RiverTea

So after the fail of RiverTea’s Assam, I grabbed this one next.
Fruity/Muscatel-ish in the package. Tastewise this reminds me strongly of DavidsTea’s Nepal black. It’s got the same musky sort of taste to it. It’s not bitter and the astringency is very low. I don’t get any sort of malt or the usual ‘black tea’ attributes that I associate with black tea. And it doesn’t seem to have any hint of a natural ‘sweetness’. This has a vine greenness to it (like the smell you get when you’re trying to twist free a squash or zucchini from the garden…anyone? XD). And it’s almost kinda tingly/peppery at the back of the sip, which is strange. though the longer I drink it, it makes my teeth feel kinda funny. Like there’s a coating on them which makes them sound/feel weird if I grind them together (not that I do this all the time, it was just to see if when I’m taste/feeling is actually a thing.) Lol!
This is a strange review, I’ll admit. But I generally type what comes to mind and hope it makes sense.
I’m not sure I’d order this again. And since I have some Nepal black in my cupboard already, I might just pass this along to someone else since it’s not really something I’d find myself drinking all that often.
(1.5tsp)

Still don’t feel like flavored teas so I’m working my way through my straight stuff at the moment. My RiverTea order has been threatening to fall on my head every time I take one of my tea bins down (I have the box perched up almost 8 feet up on top of all of my bins. Lol) so I bit the bullet and brought it down to try through.
First one out of the box and honestly I’m pretty sure now that Assams just aren’t my thing. They’re too sharp/bitter/in-your-face/woodsy for me to enjoy drinking right now.
That being said, this is probly a very good example of a good Assam since it seems to meet the same tastes as all the other Assams I’ve had. Lol!
For me this tea has a dark, kinda malty scent. Taste wise, it’s bitter and astringent, and sharp in a ‘this is me!’ sort of way, not cutting sharp. The astringency is also fairly unpleasant for me, but again, that’s probly because it’s combined with that bleh bitterness.
Adding some truvia knocks down the bitterness and the whole tea turns strangly earthy and kinda tart? Hard to say if this is the actual term that I’m wanting, but for now it’ll suffice. Even with the truvia this tea didn’t turn sweet, but then I didn’t add more than 1/4 tsp of it (if that).
That being said, this branch of teas really isn’t for me. At least night straight. I think I’ve had a tea or two that has Assam within a mix of others and it’s tolerable, but this tea by itself just isn’t something that I would ever drink on its own. Maybe down the line in a few months/teas I’ll give an Assam another try to see if my tastes have changed, but at least for now I can stop ordering Assams. Lol!
(1.5tsp)

This is really wonderful flavored oolong! Thanks so much Marzipan for the sample.

I love fruity oolongs iced in the summer. I made a cup at lunch hot poured over ice, and will likely cold brew the rest of my sample in a big pitcher :D

The raspberry flavor is nice and natural and the oolong seems high quality with a slight floral overtone.

sooooo upon careful consideration i DO prefer this hot to cold. It’s just a little creamier and more delicious as a hot brew than a cold one. I like both, but hot just a bit more. If rivertea has a sale, i’d pick this up again but with general every day pricing, there are others i’d get first :)

i tried this one as a cold brew last night and it was a little disappointing. somewhere between hot and cold is where this one should be – so maybe i’ll try hot brewing and cooling next heh. It’s not BAD, but it’s just quite as strawberry as i want it to be. heh oh well, still a good tea for summer!

Final Count yesterday: 126

better review to come of this at a later date but i wanted to try this hand in hand with taurus to see which i preferred. this one is clearly a fruit tea :) and is “close” to strawberry but the “cream” is for sure coming through. overall a really nice tea i can see drinking cold in the summer..which is good because that’s why i picked it up!

This one is from Cavocorax. I was pretty sure I would hate it, at least as a hot tea. I just don’t like very many flavored green teas, & we all know what it’s like to have a cherry tea that tastes like cough syrup. So I poured the whole sample into a quart jar of water & stuck it in the frig for a cold steep. I drank some a little while ago, with a little stevia, & it’s like Koolaid for grown ups :)
A little tart & tangy, & refreshing!
Sipdown!

KS said in one of his tasting notes that he guesses this is a Mao Feng tea. If that’s the case, I’m not surprised I don’t like it, as I haven’t really found a Mao Feng I’ve enjoyed in the past.

The weird thing is that this tea tastes an awful lot like the Yuzu Sencha from Wegman’s that Jude gave me in a swap back in May. Either way, this tea is not one I really enjoyed. There’s something musty about it that I just can’t get over. Good thing I only got this as a sample rather than 50g.

Yup! This is an oolong! Came as a sample in my first RiverTea order.

It’s got that nosy orchid floral taste of a quality oolong. The tangy sweetness raspberry was a surprise mainly because it balanced so well with the natural flavor of the oolong as a complimentary layer. However this is still an oolong, a good oolong mind, but an oolong all the same so it can’t get higher than a 70 from me.

Proud to say I drank this cup complete without any sugar……mostly because I forgot to add any. But! I didn’t need any so that’s fine.

Another Sipdown, this one from Cavocorax.
I made a 16oz teapot of it, a little on the strong side.
I drank some of it with breakfast & it is potent!
It amazed me how different teas can be from one another, & it’s especially fun to drink teas with very different profiles one after another. This Assam has a little of that ‘shiny’ quality, like a piece of black obsidian. It also has a fruity tartness, like not quite ripe plums, & a decent serving of Malt!
Now for some front porch painting!
387

I just spent the afternoon in my garden, which always feels so good.
I picked a basket full of cukes, so tomorrow I’ll probably start another batch of dills.
I gathered some asparagus for my dinner.
I dug up the rest of my Shallots & some garlics, & hung them up to dry.
I braided the garlics & shallots that I dug up a week or 2 ago.
For photos: https://www.facebook.com/terri.langerak
I pulled a few weeds, watered half of the garden, & ate a few handfuls of red raspberries, all while talking on the phone with my mom for an hour!
Now I’m back at Tony’s house, enjoying a cup of this tea. Cavorcorax sent me several samples from River Tea awhile back, & it’s about time I start sampling them, right?
The name of the tea sounds like the name Troy would give to a 14 foot Alligator on Swamp People, LOL, but in reality it is a classic Assam, bold & malty. Probably something I should be drinking with breakfast, not at 6pm.

It’s not often that I find a tea that on the first sip has me thinking ‘oh my gosh, I need to get more this tea immediately!" Its even less often that I find a tea that’s every bit as delicious on the second steep as it on the first.

I tend to only drink white and greens in the summer. There’s just something about Blacks, chais, and oolongs that I can not stand the moment the thermostat hits 70 degrees and up.
I thinks its the acrid, coppery taste they leave behind. Or too many summers drinking my Momma’s overstepped Lipton Southern Sweet Tea. Who knows.

I’ve had this tea for less than a week and I’m already in a mild panic of how I’m going to stretch it out long enough for me to buy a 100gs because I drink at least two pots of it a day. Funnily enough I’m the only person in our house that actually enjoys it. More for me!

Taste: I have no idea what mulberries actually taste like, so I can’t say from experience if the taste is artificial or not. There is a candy-ish quality to it, especially in the dry leaf smell. I as worried the tea itself would taste cotton candy.

I will note that I enjoyed this tea to its full extent after the third time I made it because I hd finally steep it properly. Water temperature really is everything, I’m starting to understand that. The first time I steeped this tea it was with boiling water directly over the leaves. Not an awful outcome, but there was a slight bitterness to the white tea that I didn’t mind all that much. Stupidly, I had dumped the leaves immediately after instead of doing a second steep. I was also worried that the fruit would overpower that actual tea, thankfully it didn’t. The actual tea base is good quality, not weak at all.

Second Steep: Slightly watered down, yet darker than the first steep. The fruity taste takes a backseat to the more floral notes. I’m not someone who enjoys floral teas but for some reason the floral and fruity notes blend harmoniously in this tea – something I noticed with the Tuscan Sun as well. A little more vegetal and little less creamy. The actual tea comes out a little weak but still a very satisfying cup.

Scent: The SMELL! My word, you could smell this tea from the kitchen! Creamy, fruity and sweet with a satisfying vegetal scent of the actual white tea. The smell is even stronger as it steeps, and lingers even after the second steep. Heavenly.

Color: Clear Pale gold on the first steep (a little surprising. I’d assumed Mulberries meant a darker colored liquid) Darker gold/amber on the second steep.

I’m no pro on Assam teas, in fact, I’ve only had a few that Virginia sent along with all the David’s Teas. But like the genmaicha, I’m pretty hooked on these straight blacks now. Who would have thought they’d have so much flavor? Well…I never thought they would. Man…everything seems to be surprising me tea-wise lately it feels like! XD
Anywho, this is a pretty rich and malty Assam. Nothing too exciting or different from other Assams I’ve already had. But I won’t be buying more from RiverTea. The “Happy Banana” kinda killed the desire to order from that company. Tealux has my heart for the Assam anyway :P

I’m not sure how I missed the fact that this had cocoa kernels mixed in when I first purchased it, especially since it’s such a prominent flavor. When I opened the bag to sniff? Chocolate. When I steeped it? Chocolate. First sip? Yup, still chocolate. It kind of reminds me of a chili infused chocolate, very smooth with a little kick from the ginger and the peppercorn. It has all the elements of your traditional chai, but – for me, at least – the chocolate is somewhat overwhelming. I’ll have to adjust steeping time and see if the more subtle notes can be brought to bear.

Sipdown!

Well, kinda: I took the remaining half of the dry leaf in the tin and chucked into my pitcher to make iced tea. So the leaf is all used up, but there’s still about 6 cups of iced tea left to go.

This is okay, but I wouldn’t consider it a restock. I still don’t taste any lime when I drink this. I get a vague citrusy feel, which is more like lemon, but also a definite hint of creaminess/vanilla. This in itself isn’t a bad thing, but it’s not what I’m looking for. I definitely don’t get any lime out of this, though.

Backlog from last night.

Since I bought an iced tea pitcher about a month ago from David’s Tea, I am now in a MUST HAVE ALL THE ICED TEAS mood. This seemed like it would be a perfect fit when I ordered it from RiverTea. I could smell the lime scent even when the box was still full of packing peanuts!

However, this tea didn’t taste like it had any lime in it at all when I brewed it. I tasted a citrus sweetness from the rosehip and the lemongrass, but oddly enough I also tasted vanilla. It reminded me of a different RiverTea flavour in fact, Infinite Good Feeling. No lime at all – which is a real disappointment. However, the dry mix itself doesn’t appear to contain any limes – all of the dried citrus wedges I see are orangish rather than green. Does lime turn a different colour when it dehydrates?

I’m going to try brewing it up a different method next. This time I used hot water and steeped it for about 10 minutes at double strength, then topped it up with ice cubes. Next I’ll see how it tastes when coldbrewed for a day. I hope it will be more limy then.

Came as a sample in my first RiverTea’s package. I don’t usually like green teas, especially not ginger lemon teas, but this tea has a bright, freshness with a surprising creaminess that I wasn’t expecting. I’m tempted to get this in the 1.76 oz size so can add it to my summer white sweet rotation. It’s pretty rare that I love just about everything in my order but RiverTea’s customer service, delivery, package and careful consideration on picking out my samples might just make me a customer for life.

Huge cherry fan – this should be something that I will love.
It’s just ok. This one actually has more cherry flavor than most that I’ve tried – I didn’t have a burning desire to add more cherry tisane to it. I’m jut getting a hint of chocolate – just barely there. The base isn’t my favorite, but it’s not really offensive.
Not sure what’s wrong with this – everything is just ok, but not special for me.

Received this as a surprise sample from Courtney, and I had also ordered 50g from Rivertea, so I have a ton more.

I am withholding a rating right now because I’m really torn on this one. I’m not really getting the coconut, it’s just a really raspberry tea to me. But. Something in it is screaming bitter vomity taste. I’m not loving that, clearly. :/

I had brewed it at 98 degrees for 3 min (maybe slightly more), so I will have to play with the mass amount I have left.

I am hoping it will be a tastier cold brew.

I actually think I prefer Davidstea’s Fantasy Island to this one, I like the coconut note more. Maybe if I mix them together….

Thanks for the sample, Courtney!

Backlog from last night.

I had this while watching “Catching Fire” and it was okay. Still medicinal-tasting, but at least I have less of this to go through since I put a bunch into the GCTTB3 a while back. A little bit of agave nectar helps round this tea out.

I had really high hopes for this tea when I ordered it. I saw the redcurrants in the ingredients list and hoped they would be tart and fruity like in my old favourite, Teaopia’s Spring Morning. I thought that the apple would just reinforce this, and it would be a big, fruity, juicy cuppa.

However, when I opened the package from RiverTea, the smell that met my nose was not a lovely juicy summery fruitiness, but instead woodsy and medicinal. It reminded me almost exactly of the blackcurrant lozenges I was using to get over my cold.

Subsequent smells of the dry leaf reveal a deeper apple smell, but the medicinal smell still exists. Tonight I summoned up my courage, and drank – and yup. It smells AND tastes like cough medicine.

It’s passable, but it really needs something else in there to overpower the medicinal flavours. Ah well.