cteresa Send Message

Smells sublime when dry, Marco Polo-ish almost. But steeped, just a cup and I am quite uncertain. I feel the bergamot putting it firmly with earlgrey-ish territory (and out of Marco polo territory) and a vanilla/caramel taste. Base tea has some oomph but maybe too much oomph, it is tasting astringent to me. This is just not working for me. Tap water today smelled horribly of bleach, that can not help, must try this with bottled water and shorter steeping time.

I thought I had already tried this! So curious about it, thought I had tried it and find the very generous sample Angrboda gave me unopened. I do have too many teas, it is now confirmed.

I am not too crazy about oolong normally. I do love raspberries though, and this red fruit oolong from a local tea seller works for me in a good way. In all good omens.

The tea did not disappoint – it smells incredibly strongly of raspberry, in a way that seemed a little bit artificially flavoured (but I am paranoid). But when infusing the taste is pure natural raspberry, a little bit tart which is just right for things with a raspberry taste. Lovely! Though I think I should have been more generous with the dosage or skimpier with the ammount of water – and this will definetely get multiple steeps just to see how it goes.

In my country we distinguish between the flavour/scent of almond and bitter almond. Bitter almond is not a depreciative, special trees are grown particularly for them (though bitter almonds do show up naturally in every batch). The bitter almond is the one with the strong smell and taste, sometimes you need a little of the bitterness to make the sweet better. Normal, sweet almonds are lovely, their skins usually holding almost all the flavour, but for that almond scent and a bit of bite, usually we need a little bit of bitter almonds to provide that. Nobody wants to have bitter almonds on their own,besides being bitter they are mouth numbing and I think poisonous as well, but they are needed.

All this to say, that bitter almonds are what we usually think of when we think of almond scents, sweet almonds being almost scentless. This tea is, to my taste, strongly scented with bitter almond. With I think some vanilla, cinnamon and coriander in the background, very subtly. The black tea is not wimpish but I got no clue what kind of tea it is, the almond is STRONG. I like it. Particularly with a little bit of milk. But do avoid if you do not like that bitter almond thing (or almonds in general).

PS – just to add, the tea I got does not at all look like the photo here on steepster. No blue (cornflowers?) flowers at all.

I think I got it right this time, not too hot water, plenty of tea, and not letting it oversteep. And it is very refreshing, strong mint, hint of bergamot to just amplify the mint. The tea, well not feeling the tea strongly.

Very nice if you like this sort of thing – right now, not quite my thing, but maybe I will like it better as I use the rest of the sample. Or when the weather gets hotter and refreshing will be more valued than right now. We shall see.

This was a tea I just had to try based on name alone. A tea named after a Portuguese woman, a Lisbon neighbour so to speak, the woman responsible for some very cute unicorns (with lions) on occasional bits of the city (I got a weakness for those unicorns). And she liked her tea, so I do have a big fondness for her.

The fondness extends to the tea. This is such a chinese black tea, and that by my book is a very good thing and just my kind of tea. It reminds me a bit of Twinings´s Prince of Wales, the same sort of chestnutty taste, hint of smoke. But for proper taste note, must brew it a few more times and skip the milk. A very nice lady, this queen of England.

Hmm, now I have been kinder when brewing this, and it is indeed lovely. Very very strong, lovely gorgeous natural mango scent in the tea mixture. After brewed, the mango is much less overpowering, just this perfect balance of nice green tea with fruit, not too much fruit and not too little (for my taste). Lots of sunflower petals, not sure what they do to the taste (add texture?).

I did a second steep of this and it was a great idea. The wet leaves smell totally differently after the steep, like cut grass almost, almost a minty tone, and I got very curious about what a second steep would be like. Maybe because I used hotter water and left the tea for longer, it was more mango-ish. The tea also tasted greener, though not the minty-grassy tones the leaves smelled of! Just lovely, at both steeps.

Note: I was checking description right now and it says a chinese green tea base. My original package was from a couple years ago and I remember it, or possibly misremember it, as being a sencha tea base. My new package which is just as awesome (or more) than I remember the old one being does not mention which tea base it is.

Interesting blend, I think particularly good for sencha lovers. The sencha is present, as well as a very noticeable apple. The cinnamon is just a hint, a smidgeon, and it feels right. The almonds, i will take on faith but could not detect. The apple taste is real life, sweet, dried apple taste (from you know, real dried apple pieces aplenty in the tea mix) though maybe I am peasant enough that I was expecting something else, a sharper (i.e artificial) apple flavor. The sencha is IMO absolutely lovely, large, beautifuly unfolding, so buttery. A very smooth, creamy green tea blend.

Weirdly enough, trying this what it makes me really want to buy is their unflavored sencha, since it is the sencha which seems really awesome here. I want to try it on its own now.

I don´t know. My first cup of this, and it´s good, it seems like it might be awesome iced with fruits on it, but maybe it is not going to be my cup of tea. We shall see!

I have been bad, way bad, I was very kindly offered a very generous sample of it (obrigada, T!), and it smelled so heavenly I brew it whichever way the moment I walked through the door at home. Boiling water, and rather uncontrolled steeping time, it deserved better this tea. Even treated so shabbily it forgave me, it is wonderful even without due care.