Tealish

Another one from MissB. I think this is the first rooibos tea I’ve loved. Maybe it’s a rooibos tea hater’s gateway drug tea? From the intense lemon smell I expected it would be more tart but it’s perfectly creamy and a little sweet. I will definitely order this one!

From the HHTTB2

I don’t know what to make of this tea. It smells like caramel, and it varies between tasting like nothing (no base tea, no flavor, no nothing ) and tasting like cotton candy. The difference from one sip to the next is disconcerting. I’m so confused I don’t even know how to rate it!

This is nice. I didn’t get coconut in there anywhere – smell or taste. That’s a good thing or it would have gone into my swap pile. I liked the strong lemongrass flavor and scent. I got this in a swap and it will be nice for a couple of cups, but probably not one I will reorder.

I love green teas and was looking forward to trying this tea because it had such good reviews. I can definitely taste the cinnamon, candy, peppercorns but the sencha is lost. I don’t taste it at all. I think the cinnamon/candy flavor has overpowerd it. It’s still a decent tea but coming from a green tea lover, not for me.

So I’m trying this tea again and it is tasting different than the first time. I don’t recall if I had sweetened it before, but I’m drinking it without sugar today. At the beginning of each sip I get a tobacco flavor! Like when you go into a pipe tobacco shop and smell all the flavored tobacco? Well this would be a light caramel one. There is a slight sweetness that hits at the back of my tongue.

Aaaaaand my kid nearly just threw a dirty sock in my cup. Wow. Talk about breaking the enchantment of a cup of tea!

I am enjoying this more than the first cup for sure, but it is still not on my must have list.

Thanks for this sample Moraiwe!
This really is kinda creamy! It is very light and hints at caramel. It is not a super strong flavor and the oolong is quite subtle. I don’t think I would have picked it out as an oolong. There is almost a hint of mint on the sip and the aftertaste gets a bit more carmely. It is an interesting tea, but not one I’m super taken by.

Another green! I’m making my way through some of the samples I have.. and trying some of the greens. If there are enough flavors that pair well with the base, I do well… if I taste mostly green, I give the cup to Hubby if he’s home. I must say, I’m doing better with greens though. :)

Dry this smells sweet & spicy.

Steeped I get a light tea that I’m not sure how to describe. I reminds me so much of the little craft/home décor stores that you walk into that smell so good. Kind of fruity, sweet and a bit of floral, but then at the end of the sip I get a kick of spice… must be the peppercorns &/or cinnamon. I’m not real familiar with currants, so maybe that’s why I have a little trouble with the description.

I’m finding I enjoy this more than I expected (even with an accidental over steep) … a really light tea, green base that is just a base and not acting as part of the flavor, and a nice surprise of spice at the end. A touch of raw sugar made the fruit/floral flavor pop a bit.

Thanks MissB for sharing this one!

I tried this tea this morning and it was a very nice smooth tea. I love coconut and I love chai, so I figured this would be a no brainer for me. I did think this had a mild coconut flavor and I would not mind if it were a little stronger, but I liked it any way. I would drink this one again for sure.

And now this is my second milk oolong ever. Kind of hard to compare this to the Teavivre one, but I’ll try. Thanks to aisling of tea and De for giving me a full package of this to try.

Dry leaf: Dark greenish-black little nuggets. The smell isn’t very creamy. In fact, it’s kind of metallic, bordering on marine/salty. Perhaps a touch of sweetness underneath.

Steeping parameters: The instructions on the package called for a 2-4 minute steep in 95°C water. I thought that was a bit odd, so I went with about 85° water for 1 minute for the first steep. Then I did 2 subsequent steeps at 95° for 3 minutes each to see what difference that made.

Liquor: The steeping times and temperatures did make a big difference. The first steep was quite light. The second and third steeps had a deep yellow colour and much more apparent flavour. However, all three steeps tasted kind of chemically/metallic. The third steep had the creamiest, milkiest flavour to it, but it wasn’t taste so much as mouthfeel, and it still felt oddly astringent.

Thoughts: I really don’t know what to make of this yet, so I’m not rating it. I think I liked the Milk Oolong from Teavivre more (it certainly had a nicer smell when dry), but since I’ve never tried any milk oolongs before today, I don’t know if I’m doing this right.

I wish that I had something witty to say about this tea…but it really just tastes like walnuts (and that’s rather delightful).

You can kinda taste the green base, but it seems as though it’s mainly there just to bump up the deliciousness and savoury goodness that is toasted walnut. I’m not entirely sure why I like this tea so much, but something about it just makes my tastebuds all kinds of happy.

I’m slightly undecided on whether I would order it myself, but it’s an enjoyable cup.

Backlogging a bit. Sort of grabbed randomly for a tea the other day – I wanted something black, and that’s all I knew. I remember this one being a luscious mouthful of fruit and melon, but this cup was a little disappointing. There was a faint aftertaste of berries and honeydew, but it was mainly just a cup of decent black tea. Not amazing. Just okay. A little dusty-tasting. Maybe I needed a longer steep time to bring out the berries.

This is one of those teas that people firmly sit on one side of the fence with: either it’s too weird (cumin?) or really comforting (almond, the name). Being a huge fan of cumin in anything, and loving creamier, nutty tea (usually) you’d think I’d be in the “this is one of my favorite teas!” group. Yet, I’m more of a fence sitter, especially on this one.

Before I turn this into a blog post (which, BTW, seriously considering doing something along the lines of “Tea Travels,” or, “Tea Traveler,” due to the sheer number of folks asking me to blog about my travel adventures) I’ll just say this: I get why they’ve called it Patisserie, it does smell like an almond macaron, or really any French bakery that makes anything with almonds in it, but there’s something bitter in here (and I think it’s the base tea) that’s turning me sour. It’s also awfully drying, which I just plain dislike in most teas.

Dropping the rating a bit, I think it’s well deserved.

Hm. How have I yet to open this? Okay, I will today. It smells of a bakery (odd considering the ingredients) and it does remind me of one as well. Have to admit though, I preferred this on the heavier side (suggested portioning is 1 tsp per 6-8oz. so I used 2 tsp for 16oz.) and only when it was almost cold. Hot, it was… meh. Ice cold, it got bitter. Warm on the cold side, it was… pleasant. Pastry-like. Rich. Sweet.

On a complete aside, I’ve decided to stop adding data into the database until everything gets added so that I can. Otherwise… I’m adding partial data, and that seems like a waste of time to me.

Gosh, I’ve had this one a while. Didn’t even realize I still did – so I had some! Should I keep it or share it? That’s the question.

You’d think citrus (lemongrass), coconut and spices would totally be my thing… and normally, it is. BIG TIME. Yet this tea doesn’t quite live up to the hype, although it is nicely creamy, the flavors are a bit… indistinguishable. It’s okay… just okay.

Just meh. Maybe I underleafed? 2 tsp in 16 oz, I could go up to 3 tsp, as these are HUGE pieces of orange, sunflower, cardamom, peppercorn, etc. Regardless, this just tastes like a mildly sweet tea with perhaps some cardamom in it.

Another tea from the lovely MissB

A green, and I am not very green except for Oolongs.
The dry leaf is absolutely beautiful, mix of tea, flowers and berries.

The liquor smells cinnamon, light cinnamon. I didn’t want to take any risk , I am very suspicious with greens and steeping so it has been steeped for 2 minutes only.
This is a sencha and has the specific taste notes of the sencha.

I particularly appreciate the way the flavours are working together, I wasn’t expecting cinnamon and currant to pair so well together.

I am very pleased to have had the chance to taste this sencha.

The lovely TheTeaFairy sent this to me and wrote on the package “I’m pretty sure you’re not gonna like it – green with a kick”.
I actually didn’t mind it. Wasn’t offensive, nice green base with some spice. This style of tea will never be my favorite, but I drank MUCH worse today. This was just ok for me.

thanks to MissB for this cool sample!

i have had a thing for currants lately, and the formidable MissB must have noticed because my sample bag has CURRANTS!!! scrawled across the front!

what it should have said was ‘CURRANT CUSTARD, JAMES… WITH WHITE PEPPER SPRINKLED ON TOP!!!’ lol.

quite excellent. i prefer it more once it has cooled down and the flavours can all be detected, a titch of agave… wunderbar! i’ll buy this again.

unbelievably smooth, complex without being the equivalent of plaid with polka dots. very nicely balanced. i think whoever named it did the blend a disservice, the tea is much more complex than the cliche name, but isn’t that what the world has MissB for? =0)

I received a sample of this from MirandaGou in our swap. Thank you for including this one.

This was amazing! I am not sure what I was expecting based on the name, but it was a sweet green tea with hints of a nutty flavor. I really liked it! I have it on my list to order the Lemon Meringue. If I ever get around to ordering this I will add Walnut Ave as well. Thanks for letting me try this MirandaGou!

Thanks to Natlynn for this sample! I needed something with a little less caffeine but didn’t want want to go completely with out caffeine. I learned how to reset the Breville from F to C. Ok, I should have looked at the directions first instead of just pressing buttons randomly, duh:) The liquor is a lovely red, the dry leaf is fruity, the aroma in sweet and fruity with no sense of green tea. Which is ok with me. I didn’t sense the sweetness in my first sip, I added a little sweetener and was very happy with the result. Fruity with strawberry and maybe a little rhubarb (?) the overall taste was fruity, but one should expect that from the name.

Sipdown (202/205)!

Thanks VariaTEA for the sample. It was neat comparing it to Forever Nuts and all the similar blends, but it wasn’t much of a comparison because this tastes exactly like Forever Nuts anyway.

For that reason, not sad that it’s gone because I have lots of Forever Nuts left.

Thanks VariaTEA for the sample. I actually thought it’d be a sipdown, but there’s still enough there for one more small cup.

I seem to be acquiring lots of the “Forever Nuts” type of teas, and I think I’m making decent enough progress getting through then. The nice thing is that they’re all a little bit different – or so I thought. When I brewed this one up it tasted exactly like Forever Nuts, complete with the pink tea liquor. Honestly, if I hadn’t prepared it myself I would have had NO IDEA that they were different teas.

So, that said – it was good, but totally not special or unique enough to persuade me to buy this one over Forever Nuts which is much more accessible.

Bah, I accidentally oversteeped this as my son requested some cuddles. More than a bit bitter, which is ruining any sort of yummy pineapple mango ishness that I was hoping for.

1.5 tsp in 8 oz.