Featured & New Tasting Notes

Today has not started out all that awesomely. Had issues getting up, kitties decided that the light timer in the bedroom didn’t really need to come on, ended up running late and then I went into the kitchen to make tea before I was (finally!) out the door and oh no! The Zojirushi was not plugged in! Augh! Either I forgot to plug it back in after refilling it last night or one of the cats had gotten on the counter and managed to unplug it. Either way, water for tea was not ready. So I boiled some. Which meant I was really running late but hey, I can’t be without tea.

I decided to try this one with a little sugar and milk since I haven’t yet. I used a teaspoon-ish of sugar and maybe a teaspoon and a half of milk for my 12oz. Something like that. And OMG, why didn’t I do this sooner? So good. Have you ever taken frozen strawberries, sprinkled them with sugar, poured a little milk over them and then eaten them with a spoon? That’s what this tea was like. But instead of regular strawberry, this was a tea strawberry. Tea-berry. Straw-tea? Strawbetea? Strea?

Anyway, it was a perfect blend of tea and strawberry dropped into a bowl, sprinkled with sugar, splashed with milk… and served at boiling. Okay, so not exactly like frozen strawberries with sugar and milk but that’s what it made me think of and it was so good. Fresh and tart but still sweet and dessert-y. The fresh berry taste was still there and kept this from being overwhelmingly sweet but the sugar and milk (okay, half and half) added a great dessert quality to the drink.

The tea didn’t make me show up to work any earlier or make traffic bend to my will or anything but I sure was in a better mood while dealing with all that and I was smiling when I showed up late to work. So go tea!

In yesterday’s mail, a card full of tea arrived from wonderful wombatgirl! Inside the card was written in large black letters

Tea.
Earl Grey.
Hot.

I of course got the HUGEST kick out of that, being an Earl Grey fan and a Picard fan :) The card is now on my desk here at work turned inside out so that the words show!!! I am so happy that I am getting to try A + D Damn Fine Earl Grey!!! :)

It is an absolutely delicious Earl. I love whatever bergamot they used, and the concentration is perfect! Not too much, not too little. I am absolutely crazy for the tea base! It balances so well with the bergamot – and adds a really great foundation. Anyone know what kind of tea was used?

I really didn’t want to like it as much as I do! Damn A + D and their Damn Fine Teas! Now I have to go and get series 3! SHEESH!

Rishi Tea just announced their arrival of this year’s Sakuracha!!!

I have been meaning to try this for ages now! I have tried the Sakura versions of other brands, and they have left me bitter (emotionally, not in flavour profile) due to the fact that they taint my delectable, pure Japanese teas with flavourings.

Rishi keeps it simple. Sakura blossoms and a high quality sencha. Beautiful! I completely love it!
In the past I have loathed sakurachas (probably due to how the artificial ingredients would bring back not-so-fond memories of cherry varieties of cough-syrup.)

The flavour is very difficult for me to describe because it is so unique. It is a very full, smooth Japanese tea. Very little astringency in comparison to others! Almost a creamy mouthfeel? Lovely. And beware, this tea must be FRESH, because it brews quickly! Lessen the recommended steeping time a bit.

Sorry I’ve been neglecting my Steepster account friends :) Work has taken over my life lately! But I’m going to make a comeback today ;) Hope everyone’s well!

Oh! And on Rishi’s site, they are selling a Sencha Sakura + Tsuki Teapot combo by the way! I didn’t need the Tsuki Teapot because I already own one, but for anyone looking for new teaware, I highly recommend it! My Tsuki Teapot is my favourite teapot that I own, and it’s not at all expensive. Perfect for Japanese greens!

I am a fan of Japanese greens. I scored this as a sample with a purchase of TKY from Lupicia. Im always a bit iffy with Gyokuro, because they are very picky about the brew, and I become lazy to brew it with the right amount of patience.

I brewed this in a 12 ounce kyusu, with obi-ami mesh. Went extra careful with the water, and brewed it at one minute ascending brews, stopping my pour half way through, swirling the tea around quickly around the mesh and finishing the pour. Over all it drew up a bit more than four cups, if you want bolder flavour go with two minute ascending or tinker with the seconds. I try to just pass one brew with Gyokuro, most of the time the pickiness can’t handle another draw, and I rather not play by the clock with a Gyokuro.

Like any Japanese green it has a vegetable profile, but I agree that it is a soft, more “friendly” Gyokuro, not the menacing green giant in a cup ready to smack your mouth with its’ almost overwhelming beta-carotene rich flavor! The cup drew light green, granted a enjoyable fresh glasslike scent and delivered a flavour that glides through your mouth with a oceanic finish, leaving you wanting to tilt the cup again, I consider it refreshing.

Starting on a Gyokuro? This wouldn’t be a bad choice for a starter in my opinion. After the sample I would try this again if i was in the mood. It’s a great tea.

My husband loves the Decaf Orange Pekoe I buy for him when I go out of town – no decent tea stores in our town! – but since I needed an online source I tried this one. Amazingly, he liked it, and unlike Mikey who will eat anything, my hubster is pretty picky. He couldn’t tell the difference between this one and the slightly more expensive one I buy loose. I am relieved to have a source for his night-time tea! It is mild and round as I like my Ceylons to be, no bitterness, didn’t notice any astringency which is a big plus since my family tends to dislike astringent teas, and it goes well with a light snack. I drink it with just a wee bit of sugar, hubby and DD add milk and LOTS of sugar but that is how they drink all their teas!

How’s this for a drink? 1 tea bag, 6oz milk, 2oz cold coffee concentrate, 1TB white chocolate coffee creamer.

I not only needed to compensate for the milk and creamer, but also the 2oz of extra liquid so I bumped the steeping time up to 7 min praying it wouldn’t get bitter.

No bitterness- YAY! The coffee flavor is strongest which kinda surprises me since my normal coffee/milk ratio is 2:4 (oz), not 2:6. The chocolate comes next just as it would in a regular cafe mocha flavored by syrup. The milk provides a texture and a mouth feel instead of an actual flavor (yay!). The pu erh, spices, and white chocolate are there, but play supporting roles to give the drink complexity and depth preventing the chocolate from being flat.

I’ve not had not had a great week before walking into my local T-bar and had decided to choose something to invigorate the body and the soul. I thought long and hard before deciding on trying a tea introduced to me by an old friend only a year or so before. Robert promised the heaven and the stars in this tea and I think he may not be wrong. The first steel of this tea provides a beautiful golden honey liqour in the cup which can only be described as heavenly. Like a good aged wine the tannins, although delicate, provides a smooth mouth and mossy nose.

But wait there’s more!

This tea continues to evolve with each consecutive steep, in this case 3-4 maximum. This is a great tea to enjoy time after time as every cup is different to the last.
Alas this is not the best example of Pai Mu Tan it is still worth searching out.

I fully expected this to be the worst tasting of all the flavoured green teas I tried today. The aroma of the leaves was worryingly strong, but the resulting infusion was surprisingly nice! A lovely and incredibly delicate vanilla flavour, with no green taste whatsoever. Vanilla fans or those who enjoy white teas will love this!

WOW.

Perhaps it is merely sense memory, but I swear this tea is textured like a perfectly ripe pear.

This is so good!

I’ve had the black tea version of this and really enjoyed it. But this is the rooibos version. [insert dramatic music here] I’m a little nervous but mostly intrigued because the dry leaf smells awesome. Sort of perfume-y but in a good, vibrant but soft citrus-y way that makes me want to keep sniffing. It’s a little spicy, like a citrus-floral pepper. I can’t stop sniffing this. Every so often I get a hint of warm woody (but not sour) rooibos so I have hopes that this will be another rooibos that my brain allows me to enjoy.

Post-brewing, the citrus smell has turned into almost a feeling – a fresh tingle as I inhale over the cup. There is a little smell of woody rooibos, but not sour and it’s very mild and seems to blend with the spice smell/feel of the tea.

Sipping, this is pretty gentle. I made this a little thin on the leaf by accident so that might be some of it, but I think for the most part, it is just a gentle tea. Soft and relaxing. Citrus-y and light with a clean and woody taste seeming to anchor the light floral citrus. I’m not really tasting much of any spice just floral, almost perfume-y, citrus and light wood. The wood taste is actually quite nice – like smelling a board of pine that’s clean and sanded smooth – but not recently because it isn’t strong at all but maybe a few weeks ago. And since then it has been sitting in a cold shed outside, close to nature but all cleaned up. Or maybe I’m just projecting childhood memories of how my dad’s workshop would smell in winter when it was too cold to be out there even with the kerosene heater on. Like woodwork happened there once and would again. But getting back to the tea…

The flavors overall are very soft but not delicate. And even though it is light and floral and citrus-y, it manages to be a warm, cuddly tea – partially because of how the flavors combine and I think also partially because of the rooibos woody base. I don’t think this tea is for everyone – I imagine quite a few people would feel like they were drinking perfume. But I kind of like it. It’s basically a soft, floral Earl Grey but not the typical Lady Grey take on a floral EG.

My last sip was forgotten in my cup for a bit so it got pretty cool. I think that’s the reason why it was 90% rooibos. So I like this tea better warm when the flavors really show up and the rooibos is in the background, but even that last sip was pretty good. Noticeably rooibos with hints of floral citrus instead of the other way around. I think if the whole cup has tasted that way, it would have been too rooibos-y for me to enjoy but as it was, I quite like it.

::gasp:: Another rooibos I like! This has to be a sign of the Apocalypse.
2.5g/8oz

I have been drinking mostly white tea lately and the last black tea I drank was Adagio Chocolate which I didn’t give a favorable review. So it was refreshing to have a black tea and this was a great tea to try. With some teas I have to try the companies suggestion and then maybe tweak it a little to get the taste I want, especially with black teas. I’ll have to say following the instructions for Yunnan Jig worked great and it had a pleasant taste with a subtle aroma. It is perfect with cake, pie, or a cookie dessert and I give it two thumbs up

Note: I will try this tea again after drinking more black teas because it is quite possible drinking mostly white may make this taste better than it did. When I do I will post an update here

I ordered this by accident, thinking it was regular sencha.

I typically avoid “blended teas” – they tend to perfume or mask the tea’s natural flavour. Citrus-based blends especially have not been kind to me. This however was an entirely different experience. It’s a strange balance of “mellow” and “refreshing”. I find myself addicted to this refreshing experience. I ordered more. It’s a nice departure from the usual.

1min 30seconds, 175F 10-14oz of water, 1 teaspoon. Good for multiple steeps, though it tends to lose that fresh edge after the second steep. 4 steeps depending on your palate, though you should start incrementing steep time by 15-30 seconds each subsequent steep.

I have yet to try the “suggested brewing instructions”, which is 2 tablespoons over 16oz of water for 2 minutes. Seems a bit much to me.

The leaves of this tea are a pretty good size and produce a honey/citrus colored liquid rather than a typical green tea color. The smell is very clean with a hint of bergamot, which is consistent with the description.
The tea is very smooth and clean like some greens, and thankfully, the bergamot covers up any of the typical grassy, bitterness that may be present. That is wonderful for me because that quality is what I dislike from green teas and why I generally steer clear. This is actually really good. I have found that I can get at least 3 infusions that are very consistent in quality and flavor. I will try pushing that limit a bit – if this tea can handle more than 3, the rating will be raised.

I tried this tea a few times, the final opinion is still out on it though. I do really enjoy chocolate peanut butter cups. The odor of the leaves is definitely black tea and chocolate with a slight hint of peanut butter.

The brewed tea, hot, 3 minutes, no additives, smells very fragrant, very chocolatey. However, not so strongly of peanut butter. This holds true in the flavor also, definitely taste black tea and definitely taste chocolate, but no peanut butter.

I tried it again, hot, 5 minutes, pinch of sugar, splash of milk and I got a creamier slightly peanut butter flavor, but still more chocolate than peanut butter.

I do wish the peanut butter was stronger, I think I might be able to get the flavor I want out of it, but I am going to have to try a few things. Consider this an initial rating, hoping to perfect the tea and give it a better rating.

Still recovering from yesterday’s migraine so while I have Maeda-en’s Sen-Cha Fukamushi Reserve sitting on my counter, crying out to be made, I need something softer. So I made a big cup of this up.

Making it up in a cup this large (and with an in cup filter, not in my tea pot) seems to have made the taste a tad murky. But it’s not bad at all. My cup got emptied very quickly so I’m not going to complain. Well, not about the taste or drinkability. Can I just take a moment to complain about the leaves?

There are stems in my leaves. Huge, two or three inch stems. And broken leaves. And they all look unshiny and unhappy. The leaves disappoint me each time I see them. But, the taste that comes out of those leaves? Pretty good. Very drinkable.

Overall, not a fancy tea but a good daily type tea. Shines a little more in a smaller cup.
6g/12oz

At first taste this tea is definitely more pomegranate than green tea. However, with consecutive cups, it definitely is more balanced (i don’t know if that’s just the tongue assimilating to the citrus of the blend). I also had this with a cilantro chicken salad and it was an awesome pairing. The tea goes down very smooth and has a slight tinge of cherry (like that weird zing… stop me if i sound crazy).

I had this tea iced and enjoyed it very much unsweetened, but i feel that the addition of the sugar would help bring out the sweetness of the pomegranate and override the cherry-esque-ness.

This tea looks so pretty but tastes kind of…blah. Don’t let the pu-erh scare you away if that’s a factor for you not trying it. You can smell the pu-erh, but it’s not over the top taste-wise. It’s earthy and minty…and smells very cinnamon-y, but I do not taste too much of it. This does leave my mouth clean and minty as any good mint tea should, but this one is lacking in the taste department. It’s thin and weak despite having a very dark liquor. It should be called Pu-erh Mint because I taste absolutely NO vanilla. Rishi’s description (all of it) is WAYYY off on this one.

This tea might indeed benefit by being brewed like a chai, but I recommend saving your money for Samovar’s Moorish Mint instead. Mmmm….Now that tea can do no wrong.

I enjoyed every cup of Thomas Sampson, even though it gives me the caffeine jitters afterwards. For the last cup I used honey and a splash of coconut milk to soften the blow of running out. They’re not kidding about stopping at 4 minutes. I left it a few seconds extra and it was definitely a few seconds over. Still, a lovely tea.

Yum!! I was looking forward to something interesting this afternoon, and when flipping through the samples, this one caught my eye.

The dry leaves smell just like maple cotton candy. It was one of those smells that you know won’t exist in the actual tea, but is really nice out of the container. As the tea steeped, I realized the leaves were Really Big. (Seriously, check them out: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lauren_pressley/tags/sugarcarameloolong/show/) I pulled out a few for the photos, but will resteep the rest a few times to see how this holds up.

The tea itself is definitely sweet, but doesn’t taste sweetened (if that makes sense). There is a clear sugar and caramel flavor, though I’m picking up floral notes as well. It still smells of sugar, but has the grassy taste you’d expect from an oolong.

So, this one is a winner for me! I might just have to get a canister… looking forward to seeing how the resteeps go!

I finally was able to try out my new tea thermal! I ordered the Copco tea thermos (http://www.amazon.com/Copco-2510-4600-Tea-Thermal-Stainless/dp/B0028N6OLQ/ref=pd_sbs_k_1) which has a twistable infuser so you can stop steeping without having to dump the leaves. Unfortunately the inside of the mug is plastic, not steel…deceptive, because the outside is stainless steel!

Anyway, I decided to christen the thermal with one of my favorite teas, English Breakfast by Twinings. I heated the water and milk to boiling, put a little under 3 teaspoons of leaf in the infuser, added some Splenda and honey, and let it steep for a few minutes. The first thing I noticed was that the tea is HOT! And it refused to cool down until like an hour later…good if you’re planning on packing your tea for a long trip, but bad if you’re impatient like me :(

I’ve never made English Breakfast outside of the Zarafina, so it might have just been my weird steeping methods, but the tea did not taste very good. It actually tasted a lot like Irish Breakfast tea does…malty with notes of brown sugar and, um, sweet potato. I didn’t taste the delicious caramel-honey flavor English Breakfast with milk and honey usually gets. I don’t know if I added too much leaf, or oversteeped it, or if the temperature was off. I’m increasing the rating a little, just because before today, this tea has never let me down.

Steep Information:
Amount: 4 tsp mix
Additives: 1 tsp german rock sugar
Water: filtered almost boiling water, 1 teapot
Steep Time: a little over 2 minutes
Served: Hot

Tasting Notes:
Dry Leaf Smell:
Steeped Tea Smell: jasmine and fruit
Flavor:
Bobbie: OMG too much sugar
AmazonV: floral, fruity, sweet
MilitaJim: fruity, generically tropical
Body: Light
Aftertaste: no
Liquor: deep translucent reddish orange

My friend Bobbie came over with this pre mixed from Teavana, so we didn’t even have to mix our two separate bags of tea we had ordered online.

The tea is not very distinct in it’s flavoring, it’s just a fruity floral light tea. We all still love this mix, but it doesn’t hold the complexity or distinct flavors you would expect from a well proportioned mix.

Post-Steep Additives: none

Resteep: lost track of the time, had to leave it on a while to get flavor, the jasmine is much more pronounced in the second steep, but still a very generic fruit taste.

images:http://amazonv.blogspot.com/2010/02/teavana-loose-leaf-green-tea-and-red.html

I had to go to a workshop today at the Orlando Convention Center, and they had a coffee shop there that carried this tea. While the tea was brewing, it smelled just like the cinnamon brooms they have in the grocery store in the fall. I had mine sweetened, with just a little bit of skim milk. It was deliciously spicy and hot. I’ll be adding this to the shopping list. I couldn’t really taste much tea, but the cinnamon was so good!!

I have been thinking I was looking for a vanilla tea. NO, I have been looking for hazelnut and Ceylon tea. I got my samples from Adiago today. I opened each tin and sniffed. Good smells from the two oolongs, but when I got to this one, I stopped and made a pot of tea.

The smell is intoxicating. The brew is a light black tea and the hazelnut definitely adds a dimension. Not too overpowering, just a nice complement to the Ceylon. I added milk and sugar and downed that pot instantly. I drank the second pot without milk and sugar. I like it:)

Not sure about the brew time or the temp of the water. I normally only brew tea 3 minutes. The tin recommends 5 min with water 212 degrees…so I will have to play with this and see what I like best. 3 infusions later, I really love this tea. I do think that the water does not need to be 212 degrees and 3 minutes is an adequate brewing time. But I will continue to experiment with my sample. I can tell I need to place another Adiago order soon, the sample will be gone in a few days:))

I just got this in the mail today and was so excited to try it! It smells like Rice Crispies cereal with a bit of Fruity Pebbles mixed in—yummy!!! :)

The taste kind of reminds me of a Green Tea Latte from Starbucks (which is matcha with steamed milk—I ask for it without the melon syrup sweetener). There is a “Fruity Pebbles” element to this which is interesting—I’m not sure how I’m getting the fruitiness—maybe it’s the malt flavoring?

I really like this! It’s a milky, creamier genmaicha. I will definitely order more because I can see myself drinking this everyday.

52teas, please make this a part of your permanent collection!!