154 Tasting Notes
I’m pretty excited about this one because I love everything that is in the name! it’s like it was blended for me…. but it wasn’t!
Anyways opened up the pouch and was hit with a very yummy baking cookies kinda smell… which only got me more excited. I made 2 32oz pots with different sets of leaves to check to see how much different rations of bits affect the flavor. AKA… where is the majority of the flavor? In the leaves or in the decoration bits. I’m a curious cat today! And I didn’t put anything in these two pots… so now… drum roll
Pot that happened to get more decoration bits in my 3 and 1/2 random scoops:
Since this had a lot of white chocolate chips I expected it not to need sugar but I think it does. Since I was expected smooth nutty and sweet… and those flavor aren’t as present as I would like… I’m picking up more astringency than I normally do from franks blends. That might just be my taste buds on over drive looking for more sweet and nut flavors…
So yea… plain pot with lots of chips and things… disappointing. I’ll be trying it with milk and sugar later but I really like teas that I don’t have to put anything in.
Pot with no decoration bits!:
Yep… the bits make a difference. The black tea taste is much stronger in this pot. There’s some nuttiness but its missing the buttery smoothness that must have been coming from the chips.
Experiment completed… I’m having this with milk and sugar next.
Preparation
infusion tea might have THE most wonderful shop lay out that I have ever witnessed in person… it’s AWESOME
So I’m working my way up the smokiness green tea chain right now… last bag was a gun powder… so now we are at chunmee style. I like it. Where I feel that gun powders get a little tiring for me ( the way that too much jasmine in a row gets old ) so this is a great in the middle tea.
A little mellower in the smoky earthy category and mellower in green taste too. Some times I get almost a pouchong smoothness… sometimes more like a anji-ish flavor.
Yum. This one is a well balanced one too so depending on what I’m thinking about I’ll get a little more from flavor column A or a little more from flavor column B and I enjoy that. What’s me think about where my mind is…
Which is currently SCATTERED ALL OVER THE COUNTRY. AKA last weekend Orlando… this weekend CT… the weekend after that Baltimore… and then NYC… and then NC… THEN a week off… plus day job. I wonder which city this 2oz will last through…
Preparation
It’s pretty earthy for a green. Every once in a while I even get a sip that screams Pu-erh esque right in my face. And I like pu-erh so it’s fine but yea… really earthy. Nice and mellow to.
Surprisingly thin mouth feel when you would expect, from the earthiness, a very round, think feeling. So I would certify this as a light and airy tea. Not refreshing though since I don’t consider anything earthy as being very refreshing.
All of the vegitality of greens are absent but there is an excellent toastiness which pairs with the earth very well.
Yum.
Preparation
MMMMmmmm I’ve been drinking too many flavored teas lately so I needed this.
This is calm and buttery with some toast and a little bit of flowery sweetness on the end. It’s balanced and has a robust flavor for a white tea.
Is good. I don’t think it’s the best ever but it is definitely better than a lot of silver needles I’ve had.
Preparation
Without sugar this is a more minty rooibos blend with might seem to have some kinda fruit in there some where. Having had another pseudo chocolate tea before I’m again getting some kinda weird banana taste where you’d expect the chocolate to be.
With a pinch of sugar… really one spoon at most… it’s waaaaaaay to sweet. The mint gets covered up by the fruit flavors and the chocolate appears only way back there in a malty milky kinda way.
So without sugar it isn’t really what was advertised but it isn’t bad either. A little odd but I would have a cup again if it was around. It is slightly refreshing and tasty in the very least. I can see how people would be turned away by the odd fruit and mint combo. It didn’t bother me though.
Preparation
I added sugar to this like I normally do when trying rooibos blends and it is very very sweet. So I’m going to try it without sugar before I pass any judgments.
Already I’m not so sure about this one. If there is chocolate in here it seems to be very milky and might be being covered up by the vanilla… and I think there might be fruit in here…
Researching HO!
Preparation
Every once and a while I crave Jasmine tea and I’m on my second 32oz of this one this morning and I want more.
Yes… that is strange. So I’ve been trying to figure out how this tea is different from other jasmines.
The tea base seems a little more toasty sweet than I would expect from a jasmine tea and the base tea also has a very full mouth feel. Taking that into consideration it is probable this one isn’t bothering me after extended sippage because I would drink the base tea alone. I don’t think I can say that for the other jasmines that come to mind. So yea… nice base tea to start.
The jasmine flavor itself has no soapy or over scented qualities and none of the typical mistake markers. Ive even let it cool down to see if any bitter astringency come out and if there is any at all, after letting it sit out for an hour, it is no where near enough to bother me. I really don’t think there is any astringency at all though. ;P
So yea this is pretty solid. For my few and far between Jasmine cravings I need to remember that this is a good one so I don’t go off on more rants when I could have a perfectly pleasant time sipping this one.
Preparation
“Brews a refreshing taste reminiscent of baked pear and orange blossoms with a crisp clean finish.”
BAKED PEAR MY BUTT!
Pear?!? What were they thinking! OK… moving on.
If you like citrusy… bergomonty… tangy… maybe a little hibiscusy.. type flavors this is probably right up your alley.
I don’t get any sweet out of it though… or baked… and it’s DEFINITELY not mellow. But it is a light tangy as opposed to a “I can’t taste anything but tang for five minutes after taking a sip”.
BIG… Bright… lighter/lightish flavor.
And again… this is not resteepable.
This is a really weird tea. It’s definitely stronger than his other black tea blends. Some days it’s really good, other days it’s kind of weird. I think it tasted a bit better when it cooled down a bit.
I think I remember liking it hotter… because of that buttery taste. I’m happy someone else is noticing the differences between the flavors you get from the scoops. I’m almost wondering if you can’t really form an opinion of the teas with bits until you get through an ounce or two. I think i find that very annoying but they all look really yummy.