41 Tasting Notes
Hello again Steepster!
It’s been a while since I wrote anything here. But it’s been a cold winter and I have been drinking a lot of tea. The roasted lemongrass from Furyu and Yunomius has been an interesting thing to try at night, when I don’t want any caffeine. It’s roasted to have some of the same flavors as a hojicha, but it’s made out of lemongrass, not tea, so it is fruitier and, well, less tea-like. Definitely an interesting experience, and it’s pretty light, so the 10g packet goes longer than you might expect.
Preparation
First: this tea is green. If Gatorade made a drink this color, I would refuse to drink it on the grounds that nothing in nature could possibly be that shade of neon green. But, apparently, I’d be wrong. Here’s a photo: http://flic.kr/p/9uqpuL
It tastes perfectly natural, though. Compared to other genmaichas I’ve tried, it perhaps tastes a bit more like green tea than toasted rice. And I can definitely feel the extra caffeine from the matcha. But, while it’s nice, honestly I don’t know if it’s different enough from any other genmaicha to justify the rather-high price.
Preparation
A friend of mine, visiting town from Switzerland, brought me a box of this tisane. I guess all the herbs in it are Swiss? And organic? I mean, it says so, right on the package, in English (and also German and French), but it is foreign and so it would be so much more exotic if I could manage to be confused.
Anyway, it’s a nice herbal tea to drink at night in this alpine (DID YOU SEE WHAT I DID THERE?) weather we’ve been having which just won’t go away. It’s warming and comforting without trying to either wake me up or put me to sleep. The taste is sort of vaguely citrusy, but there is no actual citrus in it. Every time I drink it, I expect it to have mint in it, but of course it doesn’t and you would think I could figure that out already.
Preparation
Let’s first be clear about one thing: the dry tea smells awful. The last ingredients here are “genuine bourbon vanilla” and “artificial flavor,” and at least one of those is dissolved in some kind of unpleasant solvent. Seriously, I imagine that there are teenagers huffing this stuff somewhere in a (presumably vain) attempt to get high.
When it’s actually brewed, though, things are much more pleasant. The vanilla flavor actually mostly fades away, leaving a reasonable (if unexceptional) fruit tea, nice for chilly autumn/winter evenings.
Preparation
Yes: a lovely autumn/winter morning drink. But I’m honestly not even sure what I’m doing reviewing it on Steepster, a tea site.
I prepared this on the stove, boiling the chai in 1 part water : 1 part whole milk for 5 minutes and adding a fairly large amount of sugar at the end. It’s really sort of nonsensical to compare the result to regular brewed tea: the spices (coconut! lemongrass! cinnamon! etc!), milk, and sugar actually dominate the black tea itself. I can certainly feel the caffeine, though.
If you like the spice mixture, you’ll like the drink. As I said above, though, it’s almost unreasonable to call it a “tea,” even though of course it really is one.
Preparation
I’m really not sure what to make of this.
It’s green tea, so I should prepare it carefully at a relatively low temperature. But also it’s chai, so I should make sure to boil it extract all the flavor of the spices. Do I add milk? Never for green tea, but often yes for chai.
And so on.
I haven’t yet found a way to prepare this which makes me like it. But I’ll give it another try or two to see if I can figure it out.
I had the same questions when I tried it. I went w/ 1 heaping tsp for 6-8oz of 180 degree water for 3-4 min, sweetener optional. I’ve even tried it prepared with half milk and half water (increasing the steeping by 1 min) and it was surprisingly drinkable although it’s something I’d never do again… although I assume that someone who enjoys matcha lattes would enjoy green chai w/ milk much more than I do.
I know exactly what you mean about the Adagio chai – the spices are always off. I end up adding more to the point of crafting my own tea! I kept thinking my tastebuds were off; comforting to know I am not alone.
Hello again autumn, hello again hot tea drinking, and hello again steepster.
It’s cold enough that I actually want to drink something hot. But at night, I do not want any caffeine. So I’ve been drinking this tea, and it’s quite nice. The taste is fruity and a bit floral. Even without any sugar, it’s somehow a bit sweet. There’s nothing spectacularly “wow” about it, but it’s very drinkable, and I’ve had several mugs of it over the past couple of weeks.
Also, the brewed tea is very red.
