863 Tasting Notes
Made a 1/2 gallon of this following the directions and added my normal amount of sugar, and finished the last bit off yesterday night.
I don’t know why I didn’t write a note on this earlier – I liked it well enough. I played the ‘guess what this smells like’ game with the boyfriend and he rather quickly pinpointed the lime note (not that it’s really hard to with this). He didn’t get the jello and I don’t know that it’s something you can smell so much as notice in the texture – this iced tea tastes thicker somehow, like the jello liquid was infused into the tea itself.
I love lime in my iced tea – it’s quite preferable to lemon to me. I tried a Persian lime iced tea earlier in the summer and between the two I do like that one a bit more, because it tastes a bit more natural. Still, the convenience of a ready made bag of good (not CTC) tea has been a wonderful luxury, so I’m rating this up there with the other SBT’s. I think I’ll try the Pear one next…
Preparation
Backlog from a few days ago – I’m one cup away from a sip down of this, and if I didn’t have such a backlog of teas, I’d probably be really sad.
This is an old tea in my cupboard and it lost the walnut flavor a while back but it is still surprisingly buttery and banana-y. Much fainter bread notes but I like it. Once I drink everything down (haha! I’m being optimistic today) and if this ever gets remade (see?! Optimism again!) I’ll be sure to snag a pouch.
Preparation
Okay, I know I have drank and logged this before. When I made it today I even remembered the gist of what that tasting note said because I was going to reaffirm it:
Still caramelly, still a close second to my Frissy tea. Still good with milk and a bit of sugar and biscuits for a weekend morning.
I know I’m not the only one to have lost tasting notes lately – I wonder if there’s any hope of getting them back?
Preparation
Prepped according to package directions, with my usual amount of sweetener (4 tbsp. to a 1/2 gallon) added.
So I’ve just started to like watermelon, after 20+ years of not being able to taste it. Normally I’d put the idea of anything watermelon out of my head, but when I was trying to get to 10 iced teas so I could get the discount I figured this would be as good as any to try.
And it’s not bad. I should have expected it to have the watermelon candy taste instead of fresh watermelon since those are two different things. But when I sniffed the dry bag I knew I was getting candy over fruit.
Eh – not bad. Reminds me of the watermelon flavored bubble gum that I tried so hard to like as a kid, so kind of fakey tasting. It was still refreshing though. And since it was the only thing I drank during my 12 hour shift, and it kept me hydrated, it gets decent marks from me.
The Southern Boy iced teas line is just making my summer, you guys.
Preparation
More and more I’m finding that of all the teas in my cupboard I keep gravitating back to a select few. This is one of them.
I prepped this perfectly today, milk and a bit of sugar – and it is fruity, creamy and rich. I have all morning to enjoy it too, since I don’t go to work until tonight.
Delicious!
Preparation
The smell of this tea once brewed is strongly reminiscent of the Rainbow Sherbet tea…a sharp, creamy tang. I was rather impatient and brewed this up to drink it straight away, so that was mostly the flavor I got as well.
A citrusy note was a bit more prominent in the aftertaste, but I have to admit I found that creaminess off putting – it’s just not what I associate with lemonade.
Maybe after a night in the fridge the flavors will settle a bit, but for now I will say it’s not my favorite of the 52teas I’ve tried. Honestly, that’s kind of a relief though – one less flavor I have to stock up on!
Preparation
Am I really the first to have tried this? Really???
(Also, sorry if I broke the picture – I cannot seem to add images to steepster for the life of me!)
Anyway, I couldn’t resist the buy 10, save $1 per package deal on the SBTs, especially after how amazing the rainbow sherbet tea was when iced. They all sound so very good that I had to just blindly reach in the package and pick one out rather than agonize over a decision. This was first pick, so I steeped it up according to Frank’s directions and it was ready to go instantly.
Note: I sweetened this less than my typical amount for a 1/2 gallon (3 tbsp. vs. 4) and this was definitely a good choice – there is a lot of natural sweetness from the fruit. When it was first made I felt like the peach stood out more in terms of flavor, but now that its sat a day in the fridge I get more mango. The black tea in this base is balanced perfectly with whichever fruit is strongest, though. Just strong enough so that you know you’re drinking tea, but also smooth and willing to share the spotlight.
This ones a winner! I’m excited to see which one I’ll pick next!
Preparation
Saturday! I’m not working you for once!
To celebrate I bought plane tickets to Hawaii. Those are expensive – but our vacation there is in September and I finally got a pretty good deal on them. I wish we could go now!
But, since I can’t, and it’s raining, I picked this tea to enjoy. I looooove salted caramel. Salted caramel tea, gluten free donuts, and a lazy weekend. And plenty of books to read – I just finished “The Impossible Lives of Greta Wells” by Andrew Sean Greer and it was one of the best stories I’ve read in a long time. If you have any recommendations for me, I’d love to hear them!
EDIT: Um, and for the tea review – this actually tastes really caramelly today, but I added 3 tsp. leaf to the 500 ml water in my Breville. Normally I have this as a hot chocolate because that was the only way I got a noticeable caramel flavor, but I must have been underleafing before. Still not so much the salt, but the caramel is lovely and accentuated nicely with a bit of milk. One of the best cups of this I’ve had so far!
Preparation
I definitely recommend Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West. It really gives an interesting, alternate look at the traditional story.
There’s a “what have you read” thread that floats up to the top of the string every so often—you can find lots of reading ideas there.
I’d recommend Wolf Hall if you haven’t read it – I’m about halfway through at the moment, and it’s the best thing I’ve read in a while.
Hawaii! That’s awesome.
I will ditto both of the above. Plus 11/22/63. I brought it for my mom and read a few pages just to see what it was like and I’ve been flying through it.
Great recs – thanks! I’m adding to my wishlist right now. The Impossible Lives of Greta Wells sounds intriguing, although I hope it’s better than Life After Life. I got bored with that one.
Good news: my shift is over.
Bad news: my shift was absolutely freaking terrible.
Good news: I’m not coming back to work for a week! And also, this tea.
I wanted dessert after the crazy night I had, so that’s why I picked this. While the flavor is a tad weaker than I remember (I think I undereleafed) I still get enough marshmallow, chocolate, and graham cracker to make me feel like myself again.
I need to sleep now – but I just got a book about pie that I really want to crack open. Decisions, decisions…
Preparation
Hmmm.. I think this is what I had yesterday morning. The flavors got a little muddled since I had a tea bag of this in my purse that was sitting with an Earl Grey. I mostly recognized it as Frissy but it had just an extra hint of bergamot that shouldn’t have been there.
Hmmm.. I think this is what I had yesterday morning. The flavors got a little muddled since I had a tea bag of this in my purse that was sitting with an Earl Grey. I mostly recognized it as Frissy but it had just an extra hint of bergamot that shouldn’t have been there.Doesn’t matter – it was still really good. I don’t know that I can do anything to mess this guy up, though. Hence my perfect rating for it.
