Featured & New Tasting Notes

Enjoying a nice springy cuppa and a sunbeam in the window, courtesy of our friend Martin. When you prepare to taste a fruit tea for the first time, you either expect heavy sweetness or heavy tartness. This has neither; just a deep fruity undertone beneath the mint. I can see this making a very nice iced tea once we graduate from fake spring to genuinely warm weather.

While this tea brews up nice and strong to open your eyes in the morning, it doesn’t have enough Assam for my liking. It’s astringent and malty and robust, but I think I like Happy Lucky’s English Breakfast more with its keemun chocolatey notes. I kinda wish I had a bit more of this blend, but not enough to place an order :)

Sipdown 28 – 2024

Sad to say I didn’t love this as much as I thought I would. The fruitiness outshines the magnolia/any floral qualities and Bitterleaf wasn’t lying when they said there’s a banana note. It’s interesting, but just wasn’t something I wanted to return to.

I adore this tea.

Lots of family showed up yesterday to surprise me for my birthday. This is one of the teas Superanna brought me for my birthday. She usually drinks green or white teas, but she and everyone else loved loved loved this black tea. So do I. This is a shelf staple in my opinion. It even resteeps well so you can steep twice in a row and mix the two for a nice big pot of tea that is more economical. Or you can just steep a teaspoon for yourself for brekkie and resteep and combine the two for a good breakfast portion without breaking the bank.

It is so fruity and good! I taste mainly the white peach and strawberry but there is raspberry here, too. Raspberry can sometimes overwhelm other flavors but it doesn’t here. Most of the time I forget there is raspberry in this.

52teas 12 Teas of Christmas – Day 8

Only 3g left and brewed in a glass gaiwan.

Back in December, I got more of the lightly creamy eggnog vibe and stronger nutmeg taste. Now it’s all banana candy and I’m here to say I love that smell/taste after years of hate. It is not at all cloying and works really well with the mineral and floral oolong base. There’s also a soft streak of bittersweetness after finishing the cup that sits so satisyingly in my mouth. Aroma is like banana candy and rum.

Oh yeah — goes great with cinnamon bread!

It’s hard to decide what I think of this one. I taste the orange and rooibos with a bit of bergamot. It’s fine cold, if a little too tangy. Once I add milk, it gets more of a creamsicle quality, but I no longer notice the bergamot. I think it’s a bit of a strange blend.

This was in a my Christmas stocking this past December in festive holiday packaging. I remember thinking Ghostly Green was an odd name to add into a Christmas based tea collection but hooray for a tea I’ve not had before.
There is a strong mint flavor with a hint of floral in the back. There’s a bit of creaminess to it as the tea cools.

March Sipdown Challenge Prompt – Pi Day and Einstein’s Birthday

Superanna gave me this tea and said I could go ahead and unwrap it, but I decided to save it for my birthday and have it be my breakfast tea. This was purchased in Tokyo, I believe, so I had to add it to the data base. The Hawaii store doesn’t sell it.

Pi Day is my actual birthday, but I tip my cup to all of the March babies here, and there are so many of us!

As for the tea, the dry leaves unfurl to quite an impressive size on steeping. The steeped tea has a rich aroma, a lot of body, and a thick, creamy mouthfeel. Lightly steamed asparagus is the leading flavor note to me, and I love asparagus. This has a richness that I associate with the word umami, but I don’t know if I am using that correctly as this has none of the seaweed or briny notes you might find in some teas that carry that description.

Many thanks, Superanna, for a rare and delightful tea treat that I might never have been able to try without your trip to Japan!

Ashmanra’s sipdown challenge – March 2024 Tea #7 -March 14 – Pi Day and Einstein’s Birthday  

Had to go with a cake tea for all those Steepster bdays!  I hope everyone with a March bday has or had a great day!  As usual, I’m about a month behind on reading tasting notes, so probably won’t get to wish you well on your own day!   This tea is hanging on strong somehow, with a best by date of 2013.  Yowzers.   Next time will be a sipdown of this particular pouch.

Wow, this tea is incredible. I think I got this as a sample in a TTC order a year or so ago and kind of tossed it into my work stash and forgot about it. Found it today and decided to brew it gongfu style and I was so pleasantly surprised.

It tastes a lot like Thai iced tea- that same caramelly sugary sweetness. Maybe like roasted candy-coated pecans? So tasty.

TTB sample. It reminds me of Lupicia’s mahina, which is a banana rooibos. With milk and sugar, this was a bit average, but not bad. Sometimes I taste the berry, but sometimes that interesting banana.

I’m not a fan of white tea in general, but I like this one. Dunno if I can actually taste the pear or ginger, but its a general berry flavor with a floral aftertaste on the first steep only. I might try this as a cold brew.

From a Sips by box. This tea isn’t anything special. I taste some slightly tart fruitiness. It’s a bit weak, but I was afraid it would get sour if I steeped it too long. It tastes like red fruit, but super average.

This tea was a sample with my Brigadoon Breakfast order.

The aroma of the dry blend was heavenly. I prepared myself for a super fruity treat on this warm and sunny spring day of outside yard work.

The steeped tea is quite different, though! Now it smells like cinnamon candy, the kind that is so strong that it tastes like clove. Because of the drastic change, I sweetened it and put it in the fridge to chill and drank it with lunch instead.

It wasn’t bad, but I am not a cinnamon candy fan, and I was so looking forward to the tropical fruit flavors I smelled in the dry blend. I am glad I got to try it, but I wouldn’t buy it for myself.

Ashmanra’s sipdown challenge – March 2024 Tea #5 – An evening tea  

I think a no caff- chai is a cupboard staple for nighttime drinking, so this one was acceptable!  Hopefully last night was one of the last colder nights for the year.  That wind was fierce.  Fun fact: one of my oldest teas around here looks to still be available!
2024 sipdowns:  25

1st steep: Wow, this tea is really lovely. The scent reminds me of the holidays aha, but the tea is incredibly well balanced. The thyme is very clear and definitely comes through. The base tea is smooth and not astringent at all. A really lovely and unique tea from Martin, thank you!

2nd steep: Just as lovely the second time around. Impressive for a black tea!

Sipdown prompt: Your tea with the shortest name, but I have plenty (roughly 35 grams of 50 grams of the packaging) of this tea remaining. But the name must be one of the shortest definitely.

First time I had it it was quite sweet, malty and rye bread; somehow like cane sugar as vendor suggests; however today it was like a light morning breakfast tea with again malty notes, but definitely less sweet than the previous session. It was, stil very delicate and lovely. Of course it is like that because I have a soft spot for Georgian teas, maybe just because they are definitely less harsh than Indian teas for example.

I will try to recreate first impressions of this tea. I assume that colder water is the key; as amount of leaf was the same, as well as the volume of my vessel.

A bit let down by this. I’m getting a lot of milk aroma (it smells like added milk flavoring, though that isn’t listed anywhere), but I don’t get it in the flavor. I’m definitely not getting any honey. Mostly butter and lilac. It’s quite average, and the price just doesn’t align with the quality ($15.50/30g….which is a perfectly acceptable price for a decent Jin Xuan but not this Jin Xuan).

This one’s nice! I could smell the rich citrus as soon as the water hit the teabag. Reminds me a little bit of orange slice gumdrop candy, minus the overbearing sweetness. No overbearing tartness. Just bearing :)

One of my favorite webcams when I need eye candy is the Las Vegas Bellagio Conservatory. As I write this, they’re in construction mode for their spring display. You’ll appreciate the theme! https://www.earthcam.com/usa/nevada/lasvegas/bellagio/?cam=bellagio (I hope the link gets you there.)

Ashmanra’s sipdown challenge – March 2024 Tea #1- Your tea with the shortest name

Oo, I like this prompt.  It required some thinking!  I’m guessing at six letters, this is one of the teas with the shortest names.  And it’s a good excuse to dig it out of the stash.  It’s such an interesting looking leaf!   Wish I had enjoyed it in its prime, but it isn’t bad now.

Album: GRETA – Portals
Song: First Weeks https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuTUT-D4tIg

A sipdown! (M: 1 Y: 33) — prompt: An evening tea, as drank in the evening :)

I was craving some sweet-thing tea and this is not my general flavour profile. So, I have been happy to find a last (hopefully) tea bag of this tea. And I found out I never wrote a tasting note, so I am doing it as a sipdown note.

Courtney ’s description it quite spot on. Cocoa marshmellow and also quite dark chocolate here!

Subtle, cozy tea. That could be definition of this blend. Surprisingly well done. A splash of milk or something similar would make a cup similar to hot cocoa I assume.

I bought a few Thunderbolt teas last summer at a deep discount, and as usual, I’m just getting to them. Their moonlight teas are among their more iconic offerings, so I was excited to try this version from Margaret’s Hope. I steeped 3.5 g of leaf in 150 ml of 180F water for 2.5, 3.5, 5, and 7 minutes, plus a couple uncounted steeps.

The leaves are very large and pretty and full of silver tips. The dry aroma is of white chocolate, cucumber, honey, and spring flowers. The first steep has notes of spring flowers, rose, herbs, coriander, honey, cucumber, green pepper, pine, citrus, and mango. There’s a touch of astringency and the tea is very aromatic and strong. The next steep is more piney, herbaceous, floral, and vegetal, with hints of grapefruit and mango and more pronounced tannins. The rose persists during some sessions, while others are more herbaceous. The final few steeps are herbaceous and vegetal, with more astringency and some remaining rose florality.

This is a lovely, complex tea that kept reminding me of alcohol, either gin or an IPA depending on the session. The citrus, pine, and florals are pronounced and fresh, especially since I’m drinking this a year after it was harvested. I have a feeling that Derk would get a lot more out of this tea than I can!

I bought this for… reason unknown. Maybe I wanted to try fruit filled puerh, at least that sounds like a plausible explanation.

Anyway, I split the mandarin in half and picking some amount of puerh inside with a finger. Also adding some of the peel. I just hope it is intended to be steeped with the tea.

I tried it once before writing this note, but as my 4 years old niece was around, I was rather checking if my cup is far enough from the table border, than checking the tea itself.

Today I prepared 3g/3 mins with 90°C water.

It much earthier than I have expected. I also notice some of the cardboard / paper note which seems like a flaw to me. It’s not what I was expecting, to be honest. Also, earthy note is strong and then it fades into that I wrote about. I do notice some of the orange zest, but rather in aroma than the taste.

As it cools down it is getting better. Not by a lot, though. Have I used wrong steeping parameters? Was I supposed to steep it gongfu only? Was it packed in the paper wrapping for too long? Discuss below.

This is a great tea to start the morning. A bit of briskness and a nice touch of astringency, all come together nicely with this beautiful leaf. Long leaves tightly twisted with fuzzy golden buds. This leaf is just gorgeous. The wet leaf reminds me of dark chocolate and raisin bread. Maybe a mixture of both. The flavor is very similar to the aroma with cocoa and bitter chocolate notes also a bit of malt, and some lacquered wood. The mouthfeel, as I mentioned earlier is a bit astringent but mostly it is smooth. The astringency just helps to add some depth. My first brew was bitter with a slightly overwhelming astringency. I had my dad try it first and when I tried it I felt bad that the first experience was so off, luckily the second was better. He said he still prefers coffee though… I’ll keep trying.