390 Tasting Notes
this graceful tea has long gypsy curls, winding into cocoa, then twisting into malt. each arch is pronounced, distinct, but before long it wisps away and i must sip again. i am left with no bitterness or puerh mossiness…. just a memory of refined grace and surprise that this is in fact a puerh.
my cup has become a dark limpid pool of beauty. such a gracious gift from stephanie! thank you so much. most certainly the most evolved puerh i’ve ever tasted. so this is what the next level tastes like…..
Preparation
i actually hit a sale!! i am renowned for missing them, lol.
exams begin next week. sounds like i may be having surgery done on at least one eye as early as tomorrow….. remember how i mentioned exams start next week? yeah. not too sure what happens if they decide to go after both eyes seeing as i have resistant infections in both. and yet, somehow, i just don’t have it in me to be stressed. studying, trying to make sense of christaller’s nonsense theory (trick is… to say that in an exam essay you have to fully understand it to be able to refute it and not get spanked, lol)…. and drinking tea. is the tea keeping me calm? because i really don’t see why i’m not more freaked out, lol.
this tea is nice and refreshing! caffeine that reminds me of an after eight! the first half of the cup is a dessert tea, but as it cools the mint evolves and the chocolate takes a back seat. the mint isn’t sweet or herbal as it cools, it becomes savory! not harsh, not overpowering. it in no way reminds me of tic tacs or toothpaste. ok, seriously…. it reminds me of mint culled from my garden after maybe 3 hours. a moderate peppermint, not a spearmint. paired with a dark chocolate. the hazelnuts are not obviously detectable, but add a nice creaminess to the base.
this is my first fall tea! very nice! must admit, teavana makes me smile. they know i’m picky and that i won’t be pushed. i found teas that were a good idea, but were incomplete. i have said this on occasion before and been met with blinks and crickets. what did we do after this tea? we made a custom blend. i had a lot of fun. maybe fun is why i’m not a wreck.
the teavana at mayfair rocks. and the manager, cedric, is very good at what he does.
Preparation
This is easily one of my favorite Teavana teas!
it’s really good….. i find my scores are getting higher and higher as i figure out what i don’t like. i like to give high marks. this one was easy. i think this tea is very smartypants. (that’s a compliment)
I just picked up some of this too. Well, I already had some but yeaaaah…sales…yeah.
this is my first time with it….. i can see a lasting romance, lol.
have you tried the white chocolate peppermint rooibos? my next plane of attack is to make a cup of them blended. PEPPERMINT BARK!
or plan, I don’t have a plane.
alas, even if i were on facebook i would not invite rooiboos to be my friend. i love the idea, but i don’t even like butiki’s rooiboos, and stacy’s stuff is always my exception.
i see this japanese zero fighter plane with momo written in kanji! it could be awesome!!! you could perform in airshows!!!
it actually doesn’t taste like rooibos, I was shocked. I had to ask after I tasted it if it was in there.
Also now totally sold on having a plane.
=0) let me know when you sell tickets!!!
i seem to have a bad reaction to rooiboos. the start of an allergy? it’s annoying. }=0|
Cedric is pretty nice. Did you know he sings opera? Also, who is doing your eye surgery? I had surgery done a few years ago by Dr Pegado.
i won’t know anything for sure until tomorrow. given the complication my illness provides i know they want to avoid cutting if at all possible. i have a neuro-opthomoligist on the mainland that will be watching over the process.
Fingers crossed for you, James!
thank you…. still don’t know why i’m not more concerned? i guess what has to happen will happen is all…. vaguely concerned about exams being sticky though, lol.
Surgery is a good excuse to reschedule. :) I’m sure it’ll be fine.
Good luck!
thanks heather…..
i don’t want to reschedule. i want to do them and have them be done, lol!
I understand that feeling! Fingers crossed, etc. But if you have to take time to heal, then take the time!
what you say is both true…. and wise…… and yet i am overcome with the need to argue against it, LOL!! how much more proof that i am lost in academia do you need? everything can be argued!!!!!!
i much enjoyed this tea. after an appreciative umpteenth viewing of the brilliant set builds and costuming skills of hellboy II. not to mention the star himself— obviously there are more famous and graceful stars but ron perlman is colourful and honestly his irreverence entertains me, lol! and for a kid born in 1950 with a cleft lip and palate…. i dunno— could you tell? some of the best speakers come from challenging circumstances. darth vader had a terrible stammer, hellboy had multiple facial reconstructions starting as an infant (can’t have been fun), and the kid from breaking bad actually does have cerebral palsy. it’s good to see real people on the boob tube. if i’m going to pay netflix to babysit my brain ideally it should be babysat by a realistic cross-section of society, lol.
surprise, surprise, i digress and i haven’t even begun about the tea!
this was a very different green than i’ve ever had before. naturally sweetness, as well as a nice light flavour. no earth, nuttiness, musk, sea weed, floral or fruit tones. no wood. no muscat. no rice….. but about half way through my cup something changed and i got a very light, sweet smoke. i am not a fan of smoke. in the least. and yet….. it was as though as essence was captured from incense but without the perfume. a thin stick of sandalwood burned perhaps until nothing but white ash was left and wafted in the vicinity of the tea as it dried.
very nice. i will most certainly reorder. it absolutely doesn’t need sweetener. clear, light smooth with a very gentle segue into the finest smoke i have ever experienced.
Preparation
it’s a sad state of affairs when the inevitable stabs you not in the back, but in the tongue.
i have suspected for quite some time that i was developing a sensitivity to rooiboos, not a full on allergy, but a warning shot across the bow shall we say? ‘then why would you drink it on purpose, james? (with an implied [idiot] in your tone of voice’ you might be wondering. because if it was made by stacy lim it must be an exception! that’s why!!!! ….. …… or not.
i got no mango, nor flavour whatsoever as soon as it touched my tongue i stopped being able to taste… and to swallow, not from swelling, from dryness. while stacy is almost always the exception, not so in this case.
no numbers. i failed stacy’s awesome tea. =0( BUT I GET REALLY GOOD GRADES!!!!! good thing this wasn’t a test relevant to my degree. however, on that note: i now have confirmed and very comfortable A+ averages in all my classes folks! i failed the mango lassi….. but i have my classes nailed!
Preparation
Congrats!
thank you! i had an amazing opportunity to interview some veterans in my field of study who gave me expert advice. i know what i’m doing and exactly how i’m going to do it…. it’s been quite a week!
Congrats on the school stuff and bummer on the rooibos. I don’t get this effect with it…It just tastes really bitter and gross to me. How are you with Honeybush?
honeybush i’m fine with…. no idea what the glitch is with rooiboos. =0(
I strongly prefer honeybush as well. Rooibos just ain’t right.
it tasted that way to me always…. but, but this is stacy! stacy is different! but there’s not right, wrong, and then there’s sideaffects. no more playing with rooiboos.
woo, congrats, smartypants! hopefully you can relax a bit between sessions?
uhhhhh…… you know how i was going to going to alternate semesters with hard and then easy? yeah. that didn’t happen. summer time it will though because heat makes me so sick. i was invited to a special class, i got 100% on a lab and given an additional bonus mark which was a first for the prof i got a 97 on my other major project and i’ve had some help deciding where i’m going and there’s no time to waste: doctorate of human geography with a minor in psychology. i’ll need lots of tea to sustain me, lol!
Woot! Congrats on the continued success. As for the rooibos, I was talking to someone about this the other day. Some folks have genetic unusualities (heh) that make us more or less susceptible to certain foods, flavors, tastes. For instance, there’s a fairly significant percentage of the population that tastes cilantro (the leaf) as soapy. I’m one of the few weirdos that, when eating fish, smells like it quite strongly within 2 hours, and it lasts about a day. Rooibos is also in that interesting reaction category, where some folks taste it as bitter.
really…. hadn’t heard that, but i’m not surprised. the combination of mother nature’s natural creativity along with us muddling the planet breeds confusion. mine is a result (probably) of an already exigent autoimmune disease. they tend to multiply. and while i’m not thrilled with allergies, i’ll take those over diabetes or something more serious.
Congrats on the grades James!
I can’t help wonder if green rooibos would have the same effect on you since it’s less processed. I dislike pretty much all red rooibos, but I love green. Sadly, compare to the red blends, there isn’t too many green ones available out there…maybe there isn’t enough people liking it and I’m the odd one!
Oh gosh, if anyone wants to try or have some green rooibos I have almost a pound left of it from Adagio.
in future miss tea fairy, but i’ve stumbled into a slew of sensitivities lately and i’m just steering clear of all of them until things settle down. maltitol is plain old vicious to me. stevia isn’t far behind. roasted mate….. even though i love it!!!!! makes me snarly. so i’ll just leave it all be and hope i’m experiencing some overreactions.
Yeah, cilantro sure is soapy!
Congratulations on your grades, James! That’s so incredibly awesome. I’m so glad you have a focus and know where you’re going. :)
Here’s me and rooibos…
I typically don’t like it, with the exception of a few rare blends (DT’s Orange Blossom and Alpine Punch, and this one from Stacy)…but I do know what you mean about the dry mouth because I do get that with most rooibos.
I prefer green rooibos to red (I love Swampwater) and I prefer honeybush over rooibos, in general. That said, I do try to find what rooibos I do like…which isn’t much, sadly.
Congrats on the grades, James! :) Bummer about the rooibos. I’m not a big rooibos fan either which is why we only have a few blends. Not that I don’t like it but I feel like tea is just much more complex and interesting.
i ordered it originally for our daughter anyway…. but stacy lim building juicy mangoes? hmph….. i was going to try it though!
my oh my….. dark chocolate, roastiness, but not over the top. layers, very clever layers. i swear i taste a fruit layer that alternates! like a tea version of a the blue and red alternating of a binary star system only instead of coloured light flickering in a dark sky, it’s banana and strawberry in my tea cup. how striking. very subtle…. not so subtle that i think i’m crazy though. =0)
very, very nicely done 52teas! it will also serve nicely to boot my butt into gear for morning classes!! thank you very much!!!
Preparation
Fruit layer, eh? I always get banana from roasted mate. It’s the weirdest thing! So our taste buds must interpret it in the same way.
isn’t it nice to know you’re not bananas? (couldn’t resist). sometimes it’s distinctly banana, others it’s a something-berry.
Sounds like another interesting one ;-)
it is, very much so. different tea companies represent different traits to me: verdant is elegantly purist, butiki is the best flavoured teas in the business, french teas…. are another universe, 52 teas is whimsy. frank, the owner, is a highly creative individual. i actually have to be careful how much of this one i have the caffeine is so strong, lol. malted chocolate milkshakes with cherry bananas. =0)
OH WOW! chocolate lovers of the world unite: try this as a base for your cocoa. Omigod. truly unreal.
Yum!
and this with a second steeping! 1 tsp xylitol, 1 tsp cocoa, bunch of water, some half and half…… life is good!
Whoa…does she have it for sale?
Sounds delicious!
i think so? she was debating last i heard. ask her, if she says no i’ll send you some stephanie.
Aww, that is super sweet JustJames! I’d be happy to send you something in return from my cupboard :)
lol, PM me send me your addy. i have 3? 4? i’m sending out this week. i’ll try for today, but i’ve been feeling crummy =0(
i haven’t had a cold IN YEARS!!!! yay school? or that’s my guess. let’s see if i can send it out today….
You are super nice! I hope you feel better :)
Why have I never heard of this one?! I’m super jealous!!
it’s a custom build and just new. i’m open to sharing though! i also know one miss lim has been considering carrying it, so the more people that nag the more likely it is to happen! lol.
Where do you find this custom tea?
Sounds intriguing…
celebritea – stacy does custom blending. If you reach out to her she can work with you to make a custom tea for you
May I ask who Stacy is?
stacy lim is the owner and master tea designer of butiki teas =0) i can probably muster some to send you. it was a custom tea for me. i have to say, the process was a lot of fun. and stacy is great.
huh, not bad. this one was recouped from my winner’s tea expedition yesterday. it’s been a long time since i’ve had a bagged tea and honestly, i’ve become enough of a loose leaf snob that if i’d been using my literacy (notice i say IF) i likely wouldn’t have bought. i grabbed this one and a blueberry. really….. not bad. both teas carry a distinct cookie quality. i used two tea bags for my 16 oz mug and a 3 minute steep.
it has layers. the maple is more olfactory when it’s screaming hot, but becomes more tangible as taste as it cools.
don’t think i’ll buy again, but i have had far, far worse in my life!!!
Preparation
LOL Too funny, I saw this one at my Winners today but didn’t buy it. I did buy a box of Mighty Leaf Tea – Organic African Nectar – it says “whole leaf pouches” but that might be just a fancy name for teabags. It’s funny how when confronted with a “wall” of tea we forget everything we’ve learned and just buy randomly. :)
i think i saw that one, lol. literacy was working there. apparently the word ‘pouches’ was working, but the word ‘bags’ was not. the blueberry from this company is quite nice…. haven’t gotten around to rating.
stacy….. truly, how lovely. the softest scent of roses, the perfect balance of cream…. a hint of effervescence. beautiful. you are are so very good.
Preparation
You need to be writing advertising copy. I want this now, and I’m not even into rose teas…much :)
(insert bright red face to match red mohawk) thank you. stacy did all the work….
Does this actually taste like liquor? I’m always wary of alcohol-related teas.
no, not in the least. i wouldn’t like it if it were the case. i believe the champagne aspect references a very light effervescence present in the steep after the fact.
Cool, thanks!
okay, i really need to review my personal standpoint on stubbornness. i did this tea SUCH a disservice yesterday. overleafed, oversteeped…… i wonder if admitting that and having the brilliant new fancy kettle permits me to buy teas i might have muddled….? lol. ah, life is full of justifications for loose leafers!
WHEN IT’S DONE RIGHT and you aren’t being a know-it-all-jerk (that would be me i’m talking about)this tea is: light and sweet. almonds, but not marzipan. reminds me very much of amaretto the alcohol. if you OVERLEAF it it will come across much more like amaretto but with a harsh acrid bitter kick. which i totally deserved. …. ……. …….. i might have put in 2 tbsp. …. ……… and left it for 6 minutes. possibly. lol.
light, sweet. very smooth! i’m not used to ceylons (heh heh, the sci-fi dork in me wants to say cylons) being so agreeable! the tea base is warm and round on its own, separate from the flavour level. it gives me a light amber flavour, though a darker colour steep.
very nice.
back to lab 5. we’ll see how up to date my human geography professor is with sex ed is in sub saharan africa. i think my analysis may catch him a tad offguard, lol. but i always get good marks. partly because i citation him to death.
Preparation
Yes! Cite everything! One of my friends is marking for a first year class, and it’s an automatic D if they don’t cite. You wouldn’t believe (or maybe you would) how many students don’t cite their sources. :/
we have three pages of citations. for a lab. it makes it much harder to argue with us. our information is rock solid…. if he disagrees with our opinions or my somewhat shocking analysis then that’s a different thing, but our numbers and our data are BACKED UP.
(hmmmm….) we’re evaluating the 5 best and 5 worst countries for child under 5 mortality and i stumbled onto a fascinating piece of information…… not sure i should reveal it here, but i don’t think he’s expecting it.
my lab partner and i like to be bullet proof. =0)
Awesome. :)
nothin’ like a PAIR of bullet proof smarta…. well you know how that word ends. =0)
ah! my first birthday review! i’ve been 38 for a whole half a day and nothing….. i feel no different. then again, it’s always like that =0)
after last year (when my mother bought me a huge amount of wine most of which is still kicking around our kitchen) i went out on a limb and discussed with her the concept of going a different direction this year: if she really wanted to pour a couple hundred dollars into beverages in honour of my birthday, could we go with something that I like? please? are you imagining me tap dancing dear friends? can you imagine how dicey that conversation that might have been? she laughed, said that if i wanted my GRANNY’S habit indulged she SUPPOSED she could. granny? really? what part of tea says senior citizen? i mean i’d have thought she could have gone for grampa at least….
anyway, as always, i digress!!! when the box from dammann freres arrived my mother could have called me anything she wanted. the smells drifting up from the box after i carefully opened it! berry and biscuit, chocolate and nuts….. separate blends that somehow all played together happily; separate but still comprising a mutual fan club. this one was the first of my day….. i sipped it in a daze on the way to school. what a way to wake up on your birthday!
this in my cup with music that was likely way too loud, smile wrapped around my head two times. i worked all weekend on a lab that i only got half done until i ran it by my prof who said i could stop with what i had because i had done so impressively much. it’s been a good birthday so far!
sushi coming up for dinner, new kettle kettle humming in the background…. a buffet of spoiled boy teas to chose from. why is it i shouldn’t like birthdays again?
my wife refuses to try this tea…. though she says she might consider wearing it as a perfume. =0)
Preparation
Happy birthday!
=0) thank you! it’s a good day to be 38!!!
Yay, happy bday!
=0) what better way than to celebrate with friends?
Happy happy birthday!
thank you! they wrote ‘happy birthday’ with a smiley face on my sashimi container and i swear it tasted better than usual, lol. maybe they reserve the best stuff for birthday boys?
Happy birthday, you!! I’m so glad your mom got you a ton of tea!
okay, i cannot express the value of a temperature programmable kettle!!!! wow stuff tastes amazing!!! i feel very spoiled. and i found out at about 3 this morning that i got 90% on my big psych project and she’s offering me 100%. THAT is a hell of a birthday!
Happy Birthday! :) (belated – whoops!)
And that’s great about the new kettle and the awesome marks!
thanks and thanks! say….. anything interesting in your mail box?
No…. not yet. :( I’ll let you know as soon as I see something!
}=0)
Bon anniversaire + 1 jour !
merci! est-ce-que votre cadeau est arrive?
non pas encore mais peut être demain ou samedi :)
That sounds lovely!
Cavo….it IS!
You just turned one of my favorite ripe teas into a poetic experience! Thank you for writing that up, my friend! Beautiful.
Yay! So glad you enjoyed it :)
a beautiful tea deserves beautiful language.