1598 Tasting Notes
Yessssssss. Did you know I like licorice? If you like licorice, you might like this tea. Oh, and I guess there’s cinnamon and fennel and orange in here too but mostly it’s just sweet sweet licorice.
I feel relaxed after drinking this, but I also feel like I should go and brush my teeth again too. Is it magic-stress relief tea? I don’t know, but at least I have a better idea of what kind of herbals I enjoy!
Preparation
I keep forgetting how good this tea is, and my roommate has about 6 oz of it just waiting to be sipped. I love how it’s smokey but not as hit-you-in-the-face strong as a lapsang souchong. I think I might even prefer this to lapsang souchong as I’m more likely to be in the mood for this than extreme tea.
Preparation
I’m liking this a bit more this time around. It smells malty, grassy, and very much like honey. The base reminds me a bit of an Assam – maybe because of the sweetness is comparable to the fruity notes, or maybe I just have Assam’s on the brain.
When I sip it I get a lot of grass. Honeyed grass. The rest is hard to describe but one reviewer mentions muscatel and yes, I get that too. Not too much thankfully!
If you would have told me a year ago that I would drink “honeyed grass” and think it was excellent I probably would have raised an eyebrow at you. And then I would have thought you were a weirdo because that’s a random thing to say to someone. But I’m surprised. I really do like this one.
Preparation
Oooh, thank you CrowKettle! I have a few matcha samples to try out and I decided to start here! I took about half a tablespoon of matcha and mixed with 2oz hot water, then added ice, 5oz of milk and I shook it like crazy.
The result? This is pretty good. And different. And strong. I can definitely taste the matcha, and the creaminess. Did I get the proportions right? I don’t know. I do know this was easy to make and quite tasty so I think that that’s the important thing here.
Preparation
Oooh! CrowKettle sent me a sample of this! (thank you!) After seeing how quickly it was snapped up when it was reblended, I felt I needed to get my hands on it!
I love the smell. It’s like vanilla blueberries. When I taste it, I lose the vanilla notes but I get a nice bit of creaminess. It’s not quite as creamy as I had hoped for though. I’ve had fruity teas that were so friuty that it felt like I was eating actual berries. DT’s Pom Tango does this. This tea does not. I’m still really happy I was able to try this though! You never know with the 52Teas blends. It makes me nervous knowing they are limited time only…
Preparation
Hee! I’m just craving this tea every day now. Looks like I’ll be out of it next week at the rate I’m going. I placed another order with Bluebird last week, but that was for the Rhubarb Custard and the Terry’s Chocolate. Should have added this one too, but I’m not sure I’d even tried this at that point. :P (Too impulsive)
I’m just enjoying my tea while I share lunch with the baby. She’s eating ham, avocado, cheerios and fancy cheese, and I keep snacking on the pieces she doesn’t want. Win win! I wish I’d realized how tasty avocados were years ago!
Oh yeah, I did it! Once I saw the free shipping I realized this would probably be my only chance to order from AD&D and so I picked this tin on impulse.
It’s such a pretty tin too!
Happily the tea is also very nice. To be honest I expected it to be a bit bolder from the description but it’s not SUPER bold. It’s quite strong but drinkable with a slight astringency at the end of the sip. There are a few fruity notes in there too, which I associate with Assam tea.
This is very good. I think I prefer Butiki’s Taiwanese Assam, but this is a close second! (It really dries out the mouth though!)
Preparation
That’s the end of this – sipdown!
Della Terra threw this in as a free sample which is great because I was curious about it, but not really willing to actually buy it. It’s so sweet and tart!
When I first sipped it I immediately thought of wine, which is odd for a “kid’s” tea. Then I got hit with the hibiscus backlash. Yowza!
All in all, it’s an interesting experiment, but it’s not for me. Della Terra can make some great blends, but this isn’t one of them…
(Oooh – I’m at about 85 teas in my cupboard. I’m hit by a sudden impulse to buy a billion samples from Teavivre or Upton but that’s irresponsible and also, I’m afraid to. Seriously – when you’ve got 20 types of Assam to choose from how do you know what to buy? I might just do it randomly if I do it).
I vote for random sample buying if you must buy more teas… :D With Upton, their site says orders going to Canada are $11.20. Is that true?
Hmmm… looks like! Guess I might be better off with Teavivre. Shipping is $4 but it could take a month to arrive. But I’ll have forgotten what I ordered by then so I’d have so much SURPRISE TEA.
Upton sampling might be another group order.
Upton is a good group buy if you guys want to try lots of things. Their samples are generous and cheap and 2-3 people could share 1package if everyone is ok with one-two cups max. Most of their flavoured teas that ivetried are meh but their straight teas are pretty good, there are lots to choose from AND if the finum brew baskets are still on sale, that more than makes up for shipping….
I love licorice! :)
I picked all the licorice out of mine… :D If I could replace it with fennel (magically, so I don’t miss any bits), it would be perfect. If you like lemongrass, the Tumeric Ginger one is similarly licoricey.
And… you’ve tried it. D’oh!
:P I wish it wasn’t so hard to tell if people had tried other teas! I don’t understand what order the tasting notes are in when you look at a tea!
But I picked up a sample during their last sale because it was less than a dollar and I was losing nothing! I’m not normally into turmeric or ginger though.
That would be super nice, but it took 2-3 weeks to get back to me about merging Zen Tea and Zen Tea Life, so I think they’re pretty busy. (Note: They’re merged now! The Canadian companies are together.)
Awesome – thanks for getting all of that organized. Messy databases drive me crazy. :P