Featured & New Tasting Notes

Hello out there! I’m going to be doing a bit of backlogging to catch up with my trip last week. (As much as I can, anyway: there was one tea that I looked at and thought, “No need to write that down! Surely I couldn’t forget a tea named ____ from the ____ company!” …Yeah. So, does anyone know of a maté tea in a teabag blended with several flavors including probably coconut from a well-known company?)

This was one of the teas available in the office, so I had it plain with hot water. It was tasty and sweet, but the problem is that I apparently use this exact blend of spices when I make tea eggs, so I kept expecting to the tea to taste like hard-boiled eggs. Of course, it doesn’t taste like hard-boiled eggs, nor should it, but the cognitive dissonance put me off what would otherwise be a rather pleasant cup of well-it’s-midafternoon-and-I-need-some-tea-at-the-office tea. It didn’t get too bitter when oversteeped, although it did get almost too strong.

I want to THANK SoccerMom for this sample! :)

Now that I have had one positive matcha experience I want to have more. I like Strawberries and some of the reviews on this flavored matcha got me wondering…

First, I have to say this smells AWESOME!!!! Reminds me of Strawberry Cheesecake!

The color is a brownish-green and VERY murky (but then again it’s a matcha!) I will saw that it dissolves VERY quickly!

The actual taste of this is good. But I can’t say I like it better than my Den’s Matcha Experience…that still takes first! BUT…I will say that I would drink this again! So…all and all…it’s pretty good.

Steep Information:
Amount: 3 tsp, one whole sample bags
Water: 22 ounces filtered, boiling
Tool: Cast Iron Teapot with Mesh basket strainer
Steep Time: a little over 3 minutes
Served: Hot

Tasting Notes:
Dry Leaf Smell: sweet mango candies (ever tried Hi-Chew Mango?)
Steeped Tea Smell: nice, fresh ripe mango
Flavor: nice mellow mango black tea
Body: Medium
Aftertaste: mango
Liquor: translucent orange-brown

This tea was one of 5 samples I received from thepuriTea. It arrived well packaged in pretty pillow boxes (see pictures for a side angle of the pillow box if you are unsure what I mean) with packing peanuts and business cards.

This, THIS is mango black tea. I have been hunting for a good mango black for MilitiaJim, as he loves mangos, and this is it. We both agree it’s a nice real tasting mango flavor that balances well with a smooth, not astringent or bitter, black tea.

I will be buying more of this promptly. In fact it’s on sale, via twitter;

@thepuriTea: The new site is live! We’re bringing it in with 10% off Everything for the first week! No coupon code. Happy Shopping! http://www.thepuritea.com/

Post-Steep Additives: German rock sugar, a pinch = bring the mango out more – I highly suggest lightly sweetening this tea.

Resteep: 5 minutes, added German rock sugar to start, just as delicious as the first steep – sweet mango and black tea with no astringency or bitterness

Images: http://amazonv.blogspot.com/2010/06/thepuritea-loose-leaf-black-tea-mango.html

A VERY OCTOBERISH TEA – This tea is unique because it has a very halloween flavor too it ( gotta try it when that time comes around ) I did drink it hot ( even though it was a million degrees outside) it was still refreshing because I’m freezing with the air conditioning inside so it evens out. The Pumpkin of this tea is like absorbed by the Rooibos and its very interesting. It has a spice to it as well ( maybe cinnemon)
I enjoyed it a lot, nothing less to expect from tim hortons, although I don’t drink coffee that often ( I did cave in to an ice capp earlier) because my mommy says it will stunt my growth and I’m still a growing boy ( 6ft 1) anyway I’m ranting.
This tea was awesome, will have again when I’m near timmy’s again! ( which might be soon because its walking distance from my house)
I’d like to thank all the steepsters/steepsterettes for the kind birthday wishes :) you rock!

What a delicious blend! I’m swooning with delight. Many many thanks to Angrboda for introducing me to this tea. I love smoky teas and this one refuses to wimp out. It’s a strong and serious drink with smoldering yet clear intentions. This tea offers uncompromising deliciousness to all lovers of smoky tea. Many Lapsang Souchong blends tend to add sweetness or lightness to the mix but this one reinforces and enhances the strong smoke.

Absolutely, devastatingly perfect—a tea to love!

The dry leaves of this tea are very beautiful, and have a fuzzy,soft look to them and are yellow golden color. This color changes to a reddish brown hue after being steeped. The liquor is smooth and has a medium mouth feel, right in between thin and thick. This tea’s liquor was quite spicy, reminiscent of black pepper and a tiny bit of cocoa

Want to read a more thorough review see my blog! :) http://wp.me/pQxcK-3p

Georgia Tea Company sent me a little bit of this and I’m eager to try it because most weight loss teas I have tried thus far have been very herbally tasting to me. Let’s see what this is like, shall we!?

First I must say – it smells WONDERFUL! :) The Papaya and Mango really MAKE it! Tea-wise I can smell the Oolong a little more than the green as far as the actual tea aromas go.

It’s medium brown in color.

WOW! This is nice! It’s hard to describe because everything meshes together so well. The Green Tea, Oolong Tea, Papaya, and Mango all come together to form it’s own taste, really. It’s just enough fruity and wood to notice both…it’s sweet and refreshing.

I really like this especially because it tastes good AND it’s for weight loss!!!! NICE!

The more I drink this tea the more I’m picking up the similarity to a Darjeeling. I find it interesting that two teas grown in different regions under different climate conditions could be so similar.

The aroma of this is wonderful! The color of the loose leaf mixture is gorgeous! I’m so excited to try this! Yup! YUM! This cup is HOT but I’m seeing a ICED one in the near future as well! This is lovely! The dry leaf smell tops the taste but the taste is sure up there too! Taste-wise mostly green tea – a sweet green tea – with lovely grape and cranberry notes. I can barely taste the raspberry tho. Regardless…very nice!

Teabag message: See the soul and divinity in everybody.
Right on :D

I really do love the smell of this one. Taste is not quite there. Its too watery for cocoa. Should be smoother and creamier…
I don’t mind having a cup of it here and there…

Oh and i wish Yogi Tea stopped putting licorice in their teas. It ruins everything for me…

/Accept Quest: Unimaginably Stinky Travel Mug

/Receive: (item)unimaginably_stinky_mug

/Travel: Campus Grocery Store

/Defeat Cash Register Mob (weak against: cash, credit cards, checks)

/Loot: (item)bleach, (item)banking_soda, (item)vinegar.

/Use (item)bleach On (item)unimaginably_stinky_mug For (time)8_hours

/Receive: (item)slightly_less_stinky_mug

/Use (item)baking_soda On (item)slightly_less_stinky_mug For (time)overnight

/Receive: (item)non_stinky_mug

/Complete Quest: Unimaginably Stinky Travel Mug

/Receive Quest Reward: 10 XP, (item)non_stinky_mug_full_of_delicious_breakfast_blend

/Rejoice!

(This was the last of my Bond Street blend, which means I am out of breakfast tea! Noooooooooooooes! My main feelings upon drinking it were: “this is nice, I miss Scottish Breakfast, though.” So…guess I’ll order more of that!)

It was past midnight, and I was reading the comments on this blog post on brewing oolong tea (http://themandarinstea.blogspot.com/2009/10/oolong-tea-brewing-now-and-then.html). For some reason the thought of having a suggested integer by which to calculate water:tea ratio really gets me excited, enough that I got out of bed to try it out. The recommendation for taiwan oolong was: “6-7 gr for yixing of 15 cl: brew 2-3 min, 3min, 3 min, 3 min 30 sec, 4 min…” So just for fun ( I KNOW, I am lame) I calculated 6 / 150 = 0.04.

Got out a 90ml clay pot and put in approx (90 × .04 =) 3.6 grams of tea. Off-boiling water. Best batches I placed as the ones at: 1st:65s, 2nd: 25s, 3rd: 35s. Ended my tasting there, but prepared one last brew just to measure and noted that I got 80mL of tea soup.

The results were tastier than what I would have gotten had I poured out earlier, which I usually do at the 30 second mark. Admittedly, I’m not familiar with this type of tea, but for me it registers as your basic taiwan oolong, with somewhat of a sour aftertaste. That was the notable thing for me, anyway. I feel I can’t really get a good feel for the nuances of the tea just yet, because for this one I used a newly opened pack of tea. It’s like when you’re traveling, I guess, and in a new country, and don’t really feel like yourself… Maybe tomorrow, after the leaves have ‘settled in’ their new atmosphere, I’ll be able to get a more true-to-character(?) batch.

One thing though. I think I’m discovering I like my teas to have just a little little bit of bite, that state juuust before they’re rendered oversteeped/too bitter. At least for the first brew. Maybe to wake my taste buds up, or warm them up. Then the second brew, I like a little lighter. When I sip I like it to feel ‘refreshing’. And for me that round is also the best tasting. Then mostly the third is just to top it all off. For thirst. To get that liquid inside ya. Yeah.

Probably not making sense not as it’s past 1 in the morning, heh. Anyway, will sleep on this, and try to recreate the setup tomorrow. Will also try with a gaiwan.

Gosh, sorry to sound like a total flake/nutTEA professor sciencey person wannabe. THIS IS WHY you do not tea log past midnight. >_<

Peace out.

Rose! Jasmine! Earl Grey! It’s like a fairy tea sister offered to send a magic tea with all my best loved flavors in it. Wait! This really happened!! Rabs sent this tea to me!!!! :)

I LOVE IT!!!!

If you too love these things, you HAVE to try this tea! It’s blended SO WELL. As you can imagine, all these fruits and florals together could be an awful, sickening mess, but this is PERFECT. Every single flavor comes through, but is subtle and delightful. I think the black Earl Grey is the anchor that holds this whole confection together. The rose and jasmine add just the right flavor and sweetness. Not a single solitary addition needed.

This tea is also very beautiful. Rose petals and buds. Green tea amongst the black. Long elegant leaves. This tea is a delight for the eyes as well as the palate!

I’ve been really good about not buying tea, but this one is getting bought as soon as the month turns!!! Love, love, love!

Oh, I really like this tea. I was not expecting to like this tea. I was expecting some kind of hibiscusy, bitter-crushed-up green tea, yucky herbal concoction. But the actual tea? It smelled like honey! Really! Like actual, from the jar, honey. And no hibiscus in sight! Along with the honey was a flowery taste, which I’m guessing is the ginseng. This tea would be any honey or sweet tea lover’s dream. I didn’t add any honey to my cup, but I’m sure this tea, with a bit of honey added, would convert any black/sweet tea drinker who thinks green tea tastes like water. This is a definite repurchase for me.

Doulton’s Shakespeare: A Tasting Note in 5 Acts
Act III scene 7

Four days will quickly steep themselves in nights;
Four nights will quickly dream away the time;
And then the moon, like to a silver bow
New bent in heaven, shall behold the night
Of our solemnities.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act I scene 1

My only experience with mulberries is with the nursery rhyme which as I prepped this tea I kept singing to myself: “Here we go ’round the mulberry bush, the mulberry bush, the mulberry bush. Here we go ’round the mulberry bush…mumble, mumble, er…mumble.” Yeah, I couldn’t recall the last part of the song. Internet to the rescue! Unfortunately the first one I pulled up had the more original “on a cold and frosty morning” and I became confused and questioned my entire childhood until I found the rhyme I’d been taught. I grew up with the “on such an early morning.” So yeah, I spent a long amount of time youtubing the rhyme and just checking out info on mulberries (wait, they’re not bushes — they’re trees? Childhood called into question all over again). All this is to say that I haven’t the foggiest clue as to what a mulberry tastes like.

Both the dry leaves and steeped tea have a fruity smell that sort of overpowers the tea. I’m guessing Ceylon. The taste reminds me of a “Xtreme Berry”-type gum made by Extra that I had tried years ago and hadn’t particularly cared for. It’s a pleasant tea, but nothing that I ever plan on purchasing. Sorry that I can’t really describe it more, but it’s just a fruity tea that leans a little toward the sweet side vs. the tart side of things.

All that said, I’m going to call this tea my Hippolyta from A Midsummer Night’s Dream. A character that says some nice things in the first act and then disappears for the most part until Act 5. Then she disagrees with her husband and sets him straight (which is a more agressive act than this tea would be capable of). A pretty much unremarkable part for an unremarkable tea. NE

I’ve been drinking this several days in a row as I’m out of my current chocolate chip tea and need to reorder soon. Yunnan Gold is a good Chinese tea — smooth with a bit of pepper to liven things up. I’ve been using a small amount of sugar in my tea lately because I’ve been so tired, so the sugar actually brings out the rich flavor of this tea (despite me not wanting to use sugar usually).

This is an excellent tea. Try it.

The little girl across the street is having a birthday party on the lawn – it is in turns adorable (They are all in pink! They are all screaming!) and horrifying (They are all in pink! They are all screaming!). I had a Pavlovian response and started craving Marco Polo with cream and sugar – aka Good Bakery Strawberry Shortcake tea – aka my childhood birthday cake tea. This is so good. It is so powerfully nostalgic that I can only have it every now and again lest it break my heart! I can’t stop thinking about my grandparents who are gone, the old neighborhood which is gone…Gah! Who would imagine a mere cup of tea could send you off like this!!!

Another TeaFrog sample, since I’m on an Assam kick this morning.

Fascinating. In the sample packet, the tea smells fruity! Like cherry or some kind of berry flavor. Not quite as tippy looking as the Teavana or the Teas Etc., but still quite pretty.

The steeped aroma has a hint of fruit too, which was unexpected, but nice. It’s got a smooth, slightly sweet character. I’m now more convinced than ever that the Teavana Assam Gold Rain’s bakiness was an aberration in flavor. It must have been the batch I had.

It brews a little darker than the Teas Etc. Assam Reserve, and leans more toward medium bodied. It’s not particularly sweet, and I don’t get maltiness (as I think of maltiness), but there’s something very nice about it. It’s just a good solid black tea, without anything at all offensive about it, but without much to distinguish it either.

Backlogging from yesterday.

Took an iced matcha latte with me to a lecture. VERY effective at keeping me awake (not to rag on the lecturer but it was kind of..disjointed) and focused on figuring out how exactly idolatry, orientalism, and the debate between monotheism and polytheism fit together. (I figured it out eventually, but only at the very end).

Edit: Oh yah, I have bought the necessary booze for a matcha-tini, so I should have my (hopefully coherent :P) impressions of that up tonight!

It was a nostalgia thing that made me pick this one up. When I worked in an indie movie theatre, I often went for it during my breaks. I thought maybe I just didn’t know enough about tea back then, since it didn’t taste particularly special. Thus I tried it again.

Nope. Same thing. I keep on thinking it will be amazing, because the tin itself definitely smells like, well, vanilla almond. And I like anything with one (or both) of those scents. And the smell tempts me when the mug is sitting on my desk, untouched. But I just don’t taste it in the tea. There’s something in the aftertaste… but if I can’t figure out what it is, well… not a good sign.

Okay…so…first things first…70+ points just for the concept and photo of the snowflakes on the lake…(see pic in description)…neat, neat, neat!!!! :)

A while ago I used to not like Jasmine Teas. I think it was because I had OLD Jasmine or Over Infused Jasmine because once I started really trying to taste them for what they were…JASMINE…FLOWERS…I started to appreciate them more. OR maybe, I was just getting more serious about being a tea reviewer than to totally discount it!? Not sure…but…regardless…on to the review of THIS tea, shall we!?

Yes…Intense JASMINE scent. Very much so – Before, During, and After Infusion. While the green tea leaves were infusing all I could think of was seaweed or water plant life going with the flow of the water. It was a very cool experience to watch it. It lives up to it’s description because the petals do rise to the middle and top of the liquid that is steeping. It really does give it the affect of snowflakes on a lake. It’s lovely and a brilliant idea for a tea.

The taste is VERY Jasmine…VERY FLORAL…with a pleasant aftertaste…it’s NOT bitter at all. I really like that!!!! It almost has a sweeter or juicy ending…NICE.

I read a previous review making special note on the 2nd infusion…I am going to put it to the test…stay tuned. A VERY quick thumbs up for this tea! What an experience!

I rarely buy flavored black teas because I feel like the black tea overwhelms the flavoring (and often a cheap black tea is used as the base and it’s too bitter). This tea is really really good, though. I love all things maple so I couldn’t resist trying this one.

The smell in the bag is maple-pecan and no scent of the black tea at all. Once brewed, I can taste the black tea but it doesn’t overwhelm and is not bitter. And, oh boy, is the maple flavor present!

3 for 3 with Fava teas!

Brewed 2 tsp to 8 oz for 4 min.

I’m in the mood for a yummy yummy tea. Lets go check if it will impress me like last time…
Its still awesome. Only thing i would change is licorice root. I don’t like licorice. I find it weirdly sweet. I’d take it out…
I can luckily just barely feel it in this tea so its still great.
Sooo tasty…

Oh and lol the ziploc bags that i ordered so i can send people samplers came in today. They are tiny hehe. I totally got it wrong. They can fit tea like just enough to make one cup – two tops. But i do have 500 of those now :D Oh well i’d be surprised if it wasn’t me.

I have for many years been a big fan of Mark T. Wendell’s Hu-Kwa tea. So I decided to give this one a try. I loved it. The blend is excellent, with just a note of smokey Labsang Souchong, great for afternoons when you’d like a tea with some body but not as strong as Labsang Souchong. I also love it in the morning. This one is a permanent one in my collection.