2916 Tasting Notes
I have been looking forward to drinking this tea for a long time, because I decided last year that it would be the perfect thing to drink when Martin finishes his degree! It was a truly celebratory cup this morning!
This tea really is a burst of fruity sunshine. I think I must have been more contemplative than usual this morning as I sipped it, because I noticed the cinnamon more than usual. There was just a point well into breakfast time – toast with Bonne Maman Apricot and Peach jam – where I felt a warm and cozy feeling like I was eating fresh peach cobbler and I realized it was cinnamon pulling that off. I had forgotten that cinnamon was in this tea and had to look it up to confirm.
I don’t know if I have ever picked up the hazelnut much, but maybe I am looking for Nutella and not just hazelnut. I need to get more familiar with hazelnut flavor.
Congratulations to Martin! Three cheers!
I have never tasted anything that wasn’t an actual banana that tasted so much like an actual banana. Everything banana flavored seems to taste like candy Circus Peanuts or Runts.
The aroma was noticeable but not strong in the dry powder. It was a bit subdued even in the whisked tea. The sip was nutty and roasted and then the aftertaste was exactly as if I had just swallowed a bite of a real banana and was still tasting it. Amazing.
I detected no grittiness in the plain hojicha powder and neither did Superanna. This one did have a touch of texture but it doesn’t put me off from drinking this and I did also prepare it differently. Next time I will use maple syrup as a sweetener and use the Aerolatte to froth it and see if the grittiness goes away.
Since I added six new teas to my cupboard today, I was happy that I was going to get to record a sipdown, only to discover that this tea wasn’t listed and therefore was not in my cupboard, so my total cupboard was not reflecting it. I can’t believe that I am finishing the pouch and have never reviewed this one.
This is a smooth and sweet green tea and the cherry flavor is very similar to Harney and Sons Cherry Green. This makes a fantastic sweet iced tea, tasting like a cherry hard candy. Yums.
This made me harken back to days when I had a drawer absolutely full of flavored matcha from Red Leaf Tea. (Now called Matcha Outlet.)
This was delicious. The cake flavor is spot on and the matcha isvery nice with no bitterness. Good color and good froth. Would repurchase for sure.
Awww I miss Red Leaf, they had so many interesting flavors… :’(
They really did!
I think I had ten or fifteen flavors at a time back when you could earn points with reviews. It was soooo good. I still like their D25 matcha and my daughter drinks it. For a while they would occasionally offer one of their flavored teas in a limited edition. I don’t know if they still do.
Even their “basic” flavors like vanilla were delicious, and without having sugar in them!
Kaylee: you are right! We loved caramel, vanilla, bilberry, and there was some sort of custard dessert flavor that I can’t remember the name of that was sooo good. Really they were all good!
Just checked – they do have a pre-sweetened French Vanilla Matcha available now.
I miss graham cracker! I’m definitely thankful for 3 Leaf, but I hope they continue to add new flavors. Why is there no vanilla or strawberry?!?! :(
Had no idea flavored matcha was a thing! I really wanted to get into matcha, long ago, but never quite fell under its spell like I expected to. What would your first recommendation be for a flavored matcha?
Earthy, nutty, smokey, burnt aroma and flavor that is usually burnt popcorn-like that seems to be common for Japanese tea like genmaicha.
Superanna said it tasted like mud if mud tastes good and she likened it to “next to chocolate” in flavor.
I like it. I have the sampler and will decide which to repurchase after trying the flavors, but I would say this is a re-purchase, especially if it turns out to have the reputed mood boosting effects.
Sipdown 2 for today and 3 for the month!
I enjoy rou gui oolong and love that mineral “rock” taste. I should have realized that the black tea was going to strongly favor that profile, but I didn’t think and made this when we were really wanting a strong black tea for lunch.
It was a good tea, but not what I would consider a black tea, and really if you are craving black tea this probably wouldn’t fill the bill for you. If you are craving a rock oolong, it would.
The color was light even on the first steep. There is no roasty taste like a dark oolong, but rather a rock oolong taste and smoothness with a hint of the extra oxidation that carries it into black tea territory. Just a hint, mind you.
Nice tea, but not one that I would re-purchase unless I wanted an alternative to a rock oolong.
SIPDOWN
This was a nice, light oolong, somewhat creamy and came out a beautiful golden color. We actually had it late yesterday afternoon gong fu but I was so busy and distracted I could hardly pay attention to it. I saved the leaves and brewed them Western this morning for breakfast and the color was so stunning that I took a photo.
Not your usual breakfast tea, but I don’t normally seek huge caffeine hits early in the day anyway, plus I drank a whole pot of it by myself.
February 2 Sipdown Prompt – drink the same tea twice!
I finished a box of the teabags and had requested a bag of loose leaf for Christmas. The bag is far bigger than I thought. I am drinking it for the stress relief it provides and not for the taste, which is rather flat and uninteresting to me plain. I do enjoy it in Bellocq’s Ashram Afternoon but that is considerably more expensive.
I tried it two ways to see if I could dress it up. First cup had Penzey’s Cinnamon Sugar. It didn’t add enough interest and ended up rather gritty, especially at the end.
The next cup was steeped with Penzey’s Mulling Spices. This was much better but I still wouldn’t call it an exciting tea. I tasted mostly clove and I don’t love clove.
I don’t know that I feel much less stressed this time, although sometimes it helps takes anxiety down a notch. I had a sleepless night two nights ago and a busy day today while fighting a headache. Maybe one more cup will do it.
