1578 Tasting Notes
This is the only green tea that I wasn’t excited about when I ordered the Kusmi green mini-tin set. I’ve never had a ginger tea before, and I didn’t know what to expect, but I’m not a big fan of ginger and I was afraid it would be overpowering. The dry leaf smells like lemon drops! There is a ginger scent also, but it is not as strong as the lemon. Brewed this at 175 for 3 minutes.
The aroma of the finished cup is similar to the dry leaf but more subdued. The chief scent is lemon, with the ginger as a close second, and I can also smell the vegetal green tea. The taste itself is a good marriage of lemon, ginger, and tea flavors. The ginger isn’t too sharp – it’s more of a ginger ale kind of ginger. When I tasted it piping hot, there was a definite bitterness that lingered after each sip. I added about half a teaspoon of sugar in an attempt to reign it in. This definitely reduced it a bit, but I think I may have steeped it a little longer than it liked. As the tea cooled, the bitterness lessened even more and the lemon and ginger flavors really started the meld together beautifully.
Overall, I think this is a well-balanced tea, even though it’s not my favorite flavor profile. I think next time I try it, I’ll reduce the steep time by 30 seconds or so. This one seems like it might be a good one to try chilled also!
Flavors: Ginger, Lemon, Vegetal
Preparation
Yum yum yum! I cold steeped this one for about 12 hours (1 heaping tsp for 8 oz) and it came out very tasty indeed. It’s very refreshingly spearminty – I don’t really taste green tea at all to be honest. I added some syrup because I like my minty things to be a little sweet. This would be amazing after you’ve been outside on a hot day, it’s so cooling and relaxing.
I think I may try this one again with a shorter steep time just to see if I can get a combination of green tea and spearmint flavors, but I am finding it very yummy as is. I’m going to bump up the rating a couple points. :)
Preparation
Trying this one as a cold brew today. I put this and some spearmint green in the fridge last night before bed (about a heaping teaspoon in 8 ounces of water for each one). Thanks again to Stephanie and Cheri for sharing your cold brew wisdom! Before taking it out, I made a simple syrup to sweeten with because trying to stir sugar into iced tea is one of my biggest pet peeves! >:|
I’m actually a little bit disappointed with this as a cold brew. The tea flavor is there, but I’m not getting nearly as much strawberry as I would like, even with sweetener added. There’s also a tiny bit of bitterness there, so I’m not sure if I shouldn’t have let it steep as long as I did (it was around 12 hours or so I think). Overall, it’s not bad but I definitely prefer this tea hot. I’m not going to change my rating because I feel like when a tea is also good iced, it’s a bonus rather than an expectation.
Preparation
Taking a wee little break from tasting all of my new Kusmi teas and relaxing with this. From all the first-time notes I’ve been writing the past couple of days, it’s nice to just sit back and sip without thinking too hard about the flavor profile. I’m having it with sugar and whole milk this time around, and I think next time I try this I might do two sachets if I’m going to put milk in.
Do any of you lovely people have a good method for making hot or cold tea lattes? Please share if so, I have several teas I would like to try this way! :D
Preparation
@boychik – Yeah I noticed that the sweetener is more and more effective as the teas cools when I was trying all those Russian blends. Luckily they all tasted better warm anyway!
@Skulleigh – Do you use less water when you brew the tea or do you do it normally? I could see it making sense to reduce the amount of water proportionally to the volume of the milk you’re adding.
Another Russian tea from Kusmi! I’m rather surprised I haven’t been dreaming of bergamot after trying all of these over the last couple days… The dry leaf on this one has that familiar strong bergamot scent, but I can also pick out a whiff of orangeyness (I’m not sure I can discern the difference between orange and mandarin).
Brewing up the cup, the liquid has a lovely bergamot aroma with just a small sidenote (is that a thing…? I think it is) of a sweeter citrus. I tasted it hot and got the usual generic flavor that I’ve gotten from almost all of these teas when they’re freshly made, which is black tea with bergamot and maybe a wisp of something else. So I went the usual route, added a small amount of sugar and did some dishes while I waited for it to cool down a bit. I was definitely rewarded for my patience – like its brethren, this tea becomes much more interesting when it’s warm or room temperature. The black tea base seems quite mild to me, and smooth. The bergamot flavor is prominent but not overpowering, and the orange is not so much a separate flavor as a harbinger of better, more juicy bergamot flavor. I feel like this would be a good choice for those who enjoy a plain Earl Grey but want the bergamot to have that little… je ne sais quoi.
After trying all of these teas, I became curious what the difference is in their bases. I could definitely taste that a couple of them had a slightly stronger or bolder black tea flavor and some were more mellow. So after checking the ingredients lists on all of the tiny tins, this is what I’ve come up with: St. Petersburg and Prince Vladimir are both exclusively Chinese teas (it does specify “teas” as a plural so it is a blend), Anastasia is a blend of Chinese and Ceylon, and Bouquet of Flowers and Troika are both blends of Chinese, Ceylon, and Indian teas. Interesting. Good to know I’m not crazy for thinking the bases tasted different. :D
Aw, this is the last of the five Russian Blends I have. I’ve really enjoyed tasting and comparing them all – they are all similar enough but each has its own little personality added. Next project: try them all iced and as lattes!
Flavors: Bergamot, Orange
Preparation
This is the third free sample I received with my Kusmi order, and I was actually kind of excited because I had seen this tea on their website and thought it sounded interesting. Hooray coincidence! The dry leaf in the tea bag smelled delicious – it had a very strong and sweet marzipan or almond paste scent. I brewed it for 3 minutes at 175.
The brewed cup also had a fairly strong marzipan scent, but I could also smell the green base. I added a very small amount of sugar right off the bat because I couldn’t resist with the marzipan flavor. After tasting the fresh brew, I was a little disappointed by how light the almond flavor ended up being. I don’t know what kind of green tea this is, but it tasted pretty mild with a little bit of bitterness. I let the cup cool, trying it every so often, but I was never really satisfied with the level of marzipan flavor. I think I would prefer a more strongly flavored black version of this.
Flavors: Almond, Marzipan, Vegetal
Preparation
I have to say, I was rather shocked when I smelled this tea. The other Russians I have tried from Kusmi have smelled overwhelmingly of bergamot. I was therefore not prepared for this one to have such a spicy smell. That being said, it was a very pleasant surprise – as soon as I got a whiff I was very excited to try this. The dry leaf has a very strong scent of spice (anise maybe?) along with a heavy bergamot smell. There are also notes of vanilla and other citrus present.
I was surprised that the brew smells strongly of black tea with added bergamot and spice scents (the spice is a little bit different than in the tin, more of a clove maybe?). The first thing I noticed is that the black tea base of this tea tastes much stronger or harsher to me than the other blends I have tried. The tin simply says it’s a blend of Chinese teas. When the tea is hot, the predominant flavors are bergamot and a surprisingly mild but warming spiciness that I would categorize as a blend of different spices. I added a very small amount of sugar. As I let it cool, I really started to taste the vanilla and the lemon, which I must admit are perfect with the spice. The bergamot became more of a background flavor than I would expect. There is supposedly grapefruit in this blend but I could never seem to pick it out, which I actually am glad of. I don’t feel the extreme tartness and bitterness of grapefruit would mesh well with this.
Overall, I enjoyed this tea very much and I just know that it would be fantastic with milk or as a latte. Must try!
Flavors: Bergamot, Lemon, Spices, Vanilla
Preparation
Trying this one again with a shorter steep. The first time, it was delicious but with a little bitterness and I didn’t think it fair to impose a rating when I’d obviously steeped it incorrectly. So this time I lowered the steep from 3:30 to 3 minutes.
The aroma of the cup remains the same, a sweet and tart fresh strawberry scent among that refreshing “greenness” of the tea. It seems 3 minutes was the secret weapon because there is next to no bitterness in this cup but there is still plenty of strawberry yumminess. Trying it hot, it’s a lovely vegetel green tea taste with a mild but obvious strawberry flavor. I kept trying sips as I let it cool and the strawberry became more and more prominent, and it began to have the most interesting tangy effect on the back of my tongue. This really made me believe the strawberry flavor, and it lingered after each sip. I can only imagine how delicious this tea would taste iced – that will have to be the next thing I try. If anyone has any cold brewing tips, I would greatly appreciate your input!
Flavors: Strawberry, Sweet, Tart, Vegetal
Preparation
Hope it turns out well for you! Makes me want to make some again soon. It is totally iced tea weather ;)
Another adorable tin! This one is a pale pink (not quite pastel but not bright either) accented with a lovely mint green. The dry leaf has a very strong and somewhat sweet rose fragrance, but I also smell a bit of mintiness. It’s a tad bit perfumey but after my experience with Kusmi’s spearmint green, I knew it wouldn’t be this strong in the actual cup. I’m unsure what type of green tea this is, it’s apparently Chinese and the leaves are thin, twisted, and a dark sort of mossy green with some shiny silvery bits. I brewed for 3 minutes at about 175 degrees.
The aroma of the brewed cup is equal parts “green” and musty rose, with a hit of mint in the background. I tried this straight up first. I do enjoy the flavor plain, there a light bitterness in the green tea and the rose flavor is very present, but it does not overpower. The mint note is there at the back, mild and lingering, and it creates a slight cooling sensation after the sip.
After I had let the tea cool and kept trying it to test the flavor, I added a small amount of sugar and I feel this helped the rose to really shine. The bitterness subsided and the now sweet rose flavor melded perfectly with the mint (I tend to prefer sweet mint flavors so keep this in mind). This tea makes me think of lavish afternoon tea parties with petit fours and tiny, delicate finger sandwiches. Yum!
Flavors: Bitter, Mint, Rose, Vegetal
Preparation
This is third for me to try out of my Russian blends (thanks again to Boychik for setting me straight on how to brew these :)). Like the previous two, upon opening the tin, the smell of bergamot is overpowering. I think I can catch a little whiff of lime though, which makes me excited to try this. I did the usual brew of 3 minutes at about 200 degrees.
The aroma of the brewed tea is mostly bergamot, but I am able to pick up on some sweet orange and a little note of lemon. I’m not sure whether the lime is there because I find it difficult to separate all these different citrus scents from one another. I had fully intended to try this one without any sugar (I feel I should wean myself off of sweetening my teas in general because I feel like, in some cases, it interferes with my tasting of all the flavors). However, I don’t think I can drink a bergamot tea straight – I found it unpleasantly bitter or something. So I added just under a teaspoon of sugar (foiled again!).
When I first tasted this as it was still very hot, I could mostly just taste black tea with bergamot. I’m beginning to see this as a pattern with these Russian blends from Kusmi. I let it cool, taking a few sips every so often to see how the flavor was changing, and it’s interesting to note how the effect of sugar becomes more and more apparent as a tea grows colder (at least, in my opinion). I found that I enjoy this tea much more when it is just warm as opposed to hot, and I can now pick out the flavors of lemon and orange, and possibly a slight floral note (I take it this is the orange blossom). The lime seems to manifest itself as a kind of aftertaste on the back of my tongue. Overall, I really like the combination of citrus flavor in this tea.
(thanks again Boychik for all of your helpful advice)
Flavors: Bergamot, Floral, Lemon, Lime, Orange