New Tasting Notes

YUM! Oolong!

The flavor of this Oolong is intense. Floral, buttery, divine! There are only a few tastes that can elevate me to this sense of divine feeling – a superb Oolong such as this, a vanilla bean chocolate truffle from Moonstruck, or a perfect carrot. :)

Smooth, rich, beautiful. I love this tea.

This tea makes for a pretty nice iced tea. I needed a lot of sweetener to take away most of the tartness, though, so I can’t imagine that I’d be drinking this every day. However, today it was sweet, just a little tart, and very refreshing. It really just tastes like cranberry juice and tea mixed together, because you can still taste the black tea under all that fruit. I can also taste something slightly floral in the aftertaste.

I am not sure how to describe this tea. It has clear and prominent fragrance, but it’s hard to compare this fragrance with other food or drink. It brings a strong sweet aftertaste deep into the throat. Besides, I think the most exceptional character of Da Yu Long is that it has a somewhat buttery flavor, possibly due to the amino acid contents in the tea. Such buttery flavor usually is only found in high mountain oolong. Drinking this tea is like having a small heaven. In my eyes, a typical Da Yu Ling doesn’t have any flaws. Fragrance, flavor, liquor texture, even liquor color and leaf shape, it has got them all. In addition, it lasts for many infusions, and won’t get bitter in even very long infusions.

Although it’s not my most favorite tea, I do love this tea very much. Oddly, my favorite teas are not those without flaws. Sometimes I could taste a hint of smoky in a dark oolong but still love it. Sometimes I know a Dan Cong can’t survive long infusions, but will make it loveable by using super short infusions.

Da Yu Ling is usually expensive. And this tea, in my opinion, is expensive for people at my financial level. But last week, I just got this question regarding this tea from a store visitor, “Since you are selling it so cheap, how can I know it’s authentic?” In fact, I was more entertained than offended by this question. You’ve got to love the small dramas in tea business!

More pictures of this tea are here:
http://gingkobay.blogspot.com/2009/12/da-yu-ling-high-mountain-oolong.html

::bangs head against a stone pillar:: What is wrong with me?!?! I’m struggling to enjoy black teas, and I really would like a healthy relationship with them. This is probably an excellent Irish Blend (I do like it more than Stash’s bagged version), but for me it’s a black tea that reminds me how frustrated I am with my taste buds. And of all the flavors this tea claims to have I think the only one I picked up on was prunes.

I’ll be going to a green tea tasting class this Sunday to get a better handle on that type of tea – I must remember to ask them if they plan on having a black tea class in the near future. Until then I think it’s time for me to start experimenting with additives (like a sweetner) to see if that will bring me around to the dark side. M

There’s my Ti Kuan Yin…

I really want to like this one. But… so far it’s not doing it for me. I’m so sad about it. It’s ok, but I am not getting much flavor from it. It’s a nice black tea with something. I don’t taste butter, I don’t taste toast, I might taste something slightly raisiny, and maybe there is a touch of cinnamon. Is it possible that the re-blend is not as good??

Maybe my mistake is that I actually had buttered cinnamon raisin toast last week from freshly homemade cinnamon swirl raisin bread? The flavors are fresh in my head.

The dried leaves smell like pez (in case you don’t know what I am talking about – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pez). And I am getting the pez flavor in the finish when I am drinking it.

Update – it’s definitely better with some soy creamer, but the flavor profile didn’t really change much.

Update 2 – .. and down the drain. Bleah. Can’t finish it.

This tea was fantastic and even more than I had hoped it to be. Oolongs are some of my favorite teas, and this one was a bit of a surprise. The liquor is a very pale color, which could be a tip off for a light tea, but the flavors are exquisite. On my first sip, I just enjoyed the complexity of the flavors unfurl on my palette. Upon my next few sips, I started to taste some subtle floral qualities that were especially pleasing. Paired along with these floral notes is a sweet honey taste as well as some tropical fruits, I can’t define the tropical fruit, but it really works for this tea and all the flavors pair well together. I steeped this tea 4 times and even on the 4th steep,I was still impressed by the amount of flavor left in the leaves. Next time, I am going to try and steep it 5 or 6 times to see when the flavors dissipate.

Needless to say, this is one tea that I will definitely be picking up when Adagio debut’s their new Maestro Collection!

I like it.
It’s salty and makes me think of seaweed. Now, normaly, I don’t like seaweed.
But when drinking this … I’m thinking – why not. We got all this seaweed in the world.
Lets eat and drink it. Especially when it’s as tasty as THIS tea.
Ah, this tea … God, this tea made me HUNGRY.

Thumbs up.

Oolong tea from Taiwan. The tea leaves are dark green color. Beautiful looking tea leaves. This oolong is very similar to a green tea.

Nose and Color: Very light color
-Just a slight pale green hue
-Looks like plain water almost
-I was very surprised
-Slight floral hints similar to the jasmine pearl in the same collection

Tasting:

-Second steeping is highly recommended. Adagio says it will fully unfurl the leaves and the floral notes will really come out.
-After trying multiple steeping I agree that the floral notes really do come out a lot more but the green tea flavor is lost a little bit.
-Tastes like a very light version of formosa ali shan. This flavor profile makes sense as they are both from the mountains of Taiwan.

Full Review here: http://www.indieteas.com/home/2010/4/12/tea-review-16-adagios-formosa-pouchong.html

I have turned to my old faithful Brand of bagged teas. Nothing tastes right today, but this does and at least now I am not wasting my Golden Moon teas. My taste buds are off due to this cold, but even with a cold that last bagged tea I brewed was most distressing!

Bad bag? Tasted awful..:(

Genmaicha for a sleepy Friday afternoon. Not doing much to help the sleepies, but it’s a nice, sturdy, solid sort of tea.

This tea smells suprisingly like warm honeyed biscuits! The taste is a bit like milky, toasted oatmeal— yummy!

I’m really enjoying this tea, although I wasn’t so sure I would. I’m kind of prejudiced against Ceylons because, from the few I’ve tasted, I’ve found them too mild, timid and non-descript—fit only as bases for flavored blends.

But this “French Breakfast” is opening my mind. It is mild, yes. But it’s mildy elegant . The flavor is present but in a soft and comforting way.

The harsh glare of morning may be too much for this “temperate” tea. It would be better suited for a lazy, luxurious brunch. Or as an afternoon repast—with plenty of milk and sweet nothings.

This tea is surely becoming one of my favourites. Smells amazing and drinks smooth. I’m just here to boost the rating:)

BAD. Like…Dirty Dish Water with a hint of Hazelnut…cheap, fake hazelnut flavoring, that is…

My boyfriend can’t be online today and, while I miss him, it gives me time to get thru these reviews.

Maestro Collection: Set 1, Tea #3

My 2nd Wu Yi. The dark leaves are loosely twisted and look like tiny pieces of raffia. This oolong grows between rocks and it even looks like it does. Something about it just says “I’ve had a tough life and I’ve faught to be here”. The aroma is dark and slightly roasty. My last Wu Yi wasn’t roasty… which is good cuz I don’t like roasty teas.

Prepared as suggested.

The liquor is a lovely reddish orange color and the aroma still contains those roasty notes although there is a sweetness to it as well.

When I take a sip I am relieved that this is not by far the most roasty tea I’ve ever had. The roastyness is present, but there’s also quite a bit of sweetness in the background to cut thru it and make this more enjoyable for me. The description says it has notes of wet stone, but as I have no idea what wet stone tastes like, I can’t tell you if it’s there or not.

I will warn you up front: there is a reason some people compare gunpowder tea to licking the bottom of an ashtray. I can see how people come away with that impression, and I don’t think gunpowder green tea will be for everyone.

Having said that, this tea has a smokeyness that is unmatched. And its not an out-of-whack flavor that overwhelmes, but a balanced flavor that is both intereseting and challenging.

Probably not an every day tea for most, but its perfect in the right amounts. I would absolutely recommend against using this tea as your first experience into green teas.

If you like it however, its a great value. The price on this tea is great and it stands up very well to multiple infusions. Each infusion tends to be a little less smokey than the last, even with more brewing time.

A nice tea, but it suffers from the same fate as so many greens (and a few blacks) in my book: Its just meh.

The color isn’t overwhelming. Its a light green with a slight hint of brown.

And the flavor, its light. In my greens I’m looking for either a nice sweetness or a slight bitterness. This tea seems to be trying for the former, but just ends up too weak really make much of an impact. Instead, it ends up reminding me of a white tea.

A good tea. Possibly a good tea for someone looking to try a green tea for the first time, or someone who finds the green’s they’ve tasted to be too bitter or grassy, but not the right tea for me.

I brew most of my greens for 1 minute for the first infusion and up the time from there for each additional infusion. I might have give this more time in the future.

Oh, this is lovely! The black tea is robust but not so much so that it overpowers the flavor of the roasted chestnuts. The flavor is nutty and a little sweet, toasty with just a hint of smoke and malt. Full-bodied and pungent. I am really enjoying this!

I am currently on my second infusion of these leaves. Both infusions have been very flavorful and delicious.

What a wonderful aroma! I opened the bag and felt as if I had been transported to an orange grove. This tea is serious about its flavour.
This basic black with orange tea is so deeply and richly flavored with orange, that it’s the best citrus tea I’ve sampled so far. The taste is delightful. With a big of milk, it tasted that a really high class gourmet Creamsicle—or as if somebody like Todd English or Gorden Ramsay or Ina Garten had decided to create an orange Creamsicle and serve it with the best black tea.

The American Tea Room has become one of my favorite merchants because of their speedy delivery service; because of their sample sizes, and, most of all, because of the high quality of their tea and their flavor combinations.