New Tasting Notes

Random tea of the day!

I thought I’d start doing daily random teas again, just to help mix it up a bit from only sipdown teas. Spreadsheet to the rescue! :P

This is such a lovely tisane, but I tend to love evergreen notes in tea anyway. Here, they’re the focus, resulting in a lovely refreshing yet resinous blend with hints of fresh grass and a subtle blueberry sweetness. So evocative of winter to me, but also light and soft enough that I’m happy to sip it any time of year. :)

Also, I’ve been considering experimenting with tea blending lately, so I find unflavored blended teas like this really inspiring. :3

I generally stay away from flavored teas. But huckleberry reminds me of my MSO layovers and those were always nice. The dry aroma is very pleasant and fruity. This one needs quite a long steep time in order to really draw out the flavors. Five minutes generally does it but even then I feel it lacking somewhat. Most likely it is because the base is so dull. After experiencing the deliciousness of their breakfast tea this base is a disappointment.
With my last bit ill cold steep it. I think that will improve it.
Okay. Cold steeped it for most of the day. A bit more astringency comes out and a bit more of the base but the flavor holds everything back. Good to experience but won’t buy again.

Cold steeped.

This one smells and tastes like pineapple gummy bears to me. Which, in my somewhat limited experience, is not what dragonfruit tastes like. To be fair though, I found dragonfruit to have a somewhat subtle flavor, so maybe it’s a bit difficult to reproduce in tea.

So in short, this isn’t bad, but it tastes very artificial to me, just like pineapple gummy bears. And I think it could use a bit more tartness to add some dimension. There’s also a hint of bitterness that I’m not loving.

I taste a lot of pear, but I’d call it fresh and not cooked. I really only taste the rooibos base, pear flavoring, and a twang of something fake. I don’t see enough pear teas, so I’m having fun, but I don’t think I like it enough to keep any from the TTB. Unfortunately, the fake note lingers a bit.

After reviving the tea, the leaves gave out the smell of some kind of fruity smoke. The initial steeps had pepper and spicy notes – very peculiar and interesting! After a few more steeps some floral notes are start to bloom. In the end, only this savory, spicy taste stays – which is quite unique – with a lingering floral mouthfeel.

After the initial steeps to revive the tea the leaves started to emit fruity, citrusy and grape-like scents. Main notes are definitely dominated by fruits or even dried fruits – raisins, dried apricot. After another few steeps maybe grapefruit aromas are starting to emerge and with it a mellow bitter taste too.

A fruity black tea. Dry leaves smells like sweet potato. The tea has a playdough-like scent, floral, fairly tart with a liquorice flavor. Not terrible for the price.

edit: The tea got significantly better after weeks of opening it, the playdough smell went away and the malty, flowery flavors started to show up. Changing the score from 83 to 88.

sold for $9.60/4oz

https://www.teasource.com/products/purple-beauty-black-tea

I’m procrastinating new teas for one’s I’ve neglected. This one has faded a little, but not much. The few times I’ve had it gong fu were good, and it’s solid western, though a hare too strong depending on how much tea I have. Pineapple malt and a whiff of smoke can describe the overall flavor again, although it’s not a smoked itself. They are just in hints.

I am not sure why I haven’t finished this one. I keep putting it off even though it’s one of my better quality teas with fruity qualities. I think it might be the caffeine content since this one gives me headaches. I don’t know if it’s tea drunkenness of what. Again, it’s ironic because this has a profile I love in my black teas. My drawer’s nearly refilled again, and I’ve mostly drank my blended blacks and Laoshans instead of my pure blacks. I’ve had a few new really good ones, but not a lot of one’s I’ve repeated. I’d rate this one in the 90s, but my mood has it in the 80s. Then again, I have a few green oolongs that haven’t been satisfying me either. Don’t know what my deal is.

Sipdown! (39 | 291)

Finished this flavor off by steeping the sachets in lemonade – the flavoring was just too strong and chemically otherwise.

Makes a nice flavored lemonade though! The strawberry adds sweetness and the lemon adds a bit of dimension with its pithy zestiness. Wouldn’t purchase these again though.

ashmanra’s Sipdown Challenge – “A tea you serve non-tea folks”

I had to think about this one a bit. I don’t ever serve tea to anyone, so it was more what I would serve to non-tea folks. At first I was thinking maybe an iced chai latte, since that’s a tea drink that’s popular. But I decided on this tea, since it’s such a crowd pleaser and I can imagine it being a hit with kids as well.

And I’ve been longing for fall lately, so it fits in perfectly with what I felt like drinking! This supposedly has apple and orange in it, but it just tastes exactly like Hot Cinnamon Spice. Sweet candy cinnamon à la Red Hots! Sort of a guilty pleasure tea for me, as I don’t generally like sweetened teas. Once this runs out, I’ll probably eventually order Hot Cinnamon Spice since that’s offered in loose leaf and I can’t tell the difference. Very pretty and festive tin though! :)

Cold steeped.

I was surprised to find this one a bit bland compared to the other similar tisanes (like Wild Strawberry). It tastes a touch watered down, even though I used the same amount of leaf and water. But the raspberry does make for a pleasant and zingy combination with the hibiscus, and it’s still a very refreshing blend. There’s a little touch of mustiness at the end, which made me think maybe there was raspberry leaf in here as well, but apparently not.