123 Tasting Notes

51

I’m trying to find this tea on Stash’s website with little luck. I wonder if it’s been discontinued.

I got this teabag in a swap, I believe, and only have the one so this is my only shot to see how the tea measures up. So, of course, the first thing I do is oversteep it. Champagne Oolong is described on the tea bag as a ‘pale golden color reminiscent of fine champagne’ but if I were to pick a color I’d say my tea is more of an amber. Oops. I didn’t even leave the tea in the cup too long, no more than 7-8 minutes? The temperature may have been off, I suppose…

I definitely get a fruity note from this tea. It makes me think of a very faint cherry on the first taste, but as I drink more of this blend I’m refining that opinion to something more along the line of a muscat grape. The flavor left on the tongue after swallowing is more of a vegetal/grassy note.

This is a nice tea. I mean, even for a bagged tea it’s got a lot of flavor. (Perhaps because it’s been oversteeped. >_<; ) It wouldn’t rank a favorite but it’s waaaaay better than the usual junk Bigelow tea bags I find at work.

Preparation
6 min, 30 sec

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67
drank Tung Ting Jade by Teavana
123 tasting notes

My pal that works at Teavana (imabandgeek4eva) picked up a bag of Tung Ting Jade Oolong Tea for me when it was discontinued, which was pretty cool! The very first time I used the leaves, I put a spoonful of little round rolled leaves in my teapot and thought “Gee, there’s no way those little tiny things are going to flavor a whole pot!” and added another scoop or two. Now, if you’ve never had Tung Ting then you’ll be tempted to do the same when you try this – but don’t! The leaves unfurl and expand like crazy in hot water, so when I peeped into my teapot after a few minutes the entire thing was full of leaves and completely oversteeped! >_< Well, live and learn, live and learn…

So when I brewed the tea today, I was careful to use a more reasonable amount of leaves, and I may have gone a little too light because the flavor’s not very strong today. But then, I also took the leaves out after 5-6 minutes instead of steeping for hours and hours, as I sometimes do, so I think this is closer to the “proper” flavor of the tea. It’s light and rather vegetal. It’s nice, but one of the reasons it has taken me so long to log it is because it’s also rather bland/neutral and difficult to describe.

A nice tea. Rather nice with a drop or two of lemon juice, which most oolong teas (in my experience) are not.

Preparation
5 min, 45 sec
Rex Barrett

That’s funny!

Rex Barrett

By the way, I wish I had a friend who worked at Teavana!

Suzi

I was so happy when she started working there :-p It’s funny, she’sthe second or third person I’ve known to work there – I guess it’s a popular part-time job!

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12
drank Brown Rice Tea by Dynasty
123 tasting notes

It tastes like ass.
That’s my initial reaction here.

I mean, I’m not expecting greatness here. This is from the same company that brings you “Chinese Restaurant Tea,” a delightful name for a blend that is pretty decent, actually. But this tastes pretty bad. Very grassy, but not in a good way. This is like the scraps of grass that get blown on the sidewalk by the mower and get trodden on by people until they’re blobby little green smudges on the concrete. Also left out in the sun too long. Yucky and slightly rotten.

I’ve had genmai cha tea before, and it tasted OK, but in this incarnation it’s pretty nasty. This is a teabag, FYI. It was pretty cheap. And it turns out that there’s a reason for that.

GROSS!

Cofftea

Oh my gosh, that reminded me of “it tastes like butt” from my childhood. Which is funny cuz I can’t for the life of me remember what it’s from, what we were talking about, or where we were LOL.

teafiend

As all kids eventually learn to say after “it taste like butt”, why do you know what butt taste like?

Cofftea

The only explination I can give is ya know how sometimes a smell is so strong you can taste it…?

Suzi

I think we can all imagine what butt tastes like, just as all children inherently that vegetables taste like pure evil. :-p It’s just the embodiment of gross!

LutherC

I have to try this tea. I’m going to keep my eye out for it. Although it will be nasty, it seems like an experience that everyone should try at least once.

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100
drank Weight To Go! by Teavana
123 tasting notes

I just LOVE this tea! The combination of strawberry and mint is so refreshing and light. It’s a perfect iced tea, which is how I usually get it made by Teavana’s barista.

Several of my coworkers have commented after drinking this tea it helped ‘clean things out and purge the system’ but this was usually only after drinking 2-3 cups. I’ve never had any noticeable effects on my food processing, but then I’ve never drank that much in a single day, either.

Rex Barrett

This tea seems to get high marks. I have a gift card and will probably try it out. Maybe we all need a bit of a “purging.” haha

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90
drank Formosa Nut Oolong by Teavana
123 tasting notes

A sweet, nutty oolong. I never really picked up on the fruitiness of the blend that Teavana claims is present, but then Teavana also claims this will help me diet ‘naturally’ and I haven’t seen any evidence of that, either. Crazy ol’ Teavana.

When I used to order this at Teavana’s drink bar, I’d always get it slightly sweetened because the barista had a tendency to scorch the leaves. Now, when I drink it at home, it never needs any additives. It also oversteeps well, for those of us with a tendency to abandon our tea leaves for extended periods of time. The flavor gets richer and deeper but never overwhelming.

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93
drank Melon White Tea by Lupicia
123 tasting notes

This is such a lovely ice tea. I mean, it’s practically melon juice – I can barely taste the tea in this – but mix it up with some milk and tapioca pearls and it is a perfect summer drink!

Right now, in the middle of November, it’s still quite nice when it is hot and milkless. Today I totally oversteeped it – I put the tea leaves in, went upstairs to watch a documentary about Haunted Savannah, and came running down the steps half an hour later to save my tea – and it tastes fine. It’s as honeydew-sweet as ever, with just the slightest bitterness from the overheated white tea leaves, but that only serves to help balance the flavor even more. Yum yum yum, it’s like a taste of summer.

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

It’s rare to find a white tea that’s that forgiving of over-steeping. And it sounds delicious too! :)

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71

So honestly? Guanabana tastes exactly like what it sounds like – the marriage of guava and banana. It’s a tropical, fruity black tea. It’s also rather sensitive. When I steeped the leaves for five minutes, the tea had a nice balance and pleasant flavor. When I steeped the leaves closer to ten minutes (webcomics can be so distracting) this cloying musky note that I associate with guavas overwhelmed the brew.

Trivia fact: “Guanabana” is also known by the name “soursop,” but there’s nothing sour in the flavor so I’m betting that’s why Adagio went the other route.

When steeped for the proper amount of time, I could taste the creamy banana-like notes blended with a bright pineapple – sweet and slightly tart – and a dab of that guava flavor. (Y’know what sucks? I’m trying to think of words to describe the flavor of guava but I’m coming up with nothing besides ‘sweet’ ‘tropical’ and ‘musky.’ Help?)

It’s quite lovely, but finicky, which is a problem for me. I am a very careless brewer.

Preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 5 min, 0 sec
Angrboda

I have a sample of this one too. I found it really hard to review it because I haven’t got the faintest idea of what guanabana is supposed to taste like. I found a picture of the fruit, but apparently it gets overripe so quickly that transporting it all the way over here to be sold is impossible. I’d never even heard of this fruit before.

Tiegster

I grew up in the Philippines with soursop growing in my backyard. Very strange fruit with a very strange consistency. Guavas are one of my favorite fruit. Now I’m interested in sampling this tea. Thanks for the review.

takgoti

I know of soursop from something, but I can’t remember what and now it’s going to drive me nuts. Something from childhood. Sesame Street, maybe?

Anyhow, webcomics FTW. Which ones do you read?

Suzi

Angrboda – I’d never heard of it before, either! Reviewing it was awkward because of that, so I just tried to think of other fruits that were similar to what I tasted. But I wonder how much of my opinion was influenced by the fact that I thought guanabana sounded like guava-banana, so I expected to taste it because of that.

takgoti – I actually don’t have too many I’m reading at the moment, but I don’t read every day so I tend to do a week’s worth of story in one sitting.
So let’s see…Something Positive, Questionable Content, No Pink Ponies, xkdc…I think that may be it. A lot of the ones I used to read regularly have stopped updating, and I was too lazy to seek out new ones. What do you read? :D

teafiend

@takgoti and Suzi DINOSAUR COMIC ARE WHERE IT IS AT.
I also over steep everything, even with a timer.

teafiend

THERE IS SUPPOSE TO BE AN “S” AT THE END OF “COMICBUT I FORGOT IT.
Also, Dr. McNinja is made win.

takgoti

I don’t check online comics too often either, but mainly whatever my friends link me to, Garfield-minus-Garfield [if that counts], and Penny Arcade. PA has always been a bit of a mainstay. Sometimes I’ll check CTRL-ALT-DEL, PvP Online, or VG Cats. [I’m very video-game-centric, if you can’t tell.]

@teafiend I have seen some VERY funny things come out of Dinosaur Comics! [That could be dirty.] Anyhow, I’m adding it to my comic bookmarks so I don’t forget. I’ll have to check out Dr. McNinja.

teaplz

Perry Bible Fellowship is hilarious, if not a bit un-PC. Actually, pretty un-PC. But really, really funny. Dinosaur Comics is awesomesauce to the MAX. Garfield Minus Garfield is really melancholic and sad. I read PA and VG Cats occasionally as well (I’m big on my video games too). xkcd is great.

teafiend

@teaplz ooo Perry Bible Fellowship! I haven’t looked at that one in forever.
Gah, I’m going to have to look over all my old webcomic bookmarks now

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3
drank Blackcurrant Breeze by Twinings
123 tasting notes

Bleagh! Ugh! YUCK!

I don’t know what I did wrong but this is just nasty. Blackcurrant Tea smells about right – fruity and rich – but it tastes AWFUL. I can’t even describe the yuck, except that I don’t want any more of it.

I can’t believe I’m taking another sip, but I’m trying to figure out why I think it’s so nasty. It just tastes bad. Almost sour and earthy. It honestly makes me think of vomit. Maybe that’s just my body telling me what it wants to do if I don’t stop drinking it.

At any rate, ugh. I don’t like this tea at all!

Preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 4 min, 0 sec
Jillian

My guess? -the dreaded hibiscus. It’s used (or rather over-used) as a flavouring agent in a lot of fruit teas made by larger tea-bag companies like Stash and Celestial Seasonings. Basically it’s a cheap way for them to semi-replicate ‘tart’ fruit flavours.

Suzi

Ugh, I hate hibiscus. :( I bet you’re right!

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29
drank Peach Black Tea by Twinings
123 tasting notes

For a bagged supermarket tea this is not bad. It has a strong peach scent when brewing. The drink itself is mild. I’d compare it to a bottled Snapple Peach Tea. The black tea element is there, neutralizing what would otherwise be a heavy, syrup-like sweetness, but it is not the dominant flavor.

I’m drinking this hot, but I think it would work better as an iced tea. It’s nice.

To borrow some phrasing from my work, if this tea were a gift it would not be a “WOW AMAZING I’LL REMEMBER THIS FOREVER” gift, but it would be a “nice gesture.”

Edit to add: As this tea is cooling down, it’s getting a rather dusty note in the aftertaste. It’s weird and kinda gross. D: Knockin’ that rating waaaaaaay down!

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61
drank Tricky Treats Black Tea by SBS Teas
123 tasting notes

‘Tricky Treats’ is a Halloween limited edition from SBS Teas. I don’t believe it was available this year, or if it was it came and went so quickly that it’s no longer on the website! That’s rather too bad, as it makes it hard to provide information about the tea, but I’ll try my best.

So in my bag of this blend I can see black tea, flowers (chamomile would be my best guess?) , little chocolate candies, cloves, cinnamon, and candy sprinkles. There’s also random chopped up bits of this and that, but I don’t know them by sight.

This is a sweet tea. It reminds me a little bit of a mild cinnamon candy. There’s the familiar cinnamon tingle, but the blend is more complex, with a rich ‘mulled spice’ flavor that is sweetened with the sugary taste of the multicolored sprinkles.

Side note: I’ve never seen sprinkles in a tea before. First time for everything!

Honestly, I think this blend really captures Halloween. It’s an adult flavor with warm spiciness and just a hint of trick-or-treaters’ candy. Quite yummy.

Preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 7 min, 0 sec
denisend

I’m a dork and I found the website with the information on this tea and updated the information. It sounded so neat!

http://web.archive.org/web/20061022120402/http://www.sbsteas.com/Tricky-Treats-Tea-pr-967.html#tabs

Suzi

Awesome :D That’s so cool – how’d you find it? I have a mighty heap of other teas from this company that I need to find better descriptions for!

Carolyn

Very clever. She used the Wayback Machine to find the descriptions. I hadn’t thought of doing that. Here’s the URL for future waybacking: http://www.archive.org/index.php

Auggy

Yay sprinkles in tea! That’s one reason I like Adagio’s Birthday blend so much. It has sprinkles!

denisend

Yep, the Wayback Machine is extremely useful. :-)

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I love books on tea, but not tea on books.

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