Featured & New Tasting Notes

Another from the Flavors sampler set.

Passion fruit is one of those tropical fruits that I know I’ve had but I can’t conjure the taste of as I sit here. I probably wouldn’t even be able to identify it in a line up, unless maybe by process of elimination if the others in the line up were limited to things like “orange” and “lemon” and “banana.” I like the name, though.

In the tin the tea smells fruity, in an airy, tropical, almost berry sort of way. Maybe the berry is from the Ceylon base.

The aroma of the tea is interesting. Something about it doesn’t smell like fruit to me, it’s more like a vegetable, or even grassy/planty smell. Maybe you could say it’s a very green fruit smell.

The flavor is nice enough, but given my disclaimer above, I can’t really say whether it is true to the passion fruit name. It’s slightly sweet, slightly fruity, and slightly the flavor equivalent of the green in the aroma. Whether or not it is, I like it at least as well as the coconut, which I tried earlier, but not as much as the apricot. At least that one I know is true to its name.

I had this tea and was ready for it to taste great but I have to say it was beyond great. I’m beginning to think this might be my tea of choice for summer.
Teas’ Tea Green Jasmine smells like jasmine from the moment you open the bottle. I didn’t feel the need to add sweetener to the drink. If I had I’m sure the flavors would have popped just as it should. I did add it to ice but drank it quickly.
Note: The bottling is different than what is listed in the above picture.
This is what my bottle looked like. http://www.itoen.com/tea/index.cfm?sp=product&catID=1&id=105

The description is right to the point.
Lilacs? Check. The aroma might not be strong and doesn’t drift up from a cup of tea but if you bring it to your nose and inhale – there they are – unmistakable lilacs.
Delicate, flowery liquor? Check. The flavor is very smooth, flowery and dry like white wine.
Sweet and refreshing taste? Check. Yes, indeed it is very refreshing and the light sweetness is there as well but hiding behind flower dryness and feels more like an aftertaste than a separate note.

The brew doesn’t have any oiliness or toasty qualities, it is pure, fresh and stands up to 3 infusions, the third still being tasty but lacking in aroma. And I like the name :) Definitely goes on my shopping list as soon as I run out of Adagio’s oolong #18. They have similar characteristics but this one is way better.

I haven’t had this in over a week because last time it tasted “off.” I think I just overdid it as I was having this every morning for awhile.
I am really glad that I have this tea! It is very smooth and not overly perfume-like. The added lavender really makes the difference I believe. I’m enjoying it today with a bit of honey which seems to bring out the floral aspect of the lavender a bit more.

Replacing a can of soda for a pot of tea, for my breakfast. Seems like in all ways a good idea. I’m not sure how long I’ve had this tea in my cupboard, but I’m pretty sure it was less than a year, and it wasn’t opened.

I’m pretty sure this green is Korean – which, if you’re curious, is mighty close to Chinese in flavor. I do, however, prefer the appearance of Korean leaves after unfurling. Not sure if there’s a specific reason, I just tend to like them, they look pretty.
If you want a description of the taste just look at the company’s description. This tea is… good, but it doesn’t excite me, so I don’t feel like getting into an all-out explanation of the complexities of the flavor and so on.

What I will say, is that I probably purchased this tea because of the name.
Ha, Dong

I’ve noticed I’ve become more sensitive to water quality. Perhaps I’m not enjoying this tea so much because I used unfiltered tap water, and not the pure water I get at the store. It’s interesting, though – I’m beginning to distinguish the flavor of the water within the tea, and then judge how it affects the tea.

My previous Earl Grey experience is limited to cheap tea bags, which I never enjoyed, so I always assumed I wouldn’t like this. But I’ve had a sample from Lupicia around for ages now, and I thought now was the time to try it.

Lots and lots of bergamot. I never thought of Earl Grey as a fruity tea before, but Lupicia’s blend is heavy on the citrus note. The tea is very smooth and refreshing, especially iced.

I had made this a daily drinker. Then for a while, I went with a Genmaicha, as I wanted the soothing nature of roasted grain. But Genmaicha can be greener, grassy, and I wanted a roasted tea with a roasted grain.

What’s a girl to do? Re-invent. I found some organic hull-less barley at the natural foods store, in bulk. I roast about two-days worth at a time on the stove top, in a frying pan. And then combine with the tea for a rich, soothing, roasty-toasty cup.

I admit I find it a bit heavy in warm weather, and move to tea or tea and fuit combos. But it hasn’t been that hot, and I find a morning and an evening cup of this keeps me gently alert and happy.

In one word, delicious delicious delicious!

I don’t have much time to type, so in short, this reminds me of a mango version of Golden Moon’s Coconut Pouchong. I love it!

Got this free teabag yesterday in the mail along with Lupicia’s newsletter. What a great, summery choice. On to my shopping list this goes!!

Well, they aren’t really “pearls” like you would assume – not little balls – but if it tastes ok…I’m cool with that!
:)

The aroma is barely there as the leaves unwind. They are unwinding VERY slowly. I went about 6 minutes and they aren’t undone so I am sure you could get multiple infusions out of them but it’s light in color and scent. It’s a very pale yellow.

The taste isn’t bad, however, it’s more flavorful than I thought it would be based on the above. Not VERY flavorful just more flavorful than I expected, I guess. This is nice…mellow…but nice. If you are looking for a whispering cuppa for an evening or to calm your nerves…try this!

This is a wonderful black tea for breakfast, as the name suggests. Usually, I only drink black tea at night or if I really need a good kick in the morning. I sipped on this tea on a Saturday morning with a hot breakfast, which is paired nicely with. The smell of the tea was intoxicating. It smelled a bit like cocao and scones, so it was sweet and robust all in one. The flavor was so much lighter than the smell of the liquor.The taste is light and gentle. I experienced little to no bitterness or tannins in my cuppa, which is good for someone who may forget about their tea by accident(hey, it happens to us all!). The taste is so smooth, that it naturally tastes as if there was creamer or milk already put into the tea.

Want a more thorough review?? Check out my blog :) http://wp.me/pQxcK-4y !

Steep Information:
Amount: 25g
Water: 750ml filtered water at 195°F
Tool: Breville One-Touch Tea Maker BTM800XL (Oolong, custom)
Steep Time: 1 minute
Served: Hot

Tasting Notes:
Dry Leaf Smell: tropical, fruity, sweet, milk oolong
Steeped Tea Smell: fruity, sweet, milk oolong
Flavor: sweet, smooth, milky, vegetal
Body: Light
Aftertaste: sweet
Liquor: translucent pale yellow green

Wow! look at how much those leaves expanded! I kept the leaves in the refrigerator when I ran off to work in order to try a resteep or two when I get home tonight. I was tempted to try a cold brew but needed to run for my train.

I think I need to tweak with the steeping parameters, it’s a bit weak, I may try a little longer or a little hotter.

Overall even weak it was fruity and smooth and enjoyable. With current steeping parameters I would not buy more of this flavor, but would enjoy what I have and gladly select it when out. I am hoping it improves with tweaking.

I think sweetener would overpower the tea.

The packaging was beautiful and very well done. There was a pamphlet, a booklet, and a box. The box was textured black with slashes of green on the inner box that you could see through the cut outs on the side. Inside the box was a miniature brochure and a tin that was also textured. Inside the tin was a resealable vacuumed packaged bag that was also textured! I’m grateful for all the information included as well by the Chicago Tea Garden.

Images: http://amazonv.blogspot.com/2010/07/chicago-tea-garden-loose-leaf-oolong.html

Interesting tea, bought 100g of this tea on the train station in Basel Switzerland. So they have the website in 3 languages – german, english and french. And the name of this tea is so different in every language that its almost funny. French version is Caravane Russe, german is Russisches Roulet. I just find that a bit peculiar :D
Was looking for some real black tea for my stay in Switzerland. And i preferred a new kind. It smelled quite rich comparing to English breakfast for example.

Lets see…
Tea smells like leaves, bit smokey I guess.

Oh now i remembered that i’ve sweetened it. Not a very good way to review a tea :D It was just meant for latte thats why. But its yummy like this.

The real review another day :D

There was an epic accident with Tim the Teapot yesterday and his lid got massively cracked. Remembering Ewa’s epic loss and revelation (through failed time machine) that teapots can still be used with patched-up lids, my lid is epoxied like crazy and waiting to set. But since it was a relative’s fault (who shall remain nameless), that relative offered to buy me a replacement pot. So new pot should arrive by next week :)

All that’s to say that my two options were to ice something and use my JOEmo today. So last night I decided to cold brew this tea to see how different it tasted since palate cleansing this week. It still just seems musty to me, but I did pick up some more vanilla, but just a hint (coconut was dilly-dallying around somewhere too). It was nice and refreshing. NE

I’m giving a bump up to the rating of this one. I keep thinking, “Ah yes, a nice caramel tea.” But no, it’s not. It’s really a great caramel tea. The smell is fantastic – thick and silky and just guh. Like those candy commercials where they have caramel flowing into caramel-colored silk? Yeah, it smells like that.

But if a tea tastes like dirty socks I’m not going to fall in love with it, silky rich smell or not. Thankfully, no dirty socks here. On the first sip of this tea I’m always reminded of Lupicia’s English Caramel because this is surprisingly unsweet. Unlike English Caramel, however, it thankfully goes nowhere near bittersweet. Instead, it’s silky (but not too heavy) straight caramel chew that somehow manages to be candy but not be sugary-sweet.

Then the sip ends and that’s where the sweet seems to really hit me – it expands in my mouth and suddenly I feel like I’ve been sucking on caramel-flavored nectar. When I had finished with my 12oz I actually felt like it had coated my mouth with a post-caramel-chew flavor/feeling.

It’s just an all around delightful tea, thus the rating bump. I think it’s a grand feat for a tea to manage such smooth, silky dessert-tea-ness, especially without sugar or milk. I’m already dreading the day I run out.

Random draw from the sample box. Another Darjeeling of which I have a sample of both first and second flush, and by good luck I actually drew the first flush. It would seem strange to start with the second one. I’m neurotic that way.

I smelled the leaves briefly and didn’t find anything out of the ordinary. They smelled rather like the Margaret’s Hope leaves did, so nothing special to note there. They look the same too. After steeping it smells rather grass-y, and a hay-y sweetness. More than I recall the Margaret’s Hope smelling. I’m getting something here too, something that sort of reminds me of grapes, but not actually smelling like grapes at all. NBT says it’s flowery. I’m not really sure I agree with that, honestly…

A slight astringency in flavour, but also quite smooth. It’s one of those teas that seem to have two different and completely independent layers of flavour. There’s the astringent bottom note that seems a bit rough around the edges and with a good amount of hay in it. And then the somewhat lighter top note of smoothness and flowers.

I can’t really come up with a lot of other stuff to say about it. I feel like I’ve said it all before only that was about Margaret’s Hope. I honestly can’t find much, if any, difference between them. The rating reflects how I feel about it today, as opposed to in comparison with Margaret’s Hope.

after my 4 day hiatus from tea note writing, this tea makes me want to jot down some comments. first of all, the tin was a pain to open. upon prying it with a kitchen knife, i was floored to smell a mix of fruity and floral flavor! with the weather in nyc rising to 100, i decided to ice this white tea and enjoyed myself a solid cup of iced tea.

this is noteworthy! midnight blue is quite lovely

Thank you AmazonV for letting me try this one! So I had this one last night before bed and it brewed a bit darker than most jasmine pearls I had, but I also noticed the pearls were darker as well. The taste was “ok”, it had a more vegetal taste and was lighter on the jasmine than most and to me was a bit astringency. I have no idea what a tin of these cost, but if they are cheap then I would say they’re not bad, but if they’re the normal cost of what these usually run then I would say look elsewhere!

Have I mentioned that LiberTEAS spoils me!? :P

This smells AWESOME! It’s pure chocolate and Earl Grey! WOW! Just what I had HOPED it would smell like! Or…in my case…orange chocolate/Earl Grey-ish even! YAY!

I’m just finishing up the infusion…
I’m told I need to try 2 infusions with this so I will – here’s what I found with the first one…

The aroma changes completely after infusion is complete. It’s still pleasant but not as awesome…I guess you could say. I can’t pick out each flavor like before. This doesn’t bother me too much because this often happens with flavored teas – as you know.

It’s infuses very dark brown and has a bit of cloudiness to it…I am assuming from the sugary-chocolate bits.

The taste is different but very good. I would say I can taste the cocoa type taste first then it quickly changes into a chocolate…so almost first being hot cocoa taste but then more of a chocolate bar taste. From there you can taste the black tea but then quickly changes into more of a bergamot and chocolate type taste. It ends more of a chocolaty-black tea flavored taste. Thru-out the entire sip it’s very smooth and the flavor changes intrigue me.

This is the first cup in a long time I have had to think about it with each sip (more than just a few sips, that is)

This one kept my attention going strong the entire time.

I continue to type and think as I write this…

As it cools at room temp for a few mins I can taste a chocolate-woodsy-black tea type taste for the after taste more. This certainly isn’t a bad thing (in my book).

Again, very smooth and creamy thru-out the cup!

This tea is much like an adventure! I like it!

A rather tasty Yunnan. The leaves are soft, long, light, and a pretty yellow color. The resulting brew is a little bit opaque, not crystal clear (but not ‘cloudy’ either), with an orange-amber color and a sweet, roasty Yunnan smell.

Someone else said ‘floral honey and apricots’, and I agree. Get the right amount of leaf and the right steep time, and it’s really very tasty…sweet after you swallow, and the sweetness lingers; the apricot flavor is separate but very, very prominent.

Another tasting note mentioned astringency on the finish, and I find that this varies for me…sometimes I have it, sometimes I don’t. More leaf and a shorter steep time tends to be helpful.

Wasn’t certain about this one when I plucked it from my cupboard at random this morning, but I’m glad I had it, now!

I felt like celebrating with Rijje today. And for that we need a good old favourite that, to my surprise, it’s been quite a while since I’ve had.

If it’s been so long since I’ve had it, HOW COME THERE’S SO LITTLE LEFT IN THE TIN, HMMM???

Who nicked it? Fess up!

I refuse to view this as chai, despite the cardamom. No ginger, no black pepper. French name. I’m not putting in the chai category. I’m calling it a chocolate spice flavored tea.

So I’m drinking it straight up as my first morning tea, because I felt like something mixed up and flavored with a chance of being sweet after my epic green tea experience last night. I feel much too healthy and clean for my own good. Time to get some approximation of candy into my bloodstream.

This does just fine, and it doesn’t require milk or sugar to get there. It’s got a very chocolate fragrance in the tin, and I can see the green cardamom pods in there. Pretty.

The tea’s aroma smells like baked goods, like something that would go into a tart or pie. It’s a blend of chocolate and cinnamon mostly and a touch of cardamom.

The taste is mild with a minor kick that doesn’t take it out of the mild category, in my view. Just a little love pat on the tongue to remind you it has spices in it. It’s terrifically drinkable without milk. The chocolate succeeds in giving it a little sweetness, which is what I was hoping for this morning. There’s no bitterness, and no sense that you’re drinking something other than the way it was meant to be had (which I’ve sometimes felt trying to drink chais straight).

A nice not-chai for the collection.

Ok, I admit it. I bought this just for the name. I’m anticipating not liking it. Why? Because black/green blends just don’t work parameter wise. Each tea demands vastly different steeping conditions. I hate “winging” tea, but I have no clue what to do w/ this so I gotta. I’m gonna go w/ “typical” green parameters.

1tsp/6oz

The liquor is a beautiful autumnal amber and the aroma is surprisingly sweet. I’m getting fruity and sugary notes instead of floral. Interesting.

Whoa! Color me surprised. It tastes nothing like the watery black tea I feared. The green tea and flowers took over giving me a smooth slightly sweet (but still not floral) tea that has quite a bit of body (I’m assuming from the black tea). It’s actually very good and I’d give it even more points if I got the floral notes.

Regardless of how I feel about this tea, I will treasure the experience of drinking it forever because while entering it into the database I learned the Japanese word for bracket fungus. Truly, my life has been an empty shell until now.

So…who thinks that a blend of green, oolong, pu-erh and yellow tea is excessive? Everyone? Good, good. They appear to be operating along the idea of “stuff as much healthy tea into one bottle as possible, thereby creating the ELIXIR OF LIFE.” I wonder if they brew the teas separately and then mix them or just dump the leaves all in together and brew it like that. Hopefully it is the former.

Surprisingly, the result isn’t too bad, although, as would be expected there are absolutely no traces of the green or yellow tea (not that I know how yellow tea tastes, but I’ve heard it’s delicate so…). The oolong and pu erh are both quite present and create a not unpleasant combination. I also feel like I’m getting the orange peel – definitely some citrusy type taste going on. I’m getting other stuff as well but considering I don’t even know what a “chameleon plant” IS there is absolutely no way that I can tell what it is. Although, the label sez there is carrot and it COULD be carrot.

All in all, despite the slightly offputting amount of stuff in this tea, the overall taste is actually not overwhelming and the combination of oolong, pu erh, and orange peel seems to be working well. Regarding the health benefits – it appears to have hit almost every single “health craze” button (whooo goji berries!) so therefore it must be healthy! It doesn’t have acai though. Perhaps I should demand my money back? I’m generally contemptuous of this sort of blatant gimmickry but as I said the taste isn’t bad and it was actually cheaper than some of the other teas (125 yen instead of 150) so…reluctant thumbs up!

I’m really not sleeping well, at all; I’m not at all clear on why, either. It isn’t that I cannot get comfortable or that the room is too warm or too cool. I just keep waking up at such short intervals that I get no real rest. So I need tea. Lots of it. And a sense of something cozy.

These Paklum Tips are the biggest, fuzziest, softest white tea I’ve ever seen.

The cup brews up a cheery, bright yellow which fades to golden brown.

The flavor is not as complex as some of the flat leaf white teas, but probably also not as fragile. Soft, fuzzy and mildly earthy, like the leaves themselves, this tea is like a gentle hug from a girl you used to have a crush on, years ago, and these days you’re just happy to see each other happy.

I can’t help but wonder if there is a problem with consistency from batch to batch with this tea, because the other tasting note speaks of broken, short tips. My leaves here are so soft they couldn’t break and they are quite long. Not a “silver needle” at all, just a bag full of fuzzy buds.