1216 Tasting Notes

63

A coworker found a nice teacup set for a bargain at a local thrift shop and is giving the cups away as graduation gifts to her friends and asked where to get good tea, and of course my answer was, “Around here? Honestly, from me.” So this was one of the teas from my stash she asked for, and after measuring out her sampler, I just had enough left for a sipdown. A single ounce can go pretty fast when you are a charitable individual. :-)

I got this tea from Snake River Tea in Boise last May, where they call it “Orange Vanilla White Chocolate,” but thanks to my Nancy Drewing, I’ve determined that they stock it from major wholesaler International Tea Importers (hey, at least I can applaud them for having teas that aren’t just Metropolitan Tea Co.). In any event, expect to see this same tea all over Steepster under various names and with various tea shops as the “company” name. ITI teas are wholesaled all over the place!

This tea does have a very nice dreamsicle flavor. This is a flavor combination that I typically find in rooibos, and I have to say, I probably do prefer the dreamsicle rooibos teas I’ve tried as that base seems to compliment the orange and vanilla notes a bit better with its natural sweetness, but for a black tea, this is all right. The citrus adds a nice warmth to the cup and the vanilla brings a sweetness that keeps the dark base from having any bitterness. There is only a very mild drying astringency left after the sip, and the orange and vanilla flavors are still very prominent on the tongue. My only complaint is that it’s a bit easy to tell that the flavor here is very much the product of flavoring — it isn’t unpleasant, but has an obvious artificiality to it. It’s that bold sort of orange taste that just comes off to me as trying a little too hard, but to be fair, at least paired with the vanilla, it tastes better than the mandarin green and white teas I’ve had where the orange just tastes way too fake and unpleasant to me, so I really don’t mind this. The vanilla, too, has that sweet confectionary vanilla taste, as opposed to the more subdued, creamy essence of vanilla I get in teas that use vanilla beans. So you get quite a whollop of flavoring here, which may or may not be your thing, depending on your tastes. In a tea with a lighter base, I’d probably be more turned off from it than I am, but in a dark black base like this, eh… it’s doable. Not my favorite, but certainly a pleasant enough cup. For my last teaspoon I’ll probably try it with a bit of vanilla almond milk, and see if latte-style adds a bit of creaminess and cuts back some of the overwhelming flavor. That may be the way to go with this one.

Flavors: Artificial, Orange, Sweet, Vanilla

Preparation
Boiling 4 min, 0 sec 1 tsp 10 OZ / 295 ML

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

78

Chai to Stay Dry! I’m on the second day of a migraine, so I’ve only been drinking herbal teas until this passes, just so the blood vessels in my head won’t be going through any extra vasoconstriction from caffeine. Luckily I actually do have several tisane chai options.

I’ll admit that when I first got this tea a year ago, the flavor didn’t really click with me so it’s mostly sat around in my cupboard since then. But over that year as I sampled more teas, one of the ingredients I’ve had more exposure to and really adapted my palate to and have taken a liking is tulsi, and now I really have an appreciation and liking for this chai. The base is a mix of honeybush and tulsi, and it has this strange aroma that is sweet, earthy, minty, peppery, and just a little citrusy. The tea is very relaxing; the sip leads with a soft minty taste before sweeter peppery honeybush and an earthy tulsi fill out the tea. The chai spice notes in this tea are a lot more gentle against the base; I can pick out a hint of clove in the background, and there is a lovely sweet licorice root finish left on the tongue, but overall this is a sweeter tasting tea than a spicy one. The peppery notes that make me think of this as a chai are flavor notes rather than heated or spicy, and are natural compliments of the honeybush and tulsi paired together. It seems an odd choice to put these two herbs together but the flavor pairing actually works really well.

This tea doesn’t really harken to the ideal of a chai equating a “spicy” profile, but herbal fans that are looking for something a little different might really like this. Especially tulsi fans!

Flavors: Citrus, Clove, Earth, Licorice, Mint, Pepper, Sweet

Preparation
Boiling 5 min, 0 sec 1 tsp 10 OZ / 295 ML

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

57

Chai to Stay Dry! So, I got a lot of criticism for not being wild about Zhena’s Gypsy Tea’s Coconut Chai not long ago, which I found a bit chalky and wasn’t wild about only having artificial coconut flavor and not actual coconut. Now granted, I do understand coconut spoils, and it’s a mass-produced upscale grocery store brand, so I get it… and considering I’m a tea hoarder, I’m now faced with the dilemma of worrying about my own coconut teas getting spoiled. This tea I bought last July, so it isn’t a year old yet, but sniffing the leaf… something seems a little off about it. Sour is the easiest way to describe it. And I’m worried it’s the coconut. But I’m not so worried that I’m not willing to still try it. I mean… it isn’t even a year old yet! So hear we go.

I will say that from the brewed cup, the tea smells like normal ol’ coconut to me, but also has a strong cardamom aroma as well, so maybe the acrid scent I was getting from the leaf was just my mind tripping myself up on the “coconut tea horror stories” I’ve heard recently and applying that to the “musky clove” sort of scent I attribute to cardamom mixed with coconut and other spices when I first opened the bag. Nothing about the taste of the tea seems sour, off, or otherwise odd to me, either. My only complaint about this chai, from the taste, is that it seems a bit cardamom heavy, and I’m not really making out any other spice notes as it is a bit overpowering. There is a noticable coconut flavor to the tea, and it stands out nicely in the dark tea base, giving it some sweetness. The coconut actually seems to help mellow out the spiciness of the chai and most of the astringency of the dark base, so it’s a pretty smooth chai. I like what the coconut adds and how it balances the chai, I just wish more spices lended flavor to the blend. This isn’t the first chai I’ve tried this month that felt way too strong in the cardamom department.

Since this chai has a pretty strong black base, I decided to also try it as a latte. I tried it as one cup double-strength tea with half a cup of coconut milk mixed with the tiniest dash of vanilla coconut creamer just for a little added creaminess. The very small amount of astringency in the base was gone from the addition of the sweet milk, and it became a really creamy coconut drink with a bit of a cardamom spice aftertaste. For those days when I’m in a sweet-tooth mood, I think I’ll definitely make this one up latte-style, and perhaps whip up a batch of iced coconut chai latte for the fridge.

Flavors: Cardamom, Coconut, Spicy, Sweet

Preparation
Boiling 3 min, 0 sec 1 tsp 10 OZ / 295 ML

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

75

I had this tea with my breakfast at my favorite local cafe, Twin Beans. They are the only decent place in town to get a cup of tea, as everywhere else in my town only serves coffee (with their tea being the typical crap bagged tea options you’d find at any other restaurant). Twin Beans actually has a modest selection of loose leaf teas sourced by TeaSource, with my only real complaint being nothing against quality (I’ve liked pretty much all the teas I’ve tried!) but how fast they discontinue the various varietials/blends… I’ll get hooked and then poof! It’s gone. I actually was introduced to this tea when I walked in one day and ordered one of my favorites, Golden Mao Feng, only to have the barista bring a pot of this to my table with the sad news, “Sorry Sara, we are out of that one and it’s been discontinued now, too. This is a close flavor match, give it a try, if you don’t like it I’ll make you a pot of something else.” To her credit, it was a very close flavor match, having that honeyed-apricot note that I liked so much about the Golden Mao Feng; I’d just say this tea is perhaps a little less sweet because it has a slightly husky, smoky note right around the close. Still a solid Chinese black.

Buuuuut… it’s also been discontinued by TeaSource, so once I’ve drunk up the stash Twin Beans has in stock at their shop, it’ll be time to move on again. Sigh! TeaSource, why must you break my heart like this over and over? This relationship is not healthy for either of us. * shifty eyes *

Flavors: Apricot, Honey, Malt, Smoke, Smooth

Preparation
Boiling 4 min, 0 sec 2 tsp 16 OZ / 473 ML

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

80

Chai to Stay Dry! So this was a chai that had me very curious, so I had to include it on my last Tea Chai Te order. I told my best friend about it, as he is a huge houjicha fan, and he even decided to order some to try as well! He sampled his before I got to mine and said it was very good, so on this drizzly evening, I figured it was time to finally give it a try!

This is a houjicha blended with chai spices and dusted in matcha powder (the chai spices aren’t specified on the website, so I’ve done my best to identify what I could from my infuser after the matcha powder was washed away, but I may have missed some, either from my ignorance or not having all the ingredients in that particular serving).

This is definitely a unique chai! The houjicha base is a deep, woody, roasted flavor, but the matcha powder adds a grassiness that normally isn’t present in that sort of tea. The initial taste of spices I pick out are anise and licorice; it isn’t a strong, biting, sticky sweetness, but it adds enough sweetness that the matcha feels naturally sweet rather than having its typical vegetal bitterness. Toward the end of the sip, as the sweet licorice and matcha flavors fade, the robustness of the hojicha fills out and a burst of strong ginger and cardamom linger on the tongue, leaving behind just a slight bit of heat.

It’s an interesting juxtaposition between sweet and savory, and honestly, I’ve never had a chai like this before. I think anyone that likes houjicha and matcha should try it, for the unique experience if nothing else. This tea is fine plain, but I like it with just a dash of vanilla almond milk, just because I find a fuller, creamy mouthfeel suits it nicely. Even though the matcha powder on the tea leaves is only good for the first steep, it’s totally worth it to resteep the houjicha and spices and enjoy the tea sans matcha on a second steep to enjoy that flavor as well… it’s almost like getting two teas in one!

Flavors: Anise, Cardamom, Ginger, Grass, Licorice, Roasted, Spicy, Wood

Preparation
190 °F / 87 °C 2 min, 0 sec 2 tsp 12 OZ / 354 ML
Todd

Love this tea! I’ll have to review it next time I brew some.

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

66

Here is a tea I picked up at the Portland Saturday Market in March of 2017 when I was on vacation in Portland with a friend. I had a blast that day; it’s like a farmer’s market on steroids! Nil Organic Tea was a tea vendor booth I found there, that makes their own tea blends using organic ingredients. This was one of the sampler teas they had at their booth, prepared iced, and I enjoyed the flavor and had made it my goal to learn to make iced tea that summer so I picked it up. Note I grabbed their herbal blend of this tea; something notable about this company is they offer herbal and tea versions of most of their blends!

My most hated tea I’ve tried to date has been Traditional Medicinals bagged raspberry leaf tea, but I actually really enjoy this tea, and it is very raspberry leaf-heavy! It does have some noticeable grassy flavor notes in the base from that ingredient, but since this tea uses a lot of (trigger warning, I’m about to use the dreaded h-word here on Steepster!) hibiscus petals, it has a very tart and tangy flavor that helps me out a lot when it comes to tolerating the raspberry leaf (and I’m really in need of it right now for some hormonal health issues). The tea also has some nice citrusy lime notes, but they aren’t overwhelming like the Lime Pistachio tea from Fusion Teas that I tried not long ago… here the lime is blended in with the fruit punch hibiscus flavor and the grassiness of the raspberry leaf so it feels more like a cohesive lime fruit punch.

Over the last year I’ve tried this tea warm, warm brewed and then chilled, made into tea pops, and cold brewed, with varying levels of success. To me, the flavor profile just doesn’t really work for me as a hot tea, and I find it has a nice, full flavor when prepared iced both prepared warm and then chilled or simply cold brewed from the start, so now I opt to just cold brew it for an easy batch of lime-flavored fruity tea that helps me get that raspberry leaf down. The tea pops weren’t a bad way to go either, but I haven’t figured out the proper way to sweeten them yet, and when I make it as iced tea, I find I don’t even need to add sweetener, since my tongue takes those tart n’ tangy flavors like a champ. As a popsicle, it just seemed strange without some sweetness. With a bit of practice I’m sure I’ll figure out the proper sweetener-to-tea ratios before freezing, though.

This is a refreshing iced tea and I’m sure I’ll be finishing it off this summer. It’s quite the testament that it manages to make raspberry leaf palatable for me!

Full review: https://teatimetuesdayreviews.wordpress.com/2017/08/22/tea34/

Flavors: Citrus, Fruit Punch, Grass, Hibiscus, Lime, Tangy, Tart

Preparation
Iced 8 min or more 4 tsp 32 OZ / 946 ML
Lexie Aleah

As someone who really likes the taste of medicinal teas if you don’t like Raspberry leaf tea then you probably won’t like milk thistle tea either.

Mastress Alita

Well, it at least seems as long as the raspberry leaf is well enough blended with other flavors that I don’t taste it, or at least don’t taste it very strongly so it’s muted a bit or just in the background, I can handle it. I definitely can’t take it plain though. I have never tried milk thistle, but if I ever see it lurking in anything I’ll try to make sure it’s blended with some pretty dominant flavors too, then!

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

70

Chai to Stay Dry! Today I felt like trying the sampler of this chai that was kindly provided to me from the last Here’s Hoping Traveling Teabox, so thank you so much to tea-sipper and all the previous participants of that teabox! This was the one chai from the box I decided to sample, and now, during my “month of chais” seems like the perfect time to do so!

The sweet smell of the leaf is giving me a bit more of a “candied ginger” feel than chocolate; I don’t distinctly pick up on a chocolate aroma, but I do get a sweet or sugary impression, as well as spices, particularly that “musky clove” scent that I attribute to cardomom. Brewed up, it has a deep reddish-brown color and it is easier for my nose to pick out some cocoa notes, but the spices are still predominant.

I wouldn’t say the flavor of the tea is a strong chocolately flavor, but the rich black base comes off much sweeter, with some cocoa notes in the aftertaste, and there is no bitterness or astringency, making this the sort of chai that would be easy to drink plain. The spice blend is a pretty good balance, though the cardamom notes do linger a bit in the mouth. It is not overly spicy, causing a pleasant warmth rather than an unpleasant lingering heat.

Since I wanted to bring out a stronger chocolately flavor, I decided to try this chai latte-style, and use chocolate almond milk. I made a fairly strong infusion and was careful not to overdue the hot milk, and it was very tasty! A good choice to “ramp up” the chocolate flavor since I found that rather subdued in the base tea.

Flavors: Cardamom, Cinnamon, Dark Chocolate, Sweet

Preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 4 min, 0 sec 2 tsp 12 OZ / 354 ML

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

87
drank Pear Chai by 52teas
1216 tasting notes

Chai to Stay Dry! It actually looks like a proper spring day today (and surprisingly not too windy for this area) but why stop the chai theme now? Decided to go with something a little different this morning, so I grabbed a green tea chai, and something a little fruitier! I love the scent of the dry leaf, which reminds me of Juicy Fruit gum; somehow the sweet pear and the hints of cardamom and other spices mixed together remind me of the aroma of that gum I used to chew as a child!

The tea has a strong, sweet pear flavor. The spices are on the softer side; I get some hints of warm cinnamon and cardamom on my tongue in the finish, but it a subtle warmth rather than a lingering spicy heat. The tea really has a lot of full, juicy pear flavor, and I was suprised with how many large chunks of dried pear were in my small sample.

This is a great pear-flavored tea with a nice natural sweetness and a touch of soothing warmth.

Flavors: Cardamom, Cinnamon, Pear, Sweet

Preparation
175 °F / 79 °C 2 min, 30 sec 2 tsp 12 OZ / 354 ML
Lexie Aleah

Sounds delicious!

Mastress Alita

It’s funny, I don’t like eating pears just because of the texture of the fruit (though I can eat them dried!), but I loooooove the taste/flavor of them, so I really enjoy when I can find a nice pear-flavored tea or candy!

Scheherazade

I don’t like the texture of pear, either, but I’m all over pear flavoured things!

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

99

Chai to Stay Dry! This is another chai I picked up with my birthday giftcard from Tea Chai Te (one of my favorite tea shops that is located in Portland, Oregon… I’m so glad they have a web shop so I can continue to try their teas since I haven’t had another vacation out that way in some time!) This tea uses their Mt. Hood Vanilla black tea as a base, and then adds cloves and cinnamon. The dry leaf smells lovely… the name seems quite appropriate from the wonderful spicy vanilla aroma.

This tea has a lovely depth to it. The vanilla is very natural, giving it a warm, sweet flavor, that isn’t syrupy or overbearing like teas full of flavorings. Mixed with the ceylon base and the spices, I get rich caramel notes, with a hint of dark cocoa. It’s very smooth, and even though the black tea brews up quite dark, there is no bitterness, and only the slightest hint of astringency left on the tongue after sipping. There is a wonderful cinnamon note that is left on the tongue after each sip, but it isn’t a hot, spicy cinnamon, but more of a sweet cinnamon note, like when you spread cinnamon-sugar over the top of toast! Just below the sweetness, is the subtle touch of clove, adding a little more depth.

This tea is amazing! I really loved the Colonille vanilla tea I sampled not long ago, that had the Vietnamese black base mixed with vanilla, but this easily outranks it with that sweet warm touch of cinnamon perfectly complimenting the vanilla notes.

I had originally planned to make this as a vanilla almond milk latte, because I expected the Ceylon to be more bitter and astringent (as it usually is for me), but this tea is just perfect as it is! It is a perfect balance of flavors, and I’m pretty sure this is going to be a permanent staple in my collection from now on.

Flavors: Caramel, Cinnamon, Clove, Dark Chocolate, Smooth, Sweet

Preparation
Boiling 4 min, 0 sec 2 tsp 12 OZ / 354 ML

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

96

Chai to Stay Dry! And it certainly is a wet day here today! (It even snowed all morning before turning to rain! Bah! I could do without April snow showers!) This tea is delightful! I originally tried this last October during my “Pumpkinpalooza” for my now-defunct tea blog, but I stocked up on more with the Tea Chai Te gift card I got for my birthday, because I remembered just how good it was. On a cold, wet, throw-back-to-winter day like today, a tea like this really hits the spot!

The base of this chai is not as heavy as many other chais (it is actually very similar to the base of T2’s Chai blend I had the other night) so the spices and flavors don’t get overwhelmed by a strong or astringent black. This is also a chai that is on the sweeter side rather than the spicy side. The flavor has a strong cinnamon/nutmeg top note, with a bit of a lingering ginger/clove note. The base of the tea has a notable creamy vanilla and pumpkin spice flavor that is just wonderful, so the overall flavor is like a sweet pumpkin dessert. Of all the pumpkin spice teas I’ve tried, this one still remains my favorite!

Full Review: https://teatimetuesdayreviews.wordpress.com/2017/10/31/tea44/

Flavors: Cinnamon, Clove, Nutmeg, Pumpkin, Smooth, Spicy, Sweet, Vanilla

Preparation
Boiling 5 min, 0 sec 1 tsp 10 OZ / 295 ML

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

Profile

Bio

Hi! I’m Sara, a middle-aged librarian living in southern Idaho, USA. I’m a big ol’ sci-fi/fantasy/anime geek that loves fandom conventions, coloring books, simulation computer games, Japanese culture, and cats. Proud genderqueer asexual (she/they) and supporter of the LGBTQ+ community. I’m also a chronic migraineur. As a surprise to no one, I’m a helpless tea addict with a tea collecting and hoarding problem! (It still baffles me how much tea I can cram into my little condo!) I enjoy trying all sorts of teas… for me tea is a neverending journey!

Favorite Flavors:

I love sampling a wide variety of teas! For me the variety is what makes the hobby of tea sampling so fun! While I enjoy trying all different types of teas (pure teas, blends, tisanes), these are some flavors/ingredients I enjoy:
-Dessert/chocolate/vanilla/caramel/cream/toffee/maple
-Sweet/licorice root/stevia
-Vegetal/grassy
-Floral/lavender/rose
-Spices/chais
-Fruity
-Tropical/pineapple/coconut
-Bergamot (in moderation)
-Roasted/nutty
-Tart/tangy/hibiscus/rosehip

Disliked Flavors:

There are not many flavors or ingredients that I don’t like. These include:
-Bananas/banana flavoring
-Hemp/CBD teas
-Smoke-scented teas/heavy smoke flavors (migraine trigger)
-Perfumey teas/extremely heavy floral aromas (migraine trigger)
-Gingko biloba (migraine trigger)
-Chamomile (used in blends as a background note/paired with stronger flavors is okay)
-Extremely spicy/heated teas
-Medicinal flavors/Ginseng
-Metallic flavors
-Overly strong artificial flavorings

With the exception of bananas and migraine triggers, I’ll pretty much try any tea at least once!

Steeping Parameters:

I drink tea in a variety of ways! For hot brews, I mostly drink my teas brewed in the western style without additions, and for iced tea, I drink teas mostly brewed in the cold brew style without additions. Occassionally I’ll change that up. I use the https://octea.ndim.space/#/ app for water-to-tea ratios and use steep times to my preferences.

My Rating Scale:

90-100 – Top tier tea! These teas are among my personal favorites, and typically I like to keep them stocked in my cupboards at all times, if possible!

70-89 – These are teas that I personally found very enjoyable, but I may or may not feel inclined to keep them in stock.

50-69 – Teas that fall in this range I enjoyed, but found either average, lacking in some way, or I’ve had a similar tea that “did it better.”

21-49 – Teas in this range I didn’t enjoy, for one reason or another. I may or may not finish them off, depending on their ranking, and feel no inclination to restock them.

20-1 – Blech! My Tea Hall of Shame. These are the teas that most likely saw the bottom of my garbage can, because I’d feel guilty to pass them onto someone else.

Note that I only journal a tea once, not every time I drink a cup of it. If my opinion of a tea drastically changes since my original review, I will journal the tea again with an updated opinion and change my rating. Occassionally I revisit a tea I’ve reviewed before after a year or more has passed.

Inventory:

My Cupboard on Steepster reflects teas that I have sampled and logged for review, and is not used as an inventory for teas I currently own at the present moment. An accurate and up-to-date listing of my current tea inventory can be viewed here: https://tinyurl.com/xjt9ptx3 . I am open to tea trades (within the United States only!) at this time. Note that I will not trade teas that I currently have in a quantity less than 50g (samplers, 1oz packages, etc.) or any teas that are currently still sealed/unopened in my cupboard.

Contact Info:

Feel free to send me a Steepster PM, or alternatively, check the website URL section below; it goes to a contact form that will reach my personal e-mail.

Location

Idaho, United States

Website

https://teatimetuesdayreviews...

Following These People

Moderator Tools

Mark as Spammer