480 Tasting Notes

87
drank Chocolate Chili Chai by DAVIDsTEA
480 tasting notes

I’ve been waiting for this tea all year. I picked up a cup last year, but they ran out of regular supply before I had decided on buying a few ounces.

The strongest chocolate flavour I’ve ever found used in a tea (their other chocolate teas don’t seem quite as strong), although it and the spices COULD be stronger, but the smell is delicious and what I get in the taste is lovely too. Very reminiscent of the two-bite brownies.

My mother tried to make off with my cup.

Preparation
Boiling 5 min, 0 sec

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drank Saigon Chai (Organic) by DAVIDsTEA
480 tasting notes

Drank this one up without even logging it.

Pretty straightforward chai. Didn’t get much from the peppercorns, honestly. I liked that it had them and cardamom added, plus ginger—always my musts for a chai. Only picked up a small sample, and never once made it the proper way as I hadn’t the time.

It seemed like it would have made a good one, although otherwise I never found it particularly strong.

Preparation
Boiling 5 min, 0 sec
lily10177

try crushing or grinding the spices before you steep it. I find that a lot of spice based teas (especially ones with whole cardamon) taste weak because the flavours haven’t been woken up yet. Grinding the tea before I steeped it defiantly made the flavour more pronounced.

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I guess I didn’t make a note of this tea the first time I tried it. I made it as per the instructions on the packet, and it came out too strong. Very astringent, even bitter as it cooled.

This time, just under boiling, twenty seconds (plus a ten second rinse). This time, it’s almost sweet, becoming vaguely astringent as it cools (which seems to suit it).

Steep two: More astringent. Bit stronger overall. Darkly vegetal.

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 0 min, 15 sec

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84
drank Keemun Panda by Great Wall Tea Company
480 tasting notes

And that’s the last of this.

Preparation
Boiling 4 min, 0 sec

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drank Salted Caramel by DAVIDsTEA
480 tasting notes

I finished this in record time. I like it. It’s bold and deep, toffee sweet, vaguely salty but not in a way that turns me off. I’m not a huge fan of salted caramel, but I see the appeal. It’s just that all the salted caramel I’ve tried have been giant salt crystals mixed with caramel, so instead of a consistent salty-sweetness, it’s just giant pockets of salt with sweet.

Preparation
Boiling 4 min, 45 sec

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This reminds me a bit of a Keemun. Mellow, sweet (whoops, just quoted the Description), faintly nutty. But definitely lighter, “greener” than a Keemun black. Very lovely.

Preparation
185 °F / 85 °C 2 min, 0 sec

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42
drank Earl Grey by Tea Desire
480 tasting notes

…Huh. Could have sworn I’d written up a tasting note for this.

Well, long story short, this was one of the two teas my aunt sent to me while I was working up north. I found the base rather bitter, and thus wasn’t much a fan of this.

However, I’ve been using it to make London Fogs with since I got home. Milk /mostly/ tempers the bitterness, although it still makes its way through. It’s just a really cheap black tea base, I suppose.

Used this one up with one last tea latte today.

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Wasn’t sure what to expect. Would the leaves be dry? You can’t “dry” honey. Maybe crystalized. Nope, I realized when I got the vacuum-sealed bag open and went in to scoop some out. Honey coated. Not leaves in a pool of honey, though. Really infused.

Couldn’t smell the honey on anything but my spoon after I’d scooped. Brewed in a gaiwan, the liquid is a cloudy, toasty yellow. Smells like a toasty oolong, no sweetness.

First Steep: Despite the obvious stickyness of the leaves, I’m not getting too much of a honey flavour. A nice oolong—not sharply vegetal, very pleasing, buttery notes. When I breathe out… Sweetness, I think, bordering on honey. As if the honey does not directly add any flavour, but somehow enhances the oolong itself so that I am enjoying this immensely.

More sweetness as I sip. I have a feeling the honey may have settled to the bottom—as it tends to do when you stir it directly into the tea anyhow. Starting to get a sticky honey taste with just a touch of sweetness.

Second Steep: Bolder taste in the second steep, as I didn’t actually rinse this. I think I’m getting more honey. Just a faint, sticky sweetness under the toasty oolong notes. I like darker, roasted oolongs, and I think the honey goes with it well.

Third Steep: Didn’t pay as much attention to this one. Still fifteen seconds. Didn’t get any sweetness.

Preparation
Boiling 0 min, 15 sec
lizzi

It tastes all right, steeping it in boiling water? I’m leery of doing that with my oolong teas, ordinarily, and aim for a few degrees cooler.

AJ

Whoops, didn’t realize I’d set that to boiling. I let the boil fade completely (but didn’t take the temperature) before I poured, but still pretty close.

Yeah, most companies recommend that you don’t us boiling, but Teavivre and a few others recommend that you do, but also suggest very short steeps. Was playing with that first, and then was going to try cooler water and longer steeps with what’s left of the sample. It didn’t taste bitter with near-boiling, or flat. Luckily.

But I think a cooler temperature and longer steep would help the honey.

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62
drank Dan Cong Feng Huang by THEODOR
480 tasting notes

Using up the last of this one. Accidentally used a bit too much and too long of a steep, so it’s sharp—bordering on bitter. It’s still unique and interesting to sip, and I’ve got room for many more steeps.

It’s a bitter cocoa taste. Reminds me of Dawn, but Dawn was a delicious powdery cocoa—no bitterness. The scent and taste are dark and earthy, rarely any fruityness to this tea.

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I went to remove this from my cupboard as I finished it off, only to realize it was never in my cupboard to begin with.

Huh.

It seems I am sipping a phantom tea.

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 3 min, 0 sec

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Profile

Bio

Disclaimer: I work for Murchie’s Tea and Coffee as a taster and blender. I will avoid putting any ratings on teas from them from here on out.

A tea-drinking transgendered Canadian, university graduate, majored in geology (yes, “rocks and things”). I take most of my tea at home by gaiwan, and at work by mug.

My notes are pretty disjointed because I’m absent-minded, and I also keep a teatra.de blog for reviewing and rambling about tea books/publications, and an instagram for photos. Expect nerding about tea production and history on both.

I’m a Doctor Who fanatic (Jon Pertwee, if you were wondering).

“But you should never turn down tea, when it’s offered. It’s impolite, and impoliteness is how wars start.” ~Eighth Doctor, Paul McGann

https://www.instagram.com/greywacke.tea/

Location

Canada

Website

http://artoftea.teatra.de

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