1711 Tasting Notes
Advent Day 8
Things have been getting busy and I haven’t had time to enjoy tea while taking notes. I steeped this last night while helping the tiny roommate with her school report and explaining the meaning in the songs in Hamilton since she had a song on her playlist. This cup was neglected in the mix and picked back up cold today for notes. I recall not being impressed by this last night and I’m getting the same feeling today. It’s light and fruity with a hint of alkaline at the end of the sip. The finish is almost more fruity than the sip. If I was offered this tea again I’d skip it for another.
And what’s up with the steeping time being 5 minutes on all these teas?!
Preparation
Advent Day 9
What the….? I was so confused by this tea! It says chai, so I expected chai spices and it says breakfast, so I thought hearty chai. Nope. If this was a chai I’d have been disappointed. Then I saw that I had this on my wishlist and was wondering why. Looks like it was in last year’s advent (they have a million teas and this is just the third year they have done an advent… you’d think they wouldn’t have repeats this soon) and RoswellStrange had left tasting notes about it being a spiced coffee tea. My interest is peaked again. It’s definitely hardy! I had been getting bored with all the ethereal light and fluffy teas in this advent and then MF answers my boredom with something heavy. I do get some spices. It reminds me of a light version of a strong cinnamon tea a local brunch place is known for. It has the depth of coffee, but not in the overpowering way coffee has. It’s hard for me to taste the spices on the sip, but the end and finish let them out more. As it cools the spices come out more and light coffee is more discernable. I’m tempted to add cream and sugar like I’d have in a chai or coffee, but I’m also afraid I’ll ruin this. My intuition was right. I hope I never defile a cup of this like that again. At this point I probably wouldn’t buy this tea, but I’d happily have another cup of it.
Preparation
Advent Day 7
My tea timer didn’t start, so I way over steeped this before suspicion about the amount of time passed set in. This tea seems very forgiving to that. I had released it from the bonds of the tea bag it came in and the leaves had unfurled significantly making an odd blueish brown steeping. It smells very fruity, but I can’t pin what fruit they might be. I can’t taste any rose, but as my cup cools I get the tang of rose petals on the sides of my tongue. This tea tastes like it is all high and mid notes, which makes it seem very airy and light. I think I’d like it better if it had low notes to ground it more. It’s another perfectly fine tea that isn’t quite to my tastes.
“low note” – that’s a good way of describing what these fruity oolong teas are missing! A different oolong grade or variety would likely do the trick.. a roasted or red one maybe?
We haven’t heard from her in quite a while, but terriharplady used to post here frequently, and her musical terminology (low notes, bass line, minor key) precisely defined what she was drinking. I’ve stolen her descriptors from time to time.
Yes, terriharplady had wonderful music related tasting notes! I do miss her and a few others on here :)
I remember that name! I read a book on essential oils long ago that described mixing scents with high, mid and low or base notes to get something well rounded and that idea creeped into my tea notes. Funny that base notes in perfume are interchangeable with the idea of bass notes in music!
I don’t know much about oolongs, but a roasted one sounds like it would be nice in a tea like this!
I’ve also seen “listening to incense”. I don’t know my essential oils or incense well, but the core ingredients/flavours cross over so much with tea.
Yeah, a roasted oolong profile can have a lot of those “base notes” – like vanilla, and woody/spicy/earthy qualities, as well as a thick natural sweetness like honey. I think they’re sorely underutilized in the flavoured tea world :P
Advent Day 6
This is a fairly mellow orange tea. I’ve had some that have a very bold orange flavor and this one is moderate, but well done. It has a light sweetness to it. Angelic is a good description of this since it is so light and ethereal. The flavor is balanced well with the tea base. This is a good tea, but it’s also boring. A one trick pony that is very well trained, but gets old. I would not buy this tea.
Preparation
Advent Day 4.
This has got to be the most mellow non EG EG I’ve had. It’s like EG light. There is a grassy/has flavor behind the light ethereal berg. It’s blue, but I don’t know I can taste the pea flowers which is good because they might make an intriguing looking tea, but they taste like dried peas which is never a flavor I look for in my cup. The start is almost fruity, the finish gets a strange taste and feels dry with maybe a hint of honey. Actually, the dryness starts mid sip wish is such a weird things to wrap my mind around. This is interesting, but not one I’d choose again.
Preparation
This is supposed to be a toffee chestnut tea, but all I can think of is pecans. Freshly dropped from the tree pecans. There is a burnt toffee flavor in the background that gives it a pecan pie flavor to it and it’s nice. I bet adding a little sugar to it would make that impression even more solid. It has a nice depth to the flavors that gets a little bitter when it cools, but it’s not bad. So far I’m pretty impressed with this brand based on the two teas I’ve tried.
Preparation
Having a fresh pecan sounds interesting!
That sounds pretty good! Don’t think I’ve ever had fresh pecans :)
They are the best! I used to think I hated pecans until I lived in a house with one in the yard and finally got to try them right out of the shell. They are delicious and sweet. I guess I had only had pecans that had gone rancid and bitter before.
Advent Day 3!
MF puts steeping times on their teabag tags, but I wish they would include temperature as well. Luckily they have it on their website.
From what I can tell from the two rose teas I’ve had from this company, they do rose really well. It’s a very true to life or scent rose. This tea is light and delicate with just a hint of tea flavor peeking out behind the rose which gently and smoothly dominates this cup. it fades away gracefully towards the end of the sip and just a hint of rose is left on the finish. As delightful as the flavor is I find I get bored with it partway into the cup and wish they would have paired it with another flavor to make the experience more interesting and not all high notes. I like it and I’d drink it again, but I wouldn’t buy 100g of it.
Preparation
Went to a local store today where they usually have an empty shelf in their tea section with tags saying the prices on a variety of Hella Teas and found it was finally stocked! I really wish the HumpTea wasn’t a rooibos because I love the idea of a Digital Underground tea. I grabbed a bag of this and Don’t Gimme No Bammer, which sounded the most interesting out of the selection. Super excited to try these and be supporting a local black woman owned business!
I walked away while steeping this and oversteeped, but it doesn’t seem to have ruined the cup. It’s been making me think of bananas and I think that is because of a similar flavor profile to one of August Uncommon’s teas that has banana. This has a light smoke and cognac flavor to it. I’m getting some bitterness when it cools, but it’s well balanced while it’s hot. I think I’m really going to like this one once we get better acquainted.
Preparation
Advent day 2!
This tea steeps up to a nice aqua grey blue. I had to switch to a clear glass to fully enjoy looking at it. Unfortunately it tastes like faded fruit nothing. Like the 2nd or 3rd steeping of something stronger and more interesting. It’s a smooth nothing, but none of the flavors are strong enough for me to even guess what they were supposed to be.
Preparation
There wasn’t a sample size of this on the site and I felt pretty confident this would probably be good enough to buy a tin on instead. I may have been wrong. My tastebuds might be ruined from vanilla teas like Black Orchid from Mariage Freres and The A La Vanille from Theodor. This falls very flat compared to those. The vanilla is light, weak and one dimensional, the black tea is flat and cardboard like. My mouth is left feeling dry after each sip. There is no finish. I feel really silly having bought this tin. Reading over tons of glowing reviews of this tea leaves me feeling baffled that so many love this stuff so much!
Preparation
Maybe use it to blend with other teas?
(also, that’s how I feel about having purchased Boston. Still hoping I will find a way to love it.).
Serve it to unpicky guests :P mwahaha ^^
I never loved this one like others seem to either.
There is a neighbor kid who likes it, so maybe I’ll pass it off to her if I can’t figure out a way to enjoy it. I think I’ve ordered Harney once before and wasn’t super impressed. I thought I’d give it another go, but so far I’m having the same impression as before.
So far, I have been impressed with their straight tea blends. Flavoured teas not so much.
I only love this one loose leaf. Years ago, JacquelineM discovered that storing the pound bag upside down led to better distribution of the vanilla bean specks. A lot of teas, I think, are suffering because of vanilla bean prices skyrocketing, This tea used to be full of bean specks and had a caramel flavor from so much vanilla, i bought a tin of sachets at Target and it was a great disappointment in comparison.
Thank you for this tidbit, ashmanra. I bought a sample with my H & S order. I’ll store it upside down. The potential loss of true vanilla bean in our lives saddens me.
I wonder if this tea has permanently gone downhill. I’ll try the upside-down trick!
I had no idea about vanilla prices going up! It’s a fascinating plant. I used to have one, but didn’t have room to let it grow. The plant takes ten years to reach fruiting maturity and the beans take a year to develop from what I recall.
Tiny roommate duty sounds kinda fun!
I actively ignore their suggested steeping times :P