Wissotzky Tea
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Thanks to yssah for this sample. This may not be a true picture of the tea because I accidentally made it in the mug that still had a bit of french vanilla matcha in it so it’s kinda contaminated, even though I poured it into the correct mug almost immediately. So yeah…not quite a caffeine-free herbal anymore.
That being said, this is really a very apple-y tea. More on the tart side than the sweet side of the apple family. The hibiscus…I think I steeped it for too long, because I wasn’t paying attention and didn’t set a timer and now it’s pretty strong and making this tea taste not very good to me. I think I taste something that must be the roasted chicory root and it’s not sitting too well either. Summary – yuck.
First I want to say thanks to Yssah to all the tea bag samples.
On to this tea. Ok before I even took this tea out of it’s packet it had a super strong order of honey. I did two tea bags in my 8oz pot, poured it into my BFM and then filled the rest of it with hot water; so 16oz. I then only lightly sweeten it with a few drops of agave; since it already smelled so sweet.
Ok, I don’t know if I did something wrong, but this tea was badd. It tasted pretty much like fake clover honey. I don’t even like clover honey; I’m an orange blossom honey kinda girl. I couldn’t even finish my cup.
I am not going to rate this, since I only give bad ratings to teas that I have tried every which way to make good. So just a word of cation, if you don’t love honey stay away.
Preparation
First tried this tea when a friend went to Israel and bought me a box. I loved it..so much that I super-saved it for special occasions only.
And then I found out that they sell it online here in the US. Ordered to fill up the free shipping quota. I just knew they would all be good.
The weather was finally nice enough to have a cuppa and I finally had a little time at work to write up a tasting note. Imagine my consternation when I discovered that the dilapidated old browser on my work computer isn’t capable of running the “write tasting note” feature. Bah!
So this is a somewhat belated tasting note, but I feel that I must write it or else Internet Explorer 1782 wins.
I quite enjoyed this tea though! I haven’t got a whole lot to add to my prior note. I drank it after only steeping for about 4 minutes, at which point it was still tasty but not as well balanced as when you really let it sit. The sage aroma and flavor are very strong and soothing. I really wanted to add some honey to it, though, to round it out a bit. Overall, good for a quick fix during a busy workday.
I never thought about it when I used to regularly leave teabags in the mug while drinking my tea, but some teas seem to benefit substantially from lengthy steeps. This is one of those teas. At 3-5 minutes, it’s very meh. Flavor is weak and unimpressive. Luckily, I got distracted at work and didn’t come back to the cup until 15-20 minutes later. Oh. my. goodness. The flavors really come out to play. It’s a lovely balance of honey and sage and I find it extremely enjoyable. I wasn’t paying attention to aroma or color, but I’ll definitely be having it again and will try to notice those things.
I think many of the Wissotzky green teas fall into the category of teas that benefit from lengthy steepings. Not sure why.
This just tasted sort of generically fruity/berry-ish today. Lots of hibiscus. I’m not sensing any passionfruit flavor at all. The underlying green tea is grassy and a bit dry – neither terrible nor astounding. Overall, this has too much hibiscus for my taste right now. Also, ssssipdown!
I love the smell of this, though I can’t quite pin it down. Seems to primarily be black currant, rose, and hibiscus. Color is a very pretty red, though I think I understeeped this (and threw out the teabag, d’oh!). Flavor’s fairly light because of that, but I’m picking up a lot of strawberry, rosehip, and passionfruit. Aftertaste is definitely strawberry.
Overall, pretty tasty but not a staple tea.
I had what I believe to be a sipdown of this tea earlier today. I see from my previous tasting note that I enjoyed the ginger flavor. Unfortunately, I could barely taste the ginger today. It just seemed very weak all around – maybe the water wasn’t hot enough? I did let it steep for a good long while…
Oh well. I have better ginger teas and better Wissotzky teas, so it’s no big loss to be done with this one.
I needed something for the commute home, so I just tossed a bag of this into some hot water in my travel mug and left the bag in for the trip home. This tea holds up to a long steep pretty well. I agree that the green tea flavor is weak, but the ginger and lemongrass are strong and very well balanced. I quite enjoyed it. Very soothing.
Alas, can’t testify as to color or scent, since it was in a travel mug.