133 Tasting Notes

This sample courtesy of Fong Mong Tea – thank you!

Steeped 3 grams of leaves for 6 minutes at about 187º. This produced a lovely honey-gold colored liquid. I can smell the roasted veggies, and the taste reminds me of roasted asparagus. Delicious! There’s a slight coolness that fills my mouth after the roastiness subsides – fun!

Resteeped at 190º for another 6 minutes the roastiness is still here, but a tad less so now.

The third infusion is probably where I’ll draw the line. The taste is still there, but falling to the point where I won’t peruse it more.

Thanks again to Fong Mong Tea for sharing a sample of this tasty tea!

Preparation
185 °F / 85 °C 6 min, 0 sec

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

Thank you to QueenOfTarts for swapping this!

This smells like powdered hot chocolate in the bag. There’s a crazy amount of cacao husks in here, but I’m sure that just adds to the decadence.

Brewed at the below parameters and it smelled just as good. Upon inital taste sans additives, it tastes like chocolate rice. Not sure why, but it did. Like a very chocolatey rice pudding that was less creamy and sweet.

But add some sweetener and a bit of creamer…. OMGcrazy good! And it’s made even more awesomer (urban dictionary!) by the fact that it’s caffeine-free! I already have plans to stock up on this for winter because this might be all I drink outside a good strong morning cup.

Preparation
195 °F / 90 °C 8 min or more

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

My first attempt at this may have fallen a tad short. I didn’t read the brewing instructions on Steepster before making my initial cup. Too little leaf and not brewed long enough!

The second cup with more leaf and less water and a longer brewing time (see preparation details below) turned out much better.

Upon opening the sample package from Fong Mong Tea, I notice how long the rolled leaves are – unusual compared to my other black teas. Almost a fruity smell wafts from the bag.

The brewed cup is a nice clear-reddish color. The liquid is earthy, with a slight sweetness. There’s a smoothness to this tea – no sign of bitterness.

This really does hit all the checkpoints that I’m looking for in a black tea! It’s delicious without additives (and that says a lot coming from someone who regularly defaults to throwing in a dash healthy dose of sugar and creamer)! Once I clear out my tea cabinet of the “other” morning tea, I’m putting in an order for this!

Thank you for the wonderful sample, Fong Mong Tea!

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 4 min, 45 sec

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

I bought a couple of samples of this when I placed my first Golden Moon order a little over a week ago. Never having tried it before, I didn’t know if I wanted a tin of this hanging around.

In anticipation of my order arriving I was reading up on the teas that would eventually find their way to my front door. I found a recipe for tea eggs using Lapsang Souchong ( http://steepster.com/discuss/14-cooking-w-slash-tea?page=5 ) and knew I had to try it as soon as the tea order arrived.

I tore into the small sample package and scooped out the tablespoon’s worth of tea. Regret of not buying a full tin washed over me – this is deliciously smokey; as in bacony and barbecue-y.

High hopes for the tea eggs were in order. 6 hours later, I tried the first one. The egg had a slight smokiness to it! YUM! I could see myself going through the trouble of using tea eggs as smoked deviled eggs sometime.

I have to try the other sample of this properly, as a beverage. Regardless of whether or not I like drinking it, I’ll probably acquire a tin of this if nothing more than to cook with!

Preparation
Boiling 8 min or more
Vortegne

I want to try this so badly, still waiting for mine to arrive from Tea Vivre

Bonnie

I love LS! If you read any of my notes for China Lapsang Souchong from Happy Luckys or Teavivre there are probably recipe ideas that I’ve stuck in also.I steam veggies with it in the water!

Will Work For Tea

Yes, I have read those! Looking forward to trying those out too! :)

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

drank Tropicalia by DAVIDsTEA
133 tasting notes

Rationing the sample Amanda shared with me until my DT order gets here….

Wanted to log this tea cocktail to share. Brewed this up strong and put it in the fridge to chill overnight. (Sorry, I went a little willy nilly with the measurements this time.) Put in a little simple syrup, milk and coconut rum – HOLY COW! This is scary good!!!! Will do this again! :)

Preparation
Boiling 8 min or more

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

My allergies are getting the best of me. I really should not be as tired as I am, but a day of multiple deep sneeze attacks and a productive cough are making me feel worse… And I want some hot tea to comfort me, even though I really can’t taste it.

I tend to crave this when I don’t feel awesome. I like it for quite a few reasons. It’s caffeine-free, has great zip and it’s cheap, so I don’t feel guilty having some when I can barely taste it.

Preparation
Boiling 8 min or more
Barb

Sometimes just the scent of this tea after brewing can straighten out my sinuses. Hope you feel better soon.

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

Thank you Amanda for this sample!

This smells really sweet right out of the bag. There’s a pretty mix of sprinkles and small pearls of what I’d guess is the freeze-dried ice cream.

3 tsp in 6 oz boiling water for about 3:35. The resulting liquid is halved – one for trying hot, the other over ice. Both versions look dirty. There’s sediment at the bottom that looks to be vanilla bean seeds and floaty stuff at the top, kind of looks like the top of lake water.

Brewed, the liquor still smells sweet. It tastes sweet as well. (I didn’t add sweetener to the cup.) This tastes similar to liquified ice cream with a vanilla bent.

The cold version is less tasty for some reason. I don’t think I over iced it, but I’m finding the flavor a little lost. I (shamefully) added more sugar to the iced version which helped it out in the flavor department. Will probably get this, but in a small size and especially for the winter.

Thanks again for sharing Amanda!

Preparation
Boiling 3 min, 30 sec

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

Another new tea! Seriously though, I really have to stop buying tea. I’m in job limbo right now and playing Russian roulette with my bank account by buying tea. Grrr… I have no self control.

Anyway, I had never seen this brand before. I bought it after consulting Steepster while in the tea/coffee section of the grocery isle this morning, but really the words “Italian Almond” sealed the deal for me. I pretty much love anything almond-flavored and Italian, well… I’m pretty sure if I hadn’t married my husband, I would have sought out an Italian man.

The first thing I noticed upon opening the foil wrapping of the “20 luxury leaf bags” was the smell – amaretto filled the nose. So far so good! The tea bags bugged me a little. They felt like dryer sheets, which to me belong in the dryer, not my cup. After brewing a bag, it became even more weird. Kind of like a tough cocoon. That part I’m trying to not dwell on…

This is not a complex cup. Someone likened the taste to almond syrup, and I’d agree with that having added sweetener to it before even trying it. The taste is not strong enough for milk on it’s own, but maybe if it were brewed double strength it’d be alright. (I’ll try this sometime.)

So the tea itself is pretty good – not fantastic, but I like it and would probably pick up more, especially at 24¢ a tea bag!

Preparation
Boiling 4 min, 0 sec

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

drank Tropicalia by DAVIDsTEA
133 tasting notes

Oh, wow – this is tasty!!! Very piña colada-eque and my first DT so we’ve started off on the right foot!

I actually had a hard time not eating the fruit pieces before I steeped. It smelled so sweet!

4 oz of boiling water with 2 tsp of tisane, steeped for 10 minutes. Iced, sweetened and added a tiny bit of cream. The taste is good, maybe just a touch lighter than I like, but that’s easily remedied.

Thank you to Amanda for letting me sample this! I can see this as a summer staple in my cupboard/fridge! :D

Preparation
Boiling 8 min or more
momo

Watch out, the downward spiral into too much DavidsTea is imminent, most definitely with this one! The messages aren’t working for me so I wanted to let you know I got your teas, and thank you SO much for the ATR milk oolong sample, totally made my day!

Will Work For Tea

Good to know – I’ll watch out for that. :) And you’re absolutely welcome!

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

Thank you so much to Amanda for this sample – it’s been something I’ve been wanting to try since I found the 52teas website not long ago.

This smells really great in the bag – a nice smooth blueberry aroma. Brewed 2 tsp in 8 oz of near boiling water, steeped for just over 3 minutes and 20 seconds. I can smell the blueberries as I’m straining out the leaves. I’m pretty excited and am having a hard time waiting until the drinkable temperature of 135º. Pre-sweetener, this is a really good cup – I can drink this without sugar. Definately taste the blueberry. I’m finding a smoothness to this cup. Added sweetener mid-cup and – BAM! – there’s so much more blueberry flavor to be found. Delicious!

Resteeped in 6 oz of boiling water for 4:30 and the flavor is waning, but still there. The creaminess is gone, mostly just blueberry

Looking forward to playing around with this a little. Thanks again, Amanda!

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 3 min, 30 sec
Vortegne

Oh, blueberry. I sure want to try this one :)

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

Profile

Bio

I’m a native Midwesterner (Iowa, specifically) who was happily uprooted to California twice. SoCal is what I consider home, even though I currently don’t live there. I hope to return home again!

Tea has really come to fill the void of my current displacement. My husband & I (with our two tiny weenies) moved to Indiana hardly knowing a soul. It’s been a tougher transition for me than I’d thought it would be. I have amassed a cupboard of teas to keep me company until I feel more familiar in my newer surroundings.

I will refrain from giving numerical values to teas because I am a faddist. My likes and dislikes are constantly changing. Flavored blacks are what I gravitate to the most. Having said that, I do enjoy a wide variety of teas – you name it, I’ll try it. I may not like it today, but I might revisit it later and love it.

Flavor note: I prefer my teas to be bold in flavor. I am starting to come around to drinking tea without additives. But I do like to dirty my tea with rock sugar/simple syrup and sometimes with half-n-half/milk. Unflavored greens are unsweetened, but flavored greens I usually add rock sugar. Lately I have been favoring flavored guayusa and matés.

Location

Indianapolis

Following These People

Moderator Tools

Mark as Spammer