iHeartTeas

Next up is a generous sample of this tea from Rachel at iHeartTeas!

Like Butiki’s, this tea doesn’t smell particularly spiced, perhaps because it isn’t. It does smell pleasant though, creamy and sweet and like black tea, but I’m not getting a pumpkin aroma per se.

This tea is definitely more strongly flavoured than the version from Butiki, and is a little bit… sharper, perhaps? In the base tea, at least. Again, no real pumpkin flavour that I’m getting, although there’s definitely creaminess and some sweetness. There’s maybe just a touch of astringency.

Sweetened, I’m still not really getting a pumpkin flavour here. It’s definitely a nice tea, and the black base shines through and is pretty tasty, but there isn’t much in the way of spices or pumpkin flavour, specifically.

Overall: this tea definitely has the best/most flavourful and enjoyable black base of the four I’m comparing, and while it’s a tasty tea, the spice aspect is again lacking.

(Teas under review: Butiki – Pumpkin Creme Brulee; iHeartTeas – Creamy Pumpkin Spice; DAVIDsTEA – Pumpkin Chai; Della Terra Teas – Grandma’s Pumpkin Pie)

Tried this one again. Bumping the rating a little as I seem to have found a better balance between the temp and steeping times. Still not my favourite though – there are better caramel/vanilla type teas out there.

This tea is another sample I picked up in my exchange with kittena and indigobloom. I wish I could say that I loved this tea….but I can’t. It starts out lovely but thetail end of each sip reminds me of the few adagio teas that I’ve tried and haven’t been a fan of. I REALLY love the way each sip starts out though….

SIPDOWN! and thanks to kittenna for passing a wee bit more of this on to me. I’m beginning to think the memory of this tea was better than i recall. While this one is still pleasantly fruity and delicious, it doesn’t quiet hold the same appeal to me as a while back.

i REALLLLLLLYYYY thought i’d like this cold since it’s quite an enjoyable cup of hot tea. Turns out? not so much. I ended up having a few sips,trying to sweeten it and then dumping the rest of my little glass. I still quite enjoy this as a hot tea, so no worries there. Just haven’t managed to find another cold tea that my other half likes.

This one was a sample from Kittena over the weekend. This is a tea I’d be willing to buy for myself. I really enjoy the fruity aspect of the tea while not losing out on the “green.” I really like the mix of rasberry and apricot as well. No unpleasant aftertaste and even as it cooled it was still a pleasure to drink.

So I cold brewed my used leaves (steeped once), and forgot about them for a bit, however I am drinking it now! Nice light fruity flavor, very sweet. Really good!

This is lovely! Sent to me by Emilie, thanks!
I’m a complete green tea newbie, so I don’t really know what I’m talking about. Anyway, the flavors are nice and light and the green tea base comes through nicely. I can’t pick anything out exactly, but there is a nice light sweet juiciness. Whatever the green base is, I like it!

First of all, my apologies to iHeartTeas for taking so long to try these samplings you sent me! No excuses – I’m sorry!

This is tasty. I’m finding myself wishing there was more strawberry flavor in it … and the strawberry that I can taste is artificial-tasting. The coconut is nice, but I think that my favorite part of this tea is the vanilla, it has a nice, smooth, even tone to it. The black tea is rich and malty. This could be a really delicious tea, but the strawberry seems to be holding it back. It’s alright, but, I think I prefer the raspberry apricot blend I tried a while back.

This tea did not smell like much at all in dry form.
Steeped it smells A MAZ ING!
Taste: A very creamy indulgence! Notes of vanilla and caramel just as described!
Perfectly sweet but not too sweet!

Thank you to Kittenna for sending me a sample of this. It’s a rather refreshing cold brew. The sencha is metallic and grassy. Perhaps a bit too much since it seems to overpower the fruit flavors. It is smooth and buttery, however.

I can tell that it’s a fruit flavor, but I can’t distinguish what kind of fruit. It’s so faint. Well, anyhow, the green base is nice and the vague fruitiness is pleasant. A nice refreshing brew overall.

Got some of this from krystaleyn. Thanks for the sample! just enough of this to make s large cup cold brewed. I can taste the tarty hibiscus and the berry. I also taste the rooibos, which doesn’t bother me too much but it seems s bit out of place. And the after taste here seems a bit artificial.

Okay. Added a touch of sugar. Definitely helps the berry pop and makes it quite juicy. Not bad but not my favorite.

This is a delicious tea! I love the dominant strawberry cream flavor with the hints of coconut and vanilla. This is a nice tropical dessert tea. Love it! It is tropical but not bitter! :)

Sipdown! 828. Another remembered backlog from a while ago. It wasn’t bad, but I’m glad I sent the rest off to momo. A bit tart, a bit lemony, and a bit weird because of the rooibos, is basically my assessment of it.

I cold brewed about 2 tbsp of this in 2 cups of water in the fridge overnight.

The taste is somewhat tart and berry-like. The tartness is definitely moreso of the lemony variety and not hibiscus, which would probably make a lot of people happy! Unfortunately though, I’m tasting the medicinal rooibos flavour that I’m not a big fan of, and that’s kind of ruining it for me. It’s still drinkable though, so anyone who doesn’t have that same association with rooibos would probably love it! Still need to try it hot before completely giving up though.

Sipdown! 834.

Not bad, but I’ve had better strawberry blacks. Similar “candy strawberry” flavouring that I enjoy, though!

The aroma is of a malty, slightly sweet black tea with a hint of fruitiness. It’s not discernible as strawberry to me, particularly.

The flavour is malty and creamy, and the fruitiness comes out at the end of the sip, so it’s definitely a lightly flavoured tea. There’s also delicious creaminess at the end of the sip. Again, I’m not particularly picking out strawberry, but it does taste like a berry sort of fruitiness. My short steep time avoided too much astringency (there’s just the slightest touch), so I would definitely recommend going with a short time with this tea.

Overall, it’s tasty and I love the creaminess, but I do wish there was more strawberry flavour (as with the Raspberry Apricot Green Tea Delight, however, I may be experiencing issues with Mango ‘n Friends being so sweet as to have temporarily contaminated my taste buds). I personally think it would be enhanced with some freeze-dried strawberry pieces though.

Overall a tasty tea and I will finish my sample, but probably not one I’d want an entire package of as my preference for flavoured blacks leans towards stronger flavours (but the base and creaminess here are fantastic). Thanks for sending along a sample of this one, Rachel!

Sipdown! 229/365!

Iced a jug of this a couple days ago, and the last of it today as it was a hit with the husband (I did sweeten it). I thought he might find it too mariney, but I guess not. It tasted fairly mediocre to me, like any old random fruity green, so I didn’t drink much and instead, brewed up a few tastier things for myself.

Once upon a time, I apparently really liked this one. It has definitely suffered from age, though, and although there is some flavour left (and it’s not metallic, like some old green teas can get), I can’t make out either raspberry or apricot. There’s just kind of a vague fruitiness, and a moderately grassy green base. Might try icing this one to see how it fares.

The dry tea smells fruity with a metallic twinge of sencha. I’m not a big fan of green teas with that flavour, so hoping it doesn’t carry over into the flavour.

Whew, there’s no astringency or bitterness, so the metallic aroma mustn’t be linked to those (it was in my mind). Cannot put into words how relieved I am about that – so many times with green blends I’m getting unpleasant flavours from the sencha. Initially I’m mostly tasting sencha, which is pleasant enough, but not what I want. I think the flavours are coming out in the aftertaste, but I feel like I have too much fruitiness going on in my mouth right now to pick them out. I’m also drinking this warm/hot (unusual for me), and I’m wondering if the flavours will come out better when it’s cooled…. only problem, I’m not sure the tea’s going to last that long. I’m enjoying the pleasantly fruity, buttery sencha regardless.

Ok, I’m giving this one a temporary rating because I’m enjoying it whether or not I can taste raspberry or apricot (can’t pick out either right now). I expect that another time, when I try this cooler and with an untainted palate (I’m blaming Mango ‘n Friends here), the rating will be upped. I’m also interested to try this iced and cold-steeped. Haven’t cold-steeped a flavoured green before (other than DavidsTea’s Lime Gelato, which hardly has any green tea in it to begin with).

ETA: Resteep, 175F/2 min is similarly of buttery sencha, albeit weaker.

Meh. Not a bad base, but not much flavouring. Still tasty enough for a travel mug, though! And not really any astringency when brewed properly.

Received yet another package of tea today… this time it was my order from iheartteas.com!! Exciting! I ordered a few of Rachel’s custom blends (and some Golden Moon Coconut Pouchong), and am trying to make some good headway on trying everything this evening, even though I should be sleeping/working on things (but I’m so stressed out all I can do is post mindlessly on Steepster… thank goodness it’s working again!)

The aroma of this one is pretty familiar, steeped. Luckily, it’s familiar in a good way. Malty and caramelly/vanilla-y. I can see why someone (is it Angrboda???) is questing for the perfect vanilla black. So decadent.

With 3.5 minutes of steeping, I’m getting more astringency than I would like, yet the tea’s a bit weak. I think I may have overdone the water a bit, and should drop the infusion time down to 3 minutes. However, in spite of the astringency I can taste some really nice caramelly/creamy notes. Definitely looking forward to my second attempt! During which I should also brew up some of 52teas’ Pot O’ Gold and Market Spice’s Rum Butter for comparison. No need to have a plethora of similarly-flavoured teas in my cupboard.

In spite of the astringency, I’m definitely enjoying this cup of tea – it’s nearly gone already. It’s tempting to add some milk and sugar, but I think that would ruin me for drinking flavoured blacks without! Nom nom. Off I go to brew up another new tea before I toodle off to bed for the evening.

ETA: 199F for an accidental 6.5 minutes is surprisingly not astringent. Obviously not as flavourful as I’d like, but worth the second round :)