4187 Tasting Notes
I’m steeping this one hot… ripping open the teabag to take a teaspoon out. I feel bad ruining these iced teas! I was hoping for a stronger flavor in this one, though maybe not as strong as the gross grape from the other day! I barely get any hint of either peach or mango. The base tea is always decent for being a CTC. Not too strong or weak. The second steep was bitter due to my oversteeping. I wish I had more to say with this one! I don’t know, it seems like the SBTs can’t be as creative as the hot teas, since they are just flavoring.
Steep #1 // 1 tsp // few min after boiling // 50 second steep
Steep #2 // half mug // just boiled // few minutes
For Christmas, one of my not-tea people gave me a Tea Forte sampler box as a gift. I won’t say ‘no’ to tea and you can certainly do worse than Tea Forte. Three packages each of five individually wrapped servings. Really, I think this might have been two teaspoons in one “serving” but I used all of it anyway. This one is quite tasty. Plenty of apricot, something like marzipan flavor on a decent rooibos base. I expected worse!
Additional notes: I had two teaspoons left of this one so I wanted to try a Della Terra black tea with two teaspoons to see if the flavor was a little stronger. It did help the black tea be a little stronger (though that was with a few minute steep) but any time I let a tea go a little longer, I feel like the base tea takes over and the flavors disappear. This might have been the case with this cup. I barely tasted any raspberry or chocolate, but that could have been due to the age of the tea as well. At least the black tea wasn’t as weak as usual, but I wouldn’t really want to use two teaspoons all of the time due to the cost. I didn’t mind trying it this time though.
I had to try this one… lime marshmallow! There is definite lime and definite marshmallow flavors here. The marshmallow is half like meringue somehow as well, so this tastes like a key lime pie, especially when the cup cools. The lime is so strong that the flavor of the bai mu dan itself has disappeared. That’s fine though, as this is a tasty cup. Not as good as the cantaloupe and cream, but that is tough to beat.
Steep #1 // 1 1/2 tsp // 25 min after boiling // 1 1/2 min steep
Steep #2 // 20 min a.b. // 3-4 min
Additional notes: Having the last tuocha of this one that I’ve been hoarding. My tea brain just had an earthquake when I realized that this was a raw pu-erh and not ripened. Up to this point, I thought it wasn’t raw. I’m glad I realized in time and didn’t ruin it. This is the best rice flavor I’ve found, and it does seem to have an additional rice element instead of it just being infused with flavor. This is a very likeable buttery raw pu-erh, but any raw won’t stack up to ripened. But it must be a good one if I’ve remembered this raw tuchoa being better than any ripened.
Thank you for this one a while back in your sale, Ost! It’s a decent black tea – reminds me a little of an assam. Bready, sweet. The second cup is like pastries. Not too much depth to the flavor though. I think I’ve been spoiled with awesome black teas lately. I wish I had more to say about this one.
Steep #1 // 1 tsp // 5 min after boiling // 3 min
Steep #2 // just boiled // 5+min
I just had to order one last time from the super sad Butiki sale! I also had to order a couple green teas in hopes that they would be like Laoshan green — my ideal green tea. This one looks a lot like Laoshan green both in the picture and in the teaspoon. Dustier green, as twisty as can be. I tried steeping it like Laoshan green to see if it was the same, so not following Butiki’s parameters. Not quite, but it’s an excellent green tea anyway. This one seems to lighter than the full flavor of Laoshan green. The flavor is almost too light to describe, a little pineapple, nutty. The second steep is a little salty and brothy, buttery. I love the lingering flavor! I’ll try this one again later with Butiki’s parameters.
Steep #1 // 1 tsp. // 32 minutes after boiling // 55 second steep
Steep #2 // 30 min after boiling // 2-3 min
Thanks again for the sale a while back, Momo! I got quite the deal on a sealed bag of dragon pearls. There aren’t many here though for two ounces… I can’t imagine paying the Teavana price for these. :X Right away, I notice some sort of lint/string rolled up in at least two of the pearls. Some teas like this might have string to tie them together, but this doesn’t look intentional. I tried to steep this like the other pearls I’ve been testing. The flavor is very light with these. Too bad. I’m used to deep chocolate with these pearls and this is not deep chocolate. The color of the cup is also very light. I can’t imagine using more than five pearls at the Teavana price. This isn’t a bad tea, but I’d say all of the other pearls I’ve tried have been better. Especially for the price. Rating was previously a 95?!?! No way. Maybe that was a different harvest.
Steep #1 // five pearls // rinse // just boiled // 2 min steep
Steep #2 // just boiled // 4 min
Does anyone know how to get teas combined on Steepster? There are three entries for these Teavana pearls and I’ve noticed a few other doubles too… Should I send a message to Jason about the doubles, especially now that the Steepster problems seem better?
Thank you for the sale, Ost! This one is exactly like I wanted it to taste. Plenty of coffee beans and delicious looking almonds in this blend. I don’t like coffee at all, it always smells like something unpleasant to me, but I find that a tea with a coffee beans (and maybe sometimes some sort of coffee flavor? But maybe that’s the chicory?) is the perfect amount of coffee for me. Just one teaspoon filled with coffee beans left a pretty dark cup of tea after only three minutes. The flavor is delicious just enough coffee flavor mingling with the perfect-to-pair-with black tea. I don’t seem to get any sort of almond flavor. I’ll enjoy the rest of this pouch! I’m really never disappointed with David’s Teas… I haven’t tried many I haven’t liked… maybe I’ve just tried the best teas.
Steep #1 // few minutes after boiling // 1 tsp // 3 min
Steep #2 // just boiled // few min steep
Thank you for the sale a while back, CHAroma! There is plenty grape here, if you’re thinking the artificial candy grape. Do grapes even really taste like this? I steeped a teaspoon of this hot, rather than iced, so I’m not really judging it fairly. But there is actually a lot of the grape flavor. Almost too much! It might be tolerable to me if it didn’t remind me of those older jelly dark purple fishing lures. I say “jelly” and “purple” and those fishing lures probably remind me of grape flavoring. I don’t really like the idea of drinking fishing lures though! It really infused my infuser too… the next couple of steeps were grapey. Not having this one again…
Steep #1 // few minutes after boiling // less than a minute steep
