New Tasting Notes

When it’s in the bag/tin, the smell of Forever Nuts is divine- it’s like those delicious mini donuts sold at fairs! Once steeped however, the smell dissipates and you can tell just from the scent that the tea is fairly weak. The flavor is still there a bit though, so it’s accented nicely with sweetener and a bit of hot milk.

Plus the fact that it brews to a hot pink color is fantastic as well!

I usually hate Earl Grey teas, but this one turned me around a bit by having a decent amount of other flavor going on. I don’t love it when it’s steeped alone, but with a fair amount of hot milk, it tones down how perfume-y the tea can be.

Dragon Eyes! these little balls are deceivingly sweet. as they unfurl in your cup the flavor broadens to almost a Dian Lu Eshan tyoe of smokiness. light, and refreshing even at it’s strongest infusion.

once again Jin Zhen has taken a journey in my gaiwan! the hairy tips are golden, the smells is like a caramel cake and the flavor is like a walnut muffin with a hint of brown sugar. a special tea that i’m glad is around for the long haul

I was surprised to see this as a choice of teabags at a restaurant recently (well it was sort of a unique place, a general store/gourmet market/cafe of sorts, so not too surprised…) Anyway, I’ve been wanting to try this because I don’t like the taste of mate so it has to be masked pretty well. This was an interesting blend, rather cinnamony and a good bit chocolatey, but without letting you forget that it is an herbal tea (as in, it didn’t taste like coffee or or hot cocoa or anything.) It’s rather unlike anything I’ve had. I drank it all so I must have liked it. As for whether it gave me an energy burst, it’s hard to say but I did do a lot of shopping, wine tasting, and play watching that day so I think it did help keep me going. I will be having this one again, as I bought a box for my mate/mocha loving hubby a few weeks ago as a Christmas gift. So glad I got to sample it so now I know what I’m giving him!

A blend from a local Anchorage, Alaskan company. It’s a perfect blend of not only jasmine and rose but of black and green tea as well. How I miss this tea shop!

so light and jasmine-y. brews perfectly every time and i can get about 3 infusions out of it. Saw it at the tea bar at my local grocery store and tried to resist, but I kept coming back just to smell it. Finally caved and don’t regret it one bit.

New company to me, and a new type of shou pu-erh. By the title, I assumed it was made with rice, but the product had no listing on the website as of yet. That is, unless it went by a different name, and I simply didn’t see it. (I wrote the vendor to clarify.)

That said, it was perhaps the best shou pu-erh I’ve tried to date. After four infusions, I detected nutty, woody, earthy, citrus, and rice-like notes. Very nuanced for a robust drink. It also darkens pretty quickly for the steeper on the go. For a guy that usually goes for sheng first, this was a game-changer.

Full Review: http://www.teaviews.com/2011/01/08/review-tao-tea-leaf-rice-pu-er-tuo-cha-shou/

I made a super strong pot of this today to stand up to soymilk and sweetener. Delicious! I really like traditional chai, but I like Adaigo’s Thai take on it more than their masala.

Another black friday purchase! This is yummy. The blueberry has a sweet yet tart flavor, and it gets along well with the chai spices and the Bai Mu Dan.

Very enjoyable.

I’ve been drinking a cup of this every morning lately, mostly because it’s always there. Not bad, a bit weak and astringent. Really though, you can’t get much more run of the mill then Tetley, so it’s hard to complain; when approached with lax standards, it’s never a let-down. And for what it’s worth, It ALMOST wakes you up- two cups are better than one.

This smells AMAZING. Another tea I just want to carry around all day and huff. Oh, it’s wonderful. Flavor wise, it’s not bad either. : ) The almonds are smooth, the peppercorns add a little bit of heat at the finish, and the entire nose reminds me vaguely of marachino cherries. Which I like. Yum.

I’ve had this tea a few times. I do like it in a latte, or tossed in a bag into a cup of hot chocolate because this minty black tea seems to want to be blended up with some chocolate. On it’s own, it’s a very nice flavoured black tea. The mint, as expected, is a bit overpowering as is the Chinese Black, but the other spices seem to balance out the the two tastes and blend them together nicely.

Still. I feel like this tea is missing something.

And that something is chocolate.

Or, perhaps I just associate the indulgence of chocolate with Christmas and thus want to add it to everything.

Similar to other DavidsTea blends like Opposites Attract and Read My Lips.

Lords Day Dec. 5, 2010
2nd Cup of the day.
After the Drive from Church Needed a Ginseng Pick-up
Great Cup to do the Job.

Lords Day Dec. 5, 2010
1st Steep of the Day.
The Constant Comment Standard.
This was a road cup to Church in Va.
Great cup for the Day.

Not bad stuff…though I have had it in the cupboard for at least a few months and not sure what I paid for it. Has a typical Rock Oolong taste, toasted, light brown liquor with a pleasing scent almost like a darjeeling. I could drink this daily, but first will have to research what I paid for it. Has a slightly smokey, buttery finish. Rock Oolongs are not my favorite tea, but this one is a personal favorite.

Some will question why such a high score of 100 on the rating scale for such a sublime, barely-there taste or aroma? My answer is because there is quality to backup the flavor, or rather the lack thereof.

Aroma: Smelling the sachet with the tea before it hits the water is very nice; and as the name denotes, a lemony grass, literally. Not lemony as a candy or the sprightly rind, but a subdued quiet lemon intermingled with grassy notes. However, once the sachet hits the water and starts to melt into it, there is no aroma whatsoever!…strange?…it smells of warm water.

Taste: Extremely sublime…even more so than a white tea. A white tea has body and character, this lemongrass is extremely delicate and doesn’t show to the party until it is there for a while and made it’s acquaintance with everyone. Then after a while, some and only some, flavor profile starts to poke through. It is as the namesake, a lemony grass. Very delicate, very sublime. An extremely nice tea to have as a bedtime tea or for quiet time to contemplate, it is quiet, subdued and delicate. The taste is lemony, grassy with the slightest hint of a spicy bite reminiscent of ginger but only as a whispering afterthought; also, it is a little sweet…more like powdered sugar rather than granular sugar. The sweetness would fit more like an Asian delicacy of candied grass with powdered sugar than a cloying candy sweetness of granular sugar, like say a candied ginger.

Aftertaste: This mimics the flavor profile…a little bite, a little sweetness, lemony and grassy but these characteristics are fleeting.

A nice tea to try as a small purchase, but would I buy again…not too sure; maybe to sooth and calm the tummy and for quiet contemplation but not as a regular goto tea.

I’m cold. A friend suggested that I try cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and Indian spices to improve circulation. I’ve translated this advice as “drink more chai”. I picked up this sample from Octavia, and now’s a good time for it.

It smells like apple cider. In fact, it tastes very similar to apple cider. So much so that I went looking for apple on its ingredient list (not there). Very good and warming. Not quite as chai-spicy as some teas I’ve had, but the amount of cinnamon makes up for it. I think this would be fantastic to use in place of mulling spices to make ciders or mulled wine. In fact, that’s very likely what I’ll do with the rest of the sample!

MMMMMMMMMMmmmmmmmmmmm………..
It’s like a Wuyi Rock Oolong but lighter (in a good way) a WONDERFUL evening tea.
Sunflower oil undertones, with a toasty palatal, smooth feel.

I’m a sucker for green/black blends, and this one is my ‘go to’ tea. I love it so much that I keep a tiny tin in my purse for teamercencies.
I find it a nice light tea, perfect for a mid-morning pick me up, or in the afternoon with a snack. I wouldn’t put milk in it- although I have been known to throw in a little bit of sugar with my first cup out of the pot (it is ALWAYS made in a pot).
Basically, this tea is a happy blend between green and black. And that makes me happy!

After steeping and straining the tea into my cup,, the liquid smells of straw, and earth. The brew itself is very dark, which reminded me of a puerh tea. But the liquor color was more brown and less reddish brown, which is common in puerh teas.The cocoa nibs that are found in the dry tea, have melted into the tea liquor, creating a very chocolate-y aroma paired with the straw/earth aroma.

Check out my blog for a more in depth review! http://wp.me/sQxcK-595