382 Tasting Notes
Backlogging from last night.
The more I drink this tea the more it slides down the scale in favor of the Vanilla Berry Truffle. I am sorry Chocolate Monkey, but as I drink you more the weird schizophrenia you have with what you actually taste like seems to get worse rather than better, and when it does stabilize it is NOT toward the chocolate banana flavor that you, in fact, purport to have. You are tasty! But you are not tasty in the way you say you are, and I just can’t ignore that.
Preparation
The world needs more honest tea. :-)
I’m so gonna name my band “Schizophrenic Monkey!”
I would so buy your band’s t-shirts.
@ Rabs – That’s awesome…I always like the name Neon Armadillo – I think there is actually a Bar called that but I think a Band Name would ROCK too! :P
Oh man, if I had lots of teh monies I would so pay the people who do A&D’s tin art to make the shirts.
Whoops! Completely forgot that this A. existed and B. was a breakfast blend, so now I guess I need to compare it to the Scottish Breakfast to see how it measures up.
In terms of quick brewing it certainly seems to be fine, although I think it comes out a bit lighter than the Scottish and Irish breakfasts. Not that this is necessarily a bad thing. The taste definitely doesn’t pack the punch of either of the above two, but it’s also more nuanced with a fruity aftertaste that I find kind of pleasant. It would be nice for mornings where I am actually feeling kind of awake, well-rested, and not full of hate for the world. Sadly, those never happen.
Preparation
That’s the perfect description of being a “non-morning person.” I like to think that I’m a nice person overall, but in the morning I just hate everyone and everything.
I wasn’t a morning person until I had children. Then it was thrust upon me.
LOL! One of the many reasons I do not want children ;)
We now interrupt your scheduled destruction of various samples to bring you a bulletin on mint:
Mint is tasty and soothes the stomach that has overindulged on cheez-its, which I like for reasons that I cannot explain even though I am pretty sure they are made completely of chemicals. The end.
Addendum: Put in my first 52teas order today! (not the hot cinnamon tea of the week, that scares me, but some other cool stuff!) I am totally stoked!
LOL I love it. So what did you order? Curious minds, mouths, and stomachs want to know:)
Hmmm, to be coy or not to be coy….ah screw it: the black currant bai mu dan (of course!) the coconut cream pie (apparently it’s FAYMUS) and the buttered cinnamon raisin toast black tea (because even though it kind of terrifies me, I am a sucker for teas with ridiculously long names)
Haha yeah the BCRT black isn’t bad. Now in actuality you’ll have to amp that up several notches as I’m not usually a non-chai or chocolate black tea person and if I think it’s that good- it’s gotta be pretty amazing.:)
I just ordered 2 out of three of those, plus a couple of chocolate things. Interesting. :-)
Clearly we are secretly the same person.
I had suspected as much ;)
Lol!
Looking forward to seeing your reviews of the 52teas you ordered! :) I just ordered a bag of the coconut cream pie myself…it could be better (stronger), but I still think it’s really nummy and I’m obsessed with it now!
Tried this right after the River Shannon this morning to confirm its place as the front runner for my morning tea.
Odor: No icky oversteepedness
Brew: Fast
Kick: Whoo boy, yes.
Taste: Not root beer
Win: I’d say so, yes.
Naturally, it WOULD be the one that I’m nearly out of.
Preparation
Ok, I actually grabbed the right tin today for trying this out and comparing it to the Irish and Scottish breakfast blends. I kind of wish I hadn’t though because I am totally getting root beer from this. ROOT BEER! Now this is bad for two reasons, 1. it makes no sense, and 2. I don’t like root beer.
The root beerness faded into a general sweet note as I got further into the cup, but I have to say I am still dissatisfied with it. It’s just not smack me in the face enough for my mornings. I think I’ll have to stick to the plebian quick brew blends. Looks like it’s back to the Scottish blend for me!
So I was going to offer the rest of my sample to Morgana since she mentioned she’d like to try it the last time I posted on this, but I have a suspicion that the whole root beer taste might be coming from contamination with what was previously in this tin, so I wonder if this wouldn’t be doing both her and the tea a disservice. Still, if you want to risk it…
Preparation
I wanted some snacky tea that I could “munch” on, as it were, while doing some pretty hefty reading, and I thought something chocolatey would be nice so I brewed this up, trying to go for a nice strong chocolate minty flavor. What I got instead was very strong rooibos and apple. It was…not very good. I was getting almost no mint some vanilla and next to no chocolate, which are, after all, the signature flavors of this tea.
Yeah, I don’t really mind the flavor of rooibos, and generally I am open to apple as well, but that wasn’t what I wanted from the tea just now. So…fail! I have reiterate that in terms of blend, this just isn’t as impressive as the other dessert teas I tried in my Art of Tea sampler. Rating go down!
Had this for my morning cup in my ongoing scientific inquiry about which breakfast blend to get more of. Honestly, I had meant to grab the River Shannon and THOUGHT I had gotten the unrelabeled adagio tin (no, I didn’t label it from last time. this is because I am lazy) but it turns out that the tin HAD been relabeled just in very tiny letters. So….Irish Breakfast!
I’m back on the side of Scottish Breakfast after this morning. I just can’t stand that oversteeped smell and this stuff seems to get it no matter the steeping time. The only reason I can drink it at all is because my portable mug has a lid and therefore I can’t smell it. It continues to taste quite nice! I’m just not sure I can get past the smell.
Preparation
Tried to see if I could get another cup out of this today. That’d be a negatory, it tastes like someone told someone else that they had heard from their brother’s wife’s cousin’s dog what this tea tastes like.
Oh well! I got two massive cups out of it yesterday, both of which I oversteeped, so that’s not that surprising.
