8 Tasting Notes
I was really worried about this tea, whenever I open up the bag the smell is super intense! Just the bergamot smell…so it’s not bad, just stronger than I’m used to. I’m pretty sure most of the earl grey’s I’ve had before are bagged, so maybe that’s why.
Thankfully, the taste isnt overpowering, maybe even on the milder side. Unfortunately later infusions are pretty light and the main flavor you get is the ‘bud-dy’ flavor of the white tea. Which I’m not a fan of…naturally sweet tea kinda writes me out.
I need to try again though, this is a backlog from like two weeks ago…
MMMMmmmmmm. I broke into a few new bags the other day (I’d been trying to finish off a few opened bags of looseleaf before I opened up more) just to sniff around and this was the one I HAD to try first. The aroma was amazing. I used to be so confused when people were reviewing teas and saying ‘definite chocolate notes in this tea….’ I mean, how can a tea not infused with chocolate possibly taste cocoa-y? Now I know what’s up!
I’m from PA so the smell is SUPER familiar to me. I don’t know if anyone has ever been to Hershey Park, but when you go in for the little chocolate making tour the entire ride has this wonderful smell! Not a chocolate smell like you’d get from ripping open a candy bar, it’s definitely chocolate-y but different. That Hershey Park ride smells exactly like this tea.
I used three balls for one mug, honestly probably could have gotten away with just two though. It tastes just as it smells, rich and malty with hints of chocolate. I was originally really upset because I did Teavana’s Tea of the Month Club (major rip off btw) and they sent me a few repeats, this being one of them. Now, I’m not too bummed they sent me extra of this because I would have wanted to buy it anyways! I REALLY like it.
I normally like the flavors of tea when they cool down rather than piping hot, but this is is better hot. It is much more mild when cold. I’ve been drinking more mild Teavana teas lately (Mind and Body, Monkey Picked Oolong) so it was great to finally get a tea with a little more punch! On my third mug and still brewing nice and dark, maybe a little less malty but still a wonderful smell!
Preparation
Hmmmm mixed feelings about this tea. First off, the leaves are that awkward size where they would be fairly large for a tea bag, but not really significant enough to be loose leaf. The smell is beautiful and fresh, nothing really specific about the smell, just wonderfully fresh smelling tea.
I seeped the first brew about 1.5 minutes, it was a bright amber color, not as dark as I was expecting. The smell after brewing is….odd. Kind of a dull sourness, there is no bite to the sourness, just unpleasant. Luckily that smell didn’t correspond to the taste. It’s a very light tasting black, not really what I would expect from a ‘breakfast’ tea. Not much astringency at all, though I noticed a tiny bit of dryness. Pretty basic tea for me, but I also like basic teas. I think I would probably spend the money to get a bunch of Lipton or red rose bags rather than this next time though.
Not bad, just nothing extraordinary enough to invest in more of. I hear that their flavored teas are yummier, i should try those
Well, I guess this is a slightly older note…I’ve completely forgotten I had this tea but luckily it was stored properly! I found this tea a little odd, but it should be noted that I used to like my tea strong and bitter, so obviously I used to overbrew my tea fairly frequently!
This tea smells beautiful dry, fresh and a little smoky and it brewed to a nice light amber color (although it was more green in my first cup). I managed to brew the leaves three times, and I would probably have gotten more successful brews if it wasn’t time for bed. Like the description says, it leaves we’re basically entirely of buds.
The first cup was my favorite. No dryness or astringency, and a very light cup. Not too vegetal or sweet, a night balance. Although others noted a smoky flavor, I didn’t taste it (although I smelled it prior to brewing). The next two cups were….weird. I felt like someone had dropped a piece of a sugar cookie in hot water. Wow, was it sweet!! It kind of reminds me cooked broccoli, still can taste the ‘green’ but has a very sweet finish. Not that it tasted like broccoli per se, but the same idea. The liquid in my cup even smelled like a cookie!
This is probably irrelevant, but worth noting I suppose. I had just finished up a big cup of cookie dough ice cream about an hour prior to drinking the second and third cup. Maybe my palate was skewed? I’m not sure…I know I had a glass a month ago and I don’t remember the overwhelming sweetness. But then again, my palate has developed a lot over the last month. I definitely need to try this again, but as of now…I’m not too thrilled with it. Likely because I’m only recently accepting the fact that tea can be enjoyed NOT bitter, and now I’m thrown a naturally sweet tea.
Well first off, I grew up basically thinking that flavored teas were ‘wrong’ and the only way to enjoy tea is with a nice, black, bitter cup. So, I brewed this up expecting to hate it.
This is a VERY fragrant tea. My mom (the black tea lover) was horrified at the scent and at the very notion that this could be considered a tea. Fortunately, it smells beautiful. Nice and tropical with mostly the mango coming through.
Since the scent is so strong, the tea tastes much stronger than when it cools. Over time it is actually fairly weak, but when the olfactory senses come in contact with that warm brew it just makes the taste so much stronger. Overall, I found it to be a pleasant cup…simple described as fruity with the mango AND peach definitely shining through. It also reseeps nice, which is a big plus for me! Unfortunately, this tea does leave a bit of an aftertaste in the back of your throat.
One problem I have with this is the element of ‘tea.’ First off, this is actually a white/green/herbal blend, not white which is what the box claims. On that same note, I found it to be fairly pointless to include white and green tea, because the peach and mango overpowered it tremendously. I feel like this would have worked just as well if they nixed the tea ingredients, thus ridding it of caffeine, and just made it an herbal infusion.
Overall, I was surprised how much I enjoyed this, although I definitely preferred when it was iced and the flavored were more muted. Yes, people always get all ‘well…it’s a bagged tea so it’s lower quality blah blah blah’ but I’m judging by TASTE. Overall loose leaf is higher quality but sometimes a loose leaf tastes yuck while a bagged tastes great. I think this is a good relaxing, convenient choice and although I may not love enough to purchase again, I don’t mind finishing up the rest of the box :)
Today I heeded the advice of steeping it after the boiled cooled down a bit and got a completely different experience. In the past I poured it into my cup right as the water was boiling…oops! I also did my first steep at 4 min because that’s what the back of the bag said, now I see that I should have only done 2 minutes. Oops again!! This was consumed without any sweeteners or additives.
I definitely expected this to be a very jasmine-y tea, when you smell the leaves that was predominant. But even if you get past the floral smell they leaves just smell yummy, so fresh!
My first steep yielded a light amber/greenish brew. Surprisingly, I can actually taste the white, green, AND oolong. When it was hot, I mostly could taste the fresh white with some of the green vegetal notes. It was smooth, which was a surprise because I’ve gotten so used to green-type teas having a bitter ending. As it cooled down (i drink my tea sloooow) it was the oolong that was the predominant flavor. Unfortunately, there was more astringency as the oolong came out, but I honestly don’t mind because I kind of like a tea with a small kick. It wasn’t overpowering at all and I still consider it to be a very delicate cup. I love watching how all the leaves unfurl, beautiful!
I’ve been pleasantly surprised with this tea, even though I initially found it to be BORING. I guess I got so accustomed to brewing bagged tea at basically any temperature that I neglected to heat the water properly. So DEFINITELY make sure you heat around 175 degrees or you will be disappointed. Too hot and you won’t get much white or green, too cold and you won’t get much of anything. Brewed properly, it is one of my favorites!
And does the fact that drinking one cup makes me run to the bathroom every 10 min mean that it’s detoxifying?
After the first brew it lost most of its subtleties. I couldn’t taste the white, the green was very grassy, and the oolong was more astringent. Fortunately, I can still make 5 cups with one teaspoon….just the first brew tastes much different than the new four.
Preparation
I’m fairly new to rooibos so I haven’t quite gotten accustomed to the taste yet. Despite my personal preferences, this definitely has good points. When I’ve had rooibos before, the pieces in the sachet were very flaky and dusty but this was sold is higher-quality mesh with larger twiggy pieces of the plant. It is has a very pleasant spicy smell with the distinct odor I tend to associate with rooibos. I brewed it for a shorter amount of time because I’m not a fan of the strength of herbal infusions. It seems like if I go to the recommended time in fruity infusion it is always overpowering rather than refreshing. Hence, I normally steep a little shorter with herbal/rooibos teas. I guess I’ve been drinking too many white and greens lately, because I was shocked how quickly the tea turned a beautiful deep chestnut color.
Unfortunately, the taste was what got me….but this may just be a matter of personal preference and not of poor tea quality. I drank it without any sweeteners and after it cooled quite a bit. I can’t remember where I read it before, but someone on here mentioned this tea tastes somewhat reminiscent of wax lips, and they hit the nail on the head! Unfortunately, I’ve noticed this is other rooibos I’ve tasted so I think it must be a taste I haven’t gotten accustomed to. But yes, waxy taste is actually very nauseating for me, and I don’t get nauseous very easily. Likewise, the scent of the finished tea also has a apple-like waxy smell to it. Honestly, I don’t taste much vanilla just the slightly taste of apple and cinnamon. The dominant taste is definitely the nutty flavor of the rooibos, which is quite good because I don’t like when I get flavors the overpower the base of my drink (yet also bad because rooibos isn’t my base of choice yet :p ).
I’d say it’s a fairly medium drink. At first it seemed watery but the more I drink it the stronger it seems. It seems silly but I can’t taste the fullness of a tea when it’s hot as much as when it’s cooled off a bit. Another nice thing is that the tea is very smooth, it goes down without any bitterness. Unfortunately, this (as well as other rooibos I’ve tasted) leaves a bit of an aftertaste which I don’t find pleasant. That wax-lips taste I talked about earlier. It also has a big of a medicinal taste to me…. Maybe I let it cool off too much and it is better hot.
Overall, this was a nice cup because the added herbs/fruits/etc. didn’t overpower the rooibos, leaves were much higher quality than expected, and there was no bitter final note. Still, it is very rare I can’t finish something, and this was one of those times. Made me feel sick
