1500 Tasting Notes

drank Golden Monkey Black Tea by Teavivre
1500 tasting notes

Smells like my ideal tea: thick, malty chocolate with hints of apricot. The taste doesn’t disappoint.

Might be my all time favourite black.

I can’t rate or out in details in my phone, so…

Organic Golden Monkey Black
2 heaping teaspoons in 12oz water
Boiled and cooled to 89C
Steeped Western style, 5 minutes – I lost track of time, and it shows in the brew. Boo.

Flavors: Apricot, Chocolate, Creamy, Malt, Thick

Preparation
2 tsp 12 OZ / 354 ML

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92

Brewed, this smells faintly of milk chocolate and malt and little else. Drinking it, it’s surprisingly sweet, creamy but thin, feels astrigent on my tongue but I taste zero astringency, just smoothness. It’s striking how smooth this is.

I used 4 balls with some leftover threads for a 12oz cup, and this seemed perfect. Compared to the other (much larger) ball of Moonlight Dragon Ball White (Teavivre) that I drank alongside this, these pearls unfurled almost instantly. Mind you, they were much smaller, the circumference of my pinky finger maybe, but not as woven as the white tea.

As I can’t use the dials on my phone:
90C, 3.5 minutes Western style, 88

Flavors: Creamy, Malt, Milk Chocolate, Thin

Preparation
5 g 12 OZ / 354 ML
Cameron B.

I adore this one, wonderfully smooth and malty with nice cocoa notes. So nice as a morning cuppa.

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85

The tea, brewed, smells malty, thick, sweet, like figs or apricots. Tasting it, it’s slightly astringent, full, sweet with a hint of apricot and more than a hint of chocolate, vanilla, something like cardamom but not quite. It’s a lovely, lovely tea, and unlike most white teas I’ve had. I could drink this all day, every day.

One dragon ball = one cup of tea. It was surprisingly large, and so about a quarter of the tea didn’t steep, because it grew too big in the steeper! I can’t wait for the second, third, fourth steeps to see how it evolves.

As I can’t list the details on my phone:
90C for 3.5 minutes, first steep.

Flavors: Apricot, Astringent, Cardamom, Chocolate, Creamy, Fig, Sweet, Thick, Vanilla

Preparation
5 g 12 OZ / 354 ML
Cameron B.

Love moonlight white teas! And every time I steep a dragonball, I never get it to unfurl all the way, even after multiple steeps ha ha. They’re very compressed!

tea-sipper

MissB! Good to see you back on steepster! (I’m a month behind on reading notes.)

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38
drank Maple Chai by DAVIDsTEA
1500 tasting notes

Grabbed this in an order I’d made as a sample tea, hoping it would offer up as delicious as sampling as it sounded.

First, the smell. It’s DIVINE. Like hot maple syrup; I’m assuming this is part of the flavoring added, because there’s no way it could come just from the maple sugar. Regardless, I could sip this all day.

I made this as a heavy cream latte, knowing it had more than enough sweetener in it for me to drink it as is. I took a quick sip before adding the cream – and wasn’t a fan.

I should note – I LOVE chai. I’ll drink it all day, every day if I can. Cinnamon-heavy is never an issue for me; I note this because I saw Roswell and Kitenna both mentioned it, but I didn’t think it was overkill.

What I didn’t like – initially and after adding cream – was the aftertaste.

Okay, I don’t like apple pieces in my tea, so I’m sure that’s part of it.

But the ‘natural’ and artificial flavorings were off. It left a sour, bitter taste in my mouth, and the only reason I finished it was due to the smell.

I really wish DT would label their flavorings with more detail. Until then, though, this is a hard no for me.

Flavors: Apple, Bitter, Cinnamon, Maple, Sour, Sweet

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

Could definitely be the flavouring – but to me it sounds like the sour/bitter note you’re describing better fits the roasted chicory in the blend. Regardless, sorry this one was a miss for you!

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drank Nopal Tea by Time 4 Organic
1500 tasting notes

I’m unsure why I didn’t rate this tea when I drank it. Likely because it was given to me in exchange for a review, and, I found I’m allergic to it.

So…. on that note, can’t really review this tea, other than to say it gave me hives within a few minutes of drinking it.

From what I can remember, it reminded me of unsweetened aloe drinks.

Which is too bad, because I liked the idea behind the tea – cactus leaf to lose weight, and an old folk remedy.

Preparation
Boiling 4 min, 0 sec 1 tsp 12 OZ / 354 ML
tea-sipper

Ah! No fun.

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82
drank Steninge Julte by Steninge Kompaniet
1500 tasting notes

This Swedish Christmas tea is the bomb!

My current housesit in Manchester’s homeowner instructed me to ‘drink all the tea’ so she can make room in her cupboard. Yay! As soon as I heard ‘Swedish Christmas tea’, I knew that would be my first sip.

I wasn’t sure what was in this, but I trusted from the smell of the loose leaf all would be well. I wasn’t wrong!

I’ve had a lot of Christmas -themed teas, and I think this is my favorite of the bunch. It’s a light black tea with chai spices and then the addition of orange peel, which seems to be the mainstay of Christmas teas everywhere. It’s smooth, light, yet very flavorful. Okay, okay, I love chai teas, so this is no surprise. But not all chai teas work. This one does.

I think I’ll be drinking this a lot over the next two weeks….

Flavors: Orange Zest, Smooth, Spices

Preparation
Boiling 2 min, 0 sec 5 tsp 24 OZ / 709 ML
gmathis

“Drink all the tea?” What a job assignment!

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82

I love me a flavored white tea… when done right.

The first time I had this, I remember thinking it didn’t taste enough like anything in the name of the tea. So this time, I brewed it two different ways, to see what I could get out of it.

Pot #1: 190F water, steeped for two minutes.

Pot #2: 170F water, steeped for four minutes.

Pot #2 won by a long shot!

Pot #1 tasted a bit flat, I couldn’t tell texture, flavor, anything really. Pot #2 though, yowza, that’s some toffee in my tea. Hot toddy? Well, not so much, but I’m sure I could have changed that if I were drinking these days.

I’d definitely grab more of this in the future (if I didn’t have so much tea to drink already), and steep it longer, at a lower temperature.

Oh, and it held up to heavy cream + stevia. Now THAT was divine.

Big thanks to Brooke + Bradford for gifting me this tea in exchange for an honest review!

Flavors: Spices, Sweet, Thick, Toffee

Preparation
170 °F / 76 °C 4 min, 0 sec 2 tsp 20 OZ / 591 ML
Sil

sounds great! (for a white tea) haha hope you’re having an amazing time with your next set of adventures

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80

Last year, Brooke and Bradford sent me several glass vials full of tea for me to try. (Look at my Instagram for the pictures: http://instagram.com/teatravelninja).

While I didn’t get a photo of this specific tea, I’d say it was my favorite. Sadly, it’s no longer for sale, and/or has a different name (I can’t tell which). New name? Deep & Steep Winter Chai.

I love white teas. Truly love them, especially if they have some body to them. Either as a light-as-a-feather pineapple/coconut blend, or a dark and smokey white tea. Well, or the white teas that seem like black teas…

Okay, okay, so I like white tea. :)

This white has body. It’s light, and yet, full and luscious. The cardamom comes through smoothly, and the spices are an added punch. Not too much of one, though. It’s subtle.

Honestly, I love my chai’s bold and spicy, but this one? It’s more for a mellow, winter day. Yep, perfect for Montreux, Switzerland, where I am today.

Flavors: Cardamom, Ginger, Spices, Thick

Preparation
190 °F / 87 °C 3 min, 0 sec 2 tsp 16 OZ / 473 ML

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80

Phooey, this is the last of this tea.

Warm, it doesn’t taste like much. There’s a faint hint of something, but I found it challenging to get it to come out. With stevia, it shines ever so slightly.

But with cream? OMG. Yes. YES. YES!!

It’s divine.

I like the darker color of this tea, and when I steeped it overnight, and then gave some to my partner to drink, he said, “I thought I was drinking alcohol for a second”.

He doesn’t drink alcohol.

I’d definitely buy more of this tea, and especially so if it comes in one of the little test tube / glass vials again. Okay, so that’s not a ton of tea, but… I love the presentation.

Flavors: Pumpkin, Spices, Thick

Preparation
Boiling 8 min or more 3 tsp 16 OZ / 473 ML

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Bio

A few years ago, the obsession with tea started. The cupboard got bigger and bigger, more swaps occurred, group buys, secret rendezvous with local teapassionistas… and that’s how you end up with 500+ different kinds of tea in your home. At one time.

Almost all of the tea was given away, sold, or otherwise shared. A few relics still remain. I now travel full time with only two carryon bags to my name. One quarter of those bags are tea.

It’s still a challenge to avoid the chipmunk-like hoarding of The Teas, yet, the lightness of being from having so little compels me more.

If I have enough, I’m happy to share. If I’m in your area, I’d love to swap, meet for tea, and explore together.

As for the day-to-day stuff, I’m focused almost entirely on Love, (yes, with a capital L), Spirit/Self, transformation, travel and my writing and speaking work.

What kinds of teas do I normally like?

YES: flavored teas, fruity, dessert, chai, and spicy (REALLY spicy).

A FONDNESS FOR: all white teas, malty black teas, any herbal or medicinal teas, strange/weird teas you can only get in one place.

ALLERGIC TO: strawberries, lavender

DISLIKES: any added sugars, grains, lapsang souchong, and overly floral teas – I might enjoy a Jasmine Green every once in a while, but unless it’s a creamy floral tea (think roses in a chai, or the smoothness of a floral note in a French tea), I’ll likely pass. Earl Greys are a hit or miss with me; heavy on the cream or fruit notes and I might like it, heavy on the blergamot and I definitely won’t.

http://instagram.com/teatravelninja

http://teatravelninja.com/

Location

Canada

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