1719 Tasting Notes
I get Good Earth is trying to give this the illusion of a tart cherry mixed with pomegranate, and maybe tea bag only people will accept it. For me the addition of hibiscus and its tartness is totally unnecessary. The presence of an overdose of stevia is likewise just too much. Way too sweet and way too bitter. The core flavor of pomegranate and cherry is pleasant enough. I just wish, with this one, someone at Good Earth would learn to edit.
I have been so busy lately. Besides my morning cold matcha/milk latte this is as close to tea as I have had time to grab. So easy to twist off the cap and chug.
The real reason I stopped to post – I spent a few minutes playing Kerbal Space Program and had all my kerbalnauts assigned, so I had to hire a new recruit. The game auto creates the names of available applicants. One possibility was a pilot named Harney. Yep, he is now my new favorite character. Sorry Jebediah.
I just noticed that 5 out of my last 7 notes are matcha. Well, let’s make it 6 out of 8. This morning I grabbed a really savory and delicious one. I have no idea what it was but it blended completely and created a tumbler of creamy foam with only milk and 1 packet of Splenda added. I sat at my laptop checking my mail when I noticed I had some root beer left in the bottle. Hmmm, why not? Off came the tumbler lid. Well… hats off to the creative ones who come up with all the awesome flavored blends. I am not one of them. This was drinkable but I wouldn’t recommend the combination.
Well that’s just weird. I often add a splash of caramel and vanilla syrup to my morning green tea matcha latte. It is pretty good. Today I decided to use 1/2 tsp each of Red Leaf Tea’s Caramel matcha and French Vanilla matcha. I love both of them, just not mixed together apparently. It is kind of bitter and the flavors clash. Not sure why I keep thinking I am going to improve on something I already think is perfect. Oh well, its gone already and I don’t have to repeat, but I probably will and that’s just weird.
Go figure! Sounded very promising. Do you have two different syrups, a caramel and a vanilla, or is it one caramel vanilla flavour? If it’s the former, I wonder what it would be like to add the opposite flavoured syrup to the matcha. i.e. Caramel syrup + French Vanilla matcha.
I use two different syrups that I get on the coffee aisle at the grocer. The syrup is simply a vanilla not French vanilla. I guess the difference is French vanilla has a egg based custard taste. I think I could add my vanilla syrup to the caramel matcha and it would work well. Not sure about the other way around. We must experiment!
I am not a caramel enjoying person. At least not caramel ice cream topping or caramel candy. It is too sweet, even for the monkey, and just doesn’t move me… and yet, I’ve read so many positive reviews of this one over the years that I had to try some. I used 1 tsp in a mug with cold milk, cause that’s how I roll. Tasted. Kid of wondered what all the fuss was about. It was light and kind of reminded me of the French vanilla I had earlier. Then the monkey grabbed the liquid Splenda and added the equivalent of 1 tsp of sugar. Delicious! I could drink this everyday. It is sweet (obviously) but not gross sweet. It is buttery, and the flavor is really good and never gets overpowering. A perfect balance of sweet. texture, and flavor. I will have this one again – and it’s caramel.
This morning found me undecided on my cold milk/tea latte. I kind of wanted French Vanilla matcha, but I had that yesterday. Can’t I be more creative? I stared blankly at the packets until my eyes fell upon the Strawberry matcha also from Red Leaf Tea. It was one of those moments when the hands start moving while the brain catches up on sleep. I used a 1/2 tsp of each. Frothing more than doubled the volume in the cup. Slowly added more milk until the tumbler was full. I was thinking strawberries and cream, but this is really is its own thing. One sip is strawberry the next French vanilla, and the next is a unique mix of both. At 7:00 am this is about as complex as I can handle. Very good. My brain just woke from its nap and it agrees.
I hate writing a bad review. I always try to weigh my personal likes and dislikes against what the tea is intended to taste. No matter how I look at it, I just can’t get positive with this one. It is almost entirely mango and pineapple in taste, which admittedly I don’t care for, but I can’t find the orange, lemongrass, or lime at all in the flavor. It has a bitter aftertaste like stevia but there is none listed in the ingredients. Maybe it is the licorice root, but I normally don’t mind it. I think it may be the chamomile that is the biggest offense – and I normally like chamomile. This just smells like pee to my nose. I have had 8 different teas from Good Earth now. Six have been extremely good. Two have been undrinkable to me personally. I guess if there is a bright side, I would rather see an epic fail than just another bag of meh.
Still loving this one. 1 tsp with 1/3 tumbler full of 2% milk, once frothed produces a full tumbler so thick and creamy the straw stands straight up. After settles a bit I add more milk. As others said, the powder smells like icing. The cold milk latte tastes like cake and icing tossed in a blender and liquefied. To me the French vanilla has an extra little kick that tastes like a nutmeg was lightly sprinkled on top. I can see consuming mass quantities.
I have a forest full of cicada noises inside my head. My head and ear hurt. I am a big baby when I don’t feel good. I thought tea would make me feel better. It helped but really this tea deserves a better review than it is about to get.
I grabbed this for the tea sap sucking leaf hopper vampire connection. Seemed appropriate. The leaf, despite the vampire bites, are beautiful. They are brown, cinnamon, green, white, with touches of yellow. It is composed of leaves and buds on stems. I don’t detect a lot of aroma from the leaf, except some faint peony blossoms.
The steep leaf scent is honey and fruit. The liquor is honey/caramel in color.
To me, if I didn’t know this was a Taiwanese oolong, I would have believed it to be a Nepalese black tea. It tastes of raisin drifting into muscat grapes. It also has a nutty, deep woods presence to it. Late in the sip I sense it opening up with floral notes. that seem again like peony blossoms. Very good.
Apparently the last time I had this it was -16F. Kind of makes today’s morning temp of 45F sound pretty toasty. I would have assumed my tastes had matured a bit and this wouldn’t appeal to me so much, but I would have assumed wrong. Still tasty.
I totally here you. Tea companies are often like “This is raspberry flavoured!” No, it’s hibiscus.
Editing tea. As a weary writer who’s tired of proofreading, I love that notion!
Editing – the thought came from watching Project Runway with my wife. Make it work people.