Jason select Send Message

Brews a light yellow with a greenish tint and smells amazing. It’s so thick yet smooth when you take a sip. I can’t quite place the flavor it reminds me of but for some reason it makes me think of corns and grains. Really nice for oolong lovers or a green tea fan looking to branch out.

This is definitely an interesting experience. The aroma gets you a hint of that peppermint/licorice/menthol smell found in lots of more generic herbal teas. It also has an oddly rusty smell, almost as if I were drinking from a metal container (which I am not). It’s not what I expected, but that’s not a bad thing at this point.

The first sip is…unexpected. I was looking for a strong menthol flavor and was instead hit by a overwhelming sweetness. I immediately turned to ask the gf if she put a bunch of sugar in it but was cut off by a cough caused by the sweetness that flowed to the back of my throat. In fact, she didn’t add anything to this and it’s just naturally crazy sweet.

A few more sips and I started to acclimate to the intense sweetness of the tea. Seriously, I can’t understand how they make the tea this sweet, but they do, and they do it well. As someone who likes things on the very sugary to the super sweet side, this is something I could drink often – not as often as a good clean oolong, but maybe even like a semi-consistent dessert tea. Now that I’ve had it I can totally understand why it’s served at a salon/spa.

If you’re open to really sweet teas, this pulls it off and does it without help. If you’re a purist, you’re probably not going to like this one.

Another crazy purchase from the speciality food market. I thought this would be a good way to test a take-home version of boba/bubble tea.

In terms of the packaging, it doesn’t have the most appealing design. Maybe it’s just a cultural thing, but the flat yellow and the basic design of the can give the impression of a cheap substitute rather than a convenient portable version of the real thing.

I cracked it open and was immediately surprised by the color of the liquid. It was much more light brown than I had expected. I guess the “boba” and “pearl” in the title had distracted me from the “milk” immediately following them. So, while I was expecting a straight boba tea, it’s actually much closer to a boba tea latte.

The aroma is super sweet, you can smell the sugary cream wafting out of the can. So much so that I can’t really smell the true tea at all. And now, the tasting…

It’s actually better than I expected. I was thinking it was going to be gross and way too artificial, but it’s not. It’s a tea latte with tons of milk and sugar, surprisingly so. Now I see why it smelled the way it did, there’s excessive amounts of milk/cream and sugar, too much for a tea latte.

Also, whether it’s a mental thing I can’t say, I can’t get over the sense that there’s a slight yet noticeable artificial hint to all of the flavors. The milk is good, but slightly artificial. The sugar is good (if not overwhelming), but slightly artificial; and same with the tea (or what you can taste of it through the wall of sugary sweetness). I’m thinking it’s part mental and part actuality.

It takes a while to get to the bobas, without a straw you have to drink about half the can before you reach the pearls. Now the only bubble tea I’ve had before included tapioca pearls that were big and black and slimy and chewy. So I was surprised when these came out small and white and slightly crumbly when chewed. Based on the texture, my guess is that they are made from rice, which I don’t even know if that’s possible. But, similar to the black tapioca pearls, they don’t have any flavor and are just a novelty I have yet to grasp.

So, it was certainly worth the experience, just so I can have tried bubble tea in a can. If you can deal with seemingly artificial flavors, then this might work for you. If you’re looking for a true tea or true boba experience, I’d go elsewhere.

Wow, I’m not sure if I got a bad one but this is pretty awful. It still has about a year left until expiration, so I don’t think that’s the issue.

It doesn’t taste like green tea. It certainly isn’t a #1 green tea. In fact, it tastes closer to a Lapsang Souchong than anything. I’m getting a ton of smoke, lots of bitterness, and it generally tastes kinda dirty. It doesn’t taste like it was sweetened, so that part of the label was correct (that’s about all it has going for it). Really awkward after taste too; tastes slightly of vinegar and brine. Can’t finish the bottle.

I’m assuming I just got a bad bottle because I’ve had other bottled Ito En teas that were good. I’d try this again (hesitantly) just for the sake of seeing if this was a fluke bottle. Maybe this was mislabeled…

A really nice, soft treat. The liquor is very light, a little yellowish and clear. It has a fairly floral nose and some vegetal notes, almost somewhat like a green tea, but not nearly as strong.

It’s surprisingly sweet throughout the whole sip. You get a good amount of sweetness when it first hits your tongue, then it recedes a little, but comes back the strongest farther back in your mouth. It finishes nice and sweet with an almost buttery flavor.

It’s light, but at the same time feels like it’s coating my tongue (in a good way) which I think may be where the buttery flavor sensation comes from. A good white tea with some flavor complexity and unusual notes that make it stand out from other plain whites.

Got this from the asian food market a while back. My bottle actually looks a little different (it doesn’t have the Tea’s Tea branding on it) but it appears to be the same thing. I liked this a lot, especially since I like the in-your-face flavors like this.

I think this is a great option for “real” tea drinkers. Personally, I enjoy Arizona iced tea, but I know lots of loose leaf drinkers would cringe at that. However, this one gives the convenience of a bottled iced tea with actual, real, oolong flavor.

I’m not sure how accessible these are since I got it from an asian specialty market, but it’s worth a shot if you’re looking for a “truer” bottled iced tea.

(TTB 1.2)

Pretty tasty, good classic oolong aromas and flavors. Kinda floral and vegetal. The liquor is much lighter than I expected and I’m not getting as much flavor as I expected or would like. Although, the lightness can be kinda pleasing since it isn’t too overwhelming. Even though, I think I may try another infusion to see what else I can get from it.

BTW, I have been drinking tea since my last tasting note, I’ve just been really bad about logging them. More to come + probably some backlogs…

This has some good body to it. Not overwhelmingly so, but not so light that you don’t notice the flavors. The color is really light for a green and given it’s delicacy, I agree with everyone else that this is a green bordering on a white. Very vegetal, grassy, a little earthy/heavy flavor. Some buttery sweetness on the nose and just when it hits your tongue. I’m getting just a tad of bitterness toward the end, but I think that’s because I got the bottom of the pot. For not being such a fan of greens, this is a good one.

The best thing about this tea is the smell. Really great blackberry aroma comes wafting from the tin and the brewed liquid. I tried two cups using my fancy new water kettle my gf just got me (kept the water warm for me!). The flavor seems to be more on the sage side than the fruity blackberry side. But I’m still not getting much from it. First time I tried about 4 mins steeping, then 4:30 the second time…not much difference. I feel like flavored/fruit teas have a hard time meeting my flavor expectations and continually come in below where I’d expect. Maybe I’m not as big a fruit…tea drinker as I thought ;)

For my thoughts, see: http://steepster.com/lfiske29/posts/24744

Ditto, minus the starbucks and never having had actual Coconut Cream Pie, which is delicious.