303 Tasting Notes

80
drank Three Fennel by Pukka
303 tasting notes

Pukka Days of Christmas#7

I thought to give this one a go after a nice meal, and that was a brillant idea : it smells like the sugar coated fennel seeds they offer you after a meal in Indian restaurants! And it tastes quite that way as well, so I can only guess the function of helping with the digestion is clearly what Pukka intends with this infusion. As far as I can tell, it works.

Flavors: Anise, Fennel Seed, Sugar

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 8 min or more 1 g 8 OZ / 250 ML

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65

Pukka Days of Christmas#5

I join other reviewers here as the name is very misleading, for a green tea with only 2% of matcha included. Furthermore, I was looking if there were other boiling (time, temperature) instructions because of it, and was quite surprised to see no specific indications concerning steeping temperature. I decided to use 70ºC water anyway.
Although the green tea is quite alright, I honestly don´t see the point of adding matcha here (apart from the marketing tool, clearly)…OK to try, but that´s all.

Flavors: Green

Preparation
160 °F / 71 °C 3 min, 30 sec 1 g 8 OZ / 250 ML

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75
drank Detox by Pukka
303 tasting notes

Pukka Days of Christmas#1

Catching up. Browsing a bit through Pukka´s webpage and on steepster, I think the blend I tried with the name “Feel new” corresponds to what was used to be called “Detox” (the change must have been carried out at the beginning of 2019).
The advent calender reads “for mornings after the night before” and that´s why I decided to have it when my stomach was a bit upset …I can see cardamom in the teabag, but the aniseed and fennel come through without further observation. The brew offers indeed those two in an enjoyable yet not too exciting “fusion” and I must admit my stomach felt good with it as well.

Flavors: Anise, Fennel

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 8 min or more 2 g 8 OZ / 250 ML

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70
drank Turmeric Gold by Pukka
303 tasting notes

Pukka Days of Christmas#8

Tasting the teas of the advent calendar which were due before the calender arrived, one by one, in no particular order.
Smells like turmeric, yellow as the pouch of the teabag, tastes like a “decaffeinated” (to say it tastes less strong than the real thing) version of the taste of turmeric and makes a visually attractive cuppa…not my favourite, but OK for once.
I guess turmeric is considered now as one of the new superfoods, but in Spain it´s a very common colorant in food (which is good), often used instead of saffron in cheeper eateries when preparing paella (not so good)…so maybe, that´s why I´m not so keen on having a turmeric tea ;-)

Flavors: Citrus, Green

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 6 min, 0 sec 1 g 8 OZ / 250 ML
Martin Bednář

I have some turmeric teas as well, I plan to use it as colorant and spices as well. I know it won’t be like a saffron though :D

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80
drank Night Time by Pukka
303 tasting notes

Pukka Days of Christmas#24

I only realized it was a blend intended to help to go to sleep, when I read other reviews here ;-) I had it now, as later on I will change tea for wine and champagne (even in these circumstances, we need to celebrate what we still can and have to cherish)…and so far, I´m not really worried about falling asleep before roasting lamb for our Xmas Eve dinner.
This blend has a rather long list of ingredients, some of them in rather large proportions (and others which tend to overwhelm on their own), but the whole is balanced. Very easy to drink, tasty and although it´s a gentle taste, the finish is long and quite strong (licorice?)… nice, and worthwhile to stock in the future.

Flavors: Floral, Grass, Herbs, Licorice

Preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 8 min or more 1 g 8 OZ / 250 ML

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84

This is the last of the Christmas teas from Bird&Blend I´m trying…on 24/12, of course. It´s kind of weird in nose…a medicinal aroma, I thought at first, then something eucalyptus like came to mind, maybe it´s just the peppermint, but it really defines the smell. In mouth the blend works, is far more balanced than what could have been expected from the aroma.
Spicy w/o clearly identifying as a Xmas tea…I like that! And it makes it far more interesting to drink at other times of the year as well.

Flavors: Eucalyptus, Medicinal, Rooibos, Spicy

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 4 min, 0 sec 1 tsp 8 OZ / 250 ML
tea-sipper

This one never showed up in the advent this year, even though it was in stock on their site.

Ilse Wouters

I bought it in the Xmas in July sale.

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75
drank Three Licorice by Pukka
303 tasting notes

Pukka Days of Christmas#23

I love licorice, but as far as I know there is the black one (“drop” in Dutch) and the wooden one (“zoethout” in Dutch), and while the black one is very easy to get hold of in sweets and such, the latter is mainly a memory from my childhood. My mother would buy me a stick of it, and I would suck it for a long time, until I would be fed up with it. I´m pretty sure that there are still unfinshed sticks like that in drawers of my room at my parents´place. And the Dutch word says it all : zoethout = sweet (zoet) wood (hout). When I smelled the tea I went down the memory lane immediately…and I loved it, until – once again – I was fed up with it, mainly because I realized it was very sweet indeed. For once a treat, not to have regularly though.

Flavors: Licorice, Sweet

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 8 min or more 1 g 8 OZ / 250 ML
Martin Bednář

While I don’t mind salty licorice (Salmiakki), I don’t like much any other. I can drink tea with it, but tea based on those? Not my thing I reckon.

Ilse Wouters

To try it´s OK, to drink on a regular basis I give it a pass as well ;-)

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70

Pukka Days of Christmas#13

As today´s tea from the advent calender is an “after dinner” tea, I picked one from the ones I missed at the beginning.
Wild apple and cinnamon…cinnamon clearly present in nose, apple not that much. Once brewed, the apple comes through, but far less than what I had hoped for. In taste, it´s not a bad blend, but it seems almost the “low taste” version, as if it was stronger before but had been left open for a while. I like fruit teas to have a clear and definite even strong character, and this isn´t the case here, I´m afraid.

Flavors: Apple Candy, Cinnamon, Herbs

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 8 min or more 2 g 250 OZ / 7393 ML

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80
drank Cleanse by Pukka
303 tasting notes

Pukka Days of Christmas#21

Today´s blend is very herbal as well, but the presence of fennel makes it a treat to smell, and the presence of mint a treat to drink. I think it´s well put together, making it less sweet than a standard mint tea, and tastier than the average herbal tea. In finish the licorice comes through, which I can appreciate a lot.

Flavors: Fennel Seed, Herbs, Licorice, Mint

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 8 min or more 1 g 8 OZ / 250 ML

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drank Three Chamomile by Pukka
303 tasting notes

Pukka Days of Christmas#20

This blend of 3 different types of chamonile might be a real treat for a lot of people, but for me it was a curse. I already mentioned that I consider a cup of chamomile tea more of a cure when having overeaten, but yesterday, that wasn´t the case and I started suffering from a lot of gasses after drinking this infusion. I have stomach problems, but this infusion caused a crisis which I don´t want to repeat every time I drink a tea, so no more of this for me, thank you. I don´t rate it either, as I´m sure my reaction to the tea is very personal and no real opinion of its quality and taste.

Flavors: Flowers, Straw

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 8 min or more 1 g 8 OZ / 250 ML
Martin Bednář

Although I don’t have any stomach troubles with chamomile, it won’t me happy either. I hate it and don’t like the flavour at all.

Ilse Wouters

well, I´ll be even less eager to have a chamomile tea from now on…good there are so many other (herbal) teas around!

Martin Bednář

True, so much true…

ashmanra

Ilse: Are you allergic to plants in the daisy family? I have heard chamomile can make you react if you are, and my daughter-in-law has a tough time with allergies and chamomile,

Ilse Wouters

Interesting point, ashmanra. I´m not aware of any food allergy (I “only” have a contact allergy ;-) ), but this was by far my worst experience with chamomile…so far!

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Profile

Bio

Introduced to tea by my sister-in-law in my country of birth = Belgium more than 30 years ago, I still love tea, mainly black, which I enjoy without sugar or milk. Having lived in UK, near good tea shops (e.g. Betty´s all over Yorkshire), I tend to buy most of my tea in bulk from tea shops (as such, most of these are not represented in my on-line cupboard). Nowadays, I live in Spain where tea gives me another sensatory bliss (as wine or beer or coffee can give me too).

Location

Madrid, Spain

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