New Tasting Notes

Steep Information:
Amount: 1 and 1/2 tablespoon powder
Water: 1/3 cup boiling water
Additives: 1 tablespoon sweetened condensed milk
Served: Cold, hot dumped over ice cubes

Tasting Notes:
Steeped Tea Smell: coconut, sugar
Flavor: really sweet, then black tea
Body: Full
Aftertaste: sugar
Liquor: dark orange

I enjoy having thai iced tea and coffee while out so I couldn’t resist this when I saw it in the store.

Images: http://amazonv.blogspot.com/2010/06/david-rio-instant-powder-black-tea.html

On this hot summer, nothing like a refreshing berry blast. cold with ice is a very good option. A soft sweet taste.

I’m part irish, part super and eating breakfast, so this seemed to be the perfect fit! This is my second Stash tea, and I really like it! Great for a rainy day.

Steep Information:
Amount: 2 tsp, one entire sample bag
Water: 500ml filtered boiling water 180°F
Tool: Breville One-Touch Tea Maker BTM800XL
Steep Time: a little over 4 minutes
Served: Hot

Tasting Notes:
Dry Leaf Smell: forgot to sniff
Steeped Tea Smell: vegetal
Flavor: delicate, light, vegetal, smooth, a little nutty
Body: Medium
Aftertaste: sweet, nutty
Liquor: opaque yellow-green

I placed a large order of mostly samples so I could experiment with more flavors from thepuriTea, it’s sort of like pokemon, I want to try them all (mostly).

It was a light and refreshing oolong, I think next time a bit longer steep is in order.

Post-Steep Additives: honey, which even though it was a mild honey over powered the tea, I think that I either needed less or an even milder honey or sweetener.

Images: http://amazonv.blogspot.com/2010/06/thepuritea-loose-leaf-oolong-tea-dong.html

Yesterday, I made a key lime style pie (I say style because I used regular limes, and made the crust out of pretzels that I put in the food processor instead of graham crackers – it was great!!). I was at a loss as to what tea to serve with it, until I thought of this Vanilla Assam! It was an excellent pairing. The earthy vanilla bean and pod taste was an interesting and delicious counterpoint to the citrusy sweet dessert. A+!

My dad is big into bike racing and when I was little he always ate a ton of powerbars and I always used to go to hang out with him at his friends bike shop and my snack would be powerbars. So whenever I drink this tea all I can think is powerbars. It doesn’t taste like one per-say but the scent is a dead ringer. So every time I smell the dry leaves I don’t think mmm tea, I think weird powerbar. Aside from that the tea isn’t bad. I have to use a lot of tea and steep for awhile to get it to the desired strength though, but I enjoy it with a splash of milk. And I guess the childhood memories aren’t a bad thing either – haha.

I adore this tea. It’s that simple. Ito En Tea’s Tea Green White is among the best quality RTD tea I have ever had. I’m going to get some now!

I absolutely LOVE it!!!!!! There is NObetter tea than the earliest crop. I am ordering more.

This is an incredibly tasty oolong, possibly the best oolong I’ve ever had. It’s lovely and subtle, reminds me a bit of a first flush darjeeling in its subtle sweet taste, but then it has the lovely characteristic smoky oolong flavour to it as well. It’s pretty expensive so I’ve only got a taster, but it is absolutely incredible and I will be rebrewing this pot for the rest of the day. What a wonderful day I have ahead!

This is the smoothest assam I have ever had. The tea is brisk, robust, and chewy without any bitterness. I am even having a hard time finding astringency, there is some but not much. Most of my assam drinking has been from single estate teas. It seems that 52teas has taken the best assams and blended them. This tea is really very good. If you have a hard time with assams hitting you in the face with their strength, I would give this tea a try. I have a hard time calling an assam tea smooth and mellow, but this one is close.

Its weird, sometimes with this tea the caramel and the ceylon don’t seem to fit, on other days its a very nice mixture and overall taste. Maybe it simply needs longer steeping?

This is the last dark type oolong I own, I think. The Bai Hao is sorta dark but not really. I feel that’s more an inbetween thing as it doesn’t look completely jade-y but it has a lot of taste qualities like a green one. I also have another one from Teaspring, and would you believe, at the moment the name of it completely escapes me… But it’s a properly dark one and I took it with me to work. I expect that my boss will have used it all when I come back. (Note, I don’t mind this. If I take tea with me to work, it’s not so that I can have it to myself. If that was the case I’d let it stay at home. She has free reign over my work tin at any time. (Note to self, figure out what to have at work when I come back in a week)) But anyway that one had cocoa-y notes and when it cooled down it was a bit like getting a mouthful of watered down chocolate milk.

Anyway, no matter what it’s called, I can look that up afterwards. It’s what I will invariably be comparing this one with.

The leaves looked very much the same. Long and straight and nicely brown. They didn’t have the same cocoa-y notes to the aroma though. After steeping for an indeterminded amount of time and pouring I’ve got a very strong cocoa aroma that makes me wonder if maybe this and the work tin are perhaps the same oolong type. This one seems more cocoa-y though. There’s also something sort of vaguely fruity. No clue what kind of fruit it is, it’s just a sweet undertone.

Okay. Ahem. A bit oversteeped here. Ah. Uhm. Ack. Eh. That gives it a slightly bitter and somewhat sour flavour that makes it rather difficult to discern what else might be there. A little sugar took care of that. Of course it taints the flavour but it’s as good as it gets and let’s face it, it’s oversteeped, it’s already tainted.

For a proper post about what the tea is like when brewed properly, we’ll have to turn to the second steep. And I hope I don’t butcher that one as well.

Still rather cocoa-y aroma, but the fruit-y-ness is much more pronounced. It seems a little watered on this steep which is kind of ironic considering how the first steep turned out. I think maybe the leaves are a little… overworked.

I’m trying to imagine a middle road here, and failing. What I actually do get in my head is that this is okay, but the one from Teaspring is better.

One of my fav Taiwanese teas. Sweet Buttery and floral

I know I am completely insane for having this so late at night, but it is so good! I really do need to pick up some great caffeine free teas though so I’m not tempted to do something like this again.

Finishing up the last of this and decupboarding. My initial assessment still holds. Enjoyable, if you’re in the market for an orange fruit blend, which I’m really not. At least not at the moment.

The boyfriend, who is big on fruit tisanes liked it quite a bit, though he remarked that he’d like it better if it was peach rather than orange. I feel sort of the same way, only my flavor request would be lemon.

We went through several pitchers of this iced this evening at a family gathering. Seemed like the pitchers were empty just as soon as we could make another. With so many people and so much commotion, it is a good thing that it was very forgiving with steep time. We all got busy and forgot it was steeping at one point. Later the gang just couldn’t wait and we rushed one pot. It was a great tea for the crowd!

Yeah, I know I just wrote about something called “Green White.” It’s purely coincidence. I’m really not going for a color duo theme here.

It is as pretty as it’s picture, but of course, it has cornflowers. Big fan of cornflowers here. It smells mostly of chamomile in the sample packet, with a lavender background. The chamomile has a sweetness to its fragrance. I don’t always find that sweetness in chamomile, but I’m always glad when I do. It usually signals that the chamomile will have a fresher taste, rather than tending toward a bitter or pungent, or that sort of stale, dried paper/hay-flavored-with-chamomile thing.

It makes a light yellow, clear liquor. I was wondering whether the lavender would affect the color. Apparently chamomile trumps lavender. There’s no purple water here, or even grey water. Or what you might think would be the obvious result of a purple/yellow combo, something tending toward greenish. The aroma is a really nice mix, about 50-50 chamomile/lavender.

That pretty much describes the taste as well, and the effect is really interesting. At first I get primarily chamomile. Then that tapers off and I get lavender at the finish. The lavender’s volatile oils seem to contribute a freshness that keeps the chamomile from tasting weedy. Now, the note from H&S says that cornflowers are sweet and spicy. I have never noticed a flavor from them, I have mostly figured they are there to look pretty in the teas and tisanes I’ve tasted. And I’m not sure I can identify a flavor contributed by them now. Pretty much what I taste is chamomile and lavender, with the chamomile toning the lavender down and making it something more appealing than I experienced with the French Super-Blue, and the lavender, as mentioned, freshening and boosting the flavor of the chamomile out of tasting, as it sometimes can, like what I’d imagine a mouthful of decorative dried flowers to taste like.

If I buy a chamomile herbal, this would be a strong contender. I like chamomile, but it’s a very sometime thing with me. I really have to be in the mood for it, and that mood strikes only infrequently. I don’t expect to rush this into my next order, but it’s worth a bookmark should I have a chamomile urge.

Ladies and Gentlemen, your attention please. An uncupboarding is about to occur. A rare event occurring only every few days on Steepster, it is much anticipated by persons lacking space and drastically wanting more teas. A partial portion can sometimes remain and a small amount, weak tea, or blend can happen simultaneously with the uncupboading. Today’s upcupboarding coincided with a blending.

Approximately, 1/2 tsp of Peach Bloom was steeped with 1 tsp of Caribbean Sencha based on the notion of compatibility of their scents. This blend was steeped according to the Caribbean Sencha parameters. The first steep was primarily Peach Bloom. The second steep the Caribbean Sencha was predominate with hints of the Peach Bloom. Both were good. The second steep may have been enjoyed more than the first. No third steep occurred.

2nd steep: 3 min 30 sec.