Featured & Popular Tasting Notes
This tea tastes like Sprite! I really like it! I don’t know how it achieves this almost bubbly quality, but it’s great! I cold brew a second steep, and that turns out very tasty as well. Definitely a new favorite. Totally a unique tea. I prefer this one room temperature.
Backlog from last night.
I chose this tea last night to have with dinner – a few slices of meat-lovers pizza with sausage, bacon, and pepperoni.
Good call! The saltiness and smokiness of the pepperoni and bacon really went well with the smokiness of the tea. And I love the fact that the base tea itself is slightly sweet.
I was seriously considering buying some dark chocolate after dinner to have with this tea since I had at least half the pot left, but the convenience store was closed. Too bad. I bet this tea would be GREAT when paired with dark chocolate squares.
Another one I very much wanted to try. Thanks so much, Cameron B! Huge green tea leaves from Thailand, with an occasional bit of fruit (mango, coconut). I love sticky rice teas, so this should be a good one. And it is! The green tea seems to me more like a Wen Shan Bao Zhong oolong, and that’s what I would guess in a taste test. The coconut is at the forefront and tastes more like toasted coconut. Really only hints of the mango and sticky rice. But the base is very buttery, so pairs really well with these flavors. Even the third steep doesn’t seem overdone at such hot temp, meaning I really do think this is an oolong, not a green tea… unless Thailand green tea is very forgiving with hot brewing. But it’s a great base for these subtle flavors! So it’s another tea that found another great new home. Where Cameron B was tasting suntan lotion coconut, I didn’t notice that at all— I noticed toasty coconut. And note to self: do a third steep. And also, next time, try the third steep at boiling.
Steep #1 // 2 teaspoons for a full mug // 30 minutes after boiling // 1 minute steep
Steep #2 // 35 min after boiling // 2 min steep
Steep #2 // 24 min after boiling // 2 min steep
Flavors: Butter, Coconut, Mango, Sticky Rice
This one left me scratching my head. I don’t drink a lot of oolongs because I don’t like the heavy roasted ones everyone else seems to prefer. This one is heavily oxidized but isn’t heavy on the roasting. It is a little sweet with the taste of honey but only lightly. The main flavor is a woodsy sort of leafiness accompanied by mineral notes like you would expect in a mountain stream where the water rushes across big rocks. This one seems so familiar but looking through my notes on Oriental Beauty and Bao Zhong, the two I thought it might most resemble, proved not even a close match. As I ended my blog post, I am going to have to leave the taste of this one as The Mystery of the Red Buffalo.
Well I ran out of my subpar Ito-en Matcha Love Usucha, so I picked this Kuma Tea up from Amazon. It was available on Prime (meaning I get my matcha fix quicker), had a fair price and good reviews, and it has an adorable bear on it and is named “bear” (kuma) tea in Japanese so, well, they’ve exploited all my weaknesses here! Fast, cheap, high-reviews and cute animals! How could I resist???
I’m absolutely willing to desecrate this ceremonial grade tea by making matcha lattes with it but first I will try it in its intended use. Some reviews said this tea is even good enough to make koicha (thick matcha, which uses twice as much powder and half as much water), and that can typically only be done with really high quality matcha. I am going to make it as usucha (light matcha) this time with just two chashaku of tea, 70ml of water, and a whisk.
Opening the can, the powder color is a nice medium green. Sifting 2 chashaku of the powder into my pre-heated chawan, the aroma is very sweet! I’m getting heavy notes of dates and berries, I’m thinking either blackberry or cherry. Off to a great start here!
After adding the water I’m greeted by a rich umami scent, reminding me of seaweed, then after whisking, this has mellowed out to a scent that reminds me of spiced roasted nuts, still very sweet.
The flavor is not at all what I expected. It starts with sweetness and vegetal flavors like cooked cabbage or brussels sprouts (sweeter than raw ones) . There is a lot of complexity to it with subtle notes of vanilla and coriander. The finish has a lingering tartness and a tiny sting of bitterness. The lingering taste in my mouth is tart and slightly floral, reminding me vaguely of salted sakura leaves (which are similar in taste to the sakura/cherry blossoms but more perfumy and fragrant).
I must say this matcha does not taste at all as I expected it would, and I’m rather pleased with it. The complexity was unexpected, and the balancing umami, vegetal, sour, and bitter notes were not expected. From its sweet scent I expected something more mild-mannered and overall creamy, nutty, and sweet. If I have anything negative to say about this tea it’s that I feel it would be even better with just a bit less of the tartness and bitterness.
So I guess if really mellow matcha is your cup of tea, this one may not be for you. If you like a tea that makes you smack your chops and think “What am I tasting?” because there are layers of nuance, you might like this. When I bought this it was $20/oz so where organic ceremonial grade matcha is concerned, that’s not gonna break the bank. Sure as heck cheaper than buying daily drinks from a coffee/tea shop.
I’ll add an edit to this when I try it as an iced matcha latte, so check back to my review later today if you’re interested!
Flavors: Berries, Bitter, Coriander, Dates, Nuts, Seaweed, Spices, Sweet, Tart, Umami, Vanilla, Vegetables
I saw your review the other day and had to smile when I saw it. I been busy at work so my time has been cut back a bit. I need to be more active drinking and posting too.
I’m happy to hear that! I guess these things fluctuate. My big hobby and interest has shifted toward cooking this year rather than tea, maybe because the funds spent are more justified since I need to eat anyway. Haha. I think I’ll still continue to use Steepster as long as I can, whenever I get new teas, seldom as it may be these days. I tend to go back to trusted favorites more often than trying new things with my limited funds these days, so I guess that means fewer new reviews.
7 grams, gongfu in 125 ml gaiwan.
A tea, prepared as a mood booster and it didn’t work. I feel miserable after this week. It was quite a crazy week with many emails exchanged back and forth; dealing with incompetent people all around the world; totaly wrong documents (MSDS); and I made such a huge mistake today and I won’t be able to fix it before Wednesday, as I am going to two days training outside my workplace. And in the end of the month our fiscal year ends as well and that means that everything must be checked and made correct.
Anyway, this tea is pretty good. Actually, better than I have hoped! When I read Roswell’s note about elderflower note, I knew it is perfect for the starting spring. It is indeed like that and it has got a nice mouthfeel too. One steep was astringent somehow, but well maybe it was too much leaf and long steep, it was one of the firsts…
The second reviewer said it has got grapefruit notes and I can see them there too. It has got citrusy note, but without that bitter notes of grapefruit in first steeps.
And I am adding notes of florals, sweet notes of citrus fruits. Tangerine, orange for me in later steeps.
Preparation
So, my reentry to Montreal after my vacation was pretty rough
A few days before I was supposed to fly back I noticed my ear was a little sore. So, we picked up some drops from the pharmacy and hoped that would help. It didn’t. In fact, my ear very rapidly started to get worse and worse to the point where I ended up missing my flight on Sunday because I was in the ER. Turns out that was maybe a good thing because the doctor (after six hours of waiting to be seen) said the pressure build up from all the swelling was so bad my eardrum could have ruptured mid flight. Yikes.
I ended up getting put on some antibiotics, and for the next few days I just waited in pain and misery for them to kick in enough to be able to fly home. Eventually I flew home on Tuesday. The most painful flight I’ve ever been on. Mind you, this was after spraining my ankle and getting Covid at the start of the vacation. After all of that I come home and find out that my hamster, Gorilla, had died while I was away. It was a fucking lot, and I’m still kind of in a place of rest and recovery just processing all of it. Like, just too many fucked up and awful things in too short a time span. I actually ended up not drinking any tea for three days in a row. I was just miserable.
I don’t want to talk about it. I just want to start moving forward.
Anyway, when I eventually started making myself tea again this was the first thing I steeped up. Sachet format was crucial as I just wasn’t in a place where I could mentally handle anything else, and a stress relief blend felt pretty… well, on the nose. It was pretty good. As I said in my last review of this, I actually think this tea tastes pretty solid (especially when it’s your first cuppa in three days). Lots of red fruit notes.
I cold-brewed some of this last night to enjoy as iced tea today. (Yes, I realize it’s 2:13am but I’m a night owl so my days typically do not begin until around 2 pm. It’s still evening-ish for me.)
A Pinita Colada is another way of saying “virgin pina colada” – in other words, pineapple and coconut beverage – no rum. And really the reason I decided to go that route is because I felt that with the flavors of carrot cake, pineapple and coconut, that this tea had enough going on that rum wasn’t necessary and would potentially muddy up the flavors.
This tea is a little different hot versus cold. As a cold-brewed iced tea, I’m getting the tangy notes from the pineapple and the smooth flavor of coconut and a pleasant spice note from the carrot cake right up front with background notes that hint at carrot cake. Every once in a while, I get hit with a flavor that is distinctly carrot – it’s a little bit sweet and a little bit savory with that carrot note.
It makes a refreshing iced tea. Generally speaking, I prefer green tea (or white tea) for iced tea – I don’t usually go for honeybush or rooibos for iced tea but because this is the tea of the week this week, I thought I’d try it cold-brewed and I really like it. It’s sweet and tasty. If you are one who usually sweetens your iced tea before you taste it, go light on the sweetener with this because it already has a natural sweetness going on – but a teensy bit of sugar will bring out the cake-y flavors a little more.
This was a nice way to wake up this morning. Malty and slightly astringent. Pretty well balanced tea. One that I’m sure I have had before, but haven’t had in a while. Not sure how much I will reach for it, but I’m glad I have it around now for a nice change of pace.
For the rest of the review and a few other goodies- http://www.cuppageek.com/index.php/2015/07/09/tea-of-the-day-irish-breakfast-from-three-teas/
She looks to be a repackager/reseller, you can find her teas (even the same pictures) all over the place – Metropolitan reseller maybe. So if you like one of her teas, be sure to shop around for the best deal.
[Spring 2018 harvest]
I got this this in a swap with tperez a while ago, but I only got around writing about it now as I finish the bag. I found less sweet, malty, and cocoa notes in here than your standard Yunnan dian hong. Instead, the aroma is more herbaceous and the taste more citrusy and bitter. There are notes of baked bread, thyme, and grains among others. The body is medium at best, but liquor has a nice bubbly mouthfeel that I like. All in all, it’s probably not as unique as I make it sound though, the profile does bear a lot of resemblance to other black teas of course.
Flavors: Bitter, Bread, Citrus, Grain, Herbaceous, Malt, Thyme
Preparation
Oversteeped at two minutes. Slightly astringent Gyokuro with a vanilla accent and bare fruitiness that disappears in the tea. I almost thought I was drinking a matcha.
Steep 2 at 90 sec, and I thought I was drinking the 7 Oolong Blend. There was a weird floral that popped up like osmanthus, though I know that’s the jackfruit seed and the vanilla. Liquid hot sprite. I’m just rambling anyway. A morning of high blood sugars and a breakfast of almonds, coffee, creamer, and tea encourages cogent delirium. However, the weather is heavenly in Michigan. I’ll have a few cups outside before I workout today. I might even decide to dress up and show off.
This was one of the teas that came with the gifted August subscription box from Tea Runners. Like last month, I got the “Original” box but then HIGHLY utilized the customization feature to swap out the teas that I’d tried before or seemed uninteresting to me in favor of ones that were more unique…
I really wanted to try this one as soon as I saw it because, off hand, I’m not sure if I’ve ever seen another dragonfruit rooibos blend before and I was really curious how those flavours would play together. It looks quite nice, with a simple visual comprised mostly of green rooibos some petals and a scarce amount of candied fruits. The dry aroma is sweet and reminds me of the dragonfruit flavoured “Hi-Chew” candies, but tinged with strawberry.
I enjoyed the taste a lot steeped up! It’s not overly flavoured or sweet, though a lot of the clarity of the fruit flavour was lost and it read more to me as a sweet and vaguely candied strawberry taste mixed with more of a generic tropical/fruit punch vibe versus dragonfruit specifically. Still plenty tasty, and really approachable in intensity. I liked the overall simplicity – and the choice of a green rooibos base with these softer sweet fruity notes is great.
Not an instant smash hit, but I think this is a solid fruity rooibos option even if it’s not the most “dragonfruit” of dragonfruit flavours.
They source that tea from Simpson & Vail:
https://www.svtea.com/Dragonfruit-Rooibos/productinfo/T0976/
I didn’t personally love this one, but I’ll always try a dragon fruit tea when I find one!
It’s not as simple as TR sourcing from S&V – there are at least five or six companies with the exact same catalog of teas (or significant overlap). None of them are the “original” source – which is one of the big wholesalers. However, it’s very hard to know if they’re all buying from the same large wholesaler or if companies like S&V are acting more as a middle party. Tea sourcing in general is rarely linear, especially when it comes to blended teas.
I’m not a huge fan of GABA oolongs; they mostly seem stripped of flavor to me, and that feels sad. I can’t honestly say I get much zen out of them, either. Ah, well. This is the first one I’ve had that I found some berry flavors in, though, which was nice! Everything I’ve had from GTH has been pretty satisfying, I have to say — though I think I’m done GABA-dabbling. Yabba dabba doobaling.
Flavors: Autumn Leaf Pile, Berry, Wood
I still haven’t had any time to talk about my Portland vacation or Tea Fes PDX… and to be honest, probably will not until after the move (I can imagine writing a bunch of notes during the interim that I’m stuck with no internet between the utilities switch, and then having a bunch to post after that… ugh. Not looking forward to that…) But when I was at Tea Fes PDX, the Tao of Tea booth had a wheel you would spin to “win” tea bags, though it was really just a farsical thing to add to the “carnival” motif of the booth, since no matter what number you spun, they would absolutely stuff a bunch of sachet freebies into your bag. There was a green tea and a hibihip herbal, and both blends seem to be originals and nothing I could match off their website. I’m upset I didn’t take a picture of the booth, since now I have nothing to match ingredients from.
I’ve been making these hibihip bags as cold brew iced teas and have finished them off today; quite handy, as all my tea has been packed in boxes for months now and I’ve just had the boxes of bagged/sachet teas in the kitchen cupboard still unpacked. I could tell there was hibiscus, rosehip, orange peel (or at least some sort of citrus peel), and allspice in the blend, not sure if there are other ingredients in there as well. The flavor reminds me a bit of those spiced hibihip Christmas blends, though less strong on the spice elements than those tend to favor. Since the blend isn’t fruit-forward, I get strong tart cranberry/stewed tomato flavor I get from straight hibi, and there is definitely a pop of orange citrus and a mild, non-lingering spice note. It’s been quite refreshing… at least if you are like me, and enjoy drinking iced hibiscus tea by the gallon-full.
Flavors: Citrus, Cranberry, Hibiscus, Orange, Spices, Tangy, Tart
Preparation
This was a limited edition Teapigs flavor for their tenth birthday and it just happened to be around at the time I was trying out some of their herbals a while back; I’m about halfway through my box of teabags (I really wish they had non-teabag options available because I’ve liked their teas I’ve tried and think loose leaf is a better bang for your buck, but since I’ve been packing for a trip, the teabags are handy for luggage, at least) but noticed I’ve yet to log this one yet. I usually drink it warm, but it’s been uncomfortably hot lately (consistently over 90F lately) so I cold-steeped my teabag in a glass mug of refridgerated water while I was packing my luggage, then came back to it later when the color looked a very dark marigold.
And I have to say, this tea is as pleasant cold as it is warm. Long steeps seem to do this tea favorably both cold and warm, to get a lot of flavor out of this herbal, and it’s one I like to just leave the bag in my cup as a result while I’m sipping. It has a pleasantly sweet, fruity taste, with a strong apple note, but there is a lot of sweetness in the blend, giving me more of a caramel apple appeal. There is also a red berry/strawberry flavor, that paired with the sweetness brings out a bit of a strawberries and cream taste. I like the slightly tangy fruity note with the sweet notes that really do read as a fruit dessert… it doesn’t really read as a specific fruit dessert to me, since I tend to pick up on different fruit flavors on different sips, but in some ways that adds to the appeal and enjoyment for me. I think I’ll miss this one when my box is finished off.
Flavors: Apple, Berries, Candied Apple, Caramel, Cream, Fruity, Strawberry, Sweet, Tangy
Preparation
Today’s #septembersipdown prompt on Instagram is to cold brew a tea you never have before. This is a bit of a cheat because I haven’t had this tea before at all so of course that includes never having it as a cold brew.
This is fine. It’s actually on the bland side. I get sort of cherry and sort of rose and sort of green tea but it’s all really subtle. I cold brewed this for over 12 hours so it should have more flavor but it just doesn’t.
The more I drink, the more the green tea base builds and there is a little bitterness that is making me thing cough syrup with the hint of cherry. So maybe I’m not loving this so much.
I’m discovering that there is a difference between teas made at home and made at work. At home, I have my Zojirushi, usually set on 208° and I rarely reboil or even preheat the pot when making something that requires ‘boiling’ water. At work, I use a little quick boil kettle so things that call for boiling are actually made with boiling. I think I prefer teas typically made with water just under the boiling point. The only possible exception to that is Samovar’s Scarlet Sable – the flavors might pop a bit more made with fully boiling water (though I’ve only brewed it at home once to it is possible that other issues were in play).
For this particular tea, just a hair under boiling seems to make the tea feel a little richer and make it where the tea is an under-note to the chocolate. At a full boil, it seems that the tea flavor is just a hair stronger than the chocolate one and there is a little dryness hanging out at the end of the sip. Still a very delightful, grown-up chocolate drink though. Soon I want to try this with sugar and milk to see if that does delicious, decadent things to it.
3g/8oz
Preparation
I agree about the boiling. I always shut off my kettle right before it comes to a boil, although this is partly due to my impatience. I just don’t want to have to wait for my tea to cool off a little before I can drink it!
That’s a good idea – my electric kettle is so noisy that I can’t normally tell when it is almost boiling until it actually starts to fully boil, though if I paid more attention to it… But at the very least, I need to take the time to pour the water into my cup and then into my pot since I think that cools it just enough get it about Zojirushi equivalent.
I think it’s probably a little more than 4° since I don’t preheat the pot or do anything to get rid of that first little bit of slightly cooler water that comes out of the Zojirushi. I haven’t measured it but based on checking the temp on the 175 setting, I would guess it is probably closer to 10°. Just guesstimating though.
I am so happy – this tea is scrumptious at 200 degrees and three minutes without any additions (I had it with creme and sugar at the tea house). I purchased it in a wax covered paper bag like you would buy coffee in, sitting on a shelf, which worried me a bit (the devil on my shoulder adds “sitting for who knows how long! That’s not proper loose tea storage!” but the angel on my shoulder adds “Shush devil! She brought it home and immediately put it into tins. Calm down!”) but it does not seem to have suffered at all!
A strong tea taste, that creamy dreamy vanilla, and a bit more than a hint of bergamot makes for a very satisfying and just-up-my alley cup! New obsession!
Preparation
From Meowster a while ago! Thanks so much! I haven’t had any sheng in ages. It was time to steep this up. Raw pu-erh rolled into the shape of a ball, wrapped in something like tissue paper. After all these years, sheng is still tough for me to describe but I’ll try. There is a drying effect. The second cup simply tastes like MINERALS. And more MINERALS. The third steep is much of the same. It certainly isn’t getting bitter at all. The basket infuser is almost FULL of unraveled leaves. I like this, I just feel like I’m sometimes bored with sheng as my palate isn’t doing well enough at finding these flavors , or probably I shouldn’t be steeping them Western? Luckily Meowster only sent me two of these babies, so much wasn’t wasted on my palate.
Steep #1 // 1 dragon ball for full mug// 33 minutes after boiling // rinse // 30 second steep
Steep #2 // 30 minutes after boiling // 30 second steep
Steep #3 // 32 minutes after boiling // 40 second steep
Flavors: Mineral
Lots of backlogs to enter today from written notes on paper. Yesterday I drank a 2013 Shi Ping high roast tgy from Tea Masters. Too lazy to add an actual entry :P
Highly roasted with just a mild dry after mouth feel. Pretty good, but I can’t give it the Tea Master’s greatness achievement because thus far everything has been flawless… but this, it might just need more time for the roast to die down so some sweeter notes can pop out and say hello to the insides of our mouths
:)
I’ve figuratively climbed Shan Lin Xi with Ethan Kurland’s teas, starting with the sweet, Baozhong-like Perfect Oolong, progressing to the headier Shanlinxi, and ending with this tropically fruity beauty. As soon as I opened the bag and smelled the tea, I went to his page on TeaForum to see if he had more. (Nope, it’s out of stock.) I steeped 6 g of leaf in a 120 ml teapot at 195F for 25, 20, 25, 30, 30, 30, 45, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.
The dry leaf has aromas of coconut, pineapple, melon, orchid, cookies, and grass. The first steep has notes of green beans, orchids, honeysuckle, peonies, white sugar, cookies, honeydew, and coconut. The next steep is grassier and adds a pineapple or green apple tartness. The creamy coconut is the star in the next couple steeps, though the tea is still quite green. The sweet cookie/pastry note is also still there. The next couple steeps have more pineapple and honeydew, with herbs, spinach, cream corn, and flowers in the background. The herbs, florals, and coconut stick around for another few steeps, with the oolong ending predictably but pleasantly with spinach, grass, bok choy, and beans, plus hints of coconut and sweetness.
I think almost anyone would like this oolong. It’s complex, with some of the flavours being hard for me to pin down, while also being very approachable. It’s faded slightly from having been open for over a month, but is still an awesome tea. Flavours can fluctuate from session to session, becoming greener with higher-temperature water, but the coconut is always present. The only drawback is the price, which is $37 for 50 g. However, I’ve had more expensive teas that haven’t offered the same longevity and array of flavours. For people like me who like coconut and other tropical fruit, this tea is a treat!
Flavors: Bok Choy, Coconut, Cookie, Cream, Floral, Grass, Green Apple, Green Beans, Herbaceous, Honeydew, Honeysuckle, Melon, Orchid, Peony, Pineapple, Spinach, Sugar, Sweet, Sweet Corn, Vegetal
Preparation
I’ve had this tea for awhile and never left a review. Strangely , now that everyone is discussing about what is to become of Steepster, I’ve suddenly been back on here a lot more lately. I tried a different group but I really like the idea of leaving tasting notes and none of them seem to have that.
Brewed this gongfu this morning and it’s heavenly. It is grown in the Wu Yi Mountains, Fujian Province. The leaves are long and spindly like an oolong.
It definitely has a lovely orchid floral aroma and taste (just like oolong) that lasts through the first few infusions. The tea was a sweet honey & malty brew with that lovely floral quality to it. I only made it through four infusions but this tea could have given more.Flavors: Floral, Honey, Malt, Orchid
Preparation
Somehow I haven’t tried this one before. I grabbed it during the black tea sample sale. The leaves here are huge and mostly black, which is odd to me for a Dian Hong. But I’m willing to try it! So the leaves are definitely different than the Yun Nan Dian Hong – Full Leaf, as those are gold and black. But this tea also looks like huge “full leaves” to me! The scent of the dry leaf is very much like a freshly harvested field of hay. Either the two teaspoons was too much, or the three minute steep was too long, as this has a little more astringency than I’d prefer. But I’ll like it even more when I adjust the parameters. It’s a unique one…. I wouldn’t say it tastes like the other Dian Hongs that Teavivre carries. It’s certainly a different flavor profile. The cup is dark and I’m tasting flavors of coffee, that dried hay, flowers, malt, and something fruity about it. It’s almost like an Assam tea. It has a HINT of the fruit flavor that is in the incomparable Nonpareil Yunnan Dian Hong Ancient Wild Tree which makes since if it’s also a Dian Hong. The leaves actually look very similar, except the Nonpareil has a slight red color to the leaves. But there the comparisons end, as the flavor of the Nonpareil is very light and this tea couldn’t be deeper and stronger. I’m actually very surprised that such a dark brew resulted from these huge leaves. I was expecting a very light cup. If you like your teas strong, this is one to try and it’s quite affordable! I would certainly stock up.
Steep #1 // 2 teaspoons for a full mug // 19 minutes after boiling // 3 minute steep
Steep #2 // 3 minutes after boiling // 3 minute steep
Harvest: 2018
well i was PRETTY sure this would not be something that would be up my alley, so i’m not going to rate it. VariaTEA let me have this sample…likely because they like tormenting me, knowing i’ll try anything and everything…even blergamot teas!
This tastes like rosewater smells. It’s like drinking a mouthful of rose potpourri. Gross. So not for me…though i’m thinking that it might be something that our friend keychange might enjoy.
Final Count: 70
So when I grabbed these samples, I had no idea which flavors I grabbed. Mostly I was distracted by the adorable elephants