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Just finished a bag of this tea. I ordered it just to see if it was any different from the ones I get at Chinese Restaurants :P. Well, I guess they are of higher quality, but since I know that I’m not the hugest fan of flavoured teas it was nothing but an ‘alright’ tea. I’d take Gunpowder or Dragonwell tea over this any day, and perhaps that’s why it took me so long to finish this 100g bag. The tea is good for up to 3 steeps, but be careful to watch the steep times since the jasmine flavour can be quite overpowering if steeped for too long. 2min/3min/4min was ideal for me.

Although I enjoy tea in both loose and bagged forms, I never thought I would buy Red Rose. I tried the regular Red Rose before, and it was pretty bad. Colored hot water seems to be as descriptive as I can get. Well, when I saw the Canadian Breakfast version at the supermarket, the name kinda grabbed my interest and I thought I should try it. When I opened the package, I was actually surprised with the amount of tea in each bag, and I liked that because I like my bagged teas to be strong. After it finished steeping, the colour of the liquor was a dark red, and it seemed only promising. After I added milk and sugar as I always do with bagged teas, I took a sip and was met with nothing but disappointment. The flavour is seriously lacking in strength, and whatever you can still taste is pretty one-dimensional. It was a sad letdown. It ain’t a Canadian Breakfast, but more like a watered-down English Breakfast.

Preliminary taste note. Feels like this tea is a tad bit overrated. Although I was completely stunned by the aroma of the dry tea leaves and even the liquor itself, the taste fell way short of the high bar set by the smell itself. I certainly get the vanilla, and it highly resembles a Maple tea I had before for some reason. The black tea base though I can’t really feel much of, and I guess that’s a result of the decaffeination process. I’ll try adding milk next time and see how that goes.

Edit: My rating for this tea has gone up a bit over time. Although I the vanilla flavouring isn’t stunning by any means, it is a good relaxing tea to have during late nights due to its decaffeinated nature.

Long time no see Steepster! Well I have been coming to this site on and off but it’s certainly been quite a while since I actually sat down and decided to put some notes down. Well one factor in making such a decision is that I got this particular green tea from Teavivre as a sample, so I wanted to make a note of how I felt about this tea before it was all gone. Looks like I’ll have enough for two more teapots, and I must say that Teavivre was quite generous with the amount they put into that little package.

So, how DO I feel about this tea? Well, I’ve always heard good things about Dragon Well teas but their high price tag kept me away from actually ordering them. This is the first time I’ve tried it and I must say I’m quite impressed. First off the liquor smells like a mix of vegetables, hard to pinpoint what vegetable exactly, but it’s there. You also get a hint of bitterness from the smell. The taste is quite different, resembling rice or even toasted sesame seeds. In one word, nutty. Not much of the bitter taste coming through, although you can sense it if you pay close attention. Mouth feel is incredibly smooth, almost velvety. I can see why Dragon Well is highly praised. I’m happy to know that there are green teas out there that I can learn to love besides Gunpowder green tea, which is currently one of my favourites.

Wow, this one really needs a long steep time. As I was used to the usual 3 min. steep time for BOP grade black teas, I made the mistake of understeeping this one resulting in a somewhat weak cup. When steep time was increased to around 5 min., I could really feel that nice “kick” you usually get from coffee. Of course, there was some astringency with this cup, but it was not unpleasant at all. I still can’t get much of a malty flavor though, which is just a limitation of this Assam blend I guess.

I remember my obsession with tea beginning back in winter of 2008. I came down with a severe case of strep throat and it literally felt like I was swallowing razor blades, and I was just miserably sick. Besides getting antibiotics, I also got some lozenges and a pack of Tetley green tea to help soothe the pain. At that time, I was completely ignorant of how to properly brew tea, let alone green tea, so what I did was I boiled a pot of water and just dumped the tea bags in there for it to brew. After that I added heaps of honey because I just could not appreciate plain tea back then. The tea, although sweetened to the point that it barely seemed like green tea at all, turned out to be a life saver and I could forget the pain during the short moment I was drinking it.
This green tea from Upton kind of brought back that memory, and along with it the fondness I once had for green tea. It has very little if any astringency or grassy taste and is just really smooth from start to finish. The name of this tea “Temple of Heaven” is very fitting, since I feel like it cleanses my soul while it rests in eternal bliss.

I have no idea why, but the rating for this tea has gone really down after my last two purchases. The first samples I received directly from Bigelow was quite amazing as I remember it, but the purchased ones did not wow me as much since I found the flavor to be somewhat “weird” tasting, or even artificial. So sadly, I don’t think I will be buying this anymore.

So it’s been a couple weeks since I’ve received my order from Upton. I’ve ordered four kinds of teas, and so far I’m happy with all of them. Also, the service from Upton was top notch, since I received the teas in the mail in just 5 business days. This was very unusual for something shipped via USPS First Class International so I was very surprised.
Now, about this tea. It’s certainly got its characteristic body to it, but I found it to be lighter than the East Frisian Blend. Also, the malty flavor was somewhat subtle, compared to another Assam I’ve tried in the past. This tea would be great for drinking anytime of the day, but I would definitely lean towards the stronger East Frisian in the morning.

I accidentally added a load of sugar today and it was realllly sweet, but strangely I could feel the spice coming alive a bit more. It got me wondering whether this might be how people in India usually enjoy their chai or not as opposed to my usual 1 tsp of sugar.