537 Tasting Notes
Tea #3 for the day. I spent some time Friday night updating my spreadsheet with the uncatalogued tea floating around the living room. Final count is over 300!! Which is not great…I’m taking in tea faster than I’m drinking it. And not just in number – weight as well.
My pie chart is interestingly even. Tea count has pretty equal amounts of black, white, oolong, raw, & ripe with little bits of green/herbal. But I mostly drink blacks, oolongs and whites. Therefore, I need to work on drinking ripes and raws.
Tea itself: bright & fruity, citrus?, creamy aftertaste 205F, 2min. Not a lot to it.
Flavors: Fruity
Sipdown. Was a purchase at the Midwest Tea fest through Emilie’s French Teas in KC MO.
Too much bergamot in this for me, plus it’s a green tea. I’ve had some okay cups of this but for the most part very cloying with an aftertaste I did not care for. Finishing this off today probably overleafed, probably too high a temp, but glad to be through it. Smells pretty good – bergamot, violet, floral. Just tastes like you’ve walked into a floral perfume cloud…bleh.
Flavors: Bergamot, Floral, Orange
195F, 10sec, gaiwan, two steeps per cup
Trying these at a lower temperature to help cut some of the bitterness and the energy?? buildup I get in my lower jaw.
Creamy, thick, sweetness, tingly, little bit of bitterness, greenness
Flavors: Bitter, Creamy, Green, Sweet, Thick
Sipdown. This is one of the older teas in my cupboard. Bought it in 2015 on a trip to Colorado to see my brother, I don’t think I really knew what I was purchasing. It was pretty early on in my loose leaf tea journey.
Pretty green & vegetal tasting with a little bit of sweetness. It feels like there’s a lot of movement with this tea as I’m drinking it. Creamy towards end of the sip. I like the end, but the vegetal flavor kills it for me. Just not a fan of those.
Flavors: Creamy, Green, Sweet, Vegetal
Slightly spicy (warming, tingly?) on the tongue. Fruity/chocolate notes. Full mouth feel, creamy aftertaste. I like it – so much so that when I noticed I was running low I ordered more.
Temp 195-212F Some leaves in the strainer. Couple of minutes steep time.
Flavors: Chocolate, Creamy, Fruity, Spicy, Thick
This tea shines more with cooler water. Every time I’ve pushed temperature, it gives more of a roasted flavor (a little burnt and unpleasant). It’s be wonderfully chocolatey, full bodied and smooth when the water is cooler. I also think it’s not as good when I overleaf.
Honestly, good but not great. It’s not as flexible as I would like. Not quite a sipdown…there’s a little bit left in the package.
Flavors: Burnt, Chocolate, Roasty, Smooth
Sipdown. Finished this today at work. Solid tea that works well at higher temperatures.
I wasn’t quite sure how to describe the flavor. It’s thick and smooth with not a lot of individual notes to pick out. LuckyMe ’s review calls it soupy and brothy and I agree. Some very light vegetal notes and a little bit of floral in the aftertaste.
Flavors: Broth, Floral, Vegetal
This was okay. I went through the entire bag I purchased, but I wouldn’t buy this again. The depth of flavor that I wanted wasn’t there. It was malty. Not a whole lot else. I wanted a lot more than it had to give me.
Flavors: Malt
I am tempted to do one myself. I know for sure I mostly drink black and oolongs too, drinking the oolongs the most often. I used to plow through my whites, but I have a couple that have been sitting for a few years. I really have to be in the mood for them, and find that I drink them more in summer.