New Tasting Notes

I’m not quite sure this is the right place to put this. Ten Ren sells several grades of black tea both loose and in bags. What I’m drinking is the loose second grade black tea. Its slightly astringent and slightly smoky. I’m sure that there are correct words to describe the rest of the taste and I am sure they are not ‘refined’, ‘pleasant’, or ‘fancy’. But I don’t know what they are, so that’s what you’re getting. This tea plays the BMW to my normal morning Assam’s Camaro SS. They’re both quick of the line, but one is much more poised (and expensive).

My morning thermos is packed today of mostly matcha and a bit of genmaicha to give it a nutty kick. (I usually do my matcha/genmaicha combo in reserve with much more genmaicha than matcha).

Brewed up a large glass of this iced today (quick brew method over ice). I’m impressed at how naturally sweet this tea is, no need to add anything to it. The currant flavor came out strong to play in this iced tea. I’m loving it! I think I’ll need another pouch to get through summer. I hope they will reblend this one if their is enough demand, must keep in stock!

Tea Earl Grey, Hot.

This Earl Grey has a clearly bergamot flavor. The black tea base is tasty. The two together are pretty good. I do think I like my Earl Grey Creme’s better than plain old Earl. This was pretty good alone, held up to milk well also. Lupica’s is still my go to Earl Grey with Teavana’s Earl Grey Creme coming up a close second.

First cup of the day! And it’s a good one. It’s not as good, though, as the one I had at my house on the weekend. I’m blaming the water at work. I’m tempted to resteep the leaves, but suspect I’d be disappointed.

As soon as I opened the sample tin that LiberTEAs sent me I could smell a scent double of true Carrot Cake. HOW CLEVER! Then…when I looked at the Rooibos and other ingredients I could clearly see each element blended throughout the mix. Its very colorful and creative! This infuses pretty dark for a Rooibos. The first sip took me by surprise as it was mostly carrot taste…but the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th sips quickly followed and intrigued me and I kept drinking.

If broadway had a Tea/Tisane Musical with flashy colors, and music, and storyline, and costumes, and stage tricks – this would be it. It seems to be surprise after surprise and the end result is that is tastes like Carrot Cake in a Cup! It very much lives up to it’s description.

What a treat!

This tea courtesy of Doulton!

The dry leaves smell great; the brewing leaves smell INCREDIBLE! I smell melon, something like strawberry, green tea, and something almost creamy.

Steep 1: The fragrance is divine. The taste is so good. A great green tea flavor balanced with what I can only describe as strawberrytropicalfruitmelon and cream.

Steep 2 (4 min): I am almost enjoying the fragrance as much as the tea!!! Such pleasant sipping. More melon-y this go ’round.

Steep3 (5min): More goodness. Is that banana?

I am giving this a rating just a touch lower than the cherry because I enjoy cherry flavors more, but this is yet another super enjoyable French Green Tea. I just love how balanced the flavors are, and how nicely the green tea comes through. I’m hopelessly addicted!!

Ah, okay, that’s much better. There’s still an almost chalky texture, but it seems more deliberate this way. I’m not thrilled with this, but it’s a reasonable cup of tea.

This was the first loose tea I tried from Foojoy and I liked it quite a lot. Full-bodied but with a delicate flavor, aroma is grassy with a hint of toastiness. I’ve found keeping the brewing temperature lower is important; the aroma becomes unpleasant if it’s too hot, even though the tea does not become too bitter.

I love this tea so so much. It’s my official “it’s time for spring” tea to welcome in the nice weather. I bought this tea last year, and I got 2 50 gram packets of it… so the second one I had been waiting to open up, which I did yesterday, and tasted as fresh and delicious as I remembered it last year. It’s a very good sencha with cherry blossoms, and there’s a light sweetness to it, and is tasty through the 3rd steeping. Delicious!

Steeped in ingenuiTEA, with more leaf than usual. Then added brown sugar and served iced. It’s okay, but has a rubbery (??) afterscent(?) I’m not too fond of. Nobody else seems to notice though. Left this out in the open— and not locked up in my special tea cabinet :P— for public consumption.

Although I prefer loose-leaf, this is a great tea for making a quick steep at work. I love the strong taste that lingers with you even after you’re done drinking it.

I’m not tasting fruit but toasty, nutty, buttery – YES. It’s Medium Brown in color and has a bit of a toasty after taste. This is a nice, average cup. I don’t think oversteeping/infusing would be wise…I think it may be bitter if over steeped/infused.

I have been missing out on a lot of my teas lately because they were stored at my old apartment and we’ve been “camping out” at our new place while getting things painted and cleaned up. I went to get the rest of my stash yesterday and decided to have this with breakfast. It has been far too long without this tea. The thing is, I used more tea today than normal because otherwise I wouldn’t have had enough for even half a pot left. It wasn’t a great amount more, but it was enough to make a difference. The tea is good, but seems too…harsh. I know it is my fault for using too much tea, so I won’t adjust the rating but it may be interesting to see if I still want to order more of this after this poor last experience. It will be going on the shopping list for now though…but as things on that list seem to do, it may disappear in the coming weeks.

I keep meaning to log this one.

I’ve had it a few times. It’s rather nice. Strong assam, malty. I was a little disapointed when I opened the tin to find that the tea was broken up rather small, like common Breakfast blends, but I just used my super-fine infuser. Although the smaller pieces mean more volume when I scoop, because there’s less pore space and I measure via the teaspoon because I don’t have that fine of a scale. Plus more surface area, and thus overall a stronger brew, so I tend to use a little less to compensate.

Not too outstanding, although I haven’t really sat down and sipped it with Steepster in mind, so I can’t remember too many details. I’ll do that next time.

This is bizarrely musty. I don’t see or smell anything wrong with the leaves so I doubt it’s literally musty, but the taste/texture is extremely off-putting. I think I may dump this cup out and try again with hotter water.

Got the flavored tea sampler from Adagio and use these as little “enhancers” in many of my green teas. I put a 1/2 teaspoon of this in with my Body + Mind by Teavana (2tsp to 16 oz) and it REALLY added a sweet zest to an otherwise light tasting tea, but, didn’t overpower it

OK, now I’m very confused. I fixed this the very exact way I did yesterday and today this tea is strong, bitter, and very astringent. I can hardly drink it. This is getting dumped and I’m going back to the drawing board and try a 4 minute steep. I’m dropping the rating until I can see what it wrong. The 5 minute steep is the directions on the box.

2nd try;
I increased the water to 12 oz as this is one huge tea bag and decreased the steep time to 4 minutes. This is much better than earlier. The tea is smooth and not bitter. Yet this tea just tastes like tea, a strong tea. I’m not getting any of the nuances that I get from other teas. Maybe its the blend, I’m not sure. I really expected a lot from this tea. If anyone has any ideas on how to prepare this tea, please leave me a comment.