New Tasting Notes

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!

Sample sipdown! I just made a note for this recently because it was in the advent calendar. Normally I wouldn’t bother with another note so soon but I’m really just celebrating that the dashboard is back! Yay!
I received a sample of this with my order. It probably would have languished in my tea drawers because I’m not a blueberry fan. But the beauty of samplers and advent calendars is that they push me out of my comfort zone, which is how I learned that actually I really like this tea! It feels like drinking a blueberry ginger muffin.

And back to the Palais des Thes with an herbal selection this evening. Brews nicely to a pleasant light amber cup with the classy muslin teabag.

Heavy on the verbena, (though it tastes more like lemongrass) with a minty aftertaste that grows more prominent as the tea cools, plus some sneaky rosehips. The verbena/lemongrassy note overpowers to the point where I cannot really detect any significant orange. The strength is reasonable when brewed as suggested- not too weak, not too strong.

But, it tastes like any tea you’ve ever had after a fancy spa treatment. It’s totally generic to the point where I feel like I’ve tasted this dozens of times before from airport lounges to Starbucks to indie tea shops in Kyoto. It’s blonde wood and fluffy white robe “wellness.” It’s totally boring.

But, sometimes boring is nice when we’re too tired to be adventurous, so there is a time and place for everything. It’s a good quality blend, but at $22USD for about 125g, I think it’s way it’s overpriced.

For my ratings, I do consider price as part of the overall score vs. just straight tea quality. I will judge a pricey tea more strictly than a cheap one, though quality and taste are the most important factor. If this were a $4 box of Celestial Seasonings, I’d give it a higher score. But this tea’s worst sin is just being so….utterly generic.

Nabo 2023 Advent Day 14: Mint och Lakrits

My mouth reacted to this as though I’d been poisoned.

Advent tea
Tart and more tart. There is supposed to be cranberry in here, but all I taste is tart hibiscus. Its a bit overwhelmingly tart, not something I’d need to drink again

From CameronB!  Thank you again!  A lone tiny mini waffle.  This MIGHT be my first mini anything from white2tea?  I’m excited to try it.  This tiny waffle fits perfectly in the bottom of my infuser basket.  I don’t know if that will help it infuse… Honestly, the amount of leaf here is probably less than I would use in a mug for a ripe puerh.  The flavor is fine — a bit starchy, nothing negative about it.  I would expect magical waffle flavor, even if in the back of my mind I know that is a stretch… but it seems like plain puerh to me.   The second steep possibly did have more waffle qualities… more bready.  The third weakened a bit.  But the fourth is rich and coffee like… just the way I like it!  The tiny waffles might lead to more expectation than otherwise, but the flavor here was decent enough if you want a cup of ripe puerh. I would say white2tea’s description is accurate anyway!
Steep #1 // 24 minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep
Steep #2 //  12 minutes after boiling // 2 min
Steep #3 //  9 min after boiling // 5 min
Steep #4 // just boiled // 12 min
2023 sipdowns: 101

I’m in a rush to find some low-hanging-fruit-last-session-sipdowns for the last few days of the year, to up my sipdown number….

I have sorely missed Celestial Seasonings Sweet Apple Chamomile since it got pulled, but we may have landed on a lovely substitute here! The chief difference is less sweetening, which is actually a plus for me. Just chamomile and apple bits with a little spice. The downside, if you call it that, is the recommended 20 minute steep time—my attention span is far too short for that. However, with a paper filter, you can just sip bag-in with nice, gentle, fruity results.

Sipdown! (2 | 415)

The other free sample from my recent order.

Sadly, this is mostly just peppermint and sugar to me. There is a hint of a blueberry note, but I’m not convinced that I would notice it if I wasn’t expecting it to be there. The dominant flavor is quite herbaceous peppermint along with the sweetness from the maple/brown sugar. It’s not quite wet rag, though there is maybe a twinge of that in the finish, but it’s not the freshest mint either.

Anyway, it’s fine but certainly not something I would order.

Thanks to Derk for the chance to try another black tea from TDJ! I steeped 3 g of leaf in 150 ml of 203F water for 3, 5, 7, and 10 minutes.

The dry aroma is of apple, cinnamon, blackberry, jasmine, and malt. Oof! If TDJ describes this tea as having faint tannins, I wouldn’t want to drink anything they think is stronger. The first steep has notes of tannins, wood, malt, pencil shavings, earth, apple, blackberry, jasmine, violet, butter, and cinnamon, though those drying tannins grab my attention and don’t let go. The sad part is that the apple, blackberry, cinnamon, and florals are lovely, but are totally overwhelmed. The next steep has mouthwatering aromas of baked apple, cinnamon, blackberries and other berries, apricot, and florals, but those tannins steal the show. The tannins are less aggressive in the third steep, allowing honey, malt, and florals to peak through and offering nice apple hints in the aftertaste. The final steep is fainter, with a cinnamon apple aroma and a tannic kick.

If I’d only smelled this tea without tasting it, I would have given it a high rating. As is, it’s way too harsh for me. The fruity, cinnamon, floral aroma and aftertaste don’t make up for the astringency.

Currently drink this tea while I churn through my tasting note backlog!

It’s very much a grey day today, and I’m feeling rather bored at home. Maybe that’s a factor of why I felt like pulling this tea out? A bit of liquid escapism, perhaps? It’s certainly sunny tasting with a bright but not sweet note of fresh squeezed oranges. Definitely appropriate for its namesake, though I also enjoy that there’s an ever so slight pithy undertone and that the notes of timothy hay and honeysuckle from the white tea itself also still come through in taste.

Had this one last night and even though my expectations were low I found myself pleasantly surprised. The combination of lavender, jasmine, and different mild red berries were pretty soothing and tranquil. I even didn’t mind the gentle grassiness of the base. Deb has a tendency to go balls to the walls with lavender, but though this was a lavender-forward blend I didn’t feel like I was drinking liquid perfume. Dare I say this may be an underrated gem in her assortment?

Cold Brew!

As a Christmas present for myself I bought a bunch of new storage towers, so last night I did a giant overhaul of my tea storage. It took so long, but I feel like my drawers are significantly less over crowded now – and this is what I drank while working on that.

This was more lychee than it was dragonfruit, and more grassy green tea than it was lychee. However, the mix of gentle tropical fruits with the floral undertones and fresh green tea was pretty pleasant. Not going so far as the call this a smash hot or anything because even though I enjoyed the lychee flavours a lot I did somewhat struggle with just how oceanic and present that green tea was. It verged on lawn clipping territory.