New Tasting Notes

Forgot to log yesterday…hummm…yummmmmmm

1 tsp matcha + 8 oz strawberry yogurt (fat free, organic & probiotic) + 1/2 cup almond milk + 1 banana = deliciousness!

I serve my smoothis over whole ice cubes instead of blending them in – seems to keep it colder longer without it watering down as quickly.

Ah sweet red heat.

Now that I think abpout it, this tea tea tastes quite a lot like Adagio’s Green Needle tea – only with a bit more ‘greeness’ add to it. And yeah, soooo not keeping to the tin’s steeping instructions.

I rinsed the tea for a bit longer than last time – about 30 seconds. It seemed to have removed most of the decaying-fish scent and it made the resulting tea a little less overpoweringly earthy. Don’t get me wrong, it still tastes like this tea is stiff enough to stand a spoon up in it.

I think I’m starting to enjoy this pu-erh, although I feel like it needs something sweet to go with it to cut some of the flavour.

I was thrown off by the name because it says “scented green tea” but earl grey immediately came to mind as I drank it. I need to test it again before commenting, but it was a fine tea as far as I remember. I understand it makes a nice iced tea, so I will try that as well.

the grandest of grand black teas !!

Perfect, fierce, amazing, etc. If I logged this every time I drank it, it would be embarrassing. The one true earl grey, all others pale in comparison!

Less terrible than I thought it would be, the citrus pieces help push aside that perfume taste I dislike so much. Definitely best plain with a bit of lemon!

Embodying everything I hate about earl greys, sickenly floral with a gasp of bergamot. Terrible to drink but fantastic to use in baking! Yeah, I said it. This is my cheap baking tea.

Steep Information:
Amount: entire sample, 3 heaping tsp
Additives: none
Water: 6 ounces filtered boiling
Tool: Mesh basket strainer in cup
Steep Time: a little over 7 minutes
Served: Hot

Tasting Notes:
Dry Leaf Smell: andes chocolate mints
Steeped Tea Smell: andes chocolate mints
Flavor: mint, woody
Body: Full
Aftertaste: mint with a hint of chocolate
Liquor: deep opaque black-red

This smelled similar to 52Teas Loose Leaf Black Tea ‘Chocolate Mint Flavored Black Tea’

Both were strongly mint.

This tea has two advantages (for me) – no bitter black tea flavor, and it’s rooibos (I need more caffeine free teas I love in my cupboard).

Post-Steep Additives: none

Resteep: 7 minutes, medium bodied, still the same profile, lighter coloring

images: http://amazonv.blogspot.com/2010/03/jade-teapot-loose-leaf-rooibos-tea_2874.html

This tea is to delicate for my tastes, I like my earl grey to be a punch in the face.

This is a matcha powder that comes in individual packets.

I made a cup this morning and was a little disappointed with the results. I expected a richer taste, and even though I used only a small cup of hot water, the taste was a bit thin, almost watery even. Next time, I will try using two packets or mixing it with milk instead of water to achieve the thicker, creamier taste I was hoping for.

I’m not giving up on this one just yet! If it doesn’t work out as a drink, I could always find other uses for it — maybe in ice cream? :)

Steep Information:
Amount: 2 tsp at first, then entire sample (approx 4 tsp)
Additives: none
Water: 6 ounces filtered boiling
Tool: Mesh basket strainer in cup
Steep Time: a little over 12 minutes
Served: Hot

Tasting Notes:
Dry Leaf Smell: barely a scent of caramel, and perhaps a re-heated burned caramel
Steeped Tea Smell: none
Flavor: woody rooibos
Body: Medium
Aftertaste: the burned caramel is there, like an after thought, not heavy but lightly
Liquor: dark red

After the first 7 minutes and 2 tsp of tea I found it to be a weak woody rooibos flavor, so I added the rest of the sample and steeped another 5 minutes.

I was not tasting the apple or smelling it. The cinnamon and almond surprised me as I would never have guessed they were there had they not been in the ingredient listing.

You need to like rooibos to like this tea as it is a very prominent flavor. The apple and caramel are too subtle for me.

Post-Steep Additives: 1/2 tsp German rock sugar, more caramel flavor brought out

images: http://amazonv.blogspot.com/2010/03/jade-teapot-loose-leaf-rooibos-tea_17.html

I actually bought my first box of this tea while I was in Florida in the World Showcase at Epcot. It’s been a while sice I’ve had it (can’t seem to find it around here), but I remeber it being very nice and light.

This is a nice one. I especially like to sweeten it with raw sugar instead of white, as I do with many teas to which I don’t add milk.

More “strawberry” than “strawberries and cream” unfortunately, it has as much razzamatazz as the raspberry black tea I just tried. Adding milk does bring out the creaminess a little bit more, but overall I am underwhelmed by this tea.

I was craving this one tonight! I just adore it and I can’t go a week without having a cup. I have already logged it 11 times :) So coconutty and delicious.

I already made another cup of this. I couldn’t help myself. One thing I noticed while drinking it this time is that it got better and better as it cooled. Perhaps that’s why I am supposed to brew it at a lower temp. I take the first sip and I think “eh, ok” and then by the end of the cup I saying out loud, “I love this tea”.

Steep Information:
Amount: 3 tsp
Additives: none
Water: 3 cups filtered boiling water (1 cast iron teapot full)
Tool: Cast Iron Teapot with Mesh basket strainer
Steep Time: a little over 7 minutes
Served: Hot

Tasting Notes:
Dry Leaf Smell: Raisin bran cereal, sweet raisins
Steeped Tea Smell: cinnamon and tea
Flavor: black tea, smoky, astringent
Body: Medium
Aftertaste: tea
Liquor: translucent light reddish-brown

I started with 3 minutes, it was too weak, went and kept sipping, the tea was not yet bitter at 7 and I think it could have steeped longer.

The tea smells very much like cinnamon and tea. I was not getting toast (or was the smoky flavor supposed to represent crispy toast?) or butter.

The raisins was only present in the dry leaf smell.

To test the quality of a steeped golden raisin I took some of my golden raisins from the cupboard and steeped them a few minutes, very grape. So apparently the tea doesn’t have enough raisins for my liking.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with this tea, it’s smooth and not bitter and really just fine. But I have done something wrong or it’s too subtle for me.

Next steep I will try adding sugar, cream separately and together while tossing in extra raisins. It may end up getting a higher rating once I fiddle with the preparation, it has potential.

I am interested to get MilitaJim’s thoughts on it – he’s out celebrating St. Patty’s Day. Bobbie agrees with my tea that smells like cinnamon assessment.

Post-Steep Additives: none

images: http://amazonv.blogspot.com/2010/03/52teas-loose-leaf-black-tea-buttered.html

What a sinister looking blend! Those whole raspberries are creeping me out. Anyway, this looks more exciting than it tastes. I’m not big on the idea of fruity black teas at all but I think this would be better with more vanilla or something to punch up the flavour a bit. It’s just like “Oh hey, I’m a raspberry black tea…” not “WAHEY! I’M A RASPBERRY BLACK TEA!” with jazz hands etc. I would definitely drink this plain because milk just mutes the flavour too much. Yeah.

Does what it says on the packet really! The tea is smooth, sweet and aromatic with a strong lichee flavour. Similar to China Rose, it is best plain though if you want to drink it with milk I’d brew it for longer. Would probably be delightful iced and topped up with a bit of gin…

Come, my friends. Come and hear my tale. It is a story of glory and tragedy, of trust and betrayal, of successes and failures, of the kindness and benevolence of the human spirit and of its depravity and selfishness!

Let me tell you about the heroine of our tale, Jillian, who asked for some tea possessed by our villain, sophistre, about a month ago, and how she — in all of her righteousness — sent forth tea to her nemesis and lo, the wicked sophistre did get distracted by writing and guests from out of town, and when the tea arrived at her humble abode, she was glad. And yet she had sent no tea, herself.

And Jillian went without.

It is to weep!

Seriously though…I fail at post office. I think I mentioned that earlier. I had no idea Jillian was sending me anything until she got her tea, and I feel like a big’ol heel now, because here I am with a very cozy-smelling cup of tea in front of me thanks to Jillian, and the Adagio tin I promised her is still sitting on my front hall table waiting to be whisked off to Canadaland.

I am such a jerk. I’m not even a tragic villain in this story, because mostly I’ve been either consumed by writing or running around with a bunch of other jerks from out of town.

Anyway, thank you Jillian! You shame me! The tea, it will be winging its way to you shortly. (I swear!)

The tea I was most curious about at the time we discussed a trade was a Russian Caravan she had, because at that point I had not had a Russian Caravan tea. I now have A&D’s Caravan in my cabinet, but that’s the only one I’ve tried…so I’m still looking forward to this one quite a bit. Even so, opening up the little packet, it was the smell of this tea that called to my newly-awakened braincells with promises of spices and sweet fruit, and so here it is.

It smells good dry, but I think it smells wonderful when it steeps. The heat really brings several of the spices to the fore in the nose. It tells me there’s citrus here, and I believe it…but it’s the clove-riddled citrus you might remember if your teachers, like mine, had ever had you make one of those clove-studded oranges for the holidays when you were a kid in gradeschool. Cinnamon is easy to detect, and while I would not have fingered almond as a taste present in the tea, I think I find it after I swallow. I could probably have stood to have it be more prevalent in the overall profile, but I’m somebody who douses themselves in almond oil on a regular basis in the bath, so I admit I may be biased. It’s sweet on the sides of the tongue, and there’s a lingering, spicy warmth on the middle and over my palate. There’s even a cozy warmth in my throat and belly that has nothing to do with the temperature of the tea, but instead with the spices involved.

It’s becoming pretty clear to me the more H&S teas I try that they really are exceptionally good at determining the best ratio of flavor to tea. I have yet to try a cup from them that was particularly intense, but I can also say with certainty that I’ve been struck every time by how balanced the flavors have been, not only with themselves but with the tea base.

I could feel a creeping headache coming on when I woke up (yes, when I woke up at 10pm. Just trust me)…but I’m getting close to the bottom of the cup now, and it’s going.

As a tea that reminds you of the holidays goes, this one without a doubt hits the mark. I can easily see myself keeping a little tin around of this, so I may actually add this along with Florence to my ‘will order’ list. Yay!

Thanks to Jillian and her INCREDIBLE supply of patience for sending me tea when I’ve been so dodgy about my end of the bargain!

My Samovar order came in today!

The smell of the yuzu is definitely noticeable compared to the green tea. It makes me want to cry because it is so amazing.

Once brewed, the grassy/vegetal smell is much more noticeable, with slight undertones of yuzu. I kind of wish it would keep the stronger yuzu smell once brewed, but this still smells amazing.

The first sip. This has a much grassier flavor than I originally thought it would have, which isn’t a problem at all since I love green teas. The sencha is vegetal, buttery, and creamy, with very subtle hints of yuzu in the aftertaste. With each sip, the progression of yuzu seems to get a bit stronger in the aftertaste. Next thing I know, I’m at the bottom of my mug. Damn, need to resteep.

2nd steep, for 30 seconds. I’d have to agree with teaplz, the second steep could possibly be even better than the first. The yuzu is much more noticeable when you taste this. I’d say the tastes of the sencha and yuzu are almost equal now.

3rd steep, 30 more seconds. I’m tasting straight yuzu now. The tea has gotten quite light, but still tastes pretty amazing… Now that I’m tasting almost straight yuzu, it reminds me of drinking a very very light or watered down yuzu juice. I think that is pretty amazing.

With the progression of tastes in this tea, with each steep, you would almost think this is a different tea every time you tasted the new brew. Which that is just amazing.

Overall, I think it is a pretty freaking awesome tea. It is a nice, light, refreshing tea that cleanses the palette after almost each sip. But, there is a part of me that was a little let down. Not with this tea itself, but at my expectations of this tea. Let me explain.

When this tea first appeared on Samovar’s site, I got so excited. I was so happy that I found a yuzu green tea that I could get outside of Japan (then again, I never actively searched for some after I got back home). The first thing that came to mind was the amazing yuzu tea that I had while in Japan. I then went on a little stroll down memory lane. Britt and I were back in Harajuku, and we were walking down Omotesando. I wanted to get some tea at this interesting looking tea shop that was above Heiroku Sushi (which is an amazing kaitenzushi/conveyor belt sushi restaurant, I’d highly recommend going there). So we stopped in there, and I decided to go with the yuzu tea since I had been hooked on drinking hot yuzu juice from the conbini during my stay there. It tasted glorious, it was like they brewed the tea with straight yuzu juice, and it also had a few large chunks of the citrus-y fruit in there along with the tea. It was even better than the yuzu juice that I had been hooked on. So, we come back to reality, and I think to myself “Man, I gotta get this! It is yuzu tea, just like I had in Japan!” So, I am a little disappointed in myself and thinking this was going to taste exactly like the tea I had in Japan.

But this tea, definitely a winner in my book. I’d highly recommend it!