139 Tasting Notes
One of the advantages of being a tea-nut is that it is easy to buy me birthday presents. For my last birthday, I got a gift certificate to the local (and sadly, only) tea shop. My tea cupboard is now overflowing and I am also slowly taking over another shelf in the kitchen.
Gift certificates are awesome! It gave me an opportunity to purchase some teas that I had never felt justified to purchase before -like the really expensive ones :)
Like this tea. – 2oz of this tea cost me what I usually spend on a full lb. Ahh…but I’d been wanting to try this for while, so I got a small bag.
I guess my main expectation was that it be so very good as to justify it’s high price.
The verdict? It’s good, no doubt about it. It is gentler than the Yunnans I’ve had before and less sweet. but a solid slightly-malty cup.
But it is not THAT good, not good enough to actually pay such a high price again. I like their regular (and much lower priced) Yunnan much better.
So how to rate this. Taste-wise, it really should get a high-ish rating, but the taste-price ratio is way off, which, I think, warrants a lower rating….
Just had the last of my supply of this tea.
I am feeling slighly anxious now. See, there are teas that I am not too sad when I finish the tin. They are good while they last, but that’s it. Then there are those teas that I immediately make a mental note to re-order as soon as the tea-budget allows.
Then there are a different class of teas. Those that make me a bit nervous not to have any on-hand. That I sometimes order more of even before they have run out, just so that I will not be without. Funnily enough, I don’t drink them daily. Sometimes not even weekly. But I get anxious when there is none at all, and I have been known to order them even sans-budget and against my better judgement, just to have some at home.
Yeah, I am, as stated before, clinically insane :)
So what teas are on this elite list? Orange Rooibos. A hearty Assam (haven’t yet found a specific type that I prefer, so just any Assam that I can have for breakfast). A dark Oolong (Shui Xian, for example). A ripe pu-erh. Harney’s Florence. Something vanilla (black or rooibos). A roasted Mate (currently having Fusion’s Good Morning Mate). 52teas Coconut Cream Pie.
AND TeaGschwendner’s Bossa Nova Oolong.
I’m not going to give this a numerical rating because I don’t often like fruity teas, nor do I usually like green mate, and so I feel unqualified to rate.
I got this tea as part of my huge sample order at Fusion and as one of many attempts to try teas I don’t usually like. There have been surprises before, Fusion’s Blueberry Rooibos, for example, where I didn’t expect to like a tea but ended up LOVING it.
But alas, not this time. The mate and the raspberry were quite dominant, and I didn’t get much of the cocoa. If you like mate and raspberry, this tea is for you.
I’m not giving up on this yet. I will now try it iced. Hmm…can you ice mate?
We love your openness to try new things. Mate is very unique and can be an acquired taste to some. Keep in mind, you want to use water no hotter than 180 and only steeped for 5 minutes or so. You don’t want a bitter cup. Sweetener can help mask any bitterness.
Mate can absolutely be iced but I would only drink roasted mate as an iced latte. Good Luck :)
Pumpkin! How can you not love pumpkin? Especialy when it smells so heavenly, of pumpkin, cinnamon and walnuts? Happily, it doesn’t end there, and it tastes as good as it smells.
Without additives, it is not very sweet, but very nutty. I imagine that it would be good with a bit of sweetener, to bring out that pumpkin pie tastes, but I like my tea unsweetened, so I left it that way. I will try it sweetened the next time I make this. For now I’m enjoying the pumpking goodness.
Well done Fusion Tea Room!
A big thank you to Jerry Ma and the China Cha Dao tea store for the samples.
My sample tasting has gotten off to an excellent start with this tea.
It’s very very good – sweet and with a sort of woodsy kind of taste going on too.
A tea with depth.
Three perfect infusions. The current, fourth, infusion is a bit weak now, but still good.
Recommended!
Preparation
I think I agree with the previous reviews of this mate. The chickory overwhelms the rest of the flavors. I got a lot of chickory, a little mate and almost no caramel taste.
Overall, not a bad tea, but not what I had expected.
I am having this with milk and it’s awesome.
I have finally put my finger on what this was reminding me of.
It’s chocolate cake, all right, but the honeybush is sweet in a different way from the chocolate. It’s sort of a fruity kind of sweetness. That’s it! It reminds me of aBlack Forest chocolate cakes – chocolate with cherries in the middle.
This is delightful!
Another amazing tea from Fusion Tea Room. Each one that I have tried has unique flavors, but none fall from the high standards that I am coming to learn characterize all of Fusion’s teas. This tea, when hot, is really chocolate cake. But not just. There is the sweet honeybush base that lends it’s distinctive sweetness. Put all together, it’s a wonderful cup! When cold, it’s more honeybush than chocolate, but that’s good too, because the honeybush is delicious in itself.
