The Tea Spot

I’m not very familiar with oolong teas and tried just a sip of this one while visiting a fellow tea enthusiast’s house a couple weeks ago. Just one sip, mind you, was enough to convince me to look up TheTeaSpot.Com and order this delicious, one-of-a-kind, takes-your-taste-buds-totally-by-surprise oolong which looks just as delightful as it tastes.

The package recommends a 195F/3min steep time and temperature, which I agree with. Buy it! Enjoy it.

I love this tea and I crave it daily! I enjoy it just by itself but it amazing in the form of a latte. The combination of black tea, pu’reh and chocolate form a beautiful blend.

I finished off my sampler of this today. I was about to write down a tasting note and then I noticed how alike my thoughts were to what I wrote down before! I have tasted more teas now, and I still like this. The flavors were three and clear for the first steeping: first nutty, then a vegetal taste and a mild bitterness together. The second steeping saw them all fade. I would buy this again but I am off to seek some other dragonwell samples. I did pick up a faintly sweet aftertaste. Everything about this cup is delicate.

The dry leaves have a grassy and floral aroma.

The first time I tried this, I steeped at 165 degrees and was not impressed. Green tea.

With another batch of these green, almost whole leaves, I tasted two steeps at 175 degrees. What a difference! The first steep gave a brownish green cup with a fragrant “green tea” aroma. This first steep had three tastes: first a nutty flavor, then green and bitter in balance. There was a faintly (and pleasantly) bitter aftertaste with some moderate astringency at the end, enough to make my gums tingle. The cup was pleasantly smooth and went down fast. The second steep at 175 degrees gave a cup similar in color, with all of the flavors being lower in strength, and with the nutty flavor dominating.

This is my first dragonwell taste and I think I might be a dragonwell person.

My dear Steepsterites.

Let it be known to those who have not worked it out already that Earl Grey is really not among my favourite types and that the ones that I have actually appreciated rather than just drunk are few and far between. I just don’t really care that much for bergamot, it’s such a dark and dusty flavour. It tastes so old.

This however is Monday’s Sample Week tea, and I’m sharing it with the boyfriend who has returned home from the wild abroads and brought with him our new kettle. No more messing about with saucepans, yay! It has little blue lights, five different settings, a keep warm function and temperatures and amounts written on it in two different units. And it goes beep when the water is boiling.

Anyway, the tea. It’s the first tea we’re having with the new kettle, and it was the first sample that I found in the basket which fit the criteria for Sample Week and the size of the pot needed for two people.

It has a surprisingly sweet aroma after brewing. It smells like some kind of lemon-y pudding. Creamy and sweet and not at all like an EG. Oh you won’t see me complaining here! It actually makes me really very hopeful about it.

Upon tasting my hopes are not dashed. On the contrary I discover to my surprise that for an EG this is not half bad. It’s pretty good actually!

In the flavour I can identify the bergamot, but there are other flavours going on as well, so I don’t really get that grey and old feeling from it. It’s like Earl Grey in his earliest youth, galloping about the gardens on a stick pony with his pockets full of frogs and bits of string. Maybe a scraped knee as well.

The creamy sweetness noticed in the aroma is there, tasting sort of pudding-y or slightly cake-y, and then there’s a strong note of some kind of citrus fruit. I can see PattiM suggested pink grapefruits when posting about it, and I agree with that. I eat a lot of pink grapefruits, and tasting this tea seems very similar to the flavour of a good, juicy grapefruit.

This is summerly and fresh, not so heavy and lumbering as your average regular Earl Grey. This one, I like.

Made this tonight as my dessert tea. The smell was rich. The first cup I had plain and could taste the delicate tone of the caramel with also a buttery warm taste. The second cup I added almond milk and enjoyed it this way too.

Love the coconut in this tea. Could not get enough of this one had three cups the first day it arrived. It had a wonderful buttery, nutty taste. This is definitely one of my favorites.

A good cup for first thing in the morning. Definitely could use it to replace my morning coffee if I make it a little stronger.

Made this for the first time as a latte and found it refreshing and delicious. I did not add any sweetener as I thought it was sweet enough. Wonder what it will be like not as a latte but can’t wait to try it soon.

This oolong is interspersed with shreds of white coconut, lending it a very nutty scent, which, combined with the buttery scent of the milk oolong makes for a very fragrant introduction.

195/3 min. The scent is wonderful. The coconut is not overdone, nor is it sickeningly sweet. It’s quite perfect, actually. The milk oolong is delightful, buttery, nutty, but with a fruitiness as well. It reminds me so much of thepuritea’s oolong, just a bit stronger on the coconut notes. I’m so glad to have chosen it as my Royal Wedding watching tea.

Backlogging tea from last night. Simple but good. The vanilla isn’t super strong, and I really think the almonds don’t add much flavor as the red rooibis is pretty srong on its own. Still, not too bad for a non-caffeine infusion before sleeping. It is one of my favorite versions of rooibos, but I think I like Bourbon Sttreet Vanilla Rooibos better.

My tea of the evening. I love that it resteaps so well. The vanilla and almonds are a good match to rooibos.

I did finally purchase some of this tea because it was available on Amazon.com. It is a good rooibos with light vanilla flavor and almonds. I do think it is better with a little extra tea in the brew.

This was a free sample in my recent order from The Tea Spot. I will admit I was a little disappointed it was a rooibos before I tasted it. This one really is pretty good. It almost makes me want to try a few other rooibos teas I have in my cupboard again, just in case I missed something with them. I can definitely taste the vanilla, and the almond is light. Sweetened, it really is a good, smooth, dessert type taste. A surprisingly good cup.

Resteeps well, too.

This tea smells fruity, yet subdued when dry. The scattered flower petals are beautiful. I went light on the steep 175/1 min as I wanted to avoid cooking the leaves. The description of this tea has to be incorrect as it doesn’t mention vanilla. Either that or I totally missed it. I’m getting a very big vanilla scent and flavor. I do not like vanilla, nor would I have purchased it had I known. The sweet vanilla flavor so permeates the tea, that I cannot focus much on the other elements. I can taste some fruitiness, but am not enjoying this, so I can’t report any further. It lingers far too long in my mouth and nose.

Tea note #99… last of the double digits! :)

I just received this package yesterday and decided it would be a nice morning tea. It smells divine in the packet… fruity and almost peppery at the same time.

205/2.5 min – It still smells fruity, although since I had it on the Breville with the timer, I forgot that it was there and it had cooled considerably. I took a sip of my cold tea and thought, hmm, this is an excellent tea for icing! So, I dropped some ice in and confirmed it. Excellent. It’s fruity, but you can still taste the black tea. It’s mellow and not at all bitter, which is lovely. I like the taste of the mango, which, while not as real tasting as some other mango black teas, is not overly sweet, either. Plus, it has my cat’s name in it (Tango), so it has to be a winner, right? (No. Okay. It’s still good on its own merit.) ;)

So here’s why I didn’t give this tea a higher rating: 1) Matcha should be fresh tasting, smooth, slightly bitter, immensely vegetal, and FRESH tasting, this tea simply was not, 2) the tea was delivered in a tin with the green tea pouring out of the tin when it arrived (of course the tea was “sealed” with a plastic wrapper, 3) the tea was not hermetically sealed which, for matcha green tea, is a big no-no. Now onto tasting note: this brew was a ratio of 1 tsp to 6-8 ounces. The tea aroma was moderately fresh smelling, but on the slightly flat side. The tea liquor was granular/powdery forest green in color. Usually, my other matchas are more of a lighter green than this with the same ratio. The taste of the tea was VERY bitter, the kind that you associate with drinking dish-washing soap, not the good kind of astringency normally found in quality matcha green tea. I honestly don’t know what to do with this tea except dilute completely in colder water and try it that way, or put on food as one might use culinary-grade matcha. I feel very sorry, however, that at the cost of imperial (ceremonial-grade) matcha, I now have a small tin of low-grade culinary matcha. For a better quality matcha buy from Teavana. I rarely tout this “tea” store for anything, but they must be commended for their high-quality, ceremonial-grade matcha.

Second tea of the morning…..

I will admit it. I have been ‘re-interviewing’ my flavored teas. I am at a point where I don’t have much left in the way of flavored teas because I rarely drink them, so maybe my review doesn’t apply to most as I am not much of a fan anymore of flavored tea. I know I had fond memories of this one and bought some last April. To tell how interested I have been until now….I just opened the package today.

Call me a bit disappointed. The initial smell of the leaf was a little medicinal and artificial. I am hoping it just needs to breathe a little. It has never been opened, so it should not have degraded much. I do smell artificial chocolate in the brewed tea, too, and I can taste it. I did not go with the stevia sweetener, because I wanted this to be as close as I remembered to having it last. It looks to have a similar base as the TeaSpot’s Qu Hao Silk. I remember quality black tea with cocoa notes on steriods. I got quality black tea with chocolate and a hint of medicine. :(

My afternoon cuppa for the day….

This one is really pretty good. It tastes like a good Fujian black where the cocoa notes are in overdrive. Very yummy and rich tasting.

My afternoon cuppa post workout. I tried the first steap with milk. That did not work at all. The tea base is a little too delicate to stand up to milk. Drank it down and resteaped….and the resteap actually tasted more of chocolate than the first because I did not ruin it with milk. Both cups were lightly sweetened.

This tea is chocolatey and delicate. The black base is a good quality black kind of along the lines of a mid range China black. The chocolate flavor really amplifies the cocoa notes in the tea. Think a China black with cocoa notes on steriods. I am trying to decide if it is going on the rebuy list along with my Vitality Herbal from the Tea Spot.

Steep #2: 5minutes….I can definitely tell the intensity of the chocolate has gone down. However, the amount of chocolate left kind of intensifies the cocoa notes that are in the black tea base.

Steep #3: 7 minutes….This one is still pretty good. The color is still ambery brown and there is still the faint hint of cocoa. Three good steeps makes this a good value in my book. I am not sure this would have worked well on a lower quality base. It is nice that once the cocolate dissipates, you are left with a good quality black tea.

Steep #4: 9 minutes….I am not sure this one was worth it. I did add milk just to see if there was anything left as far as tea, and I think that was a mistake. Since this is a black that does not really need milk (except for maybe that first steep…in a yummy kind of way, and not the bitterness cutting kind of way), I think it would hold up fine without milk on a 4th steep.

Note to self: The next time you do a 4 steep test, use a smaller cup. Your jumbo mug is too big for this many steeps….

A huge number of tea shipments for the day. This was the one I was most interested in trying today. I am not planning on rating this one for a while. I have come to the conclusion that I need at least two or three tastings to get a really good idea about a tea. Here goes for this one.

I will admit it, the name is what convinced me to purchase. That and the profile looked as if it was a flavor infused better black. The chocolate smell is pretty strong in the bag and brewed cup. There are no bits in this tea…just slightly shiney, curly, and long tea leaves. The leaves are mostly brown with a bit of yellow. First steep tastes chocolatey, but it is subtle. The black tea base is really good. I have this cup slightly sweetend, but it is almost begging for milk to be dessert. It is rich! Let’s hope it continues to impress.

Iced tea of the day……

I made this one by my usual iced tea method. No sweetener, because I am weird in that I only like hot tea sweetened. So, I am surprised at the sweetness in this one! It must be the licorice root. I get sweet, lemony, tart, and a slight bit of mint all rolled up into one refreshing drink. (Luckily the hibiscus in this one is very light and not the main player in the flavor profile!) I am a little concerned, though. It is almost 7pm and there is ginseng in this. Am I going to be up all night again?

I will definitely continue to make this one iced. It is yummy!