470 Tasting Notes
For some reason I am putting off making a tasting note for this. I’m not sure why, I enjoyed it! I guess I’m having trouble coming up with a not boring description for it. You’d think this tea would be all over the place because of the ingredient list, but it’s actually quite simple and mellow. It’s a bit fruity (I tasted mostly peach, perhaps a hint of mango but they blend together really well) and only a tad floral—rose mainly, I didn’t get any lavender. I was worried this blend would be overwhelming but it’s a bit underwhelming I think. I braced for strange flavors, but it was just… average. In flavor profile I mean, the tea itself is of nice quality. The black base stood up really well to all the flavors thrown in there, and was definitely not overtaken by any of them. I think I’m going to have to revisit this tea when I am in a different mood and can appreciate it better, since it seems like something I’d really love. I kind of want to add coconut though, somehow I feel like it would go very well!
Another one I should have logged days ago. Ah well, it’s still very fresh in my mind so hopefully I can remember everything! I got this in my box from LiberTEAS and hadn’t tried it yet since I have had a lot of jasmine teas and they all sort of blend together after a while. However, I noticed some absolutely fantastic tasting notes and decided to give it a go.
I said that I’ve had a lot of jasmine blends before—green, oolong, even black—but never a white jasmine. Which is odd, since it seems like such a light, floral tea would be perfectly suited for jasmine. Though I suppose it would be easy to overwhelm, since jasmine seems to be the most heavily floral scent. However, the two are so perfectly balanced here. It’s airy, light, crisp, floral, sweet, ever so slightly grassy. Like drinking a wonderfully scented cloud! I must have brewed the leaves about 4 times and they continued to hold up beautifully, adding softer, sweeter notes with each steep. This is the perfect jasmine tea!
Preparation
I am so behind on my tasting notes! This was a cold brew from 2 days ago that I totally forgot to log, I’m working my way through my Element teas and I think this is the last of them (though I didn’t log one!). I love blackberry but was worried since this smells SO artificial in the bag, like someone crunched up blackberry hard candies and threw them in. Pink Sonoma smelled a bit artificial too and I ended up loving it, so I wasn’t too worried, just a bit nervous. And hot this is, ah… shall we say “not good.” I was determined to make it better and less candy-like, and since I’m kind of addicted to cold brewing stuff I thought I’d try it out with this blend.
Now warm, this tea is a hot mess. The black base is totally lost, and it’s very artificial tasting. Iced, it’s the exact opposite—the tea itself pops, and that overly-sweet blackberry taste vanishes. In fact, this doesn’t really taste like a berry tea. There’s a tiny hint of it, but the blackberry leaves are far more prominent, adding just a touch of berry goodness and a lovely herbaceous quality. It reminds me of berry picking in high summer, when the air smells sweet and fresh and grassy and your fingers get stained purple. It’s not the best tea out there, but it brings back a lot of memories and I don’t think I’ll have any trouble finishing it off.
I got a cute little sample packet of this from Kittenna. I love how DAVIDs packages their samples, they’re adorable and perfect for taking around in your purse or bag. I brought this one up with me since I didn’t want to be without my daily morning cold brew, and it seems like it’d be good iced. I don’t really like strawberry teas hot (Lady Londonderry being the delicious exception).
I think I steeped this a little under 12 hours, I tend to get up earlier when I am away from home. It’s a lovely color, pale strawberry pink. The hibiscus is nonexistent which I am grateful for, this really just tastes like strawberries. It’s got a nice juicy quality, perhaps not overly strong—I almost would have guessed this was a white blend with a kind of middle of the road base, it’s not very “herb-y.” It does have some soft floral notes and an airy quality which remind me of a white blend… yet it’s definitely tea-free. Weird!
Sadly, I’m not getting a ton of ginger, just a hint towards the end of each sip. I love spicy ginger teas so I was hoping for a strong kick of it, but I’d have to say the taste is almost 100% strawberry with the teeniest ounce of ginger. It’s very refreshing with a nice natural sweetness, though just not at all what I was expecting.
Strawberry and Ginger together!!?? I have never thought of this combo before.
This is going on my shopping list.
It’s a great idea—if you do get this, you might want to throw in a little extra ginger root just for that oomph factor!
Great tip,thanks!
Though it will be awhile till I can place another tea order.
I have placed three in the last month, and I literally do not have one inch of room in my tea cabinet…plus I should probably save some money for next months bills ;)
This sounds delicious. I enjoy ginger, but sometimes it’s a little aggressive in the teas I’ve had. But I do have some candied ginger just in case. Going to put this on my shopping list also.
Interesting – this is definitely NOT what I got from this tea! I got a strong blend, heavy on the ginger, so heavy it was a bit weird. That sample clearly would have been from a different batch though, so it could have been different.
I’ve found that DT blends can be sometimes a bit inconsistent, where you get different flavors even from the same batch depending on how much of each ingredient is in the cup! Not always a bad thing, but it does take me a few brews to decide if I really want to buy it. I think I got a sample of this with one of my orders that is currently buried somewhere, I’ll dig it up and see if the ginger is stronger!
I got this in my swap with Amanda—it’s one of those blends I’ve wanted to try for a while, but the rooibos scared me off from getting a whole bag. In the bag this smells amazing, like pure honey. Of course there’s no crystallized honey or anything IN there, so it’s just flavoring, but it smells very authentic and I was worried it would be too sweet.
Steeped, though, it’s pretty mellow. The honey comes in at the end of the sip and fills your mouth with wonderful honey notes that linger. It tastes very much like real honey, perhaps a bit less complex but not flat-tasting. The rooibos actually works for me here, it’s the first blend that hasn’t had that icky medicinal taste for me. Probably because there’s so little of it. The mate, green rooibos and rooibos meld perfectly together for an earthy but light blend that really gives you a burst of energy. And it adds an almost honeycomb taste: woody and sweet. Definitely going to restock this one!
Preparation
It’s a little late to be drinking something this strong, but oh well! I only had a few options today since I am visiting my aunt and I brought a handful of samples with me. This was one of them, and I read “caramel toffee” and was sold!
The smell in the bag is very caramel-y and dessert-y, but steeped it smells more like a normal pu-erh. I was kind of expecting this to be a “light” or wussy pu-erh like companies often use for blending, but this has that nice earthy smell and a rich, forest floor taste. Hay, dirt, musty… but you know, in a good way. The caramel is sweet and subtle. This brews up as dark as coffee, and it also tastes a lot like coffee—or rather, like some sort of fancy latte. Rich, dark, malty, sweet, a very nice tea though not one for every day.
Preparation
Have you had any other flavored pu-erhs? This one was okay, but I tried a couple coffee pu-erhs that really worked well.
I’ve had 2 different coffee pu-erhs and I find that I quite like them, they lack that astringency coffee has that makes me ill, but you still get the flavor and the pu-erh generally holds up pretty nicely!
I think I brought my sample of this one along with me to SK too!!
This sounds very interesting.
So last night I was mourning the fact that there is NO way that I can make it to SDCC this year, even though I have a free ticket to the show. However, $700 airfare is something I just can’t swing. sigh So, I needed a comforting tea, and what’s more comforting than cookies and cream? This was a sample from LiberTEAS that I was saving for just such an occasion.
It’s not really… cookie tea, but I wasn’t expecting that based on other reviews and also the fact that I have no idea how you’d get cookie flavor in tea. Maybe a 52tea blend could do it, but I was expecting more chocolatey goodness from this. It definitely delivered on that end, with some smooth and natural tasting chocolate flavors. With milk & sugar this honestly tastes more like chocolate milk than tea: as others have said, the base is overwhelmed by the flavoring, but it’s still there in the background. I think this would have been amazing with a good Chinese black base with some malty, bready, cocoa notes… but then it would probably be very expensive.
I didn’t get any maple, though I suppose that’s not much of a bad thing since last time I checked, it’s not actually a flavor in cookies & cream. The cream is there, though I also added milk so that kind of bumped up the creamy factor. All in all this is a satisfying dessert tea, though perhaps not the most aptly named blend.
Preparation
I got this in a swap with Will Work For Tea, who sent me a very generous amount! I have been looking for that “just right” grapefruit tea: I really liked Upton’s St. Isaac’s blend, but I still felt like there was something better and this was recommend to me by several people so I had to try it!
Since I dislike hot grapefruit usually, I made this iced. At first sip it’s just a nice, mild and lightly sweet green tea. Refreshing, but where’s the grapefruit? Then BAM it hits you! It’s actually softer than I was expecting, and only a bit tart, but the grapefruit taste is so fresh and juicy. Not the strongest I’ve tried, but definitely the most natural. I mean, it really tastes like I just squeezed a little grapefruit juice into some green tea. Most definitely will be picking this one up!
Hmmm.. this sounds interesting. I really love grapefruit, and this one doesn’t sound too overpowering. I might have to give it a try.
It’s the best grapefruit tea I’ve had so far, there’s a great balance between the base and the flavoring so it’s very much “Green Grapefruit” rather than “water with grapefruit” which can happen since it’s a strong flavor. I also like the St. Isaac’s base, but it is VERY strong!
I decided to give this tea another shot as a cold brew. It wasn’t really my cup of tea hot, but iced + coconut usually = good things! This got a short steep, since I made it last afternoon and drank it around midnight, but it was delicious! The white base really shined, and wasn’t as overpowered as it was before. The coconut is nice and fresh-tasting, and the cream is a LOT more subtle and doesn’t overwhelm the other aspects. Cold, I could see this being something I reach for often, very tropical and summery. Upping the rating a bit!
Another day, another cold brew. And also another sample from LiberTEAS! Every time I think I’m making progress on the wealth of samples from her, I realize that I haven’t at all… and they’ve just migrated to the bottom of my sample box. Seriously, it’s endless samples. More keep popping up that I don’t even remember! This one, though, was one of 2 I requested, so I was thrilled to see it at the bottom of the sample bin, hanging out with a bunch of oolongs. I really need to bust out my gaiwan and get to work on those…
Anyway, cold brewed this for 14 hours with a bit of sugar (I like my iced teas sweet!). I’ve been feeling really sluggish when I get up, so I wanted to see how the day would go with a jolt of caffeine to start it off. I can’t drink blacks on an empty stomach, so I was hoping guayusa and mate would be a nice alternative. It’s already been established that I LOVE guayusa, and this tea just reaffirms my fondness for it. The lemon and other citruses are so bright and warm, but they’re kept from being “too much” by the wonderful forest-y guayusa. With the hint of fruity notes in the background, this makes for a pretty perfect iced tea. Sweet, refresihng, bright, citrusy, fruity, and earthy. Plus I have been wide-awake all day!
