Featured & New Tasting Notes

This opportunity to try Andrews & Dunham’s Series 1 Nepal is brought to you by – Ricky! Which is great, because that was the one tea I really wanted to try out of series 1.

Others have described the leaves well – large, multicolored – but the liqueur is a lovely shade of amber gold. The aroma is fruity, spicy, and definitely reminding me of last night’s darjeeling blend. My first thought on tasting is – citrus? Orange? Not what I expected from a plain black tea. The “black tea” taste, in fact, is quite faint. There’s a tiny bit of astringency, but certainly not enough to be offputting; it’s growing as the tea cools, though. I think this was better hot.

I didn’t mean to brew this at such a low temp (I just didn’t warm the pot well) but it came out pretty nicely. I would NOT add milk to this one, though honey or a squeeze of citrus would likely go well.

I packed up 6 samples to go out to various members of the Steepster community and still have a couple to go…in the meantime, I decided to reward myself by steeping Napoleon.

I really cannot say that I am disappointed at all but my expectations get very high for some tea brands. If this were a TeaVana or an Adagio I would probably rank it close to 100. Keeping that in mind, the brew smells and looks rich, honest, and sincere. The predominate flavor that I get is a great solid black tea with generous vanilla overtones. As a lover of vanilla, I am certainly pleased. There’s nothing synthetic here, nothing cheap or cheesy.

Overall, I’m delighted and will almost certainly reorder unless I find a better black vanilla. TWG stands for “The Wellness Group,” by the way. I can most certainly see this tea promoting wellness. Named in honor of Napoleon, this tea makes me feel a bit more successful and a bit European!

ICED TEA: I put this on ice last night and the results are very pleasing. The appearance is cloudy (does not bother me but I might not serve it to guests) but the taste is delicious—the vanilla comes through loud and clear. Very nice!

Visited the Tea Zone in Portland yesterday and asked about any new teas of the owner. He stated they had some new Assam teas in that were not yet on the menu list. Great I thought! I asked for a malty one and he suggested this one. It comes in organic and non-organic, yet he states that their flavor profile is quite different between them because they are grown in different areas.

I tried this tea at my brunch there yesterday and liked the tea so much I bought some to take home with me. The leaf is very dark, virtually a black leaf. There are no tips in it at all. The leaf is cut but offers large chunks 1/4"+ in length. The brew is golden brown and reveals a bold flavoring. It has the malty flavoring but also has a bit of a yummy sweet potato flavoring along with other notes I can’t quite put a finger on. It’s a complex but delicious flavor. I’m really enjoying this as it’s yet another addition to my Assam collection that is different from my other tippy and malty Assams.

“The first cup is strong like love, the second bitter as life, and the third sweet like death.”

I always think of this quote when I drink a good Japanese green tea. Many Japanese teas follow this flavor transformation rather closely which can be surprising the first couple of times you make these teas if you are only used to black or oolong.

Depending on my mood, I go back and forth on my “favorite” infusion of this tea. Right now, I am totally going with the strong/bitter grassy flavor of the second, but the sweet and delicate third infusion is excellent as a summertime tea… which hopefully will be needed soon.

I just had a flash of brilliance(?): “50 Days of Sencha” starting in early June or something, drinking a different Sencha every day for 50 days. EPIC!

Roasty and toasty, indeed. I really like the flavor of this tea. It’s a traditional tasting oolong in every way except the final kick of roasted/toasted, nutty notes. The color of the liquor is so light…I’m surprised it packs this much of a punch. It reminds me of Soba-Cha, but much more complex. Medium to Dark roasted oolongs are my preference, and this one is one of the best ones I’ve ever had. It’s nice to have an oolong that tastes just like an oolong…none of the green/vegetal notes are present at all. I might have found the right tea for my brand new Yixing pot. Maybe…I’ve had it since Christmas and still have not decided on a tea. It’s a big decision for me. :)

Major props to TeaEqualsBliss for including this one in our swap. I have found a new gem! Yay!

Very delicious Rainy Monday Morning tea :) I love the natural sweetness. It’s so sweet dried fruit to me! I would think that it had some sort of addition to it if I didn’t know any better. Enjoying it with half and half and sugar.

I decided to do another steep (rainy! monday!) which does not work with all black teas, but this one was very flavorful – it’s no second steep of Jackee or Tiger, but it’s good!

Which leads me to ask – do you drink a black tea which has a really fantastic second steep? Do share :)

I’ll admit, the first time I drank this it was without anything added, and I didn’t see what the fuss was about this tea. But today I decided to try it with some skim milk. OMG – YUMMMMY!

It tastes so smooth and creamy with a hint of vanilla and the light sweetness balances out of pungency of the bergamot very nicely. I’m jacking the rating up a couple notches.

Hmm, the brewed scent is almost like sugared celery. I’ve never actually had celery with sugar—but it’s a fresh, stalky, sweet green aroma I’m sensing (strange for a black tea, I know). The sweetness deepens a little and gets toastier, upon cooldown. The vanilla has a soft and baked quality, but the flavor is faint. The black tea base is very mild and only slightly tannic.

This tea is fine. Nothing too extraordinary. An acceptable vanilla black tea.

A good choice for the conservative black tea drinker thinking to venture out unto flavored territory.

I had to see if I could replicate yesterday’s Jackee. Yes! Wonderful again. Now I have to worry about drinking him up too fast. Thankfully, Thomas has had two days of recovery from his harrowing evening half-drunk wanderings and should be up to going out again tomorrow.

2nd steep: 205° F, 5 min.

Crazy sweet and nectary and fruity. Makes me think of mango or pineapple or honeysuckle but with a faint undernote of hay – sweet but not as sugary sweet as the nectar sweetness going on, a bit of a more solid sweet. I’m bumping up my rating a little because this is fantastic.
5.7g/12oz

Mokalbari Estate was my morning black tea today. A strong Indian tea with a heady and delicious taste, I could recommend this as a reliable daily morning brew. The resteep help up and was strong but not bitter, even though I gave it a couple of extra minutes.

In very broad strokes, I tend to think of a new tea in four broad categories: 1) intoxicating and I want to reorder it immediately, 2) very impressive and I’ll keep it on my list to reorder. I want to drink it again, 3) What’s all the fuss about? This tea is OK, but I don’t get the rave reviews or the outpourings of adoration. I can live without it, and finally 4) What fresh hell is this? What travesty has ended up in my mouth?

Mokalbari Estate is certainly a 2. It inspires me to try more Indian tea and to move away from drinking too much tea that has Count Chocula, Froot Loops, and Kiwi Pineapple Breadpudding Wine overtones.

The American Tea Room provides really speedy service. I know that I’ve said it before, but it bears mentioning again.

I love how the gentle fragrance of jasmine fills my kitchen while this is steeping. One of my favorites, second only to sencha.

A wonderful tea! This is a fantastic Pu-erh it has a great bite and would be great for a coffee drinker try to quit that nasty habit! It has a great rich color and go’s very well with a nice savory breakfast. One of my favorites for sure!!

I am so excited to finally discover a product that tastes good and is super effective as a digestive. I would say that its also mild enough to have several times day. You can taste a hint of the chamomile but what really makes it soothing is the cardamom flavor. There are definitely more flavors hiding in there, but my palate is not sophisticated enough to identify those very well.
My boyfriend and I are big foodies and we have both found this tea to really help us with the bloating and being regular. So I think this one is really worth a try.

The only downside is that these teas are only available online as of now. I haven’t found them in any grocery or even tea store. However, their shipping is quite cheap. I cant wait to try the other teas in their gamut.

www.karmablends.com.

I’ll admit it – I sniffed this for a while. It smells creamy and like a tart raspberry or unripe blackberry. Oddly enough it brings to mind a thick, heavy but faintly lemony custard. I have no idea why this is making me think of lemon custard because I don’t think I’m supposed to. But I am. I should probably concentrate on the berry thought but I keep going back to lemon. Anyway. I smell a bit of warmish almost spicy that might be the rooibos. But it also might be the unripe blackberry so I’m going to say I can’t really catch any rooibos.

Once the hot water hit the leaves though, gak! Sour and berry and sour and wood and sour and rooibos all over the place. Noooo! But I shall soldier forward and wait for it to brew! Fortunately, once it has been fully steeped and put into my cup, the rooibos smell is much milder. The smell reminds me of this morning’s Marco Polo with a blop of custard in it. Not that I’ve ever put custard in my tea. I wonder if adding a little sugar would turn the custard into creme brulee because that would be awesome. Anyway, the rooibos is an infrequent back note hiding behind the custard. And now I’m just smelling it to put off sipping so here we go.

Huh. This is… pretty bland. It tastes maybe like a fourth steep of Marco Polo with a custard edge to it. How is this possible? As it cools, a little more flavor pops up but we’re talking third steep of Marco Polo or maybe a fairly week second steep. There is custard and berry and water. That’s pretty much what I’m getting. The flavors mesh nicely with the custard a little more towards the front and the berry a little more towards the back, but they overlap and flow well. And don’t get me wrong, I’m happy that there is virtually zero evidence of rooibos. But a little more flavor would not go amiss.

Okay, I refuse to rate this right now because I’m so mixed. If I can brew this tea where it actually tastes like a first steep and not a second, this could be pretty freaking awesome. But right now? Yeah, no so much.
3g/8oz

This was the first loose leaf black tea that I tried. It really showed me how different and “deeper” loose tea is vs. bagged. I wish I would have gotten the sample size. Yes, it’s enjoyable, but having read some other notes I discovered that I’m not fond of the malty aspect. And I’m a freak and don’t care for chocolate. So overall I think it’s a wonderful tea, it’s just not teagasmic for me personally. NE

First iced tea of the season! I used 4 cups of filtered water and 4 tablespoons of River Shannon into my pitcher, and put it in the refrigerator for 8 hours. I then made simple syrup (1 cup sugar, 1 cup water, put on low to medium heat on stove til combined into clear liquid) and chilled it. When 8 hours elapsed, I strained the tea into a carafe and added 4 tablespoons of simple syrup to sweeten it.

It was really good! I love the cold brew method – no bitterness at all and the tea, which is normally a “puts hair on your chest” strong tea, was mild and delicious. I once made hot brewed iced tea out of a Golden Monkey tea for company (only once because it’s too expensive to use doubled like that!!) and this cold brewed tea reminds me a lot of that!

We have almost drank all 4 cups! I think I’m going to do this again tomorrow and also throw in a bag of the Passion tisane for a fruity variation.

I agree with Teaplz! This tea blends the chocolate and hazelnut flavors very nicely. I didn’t like flavored teas at first and then found one or two that I liked. But CHOCOLATE tea sounded like an abomination to me! I didn’t think I would ever try any…until I read the description of this one. Also, the fact that I had just fallen in love with Vanilla Comoro gave me the courage to try Florence.

The chocolate is subtle but not hidden. I thought of Godiva chocolates with hazelnut filling when I drank this tea. It has enough body to be satisfying but not so much chocolate and hazelnut as to be cloying. Vanilla Comoro is still my first love, but I will be drinking this one when I want to switch things up a little.

Since Steepster is featuring Andrews & Dunham today, I thought maybe it was time for yet another debut for me. Because their Caravan is the third of the smokies that Auggy shared with me. I can’t actually remember what anybody has said about this one, which makes it a brand new experience for me. I’m expecting something Russian Caravan-ish.

Lovely smoky smell, but there is also a very sweet note here. Like syrup-y sweet. And something vaguely spicy.

As for the taste, OMG!

Oh! Em! Gee! o.O

So smoky! So sweet! SO GOOD!

It’s primarily sweet, as if it had sugar in it, and then the smoke is just rounding it off and preventing it from being too sweet. This is like SO seriously good. I’m all…

Excuse me, Steepsterites. I can’t finish this post. This tea and me, we would like to spend some time alone…

Thank you Auggy!!! (Again)

ETA: If I give it a double-lenght steep, I can get two good steeps out of these leaves. A bit thinner the second time around, but definitely still very nice. Little bit of cane sugar added to enhance the sweetness.

I do seem to have contracted a case of the mini-burps which is quite annoying, but hopefully not tea related…

This is the first tea I’ve ever tried from Den’s Tea! I bought the Green Tea Sampler for novices, a really cute kokoro (kyusu) teapot, and the sakura sencha gift set. I must say, I am so impressed with this sencha fuka-midori. ! I steeped it according to Den’s recommended brewing instructions. Delicious! I steeped it twice and shared it with my boyfriend, who is starting to like greens!

A great way to enjoy the mornings. There is enough in the sampler to make 2-3 pots!

Backlogging the epicness of last night with this tea.

Because Four Seasons, lemme tell ya, it’s epic.

I wanted something yummy. Something delicious. Something that has high marks, and that I could get a lot of cups out of. Enter oolong, which is quickly rising to become one of my favorite go-to teas when I want a sustained tea drinking experience.

So Four Seasons. It smells at first pretty non-descript, which I think a lot of oolongs have trouble with. It smells slightly floral, maybe juicy-ish, but mainly vegetal and not very interesting. The leaves are rolled into tiny, irregular pellets.

So I steeped this one up at first with boiling water, at 2 minutes. The smell coming off the cup was amazing. It’s one of those things that you want to breathe in, inhale, surround yourself with, become ONE WITH THAT CUP, cause yeah, it’s delicious. Buttery and full and rich. And the taste was pretty awesome, I have to say. It mainly tasted like flowers with a buttery edge. There were cocoa notes at points, savory end notes, and the hint of some sort of milk protein at the end of every sip. There’s a pretty heavy mouthfeel, which I’m enjoying immensely.

But I have to give it up to the Second Steep (3:00, boiling) which pretty much stole the flavor cake. Man. It smells just as strong, has that rich buttery color, but the taste pretty much throws this one into the OMG WANT MORE AMAZING category. Especially as this one cools. This one tastes lighter, but fuller, if that even makes any sense. The flavors are sugary sweet and overwhelmingly creamy, with milky notes that are in full force. The cooling effect only thickens the mouthfeel and brings the sugared-milk notes into prominence. The floral notes are still there, but they’re not as strong.

Steep Three (3:30, boiling) I probably should have done for longer. This one had a slightly thicker mouthfeel than #2, and was fairly similar to two, but had more of the savory topnotes that were in the first steep. I want to say this one tasted a bit “greener” than the other two.

Steep Four (4:40, boiling) had a much higher savory component, but a lighter flavor overall. There was an almost green bean taste to this one, that crispness you get when they’ve been steamed. But the flavors are pretty much muted, and the smell is a bit disappointing.

Steep Five (6:00, boiling) is where I ended. This one was even more savory than the last, the sugary tastes fading away, and oddly enough, I was getting the taste of fresh baked bread at the end of some of the sips. But this one was definitely not as flavorful as the past ones, so I dumped the leaves.

I really, really want to try this one with less-than-boiling water, as I feel it might be able to sustain those rich milk-buttery notes for a bit longer.

Also, I need to give a shout-out to the leaves because man, are they BEAUTIFUL. This is actually the first time I took leaves out of the pot to inspect and hold. They expand at such an exponential rate and unfurl so beautifully, that your entire pot is just completely stuffed with evergreen goodness. The leaves are all pretty much intact and full, and you can clearly pick out the buds with the leaves still attached. One was so big it took up half my palm (please note: I have tiny hands). But still, really, really awesome. The quality is just written all over this oolong.

So YES, SAMOVAR, YES. You have stolen my heart. Please keep it safe. Because I was in oolong heaven last night!

My Lupicia order came yesterday! I finally caved and bought a bunch of teas I’d been eyeing for a while, and ordered enough for free shipping and a catalog. :D

This was the one I was most excited to try. It’s got caramel and almond flavoring, two of my favorite things!

The dry leaf smells very sweet, to the point where I was a little bit cautious about it. However, brewed, it doesn’t smell quite as sweet. The scent of caramel is the most obvious, but there’s black tea behind that. It smells YUM. I can hardly resist drinking it as it’s cooling. But I must resist, or my tongue will burn. :P

It doesn’t taste nearly as sweet as it smells, but it’s got such a wonderful balance of flavors, and a lingering sweetness on the tongue. YUM.

Today is an exciting day! My Vanilla Assam is ready for consumption!!!

I took about 3 oz of Very Good but Nothing Earth Shattering Like Dear Thomas Assam (Premium Steap’s Assam Khongea FTGFOP-1) and cut into it a vanilla bean (one Extremely Intoxicating Nielsen-Massey Madagascar Vanilla Bean). Let sit for 3 weeks to a month, shaking whenever you remember, to infuse. When you make your tea, steep the vanilla bean pieces along with the tea leaves.

Ooooooooh it’s FANTASTIC! If you are a vanilla lover, you HAVE to try this! I guess because I used an entire high quality vanilla bean, the tea is just making me swoon with deliciousness! So much vanilla bean flavor and that slight smokiness. BUT – because it has no extract or flavoring, it’s delicate and really lets whatever tea you use shine. It’s old fashioned and home made and just wonderful. It is sublime for drinking and I think it would really be great infused into a vanilla tea buttercream frosting. I’d also like to play around with different vanilla beans with different origins – e.g. Tahitian Vanilla bean instead of Madagascar, and different teas.

This is a really tasty black tea that has a fresh, light taste. Brewed well, it made for a great daily drinker that literally gets gulped down.

OP (Orange Pekoe) teas are pretty much the most basic form of black tea. It is pretty much a medium grade of tea, making it affordable. Upton is charging only $5.20 for 200 grams for this tea. A good deal on a tea that makes a fantastic breakfast tea. There is nothing remarkable about this, but at the same time it manages to satisfy in a way that some better teas cannot. There is some special about “normal” teas like this that we find particularly satisfying.

We drank it plain, without milk or sugar and found it very refreshing. Drinking a pot of this was a great way to start the day.

For an inexpensive, everyday tea with a very fresh taste, this one is recommended.