The Persimmon Tree Tea Company

This one smelled delicious, but the taste didn’t quite deliver. I mostly got black tea and rooibos, and not a whole lot of flavoring. Maybe I’m mistaking the rooibos flavor for the peach and apple? Or maybe the rooibos just overpowered everything. Not sure, but it didn’t work out for me. There might have been a little cinnamon in there…a little. Gave the last cup to a friend, who enjoyed it, so it’s not a total loss. Glad to have tried it.

When I first started out on Steepster as a tea newbie, this quickly became one of my favorites. Now that I’ve really gotten into the world of straight teas (unflavored), my taste buds have definitely changed. While I still enjoy this one, I’m gonna lower my rating just a little because it does come off as a little too perfume-y to me now. Not so much that I can’t drink it, but just a teensy bit enough that I wonder how I didn’t really taste it as much before. I think that today’s cup was also just a little extra jasmine-y, which is usually not the case if I remember correctly. But all in all, it’s still a good flavored black tea to me, and I’m still liking it!

Another great steeping of this tea. I’ve realized that this is one of the few teas I have that I can’t remember having a bad steep with. I guess that’s why I keep it around as a staple!

After having straight black tea earlier today, I was in the mood for something a little sweeter. This tea has become one of my go-to’s for when I’m in this kind of mood. Plus, it’s giving me the chance to break in my brand new mug!

I might have gotten some extra jasmine blossoms in my teaspoon this morning because today this tea tasted a bit more floral and perfume-y than usual. Not so perfume-y that it was overwhelming and unpleasant to drink, but I just noticed it was a little different than usual. No big deal. There was some slight astringency, but again, no big deal. It was a nice, sweet tea to have throughout the day and resteeped surprisingly well.

Backlog from yesterday. I’ve been trying a bunch of jasmine teas and I tend not to prefer them as much. However, this tea has a perfect balance of jasmine with passion fruit that is really juicy and delicious. Too bad I just missed the Persimmon Tree sale to restock on this. I have one, maybe two, cups left, eek!

I find straight black teas to be a little harsh sometimes, so I like to drink teas like this in the morning instead. The passion fruit and jasmine lend a sweet note to the tea without completely taking over the flavor like some other flavored teas might.

The weather has suddenly gone from muggy-hot to a little chilly with a crispness to the wind in a matter of two days. Interesting. Anyway, the sudden change prompted me to brew up a warm cup of this delicious tea. The first cup had a strong (for me) black tea body followed by a jasmine taste that lingered afterward. When I steeped it for a second time, the black tea was definitely fading, but the floral tastes grew stronger, which I liked.

I’m also always amazed at how the tea leaves expand and really make themselves at home after being all scrunched up in tea storage. Oh, and my mouth is feeling kinda dry after drinking this. Does this happen to people? I never paid attention to it before, but now I’ll try.

I’ve been a little MIA from my tealog lately because I’ve been getting a lot of pearl/bubble/milk tea like genmaicha and roasted barley milk tea, yummm.

Anyway, this is sadly my last new sample from The Persimmon Tree black tea sampler. I really liked this one. The tea leaves smelled very fruity as did the tea at first. As it cooled down, more of the jasmine notes came out. The lingering aftertaste was also predominantly jasmine. Normally, I’m on the fence about jasmine teas, but I really liked it paired with passion fruit in this one.

Overall, I’ve been really happy with my samplers. I’m already thinking about reordering 3/5 of them. Maybe 4 if I’m feeling spendy. I highly recommend these samplers! I’m probably going to try out the green and white ones, too :)

Peach Apple Crisp sounds so refreshing, doesn’t it? Then you read about cinnamon and think, ok, maybe not refreshing, more like a baked good you eat on a cool autumn evening watching the leaves turn.

I smelled the dry leaf, and then I smelled it again because I was disappointed. You know when you bite into a peach that’s off? You know that smell/taste? That’s what I got here. Not cinnamon, not peach or apple, fake or otherwise, just a bad fruit smell. Not fermented, just bad.

At 4 minutes, 2 perfect spoons and 16 oz of water off boiling gives me a slightly astringent brew, pretty light on the fresh, crisp fruit taste and the vague fruit gone-off taste is still there. Dark amber colour, smells better brewed, faintly of peach and Rooibos.

Dexter3657 who generously provided the sample, and to whom I am forever thankful, is convinced I am not friends with Rooibos. I have had other Rooibos and they are good! Granted there have not been many :) I have enough for another cup, I will throw it in a jar to cold steep, hopefully with better result.

I almost didn’t want to write this because if you don’t have anything nice to say… Also, my review is so different from all the others! Maybe someone will wonder who Pd in my Cheerios this morning.

Sipdown. I’m feeling tired but restless, so I decided to finish up the rest of this tea. Last night I used two thirds of the sample, so tonight I dumped in the final third. This is slightly more mellow (compared to the tart zing of last night) but the flavor and the color are nearly just as intense.

Wow… that’s shocking. I’m not rating this because I think I messed up the steeping. This tastes like it might have been poured out of a bottle of TrueBlood, and Erik is nowhere to be found! This is tart and bloody. Seriously. I could smell the rose as it steeped but it has vanished into an ocean of hibiscus.

Today was my first day back at the school. I came in several days early to meet our new principal and start getting things back in order, but right now my mind is racing at fifty-zillion miles about things to do and prepare, and…. and… and… I could keep going but I really need to calm down and get ready for bed!

While I haven’t really found a Persimmon Tree that’s grabbed my senses and shook them, it has been a lot of fun to try out all these little samples. So tonight as I watch Mythbusters I’m settling into this and playing fetch with Mei-Mei. The tea’s got a lovely steam rising from it, and the flavor is woodsy and sweet.

I’m not loving this tea, but I’m not hating it either. It does suffer from the same issues as their other rooibos… it’s just a wee bit too rooibossy. And I do mean bossy. Those little particles are ganging up on the other notes and overwhelming them. In the dry mix I was able to see a couple other elements, but there was considerably more of the rooibos pieces. It’s not a chunky blend by any means, and I think that’s why I’m having such a difficult time picking out the hibiscus and most the orange, although it does peek out a little in the aftertaste.

But right now I’m trying to calm down, so I don’t want something that’s going to blow my mind and get it racing again. So I’ll keep sipping and playing fetch with our sweet little cat.

This is another from my Persimmon sample pack I bought. This is pretty good, I haven’t done so well with most of them, so I am pleasantly surprised.
Not much to say. I’m not exactly sure what guava is suppose to taste like, but this is a nice light fruity white tea. I don’t really have any complaints about it. I needed to add some sweetener to bring out more of the fruity, but all in all it’s pretty good.

Another tea from my Persimmon sample purchase. I’m not really crazy about this one either. It’s ok, just ok. Nothing awful about it (it doesn’t have the odd taste I was getting in some of the fruit blends). It’s flat to me, that’s the best way to describe it. Not coconut enough, not creamy enough, and I think the white tea is just non existent. I added a splash of milk, that helped but I’m still not thrilled. Sorry, really wanted to like these teas, but they just aren’t for me.

Odd that there aren’t any tasting notes on this tea. I don’t like being the first to review teas.
I didn’t do very well with The Persimmon Tree Tea company samples that ordered. I found most of their fruit flavored teas had an “odd” flavor to them. Was hoping that this chai would be different. Nope it’s still there. I don’t know what it is, but there is something strange and fruity in this chai. I don’t think fruity belongs in chai. The actual chai spices are mellow and well balanced, but I can’t get past the oddness of this.
This one is not for me. :((

Ugh, I couldn’t finish my mug. I used boiling water, steeped for 4 minutes and adding some skim milk (and even added a couple chocolate chips to the mix). Just not good. I don’t know what it is, but the mint is incredibly overpowering. I didn’t get any chocolate even with my add-ins. I dumped the rest of my mug.

Just like the butterscotch, I’m about to have a lot more of this in my cupboard. I needed some tasty tea after this mornings trial. This is still tasty (whew). I usually brew 5 minutes and then the leaves are good for another brew with a few extra leaves. My second brew of this will easily ""sipdown"" this sample (I’m on my first brew right now). But as with my prior PTT note, 1oz is on its way to me soon.

So far I’ve been impressed with The Persimmon Tree’s white tea offerings. This is no exception. When drinking it, it kind of reminds me of frozen coconut bars (well aside from the temperature difference). It’s creamy and just enough coconut to not seem artificial. I added some sweetener to mine and it’s pretty much dessert in a cup. Yum.

(Used approximately 3tsp for my 16oz steeping mug but the leaves are so big, that I think it was more like 2tsp)

My quest to drink more rooibos to see if it will help carpal tunnel continues.

2 tsps of tea in 16 oz of water, with 2 tsps of rock sugar.

I think next time I will cut the sugar in half. It’s cloyingly sweet. Other than that, I like this tea. It’s chocolatey and bananay without being overly much so.

The steeped tea smells awful, though. Fair warning.

Backlog:

A really tasty tea! I was very happy with the way the chocolate and coconut were represented in this cup. Sweet, creamy and delicious, with a nice earthy undertone. A really good chocolate tea.

Here’s my full-length review: http://sororiteasisters.com/2013/04/11/coconut-cacao-tea-from-the-persimmon-tree/

So I thought that since I got my sampling done from my swap with Stephanie I would finally get back to my Persimmon Tree samples I ordered when they were doing their big promotion packs. I was very hesitant to try this one seeing as I am not a fan of rooibos tea at all. The dry leave did contain a little of it, but seemed to be mostly chamomile and lemongrass. It smelled interesting, I do not know how to describe it but I did pick up the banana scent. After the steeping was almost through…AH HA there you are rooibos! I smelled it! This made me even more nervous. I tried it unsweetened first and could only pick up chamomile. I can’t complain because there was no rooibos to be found :D (happy girl!) I added a little sugar and I found the banana! a tiny bit of nuttiness comes out too! Sadly no sign of coconut anywhere, and even the lavender that says it is present. I will resteep with both sugar and cream this time and will get back to you! I also will have try this iced as per moraiwe’s suggestion in her tasting note. I would have never thought to make this an iced tea.

Brought this in my travel tumbler to class today. There was a weird smell after the initial vanilla smell that translated to a funky taste. Odd because I didn’t taste/smell that at all the last time I drank this. My amateur guess would be that maybe the oils or something in the tea went bad? Or it might have to do with my tumbler. In either case, I had to dump a lot of it out :( I’ll be sure to get to the bottom of this when I get back home.

This is one of my last samples from The Persimmon Tree, sad! Anyway, as soon as I opened the little packet of tea, I was greeted by an overwhelmingly vanilla scent. Almost like a vanilla candle scent minus the wax and/or smoke. The tea turned out to be a light golden yellow with the same perfumey vanilla smell. Not to get repetitive and boring, but it tasted just the way it smelled. It reminds me of a watery vanilla bean ice cream (in a good way). Slightly creamy, definitely sweet enough without anything added (my favorite kind of tea!).

I can definitely see this one being more of a staple in colder weather, so I’m adding this to my buy list for next time I order from The Persimmon Tree!