Maple Kind

I had to keep adding sugar to get this one to taste how I wanted it to. I did end up liking the maple flavor, mild as it was. I always want the maple to be lots stronger in these types of teas. It would have been way better on a quality black base. I just found the green tea to be a bit discordant with the other flavors. It took milk well.

This is another of the “12 teas of Xmas” I´m only now drinking, and this one only had one previous review, and a seriously bad one! So, very weary…although I´m quite happy with the result. Dry the tea only smelled “maple syrup” with a lot of imagination ;-) …and in the ultimate finish of the smelling experience. When brewed, the leaves open up nicely, and make for a yellow varnish coloured drink with a kind of caramel aroma to it, not too overwhelming, and not up front, so at least the blend was made being moderate with the flavourings (what I can appreciate). Then, the drink itself : the grassy character of a lot of green teas has been softened by the floral and sweet additions. I´m not too familiar with the real maple syrop to be able to tell this tea really contains it (and I honestly am not too concerned, as like in other drinks with good – but “foreign” – ingredients, e.g. coffee stout, I tend to prefer the good ingredient on its own or in a “traditional use”) : it seems like something caramel-like, but only in the finish, and continuing for quite some time in the back of the mouth. That´s OK by me (to drink this once).

#adventageddon Day Nine – 1/5

I don’t want to say that tea companies outside of Canada shouldn’t take a crack at maple teas, but well, I kind of feel like tea companies outside of Canada shouldn’t take a crack at maple!? This tea was honestly foul, and on a couple different levels!? For starters, for a tea that apparently has “real maple syrup” in it, there is nothing maple tasting about the tea unless you maybe want to count a strong woody note that you could creatively call “maple wood”. However, it’s a stretch to say that.

The other thing is that this is apparently green tea, and visually the loose leaf looked like some type of strange Chinese or alternative growing country (not Japanese) green tea. However, the taste of the steeped tea is REALLY sheng like. Bad sheng though; bitter and astringent and kind of funky/rubbery with a prevailing smoke note. I honestly can’t tell if it’s just bad sheng or BAD green tea but it’s very strange.

I don’t know – ultimately nothing about this tea works as it’s meant to and it’s really gnarly…