865 Tasting Notes
Finally some tea! I had a dentist appt this morning so I’m just now having my 1st cup. From Ricky! Also my 1st mate… I really need to try my best to start trying the base of teas before a flavored version, it’d make reviewing a tea a heck of a lot easier.
Whoa! The raw “leaf” smells really chocolatey! Definitely a “I gotta grab my spoon!” tisane. But… unfortunately the aroma of the decanted tea loses some of that. It still tastes like chocolate, but now there are also notes of roasty and spicyness.
I was really hoping this would be like liquid chocolate as others have described, but I’m not getting it. The roastyness and weird spicyness are taking away from the chocolate.
Preparation
2nd infusion, 6 min. Lighter liquor. Definitely a sweet infusion, but I don’t think I can calll it chocolate. No malt. The roastyness and weird spicyness are pretty much gone.
For liquid chocolate, add milk and sugar =]
Otherwise, it’s like cocoa tea.
Nah… not even that…
This is one of the 52teas blends I’m most curious to try, mostly because of the malty part. And I’m not a fan of plain mate roasted or unroasted at all, its definitely one of those things I need to always drink with flavours added!
No malt flavor… the roastyness covers it. I think it’d be better unroasted.
3rd infusion, 7 min. Lighter liquor, almost identical taste.
2nd infusion, leaves from last nite. Whoa! Is this the same tea? The liquor is ever so slightly lighter and much more bright than the dull golden color of the 1st and the taste is much sweeter. The earthy/smokiness in the 1st infusion is gone and there’s just the faintest astringency at the bottom of the cup.
Preparation
3rd infusionm 5 min. While still a very translucent liquor, it seems more brothy/buttery. The flavor is a bit stronger and the faint astringency in the last cup is replaced by a buttery/brothy note that’s just as faint.
4th infusion, 6 min. Almost identical to infusion 3.
How’s this for a drink? 1 tea bag, 6oz milk, 2oz cold coffee concentrate, 1TB white chocolate coffee creamer.
I not only needed to compensate for the milk and creamer, but also the 2oz of extra liquid so I bumped the steeping time up to 7 min praying it wouldn’t get bitter.
No bitterness- YAY! The coffee flavor is strongest which kinda surprises me since my normal coffee/milk ratio is 2:4 (oz), not 2:6. The chocolate comes next just as it would in a regular cafe mocha flavored by syrup. The milk provides a texture and a mouth feel instead of an actual flavor (yay!). The pu erh, spices, and white chocolate are there, but play supporting roles to give the drink complexity and depth preventing the chocolate from being flat.
Preparation
All these notes on this tea! I really want to try this! I noticed on their site that they have a whole leaf version. Have you tried that? Or just the the teabags?
Just the bags so far. I recently bought 2 boxes because it was 25% off (loose wasn’t) and I’ve recieved a few bags in tea swaps. Next time I’ll spring for loose even though the bagged is cheaper (if I remember my math correctly).
Yeah the bagged is cheaper, but maybe the loose makes more cups? I wish I knew about that discount when they had it! I just read about their 2 week Pu-erh promotion on their site. I will have to make it a mission to search for this in the stores—maybe Whole Foods has it.
I mean gram for gram I think it’s cheaper.
Talk of this on a thread made me decide to go w/ this tonite while watching Biggest Loser. Who needs popcorn while watching tv when you can have this?
Preparation
this has been out of stock for such a long time.. i want some!
I know! I have less of my pouch left and I’m sad… Although I can’t wait to see what other flavors they come up w/.
Oh Cofftea as if you needed an excuse to drink your beloved mandarin matcha! :)
No, but I was going to go w/ unflavored to make it last longer:)
mmmmm hmmmm
Forgot to log this last nite cuz I went to bed right after drinking it. Didn’t have Bailey’s or Irish Creme creamer so I used 3TB Irish Creme instant cappuccino mix to make a variation on one of my favorite coffee drinks, an Irish Creme Mocha. The chocolate really seems to pop tonite and blends wonderfully w/ the Irish Creme giving it richness and also cutting out some of the artificialness and weird after taste that this mix seems to have. This is my favorite way to prepare this mix so far.
Preparation
From Ricky! I’ve been eyeing Den’s Tea’s Pineapple Sencha, but wanted to try this also to compare- not only because it’s a heck of a lot cheaper, but because this company is from HI so I’d expect anything pineapple flavored from HI to pretty much be an automatic 100.
The tea has no pineapple aroma whatsoever although I do think that it is, infact, pineapple (candied, not fresh dried) and not the melon that Ricky suspected. I would have tasted it to confirm my visual assumption, but there aren’t many here to begin w/ so I didn’t want to weaken the flavor any more.
This is a weird experience for me. Most of the greens I’ve had (flavored and non flavored) were Japanese w/ the exception of Chinese sencha. This however is Chinese based. I can’t remember Ricky, what did they say this was? Unfortunately they don’t list what they use for their bases on the website and didn’t even answer my question the 1st time I asked.
2.25g/6oz water. The liquor is darker thank that of pineapple, a bit brassy. Ricky was right, no pineapple aroma either. And unfortunately none in the flavor. FATALITEA!Come on Tea Farm… if we can’t expect you to nail a pineapple tea, how can we expect you to give is good flavors using things that aren’t local? All I can taste is the base. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a very good base. Vegetal and a bit bitter. But I can’t make my rating just on the base…
Preparation
Haha, Chun mee and I have to send you some of the melon candy I’m talking about. I’ll see if I have some time to send you a few pieces and look for some more pineapple pieces, but there weren’t many left in my bag either.
That’s what I thought at 1st, but I thought the link I sent you was for a tea that had a more difficult to pronounce name…
Leaving the house soon and I’m between leaves right now and didn’t want to start new ones only to have to leave after the 1st infusion. Almost like having a cuppa matcha!=D How can something that looks so gross taste so good? lol.
Preparation
Had this for dessert after lunch thanks to David McGeorge!=D Cheesecake flavored teas have always interested me so as soon as I saw cream cheese I knew I had to try this. The suggested amount is 1tsp per cup and at 1.5g, that’s almost a full gram less than I normally use but I want to make this last as long as possible so I’ll try that 1st then bump it up to my normal 2.25g/6oz next time.
This is my 2nd honeybush, both of which have been flavored. I really should have had plain honeybush 1st as it’s nearly impossible to tell if the honeybush flavor comes thru the added flavorings or not.
The aroma of the raw leaf is lighter than I expected, but the aroma that is there is jammy. Unfortunately the flavor is almost identical. The raspberry jam, while light, is there and i can’t decide if I can taste the cream cheese or not. If I can, it’s very light. I definitely need to use more leaf.
I hope you’re feeling better, girl.
I get those. I get “visual” migranes, diagnosed by my Opthamalogist. No pain, most of the time, but vision disruption, spots in my peripheral vision, like bubbly black spots that jump around and close in. Spacey feeling, can’t concentrate, can’ t see good enough to read or drive, but otherwise I can usually work through it, if I HAVE to. Caffeine helps.