Art of Tea

oh my golly gosh!! IT TASTES LIKE BLUEBERRY CHEESECAKE!! how can a tea taste so lovely?? haha… Im deffinately going to seeking this tea out again,, I love it with just a dash of milk, no sweeteners needed… ohh I’m still dreaming about this tea,, love it. just love it.

This reminds me of banana bread. I can’t say I’m getting much chocolate, nor am I tasting the peppercorn. I’m relieved that the banana isn’t stronger. The last banana tea I tried was over the top banana and it was really too much. This seems a much more natural banana flavor. I was hoping for more chocolate though. The rooibos is also not shy here. It’s a good support for the light flavors.

I can’t say I’ll want to drink this again, but it wasn’t bad.

Thank you Uniquity for the chance to try this tea. :)

I was a bit hesitant about trying this tea because of the pear. Pear is such an elusive fruit when it comes to flavor – easily overwhelmed and lost in the mix. But you can definitely taste (and smell!) it in this cup of tea. There a hint of woodsyness from the rooibos, but it’s not very overpowering and the pear definitely shines through in this tea. It’s slightly sweet and very delicious, perfect for autumn. On the second brew, the rooibos flavor comes out much more, and the pear is almost gone.

Thanks to LiberTeas for passing on a sample!

I purchased this tea as part of a holiday sampler from Art of Tea.

I LOVE THIS TEA! I will be purchasing more when my sample is gone. The taste is just like the comforting butterscotch candies my grandpa used to have in his pocket. The mouth feel is a little thick but not syrupy and perfectly matches the flavor. The WHite tea is a subtle compliment to the flavor.

I got this in my Art of Tea Holiday sampler.

It was a spicy cinnamon -cranberry herbal tea.

I enjoyed this but it was a little but week in flavor. I will try it again with more leaves.

I tried this today and added more tea to the infusion. I love other offerings from art of tea but this is just not for me… lowering the score.

This just came in the post today. This is a great medley of flavors. Although, like other reviewers stated the spice comes on stronger then the pumpkin. Then, as the tea cools the pumpkin moves to the forefront.

I got this as part of the holiday sampler from art of tea and cant wait to try their other offerings.

I wanted something a bit lighter today, so I diceided to make this tea again. The first infusion used ~170 degree water, and steeped for 30 seconds. It was surprisingly sweet, but not quite as much as the orchid Oolong that Verdant offered last year. That’s the real problem with this tea: I’ve had a different version of the tea which tasted better, and I’m alway comparing the two and this tea just falls a bit short. Anyway, it’s still a lovely tea, with pleasant flowery notes an a nice lingering aftertaste, and it matches well iwth the beautiful warm weather today.

I’m busy with statistics today, so see my previous notes for more information about this tea. I felt like I needed something light and sweet today, given that it’s cold and rainy outside, and this fits the bill perfectly.

I was rummaging around in my tea box (Yes, I keep my tea in a box. It’s easier to pack it up for when I go home for the weekend.), and I came accross my 4 oz. bag of this. I looked back, and realized that I hadn’t had any of this for something like 5 months, so I decided to retry it.

Today I’m actually not going to brew my Oolong grandpa style, and instead, opted for standard Western-style brewing. I’m using boiling water, with a rather generous ammount of leaves, and steeping for 3 minutes. Recently, I’ve found that Green Oolongs don’t benefit from long infusions, as it starts to get more astringent, and the flavors are more muddled.

After brewing the first infusion, I realized how much more appealing it is to drink this tea when the weather is actually warm. The aroma is very pleasant, and very appropriate for the beautiful weather today. The taste is a lot better than I remember, especially because it isn’t even the least bit astringent. The flavor of the tea is also a bit sweeter than I remember, possibly because I used a quicker infusion. Regardless, I’m upping the rating on this tea.

The second infusion saw the developement of a pleasant aftertaste. A lightly floral flavor lingers on the hard palate, lasting for at least 1 minute. It’s not a long-lasting as Tie Guan Yin, but that’s not really a fair comparision. Also, this infusion was a bit sweeter, but other wise the flavor was unchanged.

More to come later.

Ah, this was just what I needed today. I had class from 9 until 4:15, and this really hit the spot. The first infusion was a pale golden color typical of lightly-roasted Oolongs, and aroma smelled strongly of orchids (kinda obvious, but it smelled REALLY good after suffering through hours of class without caffeine). The taste of the tea was sweet and flowery, but I expect that to change during the next few steepings. There was also a pleasant aftertaste that lingered on the tongue, which also tasted like flowers.

The second infusion was almost identical to the first, except that the flavor as started to get a bit more complex. The flavors are still a bit muddled, but there is definitely something else present now.

The third cup was oversteeped, because I forgot about it while doing a reading assignment (Hiroshima by John Hersey, an absolutely riveting book despite its short length). It was a shame that I did forget about this infusion, becasue it was still rather good even though there was a great deal of stringency present, overriding the flowery flavor. On the bright side, the aroma was rather strong, still with the characteristic orchid smell.

The forth infusion looked the same as the others, but the aroma and taste have really started to fade. The aroma is more of a generic weak green Oolong, and the aroma has mostly lost the orchid scent. It’s still okay, it’s just lost a lot of the qualities that made it such a great tea.

I decided to brew it at a lower temperature and for a bit shorter period than usual today, and the results were interesting.

The aroma was pretty much unchanged, but the tea was sweeter than previous. Also, the “flowery” taste didn’t detract from the taste as much. Even that aftertaste was affected by my small changes, and was also sweeter than in previous brewing sessions.

As with last time, I got 4 cups of tea out of one set of leaves. The aroma faded pretty quickly, and started to smell like a generic lightly-roasted Oolong. The taste mellowed out, and the flowery notes faded to a generic – albeit rather sweet – Oolong. The bottom line is that the first two cups were much better than I remember, and the tea is delicious while it lasts. I was also happy because I was using a larger cup than usual (eight fluid ounces as opposed to six), and the fact that it lasted for the same number of cups was interesting.

Finals started today, and I just got out of a three hour math exam. Thank god I had something to look forward to when I got back. Once again, this is a rather pleasant tea with respect to flavor and aroma, and I can personally say that it is very relaxing. The act of taking time to brew this tea was very helpful for unwinding after a stressful final…

For further notes, see my other post about this tea. Everything turned out the same, and I don’t have time for a complete review due to finals.

Honestly, it’s hard to tell that this is an Oolong. This is a very light roast, an you can tell immediately just by looking at the leaves. The tightly rolled leaves are green, and smell strongly of lilac, completely lacking the usual roasted smell of Oolongs. Of course, my experience is mostly with Wuyi oolongs, that that might not be a fair comparison.

Anyway, the first infusion was interesting. The tea was very much like a green tea, with very strong vegetative notes and a flowery aftertaste. I was a bit surprised by the astringency that was present, but that disappeared after the first infusion. The aroma of the tea is something between an orchid and lilac, and is very pleasing. Later infusions become sweeter, and the flavors mellow nicely, but I only got six infusions out of the tea. Regardless, The tea did improve, peaked with the third infusion, and then mellowed until it was lightly-scented water with a bit of flavoring.

The bottom line about this tea is that it is light, flowery, and a rather pleasant tea that I look forward to enjoying again.

Gee, I just don’t think this is as bad as most folks seem to. It’s even decent for a rooibos dessert tea. The tea itself smelled really strong, like delicious vanilla and cocoa. In the water both were more muted compared to the rooibos itself, but they didn’t vanish as happens with so many rooibos tea blends. This isn’t an amazing flavored tea, but it seems like a decent dessert substitute to me.

Black tea blend with a mildly sweet flavor and fragrance. There is a unique caramel-like flavor to it that I enjoyed. Great first cup of the day.

Tasty, but smokier than I expected. Pretty earthy tasting for a green tea.

I thought it was a really smooth Earl Grey and not nearly as acidic as some Greys that I’ve had. The combined aroma of the large amount of bergamot and vanilla reminds me of blueberry. The sweetness was subtle, but did leave the bergamot taste on my tongue for a while afterwards.

This was my first matcha. Has a distinct, grassy (almost seaweed) sort of aroma. Unique feel in the mouth due to drinking the the entire leaf, rather than just steeped water. Very mildly bitter, but refreshing. More than just a tea. An experience. Would recommend and I will be exploring more matchas because of this.

Found this tea from a local cafe!
Interestingly, while I’ve enjoyed flavored sencha, I haven’t enjoyed flavored houjicha as much in the past (I’ve had vanilla houjicha before, maybe others, but that’s the only one I can remember).

This begins with that familiar roasted aroma, but ends very sweet. The presence of the white chocolate seems to add some real sugar to this (though, probably not a lot). I think their description is somewhat accurate— especially in the aftertaste, the aroma and flavor are like toasted marshmallows. Pretty good.

That being said, I still think I prefer regular houjicha to this. But, Art of Tea has created a unique and enjoyable blend that, I’d guess, many would really enjoy.

Re-visiting this one, partially in an attempt to clear out my work stash. Today I realize that the fruit pieces I somehow confused for apple last time are clearly banana, and they are really dominating the cup. I’m not getting much chocolate this time, just sweet banana-esque rooibos. I’m actually going to lower the rating on this one a bit, as it’s just not all that spectacular. However, if you’re looking for a dessert tea with banana and chocolate echoes, this might be the one for you!

This was one of the 60 plus samples I received in my box of goodies from LiberTeas via Tea Trade. It seems similar to a few chocolate teas I have come to love so I was really looking forward to trying it. Like Fusion Tea Room’s Chocolate Mint Rooibos, this seems to have some fruit pieces in it (I am assuming Apple?) which lend a distinct “natural” sweetness to the blend. I also spy some red peppercorns, though I don’t ‘feel the burn’ so I don’t know how much they are contributing in terms of taste. As for that taste, I get sweet chocolate, with the fruit pieces really standing out on the sip. That said, it is a bit sweet for my tastes but still yummy to taste. Sort of like chocolate covered raisins, only without the raisin. I almost feel it might have done better with a stronger base – I am partial to flavoured blacks – though I can see the advantages of using rooibos with this.

As a fun aside, I am typing this up in outlook as I don’t have time to log in to Steepster at the moment and Outlook doesn’t think that rooibos is a word!

The dry leaves smell intensely of bananas. I do detect the pink peppercorns as well, and somewhere in there is dark chocolate, but primarily I smell bananas.

Without sweetener, this tea tastes very mild to me – but don’t think that’s a critique, because I have such a sweet tooth that most things taste mild to me without sugar. This one tastes a little woody (the rooibos, I think), a little floral, and pleasantly spicy. It isn’t bad, but I rather think a dessert tea should be sweet.

With sugar, this chocolate monkey is a whole other animal. (I apologize.) The banana becomes rich, ripe, and rather in my face. This was initially a disappointment, since I bought the tea hoping for more chocolate, but after the first wave of banana, I do taste a light fruity chocolate flavor that my brain wants to call “Tainori” after a similar-tasting Valrhona chocolate bar. (If you’ve ever had snobby chocolate, you will know that certain types have many notes of yellow fruits. This tea tastes more or less like that sort of chocolate.) After the chocolate is a bit of spice that sits at the back of my throat.

Overall, I would identify this more as a banana tea than a chocolate tea, but it’s a complex banana with strong chocolate notes. I’m not disappointed anymore; my search for the perfect chocolate tea must continue, but this one is actually rather delicious, albeit not what I thought I was ordering.

Art of Tea lists this as one of their most popular teas; I believe them. From the scent of the dry leaves to the taste of the brewed tea, this is absolutely, unambiguously, deliciously candied pear. I steeped 1.5 teaspoons in about 8 oz of boiling water for ten minutes, then added a bit of my favorite sweetener.

The resulting brew smells strongly of a ripe Bartlett pear (or even like the taste of a Juicy Pear jelly bean, or at least what I remember a Juicy Pear jelly bean tastes like), with perhaps a hint of tart apple lingering beneath. On sipping the tea, I first taste rich, golden caramel, then sweet juicy pear, and then the two mingle. I get no other notes, so this isn’t exactly the most complex tea around, but it’s seriously tasty to a pear-lover such as myself.

I got this tea in a sampler, but I will definitely by more when I run out.