New Tasting Notes

71
drank Grapefruit Green by Lupicia
911 tasting notes

Based on the smell, I anticipate an obnoxiously sweet grapefruit taste. But it’s much milder than that. A green tea taste with a light, enveloping, faintly grapefruit taste. Quite tasty but I kind of want the obnoxiousness.

Preparation
175 °F / 79 °C 2 min, 15 sec
Jenny

Oh I like this tea for the same reason (kinda). I’m not the biggest grapefruit fan — but the grapefruit-ness of this tea is so subtle that I actually brew some of my roomie’s stash of it from time to time.

Auggy

The smell on this one reminds me of a grapefruit gum I love and I just end up a little sad that it tastes more like tea instead of gum. But I will say that I think Lupicia does a really good job of making their flavored teas not be obnoxious and it’s one of the reasons I tend to like their flavored teas so.

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88

Golden Moon Sampler No. 5 of 31, selected at random.

Wow, back to back selection of the teas Ewa said she was dreading. [Twilight Zone Music]

I’m also dreading this one, not because I don’t like coconut, but because when I looked up Pouchong I learned that it is between a green tea and an oolong. I’ve only had one flavored oolong which was good, but I’ve never met a flavored green tea that I really really liked, with the exception of the Samovar Moorish Mint. I really wanted to like this one. It seems as though it has many fans, so I was hopeful as I started out.

The dry leaves are medium length, twisty, a dark to medium green with yellow highlights and smell like toasted coconut. It’s like someone put a maccaroon in this tea! (I heart maccaroons, so now I’m even more hopeful.) There is also a pronounced floral note. I looked at the ingredients to make sure there wasn’t a flower scent in there as well, but if there is it isn’t listed.

My first steep didn’t go particularly well. I decided to make this in a small teapot, and I thought I’d use just the amount of water that I’ve been using in my tastings of these samples — but that amount of water wasn’t sufficient to cover the leaves. So I had to add a bit more. I am concerned that it was too much. The liquor was a very pale yellowish color, almost colorless, and the aroma and flavor were buttery with a hint of coconut but not a great deal of depth to the flavor.

For the second steep, I used a Finum filter and steeped in the glass. This definitely made a difference in strength. The color was deeper; still pale, but very definitely yellow. The aroma was milky/buttery, floral and toasty/maccaroony.

The first, too-watery tasting made the buttery note primary, and a little on the weak side. But the second is much more satisfactory. Yes! I can taste coconut! It’s a mild, mellow flavor, but it is there. And now I’m kicking myself for not getting this right on the first steep as I can only imagine it should have been a far more accessible flavor the first time through.

I’m thinking I have to order more of this and keep working at it until I find the steeping sweet spot. If and when I do, I expect this will be extraordinary and deserve additional points.

Preparation
175 °F / 79 °C 3 min, 0 sec

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58

I’m not sure if this tea has gotten spoiled or not…but there’s kind of a weird smell to it. Perhaps the chocolate bits or white bits (coconut?) went rancid? shrugs

Intrepid tea drinker that I am, I went ahead and steeped up a cup, and added some milk and sugar.

At first, I was like :x but then I was like :D

Hot, this is meh. There is a slightly fruity-almost-tart-but-not-quite-tart taste that’s throwing this off for me. I can kind of taste chocolate, but no coconut. It’s just sort of average-to-strange tasting tea.

But then! I left my nearly full cup cool, and came back to it. And oh, mah, gawd. It tastes JUST like chocolate milk. It looks like chocolate milk. It smells like chocolate milk. But best of all, it TASTES like chocolate milk! :O

But, alas, I am not looking for chocolate milk, I’m looking for tea, so I’m giving this a middling score.

Preparation
195 °F / 90 °C 4 min, 30 sec

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87
drank Ruby Sipper by SerendipiTea
1112 tasting notes

What a delicious herbal tisane! I think it tastes like blood orange and cranberry. It’s quite tart but I find it very refreshing! Perfect when you are in the mood for something fruity and don’t want caffeine.

It’s so nice that I would serve this to guests that want an herbal. It’s an absolutely gorgeous color! I do like popping an herbal tea bag in a mug, but this loose herbal is very much worth the extra trouble :) I also think it would be delicious iced, and delicious added to a black tea iced as well.

Preparation
Boiling 5 min, 0 sec

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85
drank Earl Grey Melange by Custom
1112 tasting notes

I made cold brewed iced tea with this, a little simple syrup, and a half of a lime juiced. So. Good. So refreshing! Perfect with our picnic after a long, muddy hike. I originally used the lime because I was out of lemon, but we wound up preferring it to lemon! My husband thought it was the best iced tea so far this year (I still like the Darjeeling Assam better, but this is a close second!)! Next I will try this one with some of a juiced orange.

Preparation
Iced 8 min or more

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67

This tea makes a much better cold brewed iced tea than a hot tea. It’s a soothing refreshment after an invigorating Sunday afternoon bike ride through the mountains.

Preparation
Iced 8 min or more

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84
drank Strawberry Matcha by 52teas
243 tasting notes

Since everyone has been posting about this, I broke my own rule and opened this one up without finishing the appropriate teas in line and…I’m SO GLAD I DID!

I like matcha, and as we know from my previous posts, I really like to put my matcha in anything that is not water: yogurt, ice cream, protein shakes, milk, juice, so on and so forth. However, I always try it in water before experimenting.

I made this one in my new fancy matcha bowl with whisk, hot water, no additives, 1/4 teaspoon matcha, 4 ounces of hot water, whisked one minute. Did not get this one to foam up in my matcha bowl, but let’s be honest, I am probably doing it wrong. Anyway, no worries, the matcha itself smelled deliciously like strawberries and barely at all like matcha. First sip: oh there is the matcha, it tastes mostly like typical, with a kick of the usual vegetal green and bitter matcha, then there is the sweet soft flavor of strawberries. Fantastic. I usually drink these pretty fast so that they do not settle too much, but I definitely enjoyed it.

Second bowl: made with Vanilla Soy milk. I used the same amount of matcha (1/4 teaspoon, I do not have the fancy matcha spoon/scoop thing) with cold Soy Milk. This is easier with room temperature soy milk (as in just opened the box) because it does not clump as much, but with the appropriate amount of whisking, cold soy milk is not an issue. I whisked this close to two minutes, and it foamed! Yay! The vanilla in the soy milk definitely makes this a sweeter matcha, the milk also makes it thicker than when it is made with water. Overall, this is how I am going to enjoy more of this.

I am really enjoying the flavored matchas, this one is my new favorite, I found the matca to be a little too bitter and was hesitant to mix it with my dairy products, of course I found out that it was fine to do so, but I am just more comfortable mixing strawberries with creaminess from varied dairy.

I have a freezer full of frozen berries, and one cup of plain yogurt in the fridge next to my premade protein shakes (vanilla and strawberry). Will definitely be making these over the next few days and let you know! Enjoy!

Stephanie

I haven’t opened up mine either thinking I needed finish up some teas first, too! Thanks for this detailed review!

Kathryn Ann

It seems that everyone is on the strawberry matcha bandwagon! I’m almost tempted to order some myself. Everyone keeps logging great things! Really interesting that you made it with milk, it sounds even more delicious that way!

Cinoi

Stephanie – I know how you feel, but I submitted to the peer pressure that I put on myself. Haha.

Kathryn Ann – It really is better, especially the strawberry with the cream/dairy, I really do not enjoy matcha with just water, I almost always make it with something else and think it is significantly better!

Ricky

I need some soy milk! Had it with some half and half today and it was quite delicious. I had it plain, but the extra milk just makes it that much better. Though I also added a bit of sweetener =x

Cinoi

Using the flavored soy (I have vanilla at all times) negates the need for sweetener :) especially because I usually make it cold.

What sweetener do you use? I just feel like anything granulated would take too long to dissolve or interfere with the foaming so I have shied away from sweetening it. I would love to sweeten the mandarin though…

Ricky

I have some plain classic syrup from Starbucks (basically just sugar + water). It’s like $5 for a bottle. I would have used Melon syrup, but unfortunately I am out of it and I believe they’ve discontinued it. It was what they used for ice passion tea lemonade and the green tea latte. I actually wonder what they use in place of that now. Hmm, I should probably ask them. I use to use a squirt or two of it in smoothies in the summer as well. What shall I do when summer comes around!

Cinoi

I never thought of syrup! What a great idea! Now I feel sheepish for not ever having thought of syrup…silly me always trying to dissolve sugar crystals…haha

Ricky

Sugar is too much work. You need hot water and stir stir stir. Syrup works well with anything and blends very nicely. Two to three pumps of syrup and I’m done, no need to mess with opening the sugar jar and spooning out a few teaspoons and spilling some sugar over the counter.

sophistre

Agave nectar tends to sit at a better spot (lower) on the glycemic index, and is still essentially just sugar, and liquid. The downside is that it can be somewhat expensive. I tend to use honey with matcha, personally…I like the flavor it adds, but to each their own!

Janefan

you could just make simple syrup and keep onhand instead of trying to dissolve granulated sugar in your cold drink: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Simple-Syrup/Detail.aspx

Cinoi

Sophistre I have never actually had agave nectar, definitely should give it a shot.

Janefan, yea, I should just make some simple syrup, I always do for my chai. :)

Thanks for the ideas everyone, I will definitely let you know how it goes

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70

Great taste, sweet and smooth and a little earthy. I feel the flavor palate is a bit complex. Reminds me of a hot summer day at sunset. Don’t ask me why or how I can’t explain either.

Preparation
Boiling 5 min, 0 sec

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69

Steep Information:
Amount: 1 nest ~4.6g
Water: ~16 oz
Tool: ceramic Tea Forte solstice teapot
Steep Time: a little over 1 minute
Served: Hot

Tasting Notes:
Dry Leaf Smell: rice
Steeped Tea Smell: rice
Flavor: bitter, astringent, rice, green tea
Body: Medium
Aftertaste: bitter green tea
Liquor: translucent yellow-green

As an aside this online shop has amazing customer service, packaging, and products. I highly recommend them.

MilitiaJim appreciates that it is what it says, rice tea.

I started with a quick rinse steep to loosen everything up. As the nest unfurled the leaves were smaller than I expected. I ended up needed to strain the tea as I poured into my cup.

I think I was not patient enough in letting the water cool from a boil, or 1 minute was too long to steep the leaves as it was bitter. I could both smell and taste the rice.

I’m intrigued and can’t wait to try this tea again later, I am still new to pu-erh teas so the whole rinse and tiny steep concept is difficult for me to time correctly. To add trouble I also always over heat my whites and greens!

Post-Steep Additives: none

Resteep: same as the first in preparation and taste

This gets extra points just for being different and fun.

Images: http://amazonv.blogspot.com/2010/04/chicago-tea-garden-tuocha-green-pu-erh.html

Preparation
1 min, 0 sec
Alex S.

Hey, AmazonV. I just had a quick couple of questions regarding Pu-Erhs in general, as I am quite new to them. Did you pick the tuocha apart before steeping? I heard you are also supposed to “rinse” the leaves. Does this mean first rinsing the dust and such off (as some cakes, tuochas, and bricks may be of a very old vintage), or should one just plop the tea right in the cup? Thanks!

AmazonV

Hey Alex – no i don’t pick apart the litte touchas as they are for single servings, cakes need to be pried apart with a knife (i think there are good youtube videos on this)

some people rinse (steep fast and throw out) the tea first to get rid of dust and such, just pour in the water to the pot as if steeping, swirl around, then right into the sink (only a second or so) you don’t have to though if you don’t want to (don’t just rinse it in the sink, you might end up loosing leaves, use your strainer or teapot or gaiwan)

AmazonV

you’ll notice the toucha coming apart the more you steep, these steep many times, until it looks like loose leaf wiht no help needed

Alex S.

Great! Thanks!

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71

Dear chai, it has been far too long since we’ve met. Now that our paths have crossed again, I wonder if it will be the same or not.

Steeped with rock sugar, added a splash of milk. It has been way too long since I’ve had a tea with milk! The smell is so wonderful, and so blatantly chai. The cinnamon definitely adds great smell making me even more excited to try this tea.

This definitely has a great chai flavor. It almost is too subtle though, but I’m sure I steeped it the right amount. The cinnamon flavor is great, and just all the spices make this a very flavorful cup. What’s really odd is the aftertaste. It’s almost bitter, but not quite, almost like gunpowder. Oh wait, wikipedia tells me that kashmiri chai uses gunpowder tea as a base—no wonder! I’m still not used to the taste of gunpowder tea, making this cup slightly disappointing.

Aside from the gunpowder-y aftertaste this is really a great cup. I don’ know if I would buy this again, but it definitely reminds me how much I miss having chai around (even though I’ve only drank it out of bags before)

Preparation
Boiling 4 min, 15 sec

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83
drank Lemon Green by The Tea Table
216 tasting notes

Okay, this one can definitely get bitter if it’s left to steep too long. Not a good steep-in-the-mug tea! Although it’s worth noting that even oversteeped it has a sweet tang which lingers longer than the bitter does after sipping.

Preparation
190 °F / 87 °C 4 min, 0 sec

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77
drank Oi Ocha by Ito En
2977 tasting notes

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90
drank Rosy Earl Grey by Teas Etc
314 tasting notes

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74
drank Honeybush Vanilla by Adagio Teas
243 tasting notes

Edited:

I bought a sample of this from Adagio because I love using it to blend teas. The tea itself is made up of the small red-brown splinters similar to that of a rooibos, with a vanilla aroma.

I brewed tea, hot, no additives for seven minutes. The tea itself is a little bitter, but plain, light, rooibos-esq, with vanilla flavor. As I said, it is unfortunately a little tart/bitter in the front. However, the vanilla flavor and creaminess makes it very good.

I like to blend this one with other teas. Mates, chais, anything spiced. Adding the honeybush vanilla just mellows out any overwhelming flavors, brightens any underlying flavors and adds an overall creaminess with a slight vanilla flavor.

Overall, pretty good, especially for blending.

Preparation
7 min, 0 sec
Kathryn Ann

I’ve noticed that if you have the right rooibos they’re great for adding in other teas. :)

Cinoi

I couldn’t agree more, and this is one example of a right rooibos

Cofftea

Cinoi, this isn’t a rooibos…

Cinoi

Yea, I should have said “like rooibos”

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92

I think this tea is awesome! I like lighter tasting tea, so I didn’t follow Adagio’s recommendations for brewing:

1st infusion: 1.5 tsp/8 oz, 2 mins @ 170 degrees.
2nd: same as above, 3 mins

It’s a beautiful, incredibly refreshing cold tea on a summer day.

Preparation
170 °F / 76 °C 2 min, 0 sec

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75

Golden Moon Sampler Tea #21:
Guys, I think there’s something wrong with my tastebuds. I’m getting…chocolate from this?

Let me start at the beginning, as usual, I drew this out randomly. I was pretty pleased because while out grocery shopping I had picked up a thermometer for frying that I am going to attempt to use to measure the temperature of my water. Yes, I am cheap. I’m a graduate student, this should not be surprising.

When I opened up the sample packet, I got melon right away. I marveled at the giant-ass leaves for a while but then got down to business. When I poured in the water, that’s when it began. The smell became pretty vegetal, but I was also catching whiffs of, yes, chocolate.

I did a two minute steep for my first cup and then brought it up to 3.5 minutes for subsequent cups. The first cup was…wow! Despite the smell this doesn’t taste vegetal at all! It’s light and sweet, and totally melony. Honeydew, I’d say. But I could be wrong, I don’t eat melon THAT often.

But there was still a problem. I was still getting chocolate! At the same time as melon. W. T. F.

Second cup, the longer steeping time has allowed the tea itself to come forward a bit more, and I am no longer getting the weird chocolate flashes. There is an undertone of, I guess fermentation that I think other people have likened to liquor, but it makes me think of overripe fruit more. I think the combination of the sweetness of the tea and the hint of fermentation was somehow combining to give me the idea of chocolate, don’t as me why. Maybe I haven’t had chocolate for too long and have forgotten how it’s really supposed to taste. Clearly a trip to the candy store is required.

But enough about me being weird. Let’s talk about the tea! I quite like it, but I’m not sure I like it enough to buy more of it. I am pretty much meh on melon, so I don’t know if this tea will have legs once the novelty wears off. I suspect it will not. Still, I give it a definite “maybe.” ;)

Preparation
170 °F / 76 °C 2 min, 30 sec
Cofftea

I need to get the sampler so I can blend this w/ Adagio’s white cucumber!:)

__Morgana__

The chocolate discovery is interesting. Wish I had more so I could look for that?

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100
drank Luzianne by Luzianne
110 tasting notes

It is ice tea weather here in the Coastal South, so I made a pitcher of black and blue tea with this today. Two bags Luzianne black tea, about two cups of frozen blueberries, thawed, blended to release the juice and strained, two quarts of water, and a couple of tablespoons of agave nectar to lightly sweeten. Cheers, y’all!

Preparation
Boiling 5 min, 0 sec

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80

very nice flavor, raspberry-lemon ish

Preparation
Boiling 7 min, 0 sec

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11

UGH.

I got this from my local coffee shop when I went with a friend and didn’t feel like a rich latte after a big meal. It sounded like it would be refreshing, cleansing maybe, just what I needed.

Not sure of water temp and I just left the bag in the cup. The smell was exactly like that NeoCitran lemon drink you make when you have a cold, which for me is a good thing as I always thought that hot-lemonade taste was great.

With high hopes I take my first sip and initially it’s fine. I get a nice tart lime flavour that gives my taste buds a tingle. And then I swallow and I get…chemical? Like serious, metallic, tastes-and-feels-like-its-got-to-be-poisonous chemical flavour on the back and sides of my tongue. It sort of makes me think of when you’ve touched coins and then put your fingers in your mouth, that sort of tongue-puckering metallic taste. In a hot cup of tea. Yeah…not so good.

Because I didn’t make this myself I can’t say whether something went wrong in the preparation but I certainly hope so. Otherwise this tea is supposed to taste like this.

UGH. UGH. UGH.

I’m going to go brush my teeth now.

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90
drank Thai Tea Blend by Teavana
243 tasting notes

I’m not going to lie, I was really in the mood for coconuts for most of today. So I actually started my day with a pot of this, made it hot, with a tiny bit of half and half in each cup.

The tea is of course coconut with some nutty taste, the black and rooibos blend nicely together and then the half and half adds a smooth creaminess that it was otherwise missing.

Still one of my favorites :)

Preparation
4 min, 0 sec

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83

My daughter came by today and started brewing this tea up. At 3 infusions, the orange begins to shine through. At four infusions, the taste changes to a Japanese green tea. This tea has multiple personalities! She did all this in my Chatsford, which I have NEVER done, because I thought the leaves needed more room..but once again her fearlessness shines through with tea:) She began brewing at 3 minutes and increased each subsequent brew by one minute.

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64
drank Thai Chai by Adagio Teas
243 tasting notes

In honor of the Deal of the Day I decided to make a pot of this. Brewed hot, no additives, two minutes. The short infusion time gives just enough time to let the spices start to develop but enough of the coconut and lemongrass come through so that this tea is not overwhelming.

Preparation
2 min, 0 sec

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84
drank Apple Pie a la mode by 52teas
96 tasting notes

I have a ton of homework left for tonight (blah) and a whole gallon of milk that expires today, so I decided to whip up some black tea. I also bought sugar for the first time! Yay! Sugar!

I’m not a /huge/ fan of apple cinnamon flavored things (although I do like apple pie), so I wasn’t expecting to like this very much. To me, it tastes like sweet (well, I added sugar and milk) apple-flavored black tea, with a generous side of creamy graham cracker and spice. I’m not tasting any vanilla, but the milk I added does give it a nice creamy feel. It’s pretty good, but just not my thing. It did, however, exceed my expectations, as I was expecting to hate it. I’m sure people who like apple flavored things will love this tea. My rating is more of a personal preference thing, and not a reflection of whether or not this tea tastes like it should/good. Thank you Ricky for the sample :)

Edit: There’s almost a coffee-with-vanilla-creamer-ish taste to my cooled down cup…an interesting development!

Preparation
185 °F / 85 °C 3 min, 30 sec

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85
drank Shiki Matcha Powder by Maeda-en
248 tasting notes

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