New Tasting Notes

Earl grey black tea. The bergamot smells really nice, it’s soft but not weak. The tea base is smooth with light smoke wood and sugary notes, the bergamot brings a bit of floweriness. Finishes with a gentle astringent tartness from the black tea.

I got my 3.5 oz can for less than $6, I’m happy with the purchase! The lid inside the tin is really nice too!

sold for $11/3.5 oz

https://taooftea.com/product/earl-grey/

Homemade Advent Exchange Tea #14

I’m behind but will eventually get all of my tasting notes uploaded! (they are written in a notebook)

This has a lovely strong maple scent. The brew is flavourful and the green tea comes through a lot. There are vegetal green notes and some maple. I get a hint of dried apple, as well. I would have liked a bit more vanilla and cakey/buttery flavour or maybe some apple butter/caramelized sugar notes. If I didn’t know any different, I would think this was just a maple apple green tea.

Cupper Advent calendar #8
This is the only infusion I missed when I first had it (on day 8), but I remembered to write down some notes on day 20, when I drank it again.
On 18th December i left for my home country to spend Christmas with my family and no, I didn´t forget the teabags left from the Cupper advent calendar.
At first, the brew reminded me of the herbal infusions my mother loved to prepare (very often nettle based), which I must admit weren´t exactly what I used to like to drink, but then it opens up, with a bit of mint in finish. Both mint and even chamomile (at 30% even) are dosed to give a well balanced blend, which I can certainly approve of. Presence of lavender also very subtle.

I taste a lot of licorice and also the cardamom. This isn’t bad, but it’s a little simpler than I’d prefer. I might also taste a bit of creaminess. I just wish it were all a bit bolder.

Sipdown

This was a delicious peach and vanilla blend from a tea company that I will miss! I hope they do make a comeback! Their announcement looked as though they might one day.

TeaTiff TTB #5

My husband and I polished this off with breakfast this morning. Though the inspiration sounded delicious, we found the actual blend to be more of a black genmaicha than anything else. Definitely got some maple flavor and some sweetness (maybe caramel?) but the popped rice flavor dominated the sip. Not a bad tea at all, but not quite what we expected based on the name.

TeaTiff TTB #4

I had a cup of this before bed last night and I did sleep quite well, so props to the medicinal aspect! The flavor, however, was nothing to write home about. It reminded me of a something from Yogi or Traditional Medicinals…more focused on health benefits than flavor. Rather than the strong lemon flavor I was hoping for, I got muted lemongrass alongside other herbaceous flavors I couldn’t quite identify (probably the valerian and vervain?) and a strong blast of licorice root. Not something I’d drink again, but I’m sure it’s someone’s cup of tea!

TeaTiff TTB #3

I wish I could have played around with this one a bit more. There was only enough for a single cup and the flavor I got was watery chocolate with a hint of ginger. But the dry leaf smelled so nice! I’d love to see if using more leaf or turning it into a latte would bring out more flavor.

TeaTiff TTB #2

There was a single sachet of this tea in the box, which I took along to my dad’s house to brew on Christmas day. While not quite up to the standard of my all-time favorite Gingerbread Rooibos from Market Spice, this was quite a respectable gingerbread blend! Not too heavy on the ginger and with a nice sweet, buttery cookie note. And the black tea base was welcome after staying up way too late on Christmas Eve!

TeaTiff TTB #1

I haven’t had a chance to properly dig into the TTB until today, but I did pull a couple out to take to my dad’s house for Christmas…including this one, because how could I not???

It has that classic orange spice scent (like the classic Bigelow Constant Comment) but I found that the clove pretty much overwhelmed the orange flavor and any other spices in my cup. Not too enjoyable to drink, but it sure did smell good!

AJRimmer Advent Day 25

My kitchen smelled AMAZING while this one was brewing…almost like I was baking a late batch of gingerbread a few days after Christmas! Unfortunately, the flavor didn’t live up to the aroma. The ginger was STRONG and drowned out any other cookie flavors that might have been present. I like ginger, so I still enjoyed it, but would have appreciated a bit more complexity to the flavor.

AJRimmer Advent Day 24

I really enjoyed the cranberry flavor in this tea! I feel like most cranberry blends I’ve tried use hibiscus to capture that tart, red flavor and I usually find myself disappointed. But this one had a very natural sweet/tart cranberry flavor with no hibiscus that I could detect. I wouldn’t have minded a bit more almond, but it was a lovely, refreshing tea for Christmas Eve to balance out all the sweets!

AJRimmer Advent Day 23

I mostly got chocolate and popped rice from this one. Pleasant enough, but not really “cookies & cream” in my opinion.

AJRimmer Advent Day 22

I have several friends who LOVE Teeccino and I have never understood it. Maybe you have to be a coffee drinker to “get” it? The roasted chicory flavor is just unpleasantly bitter to me and tends to overwhelm whatever other flavor is present in the blend. This one was no exception. I got a hint of cinnamon, but nothing that was reading “cookie” to my taste.

AJRimmer Advent Day 21

I don’t drink a lot of matcha, so my preparation could totally have been at fault here. But the latte I made with this blend was disappointingly grainy and bitter, totally lacking in the sweet, creamy “cake” flavor I was hoping for. I picked up on a bit of vanilla, but overall it was disappointing.

AJRimmer Advent Day 20

Hope everyone had a very merry Christmas! This is my first day home since the holiday craziness, so I have about a week’s worth of tea notes to catch up on. Not going to rate these since I’m writing notes mostly from memory.

This one didn’t stand out for me; it was a fairly brisk, astringent black tea with a bit of a caramel note; probably would have been better as a latte.

Yup, this is amaretto. It’s well balanced, but on the lighter side. There is a slight sweetness to it. I don’t know that I really get the spice part of it, but maybe it melds so much with the amaretto that it doesn’t stand out. I like this better as it cools, but I’m not crazy about it which surprises me because I do love almond flavoring in my tea. Maybe my feelings will change with time.

This is an “old reliable” for me. The peachiness is a nice touch, softening the black tea. I agree with other reviews that I wish it brewed a bit stronger in its bag form – I often double up – and that the ginger could be a bit more pronounced – but that’s nitpicking what I enjoy on many occasions overall.

Have I not tried this tea yet? I ordered it a while ago. Funny how some things quickly sneak into the back of your cupboard only to reappear and surprise you later. This one is quite a surprise! I think I knew it had hibiscus in it and one of my favorite B&B blends has hib (Hound on the Hunt) used in moderation, but this one features it prominently. First sip hit me in the face with hib (SUPRIIIIIIIIIIISE!!!) and it’s a little hard to taste my way around it. For me hibiscus has a tart aklaline metallic taste and that is all I’m getting in this cup. I wonder if my dislike of hibiscus is similar to people who have the cilantro aversion. If I keep sipping I can sort of numb out my hib receptors and taste a hint of rose and fruit behind it. This is shaping up to be a not for me tea although I would like to try it cold steeped before I totally give up on it.

Advent tea
This strong black tea is certainly astringent. I probably used too much water to leaf ratio for the first steep. I used more water for the second steep and the infusion became a bit smoother. I only have one packet to brew so I don’t know if the first brew could be less harsh, but I can think of strong black tea that is more tasty and less astringent.

Not so magnifique, I’m afraid. Another very weak brew from Palais Des Thes. Their description reads, “A warming blend of green tea with fruity, succulent notes of pear, vanilla and almond.”

This tastes like water with a weak aroma of vanilla and green tea. I have brewed exactly to instructions and it’s just absolutely flavourless. It tastes like I’ve brewed a gallon of hot water with a single bag. I’ve kept it in for 4 minutes over the recommended 3 minutes and only minimal pear flavour emerged.

This would be perfect for a person who hates tea but for some reason wants to be seen drinking it. But quite dreadful for the rest of us.

After aging for 7 years, admittedly in a container with a Tibetan flame brick, this tea has mellowed considerably. The bitterness has faded a lot, while the vegetal, cooked vegetable, hay, and grassy notes stepped forward. Overall, this is not my favorite raw puer, but I feel that it aged a bit faster in the mini-tuo form. It has some returning sweetness, and is not a bad daily drinker. I brewed this western style, thinking it still intensely bitter, but next brew will be in a small teapot.

Inkling Advent Day 22. This really smells and tastes like peaches!! I liked it best cold with milk. The peach flavor is tangy and authentic, like a slightly underripe peach. The black base had a really nice amount of body beneath the flavoring. I’m excited to drink it again! Thanks for including extra of this one, Inkling!