280 Tasting Notes
So this morning I tried 2 tsp in about 12-14oz water, at 140 or so for 1.5mins. It was actually good! The flavor wasn’t too strong, it tasted sweet, and made me want to make a 2nd cup!
This tea might actually be a fairly decent sencha/low quality gyokuro that is worth it if you don’t want to break the bank. Perhaps those other really bad times were operator error?
Part of the problem is that I think it is fairly delicate, and I either had the temperature too high, or I tried brewing it more to Japanese tastes (more tea, around 3-4tsp, and less water, 6-8oz). When the temp was too high, it was very bitter, and when I had too much leaf, the color turned so dark green and it smelled like grass and dirt/mud it was so earthy.
Anyway, I’ve almost finished this off; I don’t plan on buying it again, but only because there are too many other things I’d rather try first. If I can get it to taste like this again, using the same parameters, then I will raise the rating.
Preparation
Like the other Republic of Tea I’ve had, this also smelled very good. But I have to agree with others here…the idea is good, but the black tea is pretty strong and the expected vanilla almond flavoring barely comes through. I still like drinking it, but in terms of finding a good tea that has vanilla almond flavors, there are probably better alternatives out there…
It tastes mostly of jasmine…at least, I’m pretty sure what that flowery smell and taste were. It is good, especially for bagged tea. White tea, in my experience, doesn’t usually have a very strong flavor, and I think the addition of jasmine was a pretty good idea.
When you open the canister, it does smell very nice…that was probably my favorite part of this tea, though the flavor was very good, relaxing too.
2nd steeping….160 for 30 seconds, was delicious this morning. How can one tea go from being so bad, to fairly good? Operator error I suppose. :)
(If you can’t tell, I’m trying to drink this stuff up…I’m expecting more tea in the next week and don’t want to have too much at once, since it will all go bad!)
Preparation
Tried this a couple of times hot-brewed, never liked it. It had a little too much astringency/sourness, and the lemon flavor was too strong.
However, I recently tried brewing it the shinobicha method, and it was delicious. It was sweet, lemony, very much like lemonade. I think this tea is meant to be drunk iced.
