307 Tasting Notes
I picked this one up with my last Zen Tea order and I’m not disappointed. I was actually a little afraid of this one. Too many times I’ve seen people interpret Strawberry cream as Strawberry Ice Cream.
This has a sweet strawberry on top of a creamy black tea. I love that it isn’t too sweet, and it isn’t too vanilly. The strawberry compliments the black tea well and the cream adds a nice milky mouthfeel without taking away from the flavor much. The strawberry note isn’t quite a recognizable stage note. It isn’t tarter like early strawberries, nor does it have that heavier ripe note you find with late stage strawberries. The strawberry is kind of generic, as in it doesn’t lean too far one way or the other, much like strawberry candies, but it also reminds me of great mid-season cold strawberries in the best ways.
From the Herbal TTB
I probably should have looked at the ingredients first. Yikes. I’m not even sure which ingredients it was, but something in here just turned me off immensely. But really, why would you put hibiscus OR papaya in a Marshmallow blend? I dumped the cup. I did not like.
From the Herbal TTB
I’ve been wanting to make everything iced! I was good though and made this one hot. When I add ice to anything it feels like I’m getting rid of a whole layer of flavor, anyone else get that feeling?
It’s pink, and it smells like a jolly rancher. It TASTES like a jolly rancher if jolly rancher was a tea. Mildly tart, but not drying. If I added sugar I could definately see it as a jolly rancher. I’ve an idea in the back of my mind to pour the rest over ice and cut it with soda water, but I didn’t make it concentrated enough to survive that. I do think it would do well as a tea soda though.
From Another TTB?!? round 2
I’ve been rifling through this box all day looking for something to tempt me, but this is only the 3rd tea I’ve tried today. And it’s pretty far off my normal spectrum because I really really am not a fan of rooibos. But it is 10:30pm and I’m hoping to reset my sleep cycle this weekend. I’m likely to send it off Monday or Tuesday. If anyone had any standouts still in the box, pleaseplease let me know. Admittedly I haven’t heard of MOST of these teas and have been going off of names and scent of dry leaves and pure fickleness.
Persimmon, ah love I love this fruit. This tea despite the rooibos smelt pretty good. A little too sweet of an aroma to the dry leaf to be believably persimmon, but DT has such admirers that I am willing to just try it. Maybe it’s more reminiscent of soft persimmons? Admittedly I’m much more a fan of hard persimmons and hardly ever have tasted the soft variety unless it’s preserved.
Brewed it smells like candy and rooibos. UGH.
It tastes better than it smells, the rooibos taste is covered well, but I wouldn’t call it persimmon. Some other fruit maybe, but not persimmon. Disappointing from a persimmon aspect, but not a bad tea. At least it doesn’t taste of the dreaded rooibos.
From Another TTB?!?! round 2
A very nice vanilla green. It probably could have taken more steeps, but I simply didn’t feel like it. This tea is nice, simple, and not particularly a stand out in the crowd nowadays. I could see this as a daily drinker. I was busy doing cleaning, so this was nice to sip on, the flavor retains nicely as it cools. Where did the day go though??
1/3 tsp in 4oz @ 185, 1.5min
note: the leaf texture is add, very flat narrow leaves, stiff as if they had been flash fried. It was hard to measure out.
From Another Traveling tea box?!?!
It’s a small teacup saturday! Mostly because I want to get through as many teas as possible before I ship it back out and I take up less tea this way. Only about 1/3-1/2 a tsp. It’s also the first time I’m tasting anything from Della Terra Teas!
It smells odd when dry, like some sort of tropical fruit blend. But brewed it smells exactly like a PIna Colada with black tea. OMG soo nice! The dry leaf had exactly what it says on the label: black tea, coconut bits. I didn’t see any pineapple bits, or maybe they were just too small for me to differentiate. Admittedly I wasn’t looking very closely.
It tastes like a coconut black tea, a very nice one. There’s only the slightest hint of sour at the start of the sip, but then it’s all smooth coconut. The coconut taste is of the unsweetened dessicated coconut variety, if you’ve had that. Otherwise it’s like unsweetened coconut macarons. i’m tempted to keep it, but I probably wouldn’t be able to give it the love it deserves. If I ever get around to order from DT though, I’ll probably put it on my list.
The disadvantages of a small cup is wanting more after it’s all gone. Now I want to second steep but I also want to rummage though the box for another tea. Decisions, decision….
Flavors: Coconut, Pineapple
Preparation
I should have been tasting teas from the TTB today, but I didn’t. This morning was a trusty, well-loved jasmine tea. Lunch included Twinning’s Breakfast tea. This evening I decided to try my hand at Morrocan Mint tea, which has been bouncing around my brain since I heard about it.
Yesterday I was in the 99ranch to pick up some stuff and I wandered over to the tea area, I always do. I was looking for Gunpowder green tea. You know, despite stories of it being very popular, I had a heck of a time trying to find it, most of the teas available were sencha or long ling or some other green. No Gunpowder to be found. I actually drove over to SF market (another Asian supermarket) to go through the tea selection there. I finally settled on a ‘China Green Tea’ whose characters seemed closest to the ones Wikipedia showed me for Gunpowder. Eh, it was cheap. $4 for about 8oz? Does it remind me of gunpowder tea? Hmm, I’m not sure. I’ve only had it Gunpowder a few times, but at this point I’m just going to finish off what I started even if it’s not completely right.
My mom planted some mint in a pot in on my patio and it really really likes the weather here. The mint is thriving! (I wish I could say the same of my sad little Basil plant) I grabbed a bunch of mint and did my best approximation of Morrocan Mint tea. You know, for not knowing if I have the actual right tea, and lacking the beautiful tea pot, settling for a pot on the stove.
Well, it tastes nice. I would probably try it again.
From Another TTB Round 2
This one was MEH to me. It’s lychee, but in a very perfumey and artificial way. I’m used to black lychee teas being intensely lychee, whether from flavoring or because some lychee fruit was stuck into the tea. With that background this tea was disappointing. It was more floral than fruity and not very strong at that. If you want some of my preferred Black Lychee tea, I’m happy to share, I have ALOT, but it’s not really a big name tea like David’s.
From Another TTB Round 2
The box arrived! EEEiiii! This is my first TTB so I’m excited. The box actually isn’t as overwhelming as I though it would be so YAY!
I grabbed this one first out of the box because I’ve been wanting to try some Hawaiian teas but hadn’t the chance yet. Plus it’s one of the few tea bags in here and I wanted something easy.
They aren’t kidding when they say Pineapple! Even dry the tea bag was delightfully pineapple-y. I love pineapple, I could eat it all day if only my tongue didn’t go numb.
The black tea base is OK, it’s not overwhelming, but I wouldn’t call it amazing either. Overall it’s not offensive, but I think I would have found a green tea base more interesting. The smell of the brewed liquor is not as sweet of a pineapple as when it’s dry. The dry smell was more like crytallized pineapple versus the brewed smell which is more like pineapple juice. Mostly this tea is awesome because of the smell, but that is pretty fleeting as the tea cools.
Surprisingly enough I’m getting that ‘back of the tongue, numb feeling’ I get from eating fresh pineapple. Haha, talk about getting the entire experience!
Would I buy? Maybe. I’m sad that this is the only teabag of this tea in the box, so those behind me won’t get to try it, but I might have taken it all for myself anyway, so there’s that.
Sounds pretty tasty!