Tropical Charming

Teabox Tuesday! Well, my car that got a brand-new battery in it just a month ago was completely dead this morning, so I got to jump that from a coworker in the snow tonight, and now it’s sitting back at the dealership so tomorrow morning I’ll be stuck without it yet again as I have to get their shuttle to get me over there to hand over the key and get rides to work again… SIGH. So tired of this… $1140 in repairs last month and still the damn thing won’t start? #sooverit I wish I could just take it somewhere else, but since I need their stupid shuttle, I guess they’ll just keep ripping me off… (Was trying to make it to my next business day off so I could go somewhere else but NOPE, it crapped out before then… DOUBLE SIGH.)

My hands and feet were freezing after jumping it in the snow, so soup and tea was pretty much all I wanted tonight. And I felt so drained and exhausted I didn’t even care and decided to have green tea; I figure I’m so tired I’ll pass out anyway. So this is one of my oldest teabox teas, and if it has no flavor left, meh. I’ll be happy if it’s just a tasty green leaf, but considering the age and being a green, I don’t have particularly high hopes. But I need this old stuff to stop getting older. This came from the last Here’s Hoping Teabox, so thank you tea-sipper for organizing and to all that shared in this teabox!

So this is supposed to have lulo fruit and starfruit flavoring, which to be honest I would probably not recognize as I don’t think I’ve seen either let alone tasted, as well as mango. The tea has a sort of… strange aroma? I’m getting more of a pea/greenbean sort of smell, like a Chinese green. Tasting it… yes, I think any of the flavoring is long faded. I had tried another Bitaco tea from this box, Andean Princess, and had the same issue, so they likely were the same age. There is maybe a ghosting of something like peachiness in the background, but that is a stretch; from what I can make out of the base tea, it definitely is vegetal, with pea and bean notes, and is pleasant enough, aside from being a bit stale.

This is one I’ll likely try out from S&V sometime when I’m not on order hiatus, as I’m curious what those foreign fruit notes would taste like since they are not ones I am familiar with.

Here’s Hoping Teabox – Round Seven- Tea #40
Sadly, I wasn’t tasting any fruits at all in this green blend. Not even when it was stored in a nice package. So this turned out to just be a decent green tea. Too bad, I would have liked these fruit flavors if they were present.

From the Here’s Hoping Tea Box..

I REALLY wanted to like this green base more, since I’m a big fan of flavored greens. Tried it hot, I tried in iced. This tea is pretty finicky and I found that I like it brewed hot and then iced. The trick is to not steep it for too long – I found under a minute was best for me. I know, I’m a wimp.

Also, the Bitaco website is down and has been for a while. What is up with that?

This is the first tea I am drinking from the Bitaco Tea group buy. These greens had me a little worried that they looked like black tea. However, once brewed the tea was very green. The foreground note on this tea is a vegetal note with the tropical notes more in the background. I think I like this tea. The next test is to cold brew it as an iced tea and see how it tastes.

I brewed this one time in a 16oz Teavana Glass Perfect Tea Maker/Gravity Steeper for two minutes with 175 degree water and 3 tsp leaf. While I would recommend this tea the problem for anyone not already in on the group order they have a 6kg minimum purchase. If you can meet that limit however the teas are an incredible value at $50 for 1 kg of tea, breaking down to $5 for 100g. And they shipped for free too.