58 Tasting Notes
This is the second dessert tea I’ve tried from Simpson and Vail and the results were very similar. It’s a good tea But… be careful not to use too much tea as it’s potent, be careful not to oversteep, be careful not to oversweeten, and the second steep is much better than the first. Those few notes aside it is a very good dessert tea that tastes quite alot like it’s namesake. I don’t know what sort of base S&V use but it’s very temperamental, so if your first cup isn’t very good try for another with a little different preparation.
Preparation
This is an excellent tea that demands multiple steeping, with each one it subtly changes in the most delightful way! The first steep, after rinsing, was the worst out of the 5 I’ve done today. The jasmine was so strong that it was distracting, but thankfully it settled down after the second steep and by the third the flavor stabilized for the most part. What I love is how the floral taste evolves, from something like apricot to straight up honey to a strawberry sort of thing, always with a vanilla zing at the end of each note.
The instructions on the bag didn’t exactly match what was on Verdant’s website. I brewed the western way, with one 30 second rinse, a 45 second steep at 185, and added 15 seconds to each steep. I did sweeten it a bit to bring out some of the fruit flavor over the grassy notes. But to each his own as far as that goes!
Preparation
Pina Colada is one of those things many products try and taste like but so few come close. This tea does a better job of it than most, carefully balancing the coconut and pineapple so that neither dominate. I think the honeybush actually gets in the way here, adding a bit too much of it’s own vaguely peppery taste to the mix, I’d love to try this with green rooibos instead. Despite that however this is the best pina colada tea I’ve come across, another great pick from MissB!
MissB was kind enough to send me a box full of decaf teas after I mentioned I had to be careful with caffeine for awhile and this is the first tea I pulled out. If their all as good a this one then that box of teas is worth it’s weight in gold! Drinking this tea is like drinking a really good hot coco, so silky smooth and sweet! The distinction between peanut and peanut butter cup is apt in that it doesn’t taste of actual peanut butter, but more like the filling in peanut butter cups. I can see why that might detract from this blend for some people, just as some people only eat Lindt chocolate and not Hershey’s. But me, I very much enjoy what they’ve done here. The cheesecake doesn’t come through very much for me, perhaps in the mouth feel or overall creaminess, but not as a flavor note. A tasty (caffeine free) treat for a rainy night just like this!
Another tea from MissB, another winner to add to my shopping list! This tea was so sweet and savory I thought I must have added too much sweetener, but after a second steep I realized the tea is just that good! Very smooth and full of subtle flavor, reminds me quite a lot of Laoshan Black…
Delicious! I’m amazed how much this tastes like its namesake with only a few natural ingredients to pull it off! Very smooth, not too harsh at lemon teas can be, and the flourish of vanilla at the end is perfect! One of the best Rooibos teas I’ve had the pleasure of tasting! Big thanks to Cavocorax for sending a sample to my wife :)
One reviewer nailed it when they noted this tea tastes like angel food cake! That is precisely the taste I get, angel food cake with fresh fruit drizzled across the top! Stepping aside from my feelings on Teavanna for the moment, I do love angel food cake with fruit so this tea was like a low blow from the corporate behemoth. I have to take off points for the added pink dye however, it disappears completely from the second steep leading me to believe it was there in the first purely for effect. Still, for a dessert tea, this is quite tasty…
Another lovely tea from roswell strange via my wife! this one I took to work this morning as a nice treat as I knew it would be a long long Tuesday. I was very impressed with the base black tea in this one, monks blend has such a distinct flavoring that often I think inferior bases are used and covered by too much flavor. Not so here, the tea is the thing here, as I like it, and the various ingredients are blended in subtly so as not to overwhelm the palette. It is a very mellow cup of tea, a nice way to start a chaotic day!
