4183 Tasting Notes
Thank you for the samples, GoodLifeTea.com! This seems to be a chocolate flavored rooibos but in my opinion the name should be… Neapolitan! While sipping, I definitely get a milky chocolate flavor but there is also a sweet cream flavor that could be vanilla. Then appearing at the end of the sip I could swear I was tasting that strawberry ice cream flavor. The strawberry could be the rooibos itself or my imagination… I’m not sure! But it’s all ice cream to me. The rooibos in this blend is very nice too (especially if it tastes like strawberry.) A unique cup.. haven’t sipped something quite like this before! The second steep has possibly even more flavor than the first cup, but this time it is more chocolate than Neapolitan!
Steep #1 // just boiled // 3-4 min
Steep #2 // just boiled // 5 min
Here’s Hoping Traveling Teabox Round #3 – Tea #26
I feel like I rate teas like high school grades- under 55 is definitely failing. 75 is okay. 80s are exceptional and 97-100 you are acing the class!
A Harney black tea in a teabag… I’ll give it a try! This one is perfect for breakfast. Robust while not being CTC. The wet leaves really fill up the teabag. Malty, bready, a bit of a bite. A very solid black tea.. almost hints toward the tomato flavor but thankfully the tomato doesn’t fully make an appearance!
Steep #1 // just boiled // 3 min
Steep #2 // half mug // just boiled // 4 min
Here’s Hoping Traveling Teabox Round #3 – Tea #25
I’m about finished with everything I wanted to sample from this teabox (other than a few I’m removing for later) which means I can focus on the Lewis & Clark teabox that should be arriving tomorrow! Can’t wait!
This one has the color of the cup, the syrup texture, the fragrance coming from the mug and the taste of APPLE CIDER. In all aspects, this one is cider. It doesn’t even seem like a black tea. The second cup was nice as well. I’ll have to try more from Fauchon. They seem to be my favorite French company, other than a few blends from Nina’s Paris.
Steep #1 // few min after boiling // 3 min
Steep #2 // half mug // just boiled // 3 min
Here’s Hoping Traveling Teabox Round #3 – Tea #24
We have some Wegman’s around here, so it’s nice to see kind of a “local” tea. This is actually very nice for a grocery store tea! White and green teas mixed with plenty of blueberries. There was around ten in the infuser. I think they also add blueberry flavoring since I doubt there would be that much blueberry flavoring even with all those blueberries. I only saw a few pieces of white tea, so this is mostly green tea here. I like it!
Steep #1 // 25 min after boiling // 2-3min
Steep #2 // half mug // 20 min after boiling // 2-3 min
Here’s Hoping Traveling Teabox Round #3 – Tea #23
Another really odd blend from Verdant. I’m not even sure what these ingredients are… looks like some things I’ve never seen before. I wish Steepsterers who had the info for these blends (or Verdant) would update the Steepster page at least with the ingredients… it could become a potential allergy issue. Anyway, the dry leaf scent is not at all appealing. I decided to try it anyway… like the pear tea I had the other day I figured the dry scent could be entirely different from the flavor. Not here. The flavor seems kind of woody and kind of like BBQ. It definitely seems like something that would say ‘cask’ to me. And of course the natural woodiness of the rooibos helps. Sipped it while catching up on Supernatural… I’m going to be so sad when I’m done with season five but the new season will be epic, I hope. I can’t wait for the meta music episode!
Steep #1 // few min after boiling // 3 min
Here’s Hoping Traveling Teabox Round #3 – Tea #22
I always wondered what a hojicha/genmaicha would be like! Really, it doesn’t taste all that different. I thought it would be toastier with the popped rice but the hojicha already seems to have that toasty quality. It just tasted like a normal hojicha to me. I wonder what it would taste like split 50/50 with the actual green leaves of a genmaicha….
Steep #1 // 20 min after boiling // 2-3 min
Steep #2 // 15 min after boiling // 2-3 min
Thank you Dinosara for a sample of this one! Have to try all the Bluebirds! I love that they have some book themed teas. This one sounds lovely: chocolate and rose… the lemongrass and raspberry leaves sounded a little out of place. The taste is great though! The leaves themselves smell like they were infused with rose. I didn’t want the first steep to be too long as I wasn’t sure if the raspberry leaves would make it terrible as they tend to ruin teas if steeped too long. I didn’t taste any raspberry leaves at all. Instead there is a perfect balance of rose (from the infused flavor) and chocolate from my favorite chocolate ingredient in tea: cocoa shells! I could have used more cocoa shells, but maybe that was just my sample. Why isn’t chocolate infused with rose a thing? And if it is, why don’t I know about it? The lemongrass made itself known just enough to give the first steep some character. The second steep seemed to have much more of a lemongrass flavor that made it very lemony like lemon myrtle – drowning out the other flavors. I think the first cup was steeped perfectly though. I love the idea of a chocolate rose tea, so I could have done without the other ingredients but this is another great Bluebird blend. Hurry up holiday teas!
Steep #1 // few min after boiling // 3 min
Steep #2 // just boiled // 7+ min
Thank you Ost for the sale! I hope it was you that sent me this tea, since my e-mail draft that I saved all the teas I didn’t try yet was lost. I’ll have to work on that at some point. I’ve never had a yellow tea before!
The dry leaves are wirey and actually do seem yellow in color when they aren’t darker…. kind of like a Yunnan tea. They are also the hairy type leaf. I had NO idea how to steep a yellow tea so I went with two vastly different steeps:
Steep #1 // 2 tsps. // 20 min after boiling // 2-3 min
The taste much like the dry leaf fragrance is LEMON. Also fits the yellow name! The color of the cup is also yellow. A yellow tea in all aspects! There is also a floral hint. I’m surprised by the lemon of it though, it’s like a sugary dessert lemon and the dry leaves smelled very sweet as well. It reminds me of a bai mu dan but the leaves are VERY different between the two teas. The fuzziness of the leaves is drying out my mouth though. Otherwise, I’m very happy with this one.
Steep #2 // 10 min after boiling // 3 min
This one is much less lemon. I think the first cup had a lot more character. This one actually tastes like a tea I’ve never tried before. It’s different but I can’t say why. It’s very sweet, certainly not oversteeped unless it would have had more of that lemon flavor otherwise. There is a creaminess while still having a crisp freshness, again like a quality bai mu dan. I’ll enjoy the rest of the tin of this one!
Here’s Hoping Traveling Teabox Round #3 – Tea #21
The scent of the dry leaves here almost scared me away. It has kind of a sour scent. But the flavor is SPOT ON pear! Not one of those very green shiny pears that look so fresh but one of those brownish mottled overripe rustic pears. I can definitely mostly taste the pear skin here. Magic! The black tea is tough to describe but pairs (pears) well with it. The second steep didn’t have as much of that pear flavor but the first steep was amazing! I didn’t think the French teas were my thing before, but I can work with this one. Best pear tea I think I’ve tried! (I think I said that about a pear tea I tried from the last round of this teabox.)
Steep #1 // few min after boiling // 3 min
Steep #2 // just boiled // 3 min
