761 Tasting Notes
This is a sample from teavivre and I thought I’d give this one a go today. Feeling like a straight, or mostly straight tea right now. Pu-erh sounds good to start the new year in. On;y I did have some Harney and Sons Hot Cinnamon Spice earlier since I was cold.
Anyhow, dry observations…
It smelled very earthy, and the cake was pretty firm…only a little crumbling at the top. I do have to mention I had no rose bud whatsoever with this particular tuocha cake. Now, I don’t know about the others, though there was some confusion initially about which pu-erh tuocha I was getting from Angel. So take this last fact with a grain of salt when it comes to tasting notes. I can’t be 100% sure that I got the ripened rose instead of the plain.
Brewing and tasting…
The liquor turned dark dark dark! It looks very much like coffee or wine, or a mix of the two. I cannot pick up any rose notes specifically, though there is a floral note at the back of my tongue that is accentuated a bit more with the sugar I added. And I added the same amount of milk, roughly, that I usually do, and it is a dark brew still.
I taste a very full bodied tea here…even with the milk and sugar. It is earthy and warm and balanced. I don’t get any fishy taste, though I did faintly smell it when it was dry. To me, this is equivalent to a dark beer (though I don’t drink beer). It’s not for everybody. I think this is good for those who like coffee but want to transition to tea because it is such a hearty taste.
This all said, it isn’t my favourite, but I do like it as a straight tea. I think I prefer pu-erh blends like DAVIDs Oh Christmas Treat! Orange and chocolate are the perfect match for pu-erh.
I’ll see what my next steep is like on this. Oh, and for the record, I did break up the cake with my fingers into a few smaller chunks into my steeper, no rinsing, and I used boiling water and steeped about two minutes.
Happy New Years Steepsterites!
Yum! I forgot I had some of this left. It’s nice and mellow and sweet on its own, even when over-steeped (oops) and is almost like a straight tea…the flavour is mild but complex. I should stock up on this. I do like it a lot. I’m glad I chose this tonight. Nice choice for New Years, with the black and white theme. :)
First steeping…definitely more spice than chocolate, as noted by others. I don’t taste the licorice, but I do taste the cinnamon and cardamon, and together I think they give off a licorice-like taste.
Second steeping…spiked it with a little bit of Chocolate Chili Chai, and served with milk.
Nothing terribly remarkable either way, but not horrible either. I don’t know if I’d buy this again on it being a chocolate tea, but for the medicinal ginger and such, perhaps. I do have a delicate stomach at times, so it might be worth stocking a little as a medicinal tea. That said, there are other teas with ginger and cinnamon and so on…so I do have some other choices as well.
Tea to go for me, and free at that. The initial SA buggered off and passed me on to another person, who was very helpful, and she comped the tea for me.
It tastes lovely, but I can’t tell if there is much difference between this and Alpine Punch. I might need to pick up more of each and evaluate at home. Anyone know if lapacho is better for you than rooibos, or are they really just two peas from the same pod?
More later, but it was yummy and I enjoyed it.
I think the main claim to fame for lapacho is its cancer and infection/parasite fighting ability. There are rumours about it, and even the cancer society reports potential benefits, or so I am told.
Otherwise I think it also has the standard antioxidant properties. (Also anti-inflammatory, anti-fungal, and so on)
I tried this a few years ago, with no added flavourings… I quite enjoyed it!
Is this going to be a more permanent addition once Alpine Punch goes away after the holidays? It would be great if it was, so I could still get my fix. I think I do like the lapacho base better over the rooibos, but there is an apple cider/punch feel to Alpine Punch that Amaretto doesn’t have. So I like both for the slight differences.
I hope it is… I like it quite a bit!! one day I’ll try it with some real Amaretto. mmmmmm
Ooooh! Nice! I like it and will likely get more.
It’s been a bit since I’ve had any tea that teavivre sent me, as I’ve been delving into the the ones from Jenn as I have been intrigued by the ingenious blends, but today I felt it was a straight tea day, so I brewed up a few straight teas. This was the first.
I wasn’t fond of it straight, but then I pretty much always take black teas with milk and sugar these days, and I think this mellowed it out for me. It was pretty earthy to me. I loved the colour of the leaves, and the tea was a beautiful dark mahogany brown. The tea was quite a contrast to the Ti Kwan Yin I had later which was light and fresh and floral; this was heavy and earthy, possibly smoky or malty. I’m never very good at describing notes in straight tea. This tea, however, was my tea of choice today, as I had woken up with a bad headache and congestion, and I wanted something strong to give my head a kick in the pants, so to speak.
I think I prefer darjeeling over this as a straight black, and I prefer flavoured black over straight. And for me, milk and sugar are a must for black tea.
ETA: In reading the reviews, I may opt to try this at a lower temp, with a shorter steep, and try it again, sans milk and sugar, to see if I can pick up the sweet potato or cocoa notes I’ve read about. It is possible I tasted this straight with too much haste. My rating might change on a subsequent brewing.
I’ve been having some teas teavivre sent me most of the day. Earlier it was the Golden Tips, but now I’m on my 2nd or 3rd infusion of this one. I love oolong. The first brew had a little too much sugar, so it was a tad overpowering, but I added more tea to balance it out. It is a nice green floral taste, without being perfumey. I also think this is a very forgiving tea, as I got distracted a few times and let it steep longer than intended. Even as it has cooled off, it is lovely. I love how big the leaves get after they’ve been brewed a few times. The tea is a beautiful golden yellow tinged with green. They’re simply huge! Praise to the Oolong Goddess for this tea!
So, I had the rest of my Singapore Cashew Curry today, and thought this would be a nice tea to have with it. I’ve been sort of holding off on it til I had the right meal to have it with. The tea smells nice and spicy, so I thought it would match well. And it did. But it isn’t my favourite green tea. I’ll happily have the rest of the sample Jenn sent me, as it is good, but I just don’t love it.
OMG, how do these people do it? This tastes just like strawberry cheesecake! No joke! I can pick up the green tea base, and that unmistakeable strawberry cheesecake flavour! The NecessiTeas rock, and so does Jenn for including this one in my care package.
ETA: I even over-steeped this one by accident (shiny thing) and it is still ok! And I love how big the leaves get when steeped!
