New Tasting Notes

I actually had this yesterday as well as today. I’m loving it. After thinking some more, i’m going to see if I can find an equally good Earl Grey Creme from someone who doesn’t charge as much (Teavana is $4.50 for 2oz).

Adagio is probably going to be my first trial. I’m also wondering what I should get to make steeping easier… I was thinking of getting something like Adagio’s Ingenuitea (http://www.adagio.com/gifts/holiday_ingenuiTEA.html), but it seems too single purpose, so now I am looking at various mugs and teapots. Any Suggestions?

Cocoa, earthy, a little malty, smooth and sweet. Not really sure why I ended up going with a shorter steep time this time, but I did and it is still good.
5.2g/14oz

I’ve only tried a little of all the teas that Maison des 3 Thes sells.
I wanted to know why their prices are so high …
This one is one of the cheapest (and it’s price is already high compared to most tea houses).
I brewed this one in a zhong (12 cl) : 20’’ – 30’’ – 45’’ – 60’’ – 1’30 – 2’30.
I didn’t put a lot of leaves since I’ve read on internet that this tea can quickly give a bitter result.
The taste at first isn’t very strong, but the after taste is ! Fruity, oily. The taste is pure and plain : no off-taste coming from over roasting or something.
I’m almost sure I could have done another brew. Next time I will try with more leaves.
So yeah, this tea is a bit expensive compared to what you can buy elsewhere, but very good.

The dry leaf blend of this may possibly be one of my favorite flavored black tea smells EVER! A milky chocolate black tea with slight rose hints….ahhhhhh!

The wet leaf blend the rose really comes out and the chocolate transforms into almost a chocolate fudge brownie type scent. I want to eat it.

It’s very dark in color and a little murky.

The liquid itself is mostly chocolate and black tea to the nose.

The taste is mostly black tea with chocolate and floral mixed in – almost enhancing the black tea taste.

This is a good tasting flavored black tea. But what I love about it most is the scent!
I received this one from a fellow reviewer and boy-oh-boy am I thankful for it!

Brewed in a big teapot.
Well I’m not really into into citrus flavored tea. It reminds me of the (bad) tea you can find in any public coffee machine.
This one is good, it reminds me of Yuzuu Temple (from Mariage Freres too), and I liked this one better.
The tea is oily and the flavor is nice without being too strong or overwhelming.
A good everyday tea.

My first taste of the TTB…yay! If there was a wine that was coconut and chocolate flavored and you drank it hot…it would soooo taste like this. :)

It’s sweet and chocolatey smooth with averaged-in coconut and a natural milky-type taste over top of the black tea. It’s nice. It’s a treat. It’s what’s for lunch :P

Symptom: Post Lunch food coma
Remedy: Thick grade Senjunomukashi

Directions: 2 Bamboo scoops. Add 3 oz. water. Whisk the tea in brisk angular motions for approximately 30 seconds, repeatedly tracing out an M in the cup to form a thick, foamy broth.

Results: A thick frothy, opaque and bright green liquor, emitting aromas of honeydew melon and a base note of cooked spinach. The thick body is bracing, and dries the mouth. It fills the mouth with the flavors of Tencha, but exponentially, tasting of spinach and artichokes.

Heady and intense, Matcha offers a tea experience like no other. Dissolved Matcha yields smooth vegetal flavors with a surprisingly bitter but satisfying kick. The better Matchas balance the bitterness with sweet notes – especially in the aftertaste, which should linger long in the back of the mouth.

Matcha is made from Tencha. The leaves are shaded over a few weeks before harvest to boost their chlorophyll, amino acids and other flavor compounds. Then the leaves are steam-fixed, cut, and air-dried rather than rolled and fired. This gives them a lovely, clean vegetal flavor unvarnished with any roasted sweetness.

Unlike Tencha, which is left whole, Matcha is then milled into a fine powder. Today, traditional stone mills have given way to impressive high-tech operations. Visiting the factory, one must don protective clothing as if heading into surgery, as well as pass through an airlock where machines blow off any particulates that might contaminate the powder. In the production room, everything is covered in bright green dust, especially the rows upon rows of millstones whirring away. The millstones have their work cut out for them: After a full hour of grinding, they produce only two ounces of the powdered tea.

There are several levels of Matcha. The best is called koicha, or “thick tea”. Made from the best spring leaves harvested in Uji, koicha is ordinarily reserved for tea ceremonies. The next level down is called usucha, or “thin tea”. Usucha is less expensive, making it more suitable for everyday use. Last but not last, there is a commercial grade Matcha, used in lattes, ice creams, and other green tea flavorings. As with Sencha, the demand for Matcha is now great enough that some is made in China, a curious reversal of history given that powdered tea had not been made in China since the Ming dynasty, which ended in 1644.

The oldest type of tea found in Japan, Matcha is what Buddhist monks brought back with them Kyoto after visiting the Jin Shan monastery in the ninth century. After monks began cultivating tea in Japan, the Matcha they made was consumed mostly by monks and royalty, then trickled down only as far as the noble warrior class, the samurai. The preparation of powder Matcha became ritualized in the 1550s by a Japanese tea master named Sen Rikyu, who codified the practice of Chado. Literally translated as “the Way of Tea,” Chado is a form of religious observance as well as a tea ceremony. Influenced by Taoism as well as Zen Buddhism, Rikyu ritualized the tea service as a means of drawing attention to the beauty and purity of everyday objects. By indicating the proper tools and gestures to use while brewing and serving the tea, as well as the arrangement and architecture of the teahouse, Rikyu encouraged practitioners to focus on the elements involved in tea: water, fire and the green tea itself. After his death, his three grandsons developed their own schools: Omotesenke, Urasenke, and Mushanokoijisenke. each of these schools still exists in Japan sixteen generations later.

I was really liking this tea in my pre-Steepster days.. it’s Chinese Sencha blended with rose petals and mallow flowers. The mallow definitely shines through with a bright sweetness, and you can taste a bit of the rose, as well.

4th infusion using leaves from last nite, steeped 8 min. Still oolong in taste- aroma and flavor much like the 3rd infusion. Yum!

For personal reasons, this is one of the most horrible days of the year for me. So I turned to my matcha bowl. Desperate times call for lots of thick matcha. 2 HEAPING scoops (1.75g each!) matcha in 6oz water. Unfortunately this bowl doesn’t froth as much as it usually does, probably because it’s so thick. Now this is the perfect cure to a bad day! Thick, grassy, sweet, w/ a hint of orange. The only bad part is the last sip- it’s so thick that I need to add a little bit more water to get it down, unusual for a matcha that I normally hardly have to wisk and leaves my bowl clean. All in all a lucious, comforting bowl. Unfortunately, I don’t have anyone to drink tea w/ today- anyone care to join me in having a bowl of matcha virtually? I love reading matcha tasting notes!=D

I’m sipping this tea today and also had it yesterday morning. This tea is really good. Being from the Fujian province of China, It’s not a Yunnan golden tea but has similarities. It’s a golden monkey that is very smooth and delicious. The aroma of the dry leaf is as chocolatey as I’ve ever found in any natural tea. It carries through into the brew as well. The caramel and chocolate notes present along with some fruity notes and maybe some honey notes make this tea really pleasurable. I highly recommend it!

Delicious and nutritious.

My students are celebrating Valentines Day today and the craziness is rampant. I figured I would drink the last of my sample today in hopes that I might get in the spirit. Is it working? No. I hated this day while I was in school and I still hate it. They are all getting stuff and comparing with other students who is most liked/loved. Even the teachers secretly compare who gets the most stuff. And it bugs me. At least I have a pile of candy on my desk to get me through the day even though I already feel sick from junk food…

Finishing up my stash. Next up…I’m ripping into some TTB Teas!!! WOOT!!!!

Removing the leaves from the water, a light vegetal aroma of steamed spinach and artichoke hearts, paired with the slight sweetness of steamed rice wafts from the cup. In the mouth, a soft, spinachy flavor with the sweetness of steamed white rice envelops your tongue, without any of the roasted flavors of nuts or nori.

With its clean vegetal flavors and a pleasant, medium body, Tencha makes for a wonderful tutor. Merely chopped up and air dried, Tencha offers one of the purest expressions of mature tea leaves. Tencha has no roasted flavors, only pure vegetal notes. It makes for a wonderful comparison with the roasted flavors of the other great green teas, Japanese and Chinese alike.

Tencha is a shade-grown tea like Gyokuro, covered over during the last three weeks before the earl May harvest. The best Tencha comes from the Uji tea fields in Kyoto prefecture, where it originated, as well as from Mie prefecture to the southeast. Immediately after harvesting, the teas are steam-fixed to preserve their brilliant green color. Unlike Gyokuro or Sencha, Tencha leaves are not rolled; they are merely chopped up and then placed in a cylinder, where they are blown with warm air. Tencha is hardly ever drunk in Japan; the leaves are usually ground into Matcha powder. Though rare, Tencha makes for a delightfully light, refreshing cup of tea.

ok so again a new tea from something that isn’t like anything i ever tasted before.
its the second time i’m drinking it. didn’t really like it first time. its pure rooibos content. just that. no caffeine either. i bought it in a pharmacy as a medical tea meant to strengthen the immune system.

taste – i put in more sugar this time (one teaspoon). makes it way better. reminds me a bit of that hibiscus taste that i can find in rose bud tea my mum always drinks. i used to like that tea. then they decided to mix it with hibiscus and it became less tasty. tho back then a sweetened fruit tea was the only kind id consider drinking. i’m liking new stuff these days. its an decent tea. quite drinkable. pretty basic with aromas. i like the other ones better tho. i got a feeling that a mix with citrus fruit or something could make rooibos tea much better. maybe vanilla. its asking for something else to make it great. but even like this – its healthy, it tastes decent and its very refreshing. still good cold.

color – that i love. deep clear orangy. really looks good.

smell – weird and stronger than all the other ones i had so far. not bad.

ill leave it with a humble vote. because i’m sure there are way better rooibos teas out there. just gotta discover it…

Second steeping!
Mellow, full flavor. Much improved (from what was already very tasty).
I let this cool in the cup a little longer and I think that may be a part of the change.
There is a lot more of that “flavor of the sea” taste, much greener, but still the toasty “clean barn” is there. So glad I tried this!

Mmmmm. A very good cup with a wonderful nose to it. It smells strawberrish mixed with vanilla in the tin and then once it has had time to steep it smells more flowery to me. It is very smooth going down not so much as creamy or silky just that it is not as strong or bitter as some blacks that I have tasted do (I love black teas).
The more it cools off the more flavors I am able to pick up I definently taste berries but not necessarily strawberries more like maybe a black raspberry sorta taste and a very soft floral taste it tastes like the black coffee is going to come out and try to add a bitter taste to it but the berry/floral won’t let the black come out and bite you with it’s bitterness. Almost like the black and the berry/floral are at war but a good war… not that wars are good in any sense but I guess I should say flavor war in my mouth and I am enjoying their war. As I near the end of my cup I get a taste and smell of something familiar yet I can’t quite place it….hmmm I’ll try to figure it out in my next cup! A very nice cup. I can’t wait to try it with some La Madeleine Strawberry Napoleon for dessert YUM.

This was just what I needed on a personal note this morning. The bright green liquor was a sight for sore, groggy eyes, shocking me out of my stupor. As notes of cooked spinach and bell peppers floated into my nose, I was pleased to find a small hint of lemon. Lifting the cup to my lips, I slurped up some of the tea, aerating it, allowing the angular, assertive flavors of bell peppers and rounded, roasted flavors of toasted walnuts wash over me. Perfection to start my day.

This lively, vegetal, but high-pitched tea is a vivid illustration of a good-quality blended Sencha. Kagoshima is a port city on the southern tip on Japan’s Kyushu island, the second largest tea-producing area in Japan after Shizuoka. Kyushu is also the southernmost tea-producing area in Japan. Spring comes earlier here that to the rest of Japan’s tea regions, so Kyushu brings Japan its first spring teas.

The island’s large, flat plateau allows for Japan’s biggest tea farms. The farms are vast and flat enough to accommodate an usual harvesting system: Giant tractors ride up and down the rows, trimming the newest leaves like lawn mowers and blowing cuttings into large bags behind them.

This mechanical harvest allows for such economies of scale that Kagoshima produces the cheapest teas in all of Japan. But the scope of these operations also prevents the gardens from making great, pure Senchas. Instead of nurturing exquisite Senchas from just one field or cultivar, Kagoshima tea makers blend one great Sencha from several varieties of individually inferior plants. One is what’s called a “natural Gyokuro” Sencha. Its leaves flourish entirely in the sun but still produce the extra amino acids of a shade-grown tea. The result of this blending is a lemony Sencha with some of the rich, vegetal brothiness of a Gyokuro.

Got this as a free sample with my Mighty Leaf order. It’s okay. I really like the strength of the vanilla in it. It brings some smoothness and sweetness to the tea. But the black tea that’s used in this isn’t the best, and it doesn’t complement the vanilla taste very well, in my opinion. All in all, I’m glad I tried it, but I wouldn’t buy it. (It does taste better as it cools, though!)

Second try. I don’t know what went wrong the first time, but this is a solid basic Chinese black good to enjoy anytime of the day, though you would have to like mild tea. For me, that is what I like about this tea.

Sometimes I want to take a break from all those assertive teas I enjoy and relax, without frills or flavors. This is pretty good for a bagged tea in doing that job. One of the staples on my cupboard is an affordable, mild, but drinkable Chinese black, and this is a candidate. I will have to try the loosed leaf version.