6105 Tasting Notes

100

Ahhhh, delicious. Can’t wait to try the new extra super awesome premium special version (which is en route!), but choked about USPS rate increases. :’( Watch everyone in Ontario band together for a $500 order just to make shipping worthwhile…

So I went for my first run today (on the treadmill, it is nasty outside! Also January.) in a few months, and owwwwww my feet are killing me and I’m pretty sure I’m going to be wicked sore tomorrow. Bleh. Also, I want to sleep right now… (perhaps not such a bad idea…. except that I still need to drink like 50 million teas before my Steepster-versary tomorrow!)

Preparation
Boiling 3 min, 0 sec

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

67
drank Papaya Ginger by Tea Blendz
6105 tasting notes

Not bad! And I totally called that there was anise in here, as I tasted a bit of licoricey-ness, but it’s totally bearable. Overall, this is a decent blend – I’m not getting “papaya”, but there are definitely ginger and citrusy flavours. Again, another tea that I drank while distracted, so that’s really all I have to say! :)

Thanks for a sample of this one, Sil!

ETA: Oops, meant to write as well that I enjoyed a re-steep, and for one craving ginger, I suspect another few good ones could be had as well! I just felt like moving on to new things.

Preparation
195 °F / 90 °C 3 min, 0 sec

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

75
drank Honeybush Haze by Amoda Tea
6105 tasting notes

Another sample from Sil, thanks!

This definitely didn’t smell like any honeybush blend I’d had before, so naturally I nabbed a sample to try, and I’m glad I did! This is quite interesting: nutty and fruity, kind of like… an apple muesli? Or… nutty apple oatmeal? I’m getting a bit of spice alongside the flavour as well, which is quite nice, and as I can’t say that I’ve tried green honeybush or green rooibos straight, I can’t define exactly what they are contributing. But certainly nothing negative.

This is a pretty good, tasty caffeine-free blend! Due to the apple crumble/pie/oatmeal flavouring it makes me think it’s a great blend for autumn evenings. A tea I’d happily drink again (although, I cleverly also only picked up a cup’s worth of this one so it’s a SIPDOWN!!!!!)

ETA: Second infusion is much like the first, and in half the water I can’t really say that it has even lost much flavour! What’s driving me bonkers though is that there’s something about it that tastes ridiculously familiar, and I can’t place it. Like, the skin of a baked apple with brown sugar/margarine in the core. But, I swear said thing I’m imagining also has nuts in it (which I find confusing as I don’t often eat food with nuts in it, not for any reason except that other people are often not fond of such things). Ok, I’m rambling, perhaps someday I’ll figure this mystery out…

Preparation
Boiling 8 min or more

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

90
drank Tangerine Spice by Kally Tea
6105 tasting notes

Ok…. this smells like something SO familiar, but I can’t place it. But I love it! Argh, hopefully it will come to me…. (Perhaps it’s some citrusy drink?)

Anyhow… this is delicious. Not a flavour I’ve encountered prior in tea, but man, this is freaking delicious! And with a nice white tea finish at the end. Ack, I need more!

ETA: So! I triumphantly return to Steepster to inform you all that this tea, this tangerine spice tea, tastes bang on like some sort of sour cherry concoction that I have previously tasted. Perhaps sour cherry pie filling that my mom made. To be honest, I haven’t quite sorted that part out yet, but it’s crazy that it tastes like that! A re-steep in half the water was also enjoyable (and the leaves retained aroma after this, but I threw them out anyways, bad bad bad.)

Preparation
190 °F / 87 °C 2 min, 30 sec
Indigobloom

you can have the rest of mine!! if you are interested

Kittenna

OOMMMGGGG yes.

Kasumi no Chajin

It does sound fantastic! Will have to look this up.

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

84
drank Caramel Cocoa Loco by Kally Tea
6105 tasting notes

Well, didn’t drink as much tea as I wanted to today since I slept in quite absurdly, and then the boy was over… oh well. Decided to try this one out today, though, since I got my teas from our split Kally order yesterday, and all the girls had given it pretty good reviews.

I have to say that I concur! This is good, and different! I honestly didn’t pay it enough attention to give a solid review, but I enjoyed it quite thoroughly, and it reminded me of Marshmallow Treat Genmaicha… mostly in that it tasted like a flavoured genmaicha, which I apparently have a soft spot for. I can’t say I picked out caramel or cocoa, but I wasn’t really trying, either. It was toasty and sweet, and I’ll hopefully make a better note next time I try it! I’d recommend picking this up if you’re making a Kally order anytime soon and have no aversion to the ingredients in this blend. :D

ETA: I so apologize to you all for popping these all up to the top of your Dashboard again. I bet you’re all “Blah, there goes Kittenna spamming us again!” My apologies :( Anyways, I forgot to note that this re-steeped ok as well, though I didn’t try a third infusion.

Preparation
180 °F / 82 °C 2 min, 30 sec
Indigobloom

boys! such a distraction :P

Kittenna

Mostly I just feel bad not paying attention to him when he’s over!! :P It was bad enough that I had him wait while I brewed like 5 teas to take upstairs to watch Once/Dr Who, haha.

Indigobloom

Bah, if he is dating you then he understands! all part of a tea lovers charm :)

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

93

Yum. Drank a couple of cups of this courtesy of Sil, and enjoyed them thoroughly. I think I had run out of this one, so it was nice to have a cup of it again! Still as tasty as I remember!

Preparation
180 °F / 82 °C 3 min, 0 sec

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

75
drank Té de Frutas by Lupicia
6105 tasting notes

I can’t honestly say that I recall the last time I had a decaffeinated tea, and I generally don’t bother, but when Sil opened up the bag of this for me to sniff, the amazingly delicious smell of fresh lychee was impossible to pass up! So here we are.

Brewed up, the tea retains this incredibly fruity aroma, which is packed with lychee goodness. I’ve had a lychee before, DavidsTea’s Lychee Black, but I don’t recall it having such a real fruit aroma. I’ll have to re-check my tasting notes, but I don’t think I particularly liked it. Anyhow, this tea. Can’t get over how delicious it smells. Flavourwise, however, it does leave a little something to be desired, and that’s primarily in the base. I suspect it has to do with the decaffeination, but the base just isn’t as good as it could be. Or perhaps, more to the point, I think I’d prefer this with a white or green base that’s more vegetal.

Either way, the flavour is bang on fruity lychee, so if you are fond of such things, I suggest you give it a shot! Thanks for giving me a sample of this one Sil!

Preparation
Boiling 3 min, 0 sec
Sil

i’m just happy to try out all the new teas :) so much fun getting to have new teas without having to buy a bunch!

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

82
drank Chiran Sencha by O5 Tea
6105 tasting notes

So apparently 1 minute is a bit too long for this tea (or at least, in the tea:water ratio I used). Sadly, there was some bitterness that impacted the flavour for me. However, I still liked this tea – it was intensely vegetal in both aroma and flavour, and definitely now holds the spot of the most spinach-flavoured tea I have ever tried! It literally tasted like pureed boiled spinach. Which I strangely actually liked….

Thanks for letting me steal a sample out of your package of this, Sil!

Preparation
170 °F / 76 °C 1 min, 0 sec

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

90
drank Orzo Caramel & Honey by Lupicia
6105 tasting notes

Uhhhh, this smells strongly of a delicious, delicious coffee drink that would upset my tummy. O.o Have to say that I was a bit apprehensive to try it, but my apprehension nearly always is outweighed by my curiosity, which is what happened this time, so I ended up with yet another sample from Sil! This seems to be a trend for tonight, haha.

Ok… this seriously tastes like a freaking cup of delicious sweetened, creamy coffee! Like a low-cal version of a latte, sweetened cappuccino….. AHHHHHHH! This is amazing!!! I wasn’t expecting the sweetness; I was expecting something more bitter, but no. This is naturally, deliciously sweet. I’m definitely not one of the coffee-haters; I actually adore the aroma and flavour of coffee (well, when it’s doctored with copious amounts of sugar/milk). My problem was that it upset my stomach, and also, that I couldn’t drink it without the high-calorie additions. So this is nearly perfect – amazing flavour (I bet a touch of milk/sugar would even improve it more!) and no tummy issues… only problem is that Lupicia doesn’t ship to Canada. A problem that i will somehow solve, haha.

Anyhow, I am thoroughly impressed with this one, and hopefully will get the chance to re-stock it someday. YUM!

ETA: Re-steeped twice in less water. Still tasty.

Preparation
Boiling 4 min, 0 sec
Plunkybug

Orzo? Like the little rice shaped pasta that is popular in avgolemono (Greek egg lemon and chicken) soup?

TeaLady441

Sold! I’m adding it to my someday shopping list!

Sil

Kittenna – oh yay! I’m glad this one was good. I’m still chuckling a bit at all of our faces when we opened it and smelled it heh.

Sil

weird my comment didn’t add. Anyway i’m glad this one was a successful experiment. barley tea! wheee! still chuckling at everyone’s face yesterday when we opened it to smell.

Sil

..and now it’s there lol silly steepster

Kittenna

Heather – I assume that’s what they’re meaning? But I could be wrong. I didn’t purchase this one and haven’t really researched it! (Also btw, I adore avgolemono soup; it’s actually part of my “birthday meal”, haha.)

Sil

orzo is italian for barley. it’s barley tea. :)

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

60
drank Pear Cream by Steeped and Infused
6105 tasting notes

Thanks go to Sil for this pear tea as well!!

As soon as this one finished brewing, I got super worried – the liquid in the mug definitely has that purple hibiscus tone to it. I hadn’t even considered that while brewing :( And oh no – I can smell barfy hibiscus in it too. Stupid me, not reading the ingredients (and they were RIGHT ON THE BAG.)

Thankfully, though I can smell the hibiscus a bit, it’s not overpowering in the flavour, so I can actually kind of taste the pear flavour and creaminess. It’s adding a bit of sour, but definitely isn’t ruining anything. Unfortunately, there’s not much to ruin to begin with; I am not really getting much pear from here. This mostly tastes like a fruity tea with a touch of hibiscus. Not bad at all, but not quite what I’m looking for either. Ah well. Still awesome to have tried (and now I can cross one more off my list!)

Preparation
Boiling 5 min, 0 sec

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

Profile

Bio

I have always been a tea fan (primarily herbals and Japanese greens/oolongs) but in the last year or so, tea has become increasingly more appealing as not only a delicious, calming drink, but as a relatively cheap, healthy reward or treat to give myself when I deserve something. I should clarify that, however; the reward is expanding my tea cupboard, not drinking tea – I place no restrictions on myself in terms of drinking anything from my cupboard as that would defeat my many goals!

My DavidsTea addiction was born in late 2011, despite having spent nearly a year intentionally avoiding their local mall location (but apparently it was just avoiding the inevitable!). I seem to have some desire to try every tea they’ve ever had, so much of my stash is from there, although I’ve recently branched out and ordered from numerous other companies.

I like to try and drink all my teas unaltered, as one of the main reasons I’m drinking tea other than for the flavour is to be healthy and increase my water intake without adding too many calories! I’ve found that the trick in this regard is to be very careful about steeping time, as most teas are quite pleasant to drink straight as long as they haven’t been oversteeped. However, I tend to be forgetful (particularly at work) when I don’t set a timer, resulting in a few horrors (The Earl’s Garden is not so pleasant after, say, 7+ minutes of steeping).

I’m currently trying to figure out which types of teas are my favourites. Herbals are no longer at the top; oolongs have thoroughly taken over that spot, with greens a reasonably close second. My preference is for straight versions of both, but I do love a good flavoured oolong (flavoured greens are really hit or miss for me). Herbals I do love iced/cold-brewed, but I drink few routinely (Mulberry Magic from DavidsTea being a notable exception). I’m learning to like straight black teas thanks to the chocolatey, malty, delicious Laoshan Black from Verdant Tea, and malty, caramelly flavoured blacks work for me, but I’m pretty picky about anything with astringency. Lately I’ve found red rooibos to be rather medicinal, which I dislike, but green rooibos and honeybush blends are tolerable. I haven’t explored pu’erh, mate, or guayasa a great deal (although I have a few options in my cupboard).

I’ve decided to institute a rating system so my ratings will be more consistent. Following the smiley/frowny faces Steepster gives us:

100: This tea is amazing and I will go out of my way to keep it in stock.

85-99: My core collection (or a tea that would be, if I was allowing myself to restock everything!) Teas I get cravings for, and drink often.

75-84: Good but not amazing; I might keep these in stock sparingly depending on current preferences.

67-74: Not bad, I’ll happily finish what I have but probably won’t ever buy it again as there’s likely something rated more highly that I prefer.

51-66: Drinkable and maybe has some aspect that I like, but not really worth picking up again.

34-50: Not for me, but I can see why others might like it. I’ll make it through the cup and maybe experiment with the rest to get rid of it.

0-33: It’s a struggle to get through the cup, if I do at all. I will not willingly consume this one again, and will attempt to get rid of the rest of the tea if I have any left.

Following These People

Moderator Tools

Mark as Spammer