1202 Tasting Notes
Grapefruit isn’t my thing. When I saw it in the ingredients I almost traded it for another this morning, but decided to steep it anyways. It’s actually an alright cup! There is a mix of citrus and I can’t pick out the grapefruit. The tea base adds a nice depth to it that counters the high notes of the citrus, balancing it out nicely. I don’t think I’d buy this, but if I came across it as an option for a single cup while out, I wouldn’t turn it down either.
Preparation
Been sheltering in place for two weeks now and I’ve had just about enough of my little roommates. They are also bored out of their minds and have found recent joy in tea. My tea. I know I should be proud, but I’m not. I’m frustrated. Little hands digging through the sanctuary that is my tea cupboard, getting in my way of my kettle, holding my glass kettle in ways that spawn visions of it slipping out of their grasp and shattering on the floor, leaving spots of tea to dry on the counter and leaving steeping baskets out on the counter cluttering the space around my kettle.
So today I turned to a cup of Hatsune. It’s really good. The cinnamon apricot combo over the toasted tea is so nice and comforting. If I could jump into this cup and soak for a while I’m sure I’d come out in a much better mood. I know there is bathtub gin, but is there bathtub tea? Wish I had a tub worthy of this experiment.
Preparation
How old are your little roommates?
Teavivre’s Premium Jasmine Dragon Pearl tea is my “Calgon, take me away” tea. At first I thought your tiny roommates were cats, but saw they were bored and thought dogs, and then saw the part about them getting into tea and realized it was children! Ha ha! But how delightful. Oh, I see some awesome tea times in your future!
I thought that too – it must be cats! lol
Took a steepster break and didn’t see these comments until 5 months later! Tiny roommates are 8 and 11. One of them has always been spill prone which doesn’t pair well with tea. They seem to have lost interest in my tea collection for now. It will be nice when their appreciation for it grows and they aren’t left waiting impatiently for me outside various tea shops when we travel!
Having my daily cup of quaranTEA. So glad right now that I’m a tea hoarder. I’m set for a while while cooped up in my house waiting for the worst of this virus to pass through my community.
I know this has oranges and all sorts of other flavors in it, but what I really get is a caramel like flavor and it’s pretty nice. Drank this cup mindlessly while making waffles, getting one kid set up with a classroom video chat and the other set up to video call with her physical therapist. I never thought I’d be so busy during the apocalypse, but here I am!
Preparation
Hoarding tea does have its uses.
It does! I’m also a little bit of a food hoarder. As in I buy a big bag of flour, rice, sugar, beans and other dry goods once a year so I don’t have to shop for as many things throughout the year. Husband usually hates it, but he’s not complaining right now!
The morning I recently flew to Ireland I was rummaging through my cupboard thinking it was a shame that I didn’t have ONE more cup left of Butiki’s Irish Breakfast (or ANY Irish breakfast) to commemorate the start of my journey. Subsequently I bought just about all the Irish breakfast teas I could find, including swiping all of the Bewley’s tea bags that my hotel provided. I’m under the impression that a hearty tea in the morning is standard for the Irish, but I was surprised that there wasn’t a broader selection of teas.
This steeps up pretty rich, but when I put creamer in it, the flavor almost disappeared. As I sip on the flavor slowly reemerges. There is a dry papery tobacco note to it… maybe a slight bit of malt. I’m not finding that this tea really shines. It’s just a standard bagged tea, not that I expected much else from it. It would be nice in a pinch, but not when I have my cupboard accessible.
Preparation
I thought I had posted tasting notes for this tea before. And I thought that I was so so on it. I’ve been struggling to get a good cup out of AU teas. All of the French black teas I have lower steeping temps, which has made a significant difference in the cup, so I decided to try a lower temp on this one. I like it! I’m getting aromatic apple and clove dominating. I can taste that there are more flavors in it, but I can’t pick out what. It’s very spiced apple. As it cools there is a little alkaline tinge that creeps in making it taste a little flatter than when it’s hot, but it’s not too distracting. Now I’m going to have to go back and try all the other AU teas at a lower temp and reevaluate how I feel about them!
Preparation
Today was one of those days that I made a cup of tea in a rush and didn’t get the best results. I semi begrudgingly drank this on morning errands today, looking forward to returning home and making a proper cup of tea. Can’t win them all.
Preparation
I love vanilla in baked goods, ice cream and soda. I want to love it in tea as well, but it often times ends up too bland for my preferences. When I sip this tea, it seems very bland and flat. At the start of the finish it changes to a very lovely vanilla flavor that has depth, then it morphs back to flat. There must be a secret to steeping this that I haven’t yet mastered. I can tell that there is potential for an amazing cup in it, I just don’t know how to coax it out.
Preparation
Awwww…. sad sipdown. I’ve had this for years. I didn’t like it much when I first got it, but it eventually grew on me. This last cup was the most macaron like out of all the cups I’ve had, light and fluffy like with perfumey notes of raspberry. I do hope to come across this tea again if they still make it. In the mean time I guess I’m glad to have more room in my cupboard. :/
I found it: https://www.fauchon.com/en/macaron-tea-bulk/
Oh cool! So maybe not a forever goodbye!
A friend went to Paris and brought me back a bag of this stuff. She was told by the sales guy that lapsangs weren’t legal in the EU because of something to do with the way they get their smokey flavor. Strange info considering every other tea shop I visited in Paris has a lapsang. I think my friend got the new guys who doesn’t know his tea very well yet.
I was expecting not to like it as I haven’t been impressed by the selection of PDTs that I’ve had and was happily surprised to find that I really dig this one! It’s smooth, smokey and fairly well balanced. I’ve probably had a cup of it 4 out of the last 5 days and can already see a dent in the giant bag!
