89
drank Tokyo by Harney & Sons
6105 tasting notes

Five samples from Alphakitty tried today? Yup! Seriously guys, all I’ve done today is sit at home at the kitchen table, drinking tea and putzing about Steepster/watching How I Met Your Mother. Laziest awake day EVER.

I can taste a delicious green tea base (makes me think sencha, although I know it’s bancha) with just a bit of a seaweedy flavour, and hint of sesame. It’s a sweet blend, which works really well with this combination of flavours. I am getting a little bit of astringency, enough to make me reduce the infusion time by 30 seconds in the future.

I do agree that this is reminiscent of some Japanese sweets… and saying that, I’m positive I recently said that about some other tea! Will have to check and see which one. Like with the Bangkok Blend though, although I like this one and will enjoy finishing off my large sample, I can’t see myself purchasing it in the future. Flavoured greens don’t seem to be my thing, although citrus flavours are the biggest problem (the one exception is Den’s Sakura Sencha… now that one was good!)

Now if I recall correctly, this is another tea good for icing/cold-brewing, so once I get my act together to do some of that sort of thing, it’ll be close to the top of my list! Thanks for obliging me with a taste of this one, Alphakitty! Feels good to take a few things off my Steepster shopping list (AKA want-to-try list).

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

those are the best days! restores my sanity lol

SimpliciTEA

Totally agree.

ScottTeaMan

This is really good and it would be good iced too. :))

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Comments

Indigobloom

those are the best days! restores my sanity lol

SimpliciTEA

Totally agree.

ScottTeaMan

This is really good and it would be good iced too. :))

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Bio

I have always been a tea fan (primarily herbals and Japanese greens/oolongs) but in the last year or so, tea has become increasingly more appealing as not only a delicious, calming drink, but as a relatively cheap, healthy reward or treat to give myself when I deserve something. I should clarify that, however; the reward is expanding my tea cupboard, not drinking tea – I place no restrictions on myself in terms of drinking anything from my cupboard as that would defeat my many goals!

My DavidsTea addiction was born in late 2011, despite having spent nearly a year intentionally avoiding their local mall location (but apparently it was just avoiding the inevitable!). I seem to have some desire to try every tea they’ve ever had, so much of my stash is from there, although I’ve recently branched out and ordered from numerous other companies.

I like to try and drink all my teas unaltered, as one of the main reasons I’m drinking tea other than for the flavour is to be healthy and increase my water intake without adding too many calories! I’ve found that the trick in this regard is to be very careful about steeping time, as most teas are quite pleasant to drink straight as long as they haven’t been oversteeped. However, I tend to be forgetful (particularly at work) when I don’t set a timer, resulting in a few horrors (The Earl’s Garden is not so pleasant after, say, 7+ minutes of steeping).

I’m currently trying to figure out which types of teas are my favourites. Herbals are no longer at the top; oolongs have thoroughly taken over that spot, with greens a reasonably close second. My preference is for straight versions of both, but I do love a good flavoured oolong (flavoured greens are really hit or miss for me). Herbals I do love iced/cold-brewed, but I drink few routinely (Mulberry Magic from DavidsTea being a notable exception). I’m learning to like straight black teas thanks to the chocolatey, malty, delicious Laoshan Black from Verdant Tea, and malty, caramelly flavoured blacks work for me, but I’m pretty picky about anything with astringency. Lately I’ve found red rooibos to be rather medicinal, which I dislike, but green rooibos and honeybush blends are tolerable. I haven’t explored pu’erh, mate, or guayasa a great deal (although I have a few options in my cupboard).

I’ve decided to institute a rating system so my ratings will be more consistent. Following the smiley/frowny faces Steepster gives us:

100: This tea is amazing and I will go out of my way to keep it in stock.

85-99: My core collection (or a tea that would be, if I was allowing myself to restock everything!) Teas I get cravings for, and drink often.

75-84: Good but not amazing; I might keep these in stock sparingly depending on current preferences.

67-74: Not bad, I’ll happily finish what I have but probably won’t ever buy it again as there’s likely something rated more highly that I prefer.

51-66: Drinkable and maybe has some aspect that I like, but not really worth picking up again.

34-50: Not for me, but I can see why others might like it. I’ll make it through the cup and maybe experiment with the rest to get rid of it.

0-33: It’s a struggle to get through the cup, if I do at all. I will not willingly consume this one again, and will attempt to get rid of the rest of the tea if I have any left.

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