Sanctuary T

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drank Chili Rooibos T-Dust by Sanctuary T
2977 tasting notes

sprinkled a bit over some otherwise bland guacamole to add a bit of heat and maybe a touch of sweetness. Awesome!

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drank Chili Rooibos T-Dust by Sanctuary T
2977 tasting notes

I’ve used this twice now but I keep screwing it up by putting it overtop of something more powerfully flavored:
1) in MD crab soup (vegetable soup w crab meat) but I had already put a bit of Smoky Black T-dust on it, and the soup had some spice too, so I couldn’t discern the red tea dust.
2) Tonight I put some on my pizza, but I’d already added dried red pepper flakes before baking it, so I have no idea how much of the heat/flavor is coming from the t-dust.

I’ll get it right one of these days… In the meanwhile, I’m glad I bought the green & red flavors when they went on sale. The new lids are great. And the Smoky Black with it’s intense aroma is perfectly happy in the more airtight older lid.

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85
drank Serenity by Sanctuary T
4843 tasting notes

Backlog:

I enjoyed this lovely “nighttime” blend … which I call a nighttime blend only because of the chamomile and the lavender, which have very calming effects on me. It is a very calming tisane. The peppermint was very rejuvenating in its own way, though. Minty, citrus-y, and delightfully floral. A really nice, soothing blend.

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75

Backlogging

Experience buying from Sanctuary T http://steepster.com/places/2940-sanctuary-t-online-new-york-new-york?visit=1642

I got some of this at the end of 2011. I don’t like it as much as Village Tea Co.’s Sweet Grace Vanilla Rooibos (I love the vanilla in that one), but as I like red rooibos, I like this tea: the rich aroma, the deep red color, the tobacco-y taste.

I find the pricing structure of this tea at SanctuaryT to be interesting. It’s $10 / 2 OZ, and $24 / 8 OZ. So it drops from being $5 / OZ when you buy 2 OZ, to $3 / OZ when you buy 8 OZ? I haven’t seen that big a spread on the price for buying only six ounces more anywhere that I can remember (SpecialTeas had a reasonable discount for buying two pounds over buying four ounces—I think it was 25%, but that makes more sense to me, because I’m buying a lot more). Don’t get me wrong, I like that we get a discount for buying more, something just doesn’t smell right to me about that pricing structure. And the prices on all of herbal teas I checked (at least seven across different herbal types) are all exactly the same price; that seems odd to me, too.

Even at $3 / OZ it’s not a very good price for an straight herbal rooibos tea (I think you can get it for about $2 / OZ elsewhere: I just checked and Culinary’s is $5 / 4 OZ). I don’t get it; unless we are being charged a premium because they are based in NYC. … When I went to post this I realized it’s organic (It’s not a part of it’s name on their website, but now I see the Organic trademark at the bottom of the description). Can it being organic make THAT big a difference in the price? I just checked again, and it looks like most of their herbal tea are organic, but not all. The Chocolate Honeybush is not organic (at least its not labeled as so), and it has the same price structure as the rest. What’s up with that!?

Pricing aside, I have determined that I like red rooibos; so the question now is, will I like green rooibos?

Preparation
Boiling 2 min, 0 sec
Azzrian

I like red rooibos – I think I may like green more though.

Missy

I think green rooibos is more mellow and mannerly. Upton has a nice flavored green. If you like pear and cream, this may be a nice introduction to green rooibos. I have very little left so I can’t share at present. When we get some more, I’ll be happy to share.

http://www.uptontea.com/shopcart/item.asp?itemID=BA04&from=search.asp
SimpliciTEA

Thanks for the comments.

Missy: Thank you for your kind offer to share your stash with me (when you get more), and for the link. $6.80 for 125 grams does sound like a good price on that BA04: Green Rooibos Poire Creme you provided a link to. That pear and cream green rooibos looks and sounds good, and yet I actually prefer to start with the ‘pure’ version of a tea the first time I try it. Still, that one is on my radar, now, and later I plan to see what their price for the pure stuff is (assuming they have some). I do appreciate hearing all of these good things about green rooibos, as I tend to like things that are green anyway!

Missy

Heh I’d send the last of it to you, but I know you brew in a large pot and like to share with your wife. There just isn’t enough for that. :(

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75

Backlogging and based entirely on my memory

Experience buying from Sanctuary T http://steepster.com/places/2940-sanctuary-t-online-new-york-new-york?visit=1642

Date of Purchase/Age of Leaf/Date of Steeping/Frequency Drank: Bought at the end of 2011; no harvest date provided on website; started drinking it almost daily from February 2011 to some time in April of 2011.

Appearance and Aroma of dry leaf: About the same of the other two Gyokuros I’ve tried: small, dark green leaves that look almost like leaf ‘shavings’; strongly vegetal.

Brewing guidelines: three full TSP dry tea for every six ounces of H2O (this stuff is really dense); glass Bodum pot with metal infuser/plunger; stevia added; my standard Japanese-green times and temperatures; three steepings (I usually brewed the third at 180F for 2 minutes which seemed to work out well, especially when I blended it with a Chinese green tea).

Color and Aroma of tea liquor: A somewhat cloudy bright green color; vegetal/grassy aroma.

Flavor of tea liquor: One of these days I’ll have to sit down and figure out how to describe the difference between ‘grassy’ and ‘vegetal’, but for now let me say that Japanese teas seem to have a flavor profile that differs from Chinese green teas in that they seem to be more grassy—a taste some don’t go for as it comes across a little bolder than Chinese greens do. Although I prefer the taste of Chinese greens, I did like this one: it had a flavor that was about as grassy and sweet as the other two Gyokuros I’ve had.

Appearance and Aroma of wet leaf: Standard ‘grass-clippings’ look, strong grassy/vegetal aroma.

Blends well with: This tea actually blended reasonably-well with a Chinese green on the third steeping.

Value: I bought eight OZ of this at 50% off (making it $25 / 8 OZ); at that price it was worth it to me; but at the regular price I’d much prefer to go with Den’s Tea or some other tea retailer that specializes in Japanese teas.

Overall: As Gyokuro is purported to have a high content of theanine in it, I started using H&S version of this tea as my work-morning green tea last year (2011). When I ran out of the H&S version, I began brewing up this one. It’s been over a month since I finished off the last of it, but overall it was about as good as the H&S version (the H&S version may have been slightly tastier). This tea is not worth it to me for the price, but still I’m glad I had a chance to experience SanctuaryT’s version of Gyokuro.

Preparation
160 °F / 71 °C 0 min, 45 sec

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64
drank Forget Me Not by Sanctuary T
2201 tasting notes

I had been so into using samples lately that I forgot that I had ordered this tea but never tried it. This was one a blend from Sanctuary that I hadn’t seen before other places (although a quick search yields this one also being sold by Praise Tea), and I like cranberries and roses, so I thought I would take the risk. By risk I mean I have tried some of the other flavored blends they offer from other vendors, and I haven’t been crazy about them.

The dry leaf on this one smells like fake fruit flavored candy and cough drops, which is pretty typical for low- to mid-quality flavored teas, especially greens. I suppose it also smells like cranberries, but in a weird way. I went with a 2 minute steep since they recommended 1-2min, and I’m glad I did. Maybe I should go with 1 min. The steeped tea also has that weird cranberry smell that is really familiar but I can’t place it. It doesn’t smell like cranberry sauce or cranberry juice, but maybe a little like dried cranberries? I don’t know, it has a kind of fake feeling to it. Maybe it’s the cranberry combined with the rose that’s making it odd? The rose doesn’t really stick out individually, but if I think about it I can parse it out of the flavor. The end of the sip has a pleasant, light sweetness followed by a tartness that lingers in my mouth and is very reminiscent of having eaten a dried cranberry.

I dunno, maybe it’s just that as much as I like cranberries, cranberry tea is not my thing (I haven’t had one before), or maybe it’s the cran/rose combo, but as much as I do have a sense of eating dried cranberries, I also have a slight medicinal aftertaste as well. And I think part of it is that a lot of fake fruit flavoring just ends up tasting like fake cherry flavoring to me, which I am not a fan of. Yeah, somehow this does come out tasting like cherry candy. Bleh. It might just be a thing with me because others have tried the Praise Tea version and enjoyed it; I think I am getting super picky about my flavorings, especially the fruit ones. I guess that’s a good thing, but it does mean I am amassing a collection of 2oz pouches of teas I don’t want to drink. :P

Preparation
175 °F / 79 °C 2 min, 0 sec

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