Caine Steele Send Message

The flavor smells rich and delicious, and it’s very berry right off the bat on the tongue. However, the primary response me and mine both wind up with is “very tangy”, and a little tongue-curling. Not too sweet; we had to add a lot of sugar in. That doesn’t mean it’s “bad” by any stretch. It’s not as full-bodied as the raspberry patch, but that’s a really good thing. That makes this tea light, super drinkable, still notably berry flavored without tasting fake, you know where it came from and its quality.. overall a great, mild-flavored tangy fruity tea. :D

“By far- and coming from someone who once eagerly poked around Asian grocery stores- this is the best jasmine tea I’ve had yet! It’s very smooth and fragrant. As soon as I opened the package, I knew it was going to be good- if I could properly brew it. The previous teas I’ve tried that were jasmine in flavor, I just couldn’t do it- they’d be burned or not hot enough or too rough at the edges.

I’ve since gotten unused to jasmine tea, but I’m going to fall right back in love with it now. I also have a tin of the master’s jasmine tea, so I’m looking forward to this as well.”

The difference between this Fujian Jasmine Pearl tea and the Jasmine Phoenix tea is very, very marked. Firstly, this Fujian tea is much more polite and refined about the jasmine flavor; you could call it muted, with almost hints of grape which high-quality jasmine is good for. It lingers on the tip of your tongue and is not very full-bodied, so it has a refreshing quality to it. The Phoenix pearls by contrast are overpoweringly jasmine, without the grape notes and more floral tones, and it’ll hog up your whole mouth. I see now why this is such high quality- to me, this is how a good jasmine tea should be. (I may even steep it five minutes to see if I can get just a wee bit more flavor from it. YUM!)

Honestly, the Wuyi tastes like a riceless genmai cha, but with the toasty flavor. It has a couple unique undertones that I don’t even have adjectives for which make it pretty flavorfull, but it hits my “meh” button, sadly.

Very thick and deep aroma, and it carries through into the tea. Very nice nutty flavor without being overpowering, great smoothness. Though ordinarily I’m not much a fan of chestnuts, this was really, really nice- and my fiance is very impressed by it.

Extremely drying and tongue-curling, but going down the aroma is great, the flavor is delicious and has a good end note of hazelnut on the tongue. It’s not my cup of tea, but it’s still really good. If hazelnut and black are your things…

Woody, sweet, with the smoothness of vanilla right towards the end of one’s mouth where one would expect the usual rooibos nibble (not a bite) to happen. It’s not as sweet as the regular rooibos or the honeybush tea. It’s not a tongue-curler. it’s still somewhat of a dry drink. The vanilla flavor doesn’t seem like the same vanilla in the vanilla green, but if it is, it’s behaving differently due to the different tea base.

I do want to like this, and I probably do like this more than a regular rooibos. Thing is- I’m worrying if my taste is changing away from rooibos, and that worries me. This tea just doesn’t strike me as fantastic. it hits my ‘meh’ button- but because it’s vanilla I may well like it more if I did a blind taste test with other rooibos teas.

To be fair, it’s very smooth- and very strong. It’s also very plain- an asset to people who like a huge rush of caffeine in the morning and don’t like flavored tea. Unfortunately, although I thought myself perhaps among the plain black-tea drinkers, I’m apparently not one of them. Who knew?

Smooth, dark, rich, and a little creamy. These are the immediate notes I pick up on in tasting the cup. It’s relatively straightforward; I don’t taste the orange at all. I don’t taste cinnamon either, which I’d have expected since usually cinnamon is noticeable. This is a polite, drying cup and doesn’t taste like a gingerbread man. However, what it is is definitely quiet, refined, and enjoyable. I like this, as it’s not “meh”, but it’s good. :)

This didn’t turn out quite how I expected. Instead of the flavors and spices layering together into distinct phases of the cup as I’d hoped, it moreso blended and became its own entity. Which honestly works considering the character’s species history in Project Tribal. The peppermint plays very nicely, the spice is barely noticeable and not overpowering as planned, and the flavor is quite literally “dark”- it is a fullbodied taste without being overly dry, and is very subtle in the way the chocolate mint plays throughout- it’s not an in-your-face chocolate mint profile and makes a compelling background. At the same time, this is a tea which needs to be focused on and respected for what it is. I’m certain I’ve caught the essence of this character in a flavor, and that’s pretty (bleep)ing exciting. :) It’s not an in-your-face powerful tea, so it may be underappreciated by those expecting/wanting a strong cup wherein each flavor is tasted consecutively, but it’s definitely really good. Dare I say great?