82 Tasting Notes
I’ve never had currant before, but between this having a white tea as a base, and all the positive feedback I decided to try this out. The tea smells great, i’m sure it’s the currant smell.
The tea is very light with a hint of the currant. I like how the bai mu dan is the dominant flavor, even though the smell of the currant is so strong. I was worried that it might be a little bitter, since a lot of the teas ive had with berries in them have gotten bitter or sour really fast. But the flavor balance is really so good, i’m already halfway done with my cup! I’m loving it.
Preparation
Decided I’d spice things up a bit and go for a GM sample. Picked this one, and steeped it with some rock sugar. The smell of it is pretty strong, kind of smelling prunes? some sort of strong fruit smell is definitely there.
First sip tastes kind of bitter and strong. I’m thinking i should listen to the package and get some cream/milk. Since I only drink skim milk i added a tiny bit of heavy whipping cream and sugar. The taste is much better.
It’s definintely not my favorite sort of taste, but i’d imagine if i put more sugar it would get more sweet. The cream definitely made a difference on the bitter taste though.
It’s a good tea, and I could see it being great on a really cold day, but it’s just not for me.
Preparation
I’m surprised I haven’t tealogged this one. I save this for a day I really need something just to cleanse my body. Recently I just go to oolongs, but this tea is always a nice alternative.
After a really hot, sticky, humid day and eating lots of vegetarian food, including my experimentation with asian dishes… i just needed some tea.
Little on the grassy side this time, but the jasmine flavor really comes through. —Woah, just completely took a sip and choked on it…. that’s annoying. ANYWAY, I’ve definitely had this tea better before, maybe steeping it with rock sugar would have been a better choice but I didn’t really want anything sweet.
My biggest gripe with this tea is that since it mixes whites, oolong, and green it’s hard to figure out what to steep it at. Sure, Teavana treats it as a white tea, but it’s a really hard tea to steep because it can get bitter so fast. Also, the jasmine flavor really kills any of the white or oolong flavor. Still, I enjoy this tea.
Preparation
Haven’t been drinking much of hot tea, and instead lots of generic iced tea so I havent logged in quite a while. Oh well, it’s summertime. My sample came and since the house has been air conditioned I figured I could make some hot tea.
The tea smells nice, like oolong. Steeped first for 30 seconds and after waiting for it to cool down i can say it tastes very nice. It doesn’t have a very strong flavor, but it is quite soothing. I think I’m just too used to my Da Hong Pao flavor which is much stronger. It taste sort of grassy, but not in a bad way. I very much like this tea, but I do not think I would purchase it in the future.
I will try second and third infusions soon ;)
Edit: Second infusion came out with a much better flavor. It’s a very grassy-green taste but it’s not very overpowering and still is a soothing cup of tea. I liked the second infusion much better than the first.
Preparation
It’s been forever since I’ve tealogged. Between it being finals time, and my infuser getting moldy I just haven’t really gotten around to drinking so much tea. At the cafeteria this morning I grabbed a packet of this to drink, and I just made some for myself.
put a packet of equal in it. not a very strong flavor, but I do taste traces of mint. It’s not a bad tea at all. Pretty good choice for winding down. I probably wouldn’t buy this ever, but for free it’s definitely a good choice :)
Once again, I’m attempting to make some Iced tea, still attempting to get iced tea the way my host mother made it. I steeped this hot (30 sec, with boiling water) and then waited for it to cool and stuck it in the fridge.
The roast smell still is there, and this is pretty similar tasting to the iced tea that my host mother in japan made. The taste is very good. A little nutty and the roasted flavor is coming out. The roasted flavor is almost a little too strong for me, but this was definitely a successful attempt at iced tea. I should try this method for other teas. I just think this tea works as an iced version very well. I don’t really even want to try it hot!
Preparation
I’m going to make up for the failure that happened yesterday with my golden moon sampler of sugar caramel oolong with this one. I haven’t actually made sencha for myself before, but I’m pretty sure the tea my host mother in japan made for me at night was sencha. I can tell by the familiar smell of this cup.
It’s a very bitter tea. I definitely didn’t put hot water in either, I just get the feeling that sencha is a very bitter tea, since every time I drank it with my host mother it was also almost unbearably bitter. This cup is pretty bitter in my opinion, to the point where its a little nauseating. I almost want to put some more water in it to dilute the taste a little bit. I can’t really compare it to much, but as my first experience with sencha outside of my host family, I’m not impressed at all.
Preparation
I’m not sure what your temp was, but your steeping time may have been one of the factors of the bitterness. To (hopefully) cut down on the bitterness you might want to try 2g of leaf steeped in 3oz of 180 degree water steeped for just 1 min. Hope that helps!:)
the water was way below boiling temperature for sure. it was left out of the microwave for a good while before i used it. and i used the golden moon steeping params since its a golden moon tea :x which says “2-3 mins in boiled water cooled slightly”
Yeah that’s definitely generic steeping parameters for ya. Japanese greens need to be treated like the individuals they are:)
Yea but I’m almost positive the wAter wasn’t too hot. I don’t have a thermomater but still I made sure it wasn’t too hit. Maybe I steeped it for too long?I dunno it tAsted very similar to the way my host mother in japan made it so I can’t have messed up too bbad, unless she made it wrong as well….. Either way it was really bitter and I’m starting to think that’s just an aspect of the flavor profile of sencha . It’s consistently been the most bitter tea I’ve had.
Yes, if you don’t mind the suggestion, I’d go w/ the parameters I suggested above- at least give it a shot. But then again if it was bitter in Japan, then maybe my tongue is just different. Well, I know it can be. lol
So I actually was intending to drink a different golden moon tea, but grabbed this one cause they had the same package color.
The smell of the tea is so sweet, and so full of the wonderful smell of caramel. Hmm, the tea itself isn’t tasting so sweet though. I gave my mother the second steep, and she thought it tasted pretty “blah”. I’m thinking that I put in water that was too hot though. There’s this really weird bitter taste that I usually never get with oolongs. Aside from the bitterness, I taste the sugar faintly but I think overall this tea was just a fail. I’m a little upset that I don’t have more of this sample to try and get it right, since it sounded like a really tasty tea.
Yeah, this tea is almost unbearable to drink. I’m really ready to pour it down the drain. This is why dealing with samples of one serving suck. If you mess up and make an undrinkable tea, you don’t get a second shot at it.
Preparation
Drinking this again. It’s a pretty forgiving tea, I steeped it for much longer than 2 minutes (got distracted by my many facebook games) and it still tastes fine.
I think the ginger taste sort of overpowers the green tea taste in this cup, I was looking for more of a green tea taste when I decided to drink this one. I think overall this tea is just a little too sweet in a way that I’m not a fan of. Still have a tiny bit left for a small final cup next time I go to drink this (:
