New Tasting Notes
UGH! It’s so hot that heating the milk for this was miserable. But it was SO worth it. 1 heaping TB steeped in 1 cup fat free Smart Balance milk, then chilled. Blended w/ 1 cup ice. It’s too hot to even eat a cold meal in the house and this gives me a cooler internal temp and some nutrition.
Preparation
For some reason I’m in the mood for chai today so I think I will indulge in a trio of chais, which are all bagged. This will be tea 1 of 3 in my lovely trio which will hopefully help me decide which one I like better and which I can live without.
For all intents and purposes, I will be brewing each tea the same way: 5 minutes, adding milk and sweetener. I’m not going to worry about the stovetop method because that is a lot of effort for a bagged tea.
The taste is primarily of vanilla with a hint of spice. It is very smooth, but it is hard to isolate the black tea base through the flavors. This is a good go-to bagged tea that is warm and comforting. However, it doesn’t smack you in the face to announce “I’m a chai!” This is much smoother than traditional chai with balanced, almost muted spices.
Preparation
Oooh a flight of chais! Love that idea. I’m enjoying a blended iced chai now. SO worth the misery of heating milk in this hot house=D
That totally stinks your AC is out. The summer after my husband and I got married our AC went out and our landlord took his sweet time (almost a month, I believe) fixing it and we live in Texas. I feel your pain!
It reached 90 both yesterday and today w/ humidity at 70-85% (worse yesterday than today). While not unheard of, not typical of end of May in WI. I suggest including Mayan Chocolate Chai in your flight if you have it cuz… well… it’s my favorite hehe:)
I don’t have it, but I’m definitely considering a purchase sometime. It sounds pretty awesome!
It is- I’ve actually purposely avoided some awesome looking chais cuz I know I’d be completely biased and give it a pretty crappy rating at least in comparison to Mayan Chocolate.
I found this VERY smokey to the edge of burnt it was weird but I gave it a little higher rating then I would because as I was sipping it did start to grow on me a bit. Still I won’t buy it.
Preparation
I purchased this as a sample at the same time that I submitted my personaliTEA profile for my own customized blend by Mad Pots of Tea. This is a blend that was created for Steph, who is the Tea Guru of The Tea Review Blog.
I really like the combination of Earl Grey and licorice root. Very unique and unexpected kind of taste. The lavender is also prominent in the blend (a big plus in my opinion). One down side for me is the addition of stevia to this blend. I am not a big fan of stevia, and I personally think that this blend would be so much better without it.
But, then, this blend wasn’t created for me. I do like it, but I so prefer my custom blend from Mad Pots of Tea!!!
Preparation
It’s still hot (although not quite as bad as yesterday) and my AC is still broke. So I decided to have this cold in honor of todays Steepster Select!
6.5g leaf
6oz hot water
12oz cold water
Mmmm… light, sweet… a thicker mouth feel due to the honey and a perfect balance of flavors. The vanilla is stronger than I expected and is balanced perfectly by the complex, rich, and savory sweetness of the honey as well as the white tea base. It doesn’t have a refreshing thirst quenching crispness to it, but it is very good. It’s a perfect tea for every white tea lover- sweet enough that it doesn’t need extra sweetener, and not overly sweet for a person, like myself, who practically never sweetens her tea. And I’m not even a honey lover! Or a honey liker really… The only thing that made me momentarily debate not giving this a 100 is that I find it too strong using their steeping parameters, but I decided against it. This makes me want to run and by ROT’s vanilla bean honey for my chai! If you decide you do need more sweetness, I’d suggest using that even though I have yet to try it. Sounds like it’d make sense and be delicious:)
Preparation
Cofftea- this is the best tea I’ve had this week using the cold brewed method and my Bodum iced tea pitcher…..
I doubt I’ll ever cold brew anything (unless cold brewing chai works), but yeah it definitely hit the spot. As good as it was I think (an albeit small) part was just the mental effect of knowing white tea lowers body temp lol.
Steep Information: Flavia machine
Tasting Notes:
Steeped Tea Smell: sweet, woody (red rooibos)
Flavor: woody (plain red rooibos)
Body: Medium
Aftertaste: astringent? a little dry wood
Liquor: dark, translucent orange-brown
It’s a plain red rooibos, surprise? it’s not a WOW tea, but it’s a good free tea from the Flavia machine when I need some caffeine free tea. It seems to be discontinued as I don’t see it on my.flavia.com
Images: http://amazonv.blogspot.com/2010/05/flavia-fresh-pack-rooibos-tea-african.html
Well, as it turns out, my friend (TeaEqualsBliss) didn’t need a sampling of this because she got one from Dens! So, I will finish off the last of it (which I am doing now).
Yippee! I really do love this Matcha. I also really love my new Chawan.
Smooth, rich, delicious. Sweet. A joy to the palate.
I started my day with this tea – and I only have enough for one more pot of it! It is one that will definitely be missed, I loved the buttery flavor of this tea, as well as how the other flavors came together… sweet cinnamon (not spicy), slightly toasty black tea, raisin, and butter, I can taste them all. YUM!
But, I suppose all good things must come to an end (something I am learning this week as I watched the final episodes of both Lost and 24 – two of my favorite shows) :(
Preparation
As Auggy wrote in a review of this tea, it is very similar to Cream Soda. The vanilla aroma is lovely but I think that the vanilla overpowers the jasmine in the tea. I like this quite well, but I’ve had better Jasmine teas and I’ve had better Vanilla teas. I think that the combination does not dance symbiotically. Vanilla takes too much of a lead.
Drinking Vanilla Jasmine was more than a little pleasant but not enough of a knock-out for me to invest in a full size. But I can understand why some palates will award this with a top score of 100.
Preparation
This is the tea I keep around to dye textiles, BUT I used 4 of these teabags along with 2 tablespoons of my Earl Grey Melange to make some cold brewed iced tea. It was very good!! The addition of the finer tea plus the cold brew method feature this tea to its best advantage (to be honest, I’ve never had it hot, so for all I know it makes a great cup of hot tea! Feel free to ignore me!!). I will certainly use this again to add a little filler to my iced tea!
Preparation
Even tho I have had Rooibos in some of my others today this will be my official Rooibos of the day! Woot!
Okay…so…it’s intensely raspberry scented! I can still tell it’s a Rooibos by the smell. It’s paired with honeybush and flavoring and I can taste the flavoring as well. I’m having this warm, not hot, and I know it will be better iced…next time I will go with ICED.
This is still yummers…
I’m very surprised this one has a lower rating. I think it’s a charming little tea!
The scent is so pretty and delicate yet refreshing and FRESH. It infuses darker than I anticipated for it being a white.
I can certainly smell and taste both the vanilla AND the grapefruit. This is YUMMY…and I even overinfused! I’m confident this will be nice iced as well! This is a good flavored white but you must enjoy grapefruit and vanilla to appreciate, I guess. Regardless…I’m going against the grain here or maybe it’s going out on my own in saying I like this just fine…maybe a little more than fine…thumbs up from me!!!!
I was going to put in a Harney & Sons order sometime this week, but just can’t make up my mind on what to try! This one may have to go on my “list”, but one question real fast… is the grapefruit tart in this tea?
I don’t think it’s tart, really…I think it’s more of the dry bittersweet type taste but not tart…the vanilla knocks it down to size pretty good too…plus it gives it a creaminess as well…hope that helps.
Getting close to the end of my TeaFrog samples. I think I have three more. This is one of them.
The dry mix is very pretty, the lemongrass is very green against the backdrop of the Ceylon and there are little flecks of blue where the cornflowers show through. There’s a light neutral color as well that looks like the lemon peel. I’m not really seeing jasmine, though it could be that some of the flecks that look like lemon peel are actually jasmine petals. It doesn’t have a strong scent of bergamot (or otherwise) in the packet.
The tea has a lemony aroma with a bergamot undercurrent. It has a lemony taste as well. A bright taste. The bergamot is pretty subdued, secondary to the lemon. I am not getting much in the way of jasmine.
It’s hard to say whether it’s tastes like an Earl Grey so much as a lemon black tea with bergamot? It does seem to me the lemon is the stronger taste of the two. It’s actually very nice; it’s different. I don’t think I’d buy it to fill an Earl Grey need. If I order some, it will simply be because I like it.
Preparation
Ooooo — I’ve got this one coming as one of my samples from the Select. Now my curiosity has ratcheted up a few notches :)
Okay, so just had my first cup and then I reread your note after posting mine. I wonder if our slightly different experiences is due to water temp. I’ve discovered that 205 is perfect for many flavored black teas — especially EGs. My favorite Rosy Early Grey has a harsh citrus-almost-lime bite to it when I tried it at boiling the first time. But once I lowered it to 205 it was super-yummy.
Hmmm. Interesting. I really only had enough sample for one shot in the Breville so I won’t be finding out whether that’s the issue unless I decide to order more. But I like the theory!
D’oh! And mmmm…Breville…::drools:: ;)
Apparently I had this about a month ago. I didn’t rate it since I wasn’t really sure about it, mate being well outside my normal range of teas. But instead of thinking it over, having some more and rating it, I managed to forget all about this tea. So okay, forgetting I’ve had the tea certainly doesn’t speak favorably for it, but at least it wasn’t so horrible that it scarred me – because that’s the wrong type of memorable. Anyway, I’m prepared to give this one another go and actually rate it this time.
Huh. I think mate and I just aren’t going to develop a close relationship. It’s a little too woodsy and autumnal for me, but not in a crisp-autumn-day-spent-hiking-through-the-woods type of way that I could get behind. Instead, it’s more of an I-live-on-a-commune-with-goats-and-never-shave kind of way. Which isn’t to say that commune living with goats is a bad thing. It’s just that I like my razor and my husband says I can’t have goats (or alpacas) because I’d let them in the house. (He’s right.) So even though this is (very) sweet from the licorice and has a simultaneously clean and cuddly taste, I think it is a little too natural tasting for my personal tastes.
ETA: Dropping the rating a lot (a lot). Licorice apparently gives me bad heartburn. This tea killed me for hours after the cup was done.
Preparation
I kind of like it, but I certainly wouldn’t want it every day. It’s DEFINITELY a ‘living on a commune with goats’ kind of thing. I might add ‘in a yurt’ too.
PS: Speaking from personal experience: goats are evil.
They are like cats with horns and a constant desire to head-butt everything that moves and eat everything that doesn’t.
(They are cute though.)
Hehe! My grandma used to have goats. I enjoyed their chins quite a bit. But then I like my headbutting cats, too. (Though they have no horns.)
Oh, tea-related, it’s not a bad tea at all. I think it kind of boils down to a style thing. And I do think a yurt is a good addition to the description!
@sophistre: lol!! Have you seen the movie “Babies”? There’s this cute scene with one of the babies, Bayar, bathing and a goat wanders over to drink the bathwater! http://www.filminfocus.com/video/babies_bathing
The licorice in this tea does not soften the grass flavor at all..
Something like this doesn’t make me think of grass at all though. Sencha is grass-like to me. This was more… moss.
Yes moss is a better description….I am likely going to put my smalll tin on the Take it Away thread. But shoot, who will be brave enough to try this one?
Mate in general is kind of scary to me.
A faint smoky smell greets me on opening the packet; the dark olive green pearls also have a slightly acrid scent. It’s been a long time since I’ve had a gunpowder, so I’m not too sure what to expect. I’ll do two and a half minutes at 180, as I’m thinking this will be strong enough for my taste.
Whew! Sure is. There’s smoke there, but it’s also really astringent already. The liquor is a somewhat cloudy green-tinged brown. The scent of the liquid is lightly smokey, with green tea pushed to the background. Bitterness too – something I’m not usually turned off about, if it’s in moderation. However this bitterness feels somehow much more penetrating than usual, and lingers at the back of the throat. Maybe I just steeped it too long, though it was right in the middle of their 2-3 minute guideline. Ooof! Don’t think I’ll be able to finish this cup, though I think I’d try it again steeped for maybe half the time to see if it made a difference.
