Uniquity Send Message

I got this as a sample in my box of teas from LiberTeas on teatra.de and am finally getting to it. In my ongoing effort to manage my stash, the beau and I have been drinking a lot of teas that we only have a small amount of (or don’t really like) to try to cull the numbers a bit. There was just enough in this sample for a good sized pot, so we went for it.

Steeped in boiling water for 2.5 – 3 minutes, this yields a deep brown liquor with a honeyed black tea aroma. It smells sweet and appealing, though not of strawberries. First sips are a nice sweet black tea with a hint of fruity something behind it. Almost like a jam flavour, and it is a thicker mouthfeel. The black tea is nice and unassuming, not too brisk, bold or malty. Frequently I have an issue with 52Teas black tea base, but this works, so far.

I have never had zabaglione, but am loving the jamminess I get while this tea is hot. Having just googled zabaglione I don’t really know why I am getting jam flavours, but that’s okay. I can tell already that this is a tea to enjoy hot because as it cools the typical bitterness I experience in 52Teas black teas is coming forward (which I hate!) All in all, this is lovely while hot but the bitterness just isn’t my friend. I am considering sweetening this to mask the bitterness, but I don’t like making additions to my tea. Ah well, it was nice to try!

EDIT: Added a bit of milk about halfway through the cup to cut the bitterness. With milk, it’s a bit more bearable in terms of bitterness, but it also masks the hint of strawberry I was getting. Now it tastes almost as if I have a generic orange pekoe tea with some milk thrown in, and a bit of something sweet/fruity. Disappointing.

This is another very old sample that I had purchased from The Tea Brewery about a year ago. Finishing it off and finally writing a tasting note. I didn’t really pay attention to the look of the tea before I steeped it, but afterward it is clear that this one has hibiscus in it. It is very red, and probably a bit over-steeped as I didn’t notice there was hibiscus.

The taste of this is berry, but not specificly apple. There isn’t much sweetness, but nor is there much tart from the hibiscus. I’m guessing there was only a touch of hibiscus for colour more than anything else, but it seems incongruous to have hibiscus in a “sweet” apple orchard blend. This was another disappointment, but I could chalk that up to age. I really need to kee cleaning out some of the older samples in my tea stash. It still amazes me how quickly time flies!

This tea is an older sample that I purchased from the Tea Brewery’s stall at the Market, and I am finishing it up today. Apparently I have not made a tasting note for it before and I honestly don’t remember anything about it, so it’s just like starting over! I steeped this about five minutes in boiling water. The liquor is fairly yellow and very mild in aroma, as was the loose “leaf”. The smell and taste are not very present, possibly because it’s age. I get a hint of something appley, and this is enhanced when I have a few almonds as a snack to pair with it. The beau finds this quite pleasant but I see it as a disappointment. It was too bland to be interesting and not really worth absent-mindedly sipping. If nothing else, at least another sample bit the dust! :)

Another bubblegum tea… I held out a lot of hope for it at first, the aroma was very much like an orange creamsicle, and the first few sips even alternated between bold (yet sweet) orange and a vanilla creaminess but as the cup started to cool it began to taste like bubblegum. Now I can’t get any flavour or aroma out of it other than bubblegum and I am pretty bummed. I like orange teas, but I find it difficult to get one that tastes good. Not much else to say about this, it’s pretty forgettable. I would rather have more bagged Twinings African Honeybush Mandarin and Orange than this one.

So long, suckers! All in all, this was a Davids Tea miss for me. I found it fairly disappointing and the flavours did not meld in any way I appreciated. The juniper and mint were interesting, but combined with apple, etc, it ranged from okay to gross. I think that removing the apple might have made it better, but I can’t be sure. I find DT is going overboard on ingreients latley (last year or so I have felt this way) and they need to rein in a few of their blends and really make a solid tea before I lose heart.

A quick note: I brewed this last night at 80 degrees (and I know this because of my variable temp kettle!) and this was a totally different cuppa tea. I got the green tea very bold in the foretaste, almost cinnamony and then a hint of lime in the background. I do prefer the lime to be a bit more bold (as I find it is if brewed at slightly higher temps) but this was interesting. To taste mostly green tea and not hate it was a big step up for me. It did make me feel slightly nauseous (as I find green teas and puerhs do sometimes) but I might be ready to give green teas a shot sometime in the next few months. As long as they don’t make me nauseous, cuz nothing is worth that.

Also, a complaint: I wish the water temperature scale didn’t just move in 5 degree increments in fahrenheit. It is impossible to get some of the exact numbers I use in celsius (my kettle works in five degree increments in celsius).

Here’s another that smells sort of unpleasant (too strong, really) while dry but actually is nicely flavoured when steeped. I don’t know what I was thinking when I bought a tin of this, but I did. The dry smell is over-whelmingly cinnamon, which is something I have grown to have very little tolerance (and even less appreciation) for. Luckily, when steeped the cinnamon is much less present. I get a hint of slightly bitter black tea and then some muted cinnamon on top of that. Though there are other components floating in the tea, they are not coming through in taste. As it cools, the tea is becoming more bitter and making me wish I had some honey.

I think it will be a bit of a struggle to finish this tin, but at least I have definitely learned to better know my tea tastes over the past few months. I have gotten much better at resisting the urge to buy tea just because there is some in front of me (though I still have my moments). As much as I want to support my local tea shops, I have been finding the quality lacking, of late. Verdant Tea has spoiled me!

Well this is ALL wintergreen this time around! The black tea is hiding under the bold mint flavours, but somehow it all works out. I do get a toothpaste/mouthwash association, but surprisingly it isn’t bothering me. If anything, the dry aroma is my least favouite part of this tea but somehow the bold wintergreen tastes “just right” in conjunction with the other mints and the tea. Not my favourite, but nice to have in the arsenal for days when you get sent to switchboard and have headaches from needing new glasses.

This is not vanilla. It’s barely even chai, honestly. On first smell, this is not super appealing. There is a whiff of vanilla in the aroma, but none of that translates to the taste. Instead I get a bit of astringent black tea and some mild chai. No spices really stand out, but they do work together nicely as a cup you don’t really have to focus on too hard. If this astringency could be eliminated it would be a much nicer cup, but this is okay, as is. This is yet another oldie that I am going to try to force myself through. I need more tea turnover!

To be fair, my stash of this is getting on in age (1 year? 1.5?)but today’s cuppa was just not great. There was no bergamot, and only a light hint of fruit to mask the black tea that went bitter despite only being steeped 2.5-3 minutes. I am thinking that a slightly lower temperature or a bit less leaf than the recommended 1 tsp. might help things, but I’m disappointed that it needs help at all. I am guessing that my evaluation of this today reflects the changes that my tea tastes have undergone over the past year and a half or so. I went through my tea shelves yesterday and am trying to use up some of my older teas, many of which just aren’t my favourites anymore.