New Tasting Notes

Daylon, your sample is threading like silk into this beautiful summer morning. Somebody put their full attention and energy into this tea.

This Michigan-grown leaf gives me great hope that one day I can grow and process tea here in California that, like this oolong, rivals the depth, complexity and longevity of fine eastern teas.

Thank you, Daylon. I can’t express enough gratitude <3

The benefit of drinking something blindly is you don’t know what you’re supposed to expect. Based on the name of the tea, I figured it would be a rooibos based tea and examining the pyramid, my assumption was confirmed. I guess there are supposed to be berries in this but I don’t see any in the pyramid. I only smell rooibos but the flavor is vanilla. There is a light berry taste as well. I find it to be a good balance and probably one of the better rooibos blends I’ve had. I’m reminded of a creamy hard candy I had in the 90’s, whose name is escaping me. I think they were put out by LifeSavers candies. Might have to Google that later.

I actually enjoy this tea. It definitely jolts and shakes taste buds with energy. It has so many ingredients, taste is a combo of tea, herbs, and tea-spices. My friends makes it with mint and cardamom. I drink it to the last sip.

I drank it when I was on a visit to Pakistan. It tastes great and boosts digestion. Taste is bit strong, ashy and leafy. Basically it is made by boiling green tea leaves along herbs.

A friend brewed this tea and it was really nice. It is very dark, and has deep woody flavors. You can taste and feel the time. This tea is felt in the head and body really quickly, it gave a very deep and meditative feeling of relaxation and calmness. Remarkable. Too bad this kind of tea is absolutely unaffordable if you would want to drink it on a regular basis…

A nice dancong! I got this tea from a local online tea retailer and I decided to brew it in my Chaozhou teapot. I jammed the teapot with leaves and started the session. The leaves were pretty nice, relatively whole and uniform, and the aroma was pretty good as well, with wafting pungent floral and honey notes in the air. Liquor was clean and vibrant, and the flavour was decent as well, albeit having a slight bitter note to it but it was still good. Texture is smooth, slightly oily, slightly juicy, and the finish & aftertaste was really good, with lingering notes of honey and florality refreshing the mouth. Cha qi is okay, slight buzziness, and steep longevity is okay as well, with the tea lasting till around steep 8-9.

There are definitely better Dancongs out there, but this one isn’t bad especially for the price.

Sipdown (2323)!

So far this has been my favourite of the zodiac blends. Like Scorpio, it’s very straightforward with a full bodied, brisk and malty black tea base with additions of fresh, aromatic cardamom and just a bit of cream. There’s just enough natural sweetness present, and the flavour is rich which not overwhelming the base. I could see it being so phenomenal with a splash of milk. I am, for sure, a bit of a sucker for cardamom but it does feel a little more rare to see it in such a pure play way that just honors the flavour so entirely.

I would definitely buy this one again.

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I’m not really sure what’s going on with this tea, but I think I sort of liked it? At the same time, it was strange and I felt a tad bit unsatisfied by the end of the cup, and I really can’t explain to myself why?? It tastes mostly like berry, but in a more thin and surface level way. Elderberry is one of those berries that can get pretty gnarly the more you use in a blend though, so I do think I prefer a less full bodied berry note over something sickly sweet or medicinal, which would be easy to accidentally do…

The base choice is strange. It’s gunpowder green tea and milk oolong!? Mostly it just tastes of the milk oolong, thankfully, but that sort of artificial butter note doesn’t seem all too cohesive with the berry notes and slight tartness. I think this is a case of “all the individual components are nice” but together they’re unorganized and messy…

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I’m certainly no expert on the zodiac, but I do know that Aries is a fire sign and, well, I felt the fire with this blend. I actually liked this one much more than I thought I would given the ingredients list, but the rooibos was pleasantly smooth and woody and the chili had a very real kick to it that crawled down the the throat and left a lingering warmth in the back of my chest. The mouthfeel was a little thicker than I expected too, which i believe was from the coconut. I didn’t taste a ton of coconut, but I did get a nice subtle orange note which was a fun offset to the chili, ginger, and cinnamon.

I don’t usually find myself drawn to teas like this one that are basically just spice profiles, but if Bird and Blend offered this in a smaller size than the 100g tin I would definitely consider getting more of this. Zodiac aside, this would be killer for clearing out a stuffed up nose when you’re sick – especially with some honey!

Sipdown (2326)!

So, the main reason I ended up placing this past Bird and Blend order was because of their new zodiac collection. I definitely didn’t want to blindly commit to 100g tins of everything, but I did want to try them all so I picked up the sachet sampler, which has a single tea bag of each one. I’ve been enjoying casually sipping through them all this past week – in no particular order.

This is one of the few that, based on the ingredients list, I might have been tempted to order for myself. Ultimately I’m glad I didn’t, but I did think it was a nice enough tea. It’s a black tea base with a light addition of tropical passionfruit. Definitely not nearly as much passionfruit as I’d have liked though, and what I did taste was a little bit on the flatter side and not the lively, tangy passionfruit I might have hoped for.

However, fans of the Mariage Freres or Dammann Freres style black tea blends with subtle fruit additions may have better luck with this – it’s basically a breakfast blend with that subtle tropical nod.

Cold Brew!

Realizing as I write tasting notes tonight that I think I was subconsciously cravings florals this week. Always wild to me how I rarely see the patterns in a week of tea drinking until I sit down and actually take the time to collect my thoughts here on Steepster. Anyway, this is a delicious tea with a nice mix between floral sakura and a sweet and more candy-like cherry flavour, with just a hint of coconut in the mix. Very fresh and easy drinking!

Friendly reminder that I do not numerically rate DAVIDsTEA blends as I’m currently employed there and it would be an obvious conflict of interest. Any blends you see with numerical ratings were rated prior to my employment there. These reviews are a reflection of my personal thoughts and feelings regarding the teas, and not the company’s.

Cold Brew!

This was today’s cold brew. I found the apple notes a little brighter and more forward than expected, but I think that’s because it’s just such an old tea at this point that lots of the jasmine and sweet custard and brulee notes have faded. That just sort of leaves the apple more “exposed” and apparent, if you will. Still delicious though! This is one of my favourite green tea blends that DT has carried – I miss it a lot.

Friendly reminder that I do not numerically rate DAVIDsTEA blends as I’m currently employed there and it would be an obvious conflict of interest. Any blends you see with numerical ratings were rated prior to my employment there. These reviews are a reflection of my personal thoughts and feelings regarding the teas, and not the company’s.

Sipdown (2327)!

Passing the rest of this off to the SVTTB in the hopes that someone else will enjoy it more than I do. This last cup was the best I’ve had of it, with more of a soft floral peach with a light touch of osmanthus. It’s still very green tea forward though (not my fav) and I don’t feel the addition of sage helps with that, at least for my own tastes. I think I always personally just wanted this to be more peachy, but maybe someone else will be able to embrace the green base in a way I can’t.

An afternoon cuppa from yesterday, while at work. I find the description Trader Nick’s gives for the tea very accurate and I think my coworkers must as well because the aroma of my steeping tea did illicit a lot of observations about the smoked rum aroma. It was a very smooth brew, with upfront smoke followed by a rich, round vanilla, rum and spice profile. I think it’s perfect for its Pirates of The Caribbean inspiration, and all in all quite an enjoyable and well balanced mix of flavours.

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The only one from the Steven Smith holiday trio that I’m not a fan of. I like cinnamon and peppermint, but did they really need to add licorice root, blackberry leaf, and stevia? I guess they wanted it to be candy cane-like, so they were trying to make it sweet without sugar. But the cinnamon already makes it not taste like a candy cane, so I don’t get it.

Not for me.

Ashmanra’s sipdown challenge – July 2023 Tea #2 – July 7 – World Chocolate Day

A quick note to say I didn’t forget a chocolate tea today!  Also will drink it with some chocolate pie. 

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Not a fan of this one.

Savoy’s black tea base is already fairly earthy and musty-tasting to me, so to take that and add dried raspberry leaf to it… It kind of just brings out my least favorite notes of the tea. The raspberry flavoring itself is okay, mostly it tastes like a raspberry hard candy, but there is a touch of tartness at the end of the sip that adds a bit of interest.

Another freebie, this time from my Tea Thoughts order! Thanks, Nazanin! :)

I haven’t had much experience with kamairicha, in fact I can’t recall whether I’ve tried it before… It’s a Japanese green tea, but it’s processed more like a Chinese tea, with pan frying instead of the usual steaming.

It’s quite delicious. I can see the similarities to Chinese pan-fried teas, it has the same comforting soba-like nutty notes that I would expect from a long jing, for instance. But underneath I can still taste that savory umami richness that is a hallmark of sencha, and Japanese greens in general. This tea has quite a bit of intensity to it as well, similar to a kabusecha or, to a greater extent, gyokuro. There’s also a very noticeable floral note to my palate, which makes for an interesting combination with the more savory flavors.

Very tasty tea, and I would definitely be interested in trying more kamairicha in the future. I’ll have to keep it in mind the next time I order from Yunomi…

Second freebie included with my subscription.

Was interested to try this one, because I love hojicha and it’s somewhat unusual to see it in flavored blends.

I do taste a bit of the hojicha here, and it adds a nice toasty bottom note. However, the primary flavor is the amaretto rooibos, and I don’t really love amaretto/marzipan sort of flavors in tea. To me it’s quite cloying because of how sweet and cherry candylike it is, and even though I actually like that flavor in desserts, I’m not a fan of it in tea.

So a bit disappointing, but obviously that’s down to my personal preferences. I do wish the hojicha had a stronger presence, as it’s mostly overshadowed by the strong flavoring.

Free sample from my subscription package!

I was excited to see this as one of my free samples, because I remember thinking it sounded good when I was perusing the new Star Wars blends on the website.

For me though, the flavoring is a bit too strong here, and it overpowers everything else, including the jasmine. It also doesn’t necessarily taste like citrus to me, more of a vague tart tropical note. I would probably guess passionfruit? I could maybe see a bit of raspberry in here, and there is a little hint of jasmine at the end of the sip. Mostly I taste a candylike tart fruitiness.

It’s a pleasant enough fruity tea, just didn’t quite live up to my expectations.

Since bananas foster is set on fire, it makes a lot of sense thematically that this tea tastes a bit smoky. I don’t happen to like smoky teas, but luckily the smoke is relatively mild. It’s still a bit too much, but I can stand it. I also taste some green banana. This certainly isn’t one of my preferred 52teas blends, but it does a decent job at the flavor profile. I would have liked to see more caramelized dessertiness instead of just raw banana and smoky black tea. I found that shortening the steep time decreased the smoke flavor, but then I tasted some meatiness from the tea instead. I’d still say I sort of like it…but I wouldn’t want this version of it again.

Interesting but pretty hard to drink tea. I got this tea last year and completely forgot about it, so I digged it out today and brewed it in my yixing teapot. Nice huangpian leaves albeit slightly more stemmy than usual, a rich dry and wet leaf herbaceous aroma, and a clear and vibrant almond hue liquor. The flavour is quite bitter, with a unique juicy mouthfeel that slightly quenches the astringency. The texture is pretty astringent, and while I am one for astringent teas, this may just cross the line. The finish & aftertaste was okay, nothing amazing. The cha-qi was relatively present, slight buzziness to the tea, and the steep longevity is decent as well, with the tea possibly lasting upwards of steep 10.