259 Tasting Notes

97

Jackee and his compadre Thomas arrived chez Ca’ dei Gatti late yesterday afternoon. My first morning choice was Jackee. I had read the reviews and the mention of “smoke” enthralled me. I love “smoke” when it comes to perfumes, teas, salmon, prunes, paprika, nuts, and scotch. “Smoke” has got to walk a thin line between enhancing and highlighting that which is smoked and overwhelming it.

Jackee Muntz is a fine, rich, deep tea with a smoke that does manage to evoke the burnt sugary taste of caramel—but I liked to linger on the smokiness. I thought of an excellent poem I read recently called “Shopping List” by Anna Adams. The premise is that “all of life /
is hinted at on strips of scrap”. The imaginative mind can take a simple shopping list and go places—dig deeply like an anthropologist or archeologist.

“Cornfields come with the brown bread rolls,
orchards with apples, and the sea
heaves, vast, around the herring shoals,
and China swims in Lapsang Souchong tea.”

A tea that wakes me up, makes me think of poetry, and which unfolds layers of taste and meaning is a great one. I’ve already re-ordered.

I need to become a serious Buddhist to cope with all of the limited edition teas I’ve fallen in love with. I’ve wept buckets when books and perfumes go out of print, Jackee, my man, you’ve reversed the ill-effects of a bad night of sleep.

Preparation
4 min, 0 sec
sophistre

I loved this tasting note. And it may just convince me to reorder. My tin of Jackee is emptying a lot more quickly than I would like.

JacquelineM

7 sets remain in this limited edition of 400!!!!! (oh dear)

sophistre

I bought #8. >.>

JacquelineM

You lucky duck!!! :) If there is anything left by the end of the month I MIGHT!

Erin

I’ve been eying those last few sets for a long time now… I need more money, ack!
I loved your tasting note, by the way!

~lauren.

Beautiful Imagery!

Marie

Every tea worth it’s weight should have an intriguing story to tell. Love reading your posts Doulton! Simply delightful. :)

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98

JacquelineM put this into the traveling tea box and when it came to my door there was only one scant tsp. left. But I am the kind of person who appreciates the labour of love that trudging through the snow can be. The best way to honor JacquelineM is to thank her for her efforts and not allow this tea to travel to a potentially less appreciative home.

I am going to need to place an order with Premium Steap. I like coconut teas and this one is so utterly true and pure and rich. There’s been no compromise whatsoever on flavor. It’s Full Metal Jacket Coconut with no frilly little nods to the tropics. So many times the exquisite flavor of coconut gets lost in a marriage with chocolate or in a threesome with chocolate and pineapple or into a tropical melange of flavors. The purity of this tea really allows one to focus on the coconut and the satisfactions it offers.

This flavor is excellent. Coconut has taken rather a bashing with all those synthetic shampoos and soaps and sun-lotions. This is not a Copper-Tone kind of coconut, but rather a Tea at the Savoy kind of coconut. I could imagine the Queen of England sipping this whilst murmuring endearments to her corgi dogs.

This is an exquisite tea that I will need to keep in stock. It’s a tea for grown-ups. I added a tiny crystal of brown sugar and an ort of milk.

Preparation
170 °F / 76 °C 5 min, 0 sec
SoccerMom

Okay now I seriously want to try this tea. It is going to be added onto my to order list immediately.

Marie

Thanks Doulton for the recommend! I’ll add it to my wishlist! Glad you’re enjoying it so much. :)

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48

So here I sit sipping a cup of … " Cabochard? “Boss?”
“Thé Vert au jasmin” by L’Occitane? Matthew Williamson’s “Sheer?”

I associate Jasmine so strongly with perfumes that I don’t think I’ll ever enjoy drinking jasmine with any frequencly. But yet I wanted to try this, thanks to the great Travelling Tea Box. Pearls are fun to watch. I wonder if there’s a very slow film of them unfurling anywhere? I watched these little pearls unwind and slowly get bigger. I won’t call it an agony exactly. They looked more like that were transitioning from nap time to recess at a little nursery school for tea.

This tea smells very nice, but I have just not conditioned myself to tasting this odor. The great thing about the Travelling Tea Box is that I’ve been able to try things that I might have hesitated to spend money on. You make new friends with teas you have not tried before; you find new tea companies and race to the internet to place an order; your prejudices are either confirmed or toppled.

Jasmine, for me, is a nice middle-note or top-note for perfumes. I’ve never liked it as a base-note. I don’t think I can ever accustom myself to drinking it but I suspect it’s a taste once acquired that does pay dividends. I’m in no hurry to run and spray Clinique “Aromatics” into my mouth but I also don’t feel a need to rinse out my mouth. The aftertaste is pleasant.

Adieu, Jasmine Pearls! You’re moving on to your next destination!

Preparation
170 °F / 76 °C 2 min, 30 sec

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80
drank Spring Snail Shell by Andao
259 tasting notes

I typically do not have an affinity for green tea. The problem lies not in the tea, but rather in my limited palate. A bad green tea tastes like nothing to me. Just warm water. A good green tea, and I suspect that this is one of them, opens up a world of vegetation in my mouth.

“Spring Snail Shell” tastes like the smell of a really funky warm rainy day in Florida when the heat and water brings out the vegetable smell and the air smells like burgeoning fecundity. It tastes rather like lounging in deep meadows (much like a snail might do) and taking in the green, grassy, aroma that is part funk, part fresh with a dash of sweetness and clarity.

I did think of Andrew Marvell’s line: “A green thought in a green shade” from “The Garden” when I drank this. I suspect that green tea aficiandos would really like this tea. And, as I finish my cup here and now, I start to think that perhaps I should purchase some and maybe I should make certain to keep green tea on hand. It’s a nice change, and it makes me feel like a “back to nature” person which is pleasant because my inner essence is so very library and bedroom.

Edited to add:
Three days later, I have sent this Spring Snail on in the Travelling Tea Box. Yet somehow I long for it. I keep thinking maybe I could just have some spinach—but yet that isn’t it. Maybe I do want some more of the grassy, vegetable tastes? I simply will have to order some. I’ve got a Jones and his name is Mr. Spring Snail.

Preparation
2 min, 0 sec
Cofftea

Snail… ?

Doulton

Yes, Andao: ORGANIC SPRING SNAIL SHELL
http://andaotea.com/greenteas/biluochun.htm

Cait

That is a very intriguing name! :)

~lauren.

I think it has to do with the shape of the tea leaves: “The grayish green, slightly tippy leaves are processed by hand and tightly rolled into spiral shapes, resembling tiny green snails.” http://www.svtea.com/prodinfo.asp?number=T0362%20%20%20%20%201&variation= ; e.g., like a chun mee tea (precious eyebrow tea) has that eyebrow shape to it’s leaves.

Cofftea

Yeah at 1st I thought it tasted like snail, then I read the tea’s description.

~lauren.

UGH, doesn’t bear thinking about if it tasted like snail LOL!

Doulton

Escargots can be quite good. At the bars in France they serve them in dishes like little peanuts. I no longer eat little sentient things, however, and I don’t believe any snails were destroyed in the making of this tea.

Cofftea

Snail matcha = fish soup? Yum

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63

This tea is good. It’s soothing. Yet it does not “pop” in my mouth with the excitement that a Mariage Freres tea typically manages.

According to the web site,
“Easter bells are ringing in a gourmet treat: the flavour of a black tea scented with fruits and citrus, spiked with notes of noble spices and sweet overtones for a heavenly delight.”

I had a good, but fundamentally generic experience with this tea. No bells rang. I could not pick up on the citrus and spice. There was neither nobility nor heavenly delight. I wonder if the sample I have is past its expiry date? I got it in a swap and I don’t know when it was packaged. Could it be from the Easter of 2004? Or maybe from when Charles De Gaulle was around?

I expect a superb experience from Mariage Frères and I would give this tea a second chance. I may try to find it new and see if it gives me that Blair-Waldorf-on-“Gossip Girl” sense of privilege.

I hope to lay hands on some more of this tea and return to give a revised report.

Preparation
3 min, 15 sec
teaplz

Hahahaha! Amazing description! I hate it when you don’t know if your tea is old or not. The horrors!

LENA

LOL…great post! I often wonder how long the tea I receive in swaps has been on a shelf getting dusty. Nice to know I’m not alone!

Lori

LOL at the Blair Waldorf reference…

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66
drank Cream Black by tea haus annaarbor
259 tasting notes

This is a nice, albeit rather pedestrian, black tea. There were no particular flavor highlights I could pick up on. Because I am a huge “flavor” junkie, I have downgraded this tea.

On the other hand, if you are looking for a good and strong “basic black” with a hint of creaminess, this one might just be your proverbial cup of tea! Smooth and strong, this is the sort of tea that could convert anyone to abandon supermarket-brand tea-bags.

Preparation
2 min, 45 sec

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83
drank Peppermint by Harney & Sons
259 tasting notes

Out to a bookstore/tea/coffee place with some friends late on Saturday night. Caffeine is out for me. I notice that Harney & Sons teas are being sold.

This is a post-prandial cup of tea and I’m stuffed to the gills. Plain peppermint seems like an excellent, simple, uncomplicated choice for the occasion.

I ordered a “medium” and they put two tea bags in the cup. I am quite certain that their water was about 50 times the temperature of boiling—maybe their water was about 2500 degrees on the Kelvin scale. So my tea steeped for a good ten minutes before I could take a taste.

Finally I was rewarded with a big, single-note peppermint tea that was more flavorful than other peppermints I have had. I don’t feel a need to keep this at home, but if I ever wanted a straight, strict peppermint, I would turn to Harney & Sons. This refreshing tea kept me perky and also permitted me to descend into the arms of Morpheus when the time came.

Preparation
Boiling 8 min or more

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91

I love almonds and almond flavors so I came to this tea with a propensity to like it and I feel abundantly rewarded. There are many flavored teas that disappoint me because I just cannot pick up on the flavor. Perhaps the fault is in my tongue or my nose, or perhaps the teas are insipid and/or cheap.

SpecialTeas has done a bang-up job with this one. With a very small amount of sugar and milk, I have a sweet and creamy and very flavorful brew in which the almond flavor really “pops.” I’m about to order some more from SpecialTeas, which is my highest accolade. When I want to make sure that I am within a minute’s reach of a tea, I know that I like it.

If you like almond, you might want to try this. It’s the first really successful nut-flavored tea I’ve had.

Preparation
3 min, 15 sec
Erin

Nice review! I’m looking on SpecialTea’s website right now and this tea is 75% off! I thought you might like to know since you seemed to enjoy it so much.

Doulton

Thank you, Erin! I know! I already got a pound of it. Maybe I should get more. I tried another almond tea today and was quite disappointed in comparison.

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81
drank After Midnight by DAVIDsTEA
259 tasting notes

David’s Teas have consistently pleased me. I had this in the late afternoon, instead of “after midnight” as the title suggests. The good news is that it works at any time of day, I believe.

The complex blend of chocolate and orange and a touch of spice takes a couple of sips to establish itself. And then it explodes! I could really tell that the chocolate was dark—deeper and richer and with just a tiny touch of bitterness. It ended up being more effective than milk chocolate teas, I believe, in delivering the chocolate taste.

After a bit I added milk and I would suggest going with milk from the start here. The milk rounded out the slight bitterness and only seemed to make the tea richer and smoother. Ultimately I added a touch of sugar and I would recommend that you add sugar if you want a sweeter drink—duh! The tea is excellent both with and without the sugar.

Overall, David’s continues to delight me and this will be on my reorder list. So many chocolate teas simply get it wrong. “After Midnight” has it right.

Preparation
4 min, 45 sec
I ♥ NewYorkCiTEA

Sounds yum. I’ve added it to the infinite SL.

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84

I have mixed feelings about Mighty Leaf. Sometimes they do things very right. I love their Chamomile Tea and I am not a chamomile fan. I tried the Organic Detox mixture last night. The peppermint came through most strongly and overwhelmed the other flavors. But flavorful it was. It was most pleasant.

For the record, I did sleep unusually well last night. I don’t know yet if I can credit the tea, but it certainly was a great late-night beverage for me.

Ignore the picture of the orange-peel on the bag. Any citrus flavor does not emerge.

Preparation
6 min, 30 sec

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Profile

Bio

I really love big, bold, brash teas. Smokiness enthralls me. I don’t seem to do subtle.
I don’t do rooibos.

My rating system:
0-30:
Never again in a hundred million years

31-55: This tea probably has some redeeming qualities but I won’t would not seek it out again.

56-70:
Shows some promise but also has a fundamental flaw. I probably owe these a second taste but am unmotivated.

71-80:
Good with at least one strong quality; I probably would not buy it but would drink it cheerfully.

81-90: Worthy contenders; they might be ranked 100 on somebody’s else’s scale. I like them a lot but have not fallen in love. Will probably buy and use.

91-95: These are the true loves, the chosen ones, the ones I dream about and crave. Unless they are in a limited edition—la! how you tease me!—I will always keep in my cupboard.

96-100: I cannot be separated from these teas and would develop a panic attack if I were to run out.
-

“She is too fond of books and it has turned her brain.”

Elderly dowager. Quintessential cat lady.

Tea which must be in stock always:

Black Dragon LS by Upton Teas: My choice every morning.

Florence & Lapsang Souchong by Harney & Sons

a good Gen Maicha

Samovar: Russian Blend, Maiden’s Ecstasy, Ryokucha

Mariage Frères: Confucious, Vivaldi, Eros, Aida, Marco Polo

American Tea Room: Brioche

Leland Teas: Bogart

Life in Teacup:
An Xi Tie Guan Yin Grade II modern green style & also Charcoal Style

Location

In the midst of the middle of the heart of nowhere in particular.

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