1598 Tasting Notes
And that’s enough of this one! (163)
It’s time too, because I bought it in February last year, as part of the 2/$5 promotion of winter teas. I basically held onto it until Fall and now it’s gone! Yes. Now I just need to finish Alpine Punch and then the oldest teas I have will be from April. Gotta push that gap back!
I dropped the rating on this. The artificial flavouring in here is sorta blegh. DNW.
And that’s the end of this. I had to drink this and finish it up because with the RiverTea additions, I am really struggling for space! Those tins are cute, but it’s time to make way, make way!
And I better get on it before my Adagio teas arrive…
I would reorder this again if it was ever reblended though. Eventually. It’s a nice winter tea.
What steeping parameters do you use? I keep meaning to make it and then end up going with something else because I have no idea how to best go about making it.
I steep it around 70-80 (I think more around 70 because I can’t remember) and for about 4 minutes because I’d rather more flavour than too little.
I read 70-80 and I think I am a bit out of it because I could not believe you steeped a white tea for 70-80 minutes. Then it clicked in you meant temperature. So I felt dumb. But I shall try these parameters when I get around to making this tea.
Hahaha. That would be a pretty awful tea!
Guess I should be more clear with my symbols. :P
haha no. You were very clear, I just had a slow moment.
Ok, first off, I have one small complaint with this – there’s TOO MUCH stuff to try to fit it all in 1 tsp, including some hefty and delicious looking chunks of chocolate! I solved that by making a 16 oz cup with 2tsp, but even then I made sure to get some chocolate in there.
Ok, on to the tea. The first thing I taste is star anise. Sweet anise. Then a little bit of rose and chocolate mixed together, and then a wash of spices. The mouthfeel is a little dense, like cake.
Now, I wish I’d had the actual Granny’s cake that this was named after!
Overall this is a very satisfying dessert tea! Kudos! (And I may raise this rating more in the future, but I generally tend to rate things too high when I’m excited and I’m trying to be a bit more realistic)
Preparation
I’m drinking this while I add the rest of my teas to the database. I’m using RiverTea as the name, but I think someone else has been adding them as River Tea (because that also popped up). :O
Well hopefully that’s something Jason (or whoever they hire?) can fix up if needed.
On to this tea! I like it? It’s rich and malty, and dark. It’s strong enough to help wake me up in the morning, but not quite enough to bother me on an empty stomach. It’s also not astringent which is a plus!
I should probably wax poetical about this, but truth be told I haven’t had an Assam in a month or so. I think Tiger Assam was my last, and it’s hard for me to say how good this is in comparison. I like it, and it gets a lot of extra points for the name.
Is it the best Assam out there? I’ll leave that for Sil to decide when she gets hers, which I hope is today!
Preparation
Last I heard the merge function is down right now as they are trying to upgrade the site, and I remember them saying merging companies was harder. They did do it for DavidsTea eventually. Maybe it will get easier with the upgrade?
Huh. I didn’t realize that. Well it looks like only one tea was entered under the other name. Hopefully everyone else uses RiverTea!
I’ve let this cool for nearly half an hour now, and it smells like buttery dough and tastes like shortbread.
OMG. This is seriously so good. This is what I expected from the S&V Almond tea, for some reason even though that’s probably not a fair comparison but I don’t care. This is a nice tea.
And it’s a sipdown! (165, with my Riverteas added in!)
I wish I experienced this the same way you did. I have more should you want it.
I may take you up on that! :D I’m not sure why it works for me? Two bags at boiling for 6-8 minutes, poured into a large mug = perfection.
I lost the last bag you sent me by dropping it into salsa. :P
Something tells me salsa and shortbread are not a great pair
You never know – sometimes sweet and savory go together quite well ;)
I never thought much of CS teas but now I want to try this!
I heard it had grapefruit so I went from a sample to the whole 50g. Regrets? Nope.
More details next time, when I’m not in my cell.
Everything about this one sounds appealing to me, except the green base. The three samples I picked out were greens – though not fruity ones, because I figured it’d give me a chance to try out the green teas offered without committing to a larger amount (not a green tea fan). What’s the base like for this one? Present? Vegetal?
Hmmmm… I can’t really describe it so well, but it’s apparently a sencha if that helps at all. I really need to drink greens more, which is why went with this one.
Now that it’s cooled, the grapefruit is almost a little too strong/perfumy. Odd.
But if you were interested, I could send you a little sample!
Sure, that’d be awesome!
I hope you get to come out of your cell soon :-P
Great. I made a note to remind me in the morning and I can follow up! :D
Ooh, a sencha! Ok, it’s on my shopping list. :)
YES! My order came in today, and instead of leaving it at the office, I brought all of it home, aside from the 3 little samples. I need to try them immediately, especially after swooning over the packaging and smelling all the bags.
I’m happy Roswell Strange reviewed this one earlier because their comments helped point it out. I don’t normally buy white teas, but I DO buy white teas with mulberries in them. Let’s just say I’m a big fan of Gold Rush, but I could never justify the price to have it often enough.
Now this makes it not an issue. This tea is much cheaper, and it’s quite nice. It tastes like a white tea, without being heavily flavoured. I can definitely taste the mulberries, and a bit of sweet fruits which I guess are the papaya and apple. It’s just very smooth and amazing.
I don’t know. I’m not doing this tea justice in my description, but I really love mulberries, and the juiciness of this tea. I’m on my second steep and I’ve only noticed a slight loss in flavour.
I brewed this in my 16 oz mug for 3 min at 160F for the first steep, and 4 min for the second. I used about 3 heaping teaspoons because of the bigger cup.
Preparation
Yayyyy! I’m glad you love it, because it’s my favourite of what I recieved, except for maybe Tea of Kings. Those two might be tied… I’d have bought more in my order like I did for Pret a Portea or Tea of Kings, except I already had 50g… SO YUMMY! And fresh, right! It tastes very fresh to me. Like… Spring. The perfect, idealistic spring.
It really is a tasty mulberry tea. I am glad Roswell Strange pointed it out as something I might like and sent me some so I could try it.
I am realizing, perhaps pathetically, just in this moment how much of a RiverTea fan girl I am, already. They just make me really, really excited. Such great customer service, tea, pricing… I could probably be a spokesperson for them, if I had any real “credit” or whatever outside of Steepster. :p
Don’t worry, Roswell Strange, I get it. I am the same way with Nina’s.
I can get occasionally get the same way too with Tea Desire. I mean, there are many tea companies I love greatly for various reasons – but I feel like Tea Desire and RiverTea are my “top two” if you will (for various reasons), and there’s this conflicting feeling of wanting to share them with everyone, and wanting them to be mine. I’m sure you know what I mean ;) Companies you feel a special connection with, for whatever reason.
Haha. I definitely get it.
Nice! I’m curious to read what you think about their flavourings overall, if they add too much sweetener to them, etc.
I totally have to add this to my shopping list. :)
So far I didn’t notice too much flavouring, (it seemed well blended without being overwhelming) but I’ll try to do a better job in my notes! :P
And I don’t think it had sweetener in it, unless it was snuck under the ‘flavouring’ heading…
Oh pish posh, you did a most excellent job describing the flavouring. Sounds quite natural to me. I just hope they won’t be too David’s Tea- or Teavana-like in the sweetener category.
@Fjellrev, I had this cup yesterday and did not really notice an abundance of sweetener. It was a sweet cup (not cloyingly so) but I attributed that to the fruits.
my tea still hasn’t shown up…so jealous… sigh haha
So this was in my Amoda box last month and I’ just finishing it up now. It’s sweet, has cherry flavouring and some other things, but I’m not enthused about this one guys.
Not really. It’s ok. It’s a happy face, but not a really happy face. There’s no tongue sticking out begging for another drop face here.
I actually really like this one. It always fills that need for dessert at the end of the night. Definitely filled with artificial flavor, though, but it’s the rare tea that can get away with that for me. I’ll be sad when I run out.
I really liked it, but I guess I moved on?
I’m happy you’re into it though. :D