New Tasting Notes

The tea bags have a smell fruity, but not specifically like peaches.

The color in the cup is a light yellow orange. The aroma is light. It is peach and, interestingly, the aroma from habanero peppers (not the heat, but the particular aroma they have). There is no hint of citrus (mentioned on the ingredients).

The white tea taste is delicate, as expected, but firm, too, up front. There is a delicate bitter flavor in back. The peach flavor comes to me last. A little citrus comes out in the end of some sips.

Moderate astringency, faint sweet aftertaste.

The tea flavor is nicely uncomplicated. I think the peach is impressively balanced with the tea here. This cup makes me feel relaxed at my desk.

After making a pitcher of this tea with the kids, there was enough of the 50g bag to make enough iced tea for the staff.

This is the life! Sending staff home on a brutally hot Summer day with iced Bear Trap tea and a splash of fresh squeezed lemonade. Mmmmm!

So today, I took yesterdays left over Bear Trap tea and added lemonade. And voila, fact that this group of kids enjoy their drinks “wicked sour”

But this 2 litre pitcher of tea lemonade disappeared faster than the tea on it’s own did yesterday!

Mmmm…this was the perfect choice to wrap up my first week of school this year! Everything has been great this week, but I haven’t had much tea and the tea I’ve had hasn’t been logged. This is a great start to a tea-filled weekend – rich chocolate and black tea with a hint of rose on the finish!

Not my fave! To be fair, it was the first tea I’ve had from the store that they oversteeped. My DT is is really good for steeping their iced teas just right, but hey.
I like the spearmint more, this one is a punch to the face of mint – which is awesome when you’re in the mood for it!

I love my peppermint teas with milk, so I’ll try it again and give it a better rating once I’ve had it hot. b^_^

I must have thought this was good tea because when I was organizing my tea shelf (ahem, cupboard) I found 5 packets, they are now cold steeping over night and waiting for my commentary tomorrow.

BLECH. Acidic, unbalanced, generally just very gross. I wanted to like this because I was so excited to see something with licorice root, but I couldn’t taste it at all. Disappointing tea.

ERIN! Guess what I did with this. I added a splash of rum, a dab of butter, a bit of brown sugar and a squeeze of maple syrup!
My version of a hot buttered rum.
AND OMG. IT IS TOO GOOD.
buttery maple pecan pie with rum goodness. ahhhhhh.

OH by the way – free shipping from Harney until August 30th. Use code “MASTER” at checkout.

1st steep: 1.5 tsp for however much liquid this mug takes, 3 mins. I love staring down my mug watching this tea steep. It’s so pretty and carefree. I find the vanilla to be the most prominent in the first cup, and it’s not a fake vanilla. It’s warm and fuzzy, although I have yet to steep it long enough to get a really buttery taste. I can taste a slight veggieness as well, the more I drink this.

2nd steep: 4 mins-ish. Smells like lemongrass! I always huff the steam like a cracked out tea nut. Vanilla may be almost lost now, but it’s still got that lovelyness (very descriptive, I know) of the first steep. LIttle astringency, the veggieness is still hanging out in the backround. This is my first oolong, and a flavoured one at that so please forgive my lack of ability to properly describe this. It’s just GOOD! I just wish I had more time to eek out another steep.

Delicious — a must-have for anybody who enjoys Starbucks chai lattes, as this is quite literally the exact product they use. The flavor of the tea and spices are well in evidence, it’s milky and sweet but not too sweet, and there’s just a touch of bite from the black pepper. I couldn’t say how authentic it actually is, but for me this is the ideal chai.

Disgustingly sweet. Sweet was pretty much all I could taste. This really has no right to call itself chai.

I, like others, noticed that the leaves look almost identical to an oolong. In fact, I was really surprised when I popped open the bag that clearly says Silky GREEN. I’ve had quite a few cups of this one & initially brewed them around 190-195. At that temperature, I tasted an overwhelmingly large amount of pure floral flavor. To me, it was so floral that it was almost like soap or perfume. I was just about to give up on this tea before I tried it again at a lower temperature. There are still floral flavors, but I’m tasting much more of a buttery component. It’s not my favorite, but I like that I’ve found a good temperature for this tea. I wish it could be more buttery and less floral.

After a long run of flavored teas, I thought it would be a nice change of pace to get back to basics a bit. Ahhh… yes, this is good. I love to poor white tea out into a little glass bowl and marvel at the whiskery leaves (hairy little bastards). I’ve been examining my tea a lot this way recently in the interest of science (or in lieu of a hobby). My new hobby could be the overuse/ misuse of brackets (hmmmm).

This Silver needle by Canton is very whiskery! The flavor is refreshing, creamy, and I can taste melon in the finish. This is a very delicate but still flavorful white tea.

Edit: The melon flavor really developes as this tea cools!

My roommate has had this tea sitting around unopened for about ten years now. She got it from her time in Scotland. She finally decided that she wanted to start drinking it now. I showed her how to warm up her tea pot and we let the leaves float loose in the pot. The leaves were surprisingly short. We boiled water in my new kettle too.

The liquid was a dark amber color with a hint of red to it. It was very pretty. The smell was nice and a little earthy. The taste was light, but it had a bitter kick at the end of it. I think we might have brewed it a little too long though, so the bitterness could be user error.

We are going to try this again soon and either use slightly less leaf or steep it for a little shorter to see if we can get the bitterness down. I’m not going to rate it until I get a couple of cups of this tea, so I can tell if I am going to really like it or not. I do like it enough to drink another few cups of this.

Tea of the afternoon….

Happy Birthday, Mr. Harney! I am drinking this one…your first flavored tea…in honor of your big day. (It is also one of my favorite flavored teas!) Cheers!

My summer addiction. Some have their weekends on the Cape; others have their parade of trashy novels. I have Tazo Chai Tea Latte. I take mine with an extra pump of chai, 2% milk, and just a bit of ice. My venti Chai makes me very, very happy, and I have been drinking one at least four times a week all summer. Thankfully, I received a Starbucks gift card for my birthday, so my addiction hasn’t broken the bank.

I have been logging only NEW teas that I drink. I recently read a couple notes from people who simply log EVERY tea they drink. I wonder whether that’s the way to go, since I haven’t been drinking new-to-me teas all summer….

Last night while brewing my cup of hot tea, I decided to keep on brewing and make a pitcher for the fridge. It’s so refreshing as an iced tea. The flavors are a little lighter, but it tastes so good. I can feel it cool me down as I sip it. Thirst-quenching and yummy!

Having this matcha tea is like finding wine in a sea of beer. I have had it plain, and as a latte and so far it’s become my favourite matcha. It comes across the palette very smoothly, not powdery, and with a hint of sweetness. Kind of like Ovaltine but with a lighter flavour. I can see either Vanilla or Cinnamon bringing the honey sweetness out as a dessert, or you can use it in a base mix for chai. Next, I think I will try making it into ice cream!

Finding it locally has been a pain however. With so many tea shops in Toronto you’d think that at least ONE would carry it! I ordered it online instead. It came in a silver packet, inside its aluminum tin, wrapped in a bubble wrap envelope. It was a bit of a pain getting every dot of rooibus out of the packaging and into its tin but worth it. :) The delivery time took about 3-4 Days from Florida to Toronto.

I’d say this as an expensive and rare drink it truly hits the spot for any occasion. Served hot, cold, or as a base for recipes. Very versatile, healthy and delicious!