74 Tasting Notes

80
drank Assam Melody by Adagio Teas
74 tasting notes

Striking, malty, heavy tones in a nice accessible way. This is a solid Assam tea – taking the malty thickness you enjoy in PG Tips every day and expanding on it more thoroughly, but never in an over-the-top way. Strong nose and quick finish. It’s nice to have an Assam straight for a change instead of as I usually have it, in a blend. Nice work again, Adagio!

Preparation
Boiling 4 min, 30 sec

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

24

Well, THAT was gross.

I keep hearing about Pu’erh tea and feel like I should give it a shot, so I tried this one. It was, as expected, pretty darn gross. People had warned me that Pu’erh can smell very fishy and this one wasn’t VERY fishy, but it definitely had some of that vibe. People say it’s “earthy”, I think it smells like a gross fish market.

It’s funny as Numi’s Chocolate Pu’erh is so mild that it’s basically like a Rooibos and it is definitely good and doesn’t have this gross smell. I gotta try some other Pu’erh’s to be safe, but so far the traditional ones are pretty gross. The taste actually was mostly ok, but the smell was pretty bad and that didn’t sell really work out well for me.

Preparation
Boiling 3 min, 0 sec
Kiaharii

I know this is a bit of an old post, but I contact Numi because I had a similar experience and they are sending me a box from a different lot number. Worth a shot if you still have the box laying around.

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

65

Not bad, but not insanely awesome. I’d say there are probably a lot more Jasmine Green teas from other companies that would be better than this one. It’s ok, but the green tea does not taste a high quality as others I’ve tried and the Jasmine I found lacking in the flavour, and a little in the smell too. So it’s a good tea for camping, but when you’re at your house, rock a loose-leaf version of this from another company instead and I bet it’ll be better.

Preparation
Boiling 3 min, 0 sec

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

73

Pretty good, but nothing too out-of-the-ordinary here. I tend to like flavoured teas when the underlying tea is so subtle, and this one feels like just straight Green Rooibos. It’s not bad, in fact the quality is very nice, but when you compared it to something like the Adagio flavoured Green Rooibos from Lupicia, it’s tough to beat that one. Good tea, but pretty standard vibe.

Preparation
Boiling 5 min, 0 sec

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

75

This is my 2nd venture into the crazy land of Pu’erh tea and again, it was great.
I think I am totally not doing this right though – since both Pu’erhs I have tried so far
have been Chocolate-flavoured.

This one takes it a step further and puts Rooibos and spicing in there too – it’s actually a bit like a Chocolate Chai tea I tried a while back. There is not much here not to like, it’s well-blended and the flavours are very mild and subtle compared to what I was expecting.

This one, along with the Chocolate Strawberry Pu’erh I had a couple weeks ago, seem like Pu’erh with training wheels. I should probably try one of the gross fishy-smelling Pu’erhs sometime so I can see what it’s really supposed to taste like. But in any case, this is pretty good and definitely a solid cup of tea. A bit different than the usual kind of tea I would drink, but nice to try a new category of teas!

Preparation
Boiling 5 min, 0 sec

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

84

It’s good, but I think I might be doing something wrong. :) In my past experience with white teas, the steep time is usually 1 min or so, and temperature about 175. The packaging suggests steeping for 4 minutes at 205 which seems a little high for white tea?

I have tried a couple of different temperatures and I think I need to experiment more to really get a good feeling for what works best with this one. Probably what I really need to do is steep it in a Gaiwan instead, given the specific instructions for this style.

Anyhow – it IS very good and tasty and certainly well-balanced. I don’t have much Jasmine experience but I’m comparing it in my mind to Jasmin Mandarin Special Grade from Lupicia and the Jasmine Silver Needle from Adagio.

Jasmine Silver Needle is similar in some ways, but it does have a much more punchy floral Jasmine smell and flavour. I know tons of people can’t stand that, but I find it really interesting and very enticing. I think I need to appreciate this tea for being a little more subtle than the Adagio cousin/relation of this. I’ll have to try a few different temperatures and steep times to get a better idea of what works best.

If anyone has any suggestions on steep time or temperature for this tea, I’d love to hear some comments!

Preparation
Boiling 4 min, 0 sec
Spoonvonstup

Hi there- honestly, this tea has been extremely forgiving to me. I really enjoy this in a gaiwan (which- if you can- is great to try for any tea!). Then again, I also have a bag of this at work. I’ll take the leaves, throw some in the bottom of my cup, and then add the “hot” water that comes out of our coffee maker. Luckily, the water is just straight water, and has no taste of coffee. It isn’t very tasty on it’s own, however, and the tea completely removes it’s naturally yucky/par-boiled taste.
Then I’ll just sip all day, adding water whenever I remember to (when the water gets down to the bottom). It definitely lasts, and I haven’t been able to get it to turn bitter or drying. If a white tea can do well in those sorts of conditions (the water at work is not tasty on it’s own, especially when semi-boiled), then that says something to me about it’s flexibility.
I’ve also made this in pots. I like to make teas in a gaiwan, because when I make them in a pot, I ineivitably forget about them because I’m not paying close attention. I’ve done anywhere between two minutes and five minutes on this tea. Boiling water.

Have fun playing around!

Mike Jutan

Thanks for the great advice! I’ll have to pay a little closer attention next time. I think I am expecting more jasmine floral punch from this tea (given the comparison with Adagio’s Jasmine Silver Needle) but it’s probably supposed to be more subtle. I bet by the time I am done this sachet I’ll be ready to get another one :)

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

86

Verdant Teas really knocks their black teas out of the park.

This is quite chocolately like the Laoshan Black but definitely some spicy business going on in the background. Comparing this to the glorious tea standard by which we always compare – PG Tips of course – this actually reminds me a little bit of our friend PG Tips. I don’t have my Assams and Ceylons in order in my head, but I do get some similarity to it somehow. I guess it’s because I associate PG Tips with just being a very solid, excellent, strong-willed cup of tea, and Yunnan Gold Buds arrives well in the same category. Very nice, pretty bold and “stands up to be noticed” as someone mentioned.

I like it a lot. I’ll have to try some multiple steepings to see how it changes.

All this talk of Gaiwans makes me want to try making this tea the “real” way :)

Preparation
Boiling 4 min, 0 sec

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

90
drank Laoshan Black by Verdant Tea
74 tasting notes

Wow. Excellent!

Bought some tea from Verdant Tea and they added in a sample of the Autumn Harvest Laoshan Black for me. It was really excellent – a solid, powerful cup of tea with a really nice broad flavour: a little malty, a little chocolatey too. Not overpowering by any means, just a really solid cup. Excellent flavours. Looks like another Black Tea win for Verdant Teas!

Preparation
Boiling 4 min, 0 sec

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

80

So glorious. The first Silk/Milk Oolong I tried was from Red Blossom and they stopped carrying it a while back. While I was sad about that, I found out that the awesome Aroma Tea Shop sells a similar style of Oolong which is even better. This one is very smooth and buttery. You can re-steep this several times, the packaging says 3 or 4 infusions should be good. It’s really excellent and very much worth spending a little extra to get some of this for yourself. Excellent!

Preparation
185 °F / 85 °C 2 min, 30 sec

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

Profile

Bio

Hello fellow tea nerds!

I’m Canadian and my parents are South African, plus I lived in England and Australia as a kid… so I’m rockin some pretty mad British Empire vibe and thus I’ve been a tea fan for quite some time. I am now totally hooked on loose-leaf. It’s super fun to try a bazillion new kinds of tea and choose the right one for a given moment in a day.

My favourite teas are well balanced, mild, maybe fruity/citrusy or with interesting flavours (eg: silk oolongs, grapefruit green rooibos, jasmine silver needle white tea, melon white tea). I also like a solid malty British or other bold style black teas with some oomph (eg: Yunnan Golden Tips, PG Tips).

Let’s nerd out together about why tea is so friggin’ epic!

Location

San Francisco, California

Website

http://www.mikejutan.com

Following These People

Moderator Tools

Mark as Spammer