Featured & New Tasting Notes

Another free sample from Joy’s Teaspoon was this tisane, which I had to try because I love all thing almond. The instructions for this brew called for a lot of tea per water (2 tsp/6oz), so I ended up using the whole sample for my 12oz Kati cup. During the long steep of 10 minutes, my office started smelling like a bakerie. Wow does this tea smell mind blowingly good. Like a cinnamon bun, or a snickerdoodle, or those sugar encrusted almonds they sell at fairs, or just a bunch of sugary, cinnamony goodness. Yum. The brewed liquor is bright red, which was surprising, although I guess that’s the beetroot.

So what does it taste like? Sweet, and a little fruity-tart, like a cinnamon-covered dehydrated apple ring. Yeah, I’m getting a lot of apple out of it. It’s certainly delicious, and the aroma of roasted sugar-covered almonds is present, but it doesn’t seem like the main event for me. Would I order it? There’s a good chance of that, but as delicious sweet apple cinnamon baked good tisane, not so much as an almond tea.

After reading another tasting note that said that this gets better the longer it steeps, I tried it out again in my big glass teapot. This isn’t a very dark black tea, and similarly the taste is very light. The lime is zingy, but not overpowering. I enjoyed the hint of coconut, which was much softer than the buttered rum I had this morning.

There’s nothing bitter about this tea, so it’s nice to slowly sip at without worrying about oversteeping it. Even as it got cold it was still tasty, so I’m sure it would be lovely iced. Definitely a go-to for my long paper writing sessions!

Chi of Tea and their coupons are totally leading me astray! Was that a paypal button? Oh OOPS! :D

This is bad, because finances are a wee bit tight this month, but I’m staying within my weekly allowance, so I can justify it to myself like that. And also the fact that I could have placed a twice as large order, but decided to save some of it for later.

Clearly this calls for a cup of tea, something that feels thrifty, which means we’re delving into the Standard Panel. Smoky is good. Very smoky is very good. Hello Lapsang!

I’ve used plenty of leaf this morning. Plenty. Because I wasn’t paying attention to what I was doing. Luckily my average steep times are so short that it doesn’t really seem to have made a difference. It’s a little smokier than average but underneath all the smoke there’s plenty of the fruity sweetness.

I’ve had a Lapsang from TeaSpring, which is otherwise a wonderful company, I think, when it comes to chinese teas, and that one didn’t really develop that fruit note until the second steep. I think that’s why I prefer the Perch’s Lapsang over that one. I like that note. And I don’t want to wait for a whole new steep to get it. And I definitely don’t want to steep twice routinely to get one cup of tea. The super-smokyness of the TeaSpring one has other wonderful qualities, of course, like it’s a good one to turn to when in the mood for something seriously smoky, but it’s just not quite enough to make up for the subdued sweet note that I would say it was a better Lapsang than this one.

This one is perfectly balanced between smoky notes and substance for me.

(It’s significantly cheaper as well, which totally doesn’t hurt!)

I am quite a fan of this tea. It’s lemon flavor is not the strongest but it combined with the other flavors is great. I believe it is the Guayusa and Lemon Grass I taste the most.

I find drinking this tea makes me feel happier throughout the day (which is important considering my job) and helps me stay awake, which is nice because I tend to start to crash at around three.

I use t-sac tea filters and today I tried using it how I seen other people use them. I put the tea in the t-sac and bent it over the side of the cup (leaving the t-sac open), I usually tie the t-sac closed and this steeped the tea much quicker. I usually leave it for about 5 mins when I tie it close but this time it took about 1 min maybe even less, it was drinkable almost right away.

I steeped this a second time later in the day and it did not take much longer to steep and it was just as flavorful. I think I might be able to steep this a fourth time. Time to experiment. :P

Overall a must have!

I recommend a ratio of 2 to 1 when it comes to leaf and water. 4g leaf, 2 oz water.

It was pretty strong—not overwhelmingly so—but overall AWESOME!

I made sure everything was pre-warmed with very hot water, to control the temps and make sure the tea was actually warm when it was ready to drink! (The teapot had boiled water sitting in it up to the moment I was ready to add the leaf and the cooled water for the tea).

This was really rather more what I was in the mood for last night. Magnolia might not be quite as bad as roses or jasmine in the lovey-dovey department, but it was quite bad enough.

I’ll have it this evening instead, after some considerable debate with myself about whether I still wanted it or whether I wanted something else entirely now (wouldn’t it have been a hilarious stroke of irony if I had found myself in a Lapsang mood?), but I decided I thought I was still inclined towards the magnolia-scented oolong.

You know, every time I have this I get surprised by the magnolia and how it isn’t jasmine-y. It’s so strong in the aroma I keep expecting to get a mouthful of perfume, but it really is very well behaved in flavour. It’s there, but it’s not overwhelming. To begin with I thought it merely enhanced the oolongness of the oolong, but now that I’ve had it a few more times I can pick it out in the flavour more.

I’m not a flower scenting fan at all when it comes to tea, but of the ones I’ve tried so far, I believe magnolia would be my favourite to scent tea with.

I ended up erring on the side of caution with my first steep and took the (awesome!)infuser out of my travel mug altogether after about ten minutes. In a stroke of brilliance, instead of dumping the tea leaves I put the infuser in my work mug, that way I can resteep without any mess. So, that’s what I’ve done!

I know that I’ve drained a lot of the flavour already, but I figure I might as well maximise what I have here at work. I think a big mug of spearmint will come after this, since I’m really enjoying just filling the travel mug with tea you don’t have to worry about. It keeps it substantially warmer than my work mug as well, so I don’t have to get up and make a new tea every 20 minutes.

This tea smells like toasty coconut. The funny thing is that it’s oolong tea with hazelnut and vanilla and I’m not a vanilla fan. Well, not usually.

I happen to love coconut, so I was hoping that the scent connected with the actual taste. 205/2 min later… The aroma is still there. That’s one hurdle down. Next to taste… Mmm. It does taste nutty, but the expected taste of coconut has morphed into what the tea claims to be… Hazelnut. Vanilla. Oolong. Nice.

Fortunately, the vanilla is not too overwhelming. The pairing of flavors here is nice. The oolong has an underlying strength. It’s not lost to the flavoring. Very nice.

2nd infusion – Today, I took a second infusion in a travel mug to work. It’s really good, even better than the first one. The flavoring is more muted and the rich oolong shines through. I’m very impressed and very happy.

So, I have actually had this before, but that was a week ago. Mainly because the taste was overwhelmed by the raspberry. So, three bags in a three cup pot (reduce the raspberry taste maybe), and the water wasn’t quite boiling (just beginning to bubble with that low roaring sound). If someone would like to comment on the water temperature and how to tell when the water is appropriate for green tea without actually using a thermometer, I would be appreciative.

So, first cup: lovely reddish brown and smells of raspberries. However, I wouldn’t really know what green tea smells like, so maybe that other smell that is kind of hiding behind it is the green tea. The taste is a little on the tart side of raspberry. BTW, I can not express how much I needed this cup of tea. Not really caring about the taste at this point. It is warm and wet and the ritual of making it comforts me.

Second cup: with the sinus dragon now defeated by Knight Tea, the taste is more tart (tarter?) than the last. But I can also taste something under the tartness that just might be green tea.

Third cup: slightly more astringent. Definitely more of a green tea taste. I really need to try this stuff without anything mixed in. Since I’m not sure exactly who bought or gave me this tea (I didn’t buy it), I’m been trying to get used to the idea of actually trying green tea, which I’ve only had iced and did not like.

Will look into acquiring actual green tea. As for this, I like it but I think next time I’ll go back to four tea bags to a pot. The tart is nice, but I prefer the sweet too, and that I got with the four bags I used previously.

This is one of the first teas I tried from Adagio, and I was in love at first sip. Disclaimer: Gunpowder green tea is one of my fave teas of all time, so I am completely biased in any and all reviews re: Gunpowder green.

The gunpowder flavor, mixed with a subtle hint of Darjeeling, offers up a smoky flavor in the aftertaste. I actually added a bit more peppermint, but I enjoy stronger, spicier teas. (And my peppermint may have been fresher…no offense, just sayin’.)

Overall, this is a great blend for beginners to loose tea and for gunpowder fans. If you prefer stronger, blacker teas with lots of fruity flavors, I’d bypass this one. :P

This is my absolute favorite tea from specialteas. I find 2:34 to be an ideal steep for water at a roaring boil. The taste of the assam, nilgiri, and ceylon leaves perfectly complement the bergamot citrus to make an excellent flavor.
This is not the best everyday tea in my opinion. After having it daily for a while, I started to lose the true taste in my mouth while drinking it. Having it periodically and sparingly definitely makes the experience special and worthwhile. Overall, an awesome tea. I hope I can still buy Fine Earl Grey after the teavana merger…

This is my first of 3 samples from Joy’s Teaspoon. I can’t believe how fast the samples arrived. I emailed Joy on Saturday and they were waiting in my mailbox on Monday.

This tea is nice. Brewed, it smells lemony. Like a lemon sucker or maybe even lemon pledge (not in a completely bad way). The taste of the tea is lemony and orangy, but not as lemony as the smell. It also tastes of herbs that I cannot identify and something almost savory, which I am guessing is the carrot.

Yep, this tea is very interesting. I like it and I’m looking forward to the other samples. I’ll leave you ins suspense about what my other two samples are (or you can try and guess).

1.5 tsp per 12 oz cup

Mmmm….nothing else would do today. I’m trying to cut back on my consumption of milk and sugar in my tea so this is the perfect fit. This tea is amazing sans additions.

I actually just realized that I recently passed my one year Steepster-versary and quite a bit of things have changed in relation to what type of tea I like. I have always like black tea, but I’ve now branched out into the other types as well. I like green oolongs way more than I ever thought possible and I’ve even grown quite fond of rooibos. If you had told me a year ago that one of my favorite teas would be preferred without milk and sugar AND that it was a black tea, I would have laughed you out of the room. However, my taste preferences have changed drastically over the past year and I’ve really enjoyed exploring the world of tea while meeting some amazing people here on Steepster.

It is nice to know where to find people that are as neurotic as you are about tea, of all things!

This is definitely an interesting experience. The aroma gets you a hint of that peppermint/licorice/menthol smell found in lots of more generic herbal teas. It also has an oddly rusty smell, almost as if I were drinking from a metal container (which I am not). It’s not what I expected, but that’s not a bad thing at this point.

The first sip is…unexpected. I was looking for a strong menthol flavor and was instead hit by a overwhelming sweetness. I immediately turned to ask the gf if she put a bunch of sugar in it but was cut off by a cough caused by the sweetness that flowed to the back of my throat. In fact, she didn’t add anything to this and it’s just naturally crazy sweet.

A few more sips and I started to acclimate to the intense sweetness of the tea. Seriously, I can’t understand how they make the tea this sweet, but they do, and they do it well. As someone who likes things on the very sugary to the super sweet side, this is something I could drink often – not as often as a good clean oolong, but maybe even like a semi-consistent dessert tea. Now that I’ve had it I can totally understand why it’s served at a salon/spa.

If you’re open to really sweet teas, this pulls it off and does it without help. If you’re a purist, you’re probably not going to like this one.

So far I have not been disappointed by any tea from Harney & Sons. I think that is impressive since I am very picky. This tea does not disappoint either. This tea sample was also a gift from chris_s (who just posted his first review today, so everyone should go follow him).

When I opened the bag, it smelled amazing. It smelled like cinnamon toast. I couldn’t wait to steep it. The tea itself looks like a cinnamon colored ground coffee or a coarse hot cocoa. I used a tea-sac for this one. It brewed up to a light purple-ish color. It smelled like candy and cinnamon. When I tasted it I got candy, then cinnamon, and then plum flavors. It’s almost like a cinnamony mulled apple cider, but with plum and more mellow. It’s complex and I really really like it. It’s such a nice afternoon or evening treat.

2 tsp per 12 oz cup.

This is a 2009 Putuo, well kept, but I’m not expecting miracles. To that end, I used water even cooler than I would normally (this is quite a small-leafed variety) and brewed it a bit longer. I have to say that I’m impressed at what I found, for a year-old tea.

Lightly sweet, with an aroma of steamed spinach that fills the mouth but doesn’t quite reach the nose. Very slightly drying on the palette, which I attribute to its age. Gentle and comforting for a wintry day, but without the body to stand up to any strong flavors.

The second infusion brought out more dryness and a vegetal addition to the body reminiscent of a toasted Japanese tea (eg: Kamairicha), but unfortunately lost most of the sweetness and aroma.

Honestly, I didn’t know what to expect from this tea. I’ve had a sample of this sitting in my cupboard for a while now and this morning I decided it was finally time to try it out.

The dry leaves were notably interesting to look at, with a nice mix of black and green.

I have to say, I’m actually impressed. I’m normally not a fan of overly flavoured black teas, but somehow Samovar pulls it off again and again. I’m not getting an overpowering punch of any one particular flavour, but I’m getting a nice rounded cup that I think I can actually see myself drinking every day.

Colour me impressed. A lemon tea that I actually like? Oh, Samovar. Only you. =P

Okay…I’m being daring here…I HATE BANANAS! No…you don’t understand! I REALLY HATE BANANAS! But…I thought I would challenge myself with this one today.

Thanks for the chance to try LiberTEAs!

The Banana aroma isn’t as intense as I thought it would be and I am thankful for that.
The liquor of the tea is quite light in color for a black tea.
There is a slight cheesecake aroma hiding underneath.

The first sip I took I could taste the banana and made a funny face.
The 2nd sip I could taste something more like Banana Peels then actual Banana.
The 3rd sip there was a certain creaminess to it much like a cheese cake, I suppose, but I’m really not convinced.

Where I would give actually bananas a review of -10 I will NOT rate this tea as such. It wasn’t so bad that I couldn’t finish the cup but I wouldn’t make a purchase just because it was banana.

I will be pretty generic with this rating and since it’s on a scale of 100 I will go a little bit above the middle rating of 50.

I received a package of this tea from Adham as a Secret Santa swap present. Thanks Ricky for putting together Secret Santa!

The leaves are a deep green in color, a medium length sencha leaf and mixed with pieces of citrus peel, lemongrass and flowery blossoms. The pouch smells fantastic, clean and vibrant. I sniffed the pouch as I was waiting for the tea to brew up.

The brewed tea is a pale yellow infusion. The citrus peel and lemongrass definitely show through in the taste but still allow the flavor of the sencha to come through. I could see this being a tea I drink daily, as it isn’t too fragrant or flavored, it is just right.

I’m really beginning to like green teas, I haven’t ventured to try many unflavored greens, but really enjoy these flavored blends.

Thanks again Adham for sending me this tea!

Gosh, these leaves must be ancient! If there is some fading, however, it doesn’t really matter today as what I was looking for was something mild. Let’s not go too much into detail here. Suffice to say that I had milkshake-tummy all day yesterday and that yesterday’s diet consisted primarily of water and the glass of juice I had in the evening was somewhat regretted at bedtime.

So. Something mild for me, please. I’m feeling better in the stomach department today, but let’s not rock the boat, eh?

This turned out as orange as… an orange today. I always get surprised by the colour with this one. I keep expecting it to be very very light and then I get shocked at how dark it actually is.

The aroma is weirdly custard-y. A bit buttery and a bit sweet and I wonder if the fact that I made lemon curd earlier today is messing with my senses. I can’t really spot much nuttiness in the aroma. Perhaps a little almond here and there, but not really anything noteworthy.

Which is funny, because I distinctly remember it as being quite nutty. Or maybe that was just all in the flavour?

Yes it was. It is indeed quite mild, likely due to some fading, but the note of walnut is still quite obvious. Sad to say, however, that either the remainder of the leaves will have to be brewed somewhat stronger than this or it will mainly be used for occasions such as this where I’m feeling it best to stick with something mild.

I had originally given this one a grand total of 98 points, but seeing as how I’ve been so disinterested in it for so long, I’m going to take it down somewhat. No tea that one loses interest in like this is really worth 98 points.

IMPORTANT EDIT!!! GAH!! I completely forgot! Happy New Year, Steepsterites. Be careful around the fireworks.

Steep Information:
Prepared in store, and bought some for home.

Tasting Notes:
Dry Leaf Smell: (lapsang souchong) smokey
Steeped Tea Smell: (lapsang souchong) smokey
Flavor: sweet, smoky, black tea
Body: Full
Aftertaste: none
Liquor: translucent dark orange oaker

Lightly smokey, less than a lapsang souchong, with the nice hint of fruit.

MilitiaJim had this for breakfast at the Yerba Buena Gardens location. It was a part of the “Russian Service”

Tarragon-Marinated Beets, Smoked Whitefish & Horseradish, Devilled Egg with Caviar, Herbed Crackers, Fresh Fruit, Chocolate Brownie. They say that Tolstoy fueled his creativity by drinking Russian tea from the samovar. See what it does for you. Start with our zavarka, dilute it with a tad of hot water and add milk and sugar.

MilitiaJim experimented with it plain, milk, sugar, milk and sugar. The tea came from the samovar and then was diluted with hot water in a kettle on the samovar.

The location has comfortable benches, outdoor seating, huge windows for natural light and is very cozy. The staff is friendly, knowledgeable, and helpful.

The box we purchased was a nice recyclable cardboard, containing a plastic bag containing the tea, held shut by metal clip. There was also a sticker included. Not sure why.

Pictures: http://amazonv.blogspot.com/2010/12/samovar-loose-leaf-black-tea-russian.html

I have a few things to say about this tea first. Hoping it doesn’t go cold before I finish.

Firstly, this and the other one I picked up from Tea Desire yesterday, are mysteriously absent from their website. But then, their website lists a very general look, I suppose—very few single estate teas, but they’ve actually got a surprising number of them at my location. Hmm.

Because of this, I had to take the picture myself… Flash makes the leaves look very sparkly and white. But there are some green bits and tan bits and dark and gold in there. It’s actually very pretty.

Secondly, I tried looking up “Shangrilla” as I do every time I pick up a tea I assume is named after its estate. Google returned nothing, but suggested “Shangri-la”. Turns out, this isn’t a real place—it’s a fictional place from a novel, but has become synonymous with “Heaven”. There are a lot of hotels named after it. Couldn’t find any plantations, so I’m guessing it’s just an artistic name choice, and it’s a blend of Nepalese first flushes.

The smell of the dry leaves is VERY fragrant. Fruity perfumy and delicious. Steeped, the smell dissolves into a very fruity dark oolong-and-black smell. Nepal teas are supposed to be comparable to Darjeelings, and I can see why. Although this is much fruitier overall.

Cooler, I’m getting more of the drying and it’s settled a bit into a more classic Darjeeling. But still very enjoyable.

In general, I’m afraid of Pu-erh. I have tried it a few times in the past, and I still own one, but I rarely drink it. When I randomly grabbed one from my sample box, I ended up with pu-erh. Hesitantly, I opened it and put the leaves into the gaiwan. The scent was familiar and earthy but light.

Upon steeping, it brewed a medium-dark red brown. It smells familiar too. The taste was unexpected. It was light and smooth; sweet and malty; earthy but not overwhelmingly so. CHOCOLATE. WOW. I was pleasantly surprised. I steeped this again and again, and it still held up. The brew became lighter and sweeter.

Very good tea :) I got to enjoy my favorite little fish tea cups with them too!