Featured & New Tasting Notes

This is my first Herbal Infusions blend that I’ve tried, and I am just pleased as punch!

It’s dark and rich and sweet and makes me think I don’t need H&S’s SoHo or Florence because the coconut and hazelnut in this are fantastic, and I love the coffee beans and chocolate for the mocha effect, all swirled around an almondy black base.

Yessssssssss.

The only downshot is that the sample bags AREN’T resealable so I’ll probably make this again tomorrow as my go-cup for my transit adventure to see Sil. I suspect it’ll make a great timolino brew too.

And I just had one cup and I’m looking at the website and thinking… hmmm. $6.50 for 50g is pretty good, add to cart, no wait – close it! (I need to try more of their teas)

ETA: By the way, this is also much better than the H&S teas I’ve mentioned above because all the flavours come across as completely natural. I’m happy Courtney reviewed this and got em excited enough to sample it.

I super love mountain dew. Almost as much as I love root beer. So I had to jump on this one. In saying that, I did leave it sitting in my cupboard for quite a while because I am trying to finish the teas that are open first before opening everything else.

The smell of this dry tea is dead on mountain dew. Delicious. I almost wanted to crack open a can of the real stuff.

I brewed this 1.5 tsp, 10 oz, and about a 1/4 tsp of rock sugar. I normally don’t add sugar right off the bat, but I figured since it was based on the soda, I would add some sugar. The smell of the brewed tea is what I would guess hot mountain dew smelled like.

The taste is a bit different. My immediate reaction was jelly beans. Like a red fruit flavoured jelly belly. Towards the end of the sip there is a mountain dew flavour. I would like to try this one without the sugar, but also as an iced tea/cold brew. I think the sugar may be giving it more of that jelly bean flavour.

Also a very important note, this is a 52 teas honeybush blend and I am getting NO pepper, this is historic for me!

Edit: Made another cup, same specifications, but this time with no sugar. The smell of the brewed tea is still the same but the taste is quite different and not as good. There is a vegetal astringency. I can definitely tell it is missing something, specifically the sweetener. I feel like there is a lot of mint in this blend, but it is too much, giving it a bit of a spice. Not sure what the ingredients in this blend are, but this is what I am tasting. I definitely prefer with sugar.

This is my lazy breakfast beverage because it’s easier to reach into the fridge and grab a jug of cold brew awesomeness than stand around wondering what to make hot. Oddly enough, this is common practice for me. I tend to work on a jug of cold brew throughout the day, especially when I’m at home for most of it, then switch over to caffeinated, hot stuff later. I’m strange, I know.

As raved about before, this is all full of berries and hibiscus. The hibiscus here is nice though. Really blends in with the melange of tart berries.

I’m off to visit Heather soon to pick up the presumably scary amount of tea that Sil and OMGsrsly sent to me. I already know that I owe them big time. Also, thanks to ShayneBear for distributing the drugs tea.

Oh Special Dark. I really owe you today. I must be older than I thought because I had a few beers last night and am really hurting today. You, Special Dark, have brought be back to life. Somehow I knew you would help, and you really did. In appreciation of your awesomeness, I will break my post black friday resolution and purchase some more of you right now. I have a feeling over the course of the next 2 weeks I’ll be relying on you a lot. Thanks for being strong and reliable. Cheers- Amy

A tea from VariaTea. Thank you. :)

I like this tea. It’s gone REALLY well with my oaty jammy crumble (I forgot to put sugar into the oat part of my oat bars, which results in everything falling apart, although it’s sweet enough from the jam) due to the cakey flavour.

It’s like a mix of Naissance and Evening in France. Almond cake and citrus. Really interesting. Definitely something I would consider getting in the future, if I could get it loose. It doesn’t really taste like Christmas to me though. Christmas is more spiced apple juice and shortbread, as those are the flavours we had in the house when I was growing up. Also eggnog made with raw eggs. Heh. Not something that is “done” so much anymore.

It’s nice to sit here and contemplate what I’m going to bring camping this weekend. Yes, camping in December. It’s my brother’s birthday this week, and he had no one to go out with. So we’re taking the ferry and riding our bikes to a campground, building a fire so I can roast myself warm, spending the night, then getting up early the next day to come back. Now, this is within my fitness level, but he is what I’d call athletic to my slow turtle. The only way I’ll beat him there is if he decides to stop for a nap…

I’m still in love with this tea.
And now a rant about the US postal service:
I am still waiting on a parcel from Verdant. According to USPS.com, it arrived at the St. Louis sorting facility on the 10th & was sent out to my PO on the 11th, scheduled for delivery on the 12th. That was a week ago. Nobody knows where it is. It has Sichuan Caravan in it.
Sorry, I think I bitched about this yesterday.

hello sweetie…

so i likely won’t get any sipdowns in today and my cupboard may likely explode in short order but I don’t care. I’m working from home tomorrow to get my tea drinking on AND next week should be a good one with at least 2 extra days of tea drinking, hanging at home enjoying things days!

I’m nearly done this one, but all that makes me want to do is plan another purchase. or five. that’s ok right? goals are meant to be broken as long as you’re having fun? :)

Intriguing alternative to Yerba, which tends to get bitter if you aren’t scientific about your brewing parameters.

The small dry leaves have a firm earthy aroma which reminds one of a pure lush green forest. The plain brew is also not so different from Yerba, perhaps slightly more amber colored. The taste is definitely more delicate than Yerba, sweeter, without the bitterness.

I personally like to blend these leaves with peppermint, producing and Ecuadorian Mint tea that is most enjoyable – in fact over the last 6 weeks it has become my afternoon tea of choice, especially after a midday meal. This is a tisane worth venturing out for – if Yerba doesn’t do it for you give Guayusa a shot.

This is a very interesting tea! I want to have it again later or another day when I can focus more closely on it as today I am a bit under the weather. However with that said – this has a lot of pu-erh qualities to it with earthy deep notes!
I think I am going to like this one!
I have enough left for another steeping session on another day – for now I have done three steeps and its still going strong for this session.
I so would love to share more info on this tea and leave more notes but I have the head spins right now.
Going to doctor tomorrow.
BAH.

Ever since I’ve been ordering from Red Leaf, I feel like all my matcha purchases had been “desert type matchas”. So, when I saw that the Boysenberry matcha went on sale again (since I missed it the first time), I knew I had to grab it. I’m not sure if I’ve ever had boysenberry on its own, but I definitely know I’ve had it in yogurt form. There are several companies that make boysenberry yogurt, and it’s delicious.

I ordered the 30g of Boysenberry Matcha, Starter (Basic Grade), Flavor: Robust. I really really like berries, and thought about upping the flavor even more, but decided to keep it at robust for now and see how it goes.

For all my previous matchas, since they were desert matchas, I had been making them hot the traditional matcha way. Usually, after my first sip, it was a little too intense for me, so I added some milk to help bring out the flavor. But for boysenberry, hot and milk added just didn’t sound appealing to me, so I thought I would try something new. On the Red Leaf site, under all the matchas, they have a “steeping” tab that talks about how to prepare them. There’s the traditional way, and the “traditional with a chill”. I’ve always wanted to try this, but none of the matchas I ordered sounded appealing cold, so I was excited to finally try something new.

I took my water bottle and measured 1/4 teaspoon for matcha, per the instructions. I then filled my bottle with 16oz of water. You can also use a water bottle, but since I want to be environmentally friendly (and I like my filtered water), I decided to just use a regular bottle. I debated whether or not to sift the matcha, but decided I wouldn’t the first time around. I shook my bottle vigorously, and then sipped the results…

WOW!!! I was really impressed. With all the other matchas, I had a hard time tasting the flavor just straight, but here I can definitely taste both the matcha and the boysenberry. The matcha is not overpowering, but there are definitely berry undertones. I didn’t need to add any sweetener, although I bet if I did it would bring out the flavor even more.

I can’t believe how easy this is to make. It sure beats using a whisk (no pun intended) and making water on the kettle. Those are good too, but this is better. I’m thinking I need to order some more fruity matchas in the future, since I liked boysenberry so much. I’m not sure how this would taste hot, but it’s definitely delicious cold.

As a reminder, you can get the matcha here: https://www.redleaftea.com/matcha-tea/boysenberry-matcha.html

Thank you Stacy (Butiki) for this sample tea!

(I’m Whispering…
…..we all know how good Stacy is at creating tea’s that
are…
not nasty and artificially flavored…the really special tea’s that we love! Shhhhh, listen up!…..
…..This one is my favorite Butiki Tea Flavor of all!)

I want a pound of this tea already. I ONLY HAVE A SAMPLE! STACY!

The wet leaves had the softest aroma of green beans and sweet grapefruit as though the clock had been turned back and Spring was here once again.

I had just enough tea leaves for one precious mug full.

I took a sip of the pale yellow liquor and was amazed at the restrained taste of the grapefruit next to the more robust but smooth savory bean flavor. This was a juicy tea.

I added a little sweetening (as Stacy suggested) which brought more of the grapefruit flavor to the forefront, still perfectly complimenting the savory base flavor of the tea.

I used to make a grapefruit salad years ago with ruby grapefruit, carefully removing segments of ice cold fruit from it’s membrane, then mixing it with chopped avacado, salt, olive oil and lemon. The acid and sweetness of the grapefruit with the smooth creamy avacado were perfect compliments to each other. (It was an 1980’s popular California salad.)

This tea embraced that idea of combining crisp grapefruit and the creamy savory tea in a similar way. It worked really well!

There was that Umami thing happening in my mouth when I added some sugar (but without the bitterness, and the sour was just the normal grapefruit tang).

Yes, this was/is the best flavored tea in my Butiki book! It hits all the marks for me! Bravo Stacy!!!

I have a confession: I totally dumped out my cup of Rishi pu’erh and made a cup of this instead. Oh oolong, how I love thee.
Shall I compare tea to a summer’s day?
It art more tasty and more delicate
Rough steeps do shake the darling buds of bay
And a cup’s lease hath all too short a fate

(thanks Bill Shakespeare)

I don’t tend to enjoy green teas. I drink them but I don’t “get” them. Hopefully you all are following me. Anyway I think I found a green I can get behind! The toasty and nutty flavor is awesome in this green tea. So flavorful and yes I may have eaten the rice pieces too. I can’t describe the smell for you because I can’t really smell a thing at the moment. But I will tell you this has turned into my afternoon go to cup since i picked it up last weekend in DC. :)

I love the smokiness of a russian tea. I guess that is the main characteristic of a “russian” tea. I usually can’t keep my russian teas with my other teas — they smell that strong. This one is more of a mild scent and flavor. It isn’t too smoky, so it could be for someone who wants to try a smoky tea and then if you like it you could try a stronger one. (The Choice Russian Caravan is pretty strong for a tea bag — one of the couple I’ve tried.) But with this one, the flavor isn’t even that strong for a black tea. It’s still good though, just mild. Maybe I should have steeped it longer and at a higher temperature.

After two pretty disappointing tea experiences in one day, it was time to fall back on something I know I love. I have a whole bunch of new teas sitting there waiting to be tried, but oh well! Sometimes you just need a familiar cup.

This is one of the teas I got with my $100 certificate. I bought a lot of teas with it that I wasn’t familiar with or even sure that I’d like, and this was definitely one of them! I’ve never tried anything osmanthus flavored, and descriptions I looked up seemed pretty vague (peachy? floral? vegetal? malty?)—but hey, it’s free tea, I might as well take a chance! Boy, am I happy I did. Osmanthus is a flower, and it’s certainly quite floral, but in a deeper way than some other floral blends (jasmine, rose, etc). It’s a rich, almost juicy taste, and underneath the floral tones is a bright, tasty citrus. I was not expecting that at all, but it’s fabulous! It’s like the love child of jasmine and mandarin orange. The green base is very nice too—not too vegetal, but with some sweet and lingering woodsy flavors.

This has quickly become a staple in my cupboard, and the fact that you can get 4+ good steeps out of it certainly helps. It seems like it would be fantastic iced, but I can never seem to wait long enough to cool it down—I just want to drink it right away whenever I take the leaves out!

Oh. My. This is magnificent.

Thanks again to Krystaleyn for this sample. I may have forgotten to credit you for the last sample too. So… I’m crediting you twice on this one ;)

I kind of forgot about this tea whilst unwinding and playing video games on a breezy Friday night. So it’s cooled off quite considerably, so my review may be on how this might potentially taste iced!

The mint and the apple are the most predominant flavors, and it definitely tastes like more of a green apple flavor than say a red or golden apple. That gives it just a little bit of sourness to the flavor that really pairs with the mint nicely. The juniper flavor is hiding towards the end of the note, maybe skirting around with something that might remotely taste like raspberries. Not sure if I’m making that last part up or not. There’s definitely a little more fruitiness towards the end of the sip though.

This is an amazing tea, and probably my first from Davids that is a must have. But this is definitely, truly a must have.

What a lovely easy to drink tea! Thank you MERCURYHIME (capitalizing since I don’t know how to bold) for sharing this sample with me! Also thank you for sending enough for a second cup – I really like it! This has been on my shopping list It think since I joined steepster! Don’t know why I have not picked any up yet. Some things just got stuck on the list.
It is indeed chocolaty and I also happened to have a bit of chocolate here to eat while sipping! YAY! Also tasting the nuttiness!
Now I am not saying it is THE most complex tea ever but it is nice, it is exactly what it says it is and we need more of those teas out there in flavored teas!
As for the base, I am not sure what kind of black tea they are using, but it is very light which is fine, I think I would not mind a bit bolder of a black tea though.
All in all – I am pleased with this one!

This tea was an amazing experience.

I have to say thank you David of Verdant Tea, as I received this as a sample! Sadly, it was a sample for the art contest (which ended a few months ago), which must have got held up by customs for no reason. But thank you! The tea is fueling my mug decoration for homemade gifts :) I’ll post pictures!

I had numerous steeps with this tea, but didn’t take notes the first time. I will the second time, as the sample was extremely generous!

The flavour notes I remember are that it was a baritone tea, but not a bass. (I’m with you on the music scale, Dinosara). Notes of caramel, super sweetness but in an earthy, grounded way. So complex! My favorite steeps were the ones with a currant/prune note to them, lately I’ve been loving to find hints of raisin in my tea.

Anyways, let the Christmas rush continue around me, I’m driving home in 45 minutes and I still have a heck of a lot to do!

Happy Holidays lovelies, I will have many notes when I return! O:

A good black blend with potent wake-up appeal. Had a strange taste I have trouble identifying, a natural sweetness, and a nice smooth strength. Tea had a decent energy kick to it as I felt rejuvenated drinking it rather than relaxed, which is a good thing depending on the moment. Although the tea is enjoyable, not sure I’d order it again. Just no sure what that ‘other’ taste was and it’s not my favorite version of the black teas. Was sure to only steep for three minutes and this produced a lovely color and strong taste without any bitterness at all.

Well, it’s official. I’m not entirely sure why I keep buying teas from anywhere but Verdant. I’ve been exploring lots of dancong teas lately. I love how distinctly you can pick up perfume or fruit or whatever else in a humble little tea leaf. Some of them, however, practically take off with florals, to the detriment of other flavors.

This particular tea starts off deep, like a warm roasted nut, but balanced out by the “baked apple” sort of texture noted in the description. Toward the middle, I get raisin like sensations, and the woodsy fragrance just lingers around my head. I get many more fruit, wood, and sugar notes out of this tea than floral, and it’s a richer tea “base” than other dancongs – and for that I think it is (as many of Verdant’s offerings tend to be) very accessible and understandable for those branching out from “western” tea drinking. Although there is a warning about being sensitive to brew time, this tea doesn’t “go green” or “bitter and astringent” at the slightest touch because of the roasted quality it presents. I fear I may start drinking this tea to the exclusion of others, it’s that good.

Butiki Teas, you did it again! :) I am totally impressed. I love how they named their company Butiki, which means lizard in Tagalog! Yep I’m Filipino! And they have a great variety of African teas, of which I am an absolute huge fan.

So onto Malawai White Peony. The leaves are very LARGE and of different colors. Some a deep green, some with brown, and others with yellow. They fit nicely in my kyusu.

The liquor was a very light yellow color. The scent was a little vegetal and floral. I love the taste! It is so light and refreshing! It goes down smoothly and is very clean. There is no astringency or bitterness to it. There is some green-ness to this taste, but not grassy. There is some floral tones with a slight sweetness to it. Overall, this is a good tea!

I really love the idea of lavender Earl Grey because, well, I like bergamot and I like lavender, so why not? But I have found that lavender is a tricky beast in teas, even for someone who loves florals, so finding the right blend is difficult. Here’s another lavender Earl Grey for me to try, this one from a swap with aisling of tea. Thanks!

The dry leaf on this one smells pretty nice, but I find that’s usually the case with these teas. Steeped, I get strong black tea aroma with some lavender and a hint of bright bergamot. The scent of this tea reminded me of something from my childhood, and I finally placed it: the smell of the soap while I was washing my horse. I know, not the best olfactory association for tea. :P So I didn’t expect to like this tea, but I was surprised. The taste actually isn’t soapy, as long as I can get past the aroma. The black tea base is really smooth, and the lavender is herby and fairly strong. The sips I take vary from slightly bitter to rather pleasant, which is a bit weird to me. I wonder if I need to steep it a slightly shorter time to bring the lavender down just a notch. As far as the Earl Grey portion of this goes, I don’t get a lot that says “hey I’m an Earl Grey”, but you know there’s something there that keeps it from being just a lavender black. I don’t think this one is completely successful as a lavender Earl Grey to me, but it’s also not a bad tea all around.

Part 1 of a 5 part sampler I got from Kusmi (discovered at the Bi Rite Market in San Francisco). I was pretty excited to find these locally, however they do not carry the large size of the tins in the store, only teabags.

This tea is not for the faint of heart nor the faint of scent. If you hold the tins to your nose you can smell the scent very strongly! Open them up and get a whiff of perfume! yowza…

We picked this particular one to try this morning based on the recommendation of one of the store’s employees. It is a strong and smooth black tea but predominately all you taste here is the spices. Smells very much like root beer! It is such an interesting tea… I am tasting a lot of clove here in addition to citrus and bergamot. The bergamot is nice and subtle and does not provide the same amount of bergamot as an Earl Grey. I am getting a lot of citrus but perhaps not that much vanilla.

I did try steeping it twice, the second steep was weaker and with a lot less perfume and also the citrus flavors are coming though more here so I am not enjoying steep #2 quite as much.

Overall I quite liked this but I suspect I will like a few of the other ones better since I am not a huge fan of grapefruit in tea usually. I also enjoyed this little piece of history on the Kusmi tea company:
http://www.us.kusmitea.com/en/history/i111/information.html

No spectacular cherry flavor here, just a nice white tea. I wasn’t entirely suprised to get no cherry from the flavor since there weren’t any cherry chunks in the dry mix that I brewed, and I don’t have a fantastic record of tasting these out-there flavorings that aren’t tea-flavored. I’m definitely going to have to try more white teas in the future.