Featured & New Tasting Notes

I’ve had three cups of Buccaneer and think that it is mis-named. Maybe it should be called “Shepherd” or “Vicar” or “Constable”. It’s not a tea for dashing pirates or for Edith Wharton-style young ladies who are intent on conquering European high-society. It’s a good tea for a crepuscular read of Barbara Pym. It’s a great tea to share with an early evening visit with your neighborhood curate. You will taste its tones of vanilla and coconut and they will be kind and gentle, unassuming and a bit timid—but they are indeed there.

I may not be entirely fair: I’ve observed that I am not good at doing “subtle” when it comes to teas. I want mad concoctions that rage in my mouth! Buccaneer is a mild and very servicable tea. You can steep it for a while and it won’t taste bitter at all. It’s a tea for kind, gentle, wise people and not for pirates and debutantes. It is a perfect tea as is and milk and sugar will not hurt it, nor will they be necessary.

SerendipiTea has great looking packaging and speedy delivery service and I’m looking forward to trying more of their teas.

This tasted full of honey notes. Really pleasant to drink.

Earl Grey in green tea? Never had it before, I was intrigued!
Chinese green tea, very strong bergamot. I love the scent, and the taste is very zingy-citrus, something gingery, and a hint of floral. Earl Grey is one of my favorites, but I usually have it black. Loving this Earl Grey Green combo because I feel I can taste the bergamot for itself, the green tea doesn’t overpower. It’s more like bergamot with tea, not tea with bergamot.
This one is yum!

Been sipping on this delight of a pot all day. . . .Indian White tea. . . white tea that’s not from it’s homeland. . but still a MUST TRY.

India has been slowly been hitting the white tea market with these teas. . .some are a hit and miss. . .but Earthbound really seemed to have found a winner. The perfect tea to end the work day with.

Had a mug of this today from a sampler packet I recently got. It’s the second time I’m sampled it. It claims to be a 2008 winner of some award so I figured it must be good. It is a strong blend as they claim. I’m not sure if I put too much leaf into my brew but it was strong, a bit too strong for my liking. Given it has Assam as one of the primary leaf varietals I steeped it 2:15 minutes and it still came out with quite a bit of astringency. It’s got a interesting malty and earthy flavor that I’m thinking their suggestion for adding milk might be in order. I also think rock sugar or at least raw sugar or Turbinado sugar might enhance this further. It was a bold wake up tea and while not a favorite I will give it some more tries making sure I measure it more carefully next time and try it with milk and sugar.

I like this more and more every time I drink it. The sweet, grassy, unmistakable taste of orchid married with smooth, creamy coconut gets me every time. Upping my rating!

So I just returned from the gym and a hard core workout that was fueled by some dark Yorkshire Harrogate which I am so in love with. But I needed a green soft tea for my palette and I chose this one because I’m running out of greens and its only 1 of 2 I have left. Genuis I know. I’m very pleased…I let the brew cool more which is what I’ve been working on lately after continuous attempts at sipping it hot and not getting a burnt tongue. Well my attempts were futile to say the least! So now I’m detecting so many different notes with this tea that I’m finally letting roll around my mouth and REALLY taste for a change. WOW! DUH. I thought I just liked everything hot hot hot, but I’ll leave that to The Cure for now. There is such sweetness apparent now! I taste a sugar cookie like taste with this tea and its really good! Subtle and sweet and just plain good. I’ve taken it thru 2 steeps already with great results and am hoping for a 3rd. Yum…just a delicate sweetness of a biscuit and honey…good times. Third times a charm right? Let me go see..

Finally. This is the first non-bag, non-Bigelow tea I’ve ever tried. It was wonderful! It’s the first tea I had my family try, using the Adagio UtiliTEA Kettle I bought them for Christmas, and I just might have converted these coffee-and-soda-drinkers to a healthier lifestyle. Thank you, Adagio, for potentially extending the lives of my loved ones.

Because of my incredibly satisfying first foray into non-bag tea, I am giving this tea the highest rating possible. Maybe one day I will look back at this tea and scoff at my naivete, with the disdain of a runway model toward her high school yearbook photos, but until that day, ignorance is bliss.

A nicely robust tea paired with creamy sweet vanilla. The vanilla is of a good quality, and I was delighted to see bits of the pod amongst the tea leaves. Extra cake like with milk and sugar :) A gorgeous treat on a chilly, rainy afternoon.

I love this white tea. Very light and crisp, but naturally sweet. This tea is relaxing and reminds me of a forest after a late spring frost. I can only appreciate that comparison having grown up around the woods. I love Samovar’s Osmanthus Silver Needle which gives me similar thoughts, but this white tea is lovely beyond words. Something very sweet, subtle, and even nutty about this one.

The tea is exactly as it claims to be: chocolate. This is probably the most chocolate of any tea I’ve had. It’s very good. It has a slightly odd perfumed fragrance as well, which I assume is supposed to be the “cream” flavor. It’s a good tea but somewhat monochromatic. If what you want is just this side of hot chocolate, this is a good place to go.

So. Pretty!

I’m finding that I really love the way teas with golden tips look. The black and gold just look so amazing and beautiful together… it really makes the experience all the more worthwhile.

Anyway, when I opened this little packet by GM this morning, I was hit with a lot of different and complex yummy notes. Earthy, fruity, dark, complex. Even some sweetness thrown in there for good measure.

The wiry leaves are very pretty; the whole thing just looks high-quality. So I steeped up a teaspoon of this in the IngenuiTEA. The leaves didn’t expand all that much, but they did unfurl a bit, and the resulting cup was a deep copper. Not as dark as some Irish Breakfasts I’ve seen, but still fairly dark.

On first sip I was in happyland. There’s actually a lot of complexity in this cup. It’s fairly smooth at the forefront of the sip, with lots of notes of fruit, and a slight subtle sweetness. As you swallow, a subtle maltiness presents itself, with just a bit of astringency. There’s a lot of the earthy flavors that are present in most blacks. I have no idea what prunes taste like, so I couldn’t find that in my tea. But I could see the cherry, and even perhaps some honey as an aftertaste. There is a mild sweet component to this tea, which I liked. It’s a fairly complex and subtle black by itself, so I don’t think this is one IB that you’d want to put milk into immediately.

Overall, I was a bit disappointed that there wasn’t more of a malty “kick” that I associate strongly with a good Irish Breakfast, but the interesting flavors that kept peeking out of this cup more than made up for that lack. It tastes like it’s high quality, and I think it could function on two levels: as a daily drinker, and as a fun, tasting journey as you try to nail all of those components that are highlighted in each sip.

I’ve had a cup of this a day for the past few days, with agave nectar and soymilk. Yum! It reminds me a lot of chai that way.

I’ll be back to regular tea consumption and logging once I’m home again!

Both of my boys love to eat pumpkin pie so I figured this would be a family hit. It was a nice holiday treat. I like how the chunks of fruit give a strong pumpkin taste without overpowering the tea flavor like so many pumpkin spice teas tend to do.

My alltime standard tea. Any time of the day with milk.

When I open the bag I have to make sure that I’m not mistaken and have an actual pina colada drink under my nose. Well not really, but you get what I mean. The scent is EXACTLY like the drink IMO.

The taste is quite realistic aswell. I’m quite distinctly picking up both the pinapple and the coconut flavoures, though it could perhaps use a touch of creaminess. I’m not picking up much of the honeybush right now except for a vague herbal background flavour, but then, I used the minimum recommended steeping time listed on the package, so there’s room for experimentation. I’d also love to try this tea with honey to see what that does to it.

You know how I LOVE MY MINT.

This is very nice.

Should have called it Hippie Tea. Minty and Earthy.

I’m going to go hug a tree now

Peace.

Lychees – yeah. Lychees! I have a love/hate relationship with them. I want to love them but have had mixed experiences with them. I had a raw-stand alone Lychee once and it tasted like paint thinner.
Anyhow…this tea is Nutty and Lychee-esque. Not much Black tea flavor. Not too sure about it…

It does smell fruity but it also tastes a little like glue…it’s that darned Lychee I tell you!

I’ll tinker with this one again some day…

This is one that will probably grow on me. After loathing licorice for most of my life, I’ve become a huge fan of it in the last year or two – not the sweet licorice sticks, but actual licorice root. This tea has a lot of that, as well as cinnamon bark and Indian black tea. The result is much creamier than I expected.

I can taste a slight bite from the cinnamon, but mostly this tastes like a creamy version of a licorice herbal tea that I have (and love). I wish there was a bit more of that refreshing licorice taste, but this is good nonetheless.

This is my knockout tea for night-time. When I can’t sleep, I just brew a pot up and by the time I’ve finished my first mug I’m groggy and off to bed.

It’s got a strong herbal flavor; I can really taste the mint and the citrusy lemon but beyond that the flavors all blend together. (That and I’ve never tasted most of the ingredients individually so I couldn’t tell you what they taste like, anyway.)

It’s called ‘Psychic’ because this tisane is supposed to open your mind to higher knowledge, or something, but it’s not an effect I’ve noticed. It gives me very lucid, vivid dreams though. That’s pretty cool.

Well, this one is actually really interesting, and I’m sitting here puzzled, scratching my head.

When I opened up the Golden Moon packet, it instantly smelled of gunpowder. That earthy, smokey, Rome-burning smell that I absolutely adore. I believe that Temple of Heaven is a higher grade of gunpowder, and let me tell you, the dry leaf was absolutely beautiful. Tiny little blue-green pearls. Way tinier than Adagio’s, and smooth and silky to the touch. So pretty!

So I dumped a level teaspoon into my IngenuiTEA and watched as the fireworks happen. This one’s pretty bombastic in the pot. It start with little bubbles, and then, within a matter of seconds after the hot water hitting the leaves, they start unfurling and writhing and wriggling like they’re dirty dancing.

In the cup, this one’s a honey hue, with a smell that can only be described as smokey gunpowder. So I lift my mouth to the cup and.. hrm. The smoke on this one is definitely lighter than Adagio’s blend. It actually is more seamlessly “one” with the tea flavors than a simple overlay of flavor. And while I enjoy that aspect of it, I wanted the smoke to come out a bit more assertive.

Then the oddity began. I’m picking up that mineral-like flavor and mouthfeel that I got from Rishi’s Jade Fire! The astringency is leaving my mouth dry, and there’s almost a briny component that I didn’t expect. As the cup cooled down, this element faded into the background (although there was still a high component of astringency), and the delicate smoke flavors became the prime focus. There’s a sweet green aftertaste that is really pleasant, but it’s almost a bit too mild.

In fact, I think overall the cup is too delicate for my tastes, and it falls into this bizarre crack. Gunpowder really isn’t a delicate flavor, so it’s strange to have it come across as a wisp of smoke instead of a cloud. Add to that the mineral/brine/weird taste that came with Rishi’s Jade Fire (which is another rolled tea, by the way, but it doesn’t have the smoke of a gunpowder) and you have me perplexed. It’s like if Adagio’s Gunpowder and Rishi’s Jade Fire decided to have a baby and the genetics got mixed up along the way.

Once again, another great tea morning with Tavalon’s Lemon Green. . . . the lemon grass is so faint in this tea; just the right amount to NOT overpower the tea with tang.

If you’re a white tea lover, I would suggest this tea. . . the green tea they use in this is so light. . .it tastes like white tea to me. . .also noticed that even if you put in more tea leaves than you’re supposed to, the taste still remains the same (have had this tea on numerous occasions to happen to realize this). It’s a super light tea for its rich-golden liquor.

My order of the Yorkshire Harrogate finally arrived! This morning is my first cup since that wonderful afternoon at the High Tea Cottage a couple of Friday’s ago. I would rate this as a nicely robust morning tea, although the highest caffeine bump I’ve received so far is by the Earl Grey himself from Taylors of Harrogate. Frankly I don’t feel like having my way with the Earl in the morning. ;)

Expect a nice bold English Breakfast flavor (finally what I had been searching for to replace my other gifted tea). Round out the blend with milk and sugar for a smooth start to your day. This tea holds up well to bold food flavors.

This tea is broken orange pekoe – a blend of Assam, Kenyan, and China black teas. I’m still trying to taste the Kenyan tea, I haven’t had a chance to try it on it’s own to see how it adds to the blend, but know instinctively it’s part of what makes up the tasty breakfast blend that I prefer. I can taste the china and assam quite evenly, so assume the kenyan has an equal or slightly lesser role to the blend. Overall the tea flavor rolls nicely across the tongue without any bitterness – provided your steep time is not overly long. I prefer 2 heaping teaspoons per 1 1/2 – 2 cups of boiling water. Steeping time on this was about 3-4 min, as I was eyeing the copper color and pulled out the tea the minute I noticed the color deepen to a dark coppery abyss. I’m upping my rating to a 100 as far as this English Breakfast blend is concerned for me personally. I’ve tried so many to great disappointment. Only to realize the unique blend I was searching for was china, kenyan, and assam. You would be surprised how many breakfast blends are all over the map with the blends of black tea they use. Just buying something that says “Breakfast Blend” is not a guarantee of anything anymore, and most packages will not specifically list what blend of black teas they use. So if you care about your breakfast blend that much, it pays to figure out exactly what about the blend appeals to your pallet and take note. Here’s to you wonderful tea drinkers, my relatable comrades. May our lives all be made richer in the exploring and sharing of all divine things tea. :)

been brewing this as slow brewed cold iced tea. love this tea – sweetness from the matcha green and the dried fruits added to the bag. also has all of the benefits of drinking matcha green tea. highly recommended.