Featured & New Tasting Notes
I seem to have my innards back under control (fingers crossed) and I have also managed, it seems, to get rid of that godawful bad taste in my mouth. Good thing, that, because I’m sick and tired of peppermint infusion!
I’m sticking my neck out and trying some real tea. Hopefully I won’t regret it later.
This one was my first ever flavoured oolong (that I can remember), and it’s quickly become a favourite. It was lucky I found it because I was buying something else from the site at the time and just randomly started clicking around to see what else they had.
It smells absolutely divine and it tastes equally as lovely. I like it better and better every time I have some of it. It’s just what I need for a post-sick comfort tea.
Why did the leaf smell fruity when I opened it? Seriously fruity. That’s so weird. Tastes fine though. Maybe a little sweet. I wonder if it was sitting next to a flavored tea in the pantry – this is one that I just have a small sample of so it is in a plastic bag. Weirdness.
It’s good though. Because of the weird sweetness (which maybe is aftertase from my gum? Would Extra spearmint do that?) I’m getting a bit of a chocolate taste. It’s a tiny bit flatter in flavor than when I’m at home but that’s because I either use bottled water at work or nasty nasty tap water. I’ll choose flat tea over undrinkable nasty tea any day.
Well tea’s really good at absorbing oders so I’d guess that the gum or something similar might be the problem. The smell and taste I get from Yunnan is primarily smokey, while granted I don’t have a lot of experience with this type of tea your’s sounds pretty far off.
Hah! Yep, I think I had it next to a blackcurrant flavored tea, both in thin plastic sample bags. Oops! But the faint sweetness actually works with it so I’m going to mark that down for future reference but keep on truckin’.
A co-worker brought this back for me after a trip to the UK. I love strong black teas, and the UK bagged teas I’ve tried are always so much fuller than the miniscule US ones. A good, solid everyday blend. I have to be careful not to oversteep this one, but it can be saved with milk if I do.
This is an incredibly good tea, though I’m not really sure why. I steeped it for 4 minutes, per NMTeaCo’s website. The initial smell I got was classic barber shop, some kind of hard candy, and a little bit of old man cologne smell to it. Very strange.
Upon tasting it I found a pleasant light flavor, with hints of mandarin orange in there. It isn’t a dominating taste of orange, which is good, considering that it was encased in orange peel. Still tastes a little old man cologne-ish, but I guess that’s the aged pu erh at work, right? There’s a very light yellow tint to it as well, a bit different from most greens I have brewed in the past.
Overall I really do enjoy the subtle-ness of this tea, even if it has barber shop/cologney overtones to it. It has some kind of charm to it, that inspires me to drink it; weird. Definitely a tea to try, I’m going to give this guy a 90 Rating on the TeaCast scale. Just excellent!
This blend took a few months to grow on me.
I often buy Adagio’s blends on a whim. When I first tried this it was not what I was expecting, the vanilla flavor seemed far too strong, so I put it away & didn’t try it again until I ran out of my favorite oolong. Now I drink it at least twice a week. Sometimes you need to go into things without any expectations. Maybe my taste buds changed, but now I really enjoy the vanilla.
It is OK. I steeped for 4 minutes and added raw sugar and a little milk. I was expecting more of a chai, even though it doesn’t say that.
I don’t really care much for mint flavours on their own. My colleagues drink this mint/liquorice root concoction that they claim is delicious. I disagree. You don’t even get the two flavours at the same time. First it’s minty mint and then the liquorice root doesn’t come through until you swallow, which to me seems like trying to have two different sorts of tisanes at the same time. Like they couldn’t decide if they wanted one or the other. But that’s not what I’m having now so I’ll shut up about it.
As mentioned I don’t really care much for mint. I have it so I can mix it into other stuff.
But then, on days like these where I’ve apparently eaten something or other that I shouldn’t have, it’s the only sort of tea or approximation of tea* that I can stomach. The very idea of anything else, even my normal favourites just make me go bleeeeargh!
So I’m having plain peppermint infusion now. I’m not enjoying it really, but it’s the only thing I want.
*Herbal infusions are of course NOT tea. Herbal infusions never HAVE been tea. Herbal infusions never WILL be tea. Herbal infusions have never even as much as seen a tea bush and are therefore no more tea than cocoa is coffee.
I feel the same way about mint, but I have a tin of spearmint for those days where my stomach can’t handle full on tea and then I usually mix it with a cream-flavored black. Mint is more medicinal than happy.
I reserve my Moroccan Mint for when I’m feeling frazzled and need to hit the refresh button. Or the wake-up button. Or hit both buttons frantically until I break the machine and then go cry in the corner. It’s not for everyone, though.
Mint by itself is kind of a one-hit wonder. Try mixing it with a green or black tea. You’ll still get a heady hit of freshness, but the tea will add a satisfying complexity.
Licorice root is better for coughs and sore throats I find, although apparently it’ll coat and soothe irritated digestive systems aswell.
Have you tried mixing in camomile with your peppermint?
Aug3zimm & Cynthia Carter: I’ll save those suggestions for later, when I’m feeling better. At the moment I can’t have tea primarily because I think my stomach would revolt against me, and secondarily because when I’m sick it just doesn’t taste good.
Takgoti: I’ve never had Moroccan Mint, but it pops up everywhere regularly. Maybe I should get around to trying it one of these days.
Jillian: I don’t have an chamomile at the moment, otherwise I’d totally try that. I’ve used liquorice root successfully before with sore throats, though. It might have been somewhat placebo, but as long as it works I don’t care if it’s psychosomatic or not. Just a small bit of parted lengthwise liquorice root in the cup, boiling water on and in combination with strepsils. That totally works.
The apple flavor is a little too subtle for me, but this is still a nice, drinkable tea, and perfect for a cold morning.
A bit down on myself today. I’ve been listening to Cat Power’s Werewolf on repeat for an hour, and later I’ll go see a friend’s modern dance piece later. Sencha is something that feels so common that it seems to meet my mood.
When looking for something grassy, this is my current favorite.
The raspberry and lemon notes become subtle and balance well with the mate after brewing. I was a little concerned that they would be overpowering; the loose tea smelled like raspberry-lemonade flavored candy. Previously I have found some of Teavana’s flavored teas to be overpowering, but this one is a keeper.
but with a twist!
Following yesterday’s chocolate chili fail, I got lots of suggestions for stuff to try instead.
Vanilla with a bit of peppermint was one of them.
I’d never have thought of this combination on my own, in spite, bizzarely, of having a pack of very nice chewing gum with this exact combination in my bag right now. I’d just never considered ‘translating’ it to tea.
It is, in tea, very nice! Both vanilla and peppermint have a natural sweetness, and their flavours surprisingly suit each other, making the tea sort of sweet but not.
I suspect it’s a combination that would also work very well on ice.
Adagio’s foxtrot does the vanilla-peppermint thing with rooibos, so you’re definitely onto something. I salute your experimentation!
The person who suggested the combination to me mentioned rooibos also, so that might actually have been the one they ‘learned’ it from. Not that I know, of course, but I could imagine. I’m not really a big fan of rooibos myself though, so I’ll just stick to the black. :)
This blend sounds super yum. I’ll have to try it when I have the ingredients on hand.
The second steeping came out much better and I stuck it in the fridge to cool and drank it with supper. This is a wonderful tea to drink iced, with or without sweetener.
