Featured & Popular Tasting Notes

96
drank Boston by Harney & Sons
2965 tasting notes

I could resist no longer. Boston has been sitting on my counter all week, unopened.
I tried to be strong. I tried to finish off lots and lots of summery teas, samples, and other odd bits in my cupboard before touching this. And, while I have made progress on all those things, I am not made of stone.
So today, with reverence and joy, I brewed up Boston Blend, possibly my favorite autumnal blend of them all.
The notes of almond and cranberry sang, and the fragrant steam from my cup caressed my face as I sipped this, the first cup of fall.
Oh Boston, how lovely it is to have you here again.
I am afraid there is no stopping me now…. The autumnal blends are now fair game!

gmathis

I just love your internal tea self-control debates! (It’ll be in the mid 40’s when we wake up Saturday. Come on over for a cuppa.)

Rosehips

In the 40! Be still my heart! Its 82 here…. How I long for proper tea drinking weather.

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85

Sampled from the TTB, and I might have to keep some of it! This is so tasty. I wasn’t expecting much because the scent of the dry leaf was verging on that almost artificial vanilla cake scent that can be a bit cloying, but happily the tea itself has a much more refined vanilla flavor. It’s a light but true vanilla, subtle but present.

I don’t think I’ve ever had osmanthus before, and I’m not quite sure I can pinpoint the flavor in this blend—I guess it’s the kind of floral note? Regardless, it works very well with the vanilla. Yum!

Flavors: Floral, Vanilla

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81

Indulgent, sweet late evening/bedtime tea. Perfect mix of sweet honey notes, and creamy cheesecake with just a little ‘tang’. Not overly floral, but enough to add depth and break up the otherwise dessert heavy profile. As always, would love more “graham crust” in the profile.

Not gonna elaborate much; I’ve been writing tasting notes for hours now and I’m so close to being done with my list from the week so I’m going to power through the rest. I’m feeling pretty burnt out from writing, though. Gonna be nap time soon…

VariaTEA

I made ice cubes with this and blended them with milk but I think it is too floral for that. I think I need to use a chocolate or caramel tea.

Roswell Strange

I bet Candy Cane Crush would be good made that way too…

VariaTEA

Good call…have to see how much I have. If not Candy Cane Crush, I am sure I have something similar from Necessiteas bumping around in a tin somewhere

Roswell Strange

If you have any more of the Peppermint Crunch that you sent me from them I’m sure that would probably be equally as tasty!

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90

Ashmanra’s Sipdown Challenge | August 2023 | A tea with orange flavor

Well, darn! I just looked at my older note for this one and realized I’d intended to cold-brew the last of it. I completely forgot, alas. Instead I made it strong and poured it over ice for an afternoon pick-me-up.

Anyway, it’s delicious and I’ll miss it. :(

2023 sipdown count: 45

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65

This tea started off with a very herbal and grassy taste. Couldn’t pin it down to a particular herb and it was not all together positive. This lasted well into the sixth steep. After that it was a little bit better. It did not develop a taste of apricots or that sort of thing. I guess I could say it got sweeter. But overall this tea was not as good as the Bing Dao I reviewed from Meimei Fine Teas the other day.

I brewed this ten times in a 150ml gaiwan with 9.7g leaf and 190degree water. I gave it a 10 second rinse. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, and 1 min.

Flavors: Grass, Herbaceous

Preparation
190 °F / 87 °C 9 tsp 5 OZ / 150 ML

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Had this hot a few days ago with a little bit of honey.

Kind of an interesting cup; it’s got some malt to it and a pretty distinct muscatel/raisin sort of taste but a lot of the profile are notes that could easily be ascribed to a green tea; a grassy finish, some astringency/bite, and a smokey quality. Really, it sort of feels like it’s very carefully treading that line between green and black. Honey was a good choice though; it helped with the astringency and fleeting notes of bitterness.

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90

Hey, listen. I’m only two teas into A Quarter to Tea so far but really… Impressive is the word I’m going to use. I was on the verge of dismissing almost all flavored teas but this company/person has revived my belief that there are good flavored teas to be had.

The dry leaf certainly smells pretty spot on with the name of the tea. There is a slight artificial edge underneath. Not enough to be off putting but it gave me pause. Not to worry. The flavor of the tea after it brewed really nails it.

I did gong fu style which I’m sure I wasn’t supposed to with this tea but yeah I do what I want haha. The scent that wafts up from the brewing liquor is pretty amazing. I served some to my mom and wife and they both took notice to how good it smelled from the cup. There is a certain cinnamon taste in the first two or three steeps. Not biting cinnamon but more like a creamy vanilla cinnamon.

What is even more impressive about this tea is that I am on steep 5 (6?) at about 1 minute and the leaves and the liquid both still hold that delicious vanilla cream cinnamon scent. The flavor is only slightly diminished but is still really, really tasty.

This is an exceptional flavored tea.

Flavors: Cinnamon, Creamy, Vanilla

Preparation
180 °F / 82 °C 0 min, 30 sec 4 g 3 OZ / 100 ML
Lauren | A Quarter to Tea

I’m actually a chronic gong fu brewer myself, so I’m glad you experimented/enjoyed it that way as well! :)

mtchyg

Absolutely. I have to force myself to do western style nowadays. Congrats on this tea holding up.

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80

This tea is every flower.

I first brewed it and it was jasmine. Then it cooled and became the flowers and herbs from my one grandma’s garden. Then it cooled more and became all the flowers and bushes from my other grandma’s garden.

It is also a friendly tea – not bitter and astringency is light.

I do not consider myself a fan of flowery teas, but this is still one of the better oolongs I’ve had. It’s worth trying for anyone, but flower lovers have to have it. The little packages it came in are very convenient and cute.

Preparation
175 °F / 79 °C 4 min, 0 sec
teabird

I was thinking of buying this already – your review makes me certain! I love flowery teas.

Stephanie

How poetic!! :)

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85

This is a very tasty tea with a strong flavor of mangoes. The black tea base is nice too but the mango overshadows it. This is not necessarily a bad thing. This is the first of my teas from my group order I am drinking. So far all the teas from Damman Freres have been good both from the group order with Marzipan and my own order. Thanks Marzipan for all the work this order took. I wonder what other French tea companies ship to the USA? I know some don’t.

I brewed this once in a 16oz Teavana Glass Perfect Tea Maker/Gravity Steeper with 3 tsp leaf and 190 degree water for 3 min.

Flavors: Mango

Preparation
190 °F / 87 °C 3 min, 0 sec 3 tsp 16 OZ / 473 ML
Marzipan

I know Palais des Thes has a presence in NJ/NY, so it’s easy to get those. We can get Mariage Freres, but Fauchon doesn’t ship to the US. I thought I would look at a few of them once we put this one to bed. I hope you were happy with the repackaging!

AllanK

The repackaging was great. I have heard that Palais des Thes has a store in NYC. I will one day have to go into Manhattan and check it out.

Marzipan

Ohh please let me know!

AllanK

Don’t know when I will have the time but eventually, eventually.

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100

Good morning :)

First cup of the day. Yum, as usual.

I have a huge amount of this stuff. I don’t understand my need to hoard it!

Stephanie

goooood morning :)

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85

Sipdown! (18 | 215)

Really enjoyed this one as my first tea of the day. It has kaffir lime instead of bergamot, but it does still give me Earl vibes.

The base tea is very smooth and malty, and the lime bright and refreshing. It has an interesting dill note to it that gives a more savory note, which goes well with the malty tea.

Would definitely consider getting this one again!

Flavors: Citrus, Dill, Earthy, Lime, Malty, Savory, Smooth, Thick

Preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 3 min, 0 sec 3 tsp 16 OZ / 473 ML

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73
drank Glazed Donut Black Tea by 52teas
6105 tasting notes

I thought I wrote about this, but I guess not. Overall, it’s a decent tea, though I feel like I’d prefer a different, more malty and chocolatey base with the glazey vanilla flavouring. That said, I think it would then become Chocolate Glazed Donut tea (I am not opposed to that idea). The base here needs to be a bit more… bready(?) in my opinion, but I’m pretty happy with how the glaze flavouring worked (vanilla, yaaaas).

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35

We have been doing a seasonal food challenge with our kids and right now we’re challenging them to try fruits. They wanted raspberries this week so we went raspberry picking yesterday. While I was on a raspberry kick, I remembered that this tea was in my cabinet and decided it was going to be my breakfast drink.
It smells absolutely yummy while steeping. The vanilla and raspberry scents are a fabulous combination. Steeped for 4 minutes in boiling water and then left to cool a bit as I brewed up some iced tea with another raspberry tea. I think I was anticipating something sweeter. This mug seems to have a earthy taste with some bitterness. I can’t say I enjoyed it. This will be one I will play with and try to improve with other tea blends or honey/sugar.

Flavors: Bitter, Dry Leaves, Earthy

Aiko

a seasonal food challenge sounds interesting! shame the tea didn’t really work out, though.

Jen vB

We started during the shut down. They have ranked our local pizza places, donut shops, cookies (homemade and purchased), desserts from other countries, local ice cream stands, and now we’re doing seasonal fruits. Today they said they wanted to do a cheese challenge, small candies (like M&Ms, Skittles), and tea (I think someone is trying to get on my good side there).

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I had four request to resurrect this tea. The reason it died is because I am not a fan of black teas in general so my own taste buds said to me, ’don’t make any more of this’ but others disagreed which is awesome because it means I did something right.

I’m going to do something weird and sell this as a personal blend for now as I am figuring out Etsy. With that being said, I have no idea what this actually cost me nor do I care so I’ll just do a flat $5 per ounce if anyone is interested.
Wait, what if this tea sucks??? No worries, I can send free samples in the case that an ounce might drive your taste buds crazy; I don’t want to be part of causing an internal battle between one’s mind and taste buds :p

So, the Keemun I used is roughly 3x the size of the last leaf (though that means little). I also put less oolong in it since it is a black tea blend.

I think that’s about it. This is a Steeperster blend for my friends :)
https://instagram.com/p/6akwvQRYFs/

This Keemun is BS

Nattie

It looks beautiful! How is it? I am intrigued

Leah Naomi

I’d love some

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30

I finished off my Caramel Chai Pu’erh sampler from Fusion Teas this morning, and since Dethlefsen & Balk has stopped producing it and that was where they were wholesaling it from, they have stopped carrying it; I’m a bit sad about that sipdown since I really enjoyed that particular chai.

I also have brewed up the entire sampler of this tea from Fusion Teas in a few cold brew mason jars, but despite my best efforts I couldn’t hunt down the wholesale source (I could find many strawberry oolongs, but they were all using infused flavor and didn’t include strawberry pieces or blue cornflower petals). So either Fusion is making some additions, or they have just managed to elude me on their sourcing… touche, Fusion, touche! You win this round.

I do have to say that compared to the Strawberry Oolong I get from TeaSource, I am not crazy about this one. It has a much stronger aroma, so one would think this would be quite flavorful, but there is just something about that flavor that just… doesn’t really appeal to me. It tastes too artificial to me, I think… or maybe there is just something about the natural notes of the oolong that is clashing with whatever flavoring has been added to the tea? I’m not sure exactly what the case may be, but something about the taste isn’t meshing for me. I’m getting a slightly acrid peach flavor mixed with a really artificial strawberry flavor, minus the sweetness you’d expect to accompany that sort of strawberry flavor; the vegetal smoothness of the base oolong at least holds through, and it would probably be a good, quality oolong, if this flavoring just wasn’t working for me.

There is a review by Pureleaf on this and I think I’m getting the same sort of flavor experience from this, only finding it a bit more unpleasant, personally. I’ll finish what I’ve steeped up in my water bottles, but am not going to miss it. And may even make a brew of my TeaSource Strawberry Oolong which has a softer but natural and tasty strawberry note added to a green oolong to wash this away.

Of course this one is still available for ordering, and it’s the one that won’t be missed. C’est la vie.

Flavors: Artificial, Biting, Bitter, Peach, Strawberry, Vegetal

Preparation
Iced 8 min or more 9 g 32 OZ / 946 ML

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75

A sample from Roswell Strange, who kindly agreed to help me expand my flavoured matcha horizons. This is the second I’ve tried of the samples she sent me, and since it’s a little cold this morning it seemed like a pretty appropriate “warm up” flavour when I arrived at work. I made it up as a latte – 1/4 tsp of leaf whisked into about an inch of water, then topped up with hot milk.

The flavour is pretty good. It seemed very sweet and buttery initially, which reminded me very much of pie crust. The cinnamon emerged second, and added nicely to that effect. The apple is a little more fleeting, but there’s definitely something in the mid-sip that reminds me a lot of apple pie filling, although shop-bought rather than homemade. There’s something just a little artificial about it. The apple is sweet and floury rather than sharp and crisp, which is the opposite of my preference, but it works with the pie/baked goods theme here, and is tolerable in that respect.

I feel like I got on pretty well with this one, and I’m looking forward to experimenting a bit with preparation methods and suchlike. Thanks again to Roswell Strange for the opportunity to try this one.

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65

The last of my Adagio teas, and today’s work cold brew. I used 4 bags in 2 litres of water, as per my usual method. To taste, it’s not particularly pumpkiny. I get little flashes of squash here and there, but nothing that really makes me think “pumpkin!” The spicing is more of a feature – this blend is very heavy on the cinnamon, with maybe a touch of ginger adding a little warmth. The honeybush base is fairly prominent, and although it’s sweet and unobjectionable, I was really hoping for more pumpkin to balance out the base/spice combination which is basically the whole flavour. It’s not my favourite of the Adagio Fairy Tale blends, but it’s by no means bad. Just a little…lacklustre.

Preparation
Iced 8 min or more 4 tsp 68 OZ / 2000 ML

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Rinsed quickly a couple times in cold water the night before so it would soften up a bit and brew more quickly the next morning. Rinsed a couple more times with boiling water before short steeps. Tastes rich with wood and a bit of a lingering sour note that disappeared later and became sweeter and softer like caramel.

I brewed this several times over a few days and when I thought it may be done I boiled it in a small pot of water as there were still lumps holding together. It was surprising how intense a brew I still got from this – a very giving tea.

Preparation
Boiling
mrmopar

I always get 15 or more steeps from these. Like you said they go forever.

caile

It was great, and I was glad I did the boiling!

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Sample from the puerh plus TTB

Rinsed this once. 1st steep tasted like cream with a hint of apricot and brewed up a light green yellow. I could smell smoke coming off the next steep, but there was only a bit of acrid flavor in the cup. A bit of ruddy color started to come out here. 3rd steep came out just slightly bitter, it was more of just the feel of the astringentcy on the tongue than anything else. I also got a strange hint of melon flavor in there. The bitterness backs off on the 4th steep and the tea ends up mellow and sweet. It continues to steep up like this with increasing steep times and temperature until it quits around steep 13.

As it is now I’d say this tea while not terribly exciting, was pleasant. Probably a good thing to absentmindedly drink.

Flavors: Apricot, Cream

Preparation
3 g 2 OZ / 50 ML
Zennenn

Nice! It is a good tea to drink when you can’t pay attention. I think it gives a nice relaxing effect as well.

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74

This was one of the more interesting green teas I’ve tried recently. The leaves are shaped like little snails with streaks of soft, downy white hairs. The first time I steeped it grandpa style with a pinch of buds. The taste was sweet, creamy and minty leaving an unexpected menthol like tingling sensation in the throat. There’s some fruitiness and a hint of astringency towards the end. When gongfu’d, it produces an assertive brew with some pungency, a viscous body and a snap pea vegetal flavor that stays in your mouth.

Flavors: Garden Peas, Menthol, Vegetable Broth

Preparation
175 °F / 79 °C 0 min, 45 sec 2 g 5 OZ / 147 ML

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81
drank Keemun Classic by Capital Tea Ltd.
15006 tasting notes

Dexter sent this to me in another life and i’ve finally picked some up for my cupboard since i had ZERO keemuns! This harvest isn’t smokey, but it is a tea that i’ll be adding a drop of maple syrup to when i take it in the travel mug i think. It’s got a bit of a cocoa feeling to it but not overly so….there’s a depth here that i am enjoying.

Evol Ving Ness

ZERO keemuns! Clearly a situation that needs to be reconciled.

Sil

i have 4? now i think…

Evol Ving Ness

Excellent, way to right the universe, lady.

Dexter

Yay for having Keemun back in your cupboard

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86

Clean, creamy and sweet are the operating terms here. This one, in addition to the Huang Shan, reminds me of Mengku terroir, with its cool frosting-like bite and pungent floral profile. There is bitterness here, but it comes on only as the briefest of afterthoughts once the sweet creamyness peaks. The soup feels heavy and spicey , in fact its brewing orange, but maybe I’m just pushing it too hard… The leaves do look pretty dark though. This one might be a good example of a young sheng thats actually good in cold weather. There’s plenty of huigan and kuwei…. at 52 dollars, the cake seems like a really good value. If you’re building a collection, I’d advise you to sample it.

Flavors: Cloves, Cream, Floral

mrmopar

I am waiting on the Black Friday sale. I will for sure get the two you listed in this post. With a few more…

boychik

Scott said it will be Cyber Monday sale

mrmopar

I have a cart full….

boychik

I did pre Black Friday. 15% off on everything.

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62
drank Strawberry Bon Bon by 52teas
2170 tasting notes

From TTB 2019/2020.

Reading the description, this one is supposed to be more like the little strawberry candies than the fruit itself. I can smell that in the dry blend, but it gets lost for me after steeping. I do taste a tartness and a general berry flavor, but I wouldn’t associate it with strawberries or strawberry candy if I didn’t know the name or description of the tea.

Flavors: Berry, Candy, Drying, Tart

Preparation
Boiling 7 min, 0 sec 1 tsp 8 OZ / 236 ML

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76

So I’ve alluded to my living situation before, I think, but basically in Fecember, my brother and I left my mom’s house and moved in with my sister. I was at school half the week and then corona happened so I’ve been at home with my sister for 6 weeks while my brother and brother-in-law have been going to work. So that’s 4 adults between the ages of 28 and 31 living together. One is pregnant and all of us are not thin so we can eat. So menu planning is essential to make sure we actually have enough food in the house. Initially we used to only plan dinners from Monday-Friday but then weekends and lunch time we’d sort of just be lost or trying to hobble things together so we started planning for lunches and dinners on Monday-Saturday and we assume leftovers will get us over Sunday.

While some lunches are just us cooking extra of our dinners to have for the next day, some days we plan specific meals. Those are typically on the days my brother is home for lunch since he can be weird about leftovers and he eats a lot. Today’s meal was literal BLTs with no bread (except for my brother who wanted bread and mayo), mostly because my sister’s pregnancy craving is bacon and she needs to be low carb.

So I broke out this tea to add a little extra tomato to the meal. This is one I won and I really didn’t know what to expect. I think I always work myself up for these out of the box blends and then I’m always surprised by how normal a flavor it is. Like this was drinkable and like something I’ve had before. I get basil in the smell and a touch of drying that sometimes comes with fresh herbs. Tomato adds a little sweetness and then the black pepper adds a touch of spice.

It’s not a bad tea. It’s just not what I look for when I have tea. For that reason, the rest of this is going into my swap box.

tea-sipper

Is this one that Anne re-blended recently?

VariaTEA

July 2018

tea-sipper

Ok. I can’t remember if I knew that or not.

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