beTeas

I’m trying to remember when I bought this tea…. I feel like I went there for a tasting and decided to get this one…. Either that or it was the London Tea and Kombucha festival that I bought this one. I wish I could remember. I think it was the festival…

Tea #4
I never touch white teas, which is a shame because wow are they good! This tea does not disappoint. It is light and fresh and just so smooth. I did a two minute steep on this one because I didn’t want to chance it going bitter and I’m glad to say it didn’t. If anything I could probably have done a three minute steep and it would have been good.
Either way, This is lovely. It’s so much lighter than what I usually grab first thing in the morning. It’s a nice change to my morning.

A sample from whatshesaid and inspiration from Cameron B for a sipdown!

This one has far more scent than actual flavour, but the scent is really nice. It has that earthy (fishy-ish) scent, but very light, then a layer of a delicious baked butter scent over top. The taste is a smooth black base that isn’t too thick with the subtlest hint of caramel, maybe toffee in the background. The caramel/toffee taste comes out more as it cools.

Also, I’m excited to have crossed two things off my list today! A patient success story for my volunteer role and part A of an ecology assignment.

A sample from whatshesaid a couple years ago now!

By the time I got to this, it was sadly lukewarm. However, I do have enough leaf for another fresh cup, so that’s good (plus I plan to resteep these leaves). In terms of this cup, it definitely has a caramel scent with a hint of butter in the scent as well, which is delicious and it translates to a subtle caramel taste. The base tea is quite smooth and velvet-y, which I think is thanks to the caramel as well, with a hint of earthiness in both the scent and taste. The scent of caramel and earthiness is stronger than the actual taste, but I don’t mind.

I’m dying my hair with henna tonight and it has to sit for up to four hours, so I should have time for a few sessions. A nice wind-down to a busy week. Here I have a sample from the generous Togo, a Kenyan oolong. I decided to brew this in a gaiwan over western style but in retrospect, I think this would perform better western as there was not a pronounced evolution of flavor. I did get 10 steeps from this tea.

The dry leaf smelled herbaceous and sweet, like a very toned down fenugreek or a damp forest in the spring. I warmed the leaf in hopes of pulling out more aroma and was greeted with heavy notes of plum, apricot and a dark wood. A flash rinse produced notes of butter, wood, stonefruit and cherry. The first steep had a medium, smooth sweet body with tastes of white florals, peach, raisin and plum with a very faint buttery note. Astringency was present and lasted throughout the session. I’d say the peak flavors were present in the first and second steep. After that, the tea developed a complementary bitterness and faded gradually into a pleasant herbaceous and grassy note . The tea was fairly balanced overall though I could never seem to smooth the astringency.

This tea was pretty enjoyable and I think if the price is reflective of the tea’s quality, this would make a great daily drinker.

I have to say that this tea has aged wonderfully (and fast!). I just wish I had more to see it develop further, today I finished it. Most of the astringency is gone by now, even though the bottom of the pouch had some broken leaves. It has a full body with a fantastic buttery and bubbly mouthfeel. The fragrance is also strong, although not necessarily stronger than I remember it. It is different now though, and reminds me of a lighter oxidized autumn flush Darjeeling. The taste is sweeter, more spicy and well rounded and balanced overall. It also gained in complexity as far as I can recall. I enjoyed it a lot.

For this session alone I would rate it close to 90 in fact.

The style of processing seems similar to a Dan Cong oolong, although it’s not quite as aromatic. Admittedly, the price is also lower though.

Overall, it has the qualities of Dan Cong oolongs as well. The smell is slightly floral and reminiscent of forest floor, especially the conifer forest kind. The tea is medium bodied with buttery mouthfeel. The taste is round, balanced and quite mineral. There is a decent bitterness and tanginess and the aftertaste is also decently strong with floral and sweet notes. Throughout the session the tea becomes a little more fruity. In particular, I get some dried fruit flavours.

This is the first oolong from Africa for me, but I found it very enjoyable, even though maybe it lacks the complexity of high end oolongs.

The dry leaf smells of nutmeg and muscatel. The wet leaf smell is much harder to identify for me, but it is quite fruity with some rum and sandalwood note to it. I find the liquor to have slightly milky smell too. The taste is super smooth and bright, with a nice bite thanks to the astringency in the finish. It’s a mix of fruity and floral notes with hints of alcohol and conifer trees. The sour parts of the taste linger longer and join the floral aromatics and astringency for a very nice long lasting aftertaste with some huigan too! Later steeps also have a considerable lager-like bitterness. The mouthfeel is milky and coating and the qi is very pleasant and calming.

Mindblowing! This tea has qualities of a high grade Darjeeling for about half the price. I will include some more detailed notes from later sessions, this time I was just enjoying the tea too much and not ready to take notes :D

I’m not on Steepster much these days, but every so often I come back and write a review. I want to get back here more often as I do love this website.

Anyways, I went to the shop that sells these beteas only a couple of weeks ago. I LOVED it!! It was such a great little place.

I picked this one up because they said it would have chocolate notes to it. And I think I get a little of it… but either way, I really like it. There’s something very nice about it. It reminds me of the Nepal Black tea from Davidstea. It’s got that same smoothness to it. So yummy!

This is a lovely white tea. I’m not always in the mood for a straight white, but this one is great today. It’s soft and slightly reminiscent of hay. It’s almost as fuzzy to drink as it appears in dry form.

Thanks whatshesaid!

Sipdown (134/141)!

Thank you whatshesaid for the very thoughtful add in to the package you sent me! Because you suggested that I’d like this specifically for cold brewing, that’s how I decided to use up the sample from you – and you were right, this did make for a good cold brew!

It had a very powerful and fragrant mango aroma with a kind of floral undertone, and taste wise the mango definitely carried through in an almost “punch like” way, along with that very light floral quality. The black base itself was a little coppery tasting, but I liked the way that played with the mango. I also could taste the passion fruit in this, which of course delighted me, although it was fairly masked by the strong mango.

Overall a good cold brew, so thanks again!

T&C TTB Rd 2

I’m reviewing this with the caveat that my cup was 99% rosebuds plus a few wisps of what looked like black tea (though I see that nowhere in the review) and a few bits of fruit.

Even with the limited scope of ingredients this was still a delightful cup of tea. The rose provides a musty sweet backdrop and you can just pick up hints of hyacinth and fruit layered in the middle…it’s a cup that goes down easy and I have faith that the full blend would be similarly tasty.

Another one from the TOTM Club my hubby signed me up for a couple years ago. Just unsealed it this summer. I cold brewed it in my fridge for a day or so.

Another ok mango flavoured tea. I love mango flavoured anything, mangoes are my favourite fruit after all.

When it comes to tea, though, I think I prefer herbals with chunks of mango vs a black tea with mango flavouring added.

I am thinking I might be underleafing my cold brewed teas, because I’m not finding the flavours to be very strong. I might be better off just going for it and using up a bunch of fruity tea that way.

I’m also thinking I’d likely get more flavour if I would make hot tea and then stick it in the fridge because the cold brewing doesn’t seem to do the trick. Anyway, this was another vaguely fruity iced tea, nice and cold and serves its purpose!

It’s no Tropicalia though.

I guess I’ve never logged this before because it wasn’t even in the system, but it’s just a basic Assam that I like to drink for breakfast now and again when I just want a straight up basic black tea with milk.

And it is basic, I don’t notice any underlying flavours in this one, just a hearty black tea that stands up to milk. Nothing special or overly delicious, just comforting and satisfying, with a smooth mouthfeel.

It’s one I received as part of the TOTMC my hubby signed me up for on my last birthday, and it’s served its purpose! I have about one cup left.

Another one from my TOTMC subscription.

Drank this last night before bed as a caffeine free option, as I was deep in all the coverage of the Moncton shootings.

I think this ended up being one of few rooibos teas I’ve enjoyed! (Along with the lemon/lime ones from DellaTerra).

I couldn’t taste the rooibos at all, the tea was really flavorful. Almost a bit too sweet for me, though the website says there was no sugar added.

It was cinnamony and orangey and surprisingly tasty. Well not that surprising because the dry leaves smell AMAZING. I might actually repurchase this!

OMG, this is delicious.
It’s a green tea that tastes black.

Wizardry!!

One from the ToTM club the hubby signed me up for last year for my birthday, haven’t cracked it open until now.

So glad I waited because I wouldn’t have appreciated it before now :)

I can’t really tell you how it tastes. It’s kind of buttery and roasty in the sort of way a green tea rarely is. Mmmm.

Second steep of this was equally delicious and almost the same full body and rich flavor as steep one….must be a pu’erh thing!

I will try steep three tomorrow before I toss the leaves. Yummm.

Too funny!

I was just talking about (in my Chocolate Orange review) how I wanted to try the Scottish Caramel Pu-erh that seems to exist all over Steepster in many incarnations.

Not sure now similar this one is to others but I didn’t even know I owned it!

My husband had signed me up for a TOTM club for my birthday in 2013, unfortunately most of the teas came when I was pregnant and totally opposed to the idea of drinking it (not morally, it just turned my stomach)…. So they all remained sealed in my kitchen cupboard because I was hoping to preserve their freshness and recently decided I wanted to drink some others down before opening new ones.

I was doing a little tea inventory earlier and found this, awesome surprise!

I really enjoyed it. It was more of the deep, “burnt caramel” toffee taste vs the creamy buttery type, but it worked well with the pu’erh. I loved how rich it brewed up!

I was able to add so much milk and it stayed thick and hearty and delicious!

I’m looking forward to trying some straight pu-erh and might do a pricy Lupicia order one day to try their offerings.

I guess the other one I will have to try someday is that Cinnamon Swirl Bread by Steap Shoppe that I’ve seen people raving about!

I love me some spicy chai! This stuff is amazing. Ive been looking for a chai that will just completely knock me over. Something with the kind of spice that tickles the back of the throat. Is that wierd? I bought a sample of this a week ago…and I can’t bear the thought of running out. I had to go buy a bigger bag today, and a new tin to store it. This tea just plain makes me happy. What could be better then that?

So, this is the first tea I’ve tried from the Tea of the Month club that my awesome hubby signed me up for as a birthday gift (that keeps on giving :))

As a disclaimer this is very early on in my plans to give straight teas a chance. So my frame of reference is small and skewed by many deliciously artificially flavoured teas and therefore you need to keep that in mind when reading this!

I had tasted this immediately after receiving it and also immediately after eating a bbq’d hot dog with extra mustard. That may seem irrelevant (and if you were just thinking about how classy I must be, you are not wrong), but obviously hot dogs don’t improve the taste of tea. So I wasn’t super impressed with my first taste, but I didn’t tell my husband that!

Fast forward to right now when I just had another fresh cup of this, and followed it with a resteep. It’s good! Without the hot dog taste ruining it I can actually taste the green tea and it was a bit buttery! The ginger added a nice flavour and subtle sweetness and after drinking my second steep I was thinking it’s nice to own this and I will enjoy the full 25 grams, even if I have no frame of reference!

I made this at work, not boiling water and for probably 3-4 minutes but not sure of the temperature.