New Tasting Notes

Made a pitcher of iced Yunnan. Interesting, but not as good as hot Yunnan. It has a sort of tangy/sweet taste, but there’s also a sort of dry bitterness.

I bought this one for it’s medicinal properties. My wife has frequent sinus problems. We bought a pound of Peppermint. When she opened it up and took a deep sniff she said, “Wow! I want to buy another pound of this just to use as an inhaler.” It cleared her up instantly. Works pretty well as tea, too, straight or blended with other teas.

The dry leaf has a strong vegetative scent with a subtle hint of flower. The brewed liquor is much softer.

Very light in flavor – fruit-like, sweet, and very yummy. Even though it smells strongly of vegetable, there is very little suggestion of it in the flavor… it’s there… but it hits just at the start of the sip and is quickly washed away by the sweet fruity notes. Astringency is faint but the palate feels very fresh and clean in the finish.

I like this one a lot.

Still yummy as always but I did bring it down a few points only because since the last I tried this my ranking changed a bit with experience. Still a very yummy tea!

Thank you to TeaEqualsBliss for sending me an envelope of this tea.

This is a very interesting spice blend – The chili offers some spice but the chocolate and anise counteract it just enough to make it not spicy – it is actually SWEET. A nice, licorice-y flavor to it, but I think that the licorice flavor sort of overwhelms the cup just a little bit, making this a licorice tasting tea, not a chocolate-y spice flavored tea that I anticipated it to be… not that it’s bad, just not quite what I expected it to be, and I am a little disappointed there.

But I am really glad I got to try it.

Made a pitcher of iced Super-Blue. It’s pleasant, but I think it’s better hot. (Although, the shiny little beetle I found in the buds while I was steeping may have soured my perception.)

I noticed flavors of, sequentially: honey, preserved plum, tobacco, and slight smokiness. It’s sweet even for a Chinese black. I’m betting it would blend beautifully with a Yunnan. Great value, too—it will probably become a staple of my teachest.

It’s sweet – I almost wanted to ask the wife if she put sugar in it. It’s not overly sweet – but much more than I expected. It has a hint of Darjeeling like dryness/sharpness at the end – but is smoother. A bit earth. I could drink a lot of this.

I used the last that I had of this to make iced tea last night, and it is so refreshing! Light and bright in flavor.

YUM! Just right to enjoy with supper.

Thank you LiberTEAs for sending this one to me!

I forgot I had a teabag of this, a freebie thrown in to my Kusmi order. So sure, why not? Which means that this log is a review of the teabag more than the tea itself (because I already know I like the tea).

This teabag is funky. It’s a rectangle and made of a not-very-tight-mesh muslin-like material. It doesn’t really give the leaves room to expand; theoretically the leaves could expand into the top of the rectangle, but they don’t. Instead they clump down at the bottom of the rectangle and form a pretty hard-packed ball o’ leaf when steeping.

The smell is simply delicious but the taste is a bit harsher than the loose leaf version – not quite so smooth and silky. The caramel also isn’t hitting me as strongly as it did in the loose leaf version so it’s coming across more fruity than caramel-covered fruit. It’s still a tasty tea though and doesn’t require any additives to smooth it out.

Is the loose leaf better? Yes. But not by a ton.
Would I buy the teabag version? No. The loose mesh of the bag material lets little bits of tea scatter about my counter top which means that the bag really isn’t all that neat or convenient, the only real reason I’d go for bags. Also, the lack of expansion room available kind of makes me frown, though I suppose since that doesn’t really seem to impact the taste of the tea, I can’t hold it against it. (Of course, I am assuming that the increased harshness and slight flavor change is due to broken leaves in the teabag, not a lack of room.)

Based on this single bag experience, Kusmi seems to do (weird but ultimately) decent teabags. Don’t think I’d go out of my way to get something in bag form but I wouldn’t turn it down.

This is one that I’ve really looked forward to trying since I got my box from Zoomdweebies… and I couldn’t stand it any longer – I just had to try it (even though it is a little late for me to be drinking black teas, I usually stop by around 5 pm and start drinking green, whites and Oolongs instead).

The smell is YUM. It reminds me a bit of the watermelon bubble gum I used to buy when I was young for the sole purpose of annoying my step-mom (who hated the smell of it) – well, it was ALMOST the only reason I would buy it… I also quite enjoyed the gum. :)

The flavor is surprisingly good – I say surprisingly (although I shouldn’t be surprised as Frank knows his stuff) because I just don’t picture watermelon and black tea working well together … I’d have imagined watermelon to be a bit on the delicate side and would be overwhelmed by the strength of the black tea base. But it didn’t happen here.

I can taste the watermelon! I can taste the black tea. I guess my only complaint would be that the watermelon tastes a bit more like watermelon candy (or gum) than it does the watermelon fruit – it is sweet – candy-ish rather than sweet – fruity-ish. But, that’s not really a valid complaint because I love watermelon candy/gum.

Yummy. I think I will use what I have left of this and make iced tea for tomorrow!

I think this may be the first time I’ve had honeybush, but I had high hopes for it – especially for a chocolate, caffeine-free tea!
This tea smells more like a liqueur to me than chocolate or cream, but I like the smell. The tea is extremely smooth and lightly sweet naturally. The chocolate does come through in the taste and overall this is just a very nice tea. I’m not sure if it would fall into the category of “Dessert Tea” for me, but it is definitely a great addition to my late night lineup.

Second infusion is almost better than the first. Less alcoholic smelling, more chocolate. Adding a bit of milk really helps the cream flavors to stand out a bit. Pretty impressive as I generally don’t have good luck re-steeping caffeine free teas.

Thanks to silvermage for this one! This is a really good rooibos chai- slightly almondy, slightly vanillery- and the rooibos flavor is fairly muted. I find that a strong brew of this one makes an excellent tea latte too.　I thought I was sick of chai and was going to take a hiatus from it for a while, but I suppose I just needed to find a new variation on chai. This one definitely fits the bill- and from a tea company I hadn’t heard of before too.

Yeah, I know this is a Steepsterite favorite, but I just don’t love it. Actually, I’m not sure how much I even really like it.

It is a pretty darn frou-frou cup of tea. I’m not against frou-frou or anything (hello, pink monkey) but it really seems like that is all this is. Predominately jasmine with a hint of rose, this isn’t very Earl Grey-y. In some ways it reminds me of Mariage Freres 1854 (another mild and jasmine-y EG) but in other ways… not so much. It doesn’t seem as full flavored as 1854; I think 1854 had a woodsier taste to it that gave it more depth, and depth is something I’m just not finding in this tea.

There is an astringency that has camped out on the tip of my tongue and refuses to leave. It is pretty much requiring that the next time I have this tea, there will be additives (which I have had it with before but was unable to give it my full attention). Though I am a little concerned about that though since this tea really doesn’t seem strong enough to hold up to creamer. I might end up with jasmine flavored hot milk.

As it cools, there are hints of Earl Grey, but it blends into the astringency at the end of the sip making this just taste a bit bitter. The EG does hint at a more solid tasting tea but it doesn’t save it from overall tasting like a weak third steep.

Eventually I suppose I’ll give this one another try to see if milk and possibly sugar saves this but I’m thinking that this one is just not a match for me.

Thick liquor, quite vegetal in flavor, but not bitter. A great tea if you don’t want to fuss with temperature control that much.

This tea is really, really good. Dark brown in color, highly malty, and slightly sweet – everything I think a Yunnan should be – good for 3 delightful infusions either plain or with a splash of milk.

The subsequent infusions are just as lovely as the first, if not even more so – I am finding the flavor smoother and possibly even more refreshingly delicious. I am getting a little more of the fruity notes coming through with the second infusion. I will be brewing these leaves again (and probably again!)

Forgot to log the other night…thanks for this LiberTEAS! I really liked this! Wonderful blueberry and a nice amount of jasmine without going overboard! Nice relaxing tea!

I really liked this much better over infused! Both in length and amount of loose leaf! Backlogging and finishing up my stash! Upping score, having said that.

I know I logged this one in the past! I wonder if Steepster is eating posts over a year old??? Anyhow…backlogging…and finishing up

I purchased this tea some time ago, but, as I’ve often said – I have so many teas in my possession that I haven’t yet tried! No time like the present to give this one a try.

The leaves are beautifully golden… and they brew a deep gold/brown liquor that is absolutely delightful to the tongue. Everything I love about a Yunnan is in this tea – Sweet with a hint of peppery spice, smooth… and absolutely delicious.

Oh so pleasant.

This Matcha is a bit sweeter than the Izu Matcha I tasted a couple of days ago. This one has a nice amount of froth, but not quite as frothy as the Izu.

Sweet, vegetative with a nice, full flavor. It coats the palate deliciously.

It also disappears from the chawan rather quickly.