Teaoria

2024 sipdown no. 78

This is a very pretty tea with bright red raspberry pieces throughout. I haven’t examined closely enough to find blackberry pieces, but I’m sure they’re there. The taste is slightly acidic, due to the berries. The tea itself gets a tad lost and the overall cup is a bit thin, but the quality of this blend is so high, it’s not bothersome.

2024 sipdown no. 61

While quite hot, this reminded me of the best parts of Bailin, with a black tea-hay like flavour — a bit like rye bread. As it cooled, there were flavours of dried fruits with a very subtle hint of sugar cane.

2024 sipdown no. 56

The base tea is really lovely and hasn’t even a hint of astringency with a 4 minute steep. The bilberry leaves are not my favourite, unfortunately. Though, I didn’t love the ones from Georgian Tea 1847 either, so it’s a me problem — not the tea. :)

This has a malty, almost milky quality to it and is robust without being astringent. It does have an edge, but with a strict steeping time and temperature the tea turns out quite nicely. I ordered 250g of this in May and have only a handful of cups remaining, so that alone paints a picture of my thoughts on this tea!

Teaoria generously included this sample in my order!

I thought this was hojicha, but it’s actually medium-dark green tea leaves as opposed to the brown stems of hojicha. Neat!

The taste is very roasty and toasty with hints of sweetness at the end of the sip. There is a subtle flavour of raw hazelnut. I easily get three steeps from this tea. I haven’t yet tried for more steeps, but perhaps it’s possible.

1st steep 2 minutes 30 seconds
2nd steep 4 minutes
3rd steep 5 minutes 30 seconds

1st steep: This tea is really lovely. The scent reminds me of the holidays, but the tea is incredibly well balanced. The thyme is very clear and definitely comes through. The base is smooth and not astringent at all. A really lovely and unique tea from Martin, thank you!

2nd steep: Just as lovely the second time around. Impressive for a black tea!

Finally and definitely a sipdown! (M: 7 Y: 61), and tea with two prompts… just see my previous notes.

I am sad that I couldn’t finish this tea faster; I thought that one month it shouldn’t be a trouble, then another month… and now I just finished it. Probably too good to get rid of it, and yes, I am definitely sad finishing it, but life goes on and, note for myself, it’s not so unacessible as it may look like.

Rye bread base, with malty and sweet — cane sugar body, finished with long aftertaste, never bitter or astringent, smooth and round. But it’s gone. For now.
Raising a rating from 86 to 92. And giving recommendation. Courtney, your turn :)

April Sipdown Challenge – raise your cup to the tea farmers for Earth Day – bonus points for an earthy tea! another sipdown prompt for same tea. It is allowed?

Anyway, I am raising my cup to tea Georgian tea farmers as they are definitely closest region where tea is grown for me; so minimal carbon footprint for this tea as well. And as I have mentioned many, many times, I just have a soft spot for them. But also, raising a cup for all other tea farmers including the small growers.

I am, however, very furious for reasons I don’t want to share in public (work-related), so a pleasant tea to the help.

Malty and sweet. Yum. Rye bread background.

Sipdown prompt: Your tea with the shortest name, but I have plenty (roughly 35 grams of 50 grams of the packaging) of this tea remaining. But the name must be one of the shortest definitely.

First time I had it it was quite sweet, malty and rye bread; somehow like cane sugar as vendor suggests; however today it was like a light morning breakfast tea with again malty notes, but definitely less sweet than the previous session. It was, stil very delicate and lovely. Of course it is like that because I have a soft spot for Georgian teas, maybe just because they are definitely less harsh than Indian teas for example.

I will try to recreate first impressions of this tea. I assume that colder water is the key; as amount of leaf was the same, as well as the volume of my vessel.

A forgotten last sample from Teaoria. Maybe because it is actually a herbal, so I wasn’t looking forward to try it? Maybe because I have same based tea from Georgian Tea 1847 which I haven’t tried (yet!)?

Anyway, decided to brew it today evening and I was wrong… I was supposed to look forward to try it. On blind test, I would say it is a mellow, flavoured black tea.
Jammy blueberry, sweet flavour, syrupy, interesting texture. A little, but pleasantly, sour.
Aroma is, surprisingly, rather citrusy (vendor says bergamot, not that sure about that) and berry-like.

Definitely I can recommend “Motsvi Chai” as a caffeine-free alternative to black tea and also as a nice cup for evenings with no-caffeine-in drinks.

Not a sipdown as I have used all at once.

This tea is amazing! Strong and robust, but not bitter nor astringent! Gerogian tea how I love them…

It has got slightly herbal and malty flavour; but closely followed with stronger notes of florals, meadow flowers and cane sugar.

I made two 4 minutes long steeps and I felt one more will be still great as those. Absolutely no loss of flavour, just increased sweetness and little lower notes of that herbaceous notes. I just need more!

I was saving this little treat from Martin for a sleepy morning, thinking it would activate some lazy brain synapses. Wow, did it ever! It is definitely tea-THYME, pun intended!

The dry leaf is about half-and-half black tea to herb, and the thyme comes through first. It’s refreshing—sort of like lemon with pine, but the unusual combination keeps making me think about spaghetti sauce. Probably because my uneducated Midwest palate never seasoned anything else with thyme.

Martin, thank you for broadening my horizons! We aren’t done with hot weather yet—I bet this is doubly zingy on ice.

I definitely overelafed this tea. It’s broken leaves and I used all the sample without checking its weight beforehand. I suppose I should split it in half. Well, too late.

As I wrote, there are many broken leaves in this blend and it is actually like some kind a breakfast tea, as it is really strong after my 2-3 minutes steeping. I know, I used lots of tea.

Anyway, even overleafed it wasn’t bitter or astringent at all, just very strong. But still with lovely flavour nuances of red fruits and slight herbal notes. A little drying. The aroma was different though, it was kind of grassy, I suppose a flax seed (as common for Georgian teas, right derk?), meadow. It wasn’t much like a black tea at all.

In conclusion, great tea — and a free sample (as I bought almost all other teas in sample sizes), so thank you Teaoria! I expect buying more tea from them in the future, as their teas are lovely and fresh and shipping from Poland is easier than from Georgia itself.

A sipdown! (M: 8, Y: 70)!
A bit intentionally I am focusing on sipdowns and finishing small amounts of tea, which go stale faster.

This time I picked up in my box this one; I have read my previous note saying I will focus more on the flavours and I really did.

However, even I have tried my best, I can’t point out the actual flavour profile! It was smooth and malty, somehow quite sweet (I have used roughly 3.5 grams), somehow floral, but overall I feel that is not what I was experiencing.
Vendor claims flavours of fresh plum and honey, but I don’t feel it is that either. Confusing tea and well, I am afraid I am not able to find out and I will need to buy a pouch of this one to find out and send to others to find out their opinions… and maybe then I will see what this tea is about.

Keeping the rating on 85, definitely nice breakfast tea, although drank in the afternoon with a apple pie.

Another sample from teaoria I took today morning. It is crushed black tea, pretty much similar to Classic Black Tea by Georgian Tea 1847, and to be honest, I think it is very same tea. Used only half of tea sample… 3 grams, so maybe a little weaker than used to, but it was still great.

Very robust after recommended 4-5 minutes steep, very rich and brisk. A little earthy, malty and such. They also call it “extra breakfast” and as a breakfast tea it suited it so well, I have no further comments. I will focus a bit more on the flavours next time.

Raise your hand, if you heard about feijoa fruit before.

Okay, this green blend contains moreover orange and kiwi. But about feijoas… at first I thought that the man told me about it, I thought he meant figs and using Polish word for that. Took only a sample, which was about 6 grams; and steeped it yesterday at home.

Honestly, the green tea base isn’t noticeable there at all, because all flavour is from the fruits. And while it was great — no off flavours, it was so mixed up, so I could say only tropical tea flavour. I steeped it for 3 minutes, so maybe the tea didn’t had enough time to reveal itself; also green tea from Georgia isn’t truly famous for its distinctive flavours, but it was fine. I am sure it would be great cold-steeped or iced, however, I ran out of this tea and I am not sure if I want to get 50 grams of it right now.

A sipdown! (M: 1, Y: 77)
Tasting note #1700

I have managed a sipdown in the Advent season, which is quite a huge achievment and sadly, with a tea that will be missed a lot, but quite available luckily. Definitely a re-order for me.

There are no signs of this tea fading, but truth is that I finished 50 grams quite quickly. Yes, there were bits sent elsewhere, but it still counts as a sipdown, or?

Thyme still very strong, black tea base was lovely and mellow. On the other hand the base was strong in caffeine in my opinion and it was nice wake-up-call in the afternoon.

A few years back I had a wonderful black tea with thyme and I didn’t remember what brand it was. Another a few years back I had a black tea with thyme and it was bad. Or at least, not that good. Since then I am searching for a decent, distinctive thyme black tea and now, I think I have found the gold.

Well, yes… it is a Georgian black tea base, something I have soft spot for. So, I am totally not biased.

It is very intensive. Afterall, on their 5 leaves ranking system, this tea have 4 and 1/2. Very strong black tea, sadly crushed into small pieces, with same size of thyme leaves. I even would say there are twice as much of thyme than tea itself.

Anyway, a great wake-me-up cup of tea, worth two steeps (maybe even three!), both steeped 5 minutes; without any loss of flavour. Yes, it may be quite one-dimensional, because thyme being so strong.

Song pairing (not true anymore :D ): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3-5YC_oHjE

I took first sample from the tea festival today. The teaoria guy was very friendly, we spoke a lot, he offered me a cup of tea (that was available at most stands though), and he offered Georgian teas. Hard to not get any. Also, samples and tea itself was reasonably priced, so, among Klasek Tea teas, I took the most teas from teaoria. Also, they are fairly new, so I am supporting small business!

This one is actually black tea with bilberry leaves. Both ingredients I still have from Georgian Tea 1847, but this is already a mix. Preparation method 1g/50 ml means I have used all 6 grams/300 ml vessel. Steeped for 4 minutes.

It smells wonderful, very fresh black tea base, bilberry leaves and very, very fruity. They say it’s ripe red apple and I think it could be that.

In taste, it’s also very, very fruity. I think about the red apples here; very juicy, but I don’t notice any acidity. Moreover, high acidity? Fruits, caramel, malt, three major flavours for me. Maybe stewed fruits, hints of bilberries here as well.

Very refreshing and certainly considering getting this in 50g pouch they offer (if they offer shipping outside Poland :P )