37 Tasting Notes

90

Have had to wake up a little earlier than I’m used to lately – exhausted and not looking forward to hearing my clueless professor talking about her personal opinions and biases instead of how to write a paper correctly, I’ve found solace in taking this to class when I’m not feeling up to pretending to enjoy listening to her insane babbling.

After having gone through for more bags of this tea, I think that I can make a few inferences; one, the tea bag is absolutely fat and stuffed with tea, and two, this tea is wonderful, warm in taste, to me, comforting, and impossible to steep for too long. Even for the size of the tea bag, you can get a surprising amount of good steepings from one bag. When I’m tired, annoyed, or if it’s late and I need to stay awake, one cup of this is great incentive to keep going.

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 4 min, 0 sec

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55

Steeped this bag once before to get acclimated to the taste.

And it seems that every tea from this brand that has a fruity flavor to it is, indeed, artificial. Sigh

I’m not really sure what to say on this one – on the first steeping, a lot more of the green tea came through, making the artificial taste a lot more forgiving on the tongue. The second steeping, however, betrays its artifice, as the green tea has really left the building. This is probably due to two facts – the anemic size of the tea bag itself, and the size of the “travel mug” that I’ve been steeping it in, which is a bit large and pretty filled with water. At any rate, this tea’s resonating flavor on the second steeping is this artificial blueberry taste that was light and forgiving on the first steep through. I’d say this one is good for a single steep – a light green tea with a tickle of false blueberry – but toss the bag out on the first steeping.

Jeez, Boston really needs to get its fruit-flavors in line – probably done best by incorporating actual fruit into the bags.

Preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 4 min, 0 sec

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55

Got 8 small tea bags with this flavor in a large hexagon-shaped “sampler” with twelve different teas in it. I picked this one out from the pack first, because it looked the tastiest for the moment.

Didn’t exactly get to pour purely “boiling” water over it, but it infused just fine before I took the tea bag out. I drank it cool, a little pre-occupied with a game I just got, along with the sampler at the mall, and found it to be delicious, without any sugar needed.

I haven’t yet had a chance to drink it hot, but this sweet-smelling tea reminds me less of mango than a mango/pineapple blend, and somewhat tastes it, despite the “artificial” flavoring used in the bag itself. Again, I just wish that there had been no need for the “artificial” in this tea, but what can I say – at ten bucks for ninety six tea bags with twelve varieties, I’m not finding much at all to complain about. A sweet-smelling – and somewhat to a less degree, tasting – drink that I think a kid would especially enjoy.

Update – Made a few more cups of hot tea from the first tea bag. I found that I could steep one small bag and make around five flavorful small cups of tea. I tried it with sugar, and it actually seemed to make it taste slightly more unpleasant. Not sure I would buy this particular tea again; the artificial flavoring in the tea puts me off, and it’s not even all that great of a taste. It’s not all that “un-fruity”, but doesn’t quite seem right, as it does not have any actual real fruit in it and I believe that the taste reflects that.

Preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 3 min, 0 sec

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35

Steeped it for a while, it turned a lovely dark brown. Smells a little strange; not lemony, per se, but – and this is gonna sound weird – a bit like that sickly sweet smell that you get when you leave some soda out for days. Yeah, not too pleasant.

Drinking it, it’s a bit of a shock, when you’re expecting lemons or even, say, raspberries. I don’t know what this flavor really is, other than it’s not, um, too pleasant. It’s drinkable, if you’re not focused on it, like you’re working on something else at the time, but if you’re trying to enjoy yourself and you are not a fan of heavy, tartish, spicy flavors in your tea, you might just want to try this one out in a sampler. I mean, at least CS tried to make a different kind of tea, but it isn’t pleasant tasting, at least, to me.

Preparation
185 °F / 85 °C 4 min, 45 sec

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80

Still as tasty on the second steeping as it was on the first!

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80
drank Lady Grey by Twinings
37 tasting notes

Talked in the Discussions about this tea earlier today, and while I was out returning borrowed material to the library and the video store I bought a pack of this and Twining’s Darjeeling at my local Kroger. Wanting to take a chance with some loose leaf, I was shocked that upon searching my tea aisle for loose leaf varieties, I literally found none.

A little disappointed, I went home and tried the bagged version of this blend.

The smell is light, even after having steeped for the full five minutes and the color is dark. I can taste the black tea in there, under some citrus, fruitiness, and a pleasant, refreshing aftertaste that I can’t put my finger on. I was worried, when I notice that in the ingredients list it lists artificial flavoring, so that does reflect in my final score for this drink. Eh, to me, tea is supposed to be pretty damn guilt-free, and having artificial flavoring kind of takes away from that aspect.

Steeped this twice more, still tastes great, new rating reflects that.

All in all, a yummy tea, and one that I would have paid a bit more for, just to have it minus whatever the “artificial flavoring” was. I think it could have stood up well enough on its own without the artificial stuff.

Preparation
195 °F / 90 °C 5 min, 0 sec

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80

I had to be a bit more gentle with making this cup of tea than I’m used to. Because of the gentle care I had to take to infuse this tea, I was worried that the flavor wouldn’t be much of a pay off. Taking the first sip of tea, however, I can see that I had nothing to worry about.

I won’t lie, I got this tin at T.J Maxx, mainly for the pretty tin that it came in. Don’t judge me. When I got the deal home, I started to worry about the actual quality of the tea I had bought. I didn’t want a flavorless cup of tea, so I allowed the tea bag to infuse for thirty seconds longer than the instructions told me to. Tasting it, I can see that I probably could have gotten away with just letting it infuse for the two minutes that the instructions said to do..

I was afraid that it would taste gross, artificial, but drinking it gives you a good blast of white tea and, as the title suggests, pomegranate.

Unlike the last two cups of tea I ended up dumping down the sink, this tea doesn’t need a sweetener to make it drinkable. No; even though I am sure that it would enhance the already yummy flavor, it is still great to drink as is, freshly infused.

I’m not the biggest fan of white tea, but I still love this tea. I think I would enjoy tasting this brand’s other Ceylon teas as well, and it was a great idea, after all, to buy the tea and not just the cool tin it came in.

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

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32

Yup, this brand warranted a look. As a college person on a budget, it’s important to not overlook the cheapest and the most easily accessible drinks available. Well, at least its gotta be better for me than a coke, right? Right?

Stuck my nose in the cup after it finished infusing – made me a little disappointed, as the tea smelled, I dunno, a little artificial. Which is a shame, as tea is one of my favorite smells.

Tasting it… Well, let’s just say that you get what you pay for, unless you just want a black tea to use for sweet iced tea. Don’t bother steeping more than once, and use a lot of these little bags for a jug of sweet iced tea. Don’t even bother using it for a hot drink with no sweetener.

Preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 5 min, 15 sec

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72
drank Earl Grey by Stash Tea
37 tasting notes

Opened up the foil packet, and the smell of the black tea and the bergamot kinda whacked me in the nose. Wow, is it strong!

Boiled water and milk and mixed with sugar. I allowed it to steep for the full five minutes in a large batch of liquid. The smell is wonderful and it colors the milky water like light chocolate milk.

The flavor is definitely strong – I am glad I listened to the other reviewers for this tea and I added milk and sugar. I can definitely taste the bergamot in this, and it adds a very interesting flavor to the black tea. Adding the milk really brought the citrus out, while at the same time gentling it ever so slightly.

While not my favorite taste per se, it is pleasant to drink hot.

Preparation
Boiling 5 min, 0 sec

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48

Cut the bag open to let it steep free in the water. I don’t mind swallowing peppermint dust.

Some background – I got turned onto Stash by the person I consider to be my true grandmother. I have to say, when I realize more and more that this brand is really no better than Kroger Private Selection, with the added insult of smaller tea bags, I start to feel sorry for my deceased gramma, and wish she had been able to save money on Kroger’s store brand tea, or at least on Celestial Seasoning’s own spin on this tea.

Disappointed, because of its lack of strength. Am drinking it cold, and frankly, it tastes a bit like toothpaste. I mean, it is really cooling, but it is lacking severely in any real flavor.

I got a bunch of dust sitting on the bottom of my cup like so much sludge, and no real flavor to show for it, after I paid a bit more for less tea from a brand I was taught to trust.

Preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 8 min or more

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