New Tasting Notes

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.

Meghann M sent this one to me. I’m infusing now! I don’t think I have ever had any of the TeaSource Teas before so I am excited!!!

Black Tea…check…
Lemon…check…
Berry…check…

This isn’t too bad. I don’t know if it is something I originally would have picked up for myself the first time around but if I was a regular customer would probably have sampled some.

I really needed a black or flavored black before moving on to some of the other teas in my NEW pile so I thought I would try this.

Honestly, as I sip this…it’s growing on me more…

I would say the black tea taste is mellow to medium and the flavoring is about the same.

Fairly tasty.

This smells great…peach, ginger, and for some reason I am smelling a HINT of apple, almost and I don’t know why.

The taste is very much Ginger with Cinnamon. There is a hint of peach. It’s not bad, but I, personally, would have liked more peach and less ginger.

Thanks to LiberTEAs I was able to try this one…and am VERY grateful.

Yeah…just a bit too much ginger and cinnamon for me…no worries, tho!

Delicate, with a hint of grass and roses. It does make me picture sitting in a garden in spring and smelling the plants around me. Overall the flavor is too light for me though.

This year’s gift to myself was the Kusmi sample set of russian blends and this cup http://www.roykirkham.co.uk/images/images/m/577.jpg which is the same series as my favouritest ever teapot. I love how it’s standing there all full of tea and baaa-ing at me.

Anyway, this is the first one out of the sample set, chosen by ippy-dippy.

My nasal membranes are dried out today. I can’t figure out if I’m on the verge of a cold or something or not, but they definitely aren’t working, so I didn’t get much out of smelling the dry leaves. I could smell them, but not well enough to tell anything beyond ‘citrus’ and after a while it just started to feel weird in the nose.

Enough about my health, you’re not interested in that. Let’s just skip to the part where smelling the steam coming off the cup of finished tea went much much better. It’s definitely citrus-y. Primarily bergamot with the others coming in on top. Like Earl Grey With Friends.

I was expecting sweet citrus, but this isn’t really it. Again, the bergamot is in the forefront and it’s got that slightly bitter bite to it. I’m glad the other citruses are there too because without them I’m not sure I’d have liked this as much. As it is, it’s nice but not a favourite. Maybe it’ll change later. It’s been known to happen that I completely fall in love with something I initially didn’t think that much of. The much beloved Tan Yang being a good example of this.

I do wish it was sweeter though, so I tried adding some cane sugar. Didn’t work either. Oh it’s sweeter alright, but not in the right way. The sugar doesn’t really merge with the citrus flavours like I wanted it to. The tea flavour is unchanged and then the sugar sweetness is there sort of next to it.

This is an enjoyable blend, but I’ll keep looking for a favourite, I think.

Gong Fu Cha:
Tie Guan Yin 1er Grade, Cina oolong, 7,5 gr in Yixing 6oz (~177 ml); acqua Sant’anna sorgente Rebruant 95°.

0 – acqua dei piedi
1 – 45’’
Colore brillante verde giada, con riflessi oro. Al naso è tipico come pochi sentori di minerali e vegetali di natura marina tipo scoglio e alga; segue una esplosione di note ferrose tra cui emerge di tanto in tanto un fruttato maturo di frutta gialla. All’assaggio le note fruttate sono più decise ma ancora sommerse dalla mineralità ferrosa che è la nota stilistica dei grandi Tie Guan Yin. Il lunghissimo finale è assolutamente giocato su note minerali e pietrose.

2 – 45’’
Vestito di oro verde, al naso avvertiamo note minerali che si mischiano a frutta gialla matura come pesca e pennellate di miele di eucalipto; segue un bouquet di fiori di campo e fiori gialli; ancora ricordi di pomodoro stracotto e qualche vena lattea. In bocca stupisce per l’estrema freschezza che tiene su di sé una dolcezza vellutata dai tannini che iniziano a farsi sentire e la mineralità decisamente più defilata. Ritornano avvolgenti sensazioni di fiori e miele. Sul finale ancora lunghissimo emergono note più scure, come di tostatura.

3 – 1’20’’
Verde con riflessi oro, porta con sé ricordi di fiori di campo e frutta gialla che si aprono in sentori di erbacei di natura marina e di lieve mineralità. In bocca l’inizio e fresco e pungente, ma subito emerge una dolcezza fruttata che invade il cavo orale. Il finale è una esplosione di note minerali ferrose di spezie e tostatura, emergono nettissime note di massa di cacao, cannella, cardamomo, arachide e poi ancora frutta matura come pesca e albicocca; ed è un vortice che sembra non avere fine e ti invoglia ad assaggiarne ancora per andare ancora più affondo in questo mare di sensazioni.

Ho fatto anche una 4a infusione a 2’ ed una 5a a 3’, ma non ho preso appunti, ma erano ancora piacevolissime, ne avrei fatta una sesta, ma sono dovuto uscire per lavoro.

This is my second tea from 52teas and the second time I’ve had to refrain from just typing expletives in capslock in conjunction with accusing them of witchcraft (I believe I just did the latter in my last tasting note). The flavours really are all there! I managed to pick out the chocolate and strawberry in the aroma of the dry leaves, with the vanilla coming in with both the aroma and taste of the resulting brew. I thought this would be nice with milk, but its already pretty creamy on its own.
Neapolitan ice-cream tea? This guy has nailed it!

First tea of the morning. How decadent!

I’m allowed decadent today though, since it’s the first day with a new age. I’m also supposed to have cake for breakfast, but I don’t have any cake handy so I’m skipping that. :) I can’t be bothered to go get some.

A while ago I had a bag of something or other where I concluded that I just wasn’t really all that fond of coconut in tea. Taking this one out now really confuses me on that point now, because I like this one and it’s very little else than coconut! How does that work? I don’t understand it.

Okay, it is a bit decadent first thing in the morning… A bit too decadent actually. I think I’ll have a more… you know… sensible one after this.

The dry leaves are tightly woven knots and corkscrews twisted lengthwise; a patchwork of white and green threads.

After adding this tea to my warmed gaiwan, the first thing that greeted me was a creamy yet slightly roasted and vegetal aroma. But once infused, you notice more characteristics of asparagus and slight tropical notes.

The first thing you notice about the taste of this tea is how sweet it is. It is delectably sweet like pineapple. Once the sweetness washes over your tongue, a light asparagus taste pervades it.

This smooth, full bodied, and refreshing tea is perfect for sunny spring days.

The mint flavour seems stronger to me when the tea is steeped longer. It lends a bit of a…not quite bitter tang to it. And the menthol leave a bit of a tingly, cooling sensation in the back of my mouth.

I’m finally back in the tea business after my recovery from Golden Moon Tea’s horrid Honey Pear. I was seriously put off of tea (GASP!) for quite a while because of that disgusting brew.

Anyway, Earl Grey Creme from Teavana is delicious. It’s smooth and not overwhelming. I don’t taste much vanilla, but there is somewhat of a creamy aspect to the way it goes down. My mouth would love more of the cream element. I’m not the best at noticing the differences in Earl Greys, but this is currently my favorite. This is a pleasant cup to drink without any milk or sweetener!

Looking back on what I said about this a month ago, the main difference is that I can now comment on “the rooibos aspect.”

Tonight, in fact, the rooibos aspect was the main thing I tasted in this tisane. It makes me wonder whether my novice palate at the time confused the rooibos with another flavor. Rooibos can have a fruity note to it, and I may have interpreted this note as apple. But now that I’ve had more rooibos, it’s not apple. And the lion tamer in me wants to reach for my whip and chair and back the rooibos back into its corner, where I like it best. Bumping down a couple of points.