2291 Tasting Notes
This is one of those instant, mix it with hot milk and/or water things. But! It’s made locally of local and fair trade products, so my Vancouver hipster cred (ha!) is intact.
Yeah.
It’s sweetened. Too much tbh, but I don’t usually put sugar in my tea anymore. I used some coffee cream, because I had it, and some boiling water. It’s decent. Lots of vanilla, which is nice, although I still don’t get the “London Fog” thing of bergamot and vanilla. The first time I ever had one way back in the day, it was just earl grey tea steeped in steamed milk. Which you can’t get anymore because they always add water to it.
Soooo. When Bear With Me mentioned this tea I had to get a packet of it as well. It sounded so intriguing! And I thought the “Secret blend of spices” bit was cute and a little cheezy.
Opening the bag, it’s kind of intense. The spices and lapsang mix to give almost a meaty scent. If you do not like smoky teas, stay away from this one. FAR away. Srsly.
Steeped for my standard time, it smells like a campfire. OMG, so good. Campfire and some spices. This is not a usual chai. I think I have to add some milk though. The weather is pretty perfect for this tea right now too. Although it got nice and warm today, now that the sun’s gone down it’s nice and crisp outside and I can smell that people are burning wood fires in my neighbouhood.
Letting it cool as recommended is hard.
Whoa.
This is seriously a smoky spice tea. There’s really nice smoke. There’s spices toasting in a cast iron skillet. There’s charcoal briquette BBQ going on a bit too, with everything rubbed in the toasted spice mixture.
I think I like it. Definitely not your usual tea. And actually fairly smoky. It’s almost as smoky as the Murchie’s Russian Caravan that I loved with maple whipped cream. So I might have to get some heavy cream and mix some up have with this tea.
(2 tsp in 12 oz for 3 min at 195F)
Preparation
And I thought the “Secret blend of spices” bit was cute and a little cheezy. – that’s just what I was going for! Haha!
It’s pretty easy to ID them! I love the crushed cardamom pods.
I know. And I figure if anyone has any dietary concerns they can always contact me and I’m happy to offer them whatever information they need. :)
@OMGsrsly – I crush all the spices myself with my mortar and pestle. I figure the whole spices – like allspice for example – isn’t really going to unlock a lot of flavor if it’s kept in it’s whole form, but if you use the preground stuff, they begin to lose their flavor almost instantly so I want to get as much flavor as possible while keeping things as fresh as possible.
Really. Cinnamon chips. Huh. I didn’t pick that out at all.
So this tea. No caffeine, which is why I’m trying it. Intensely maple. INTENSE. So far, the honeybush is good. Not sour at all.
But pears? Hmm… I’m not so sure I’m getting pears. At least, I’m not getting the gross over ripe pear jelly belly pears. Just some fruityness. And then some spice at the end. So that’s a win for me because I don’t actually, umm, really like pears. I know, I know. But I looooove maple and I hoped that it would be maple >>> pear.
Again, I’m having it completely plain. And it’s nice and sweet, and feels like it would take milk and/or sugar really well.
I’m just over half way through my cup now, and the honeybush still isn’t sour (yay!) but the pear is starting to come out a bit more. Maybe the tea just had to cool a bit. Anyways, this one I also like and kinda wish I had bought more of. The rest of my sample is heading out soon to be tried by others who have more discerning palates than I do.
(2 tsp in 13 oz at 195F for 4 minutes. Maybe longer would mean more pear? IDK. I would think it’d bring out the spice more.)
Preparation
ugh. I didn’t know honeybush had a tendency to taste sour…I hope I don’t have that experience!
It doesn’t always taste sour. It’s more likely to if it’s poor quality, old, or oversteeped. I always use a timer when steeping honeybush. 3-5 minutes is usually safe. I usually double leaf flavored honeybush so the flavor is stronger, rather than steeping it longer. I haven’t tried steeping it at a lower temperature, that might make a difference too, although honeybush tends to taste best hot.
noms.
Let me say that there are a LOT of poor quality honeybush teas out there. It was actually one of my concerns about ordering a 52teas hb again, because previous ones really weren’t my favourite. This one is a very nice quality, and I am pleased. I would definitely order more if the dollar were on par right now. As it stands my tea budget is kinda gone. :)
I also don’t really steep anything at boiling. 195 is a good temp for me for most things, I find..
Sil, if there’s enough I’ll send you some too. But I only got a sample pack and someone else wants to try too.
I only just got around to ordering from 52teas again. I drink mostly herbals, and not many of the old herbals impressed me at all. But after hearing lots of good reviews, I’ve decided to try again.
There weren’t any rooibos that caught my eye or were available, but I got two honeybush ones. :) I’ll try the other tonight.
I was pleasantly surprised by the honeybush from 52 Teas. I was one of the kickstarter backers and received a couple of honeybush teas from that. It turns out I love their White Chocolate Grasshopper and the Cinnamon Roll. Long ago I had a honeybush and it was… Let’s be polite and say it was wasn’t good. I’m glad to see not all honeybush are the same.
white grasshopper.. another one i wanted. damnit really should have just made an order lol stupid wedding, car, bike. bah
Aww Wil. I have some I’m sending you. I think I need more baggies tho which is sadness.
Ducking autocorrect seriously. SIL. SIL SIL SIL SIL.
lol i hear you i hear you!
oh. i bought wine today. and junk food. and told ian we’re going to drink the wine and eat the junk food because tonight i just want to drink. not tea.
Aww yeah. Sounds good. I’m already curled up in bed. Stupid cramps are stupid.
I have the new one. The one Anne just made. And whoa.
When I opened the bag I was super surprised to see such GIANT LEAVES. And it smells so much like Butiki’s Praline Horizon. Score! They must use the same flavourings. However, the base is seriously different. IDK what this one is, but it steeped up fairly light. Well. I’ve been drinking a lot of coffee lately so light is subjective. I mean, I could see the bottom of my mug through the amber brew.
And I’m drinking it plain.
Uhh, what?
It’s super nutty. A little astringent, but honestly most black teas are a little astringent. And I’d probably almost always drink this with milk. And it’s not enough to bother me right now anyways.
Super nutty.
Super.
And sniffing Praline Horizon, it’s not exactly the same. But it’s similar enough. Why didn’t I get two of this? Well… perhaps because I did a mega huge group order of whoops. As in, whoops the exchange rate is terrible and I bought all the teas then spent an extra 30% over what I thought I was spending whoops. Haha. Oh well, I’m happy I have it.
(2.5 loose teaspoons in 13 oz at 195F for 3 minutes)
Edit: As I get down, the astringency reminds me of nut skins. More so of walnuts, but still. So nutty. Very nutty. I bet this will be fantastic as a latte.
Preparation
The tea is from a Thyolo OP1 from the Satemwa estate in Malawi. I’ll be having another tea with that base next month (just a hint, it will be a pumpkin tea, since the unflavored leaf has a very sweet potato-y, pumpkin-y character) and this tea will also be part of the Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire blend from the Christmas collection (I’ll be blending the tea with Lapsang Souchong for hint of smoke.)
OMG. I seriously wish the dollar didn’t suck so much right now. This base tea is right up my alley, and I’m feeling the flavours are top notch. I totally need another Chestnut tea. Right? (Now I have to see if the preorders for Christmas are still open…)
Right. You definitely need another Chestnut tea. :)
That sounds soooo good! I’m even more tempted by the Christmas teas now. I wasn’t sure about the Chestnut tea because I don’t really like Lapsang Souchong, but I do think there’s a decent chance I would enjoy it in a blend. Decisions, decisions.
I know, right? And roasted chestnuts are just the best anyways. I love the Lupicia Chaud les Marrons! tea. So good.
I’ve never had roasted chestnuts, or anything chestnut flavored, so it would be a bit of a gamble.
Sweet and mild and nutty but roasted on charcoal means they’re also sharp and a Shy and ‘grilled’ tasting. Idk how to describe really. You can get packets of peeled chestnuts in areas with Asian and/or Italian stores usually. Just plain ones. They’re soft and sweet and delicious.
I’m curious about them, but have never had the chance to try them. I suppose trying a Chestnut tea would give me some idea what they’re like.
I have a sads.
Drinking the last cup of this delicious tea, with a little sugar and a lot of milk.
So, so good.
i still have the one from david’s i love haha
While that one was great, I still think I liked this one more. Probably because it’s an herbal, so I could drink it whenever.
i understand that. i drink black tea whenever :)
You are so lucky. I’d love a chai right now but the only one I have is Chandernagor. So I can’t. Meh.
heh
just FYI, I think QueenofTarts has some of this in her stash sale currently! :)
Tempting, but it is getting pretty old at this point. :) I think mine was still good because I had it in a sealed jar in the original packaging.
Yes, it would be a gamble of sorts. I grabbed the watermelon doke she had and was pleasantly surprised it was still very lovely. It could have easily gone the other way though. :)
Hmm.
I’m not convinced.
This isn’t really a bad tea, but there is almost more coconut than banana.
I’ll have to share it out and see what other people think. ;)
Preparation
Feeling kinda overdone this evening and the only non caffeinated tea my parents have is this plain rooibos.
So I’m drinking it. With honey. And it actually isn’t that bad. It’s not that woody at all, actually. Just a smooth tree like flavour. ;) IDK. What does good rooibos taste like? This is probably it.
That sounds like a good rooibos. Bad rooibos tastes like cigarettes or cough medicine.
Haha. O find it also tastes super twiggy, like I’m gnawing on some piece of wood from the hardware store, when it’s bad. This is honestly the best quality rooibos I’ve ever seen. :)
I actually like the woody rooibos, unless it’s really astringent.
My parents found this new tea place just outside of Duncan, BC. And of course it’s really infusing (whoa autocorrect! That should be ‘confusing’…) here on Steepster because there’s already a “Teafarm” and “The Tea Farm”…
But this tea. I made it in my dads pretty green beehive tea pot, which I think is 24oz, and used 1 tbsp tea and water off the boil.
It’s pretty nice. A good basic yunnan black. Tending towards bitterness, and not super complex, but a nice tea to sit here sipping while nomming leftovers for lunch and baking pumpkin pie for dinner tonight. Hints of spices, but nothing super unique.
Haha. And mom just asked what I thought about this tea becuase she bought two darjeelings as well but thought they were too light. So I teased her because her idea is " boiling water or perish!!!" for her teas, but these two darjeelings should probably be steeped more like greens. But she has a bi lo chun that she steeps with boiling water, so…. ;) We are two very different types of tea people!
That’s cool that they went! I would have loved to have gone there but it sucks when you do’t have a vehicle.
Yeah, I was pretty interested to see the packages in their cupboard. :)
I love that they’re also really into tea too.
They love their black tea, but they also love steeping the snot out of it. :)
I picked this up at the tea centre in Courtney yesterday, and I’m glad I did even though my mom kept exclaiming about how gross it smelled. :P My mom is a poopyhead, dissing my tea.
It’s surprisingly orange. When steeped, it smells like the classic tea gingerbread flavouring, but steeped up the oils from the Orange Peel really make themselves known. I had it with milk last night and quite enjoyed it.
The rooibos was a little woody, but not too bad imo. Not as good as Janet’s, but definitely drinkable.
1 tbsp in 16 oz BOILING water (Man, I miss my variable temp kettle!) for 4 min.
Does she not like rooibos in general or I wonder if it was something else about the tea that makes her think it smells gross? Gingerbread + orange sounds pretty good to me!
Hahaha. She generally hated flavoured teas. So maybe the mix between the flavouring and the rooibos?
