513 Tasting Notes
Retried this with a bit of sugar. Still not perfect, but much better. A lot more buttery, more muted on the apple. More like the taste I was looking for. This is a nice, classic, apple tea. It isn’t my first choice right now, but I think it is a cup I will keep going back to as the weather starts to chill down. (We are going through a late summer heat wave, after a week of freezing weather. This is really screwing up my fall tea tasting, I feel like I need to go back to my summery staples! The trees are turning fast though, promising that this weather reprieve is not going to last long!)
Again, another gift from my tasting trip through my friend’s shelf. I tried a couple of sips of this, trying my very hardest to remember I don’t like floral notes and I hate pistachios. Even with my most open mind, my reaction to this tea was predictable… Not my thing. Nope. Not at all. It taste faintly of apple (which I love), but more heavily of rose and pistachio, (which I loathe). A gorgeous tea to look at, great to smell, but not in my cup again.
Sometimes wonderful things happen in this world! Things like your friend letting you spend an entire evening shopping her tea cupboard for different tastes to try. This is how I stumbled upon Mango Diablo, sitting forgotten on the back of her shelf. What luck! I had come so very close to purchasing 250 grams of this the night before (darn David’s Tea and their web specials section). Eagerly I brewed up a cup, already contemplating how to talk the BF into yet more tea. The aroma was intriguing, the brew looked great, I took a quick sip, and…. yuck? Wait, there must be something wrong. Quickly, I set it aside and tapped my toe while it cooled, another sip and… Still disappointment. The bf is thrilled for my wallet’s sake, I am just disappointed. Sweet and heat is just not for me. The mango was just too muted for me. The sweet heat from the chili showed up towards the end of the sip. Overall, this tea delivered on what it had promised, but it was not a tea I need to drink again.
I think I just need to accept that oolongs may not my my thing. I don’t find this tea offensive, but it is really not my favourite. Nor is it something I would really jump to reach for again. I am not getting the floral not I got from the Pineapple Oolong, but the fruit flavours are so much more muted than I had hoped that they would be! I am getting hints of peach and of almond, but I like a clearer flavoured fruit tea. This is not a bad tea, just not quite the right fit for me.
Had this again for my morning tea. Once again, it was a super easy sell with me. Delightfully spicy with a hint of the sugar I added. I don’t really taste pumpkin, but I do taste all the spices that make me think of pumpkin. Given that I am actually not a huge pumpkin fan, I love that I am tasting more spice than squash. This tea is a solid winner in my book!
Last of the blacks I have recently tried! I liked this, I didn’t love it as much as Sugar & Spice, Glitter & Gold, or Pumpkin Chai. Additionally, it was slightly overshadowed by my friend’s gift of Cocoa Canela… In defense of the tea, it was actually quite good. There were definite caramel undertones but it wasn’t too caramelly sweet. It was a really good no nonsense black. I think I will definitely revisit it, but there are other blacks I liked a lot better.
