788 Tasting Notes
Steep Information:
Amount: 1 teabag
Additives: none
Water: 150 F hot spigot water, 1 mug full
Steep Time: a little over 3 minutes (using Steep.It)
Served: Hot
Tasting Notes:
Dry Leaf Smell: candy cane, mint
Steeped Tea Smell: mint, spice
Flavor: minty
Body: Medium
Aftertaste: warm spice
Liquor: light translucent yellow brown
Still have my head cold, so smells and tastes may be more potent than described. I am not picking up the orange or vanilla. The cinnamon and clove come in more toward the end, as the mint hits you first.
Now that I hunt for it, I can bring out the orange, not getting it strongly though.
This tea does as advertised and does bring to mind Christmas (with all the mulled drinks and cookies and candy canes).
I would say you need to want a mint tea, and like mint tea for you to enjoy this. The tea does bring in some spice to the end but it’s a complimenting note and not the main flavor.
Post-Steep Additives: none
Preparation
Steep Information:
Amount: 3 scoops
Additives: none
Water: 12 ounces filtered boiling water
Steep Time: a little over 6 minutes
Served: Hot
Tasting Notes:
Dry Leaf Smell: strawberry, floral
Steeped Tea Smell: citrus fruity
Flavor: sour berry hibiscus
Body: Full
Aftertaste: citrus sour berry
Liquor: deep dark opaque red
This is my first tea from the Steepster Traveling Tea Box!
This was the first interesting herbal I came across while unpacking the box and decided that I needed to be trying a tea as I selected my new teas.
I was expecting much more strawberry and kiwi and less hibiscus based on the name, luckily I like hibiscus because the tea was a hibiscus tea with strawberry and citrus flavors. I didn’t really get the kiwi flavor, but I am also recovering from a head cold.
Post-Steep Additives: none
Resteep: weaker, less sour, but still a strong hibiscus and berry tea, I won’t try another steep though.
Preparation
Steep Information:
Amount: 5 teaspoons
Additives: none
Water: 1 teapot filtered boiling
Steep Time: a little over 5:55 minutes
Served: Hot
Tasting Notes:
Dry Leaf Smell: militiajim: caramel amazonv: floral
Steeped Tea Smell: citrus, floral, vaguely fruity
Flavor: lemony, fruity, dry
Body: Light
Aftertaste: citrus for a moment
Liquor: translucent reddish brown
Thank you SoccerMom for this gift.
I have a head cold and have slept through the past two days entirely. I hate wasting vacation to sleep but I didn’t have much choice. As a result I can’t hear, smell or taste very well and I’m woozy. So take this review with that in mind. Usually we prepare this with sugar and jasmine pearls. Being sick i was not in the mood to fuss with anything, nor to have caffeine so I decided to try this plain. MilitiaJim made it for me so I didn’t sneeze on it.
The tea had a lot of particulate in it – not a bad thing, just a note, we were using a mesh wire infuser basket.
I enjoy this more with sweetener and the jasmine pearls, but I think it might just as well be improved by sweetener and iced.
Post-Steep Additives: none
Resteep: too tired to try
Rating: 2/3
Preparation
Steep Information:
Amount: 1 teabag, 3.3g including paper teabag and plastic wrapper and paper tag.
Additives: none
Water: 6 ounces filtered boiling
Steep Time: a little over 3 minutes
Served: Hot
Tasting Notes:
Dry Leaf Smell: Amaretto
Steeped Tea Smell: tea
Flavor: black tea
Body: Medium
Aftertaste: Very bitter
Liquor: nice translucent brown
This was one of two samples I ordered from design a tea. The tea was lackluster and smelled much stronger and interesting and delicious than it tasted. It tasted weak and plain with a lingering bitter aftertaste. I didn’t even steep it as long as the packaging suggested.
Post-Steep Additives: none
Preparation
Steep Information:
Amount: 2 teabags
Additives: none
Water: 12 ounces filtered boiling water (my pottery friends mug is 12 ounces)
Steep Time: a little over 7 minutes
Served: Hot
Tasting Notes:
Dry Leaf Smell: dark chocolate bar, nutty
Steeped Tea Smell: mate, chocolate, nutty
Flavor: weak watery chocolate
Body: Light
Aftertaste: chocolate
Liquor: dark brown, you can’t see to the bottom of the mug
When I opened the canister I wanted to eat the bags right there and then! I have gotten used to The Republic of Tea’s “powdery on purpose” tins, so the cloud of coco dust didn’t surprise me and I certainly don’t mind chocolate wafting through the kitchen.
I was very excited for this tea, I had been expecting so much from it. What I got was a weak coco, like when you make the “prepare with milk” coco packets and accidentally make them with water.
I added the bags back in per some other reviews.
Next time, 3 bags, and maybe some milk.
Post-Steep Additives: none
images: http://amazonv.blogspot.com/2010/02/republic-of-tea-teabag-mate-tea-double.html
Preparation
Steep Information:
Amount: 5.1g (it was too hard to spoon measure)
Additives: none
Water: 1 teapot (2c) full filtered boiling, then let sit to 165 degrees
Steep Time: a little over 2 minutes
Served: Hot
Tasting Notes:
Dry Leaf Smell: grassy
Steeped Tea Smell: grassy
Flavor: watery, vegetal, but smooth, maybe a little nutty?
Body: Light
Aftertaste: bitter, vegetal that lingers
Liquor: transparent with a green tint
I got this as part of a sample set from Life in Teacup.
I failed to follow directions and left the lid on (http://www.lifeinteacup.com/brewing-tea) the water was too cool, and perhaps I should have steeped a bit longer sigh. I am not even sure if i used too little to too many tea leaves.
Overall it was the weakness of the flavor and the bitter aftertaste that are turning me off. At first you sniff and there is the hint of grass. The you sip and you get smooth water…then grass/vegetal…and if you look hard enough this slight nut flavor comes out. Then you swallow, and you get this bitterness coating your tongue. The bitterness fades and you entire tongue seems to have a sheen of vegetation on it, it’s a fuzzy feeling.
Post-Steep Additives: none
My blog with images: http://amazonv.blogspot.com/2010/02/life-in-teacup-loose-leaf-green-tea-zhu.html
Preparation
i tried resteeping, hotter water, longer, it tasted a bit stronger but still too acidic, i tossed it, i think i ruined those leaves, i have enough for 1-2 more cups – anyone have any suggestions on how not to ruin them?
I’m not particularly familiar with this type of tea, but with chinese greens [this looks like a chinese green to me?] I typically cool the water further and steep shorter to see if that gets rid of any lingering bitterness. I’ve had to go down to 140F before. I’d probably try 155-160 for 1:30, but I’m not positive that will help, unfortunately. Best of luck! Hopefully someone who knows Zhu Ye Qing will drop by!
thanks, i’ll try much cooler water next time, i’ll have to wait until i’m not all hopped up on cold meds so i can taste it though!
Steep Information:
Amount: 1 teabag, 3.7g including paper teabag and plastic wrapper and paper tag.
Additives: none
Water: boiling filtered
Steep Time: a little over 5 minutes
Served: Hot
Tasting Notes:
Leaf Smell: nutty amaretto (contamination from other sample) vanilla with a slight caramel undertone
Tea Smell: rooibos, vanilla, woody
Flavor: rooibos
Body: Light
Aftertaste: caramel
Liquor: nice dark brown, fairly transparent
This was one of two samples I ordered from design a tea. The tea was lackluster and smelled much stronger and interesting and delicious than it tasted. It tasted weak and plain.
At this point I am not very enthusiastic about the second sample I got, but we’ll see.
Post-Steep Additives: none
Resteep: very weak and watery, plain rooibos, hints of vanilla in the smell and aftertaste
Preparation
Steep Information:
Amount: 1 teabag
Additives: none
Water: 1 flavia cup from hot water spigot
Steep Time: a little over 3 minutes
Served: Hot
Tasting Notes:
Leaf Smell: Raspberry, grass
Tea Smell: raspberry and a funny citric tinge
Flavor: raspberry, slightly vegetal
Body: Full
Aftertaste: citrus, grass then sweet, short lived
Liquor: deep red, barely translucent
I got this from Janefan as a gift, based on my other experience with the green and white tea blend from celestial seasonings I didn’t have high hopes for this tea, but it surprised me and tasted like a solid herbal tea. The green and white teas get lost under the raspberry. I think this would be excellent iced.
Post-Steep Additives: none
Preparation
I haven’t tried it iced either, although I think I have another package around (CS used to give away free samples all the time!). I’ll have to try it iced, maybe next time my mother comes over. The raspberry is a bit intense when hot!
my mom uses royal raspberry packets (about 10? 12?) to make a pitcher of iced raspberry tea (plus some lemon and sugar) in the summer and it’s delicious, i think these are a pretty good substitute – except those are herbal and these have caffeine – so i guess it would just depend what time of day you wanted the tea :)
Sounds good! I’m wishing it were summer already… then again we drink Southern sweet tea daily around here so it’s not like I need to wait if I don’t want to!
resteep fail, don’t bother
Steep Information:
Amount: 1 teabag
Additives: none
Water: boiling filtered 1 – 8 ounces, and 1 – 12 ounces
Steep Time: a little over 6 minutes
Served: Hot
Tasting Notes:
Leaf Smell: sweet, floral, woody
Tea Smell: floral, sweet
Flavor: woody, dry, floral – not sweet not bitter
Body: Medium
Aftertaste: sweet, but short lived
Liquor: transparent reddish orange
I can’t taste the hibiscus at all, and am disappointed. I enjoy hibiscus. I think it might do well next time with some sugar or honey. As far as other red teas I have had this is not among my favorites and I don’t plan to buy it again. It is well executed (packaging, quality, amount) but doesn’t have enough pizazz.
Post-Steep Additives: none
Preparation
Steep Information:
Amount: 1 teabag
Additives: none
Water: 1 flavia cup full of hot spigot water
Steep Time: a little over 5 minutes
Served: Hot
Tasting Notes:
Smell: sugar cookie or shortbread cookie, vanilla
Flavor: citrus, sugary
Body: Light
Aftertaste: butter, shortbread
Liquor: golden honey, semi translucent
Gift from janefan, I have a feeling the air got to it a bit as the smell was weak and everyone else seems to have been hit by a string smell. However, the taste and aftertaste were truly a sugar cookie, very delicious! I am so glad I got to try this tea. My coworkers seem to love it too.
Post-Steep Additives: none
