243 Tasting Notes

51

So this is a unique black tea blend, in that:
1. I would never have thought to blend chocolate covered strawberries with coconut and cinnamon and this tea has not made me think otherwise.
2. It can definitely only be steeped once – the second time the flavor has flattened out and you only taste cinnamon really.
3. It does not make a difference if it is sweetened or not, it tastes the same: I drank this hot, with no sugar, then hot with sugar. It did not seem to be any better with or without the sugar which is concerning and means I probably need a lot more sugar to taste a difference which I do not want to do.

Overall, there is a blending of flavors here, you can smell the cinnamon, and you can taste the Valentine’s, but there is something else there, a coconut to dull the two (cinnamon and Valentine’s) and blend them smoothly together. This is decent if drank hot without anything added to it.

Once it starts to cool, different flavors take over, you can taste more of the coconut as it cools and less of the Valentine’s. This becomes a sort of Valentine’s aftertaste, which I am not enjoying so much.

Then by the second steep you lose most of the coconut and are left with cinnamon and a Valentine’s aftertaste.

For these reasons, I have to “meh” this tea, it’s not bad, but it was not strong enough to hold up to my other flavored black teas.

I will continue to play with infusion times and blends with ingredients to see if I can improve the rating.

Preparation
3 min, 30 sec
Suzi

It sounds interesting. I was definitely curious about this tea, but I hadn’t really considered the coconut/Valentine’s/cinnamon blend before and wanted to read what other people thought :-p So thank you!

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67
drank Masala Chai by Adagio Teas
243 tasting notes

This is a very fragrant and delicious tea. The blend of spices is fantastic, I taste mostly the cardamom and ginger but then at the end of it is the cinnamon. I am not enjoying it cooler, I think hotter was better, but maybe a cold brew or sugar?

I’ll give it a try and update.

Preparation
5 min, 0 sec

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67

Sorry about the picture. It’s not loading properly.

Anyway. I drank this a while back. I remember it being delicate and that the peaches and cucumbers blended well together to make a nice tea. Nothing was overpowering, as I said, delicate.

I will try again for a better review.

UPDATE:
I remembered pretty accurately, the blend is very delicate white tea, I am not sure why this describes the character Jacob, but I am not reviewing the name.

The peony is apparently so delicate, that it is something in the background of the tea you cannot really identify without looking it up. The cucumber and peach are also very light on flavor, but there is blend of two things that are familiar but you would not normally have them together in your mouth, they make up a unique blend of flavor you would once again have to look up to identify.

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75

Here we go.

As stated: I was trying to make Matcha Shots ala Jamba Juice.

So, I also bought from Mighty Leaf the Matcha Green Tea Latte/Frappe Mix. It is Matcha with filler and sugar and directions on how to make Lattes and Frappes. Using a blender, milk and 1 scoop (1 tsp) of Matcha.

I made it in a variety of ways:

1. Using a shaker (to make mixed drinks with the strainer). 8 ounces of soy milk, two ice cubes and a scoop of Matcha. Shake vigorously, strain into glass leaving ice and foam behind.

This was good, though time consuming. Takes too long to do in the morning right before work, but it yielded good results.

2. Using the Magic Bullet, blend two ice cubes along with milk (I have used soy and organic 1%).

This was good, took up less time (so good for the morning before work), but it was very frothy. I was not upset about this, because the froth/foam was cold from the ice and was enjoyable.

3. I tried this the traditional Matcha route. Blasphemous, I know. But I used hot water and blended (because as said, I do not have the bowl and whisk and I did not want clumps). It was still good, probably more so because it had sugar in it, but it was not traditional.

4. Finally, I have gotten this Matcha mix into protein shakes. I am not suggesting you do this, but I am adding it to strawberry protein shakes, which may sound awful, but I like Matcha and anything will help protein shakes.

Overall, a decent product, good because you get a large amount and it is not that expensive. This is because it is not pure Matcha. I may get some attitude about this, but I feel that if you are trying to make Matcha lattes and frappes among other things, and not pure Matcha the traditional way, you do not have spend so much money on expensive pure Matcha and can get this filler one instead.

LENA

I was thinking about getting some matcha JUST for my protein shakes. Great minds…

Cinoi

Absolutely! It is good, I’d like to try it with vanilla protein shakes when I finish up the strawberry.

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75

I have bought this Matcha from Mighty Leaf. It is typical Matcha, no better or worse than any others I have tried. I made it with hot water. I admit, I do not have a Matcha bowl with the fancy whisk, I am not at that level of sophistication with the Matcha. Yet. What I was trying to do was make Matcha Shots ala Jamba Juice.

So, I also bought from Mighty Leaf the Matcha Green Tea Latte/Frappe Mix. It is Matcha with filler and sugar and directions on how to make Lattes and Frappes. Using a blender, milk and 1 scoop (1 tsp) of Matcha. I have a review for that, but it is not on the site yet and I feel bad posting it on another product.

So until then, this was good Matcha powder.

Cofftea

I wish I could enjoy matcha at nite and still sleep.

Carolyn

Me too!!!

Cinoi

I know! I’m pretty lucky though, I can drink anything at any time and it won’t interfere with sleep. (Knock on wood.)

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70
drank Almond Biscotti by Teavana
243 tasting notes

I was concerned about this tea because it is described with “especially tempting” when sugar and milk are added, as if the tea itself needs additions in order to be good. This was not necessarily true. Personally, I do not like adding milk or cream or any form of dairy to flavored teas because I think it interferes with the flavor. I will add some sugar to help sweeten and brighten flavors, but usually not dairy.

That being said: the tea brewed by itself (no milk or sugar and hot) is good, it is a strong black tea flavored with almond and cinnamon. The combination (black tea, almond and cinnamon) can be a little bitter and I see why sugar is suggested, however it was overall decent.

So I tried it with just sugar. This combatted some of the bitter, but it was still there. Unfortunately, I found the sugar addition to also remove some of the almond flavor and then found a strong tea, with slight almond flavor, but predominantly cinnamon.

Finally, I gave-in and tried it with sugar and milk and I have to say it was still decent, however by this point I was getting almond/cinnamon aroma and less taste of the two.

Overall, I do not think that the adding milk and sugar is necessary for drinking this tea. I can see the marketing idea of making it more like a cookie, but I think this is a decent tea by itself, you do not need to fix what is not broken.

Enjoy.

Preparation
2 min, 30 sec

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65

This was my other free sample from Mighty Leaf. On first taste and smell, it reminds me of the Tetley tea. I am drinking it hot with no milk or sugar and enjoying it.

This seems to just be a plain black from the Darjeeling region that they made an organic version of. Plain, yes, but good.

Preparation
5 min, 0 sec

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62
drank Tetley Tea Bag by Tetley
243 tasting notes

This was my everyday tea for a really long time. Still kind of is. Decent, quick, convenient. Unfortunately, I rarely, if ever, drank this for the tea taste, I always added milk and sweetener because it was to wake me up and get the morning going.

I always oversteeped this, I was definitely looking for a darker tea here.

Preparation
4 min, 45 sec

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67
drank Rainforest Maté by Mighty Leaf Tea
243 tasting notes

I chose this tea as one of my free samples with my Mighty Leaf order. I was hoping to find a new mate. I did NOT however read too deeply into the description (bought the tea by its tea bag, if you will) because if I read “rose petals” and especially “licorice” I can assure I would have avoided this tea all together. However, even with my distaste for two of the main ingredients, I tried it and was pleasantly surprised.

The tea itself smells like it is heavily spiced before and after brewing. This smell continues when drinking it, the aroma is almost overpowering, not off-putting, but strong. However, when actually drinking it, the spices along with the licorice, pineapple, rose petals and mate all blend together so that nothing is overpowering, but smooth and delicious.

I drank it hot with no sugar. I will try and resteep the bag, as Mighty Leaf teas can usually be resteeped. I feel that sugar can only make this better, but I am curious to see how much better.

Preparation
4 min, 30 sec

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99

I should start by saying that I truly got into green tea when my college roommate came home from study abroad in China. She brought home a few bricks of green tea and we spent the rest of college (1.5 years) drinking green tea sunk to the bottom of a cup of hot water. This was crude, but it was college and we were obsessed. When the bricks ran out, we ran to Teavana and chose Dragonwell as our replacement. I have been drinking that as my green tea since.

Recently, I was introduced to this tea and I have been won over. It is a delicate tea with gentle flavors, similar to a white tea. It is fantastic. I highly suggest getting a sample to try for yourself. I have been sharing the joy of this tea since I got it with all of my tea drinking friends and family and everyone has thoroughly enjoyed it.

(Drank hot, no sugar necessary)

Preparation
180 °F / 82 °C 2 min, 30 sec

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Profile

Bio

I am a sarcastic perfectionist, a computer nerd, a game geek, an avid reader, a gadget guru, a wine (and tea) enthusiast, and (in my spare time) a chemist.

As I mentioned, I am a chemist, research and development to be exact, so when evaluating tea, it is much like evaluating my products: I will find the flaws and do my very best to fix them because it is what I love to do. Along those lines, nothing is perfect, but can have perfect qualities, I will highlight those also.

I made a preliminary guide to my rating scale:
0-19 – Did not like anything about the tea, feel it cannot be saved without being reformulated.
20-40 – Did not like the tea, it can be saved with extreme amounts of tweaking (i.e., sugar, milk, honey and or blending with another tea)
41-60 – Neutral about the tea, it can be helped or hurt by additives or blends, varied temperatures and steep times
61-70 – Decent tea, needs a little bit of help to get it in the place I like it, but definitely not out of reach
71-80 – Quality tea, liked it, will try again
81-90 – Really enjoyed the tea, high quality, will continue to drink the tea, not looking for something better
91-100 – Loved the tea, will continue to brew and drink and spread the word about the tea to everyone

Location

NJ

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