Featured & New Tasting Notes

I love a great jasmine tea and this one delivers! Teavana blends these pearls with rooibos tropica for one of their most popular blends, but I enjoy brewing these little gems alone. In fact, these pearls work well with other teas if you want to custom blend your own selections. I’ve paired with peach, mango and strawberry teas (both black and green) and loved each creation.

For some unknown reason, it has taken me a very long time to get to these TeaFrog samples…oh well

This herbal is decent – not too sweet from chocolate and not too spicy from spices. Infused hot, no additives 7 minutes. Each sip is a complicated dance of flavors. It starts with peppercorn then melts into chocolate then finally into ginger. The peppercorn provides an initial bite, a spicy kick that is quickly replaced with slightly sweet, smooth and creamy chocolate flavor, but not overwhelmingly chocolate, the chocolate is rounded out by cacao which helps to extend the flavor without adding sweetness, finally the ginger provides a little spice but true in depth flavor. Quite a mouthful…

I especially like that the tea is made of both chocolate and cacao – I think it deeps the chocolate flavor and enriches the tea overall because it is not sweet or savory, but a decent mix of the two that acts as a bridge between spicy pepper and vibrant ginger.

Great work TeaFrog.

The other day I went to the mall with my youngest daughter, and whenever we are in an Oregon Mall, one of the stores I always visit is the Made In Oregon store, I like to shop there because I like the idea of supporting local business. That is where I found this tea.

I have had a couple of teas from The Jasmine Pearl in the past that I’ve purchased from Whole Foods, but, I have never seen this particular flavor of tea. The FIG part intrigued me first, because I love figs. I was further intrigued when I saw that it was a Darjeeling tea … and when I read the ingredient list and saw anise… I was sold! I had to try it.

Lovely! The strongest note in this tea is the tea itself, this is a very nice Darjeeling with a pleasant muscatel flavor that really compliments the blackberry flavor very well. The fig is present at the end of the sip. The anise reveals itself throughout, although it is strong it is not overwhelming… just very pleasant. I really like it.

It has a very nice balance of flavors, with nothing overwhelming anything else… everything is light and crisp and flavorful. NICE!

So far I havn’t had much from non flavored green teas, but figure i’ll try again. This time i actually payed attention to the steeping instructions.
Not bad, doesn’t taste bitter like previous times i’ve had this tea, probably because i steeped it way less than I had previously.
To me I doesn’t have alot of taste, but maybe that’s how green tea is supposed to taste? It smells very good and has a cozy feel to it, but pretty much tastes like hot water to me with a little tea aftertaste.

I was preparing for something hideous with this because of all the reviews – mostly in the 30s and 50s range. But…

Where as I wouldn’t put it in my 70 percentile – I’m pondering the 60s. I don’t love it but…

This isn’t very gingery – which is fine by me – I do know that White Ginger is supposed to be mellower than regular ginger – but I think this is regular ginger and it’s in white tea…so…not sure. Regardless – the ginger isn’t harsh. It’s a bit chewy for a white tea but the flavor overall isn’t very memorable. It’s not bad, just not stunning!

It’s an OK tea, I suppose…

How have I never logged this tea when i’ve had it for about 2 months now??? Anyway, I love this tea. It’s a darker oolong, but has some notes of rock fruits like peach and plum, but has a sweetness on the end of the flavor. This tea also dries my mouth out a little bit, it’s strange really. Most of my mouth feels moisturized (?) by the tea except for the center of my tongue, where it feels dry. Very interesting experience.

A sample of this was given to me by a family member who likes tea…
I am not a big black tea fan, simply because I don’t want to get into something that has a lot of caffeine. I like both coffee and black tea, but I try not to drink it often for that reason.

But, I noticed this had a very slight initial astringency, followed by a slight and pleasant smokiness, and it ended with a very slightly sweet and ‘full bodied’ or ‘rounded’ flavor. Not sure exactly how to describe that last flavor that I tasted, but it was the main component of the tea and very pleasant.

So many black teas are named “_______ Breakfast Tea”… and this tea really felt like it belongs at breakfast time.

I wouldn’t buy this tea, but only because I’m not into black teas and don’t intend to get into them. But I will enjoy having a small sample of it, and would gladly drink a cup in the future if the opportunity arose.

This is the last of my white peony, a friend had given me a sample. It is the only white tea I’ve had, so I can’t compare it to anything. I just threw the leaves into my travel mug, as that was my only option. (I really need something with a basket).

The leaves are darker green than I would expect based on the picture. When steeped, most of the leaves unfurled, although some stayed rolled up. It smells mostly of hay, and for the first while tasted like sweet hay (or at least, how I imagine hay tastes). The longer it steeps, the more bitter it is getting, but it’s not even close to being unbearable.

I used to think it was really creamy, which compared to my chinese green tea, it is. It’s quite thick, in a good way. I can’t really get much of a feel for the colour in my mug, but it seems quite dark, and amber. Again, it’s now been steeping about half an hour.

I will definitely get more white tea!

ETA: second steep. The water was not so hot this time around.
There is no longer any hay taste, and it is not bitter at all. The taste is very mild and “green” tasting (not green tea, just green). It is definitely thick, and maybe not so creamy as I remembered. This cup is much better than the first.

Keep in mind that I have absolutely drowned this in a sea of steamed soy milk, because as I posted yesterday, my new hack is to get a cup of tea with steamed soy milk for a measly $1 at the campus coffee shop.

Anyway, I’m really digging on black tea lately, so I thought I’d try this one. I can’t say it held up that well to my milk-treatment, even with my leaving the tea bag in the cup and risking oversteeping. However, what I do taste of it is actually a rather mild, almost sweet cup of black tea. Not particularly astringent. I’d recommend this one to those who like black tea, but generally don’t like the mouth-feel of it / the bitterness. I’m actually enjoying it, but I’m not sure I’d consider it a breakfast black tea. More like a nice tea-time tea.

My brother left a bag of this here at the house last week while visiting. He somehow ended up with it, and didn’t like it much, I guess.

This produces an amazingly black cup of tea. I actually broke down, broke my rule of thumb, and put some dairy in this just because it is so strong and has so much bite.

If you like really classic, strong black tea, this is the way to go.

While he was visiting, I boiled some of it in milk with chai spices and it makes AMAZING chai.

The thing about rooibos is… it’s not tea.
Not in many peoples eyes, anyway. And I do see their point; it’s not a camilla.

I hated rooibos at first because my first rooibos tea was disgusting. A dear friend of mine had me try it, and I just couldn’t finish this little cup of rooibos. That’s very impolite in Greenland, and while she was out of the kitchen I threw the 80 % of the tea out in the zink and drank the rest of it with a smile when she came back.

Yes, I am 100% evil

Another friend of mine kind of forced me to drink rooibos. His was just better.
It wasn’t a clean rooibos either – but something with vanilla or almond.
I still can’t drink a clean rooibos just like I can’t drink a clean pu-erh without forcing myself.

This is one of my fave’s. Everyone I served this for says: “This smells like christmas!”
It does. And it soo easy! The teabag can be in the mug forever and it just taste better and better. Well… I do like malty teas, so maybe that’s just me.

Yum!

This was included as part of a mixed box so thankfully I don’t have any more – otherwise I’d be pretty pissed if I just spent money on a whole box of this tea.

The tea has a faintly sweet vanilla smell, but I noticed that it also has this weird chemical odor to it. I wonder if that was left behind by the decaffeination process? The taste isn’t much an improvement. It’s a thin, weak brew (though admittedly I didn’t steep it as along as I could have) and what little flavour that is there is artificial and harsh-tasting. Next time I’ll pass on this one.

It’s hot as all get out here these days. Work was awful and my particular spot was, of course, the hottest place in the whole lab, and also, of course, the only place where we can’t have a fan going. (When you’re dealing with paraffine sections 2 µm thick, the last thing you want is air movement. All your work will fly away)

So yes. Hot and humid and sweaty and dreadful. And I swear this is relevant information.

I tried brewing this directly in my cup, since my boss is off on holiday and I was pretty sure I wouldn’t be able to drink a whole pot myself in this heat. I was definitely right that we would get a better result if the leaves had more space, but hot tea wasn’t really something I wanted.

So I had this bottle of ICE cold water (Half an hour or so in the -80°C freezer. Just right) and I had this here cup with once-steeped leaves in it. Why not just try some kind of cold brew.

Okay, I admit the water was likely too cold, but I wasn’t really after something exquisitly tea-like. I just need something to drink to stay relatively cool and prevent dehydration and such like.

The result wasn’t half bad. It didn’t have much flavour, but then I didn’t let it sit for all that long before drinking either. It might also be that it was so cold that it just didn’t taste of anything anymore.

It was solely a source of fluids in the heat and as such it was really nice and I’m going to do it again tomorrow. If I had been looking for a flavour of tea however, I’d have been hugely disappointed. But it was definitely more interesting to drink than just plain cold water.

Dry Leaf Scent: Pure Coconut – and it’s truly splendid
Post Infusion Scent: Coconut, Peony – Still a delight

Color is a yellowish with light brown hue

Taste: YUMMY Coconut taste and CREAMY CREAMY CREAMY! Some lovely floral notes thrown in.

This is wonderful. VERY flavorful and much different than other tropical-type teas I have tried!

Monday morning tea success!

And much needed too! My office Bigwig will soon be arriving. You know the type, right? The Bigwig lives in a totally different state and has no idea how to do your job, yet is in charge of “suggesting” and then implementing their ideas on how to do your job better. Of course their “suggestions” only add to the number of steps you already take to do the exact same thing…thus causing a major pain in your butt and making you wish you could transport them back to their office…or better yet, some awful frozen tundra of doom? Yeah, I thought so.

So, how about this tea? :)

My first whiff of the liquor resulted in mostly roasty toasty notes, but also a light fruit smell. I’m not quite sure what type of fruit it is, but it’s juicy smelling. That’s right…juicy smelling. That same juicy note comes over in the taste as well, albeit in the aftertaste. The taste progression goes a little something like this: roasty toasty, mineral-y, OOLONG, juicy. The juicy effect actually made my mouth water. Crazyness. I’ve never had a roasted oolong quite like this one. It’s quite delicious. I’m glad I ordered a large tin. Nom nom nom!

More H&S to come!

Picked this up on a whim while I was out shopping this weekend. It tastes quite different from other green teas, so much so that I had to look it up to see what category it falls under. So far, the taste really reminds me of darker oolongs. I don’t think I used enough leaf, since the instructions said to use 2-3 tsp/cup, so maybe my opinion will change later today when I try again! I like it, but I’m not a huge fan.

This is my second time having this tea. I enjoyed the first cup, but wasn’t paying much attention to it. So I am giving it more attention today.

Upon opening the bag, it has a very refreshing smell (which it’s supposed to!). I can smell peppermint, ginger, and fennel most of all. After a few minutes, a second smell is predominated by licorice/fennel and cloves. I did not smell cinnamon. To be honest, I don’t know what holy basil smells like, but I don’t smell anything basil-ish.

After steeping, the tea is a very clear, pale yellow. It smells somewhat medicinal, I think because it reminds me of my Traditional Medicinals “Breathe Easy” tea… so it must be the licorice.

The taste is definitely spicy, but I wouldn’t say it is overly flavorful. The taste is predominately ginger and black pepper. It is a little bit watery-tasting, but I may have been a bit skimpy with my measurement.

Every once and a while I crave Jasmine tea and I’m on my second 32oz of this one this morning and I want more.
Yes… that is strange. So I’ve been trying to figure out how this tea is different from other jasmines.
The tea base seems a little more toasty sweet than I would expect from a jasmine tea and the base tea also has a very full mouth feel. Taking that into consideration it is probable this one isn’t bothering me after extended sippage because I would drink the base tea alone. I don’t think I can say that for the other jasmines that come to mind. So yea… nice base tea to start.
The jasmine flavor itself has no soapy or over scented qualities and none of the typical mistake markers. Ive even let it cool down to see if any bitter astringency come out and if there is any at all, after letting it sit out for an hour, it is no where near enough to bother me. I really don’t think there is any astringency at all though. ;P
So yea this is pretty solid. For my few and far between Jasmine cravings I need to remember that this is a good one so I don’t go off on more rants when I could have a perfectly pleasant time sipping this one.

Finished up the sample of this. Verdict is the same, possibly slightly improved though still within the range of the original rating.

It’s good. I am noticing a little sharp high note, and much more sweetness and butter than I did before, possibly because I’m having it following an English Breakfast. It’s the sort of thing I wouldn’t mind drinking at all, but probably wouldn’t buy again as I’ve had other greens I thought were tastier.

This dry leaves smell sweet and slightly malty, and the liquor is a lemon yellow colour, smells nice and sweet. The flavour is floral and vegetal, and the aftertaste is only slightly dry. This is what I’m getting with my limited palate – need to try more oolongs so I can develop it better.

I’d say the temperature of the water was just right, any hotter and it would have gone bitter. The flavour might have developed a bit more with a longer steeping, I will try 4 mins next time.

Before I made this tea today I felt quite depressed, lazy and had no energy. After I had two cups, I suddenly sprung up and vacuumed the apartment thoroughly! I feel so much better now. Tea has once again proved its magical power.

I love oolong, and I love finery, especially in the tea world. So when the chance to try this tea came up…an oolong, mind you, that is supposed to be one of the finest available, and available only in limited quantities, I jumped at the opportunity.

The dry leaf holds light, vegetal notes that are, surprisingly, reminiscent of a few white teas that I have tried.

The steeped liquor is a brilliant gold, with excellent clarity (the benefits of utilizing a glass vessel for steeping). It also has a darker aroma, more akin to darjeeling. Ah, but the first sip was nothing like drinking darjeeling. Light and fruity (what specific fruit flavours – I cannot quite place), the liquor slipped over the tongue easily. Incredibly soft mouthfeel combined with a surprisingly bold, yet not overwhelming, aftertaste to provide a wonderfully pleasant drink.

Steeping the tea again, for a few minutes longer (five this time), led to a brew of much the same strength and character as the first. I was pleased at the resilience and quality of this tea. I most definitely enjoyed drinking this and would certainly keep this on my list of teas to keep in stock. I give it a 90/100 on my personal enjoyment scale.

Lazy this morning after my walk, so its bagged tea. Last time I had this tea I wasn’t very impressed. It was my fault since I forgot to set my timer. This time this tea was much better. This tea is not bitter or astringent and is floral to the smell. Although its morning, I consider this to be an afternoon tea as its very mild and smooth. I will have to up my rating a little.

Ahhhh now that’s more like it! I gave this pu-erh a quick rinse and then steeped for the full 5mins and it brewed up to a very dark brown/black color. The taste is like a sweet hay/mossy taste with a bit of astringency to it, but that’s ok! Honestly though I would prefer a stronger earthy/hay/mossy taste. But this is still really good! Nom, nom, nom!!! :-D