. I’ve been trying and trying to wash it out—dish soap, baking soda, Dr. Bronner’s soap—and the latter one, which I used this morning, has lent a distinct minty smell to the top of the mug.

I’m mentioning this because my second steeping, which, unlike the first one in the travel mug, actually came in contact with the lid, tasted completely like weird mint. I am almost 100% sure that this is no fault of the tea!

…mrenhh. I need to get a new lid.

potatowedges

Just got a new lid. Am going to re-steep this a second time.

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drank Puerh Tuo Cha by TeaSource
98 tasting notes

Picked some up at TeaSource when I had first expressed a curiosity for dark tea. At something like $1.50 for four mini tuochas, who could refuse?

Brewing…should’ve known to put it in my brew basket. As soon as the water hit it, it started dissolving, sending cool bubbles up everywhere…pretty awesome to watch. I dumped off this steep after about 30 sec and salvaged the leaves, putting them in the basket. Here we go!

Steeped for probably 4 min, because the smell was so strong that I wanted to try it step by step. The aroma is of a fire, more specifically our cooking fires up in the Boundary Waters. Imagine this: it’s cold, misty, and gray, with the rain spitting down on you and your inadequate rain gear. You can feel all the twigs and pebbles sloshing around in the three inches of water that refuse to leave your boots. Your fingers are starting to do that thing where they get all pale and spotty from the cold, and you’re huddled up as close as you can get to your two new best friends while you try and try and try to build a decent fire. Someone went into the woods to find dry kindling, and the flame finally takes, while you watch, awestruck, like the first humans to ever see fire. Set the pot of lake water on…and soon we’ll have rice and beans. Feel the char and smoke envelop you as you get as close as you can to those life-giving flames, thanking them each moment for their existence.

Can you feel it?

That’s what this tastes like.

Preparation
Boiling 4 min, 0 sec
Ellyn

I LOVE this description! I can feel it!

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100
drank Genmaicha by TeaSource
98 tasting notes

Finally having some more of this. It smells so much like burned popcorn that it often puts me off, but as I’ve been ripping through the green tea lately (especially as I try to avoid a cold), I wanted to come around to this again. I love Popped Rooibos, and it’s been compared to this sometimes (what with the toasted rice and all). Anyway…

Oh holy yum. It’s toasty and has that tasty sencha flavor that I now like. Almost a bit sweet from the rice, but more toasted than anything. Carries that popcorny taste. I don’t really like popcorn because I don’t like how it makes my mouth feel (dry, salty, kernel hulls stuck in my mouth), but I like this. Mmm.

Preparation
165 °F / 73 °C 4 min, 0 sec
SunnyinNY

I love Genmaicha tea! I am particularly fond of the Adagio Teas version. I will have to look into TeaSource.

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100
drank Genmaicha by TeaSource
98 tasting notes

No notes yet. Add one?

Preparation
165 °F / 73 °C 5 min, 30 sec

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100
drank Genmaicha by TeaSource
98 tasting notes

Got this with my Green Sampler from TeaSource when I decided to try a bunch of greens on a whim. Since green tea has never been my favorite, I thought I should work on acquiring the taste! I really enjoy TeaSource’s Popped Rooibos, which has toasted rice in it (as well as almond brittle, which makes it all taste caramely), and the girl working there, one of my favorite people, recommended I try Genmaicha. She gave me a sample of it too—now, in addition to my sample from the pack, I have another one. Yay! Anyway, the actual tea…

Smells like popcorn dry. (As a college student, I’ve smelled a lot of popcorn…) Roasty, a tad burnt in a nice way, blended together with a fresh green-smelling note from the tea. I like how one smell doesn’t overpower the other dry. When it starts steeping, the roasty smell takes over, and upon sipping, I feel the roastiness all over my mouth, followed by a fresh, slightly sweet green tea taste. It’s delicious and savory, and it’s just what I was looking for this morning. Can’t wait to steep it a second time!

Preparation
165 °F / 73 °C 4 min, 0 sec

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80

Pah on milk and sugar! I’ve rediscovered this tea after running out of Darjeeling. I actually quite like it this time around. I’m still not quite certain what it is that is just beyond my reach in aroma. This has turned out to be a tea I can ‘oversteep’ for a little bit and it doesn’t negatively impact the flavor of the tea too much.

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