Art of Tea

This is my first hojicha tea and I must say I have been missing out! Perhaps it’s the flavoring of this one that is making it so magnificent, but I thoroughly enjoyed this tea… perhaps even a bit too much (my cup was empty before I knew it and I was shaking it trying to get one last drop). I’m getting a toasted rice with a caramelized sugar appeal to it with a dash of vanilla. Both flavors are there and known, but they don’t compete trying to win center stage, they are equals. I get a more vegetal taste that is slightly bitter on the back of my tongue and as an aftertaste, which I don’t mind since it lets me know that this is in fact a green tea and the vegetal and slight bitterness plays out well with the other flavors. I think I will have to go pick some of this up today in a nice 2oz pouch…perhaps even 4oz depending on the price hehe :-D

Guessing on the temp here, since I was impatient and added a bit of cooler water to my cup, then the 190 from the Zoji, and then submerged the leaves. Awfully imprecise of me, but this isn’t the first time I’ve had this despite the utter lack of tasting notes, so I feel qualified (finally) to talk about it.

Previously, the Coconut Pouchong from Golden Moon was the only pouchong I’d had, and it rapidly became one of my very favorite teas. I’d thought that the coconut milk was lending that pouchong the occasional scent of gardenia, but I’m getting it off of this cup too, so I’m wondering if it might not be a quality of pouchong? I should really go out of my way to get an exceptional unflavored pouchong to try.

The smell of the dry leaves echoes almost exactly the aroma and taste of the tea. It’s a creamy, soft, buttery, floral vanilla citrus, a bit dreamsicle-ish, but not tart at all — more rounded. My friend’s father used to have a mandarin orange tree when I was a little girl living down south. Our family always leaned toward bigger oranges and tart tangerines (which I still love to this day) — I remember thinking that mandarin oranges were watery and weak. Getting older, I can certainly appreciate their velvety subtlety more than I did when I was a kid.

Neither ‘pouchong’ nor ‘orange’ typically make me think, ‘I want to try this with milk!’, but with this tea I almost might. Maybe it’s the dreamsicle resonance. I usually find green oolongs unable to be iced without losing a lot of their flavor…but again, grown-up dreamsicle!

Definitely digging this one. It can stay.

Hooray for my Art of Tea order coming in!

What I really want to try is the Mandarin Silk oolong (the aroma coming out of the tin is seriously to die for), but my Zojirushi was set to 208 and I’d just had two cups of tea this morning, so I thought I’m probably caffeinated enough as it is, and should probably wait a little bit. Might as well have some of this, right?

I’d wanted to try this since ages ago, when teaplz and Takgoti were ranting and raving about it…but then I ordered this Coco-Loco rooibos from SerendipiTea (it seemed so promising! Many kinds of chocolate! Mmmm!) and…well, scared myself away from rooibos. It had a faint taste of…er…bile. Seriously. :( And given that being nauseous/throwing up/being around people who are throwing up/encountering the odor of any puddles left behind by people who have thrown up/etc. may rank at the top of my very short OMG Can’t Handle It list, my response was a pretty visceral ‘no way, nope, no thanks, never in a million years, thanks for playing, peace out’.

This actually smells pretty good, so I am wary but tentatively hopeful. The scent of it is quite fruity, and actually reminds me of The Cracker Barrel for no immediately-recognizable reason. It’s something to do with the spiced-and-stewed-sweet-fruit thing, I suppose, that makes me think ‘southern country kitchen’.

It’s still VERY hot, but…first impressions are…pretty good, actually. I think I can locate the flavor of the rooibos that sent me running for the hills, but it’s different here, more nutty-woody than woody-sour, and the nice thing is that I don’t have to find it if I don’t want to. I can concentrate as I exhale and get it, but if I don’t care for it…why would I do that?

As the cup is cooling, that woody aspect is a little bit ‘rounder’ in flavor, if that makes any sense — more expansive but also softer, and pretty well tied to the pear flavor, which is strong and delicious. I keep finding myself holding the tea for a moment in my mouth, so I suppose my fear that the cup would lose its ability to cover the rooibos up as it cooled must have been needless!

I really like this. I’m not sure that I would want it every night, but I really have been remiss in seeking out caffeine-free alternatives to tea for the evening, and this one is pretty tasty. The flavor is almost totally stewed/baked pear, but after you swallow you get a tangible, almost tactile sweetness on your tongue that is definitely caramel, though it’s a very gentle sweetness, not cloying or sticky or astringent at all.

Man, I’m so relieved. I was totally not prepared for this to be bile in a can all over again! I think I can totally find a place for this in my cupboard on the reg.

Yummmmm! This is a woodsy tasting oolong that is amazingly smooth and has a light touch of jasmine to it as well. This is one that I WILL be purchasing VERY soon! BTW, I had this while eating sushi and it complimented the sushi very well ;-)

MMMMmmmm I’ve been drinking too many flavored teas lately so I needed this.

This is calm and buttery with some toast and a little bit of flowery sweetness on the end. It’s balanced and has a robust flavor for a white tea.

Is good. I don’t think it’s the best ever but it is definitely better than a lot of silver needles I’ve had.

Without sugar this is a more minty rooibos blend with might seem to have some kinda fruit in there some where. Having had another pseudo chocolate tea before I’m again getting some kinda weird banana taste where you’d expect the chocolate to be.

With a pinch of sugar… really one spoon at most… it’s waaaaaaay to sweet. The mint gets covered up by the fruit flavors and the chocolate appears only way back there in a malty milky kinda way.

So without sugar it isn’t really what was advertised but it isn’t bad either. A little odd but I would have a cup again if it was around. It is slightly refreshing and tasty in the very least. I can see how people would be turned away by the odd fruit and mint combo. It didn’t bother me though.

I added sugar to this like I normally do when trying rooibos blends and it is very very sweet. So I’m going to try it without sugar before I pass any judgments.

Already I’m not so sure about this one. If there is chocolate in here it seems to be very milky and might be being covered up by the vanilla… and I think there might be fruit in here…
Researching HO!

GEEZ that is a strong bergamot flavor in this tea!!! Like take my breath away strong! The creamy/vanilla is noticible as a lingering flavor. But there is so much bergamot that I feel like I have a film on my tongue after I swallow. It’s kinda weird and perfumey and I can’t get past that weird oily feel that stays on my tongue! It’s as if they spilled a whole bottle of bergamot oil into a smalll pouch of tea and just left it as is to be sold. I like Earl Grey and I like a strong bergamot flavor, but this was just crazy… perhaps I had a bad batch?! I would like to believe that because I am still pretty freaked by having an “oil” feel on my tongue :-|

Every once and a while I crave Jasmine tea and I’m on my second 32oz of this one this morning and I want more.
Yes… that is strange. So I’ve been trying to figure out how this tea is different from other jasmines.
The tea base seems a little more toasty sweet than I would expect from a jasmine tea and the base tea also has a very full mouth feel. Taking that into consideration it is probable this one isn’t bothering me after extended sippage because I would drink the base tea alone. I don’t think I can say that for the other jasmines that come to mind. So yea… nice base tea to start.
The jasmine flavor itself has no soapy or over scented qualities and none of the typical mistake markers. Ive even let it cool down to see if any bitter astringency come out and if there is any at all, after letting it sit out for an hour, it is no where near enough to bother me. I really don’t think there is any astringency at all though. ;P
So yea this is pretty solid. For my few and far between Jasmine cravings I need to remember that this is a good one so I don’t go off on more rants when I could have a perfectly pleasant time sipping this one.

“Brews a refreshing taste reminiscent of baked pear and orange blossoms with a crisp clean finish.”

BAKED PEAR MY BUTT!
Pear?!? What were they thinking! OK… moving on.
If you like citrusy… bergomonty… tangy… maybe a little hibiscusy.. type flavors this is probably right up your alley.
I don’t get any sweet out of it though… or baked… and it’s DEFINITELY not mellow. But it is a light tangy as opposed to a “I can’t taste anything but tang for five minutes after taking a sip”.
BIG… Bright… lighter/lightish flavor.
And again… this is not resteepable.

I tried this thinking that it would be a fairly floral tea, but once I tried it I realized why they said this would be great to drink after a meal…the peppermint makes itself known and the floral notes take the backseat. This was ok, but definitley nothing to write home about…perhaps if you are a peppermint fan this would be good, but I was hoping for more of a floral tea. This mixture of the slight floral notes with the peppermint just seems kinda weird to me.

I had this iced thinking this would be a nice summer tea to have, and it is pretty nice for a black tea (I’m not a black tea lover hehe, but I still try give an honest review on the taste and quality). I could definitley taste the strawberry and it didn’t taste artificial, which is a HUGE plus to me…the more natural it can be the more I appreciate it. I could also taste a slight sweet mango taste as well, but this was very faint. Before I read the ingredients I couldn’t even put my finger on what that “additional” taste/flavor was, but when I read the ingredients I said, “ah ha! that’s what that was!” Now as far as the black tea, I think it was slightly bitter, but perhaps that was the tartness of the strawberry that I was picking up on and not that actual tea itself? It was a bit hard for me to tell, but it was pleasent and refreshing for an iced summer drink.

Azzrian sent me some of this and I have been drinking a lot of this the last two days! See previous notes :)

Thank you to LiberTEAS for this one!

This is a lovely, juicy Cantaloupe taste with a hint of minty aftertaste (eventho I don’t think that is one of the ingredients)

This is really tasty! YUM!

This was my first time having lychee anything and that fruit is sweet aparently! This was good, very smooth and the lychee is very prominent. Pretty good, but too sweet of a fruit for me! If you are a lychee lover or like naturally sweet tasting teas this would be a safe bet for you!

I purchased this tea on a whim. Unlike the previous reviewer I didn’t quite understand this blend, yes there are ginger pieces in there but you have to actually chew them to get any ginger flavor out or let it sit for 5 mins to steep the flavor out. I guess I was expecting that they would’ve used actual ground ginger instead. Not bad but not my favorite.

Absolutely delicious Oolong! This is my third tea in the Oolong Sampler from Art of tea and is by far my favorite up to this point. This tea is what I like about oolongs. It has a great golden color. The aftertaste does not last too long and it doesn’t punch you in the mouth like some oolongs. I strongly recommend this tea!

I am having this iced tonight. I quite enjoyed my 2 sample bags of this tea. Very yummy. Also now that I am having it iced it reminds me more of capri sun then orange soda. Haha. Very odd-flavor but still yummy.

My first thought hen I tried this was orange creme soda. I let my boyfriend try it and he thought it tasted like orange soda. It was very strange but not bad. I enjoyed it a lot. It really hit the spot tonight. I think that it is something you have to be in the mood for, but I found it quite delicious.

On first taste this was AMAZING! My first pot managed to be juicy and sweet and delicious and everything I could have possibly wanted from a light based peach tea. Nothing was too overwhelming but the flavors were strong and pleasant and went well with the tea base. There was nuance. Delicate tendencies. You get my point.
So I geared up for my second steep all happy and excited… and then it tasted all watered down in comparison.
I can’t get this tea to re-steep correctly. I’ve tried extending times… hotter water… colder water…. leaves in the cup while I’m drinking… EVERYTHING. It just doesn’t want to do it.
This tea would have been rated higher if I could get more than one cup/pot of of the leaves.
It is totally yummy though. But the price is making this a treat tea for me.

I always thought that I did not like Earl Grey tea until I tasted this ……. Wow ! Not real astringent, as most Earl Grey’s are. Really nice taste of bergamot with vanilla to mellow it (or enhance it?). Must get more !!!!!

Have you ever had Sugar Smacks cereal as a kid? Well, if you haven’t try this tea because it tastes EXACTLY like it! This tastes of cinnamon, honey and sweet wheat… a plus in my book!