310 Tasting Notes
I just got this in the mail and immediately brewed a cup. I love it. I don’t know what to say about it other than yum. I am not a white tea aficionado and I am not sure what black currents taste like by themselves so it is difficult for me to be a good judge of which flavors are dominant, etc. But I can say that I really really like it.
When I open the bag and smell it, it smells so sweet, like candy. Then when it is brewed up the white tea and the black currents are both delicate and seem well balanced. I added a little agave nectar to it because, well, that’s what I do. That really made it for me. I was sad to hit the bottom of the cup.
Brewed 2 1/2 tsp to about 10 oz for 2 1/2 minutes at 187 F. That is a higher temp than recommended but I don’t have a tea kettle at the moment (getting water from the Keurig) and my kitchen thermometer batteries are out. It didn’t seem to hurt it.
This tea is pretty good, but I’m don’t think it is meeting up to the expectations based on all the hype in the reviews. Maybe I’ll change my mind after I brew it a little stronger next time.
The tea itself is gorgeous. Big fat slices of almonds mixed with beautiful safflower blossoms. It smells pretty good (pre-brewing). A mixture of almond, cinnamon, and something fruity (orange?).
Once brewed, I taste a nice black tea with a hint of cinnamon and a light almond flavor in the aftertaste. I tasted it both with and without some silk soy creamer and a little sugar.
Brewed as directed. 1 1/2 tsp for 8 oz steeped 2.5 min.
Preparation
This is the first SpecialTeas tea that I haven’t been thrilled with. I really wanted this to be like a blueberry cobbler flavor. But it isn’t.
Smell of unbrewed tea is very herby and flowery. I don’t smell much blueberry.
Brewed tea smells strongly of grapes and hibiscus. When I first tasted it, I immediately yelled “EWWW”. Then about a second later, said “mmm, blueberry”. The blueberry flavor definitely hits you about a second or two later. It tastes pretty strongly of grapes too. It’s just ok.
This was a sample.
Update – I noticed that this is really tasty when cooled completely. I think it would make an excellent iced tea. This tea did grow on me after a couple of cups so I am upping my original rating.
Update – And now I have to up it again. I am out of this tea and find myself really wanting a cup of it. I guess I am going to order some after all.
Preparation
I ordered a really large bag of this because SpecialTeas didn’t have a sample size and when I opened the bag and smelled it I was worried that I wasn’t going to like it. It smells very lemony to me before brewing. I can also smell some anise in the pre-brewed mixed but it didn’t smell spicy or gingery like I expected. The look of the tea is very entertaining as it has large pieces of cinnamon stick and dried ginger. It looks like someone ground up a stick.
Once brewed, I love it. The smell is complex and I can start to really smell the coriander and ginger. I was still worried at this point because the smell is very different from what I expected. I added a little agave nectar to it and then tasted it. It tastes like candied ginger with asian flavors and has a nice roundness. The spices hit you gently in the back of the throat. It definitely lives up to its description as exotic. The more I drank, the more I wanted. When the cup was empty I was very sad. When I was done with this tea, it left me with a nice warm feeling in my chest for a long time. I think this tea would also be great if you have a cold.
The licorice flavors in this are very background (in case you are a licorice hater like me; although i do like star anise, fyi).
Brewed 2 tsp to 11 oz for 10 minutes.
Preparation
I’m not great at reviewing plain black teas. To me they are either good or not good. I taste them and think, “yep, tastes like black tea”. So, take this for what it’s worth. This tea falls into the good category. It is smooth and not bitter at all. Tastes malty with some floral notes in the background. I am detecting a slight sourness in the aftertaste.
Preparation
When it comes to Darjeelings, Assams and other black teas, I tend to talk in terms of “sparkle”. Is there anything in the cup that makes me think beyond “yup, it is black tea”? If not, it may be a perfectly good cup, but nothing special. What I love to find are those Assam teas that are so astringent, so dry, that you’re almost thirstier when you’re done than when you started, but they aren’t at all bitter at the same time. Those are great on a cold, blustery day.
Good advice. I’d say this one wasn’t particularly special other than is was smooth and mellow. Nothing that makes me really want another cup. There is this black tea that is served at my local vegan diner that I love love love. They sell it at their store and I keep meaning to get some. We’ll see if I love it as much at home.
I always have this sneaking suspicion that the habit of flavoring tea (either sugar, or lemon, or dairy, or spices, or floral scenting or oil essence flavoring) is all a response to someone having had a really good cup of tea from really good leaves, that had all kinds of depth and character, and when they couldn’t recapture that in any other cup with inferior leaves, they started trying to fake it.
There is just nothing like a great cup of tea made from great leaves.
Oh, I add some sort of sweetener to everything. I just like them sweet. So my comparisons are always sweet to sweet. I don’t like tea without at least a little sweetener. :)
Remind me never to send you any good tea ;-)
I understand the difficulty telling black teas apart. I have the same issue most of the time. My solution is to infuse the teas (full leaf, anyway) for less time to allow the leaf flavor to overcome the robustness of the infusion. Say, 1 to 1.5 minutes. (If it’s not strong enough, you can always put the leaves back in.)
Such great comments! I have a new appreciation about black teas now—I need to discover the “sparkle” too. The teas from The Simple Leaf seem like good candidates.
Good idea Payton, thanks! Stephanie, I’m lucky to have friends with much better tea knowledge than me. :) I’m learning a lot here on Steepster.
Wow, that sounds absolutely delicious. I am tempted to order some right away :)
If you do, make sure you put in the special notes that I referred you. I’m trying to win free tea for a year! :)
Bai Mu Dan (sometimes Pai Mu Tan, as at TeaGsch) is a very delicate white tea. I’m surprised anyone is flavoring it.
If you can find an unflavored version, I would give it a try, you’ll probably enjoy it quite a bit. Whites of this kind lend themselves to a sort of sweetness and wouldn’t be harmed by a drop of agave.
The flavoring is pretty delicate. They did a nice job with it. I’ve had an unflavored white tea before and found it to be a little bland. I don’t remember what kind of white it was (probably was something from Teavana).
I’ve never had black currants, but red currants are very tart. My grandparents had current bushes when I was growing up and they told me to eat them by squishing them under my tongue 1st.
I would say that white teas a) are pretty varied, as most tea is, and b) really aren’t worth buying unless you buy really, really good ones, because instead of being light they end up just being flat.
Jim… well yeah. Why would you buy bad tea no matter what kind? Everyone has their own idea of good/bad, but buying bad tea is dumb.
Dumb it may be, but an awful lot of bad tea gets sold in this country nevertheless. ;-)
However, my point was that with white tea, it isn’t a question of good versus bad, but rather a question of mediocre versus good versus very good versus exceptional. I have found that Teavana tries to pass off mediocre/good tea as very good/exceptional simply by charging twice what the tea is worth. I wouldn’t be at all surprised that a white tea that Kristin tried from that shop was bland – I’ve never been impressed with anything I’ve had from them.
What I’m saying is, if you want to drink unflavored white tea and have it impress you, you probably need to drop some serious coin on some serious tea. White tea is too fragile to survive the trip to your cup with all the nuances intact except under the best of care; which most tea doesn’t get.
Re. bad tea. That is why I have stopped buying almost any tea that I cannot buy a sample of first (this one was an exception because 52 teas are so unique). I got tired of throwing away large tins of tea.
Shrugs… I even like adagio’s whites so price doesn’t always matter.
I didn’t like any of the teas that I ordered from Adagio.
Liking a tea is a matter of personal taste and preference, it has nothing to do with objective quality. Objective quality is expensive. Unfortunately, sometimes stuff that isn’t very good is also expensive. So yes, we should not mistake a high price tag for quality, but the reality is, something that is of objective quality is going to be expensive. Based on what Kristin has said, my suspicion is that she isn’t going to enjoy lesser whites.