BlueKittyMeow Send Message

This smells deliciously sweet. I love the mango scents.
The flavor is light and green – no particular flavor is jumping out at me, but it’s refreshing and relaxing at the same time, which is a huge plus for me, since it’s 12:23, I have work to do but I have a splitting headache. This is pretty much the perfect tea for right now :)

I tried cold brewing for the first time last night – I set up a pitcher with silver needle and let it sit in the fridge overnight.
This is so refreshing! I love that there is no heat involved – it seems like magic or alchemy. The flavor is pretty good and it is so novel for me to have tea cold.

On a side note: My dachshund, Mycroft, is mad about this tea. He was trying to drink it through the thermos. I let him have two tiny tea leaves from the second steeping and he loved them. I wouldn’t let him have any more than that little taste because of the caffeine, but he loved what he got. Weird, huh?

This smells so interesting – sweet and… something else. Savory? Worcestershire sauce? Soy Sauce? Something really bizarre… maybe it just reminds me of a meat spice rub. I’m not against savory teas, I really like New Delhi Delight from Davidsteas.
Flavor-wise, I can taste the rooibos which I like. Otherwise… I’m not sure. It’s kind of a weird savory tea. There is a hint of something minty which I think must be the holy basil.
Again… not bad, just VERY different!

The leaves smell really vegetal – I’m not sure what exactly… almost like squash leaves.
They are long and curled and twisted up – really neat looking.
Brewed this smells JUST like buttered brussels sprouts. I love it. Super awesome.
This has a nice toasty flavor and a touch of mild astringency that lingers as mouthfeel. After all that, a buttery flavor and feeling lingers on the tongue. I love this tea :)
I steeped it for 2 minutes for the first steeping.

For the second steeping I did another 2 minutes. The second brewing is much lighter, and to be honest, I didn’t think much about it. That doesn’t mean I didn’t like it, I was just distracted while I drank it.
I’m putting together the press materials for my film right now, and that’s occupying much more of my brain than tea analysis right now :P

I’ve been avoiding this tea for a while – the idea of Jasmine kind of scares me, it doesn’t seem like something I’d like.
The leaves smell great though – along the buttery lines I like. I’ve become wary of adagio teas that smell nice to me though – they usually end up tasting flat. And I’ve found the opposite to be true as well – teas that smell mediocre taste fantastic to me.
Okay, so I was scared of this tea.
The taste is actually pleasantly floral. It has the scent of gardenia to me. The initial taste is buttery, then the floral notes come out, there’s a touch of bitterness, and then it resolves into a toasty flavor with a little bit of an astringent sensation. The more I drink this the more I like it.

This is the kind of tea I would make a pot of in the afternoon if I had one long single task ahead of me, like a writing session.

The scent of the loose tea is super cinnamony with with serious chocolate overtones and vanilla notes. I have no idea where the chocolate is coming from but I really like it.
I tried it neat first, but I usually drink chai with milk.
Brewed up it still smells mostly like cinnamon. I am slowly coming around to cinnamon but it’s not my favorite. I’ll try to to be biased :)
Neat, this has way too much cinnamon for me. I didn’t taste any of the rooibos here. With milk and sugar, it’s not a bad drink. I won’t re-order it, but it wasn’t awful (yup, rousing praise. I just really don’t like teas with too much cinnamon. If you like cinnamon, this would probably be the tea for you).

The leaves smell awesome!
I am having the worst most fibro-tacular day moving someone into a new house. Serious energy is in order, so I’m really putting this to the test.
Brewed up this smells really grassy – it’s actually really similar to wheatgrass shots, which I love.
It tastes like… wheatgrass! No, really, it has those deep chlorophyll notes to it. It has no bitter aftertaste, and actually doesn’t have much of a flavor at all, aside from the “green” tastes. I like that about this though – If I’m drinking something for energy, I just want a quick “zing!” rather than something super flavorful or cloying.
It’s actually pretty refreshing.

I love the visual mix of ingredients – the little peppercorns are awesome!
Brewed up this smells incredibly of cinnamon. Full disclosure: I am not a cinnamon person.
Flavor-wise this was fairly thin and somewhat cinnamon heavy. I ended up adding milk and sugar which tempered the cinnamon and actually made it taste more interesting.
Not the best chai I’ve ever had (I’m looking at you, Thai Chai!), but still drinkable.

Second try for the Jade Oolong. I went with 185 degree water and a super short steeping (30 seconds). I also warmed my cup first with the water and also did a 20 second rinse of the leaves.
I really shouldn’t have messed this up. Now for the moment of truth…
I’m not picking up on much in the way of scent. There’s something that kind of reminds me of wet trees or a wet bag (not bad). There is a slight hint of buttery sweetness.
Flavor – slightly spicy, slightly floral.
There is a nice mouth feel. It’s not bad, definitely not like the first cup of this I made.

Second brewing – wow, this smells buttery! And caramelly and sweet!
And the flavor is still super bitter.

Okay, enough! I’ve tried this tea for a total of 4 cups, brewed to two steepings each time and each prepared differently.
Conclusion – I really don’t like this tea. Sorry, Jade Oolong, but we are just not compatable :(