721 Tasting Notes
Red Leaf Tea – Sample #9
30 May 2014, side-by-side comparison with Sample #10
Dry: Darker, not so much olive, but.. same shade, a tad brighter.
Straight: Dark forest green liquor with an olive-like froth. Slight bitterness detected.
Latte: Nice! But a tad bland. A touch of sugar (on top of the already sweet vanilla almond milk) is needed to bring flavours out more.
Colour: 79
Flavour: 80
Bitterness: 73
Suggested Price: $11
Oh this smells divine!
Thank you QueenOfTarts for sending me a sample!!
This definitely reminds me of DAVIDs Coffee Cake, lessen the coffee but add more sweet cake to it. And this is rooibos, rather than black. Definitely does give off the nice and sweet aroma!
The woodsy, sweet rooibos definitely comes out when it steeps. oh for some reason, it tastes like how a sweet coffee cake would taste like if it were baked in an open fire oven atop cedar wood. It has the sweet, cake-y smell, but like.. it tastes like red. And red to me is cedar wood and it tastes lovely :)
So I’m studying for Forensic Anthropology, but decided to take a break for dinner. And with dinner, I always watch a show! What better show than Bones hehe :) Every time I watch that show now, I test my anthropology skills. The second Bones said ‘narrow nasal aperture’ and something about the mandible, I knew that the victim was a caucasoid. And now, I’m about half an hour in and they’ve just identified the murder weapon, and I’m all BLUNT FORCE TRAUMA TO THE STERNUM YES. Mainly because like a majority of our final tomorrow is on trauma so that’s a thing I’ll need to know :)
But because of this Forensic Anthropology course, I’m actually understanding everything they’re saying. Whether if its sexing an individual, or figuring out their race or age, I completely understand. It’s actually quite fascinating :) I love how I can watch this show and it’ll still be valuable to my education hehe
Flavors: Brown Sugar, Burnt Sugar, Coffee, Vanilla
Preparation
Do you get pineapple from this one? Your description doesn’t sound like you do. I’m not a pineapple fan, and otherwise this tea sounds yum!
And it also sounds like you’re going to do really well in your class!
Good luck on your final!! I minored in anthropology and found it interesting. Unfortunately, I did not get the option to take as many forensic anthropology courses as I would have liked though.
Also, that reminds me…I have some catching up to do on Bones
*Cheri, *I surprisingly did not find pineapple in this tea, nor DAVIDs Coffee Cake! Coffee Cake is good for a dark, robust tea. This one is more on the sweeter end of cakey goodness :)
VariaTEA, thank you tons! This is my second anthro class that I’ve taken and honestly, I just took it for GE requirements haha. Luckily it’s something that I’m pretty fascinated by (thank you to Bones hehe), so studying for this final is a breeze!
I’m just scared for this final since its 50% of my grade!! I have a 97% in the class but… dude. I really want to keep my A in that class!
I am sure you will keep your A. I mean with a 97%, I feel it is safe to say you know your stuff. Just don’t stress and I am sure you will do amazing.
C’mon, you’re going to do awesome on this final. =)
I just finished my final and it took me about 45 minutes. Though it took me a short time, I’m quite confident I still maintained my A in the class!!
Yay!! Congrats!!
Sipdown (158)
Thank you shmiracles for the sample!
It’s good. Fruity black tea, smooth as it does down!
But it does have a bit of a mediciney taste. I’ll probably finish half the cup, plop a couple ice cubes and have the rest of this tea iced :)
((this is actually pretty good iced, ngl))
I just finished the first of four finals this week! Ahh so excited to be so close to being done! Two more tomorrow and one on wednesday. LET’S DO THIS.
Flavors: Berries, Cherry, Raspberry
Preparation
Aww, goodbye Blueberry Jam! You will be missed
Had this iced and tried to recreate it the same way the DAVIDs Sales Associate prepared it for me many weeks ago.
Steeped 3g of tea in 8oz water. Poured over ice with a touch of agave and milk! Didn’t taste the same, but it’s still really good :)
And I totally saw The Fault in Our Stars today.
My roommates and I saw it at 12:10 and Monica (the one that read the book) was BAWLING WITH ME. LIKE EVERY TIME THERE WAS A NEW SCENE, WE KNEW WE WERE GUNNA DIE. AND THEN THAT CAR SCENE. AND THE EULOGY SCENE. OH GOSH IT WAS DEATH.
Lulu (the one that didn’t read the book) was wondering why we were dying so much and she wanted to hold her tears in, but when everyone else is bawling around you, you can’t hold it in.
But it was a really good movie. Definitely one of the better book-to-movie adaptations I’ve seen! Stuff were definitely cut out, but it did stay pretty true to the book and I’m just so happy that this exists in the world.
I’m still going to hold off on this one and watch it later at home. I like my sads in private.
About two years ago, my roommate and I agreed that if TFiOS was ever turned into a movie, we had to watch it together. And last year, they announced it! We were so excited, but then we realized we didn’t want to be able to relive the book over and over again in just a wee 2 hours. We agreed that if we were going to suffer, we’re going to suffer together hehe.
And today was the day that pain demanded to be felt :’)
A great big ol thank you to Sil, VariaTEA, and NayLynn for sending this tea my way!
I’ve already sipped down NayLynn’s sample, and tonight is a sipdown from VariaTEA and I just have a wee sample left from Sil!
Thank you, ladies, for sending me my tummy soothing tea! Definitely will restock when I run out and get my cupboard to a reasonable amount :)
Red Leaf Tea – Sample #8
30 May 2014, side-by-side comparison with Sample #7
Dry: Is it weird if I said that this was a really fluffy matcha? Like it didn’t clump all that much as I was scooping it out, which was different. It was lighter and took up a lot more space compared to other matchas I’ve had. Slightly dull, olive colour.
Straight: Just on the /edge/ of being bitter compared to #7. Forest green liquor with a brighter froth.
Latte: Used regular milk since my vanilla almond milk was finished yesterday. Ahh it’s good. I blame the milk! But it is a tasty tea, just not as great as #6 and #2
Colour: 71
Flavour: 72
Bitterness: 65
Suggested Price: $9
Red Leaf Tea – Sample #7
30 May 2014, side-by-side comparison with Sample #8
Dry: Brighter than #8, definitely not as bright as #6 though! Looks more asparagus-y
Straight: Why is it that all my matchas taste bitter! Or maybe it’s just the tea? I made sure that it’s was well below 170 this time so it can’t be my water temperature! Looks a bit hunter green with a brighter shade/pale froth.
Latte: Used regular milk since my vanilla almond milk was finished yesterday. Ahh it’s good. I blame the milk! But it is a tasty tea, just not as great as #6 and #2
Colour: 79
Flavour: 76
Bitterness: 71
Suggested Price: $10
A surprising sipdown! And a happy one at that :)
Nice pepperminty flavour with hints of lemon loveliness :) Sad to see it go, but happy it’s one less tea in my cupboard. Not to mention one more tin to store a sample in!
//end tasting note
Pointless life update:
DONE WITH FINANCE. I’M SO HAPPY.
Starting my Anthro paper right now. I’ve already mapped the coordinates, and organized our data. Now I just have to do the written portion of it! Pretty much she got animal remains (not necessarily human, but like bits of horse, dog and pig) and scattered them throughout the quad. We had to map it with a compass and our map has to be good enough to like recreate the scene. Dang.
But my forensic anthropology professor is WAY COOL. She said that this is a chance for creativity. Some people say the person got attacked by ninjas or zombies and whatnot. Just as long as we can explain how that person’s remains got scattered, we’re good!
I’ve decided that it’s going to be Doomsday round 2 with Daleks and Cybermen. They both attacked my university and everyone got evacuated to the Conference center (since that’s the direction of travel), but there was this one lone student that wasn’t fast enough. A Dalek caught up to him and did the suction cup thing and sucked the life out of him and enjoyed it a bit too much, hence the burnt bone fragments. Then a Cyberman got hold of the student and tore him to pieces as they marched over to the Conference center, hence all scatter throughout the quad. Oh this is going to be great :)
Preparation
Dude. I definitely feel like kombucha is an acquired taste.
Personally, I don’t lie straight kombucha. This is my sister’s favourite one from GT, but I prefer my kombucha with chia seed since I feel like it takes a bit of the vinegar-y/acidic taste.
This is good! I like guava so much more than the gingery Trilogy.
I’ve decided to just add chia seed to the bottles of kombucha in the fridge. Makes it much tastier :)
Red Leaf Tea – Sample #6
30 May 2014, side-by-side comparison with Sample #5
Dry: Quite possibly the brightest matcha I’ve ever seen! SO vibrant and SO green. Picture like a really bright, granny smith apple.
Straight: Oh my gosh. This can possibly be the BEST matcha I’ve ever had. It has the brightest green liquor to it, the brightest froth on top, and it isn’t bitter at all! I think I can actually enjoy this STRAIGHT. Like I don’t like straight matcha all that much, I almost always have it as a latte with vanilla almond milk, but this is so good that I can just SHOVE THE MATCHA POWDER DOWN MY THROAT. Okay probably not that but this tea is crazy amazing.
Latte: And this tea does well yet again! Seriously. The milk helps bring the flavour out a lot more. In comparison to #5, this has really stuck out since opening the package. The colour was amazing from start to finish, and the taste was just heavenly. I can tell that this is probably one of the higher grade matchas I received. Thank you SO much Red Leaf Tea for giving me the opportunity to try all these matchas!! This is definitely something I enjoyed :)
Colour: 95
Flavour: 88
Bitterness: 89
Suggested Price: $1 ((hehe because I want more at an affordable price! But in all honesty, I feel like this is deserving of $40-$50. It is by far the best matcha I’ve ever had… and I have 8 more samples to go!))
