328 Tasting Notes

97

This is a CTC (crush, tear, curl) tea so instead of whole leaves, the tea leaves were ground into nuggets – I was expecting it to be bitter….but lo and behold- no bitterness. in fact, it was “meaty”. and perfect for a AM cup….I need to try this one a few more times but after experimenting with a gazillion breakfast blends, this one is defintiely a keeper….

Rabs

Just learned a new term: CTC :D This one sounds intriguing indeed! ::adds to list::

Lori

Yes it is very good….

Jim Marks

Is this similar to a Scottish breakfast tea, then? Those are usually l’il nuggets.

Dan

Their Mountain Malt was so good that I may have to try this one.

ashmanra

Our London Cuppa tea is like that. I just brew it for two minutes instead of five and it is pretty good!

Stephanie

I’ve eyeing this tea. Meaty sounds good! I’m really loving breakfast blends nowadays.

Lori

Dan- I ordered the Mountain Malt based on your tasting notes! I will need to try both the American Blend and Mountain Malt side by side…On a good note, the Simple Leaf sells generous sample sizes for $5 bucks..

And about Scottish blend, I have not tried that before so I do not know…

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90
drank Noël en Provence by Dammann Frères
328 tasting notes

This is another delightful DF tea from the Doulton order….

As Liberteas mentioned in her notes, the dried and brewed tea are both fragrant. And like most flavored French teas, these make a wonderful afternoon treat especially with a dash of sugar and milk. With a combination of honey, strawberry, fig, and lavendar, who could resist this perfumed concoction? I primarily tasted strawberry and honey and fig. The lavendar was hardly detectable. But as with most French blends, no flavor stands out strongly but seem to blend in magical ways….

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90
drank Noël en Provence by Dammann Frères
328 tasting notes

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68
drank China Lychee by Upton Tea Imports
328 tasting notes

This tea mostly had a non-distinct sweet flavor that was pleasing….

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97
drank Shamrock Tea by 52teas
328 tasting notes

My order finally arrived….This one tastes just like a spearmint snowball…

Southern Boy Teas

Spearmint snowball. I love it! I’m glad you are enjoying it.

That reminds me of the best compliment I think I’ve ever gotten on one of our blends. It was in our brick and mortar store. There was a young lady who had clearly been dragged into the shop by her friends as she kept loudly proclaiming that she HATED tea.

Well, you can’t say that around me; it’s like a personal challenge. So, determined to find something she would like, I made her a hot mug of our Sheri’s Blend (African rooibos with apricot, cinnamon and marigolds—My wife Sheri’s favorite of the blends we create). This young woman made a face then finally agreed to try it. She took the tiniest little sip, stopped dead in her tracks on the way to pulling a terrible face, took another, more generous sip, then looked up at me and exclaimed, “This tastes just like Christmas!”

Lori

LOL! I love your story and this tea!

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78
drank Hot Cinnamon Spice by Harney & Sons
328 tasting notes

Thanks to Soccermom for this delightful sample…In middle school, kids (mostly the girls) would sit/marinate toothpicks in cinnamon overnight and sell them the next day as candy and kids would sort of suck/chew on them. Why in the world did we do this? I can’t recall and this was not that long ago-early 80s in fact…..So this tea tastes exactly like those cinnamon soaked toothpicks….Yum…I really like this tea and will purchase a tin …

__Morgana__

I remember that home made cinnamon oil toothpick concoction. I used to just get the flavored ones at the store. Now that I think about it I wonder why I even did that. I’m sure we were so attractive sitting there with toothpicks hanging out of our mouths. Lol.

Erin

Hooray for pre-teen entrepreneurship! I’ve never heard of such a strange thing!

gmathis

I remember seeing little paper packs of them (cinn toothpicks) at local dime store when I was a kid. Best local candy counter in the world!

Lori

Now I feel like making some of those toothpicks…..

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71
drank Ancient Gold by Samovar
328 tasting notes

Had this one again last night. After sampling some other yunnans, most notably the Leafspa’s yunnan, this one is missing a peppery note. But it is bold w/no astringency….And definitely more flavor than Adagio’s Yunnan Gold and less malty than Adagio’s Golden Monkey… So I am still unsure about this one but I seem to drink it and I enjoy it…

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71
drank Ancient Gold by Samovar
328 tasting notes

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73

This is a great tea. The leaves in the tin are similar to the photo: black leaves w/golden tips. The brewed tea is bold but not astringent/brisk/bitter. Definitely strong peppery notes were detected. As the tea cooled, I noted a malty flavor…

A few days ago, I brewed Adagio’s Yunnan Gold, which was a milder tea (almost bland) as I recall. Based on memory, this is a more flavorful option…Ideally, I need to try these side by side…

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95
drank Golden Bi Luo by Chicago Tea Garden
328 tasting notes

Another $3 sample (including shipping)from the Chicago Tea Garden. The tea is EXACTLY like the photo with tightly coiled golden balls. I followed the recommended steeping times of 1 minute for the first infusion. This was a very mild black tea- no need to add milk to this one. There was no astringency and only a mild malty flavor was present. The vendor suggested that 8 infusions would be possible- after about 4 infusions, the taste faded for me.

As this tea is so mild, this tea would be perfect for someone who is not a fan of black teas. Personally, I prefer a punchier tea but I can certainly appreciate this tea’s quality…

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Profile

Bio

Just a few months ago the only tea I drank was hot lipton tea at work, an occasional mint tea, and sweet iced tea.. Then my daughter got me some loose leaf teas for Christmas and then, my tea addiction began…..

And what better way to get lots of dessert flavors w/o the calories?

I prefer my tea with a tinge of sugar. Is that cheating? But to me , the combination of sugar and tea is like salt and cooking- both bring out the natural flavors.

My tea drinking has evolved into a set routine: a breakfast blend in the AM, some flavored blacks during the day, late afternoon or evening flavored green/white, herbal (usually spicy, chai inspired) at night.

Not into unflavored greens/whites yet. Just started appreciating unflavored blacks and am thinking that smoky teas may become my favorite…
When I am not drinking tea, I am working as an engineer, reading, watching some of the better TV shows (like Damages and Breaking Bad), practicing my yoga, cooking, gardening, and spoiling my two miniature poodles (Coco and Timmy)…

Location

Baton Rouge, LA

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