772 Tasting Notes
I got this tea in a swap from Tea Sipper, thanks!
I can taste the cherry in this tea very strongly, much more than the cranberry. The addition of sugar seems to have brought out a sort of cough-syrup-esque flavour that isn’t too terrible, but isn’t that great either. Less sugar next cup and I might change my rating.
Preparation
I’m finally tasting the pepper that so many Yunnan teas say they have in their descriptions. Not a strong flavour, thankfully, because I don’t like pepper in anything really, but I can taste it sort of as an aftertaste that lingers on my tongue. This is a very ‘dark’ tea, for me. Extremely smooth and very tasty.
Preparation
Second try, not any better than the first, although for different reasons.
I didn’t add any extra sweetener to the tea this time. It smelled nice both dry and after steeping. Tasting though, was a different matter entirely. I can taste the apple, I can barely taste the vanilla, I can definitely taste the hibiscus and it tastes more sour than tart to me and overwhelmingly I can taste the stevia and it tastes very bad. I couldn’t even finish my cup, I had to go pour it out.
Preparation
This has a weird weird flavour to me. I can see how it is milky and I can see when it steeps that it has some kind of milk in it, but I don’t know, maybe I’m picky with my milk more than I thought. I only ever buy organic skim milk. The ‘milk’ in this tea tastes very strange to me. It’s not…bad, exactly, but I don’t think I like it very much. I added some more sweetener, but it just made the weird milk flavour more pronounced and put the black tea more in the background, so that wasn’t very helpful. I don’t think I’m going to try to resteep this.
Preparation
Drinking this as the first tea that has ever been brewed in the new (2nd) Breville One Touch that I bought for my work desk. 1000 ml pot, though I won’t be doing that again, I just don’t drink it fast enough. I’m on my second steep now, same amount of water. I’m glad I gave away most of the first pot though because I’m not through my second mug and it’s pretty cooled off by now even with the ‘keep warm’ feature which doesn’t last nearly long enough.
Anyway, I think I put more leaf in than I normally do because it’s stronger and at the same time a bit more bitter than normal. Perhaps it’s because I’ve been drinking it all morning and I’m getting tired of it. Normally I do like this tea though so I’m not going to change my rating. I think I’m going to slosh by the time the day ends.
Preparation
This has become my default morning tea to brew before I get to work and take the rest in a travel mug to drink along the way. Why, you might ask? Because it was on top of the pile.
This tea is pretty good for a wake up tea, strong flavour but not a confusing one. Since I drank it this morning and I usually do my tasting notes during the drink and not after, I can’t really remember exactly what I picked up other than I liked it. Drinking (tea) while driving is not exactly conducive to savoring the subtleties, unfortunately. I was glad to have it though.
Preparation
You know, I didn’t expect to like this one as much as I did. Normally I’m pretty wary of rooibos because I really don’t like the flavour straight and if it’s too strong in a tea it tends to ruin it all for me, but this tea is really very good. I can taste both the chocolate and the peppermint and not much rooibos at all, a little woodsy flavour in the background but it’s not strongly present. The peppermint and chocolate flavours complement each other rather than overwhelm. The peppermint is the first thing I taste and then the chocolate that lasts into the aftertaste. If it makes sense, I taste the peppermint with the tip of my tongue, but I taste the chocolate in the back of my throat. I really do like this tea.
Added sugar but not milk. The can says to add milk if you want, so I may try it again later with milk and see if it’s better.
Preparation
I have it now and ordered another for work. It’s so awesome. I’ve used it 3 times so far and I’m looking forward to trying the auto feature tomorrow and this is so awesome! The perfect cup with no fear of oversteeping and more than one at a time and it boils water too and just wow.
I could wish it had a longer cord though, I have to buy an extension cord to reach the plug here at work. I understand why it doesn’t though, most people will be plugging it in near a plug on a counter rather than at a desk where the plugs are on the floor.
I tasted the smokiness this time! Made quite a bit stronger just now than usual. A combination of losing track of steeping time, a bit more leaf than normal, and a bit less sugar than normal. A bit astringent too, probably because of oversteeping. I ordered another Breville Tea Maker for work since I love the one at home, so that will hopefully stop me from oversteeping too much in the future.