New Tasting Notes

I’m slowly running out of the tea that I really like so I figured I should try to go drink some of the many Teavana teas I have. There’s really something to be said about following the steeping parameters correctly, or even a little less.

Usually with this tea I have issues with it becoming too sour or bitter from the fruits. However, today I steeped it at a little below 170 degrees and exactly 2 minutes and the flavor is much better. The color came out a lo more pink/red than it usually does, but maybe thats because i put a little too many leaves for the amount of water I used for the first steep…. oops!

good choice of tea for the night. I wasn’t necessarily craving something sweet, but the fruityness of it is quite satisfying.

I have to start by mentioning this is my very first taste of Jasmine Tea, and to make it even more exciting it was a free sample delivered right as I happened to be outside cutting long tendrils of blooming Jasmine to scent the house :D

I thought it best to put it aside for a bit as my head was already intoxicated with the fragrance, so I finished up what I was doing then did some more tasks in another room for an hour or so .. Finally I went online and figure out how long & at what temp I was going to brew it as there was no recommendation written on the sachet wrapping ?!

Steep #1 (80°C – 3min 30sec)
Steep #2 (80°C – 5min)

My first impressions when unwrapping the sachet were ‘WOW it’s really Jasmine!’ , I seriously didn’t expect it to smell so strong – but no complaints as it’s my favourite floral aroma .. I chopped the silken bag open to set them free during infusion, oh and I weighed them too (3g / 21 pearls) .. Poured on the water and what a wonderful sight, and smell! I absolutely loved watching them ‘come alive’ :P

Now I’m currently sipping the dregs of my second cup so these are the notes I wrote earlier: very floral scent & taste .. I don’t usually enjoy greens but am emptying the cup pretty darn quick, and looking forward to a second steep .. Taste reminds me of Summer and swimming pools – in fact it reminds me of getting a mouthful (small splash) of pool water – but NOT in the gross way as this no-doubt sounds! Really clean, sun warmed pool water – lets call it sprinkler water perhaps ..

It’s Summer in the Garden in a Cup!

Second steep: To be honest I can’t tell much difference in taste, colour, or aroma .. it’s really nice! Only thing I have to add to the above is that I don’t enjoy it so much as it cools off, so no chilling of this for me .. When it’s cool I’m finding it a bit pucker-some on the tongue and roof of my mouth, and a bit ‘too’ floral ..

I’m going to wait for a bit and try steep #3

More leaf has definitely improved this one. It tastes like a spicy, fruity roasted oolong now – Darjeeling flavor, but smoother. 2nd steep is visibly lighter already, but I’ll see how long it lasts anyway.

1.8g leaf (about 2 tsps), 3.5oz water

This is a very well done herbal. The citrus leans towards being more lemon that orange to be but that is a minor criticism. The star of this is the rich semi-sweet chocolate undertone that lingers in your mouth after you swallow. YUM!

Backlogging. Last Monday morning. (Why yes, I do jot down a list of teas I drink so I can tealog them in Steepster in order when I have the chance.)

First mug of tea after the exciting tea sale so even though I had a snuffy nose, I had to try a new tea. I couldn’t smell too much but the dry tea smelled sweet, maybe the honey, and of black tea. It looked black and short. I couldn’t smelled the steeped tea much. It looked medium mostly brown with a bit of reddish. It tasted like a good solid mug of sweet fruity black tea, better than most tea bags. The second steep was weaker but more fruity. (There is a better tealog for this tea when I didn’t have a stuffed nose in the piperline.)

I rated this tea a 65, which is right in the middle of my nice range (60-70).

I got mine today! It took exactly 5 weeks vs. the estimated 4. Although I feel a lil jipped cuz a lady on their FB page said she got hers in only 4 days- oh well, I’m not gonna be petty- it was just an observation. I’m just happy that I got one of my top flavor choices.

Now for some preliminary observations (and, unfortunately, drawbacks). The packaging is a bit misleading- on the front, in a highly visible green circle it says it has “1 combined serving of fruit and vegetables” making it appear to have less nutritional value (save the green tea extract) than regular V-Fusion light. But there’s a small white cross that leads you to the back under the white nutrition facts box that says Each 8 fl. oz. provides 1/4 cup each fruits and veggies, bringing the complete bottle to 1.5 (combined) servings of fruits and veggies… I also don’t like that the white box names a serving as 1 bottle (12oz) instead the normal 8oz serving of juice. I also don’t like that this is only 50% juice. I know there is tea in here, but it’s extract. It’s not like they use steeped and decanted loose tea. I also don’t like that they don’t tell us how much tea is in here.

Ok, sorry about that- but I had to state the facts. Now on to the taste. Now I’ve had several of the regular V8 V-Fusions, including the raspberry. It’s almost as good as the blackberry which is my favorite. Unlike other flavors, there’s virtually no taste from the veggies… so let’s see how this one compares…

SCORE! Strong, smooth, slightly sweet raspberry flavor… no veggies! No tea either. Idea is wonderful, execution is horrible. If this sounds good to you, do your tongue (and the rest of your body) a favor- pick up a regular bottle of Raspberry V-Fusion (or any other flavor) so you get 2 servings of fruits and veggies per 8oz, add 1tsp of matcha, and shake!=D

This is my normal office tea. I tend to forget that I put a tea bag in and steep it way too long, but it’s still quite drinkable. I like the bitterness and astringency that it has (even when steeped a more reasonable amount of time). This is a serious no joke black tea.

This is my first foray into “fancy tea” and I’m pretty happy with it. We brewed this as the first tea in our new cast-iron pot, so I had several cups over a few hour time period.

I thought it had a really light, almost sweet flavor. No bitterness at all. My uneducated tastebuds liked it a lot!

First impression…WOW! It is full of flavor and sweet at the end of the sip. I felt like it was woody and earthy but not at all in a grassy way. It is way more bolder than that. This is another spectrum of earthy tastes we don’t normally get in teas and I am certainly going to have to pick some of this up. I am truly happy I got to try this.

Tried out making iced tea with this, since I have been pretty bad about drinking greens lately. The result isn’t too bad, but there’s nothing of green tea about it really, it’s mostly just cold spicy (mostly gingery) water. Still, it’s one way to get rid of large amounts of this at a time!

Ugh, only I could be careless enough to catch cold in August of all things. Couldn’t I have waited a few days for it to at least be September? That is slightly less embarrassing.

Anyway, yeah, so my throat hurts which is a bummer AND my belly is unhappy, so out comes the throat coat! This tea is really amazingly effective and, although I could do without the anise, it doesn’t taste too bad either.

I used two sachets to 32oz water and this was great. It has a bit of a medicinal undertone a little licorice flavor. With a little splenda this made a great sweet berry flavor. I will be getting this again.

Kristin said, “You rooibos haters stay with me. I didn’t taste any rooibos in this tea.” And that was the reason I chose to try it. She was talking to me. I’m the total rooibos hater.

Wow! I’m so glad I put aside my pre-judgement and tried this. It is chocolate and absolutely delicious! Full chocolate taste with no unpleasantness. No bitterness. Little astringency. Not even that awful dusty taste that rooibos often has. Even the aftertaste is yummy. The smell is pure hot cocoa. I will be ordering more of this. Thanks to Kristen’s great review I’ve found a new favorite for the no-caffeine part of my day. Mmmmm!

I received this tea from a blog contest run by our very own LiberTEAS and TeaEqualsBliss. This is one tea that I was a bit apprehensive about since I’ve not always enjoyed floral teas in the past. However, I should not have been afraid of this one! This tea is absolutely great! Very feminine and nicely balanced. This is what every jasmine or rose tea aspires to be. The tea does not taste like perfume or soap, just nicely light and floral. I think the lemon myrtle really sets it over the top though! Great job, LiberTEAS!

Oh, and according to the nice personalized letter from LiberTEAS that I received with my package, the second infusion is better than the first….stay tuned!

Matcha OJ w/ 2 vanilla Fiber One yogurts to hold me til dinner.

Thanks to Meghann M I had a fantastic mail day! Samples of different 52teas!! This definitely makes a Monday brighter. After sniffing each bag, I finally decided on trying this one.

Oh, sweet baby jeebus, is this good. Pineapple, coconut, rum, sweet, tasty. Just like a pina colada should be. I had it hot tonight (brewed for 10 minutes), but will definitely be trying it iced!

I’ve only one complaint about this tea: it’s non-alcoholic, and I’ve no rum to put in it.

Enjoying a cup of this before switching to iced tea… didn’t do a latte though. I was just in the mood for something a little spicy and this one fits the bill. The cinnamon is the strongest flavor, I do wish that the almond flavor was a bit more pronounced though.

This tea is just swell. Not overly strong, gentle floral notes, and a beautiful liquor. I find the subtle flavors relaxing.

I’d say, after Rishi’s mint, this is my second favorite iced tea out of this collection. The blueberry/rooibos combination just feels good in my mouth.

Foxtrot is my first pick when I need something warm and pleasant, yet not overly powerful or challenging (or bitter, it seems impossible to oversteep this). A great pre-lunch or mid-afternoon tea when – unencumbered by accompanying food – you can enjoy it to the fullest.

The flavor blend is fairly incredible, as it tastes like none of the individual ingredients, but instead gives off a warm, friendly – and importantly, not overpowering – mellow sweetness. The mint lingers but a moment, and then leaves to let you enjoy the next smooth mouthful.

Thanks to TeaEqualsBliss for sending me this one (yes, I got the huge box! Thanks SororiTEA Sister)

This one… scares me. It’s smoky. I gave it a quick rinse before steeping (which I have found helps me enjoy smoky teas more). The aroma of the liquor still smells smoky but not too smoky.

This is not too bad… and I say it like that, because I was expecting it to be much worse than it actually is, but I can drink this. I’m not gagging, I’m not repulsed after taking a sip… it’s actually good. There… I said it. It’s good.

The smoky flavor is there, it’s strong, but it is not overwhelming. The smoky taste has a nice caramel-y back note that I find intriguing.

This tea is essentially as I imagined it, which is a good thing in this case I think. In most ways it’s just a standard black tea that holds up very well iced (which is not always the case with black teas), and that is all it needs to be. It does not posses a very strong flavor, but its still robust and while its bitter in the way most black teas are its not overly bitter (which is not often the case when you try to make an iced tea out of a blend intended to be made hot).

My husband hates the smell of this- and I mean HATES. He doesn’t think it smells a bit like chocolate, and it gives him a headache. For me, it’s .. okay. It’s not my favorite chocolate blend and those chips still mysteriously don’t melt. I have a sore throat today and am guzzling more tea than usual, so rooibos is a good choice to avoid a bunch of caffeine. Am cutting this with some caramel tea.

I thought I’d be clever and try to make “chocolate covered bacon” tea by brewing about 1 1/3 Tbsp f this with 2/3 tbsp Maple bacon. All I got was a muddled mess of flavors, which did not improve with chilling.

I’ll leave the tea blending to the experts (Frank)!