Snow Geisha

When I had this tea two months ago, I threatened to pick all the sour non-tea bits from this tea and go from there. Well, I did. My husband (who is a fan of Theraflu… I’m just sayin’) said he liked the sour cherry aspect of the tea and would be happy to drink the non-tea bits part. So today, I made us tea – he got the sour bits, I got the tea (and the petals, if you want to know the truth). His tea was bright pink. My tea was soft yellow. I was too scared to taste his tea. I did taste mine and…

…it was okay. There’s a faint LifeSaver cherry flavor to it still but there’s not the icky tartness of sour like before. The white tea is a bit nectary but sadly almost totally covered up by the faint cherry taste – the tea tastes pretty delicate. That is, the white tea in this tea is delicate. The flavoring and thus the tea that is in my cup? Not so delicate. It’s not the bludgeoning sour sledgehammer it was before and easily gains ten to fifteen points from being brewed without the sour bits. But ultimately, it is just okay.

This is, officially, my lowest rating yet. I actually feel a bit bad about taking the time and energy to write about a tea that I just didn’t like. Still, considering how expensive this particular blend is (thankfully mine was a random gift) I feel that I should put my opinion out there for people to read if they consider trying it.

First off, I am sure that there will be people who might enjoy this. Everyone likes different tastes and different things, and that is just fine with me. I, personally, did not like this at all.

It smells artificial. If you could make plastic smell like cherry, I am sure that it would smell something like this. It also had some scent that made me think medicinal. Not enjoyable at all.

I have had it twice so far. The first time I had it, I could barely drink it. Unsweetened it tasted a lot like plastic with a cherry aftertaste. I sipped it until it cooled down and then chugged it down once it cooled down to quickly finish it and make something more tasty. The second time I added A LOT of brown sugar. To my surprise it was much better! Not any less artificial though… Sadly, I don’t up the score much because I am sure that sugar did more to make me like the flavor than the actual tea did…

Sweetened it tasted a lot like cherry Twizzlers, the kind that you can pull strings off of and eat it one strand at a time. It actually wasn’t horrible, but I don’t think that you should have to add soooo much sweet to a tea in order for it to be drinkable.

If this were a really cheap tea, I feel like it might make a nice really sweet ice tea. It is not cheap. I will not be purchasing it. Ever. Tough I must admit that I will eventually drink through what I have with insane amounts of sugar or sweetener. Maybe I will try to make insanely sweet and expensive iced tea… Hmmm…

Now I’m off to drink yummier tea! : )

I believe I got this one from CupofTree…thanks!

I can taste a little bit of Cherry with some ‘stale’ type of rose flavor. Sometimes I find Teavana’s Rose(s)/Flavors to be a little bitter or stale…maybe it’s just me…

The very little bit of cherry I do taste with the white tea base is rather nice. The rose is a tad distracting.

Overall – it’s ok. With reading all the negative reviews I thought it would be much worse…intolerable even. BUT…I am positive I will be able to finish this cuppa and I was careful NOT to over infuse. I maybe even UNDER infused as a precaution.

Having said all that. It’s alright…I, personally, would have cut back a tad on the rose but the rest of it’s good :)

Not too shabby!

LOL this clearly is one of those love it or hate it teas!
I am on the loved it side!
Granted it is not the all time best ever tea EVER or anything but its mighty fine if you are wanting something REALLY fruity!
Now I will agree with some who mentioned this tea is a bit artificial flavored and the very first aroma I got from this was a children’s chewable vitamin aroma!
Flintstones anyone?
However I quite needed that little punch in the nose this morning and maybe it was because it placed a smile on my face remembering giving those vitamins from my youth or something.
It literally made mouth water when smelling it with its tart fruity aroma!
It had this bright cherry taste, crisp and cleansing.
It was sweet so no added sugary necessary.
Very berry flavored and I think I could enjoy this but probably only every great now and then.
I had fun with this one!
Thank you Sandy Stith for this sample! :)

Thanks, CupofTree!

Maybe it’s because I was sipping on cherry limeade before I decided to switch to tea, but I quite enjoy this. I’m drinking it iced, and I kind of really love the combination of cherry and rose. Speaking of rose, I got flowers this weekend because why not. Trader Joe’s has 7 roses for $5, so how can you not when they’re this color: http://www.flickr.com/photos/thethrillstheyyield/7875882440/in/photostream/
They don’t last very long though, they were already turning when I got them but they were the only neon red-orange ones and so I didn’t care. Plus I know they’ll die after a few days anyway, whereas my attempts with orchids…that wasn’t an appropriate lifespan.

This really tastes like a floral cherry limeade. There’s not really lime but there’s some other vague fruit flavors than just the cherry. Or floral candy dropped into cherry limeade. Actually what I was drinking shouldn’t even qualify as cherry limeade because it was pretty much just cherry.

I don’t know if I would buy it (I would if someone would call me back for an interview, if you know what I mean, because HI I LIKE THIS) but I will definitely have no problem finishing what I was sent!

oh. dear. robitussin was not meant to be a tea flavour!

the name casts a beautiful image… mt. fuji and sayuri (memoirs of a geisha) and the fact that when i was little i said i wanted to be japanese when i grew up (katanas! tea ceremonies! sashimi!) (okay, when i was a kid it was mostly the swords….) needless to say i am still an irish punk and not a japanese punk, but a tea named snow geisha? i love cherries, and i still had a coupon left over for any iced tea of my choice for a dollar… what better way to sample a prohibitively expensive tea than with a coupon than iced on a hot day?

i don’t know who invented cough syrup or robitussin in particular but if it was japan then i choose to live firmly in denial! i didn’t even have to the heart to say anything, because they are so nice and were so hopeful i would like this one after my allergic reaction last night. i just took a couple of sips and tried to make sure i was smiling not grimacing.

hee hee hee… although i enjoyed sowing a bit of dissent today. i have so much tea and i really think tea is meant for sharing, so i brought a bit of verdant tea with me. the looks on their faces as they sniffed, LOL!!!

i hope they enjoy it. and they are a lovely staff at mayfair… but i truly despise this tea (obviously through no fault of theirs).

in the interest of objectivity i gave the rest to my youngest son (without telling him anything about it) who has just started into loose leaf and often steals swigs out of my mugs if i don’t watch him and he was horrified! so it’s not just me.

Another stop at the same Teavana.

I was wanting a tea with some real cherries in it and Teavana has this. I knew the reviews on Steepster were pretty bad, but I thought one to-go cup wouldn’t hurt. Don’t know how long they brewed this, but they said brew temp was 175.

This started out okay. I was sipping in store and I didn’t taste the cough medicine-type flavor people complained of. It seemed promising, if not exactly as exciting as its appearance. However, after just a couple minutes of slight cooling, the nasty flavor came through. Not sure I would say cough syrup, but something akin to it-very artificial tasting.

I bought one Teavana storage tin (had to buy an 8 ounce tin because they discontinued the 6 ounce tin inside stores-in a sneaky effort to upsell your tea purchases, no doubt). As I left, I continued sipping until I could taste nothing but the artificial tasting cherry flavor. It was just overpowering. I wound up dumping about half the cup.

The customer service at this Teavana is good and not pushy-I even looked at the cast iron kettles to see what would happen and they just let me look. However, when I asked a question, they were right on top of it. Unfortunately, they had the same 6 boring samples as the last time I ventured that way a few weeks ago-and I’m not spending $12-15 just to try 3 teas in to-go cups, so nothing other than that cup purchased today.

Hard to call this tea disappointing, since ratings are so low, but it’s still kinda disappointing anyway.

Steep Information:
Amount: 1.5 heaping tsp
Additives: 1 teaspoon raw honey
Water: 185°
Tool: make your own paper teabag
Steep Time: a little over 4 minutes
Served: Hot

Tasting Notes:
Dry Leaf Smell: cherry, fruit
Steeped Tea Smell: cherry, fruit, tea
Flavor: slightly bitter, vegetal, cherry
Body: Light
Aftertaste: vegetal, bitter
Liquor:

This tea is a mellow, light, fruity tea. the flavorings are slightly more than subtle. I enjoy this tea but always wish it had a little more punch to the flavor. On the other hand it smells divine.

I had this tea while visiting my mom, being a fan of subtle many of her teas are whites, greens, and subtle flavored.

images: http://amazonv.blogspot.com/2010/04/teavana-loose-leaf-white-tea-snow.html

This is my first white tea. It is also my favorite tea so far and I have waited until finishing 2 oz of it before writing this.

I realize it’s a hated one among many but I seriously wonder if they are brewing it correctly as that’s what helps makes this tea great. But even when I didn’t have my temp control kettle and sometimes brew it bitter I still loved it. I had to add orange blossom honey which made it incredibly tasty but now that it’s brewed correctly, I drink it unsweetened and its the only tea I can drink this way.

First of all, the scent is amazing. I love the soft cherry aroma every time I open the tea canister and while brewing. The tea is very pretty and I enjoy watching how much the leaves expand.
Taste wise, its just a lovely combination of light (cherry?) flavors that is very smooth and relaxing. I don’t get a medicinal association at all that others complain of.

I’ve enjoyed every cup of it and my favorite time to drink it is late at night. Steeped twice as well.

The dry aroma smells heavily of fruit and reminds me most of papaya or guava, though neither exist in this tea. Once brewed the aroma becomes much more floral. The rosehips come out most readily with the hibiscus not far behind.

Producing a very very light yellow-orange liquor, the flavors get complicated. There’s an unexpected astringency here which I blame the citrus peels (orange and lemon) for. I don’t sense any mango smoothness or natural sweetness from the hibiscus. Instead I mostly get the sour cherry and rose petal coming through.

Snow Geisha causes a notable dryness of the palate which I also did not expect for a white tea.

While the aroma was satisfying I would have liked less complication in this blend flavor-wise. Maybe drop the fruit peels and the rosehips and see how that turns out. As it is, I felt this blend fell short of my expectations.

Fans of fruity teas may like this blend, but be forewarned some sweetener may be handy to keep this tea from drying your palate too much.