Red Leaf Tea

It’s TOTALLY weird to add a tea after being away for so long.
Solely in order to review it. … but I did it anyways!

It was real exciting to sample tea old school style!! (meaning like I used to obsessively taste teas). Thank you Ashley Elizabeth!!

Sipdown! 262/365!

I think this is a sample from either Sil or VariaTEA? It wasn’t listed anywhere though, so maybe nobody actually reviewed it here (perhaps it wasn’t intended for that, but I figure it’s so much after the fact that it probably no longer matters).

Anyhow, this is a very sweet matcha blend. I assumed it would also contain the latte portion, but it definitely is just matcha + sweetener or some sort, likely just sugar. I added some milk to the second half of it, and it makes quite a nice-tasting latte. I imagine there was some sort of comparison being done at one point, given that this is labelled #3, but as a standalone product, it tastes fine. I still prefer things unsweetened though, and have now located my decently large, decently old RLT matcha stash, and will be slowly making my way through it. (I don’t actually have all that much, about 4 partial small packets, and 2 unopened small packets, but it’s enough to last me a few months, I think!)

Thanks, whoever this was from!

Sipdown! (164/397)

We ran out of coffee in my house and I really need a good caffeine boost this morning as I didn’t get much sleep last night and have an important job application to write up today. So, I was forced to make the effort I’m usually too lazy for and prepare a matcha latte. I went with this one as it’s a sipdown, and I really need to speed up how quickly I’m getting through my teas. This very generous sample came my way a couple of years back from VariaTEA, so I’m not exactly sure what flavour level it is, though my spreadsheet says delicate. I’m not sure why, since it doesn’t say on the packaging and from the looks of it VariaTEA never mentioned it in any of her notes (nor did Cavo, who it looks like VariaTEA got it from). Ah well, I’m going to trust that she told me in a message or a note in the swap or something, and say that it’s delicate. I definitely remember thinking the flavour wasn’t very strong in the past, so dumped about twice as much matcha as I usually would into my cup. This doesn’t really help. The matcha is vegetal, which is weird in a sweet latte, but there is virtually no Irish cream flavour at all. There is some creaminess, but it’s barely distinguishable from regular milk creaminess, just making it seem like I used semi-skimmed milk instead of skimmed. No whisky or alcohol at all, just sweet (I added sugar) creamy milk with a grassy, green-bean like matcha. I don’t think it’s just the low flavouring level either, as I’ve had other delicate matchas from Red Leaf with more flavour, and I’ve seen a couple of notes from people with the highest flavour level saying the same thing.

Thank you for the sample, VariaTEA, but I wasn’t a fan.

Not sure what I keep doing to my matcha this week. I thought I prepared it the way I always do but it was a little bitter today compared to normal. Perhaps I should use less matcha, though I thought I usually use half a teaspoon. Otherwise good.

Had this again this morning. Much better this time with only half a teaspoon of matcha in a cup of latte. Much more orange and less bitter. I’ve got quite a bit of this left so I’ll be drinking it down. i’ll try not to overwhelm you all with tasting notes about it. Assume I’m having it every morning, I suppose. Every workday morning anyway.

Made this this morning at work, I think I put too much matcha in for the quantity of liquid because it’s a teensy bit bitter/strong. I’m used to my older matchas and although this is aged, it was in a sealed package in my freezer until very recently so it’s aged better than most of them. Still, the orange flavour is still strong and I’ll try again tomorrow with a bit less matcha, possibly lower temperature water/milk and see what happens.

I tried four matchas today (cheesecake, toffee, caramel, Bavarian cream), and this was my favourite flavour. Lots of creamy caramel, quite bitter, but rounds out with milk.

Another sipdown , and a really tasty one at that. The caramel is slightly sweet, very creamy and buttery. I always make my matcha in frothed milk and this flavour goes well with the milk. The matcha itself is not bitter or overly vegetal, so it is very decadent. I would buy this flavour again over the others I have tried if I wanted to purchase more matcha.

I’m pretty sure that this was a company sample from years ago. I’ve been keeping it well-sealed in the freezer so it still has flavor but I’m sure it was better when it was fresh. Yesterday, I made a rice milk latte of this in my brand new Elwood the rainbow unicorn mug: https://www.instagram.com/p/BTcC8Q7lu5x/?taken-by=try.all.the.tea The ratio I used was two teaspoons matcha mixed into half a cup of rice milk, then added half a cup of 180f water and blended the whole thing with a milk frother. The result was creamy caramel goodness. It was slightly vegetal and sweet but not too sweet. I got a good froth going too!

First and foremost. This taste good. Really does. I made it in my blender cup with cold almond milk, and I will say it’s enjoyable. Worked well with the almond milk.

But.

I don’t recommend it because I taste absolutely no green tea. I got this as part of a sampler, so I don’t know the flavor strength, but I would like this a lot more if I could taste green tea.

Looking back, I realize that deciding to get Red Leaf’s sampler pack of flavored matcha was an impulsive decision based on a few pleasant-sounding steepster reviews. Had I taken a moment to reflect, I would have remembered that I don’t like flavored teas! The only flavors I’ll usually allow in my tea include Jasmine, spices in a chai, bergamot in Earl Grey. I don’t even take milk or sugar.
That being said, my reaction to this tea (especially in comparison to the heavenly Rishi Matcha latte I had the other day) is predictably negative. While I can actually taste some green tea through the fake caramel, what ruins this tea for me is the grittiness of the matcha and the strange chemical taste lingering in the background.

In the world of Ark, I am very happy. Days of attempting to solo tame a Quetzal…probably one of the hardest to tame solo…and many fails, I finally realized it was not worth it, so I switched gears to massive resource gathering because I decided to trade for one. 2,000 metal ingots, 700 cementing paste and 400 obsidian later I ended up with a beautiful level 52 Quetzal with a platform saddle (I’m not even high enough level to make that yet) who is female so extra benefit of eggs. This is going to make things sooo much easier, even taming another Quetzal! On top of that I decided to dabble in breeding, using my perfect tame Pteranodon and my decently leveled other Pteranodon and ended up with a level 155 baby..aka a meat vacuum, because Ark babies are stupid hard.

This tea is all sorts of weird, mainly because I cannot seem to find anything out about it, no matter where I look. Granted this could be a fault in my searching, maybe I just don’t know the right terms, or maybe this is some sort of mysterious tea from the world of dragons. Looking at Red Leaf Tea’s Golden Dragon Feelers, a green tea that looks like it was run through a 90s era hair crimper. It is named such because it is thought they look like dragon whiskers, and they certainly are super cute. On close inspection, it really looks more like a white tea then a green, but considering I cannot find these anywhere in the blagosphere, I have to take the vendor’s word for it. The aroma is fascinating, it smells like yeasty biscuit dough, and a little like sourdough, with undertones of cooked sweet peas, but mostly it is all dough all the time. Honestly that is not at all what I was expecting from this light, fuzzy tea.

Brewing this tea brings out notes of yeasty dough, along with pepper, lima beans, and a touch of hops, it smells more like food than tea, it is very starchy and more on the savory side than sweet. The liquid is very light, distant notes of lima beans and honey blend with biscuits, I almost dipped my nose in the water in trying to pick up notes, but there is really not much going on.

The first steep is very light, in both taste and texture, it has a honey sweetness and a gentle mineral note that reminds me of drinking rain water. Underneath the honey notes is a lingering yeast quality that adds to the sweetness but also has a touch of sourdough. At the finish there is honey and lots of fuzzies, that is pretty much the extent of the mouthfeel other than warm and wet.

For the second steep, the aroma is mostly biscuits and honey, reminds me of growing up in the south, especially with the side note of lima beans. This steep has a little more going on, though it is still very light, and the mouthfeel is very light as well. Strong notes of raw honey and pollen with an accompaniment of biscuits and pie crust and a finish of lima beans. This tea is very starchy and has a sweet aftertaste. Not very nuanced but it is still tasty.

Third steep has the aroma of honey and biscuits, it has the taste of honey and biscuits. It is very light and is pretty much finished at this point.This tea is pretty but really kinda boring, I wish I knew more about it, but this tea is a mystery.

For blog and photos: http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2016/03/red-leaf-tea-golden-dragon-feelers-tbt.html

I wasn’t sure what to think of this tea, to be honest. Although it did have the bergamonty EG aroma to it, it was loaded with a strange astringency or bitterness that made me grimace. Since this is a puerh tea, I thankfully knew enough to go easy on the first steeping of it, and left it only for about a minute. The tea turned dark very quickly, and I don’t think I even left it in for that long. The strange bitter aroma unfortunately trasferred to the tea, and I just couldn’t finish the cup. I felt like the tea was battling itself with two different flavour profiles: the EG part that I knew and liked and the bitter, ashy puerh part that I couldn’t stomach.

Not my cup of tea I guess.

I like the warm, full-bodied taste of this tea. It is a good twist on an Earl Grey, especially when I don’t want something as dark as a traditional Earl Grey. Love this, would recommend!

Another one bites the dust. This one is rated highly on Steepster. There is certainly nothing wrong with it. That said, not sure why I got this as caramel isn’t a favorite of mine on its own. I enjoyed it but not as much as everyone else it seems.

I am not a caramel enjoying person. At least not caramel ice cream topping or caramel candy. It is too sweet, even for the monkey, and just doesn’t move me… and yet, I’ve read so many positive reviews of this one over the years that I had to try some. I used 1 tsp in a mug with cold milk, cause that’s how I roll. Tasted. Kid of wondered what all the fuss was about. It was light and kind of reminded me of the French vanilla I had earlier. Then the monkey grabbed the liquid Splenda and added the equivalent of 1 tsp of sugar. Delicious! I could drink this everyday. It is sweet (obviously) but not gross sweet. It is buttery, and the flavor is really good and never gets overpowering. A perfect balance of sweet. texture, and flavor. I will have this one again – and it’s caramel.

Wow, this is really nice! I want to say this is the first not matcha that I have tried from Red Leaf. It is light, well balanced and has almost a fragrance like flavor; present, but not full on. It has a fruity/floral way about it that changes and morphs through the sip with a smooth aftertaste that makes me think of candied cherries. I could see buying this someday.

Thank you for the sale, TheLastDodo! I’ve never had a EG pu-erh before. It works extremely well here. The ripe loose pu-erh pairs perfect with the strong bergamot… almost so strong you can’t even taste the pu-erh. The color of the mug is a deep coffee brown. Apparently there is some white tea in the blend once in a while, which is a little weird but there isn’t enough of it to really make a difference. All three steeps have a strong bergamot presence! Too bad this one isn’t for sale anymore… I always love to try different variations of bergamot.
Steep #1 // 2 tsps. // just boiled // 2 min
Steep #2 // just boiled // 2-3 min
Steep#3 // just boiled // 2-3 min

The taste is quite unexpected. You can really sense the flowers and wine. Albeit the wine is very mellow. Almost to the point of non-existstasnce. I really want to like this one but all I smell is wet dog, that makes it hard to appreciate.