Featured & New Tasting Notes

Shhh!, this tea is so delicate you can spook it. I must admit, I am a big fan of Adagio Teas and I am used to Silver Needle but in loose leaf form. I recently purchased their new “teabags” and must say are pretty nice; they are made of nylon and my preliminary feeling is that they restrict the flavor a little bit compared to a silk sachet. I do need to try another tea say a white peony with a little more flavor profile to test it against such a delicate tea as the Silver Needle. Now, on to my review.

The Aroma: This tea has the soft aroma of melon, peach and candied pears but in a very soft subdued manner, barely there.

The Taste: The taste is very delicate and mild yet still noticeable. It has the flavor profile of the fruits mentioned above with a sublime sweetness. There really isn’t that much more to this flavor.

The Aftertaste: There is a slight crispness as an aftertaste, reminiscent of apples. There really isn’t one; it does not linger like other teas. To me, it seems to cleanse the palate.

If you like big bold flavor teas, then this type is not for you. Silver Needle is a very delicate, soft, sublime tea.

I do highly recommend this tea and this brand even though most tea connoisseurs are familiar with the brand. A must buy!

Update: Even though I stick to my guns about reviewing only the first infusion, I do have to admit that I had a cuppa this evening and the profile still stands, however, it was a little more intense due to the amount of water. I believe I used a smaller cup than with this initial review; on this website it only offers us steep time and water temperature…I guess we have to fill in the rest like amount of water used. This is a nice and tasty tea, can’t wait to try the White Peony in the same type of cup. Adagio Teas offers some fine teas!

I’ve been holding off on this one purely because of the name! LOL

Today is the day I get daring!

I will say it doesn’t smell bitter…it smells like Dandelion stems! It short of tastes like Dandelion stems, too, now that I think of it…so I guess that is where the bitterness in the name comes from. I was assuming that it was be nasty bitter but it’s not that bad! It jumps back and forth and back and forth from a little bitter to a little sweet.

It’s a very unusual tea but I am glad I got to try it! I am also really excited because watching these leaves unfurl is awesome!

Not something I would by myself but worth a try anyways!

From TeaEqualsBliss, who apparently got it from SoccerMom. It’s fun watching these teas head down the line!

I make no secret of my trepidation around flavoured oolongs, but this smells delightful. Light and citrusy. It blends well together, and the citrus is nice and clean. The choppy oolong leaves are hard to pick out in the flavour, but that may work in this blend’s flavour. I’m not excited by this tea, but I am also not disappointed, so for a flavoured oolong, well done!

First cup with almond milk and sugar, rest of pot without additives. Definitely preferred the latter.

Do people brew tea stronger for use with milk? Because I’m still not ‘getting’ this whole cream and sugar thing. I know I don’t have to like it that way, but I’m convinced there has to be a way I could at least enjoy it. No matter which milk or cream I use, and no matter how little I put in, it just tastes like hot, watery milk to me. The tea disappears completely.

This tea is so so good! I’ve bumped up the rating. But, I’m having a hard time describing it…
It smells somewhat of grass or hay, but the taste is very subtle. I am not sure I can really describe the taste, but I really like the mouthfeel. It’s slightly thick, but not in a bad way. In fact, since I’ve started drinking more green/white/oolong teas, my old favorite herbals seem so watery. I can’t say much for color, as I can’t really tell in my mug, but it’s not cloudy.

This was just a sample, and I will be sorely disappointed when it is all gone. I think I’ve only got one or two cups left.

A pretty tasty rooibos blend that I’ve leaned on many a time when drinking teas from the library tea bar this summer. Today I feel as though I’m coming down with something, so I am pounding back the tea, and trying to avoid taking in any more dehydrating caffeine than is absolutely necessary to keep myself vertical and studying for a test I have tomorrow (test plus sick = terrible combination! Am doing my best.) Wow, was that the worst run-on sentence ever? Did I mention I don’t feel well?

Anyway, this is nicely fruity and bright- sweet, but not too sweet. It’s like a mild cocktail and might be amazing iced. Either way, this makes for a really good summer blend. It may be the blorgie talking, but I think I taste a kind of peach-nectarine and a touch of coconut.

I love this tea so much that I carry it in my online store, Bon Teavant Market. Red Blossom Tea’s owner knows Taiwanese oolongs like few others do. While they recommend a much longer steeping time than I prefer, this Alishan has a deep smooth, buttery taste that is the hallmark of this rolled oolong. I still have some in stock if anyone cares to try it. The new trend is to process high mt. oolongs a LOT greener (less oxidized), which brings in a bitter bite that I have not been able to resolve with steeping so I’m hanging onto my 2009’s as long as possible. This tea is also good for aging. I have a 15-year-old aged Alishan in my personal stash, and it’s magnificent.

After a hectic week of work, studying, late night movies and flinging my beads around till the wee small hours of the morning… I’m in desperate need of some rejuvinating today. This Australian grown CTC (from the looks of it) brews up almost black in color and really holds its own among the array of chai spices, which has a sweet little kick of liquorice root. I’m not sure how rejuvenating this blend truly is, but I definitely feel like I can face the rest of today without keeling over.

I only had a small sample of this so I really need to track down some more, because I know this would be fantastic brewed stovetop in milk!

Do you remember that chocolate drink – a Yoohoo (do those still exist)?! Anyways, that is what this tastes like… of course I haven’t had a Yoohoo in YEARS, so I may be off, but that is what first pops in my head. Or maybe like Swiss Miss hot chocolate made with only water and no milk, and watered down a bit more. I like this, it’s different though because it is watery and I expected that thicker puerh feel. The water looks like that of black tea, a nice honey color. The taste is smooth and you get more of a sweet coco powder taste than anything else. I am tempted to try this next time with a shot of cream =)~

This is my first tea from my clearance mystery box, I was in the mood for something fruity and green so this seemed like a good pick. If you want to see what other flavors I got, I posted them here: http://steepster.com/discuss/816-final-zoomdweebies-clearance.

I love the way this tea smells!! It smells like some kind of cherry candy, maybe mike & ikes or life savers – mmmmm! I first made it hot but then I decided to put ice in it since it is so hot out. The tea is a pretty light green color and it smells just like the dry leaves. It tastes like it smells too which is awesome! Its tastes like sweet, fruity, and there is a nice punch of green tea in there too. Overall this is delicious.

This tea is all about the malt.

The leaves are pretty…like little black and gold threads. The dry leaves have a very potent smell. Sharp and malty. The smell is so powerful; I backed off the steeping time a little because I thought the tea would be too strong.

The initial taste is very flavorful, but all malt. Then, somehow, it disappears and the tea is just…tea. One second “malt explosion”…the next second “plain, regular tea”. There isn’t any of the chewy, caramel or raisin-y qualities that I somewhat expected. This is a perfect example of a tea that “needs more cowbell”. It’s a good tea. It’s just missing a little something extra to make it stand out. Hunan Black Buds is too thin…barely “medium bodied” in my opinion. I don’t think this tea could ever be bitter, no matter how long you steeped it. Big points for that. I’ll continue to play around with the parameters and see what happens. This isn’t a tea failure; it’s just a little disappointing.

I seem to be drinking more green tea than usual today…HAD to try this one! I have been looking for a nicely flavored Acai tea. Fingers crossed this is it!

Here are my findings:

It smells a little like juicy juice or a fruity wine. When I sip this I can still take the sweet-green tea but pair it with fruity goodness! I can taste Acai, Orange, Peach but can’t barely taste the ginger, chilies, and cloves which is completely fine by me. I think the reason for them is to make it so the fruit flavors are not over powering the rest of the ingredients. I think it also contributes to the lingering warming affect it has long after the sip.

This is great! I finally found that Acai flavored tea I have been searching for!

Time to break out a few more Samovar samples. Since it’s still early, I’m going with a black tea to start.

Green and black are one of my favorite color combinations ever. It was the color combo for my bridesmaids’ dresses back in the married era, though the green in those was more of an emerald. In any case, I love the contrast, both in the color and in the texture of the lemongrass and the black tea leaves.

The smell I get from the dry mixture is not so Pledgy as it is a fairly sharp, high lemon note. It has a sort of powdery feel in my nasal passages, and between the sharpness and the feel I’m thinking dry lemon drink mix, minus sweetener. Crystal Light maybe.

This tones down and mellows quite a bit during steeping, and the tea’s aroma ends up being a wonderful combination of that Samovar black tea smell I love so much and lemon. The sweet maltiness of the tea combines with the lemon to give it an almost lemon drop smell. Wow.

The liquor is interestingly cloudy, which must be from the lemongrass as I haven’t seen this in a Samovar black tea before. It’s on the lighter side of tea colored. I may be drinking this before optimum steeping time and I am going to resteep longer (Samovar black teas are the only ones I’ve found that resteep reasonably well).

Hmm. This wasn’t at all what I expected this to taste like from the aroma. It seems to me to be balanced more toward lemon than toward tea. The tea flavor comes through mostly as a dip toward the tail end of the sip, kind of like that finger game I play with my kids… Johnny Johnny Johhny Johhny Whoops Johnny Whoops Johnny… it’s the Whoops slide down the tip of the kid’s pointer with the mom’s finger and back up to the tip of the kid’s thumb. Except for the Whoops, all the Johnnys are pretty heavily lemon-weighted over an undercurrent of a sort of dusky tea, which would probably taste a lot sweeter than it does if not for the lemon.

Now. You might think from what I just said that I’m disappointed in this tea. Maybe I am, just a teensy bit, because I had hoped for more of that black tea flavor that I love so much with the lemon as an accent rather than a main flavor. But it’s really not disappointment so much as that I’m a little taken aback and not sure what to make of this because it’s so different from what I’d expected.

I also wonder whether my sample was skewed a little more heavily toward lemon than would normally be true. I just took a look at what others have said about this and I seem to be in a minority in thinking this is heavily weighted toward lemon, though it seems Ricky’s experience of this came close to mine.

So now I’m faced with a big question mark about whether I like this enough to add it to a future order. I think the answer might be yes, but a cautious yes. I need to taste this again a few times now that I know what to expect. Knowing what to expect, I’d be able to analyze the flavor in context a bit better and see how I think I’d feel about multiple drinkings.

I really need about three more sample tries to be sure, but by that time I might as well bite the bullet and order a small tin, no?

This tea has a very smooth almost creamy and sweet richness to it with the classic “Menghai scent” notes as one would expect for any Menghai ripe puerh. A very wonderful example quality ripe puerh at its best with a light silky texture in a sweet mellow taste. Just be careful about using too little leaves the first time I brewed it I did and it came out a bit plain tasting and disappointing but the fault was mine and not the tea.

A very delicious tea! I really liked this one. Zhena uses the same type of tea bag as The Republic of Tea, unbleached, round, no string. The rose flavoring is prominent but not overpowering, a very soothing and relaxing cuppa. The teas are the clean, medium-body from India and Sri Lanka. To take in the essence of the tea and then to taste it, is sublime. The longer the tea steeped, the flavoring does not get too strong; it stays nice and soothing, relaxing, gentle and delicious. I would highly recommend this tea.

I just realized that this place is just down the street from me! But I didn’t realize that in time and had ordered online hehe. Anyways, this is an AWESOME green tea! I was afraid the lemongrass or ginger would be too strong and remind me of a Thai dish I should be eating (lemongrass always reminds me of some yummy Thai food)! This tea actually surprised me and the lemon is a natural tasting sweet/tard lemon…almost like a lemon bar or a lemon pie, minus the crust taste of course. This is the first lemon tea that I was just drooling over and kept gulping it down. I bet it would be awesome iced or to have hot with some honey when you are sick :-D

Thanks Doulton for this tea sample.

I too liked the name and simply had to try it and I found it to be very yummy. I would say it is smooth in that the blend was well-balanced but not at all creamy. It feels high-brow and complex, rich and sophisticated as I suppose Notting Hill must be. :-). I am enjoying this cup and am glad for the opportunity to taste it.

OK, I have to retract (a little) a previous statement I made.
Out of curiosity, I tried the steeping parameters that Maeda-en suggested for this tea. I was sure it was going to be bitter, but I did it anyway.
In my pre-warmed teapot, I put a rounded tsp of leaf. I then poured nearly boiling water (190F) over it (I was planning on doing 2 oz water, but instead didn’t quite even cover the leaf, so it was just around 1 oz water). I waited 30 seconds and then poured into the cup.
(Maeda-en’s suggestion is 190F for 30-40 seconds or so).

The result was nothing less than green tea nectar! Pure, intensely sweet, and fresh cooked asparagus. It really surprised me, especially how very sweet it was. I wished I had used all 2oz of water, just so I’d have had more tea!
So again, my retractment is, don’t necessarily ignore the brewing suggestions given! Try it out once. The very first time I had this tea, I ignored their suggestions thinking it would be bitter; but if you’re careful, this tea works at a big range of temperatures. :-)

Another tea from LiberTEAS!!!! I’m so grateful!

This smells awesome! Very sugary or candy like. The first thing that popped into my head – to compare it to – would be like old fashioned ribbon candy around the holidays…no one flavor but all the flavors combined!?

The anise ingredient somewhat made me nervous but there is just a hint…not much…

There is a bit more blackberry than anise…which is great but I can’t necessarily pick out the fig individually, persay. I’m thinking the fig is giving it the candy-like or sugary taste and smell and that works well in my book!

This is a nice treat!

After having the last infusion of my Sugar Caramel Oolong leaves this morning, I decided I needed to have a bit of caffeine. I chose this one because I love mate and the other chocolate mate I’ve had (Malted Chocomate) is one of my all time favorite teas. I’ve also heard a lot of great things about this company. So here goes…

Initially, the scent of the dry tea was a bit strange – mate, chocolate, and a kick of something else that truly reminds me of hard liquor. The dry tea is very pretty though and reminds me of espresso hued confetti. After brewing, the tea was very strange when taken plain – initially tasting of chocolate but dissolving into that strange liquor taste. I added a bit of sugar and milk which made a huge difference. The liquor (I’m thinking whiskey) taste is still present, but slightly muted and is blending with the other flavors pretty nicely.

I’m liking this more as I’m drinking it, but I’m still not sure about it. I feel like I shouldn’t be drinking something so whiskey-like this early in the morning. I’m halfway expecting to feel a buzz coming on…

I am so happy – this tea is scrumptious at 200 degrees and three minutes without any additions (I had it with creme and sugar at the tea house). I purchased it in a wax covered paper bag like you would buy coffee in, sitting on a shelf, which worried me a bit (the devil on my shoulder adds “sitting for who knows how long! That’s not proper loose tea storage!” but the angel on my shoulder adds “Shush devil! She brought it home and immediately put it into tins. Calm down!”) but it does not seem to have suffered at all!

A strong tea taste, that creamy dreamy vanilla, and a bit more than a hint of bergamot makes for a very satisfying and just-up-my alley cup! New obsession!

This tea is very different than what I usually drink. The tea is pale yellow in color with tiny white hairs floating in it. It smells floral and the taste is very light and slightly sweet. Its a very nice tea for relaxing and contemplating life. Its not a tea I would drink every day, but its nice and interesting.

So, I’ve taken a break writing my paper on food and feminism in order to have a taste of this Darjeeling. When smelling it dry, you can smell the muscatel notes in it—once brewed, notes that are hidden behind the other flavors. I’m enjoying this cup with a little stevia to sweetened it up. This is much better than the other darjeeling I have had in the past, with exception to the darjeeling from Adagio.
This is an average cup of tea, to sum it up. Maybe someday I’ll purchase it again, but I feel like if I’m looking for a darjeeling, I’ll have to find a truly knock-out version elsewhere for the time being. I was hoping for much better, but alas, the muscatel is buried among other notes. BUT—it makes for a lovely companion to write a paper that I wanted finished the first time I wrote it. And maybe i’ll bring it to my evening class tonight. We’ll see.

I’m not big on chamomile at all. but I tried this thinking that it would help me on my journey to become closer to liking Chamomile. The sweetness of H.V. Chamomile did add more flavor and did appeal to my taste buds and help with that grassy taste at the end of the first chamomile i had tasted in the past of tasting regular chamomile. yes i did buy the herbal tea sampler also. Over all I think this is good for night tea for relaxing.
side notes
yes this is a bag tea but i think i don’t mind it this way actually. I didn’t use any sugar or milk when tasting this but usually don’t add any so i don’t even think about saying this part but reading others tasting blogs. I will add this to make it more complete