2062 Tasting Notes
Blue garden.
Jardin bleu.
But why when strawberry tea?
Yep, there are blue notes in black tea sea in sachet.
Strongly aromatic. Rhubarb mostly. Wild strawberries too. Aromas are great.
This is so strawberry in taste. I not biting one, right? Strawberries with cream. That’s it. Little rhubarb tartness. Great morning tea.
Flavors: Cream, Rhubarb, Strawberry
Preparation
Let’s try another tea. I just randomly picked this one. I wanted something light and fresh and this looks pretty much like that.
Boiling water, 85 ml gaiwan, 7 and something grams. Preheated gaiwan but no actual notes – it was just tea. I like it is not single coloured tea.
10 seconds rinse, I drank it. I notice pine and lemon zest? Weird combo. Smooth in taste though.
1st steep, 15 seconds.
The aroma of pine is stronger. I mean, it is like forest floor now. Taste is so smooth. I like it.
2nd steep, 15 seconds again.
It tastes pretty similar as first steep. Maybe a little stronger. Still pretty nice.
3rd, 30 seconds.
I don’t know why I decided for longer brew. But piney flavours and aromas are dominating. I took caramel cookies to bit something.
4th, 30 seconds
It is slowly turning to vegetal notes. Maybe bit of bitterness.
5th, 45 seconds.
I think I will do it this way. Each two steepings with same steeping time.
Then change. Vegetal. Certainly vegetal notes. Bitterness gone again.
6th, 45 seconds
Yep vegetal.
7th and following ones.
Minute and longer.
Still nice and smooth. Enjoyable.
Conclusion:
It is nice tea, but bit different than I expected. Quite vegetal, pine. I expected bit more fresh taste. Honestly I expected bit more. I won’t rate so far.
Preparation
Muslin sachet, 75 degrees, 90+ seconds.
I unpacked it from foil wrapping expexting at most pyramid sachet. But It was muslin one. At least I think it is a muslin one. That was nice surprise. I boiled the water and let it cool down on its own. No fridge, no ice – just slowly cooling down. Then it hit 75 °C mark and I put the bag in.
After recommended (half between Cameron B’s and half what is written) I took from yellowish-green liquor sachet out. It is clear, nice colour.
In taste it is nice grassy tea with notes of spinach I think. Quite unexpected – sweet.
Pretty easydrinking sencha – with not so complex flavours. But I understand it is nice for morning – they even suggest it. Let’s see how it will wake me up :)
Flavors: Grass, Spinach, Sweet
Preparation
And SIPDOWN!
Haha, I had just one sachet of it. It was a sample in package of two boxes I received from Swiss friend Fabiana. Thank you!
Dry leaf aroma was soo great. Orange, grapefruits, maybe some other citrus fruits too. And then! Spices – nutmeg, cinnamon, clove, orange zest, lemon zest.
Used 85 °C hot water, steeping for 4 and half minutes with quick rinse afterwards.
Wonderful clear, golden-copper colour. Shiny.
Wet aroma is full of spices, mainly cloves and cinnamon combined with oranges. Ripe sweet oranges.
And in taste? Yep, oranges again with spicy aftertaste. Hmm, so good. Tea base is nice, not overpowering the fruity taste of this tea. I am not sure if it is not freshly squeezed hot orange juice combined with spices. No tartness, no astringency. It even reminds me maybe some kind of cake?
LOVELY!
Flavors: Orange, Spices
Preparation
Oh, and it is my #150 tasting note. Woohoo!
Congratz Martin :D
Hey, a sipdown’s a sipdown! Congrats on 150 :)
Thank you Kawaii433 and Kittenna :)
Cameron B. liked this my note and I don’t even know that I have tried it?!
Confusing… I recall having it though reading this note though.
Ha ha, it’s been a while Martin, about 18 months! I had this tea in an advent calendar today and I like to go through and read the first page or two of tasting notes for each tea. :)
I can completely relate! I like some old tasting notes now and then as well… Oh well. I had just 15O tasting notes and now I am having… wait for it… 858. 18 months difference. So many tried teas. So many written notes. I wonder, where I found all the time for it! :D
There is always time for tea! XD
I have received a lots of tea today. As you can see in my cupboard. Dammann from my Swiss friend (as birthday gift). And for postage all others. From IRC #tea guy. Thanks Donatzsky!
And this is one from him.
Rinse smelled after leather. I don’t recall if I noticed it earlier in tea.
In taste of course weak (was 10 seconds long)
1st steep
15 seconds. Camphor notes. And floral. Thick. In taste not so intense, but still very nice. Golden liquor.
2nd steep
15 seconds too. Strong aromas of above. Still very thick.
3rd
15 seconds. More floral notes. Less thick I think.
4th
20 seconds. Maybe bit of corniferous forest? Floral taste weaker. Wet forest floor.
5th
20 seconds again. Camphor maybe waking up a bit. Sweeter aftertaste.
6th
30 seconds. I think it is not so full of flavours anymore. Still sweet aftertaste. As I was writing with sender, he came up with licorice. I agree, but it is not so astrigent.
7th
looong – one minute.
Still so great. I was afraid it will be too much.
It is not. Now it is great in terms of flavours. Great combination of both. Still same, but still tasty.
8th
Last one. Again one minute long. My thermos is empty. So it means one full liter of it. Whoa. And not a single one steep was boring.
From leather notes through floral and needles to licorice. I guess that means full of flavour. I liked this session. And I hope you liked this tasting note. It is over now.
Flavors: Camphor, Floral, Leather, Licorice, Wet Wood
Preparation
I don´t expect much at all. I think they used pyramid sachet just because it is cool now. It rather looks they use same mix even for classical tea bags.
I woke up quite early today; and as there was a storm in night everything was wet. Including grass! So I took my scythe and started to mow the grass. After one hour I returned back home and had tooth for fruit tea. Weird.
Well; opened the box and it is strongly aromatic. Put it into hot water and all room is filled with forest fruit aroma. I do not think it is natural. Otherwise I prepared it as written. 5 minutes steep of boiling water.
Liquor turned into raspberry red and so does smell after raspberries and blackberries. The liquor is clear though. Aroma is quite nice, but artificial.
Taste is watery and very tart, with little notes of blackberries. Raspberry only as raspberry seeds. I can not recommend this tea. Well what I have expected?
Drank plain (as always), no additives added.
Flavors: Blackberry, Raspberry
Preparation
i have some licorice & ginger root tea from harney and sons that comes in a triangular sachet. my understanding of the triangular design is that they allow for more water to contact tea and as well as allow for a higher quality tea then their bag counterparts which is typically just tea dust. so i guess it means if it comes in a triangle, it’s a better quality tea.
now my retort to that would be that if the industry can shape you into that thought process then they can go back to stuffing low grade tea into triangles and the consumer will think it’s a higher grade. so my mantra is loose leaf and if i want it in a bag i’ll bag it myself.
of course that’s not always possible since some teas will just come prepared in a bag and thats the only way you can get it. meh.
I have this one — it’s labeled Raspberry/Blackberry here, but it is the same stuff. I didn’t care for it hot, either, but it’s OK for an iced tea if you steep it strong in the fridge.
(Just OK. Not spectacular.)
You mow grass with a scythe?!
haptiK – yep, usually it is like you wrote. Using triangle (pyramid) sachet for better teas. You don´t have to make it so dusty. But No, this one was dusty even in pyramid one.
gmathis – yep, for iced tea it can be okay I think. Maybe I will try it.
Kittenna – yup. I do. We don’t have a mower which is also not very good opinion when it is rather like an orchard. More over, it looks bit like meadow – much better for enviroment and mowing with scythe is way more ecofriendly too. And relaxing!
Are Loyd brand teas readily available where you are, Martin? They have a cranberry/ginger with manuka honey that is delicious!
They are quite available there, but I am trying to avoid them because in independent tests they found out lots of pesticides and other awful stuff in.
Outside in shadow 25 degrees centigrade.
And I am drinking hot tea. I need to find out how to make iced teas.
But at least I took refreshing tea. At least I remember it was refreshing.
Red colour of tea, which should be green tea. I finally found out what the dry aroma reminds me! It is PEZ candy.
In taste it is not so great. It turned quite buttery, tart from grapefruit. But not much of grapefruit taste. Not even other citrus fruits.
Maybe bad ratio of tea/other ingredients? Dunno.
It does not taste so refreshing as two months back. Bit weird, I expected in hot water it would be better.
Maybe just too hot and I am drinking it hot.
Preparation
“All the natural ingredients have been carefully blended to help you relax, unwind and enjoy a godd night’s sleep”
I hope it will work that way. I don´t know how long the steep was. Maybe 4 minutes? It is 10 pm, it is late :D and it is my first tea today.
Today I do not think that camomile is overpowering all the taste. I notice lemon grass and nutmeg (the spicy note).
But it is so hot today, tea is not really cooling down. But I want to drink it before sleeping.
By the way, I passed another exam today and tomorrow another goes. I am getting bit crazy to be honest. I have no time for preparation, I don’ t even want to study for it.
Sad, so sad.
Yep, chamomile is not so strong today. I notice chamomile base but ginseng and nutmeg making it nice. I mean, it tastes like someting but just a a camomile. Good sign! Still too hot to sip.
Okay, now it is good temperature now. It is like a camomile with little spicy aftertaste. The spicy part is not very noticable though, but it is not so plain. Upping a rating a pinch.
Preparation
Another experiment with this tea.
I heated up milk. Then spilled the milk to the cup with tea bag. The milk was quite cold, but still hot enough for steep. I think it has got about 70 °C based on my thermometer. But I am afraid it is measuring all “needle” long, so it is sometimes more because it wasn´t all in water (or milk this time).
I let it steep for quite a long time, maybe 8 minutes was actually correct. Then I even squeeze the bag (I don’t do it) to make all spicy taste go in.
It turned into very interesting colour. It was like eggnog or something. Pale yellow colour of course completely opaque. As aroma it was not really spicy.
But the taste!
It was delicious. Spices spreaded all around the mouth, so sometimes bit mor gingery, then bit more cinnamony, cardamon there… and turmeric making it very nice and interesting.
I think this is how man should prepare this blend. Great idea – to make a “Golden Milk” from it.
Preparation
I did second try on this tea.
This time 2 teaspoons; strainer; boiling water. Steeping time? All time drinking it.
Results are following: pink-orange (coral for those more interested in colour names). Sweet, peachy aroma with citrus fruits. In taste it was quite similar, while peach was dominant with little fuzzy feeling. I expected much more fuzzy. It was quite watery instead.
This is after all disappointment though. Unfortunately I do not have much left, so next time (and as sipdown) I will prepare it iced and we will see if it is better.
Flavors: Citrus Fruits, Peach
