Featured & New Tasting Notes

I had this tea yesterday, but I haven’t got time to write and I don’t even wanted to. Mostly because I felt bit puzzled about this tea.

The aroma is bit buttery (expected) and not sure if rum like. I am not really a rum drinker, though I drank some.

The taste, after 3-4 minutes steep, was quite mellow which I am grateful for. Maybe I have expected some spicy notes, which isn’t much present. It was quite on sweet side and very woody. Oak wood, like a barrel aged beer, or actual rum? I expected some harsh notes and some alcoholic notes, but none of them (luckily?) aren’t there.

It is smooth, which is another quality I haven’t expecting. I don’t mind drinking it, but called it rum-like? I am not that sure. But well, maybe it is actually good blend, just expectations were different.

Yay, I finally got this tea page to load! ❤

Polishing off another of my teeny tin sample leftovers with this one from Teavivre.

The aroma is very sweet and honeyed. There is a touch of honey in the taste as well, but mostly it’s thick, hearty bread with caraway seed backed by subtle earthy notes and a hint of smoke.

As it cools, the honey comes out a bit more for a nice honeyed toast flavor.

A very satisfying tea for the morning!

Another tea from postcrossing, from same person as yesterday one, Berry Gelato. While previous one was black-fruit blend, now I will try typical Russian herbal. Fireweed or rosebay willowherb (Chamaenerion angustifolium), also known as Ivan’s tea in Russia, is herb from northern hemisphere, but using it as a tea is typical for Russians only.

I have no steeping parameters for this tea, as I got typical white tea bag with name and QR code on other side. The QR code is a link to their website, I will do my best, around 5 minutes steeping and boiling

My brew is turning from light green-yellow to brown, copper colour. It stays clear. Aroma is rather on sweet, honey-like side. I don’t notice much of the herbaceous notes, it is rather bit like some black tea; with hints of muscatel as well.

The taste (oh, it’s still very hot) is again like a black tea; although much less body of it. Honey-ish taste and hints of muscatel. Although it’s herbal, there aren’t any notes of herbs in taste. Taste as I said, it is like a black tea, though weak one a bit. Some may say it is as well caramel like, which a little in aftertaste.

Off I go, I have lecture from Probability and Statistics in 5 minutes.

I have received this tea from postcrossing in the end of September. It is limited edition and I am afraid I will be only one who writes few lines on this site. This tea is overall well accpeted and reviews were saying it’s nice. Let’s see what thinks non-russian citizen.

It is flavoured black tea. When I took a sniff on pyramid sachet, a blueberry hit my nose. The leaf is broken, but nice size, not a fannings nor dust. Brew after 5 minutes (recommended time) is clear and copper colour.

The aroma of tea (brewed) is way more berry-like; raspberry and black currant. Taste is more mediocre. it is berry, but quite muted and only little of mint — rather just some cooling effect.

Overall, I have expected more fruity notes, especially when the aroma of pyramid sachet was so nice and pleasant; but it doesn’t transfer much to taste. The tea is probably Ceylon (as usual in Russian teas) because it is bit citrusy base, quite light and certainly there are no malty and robust flavours.

I have again prepared this wonderful tea, and although it is year and half old, it is still one of the most perfect orthodox tea I had and still have something left. I guess next year, if availbable, I will order another.

It’s mild, but still the black tea notes are present. The maltiness, some of citrusy notes (I finally noticed them). And some stonefruits. I really like that even preparation grandpa isn’t bad thing for this tea, as it just remains mild and never bitter. Not even the end of the cuppa!

I see I had this tea, when I was writing tasting note 200. Now I am on 760 (my house number, what a coincidence) and I just… I just don’t care about the number. I just like seeing the “likes” and some comments now and then.

Candy Corn is a Halloween classic so how could I resist picking up a Candy Corn tea for this October!? Let me tell you a secret though; when it comes to actual candy corn it’s not a flavour that I enjoy…

It’s a testament to the power/influence of it as a Halloween icon though because I see basically any Candy Corn inspired thing other than real Candy Corn and I immediately want to buy it because motherfucking Halloween! Shockingly, there are probably a DOZEN different Candy Corn inspired tea blends on Adagio so I had a lot of range to pick from. I chose then one that had the most appealing to me flavour composition and not the one I thought was most accurate to actual Candy Corn, which is basically just a mix of fondant/icing that tastes like pure sugar. No thanks…

So this is essentially caramel/orange/cream with black tea and honeybush. I guess I have seen cream and caramel flavour candy corn so it’s not totally off base in the interpretation of the flavour – but orange seems more out there and I would guess is only included because of the actual colour of candy corn. I’m okay with that, though!

The taste is straight forward – literally all of the flavours I just mentioned are represented, including a malty backbone from the black tea and that sweet and nutty flavour of honeybush that is so distinct. I would say the strongest flavours are orange, cream, and honeybush. It loosely reminds me of Candy Corn, but whether it’s accurate or not isn’t really the goal that I wanted from this cup – the important thing is that it tastes good, and it does. I find it a little thin, and the caramel could be better but I enjoy the orange and cream combo a lot – and I get the FUN of Candy Corn for Halloween which is exactly what I wanted.

I also drank this while watching Simpson’s Treehouse of Horror episodes which was a massively fun and nostalgic Halloween evening activity that only made the tea that much better!

The loose leaf looks great, though it is 6 years old. As derk noticed, as it is from her, and actually from White Antlers (Thank you both!). The leaf looks pretty much as on photo, though bit darker.

I decided to brew 3 grams in my 300 ml glass cup. I broke my gaiwan today, so I have decided to order a new one! From Tangpin (someone suggested them and I kinda liked some stuff they had and this was the “last drip” to place an order)

Well, it wasn’t remarkable tea. It was green with mineral notes, quite dry. Overall somehow too much hay-like. This tea seems I will get rid off soon somehow. Not really impressed and having way more another greens which needs to be drank as well and they are better.

My day off, and I was looking for something sweet and cozy. This definitely fit the bill. Marshmallow and hojicha. Yum.

The dry aroma of this tea is so strong, fresh and moslty of cashnew and chesnuts. I would not expect it is tea from April 2015; but it is and it’s Best Before date is April 2018. Though old… thank you White Antlers!

I was preparing it grandpa, but well… 5 grams were too much and while pouring (I thought it is for liquids only) it a big chunk just released and my cup of thermos I used instead of bowl, was full with tea. It was hard to spill it back to the pouch. So I think that about another 5 grams were dumped.

Anyway, back to the tea… 5 grams and 82°C water (I measured this time!), volume was 300 ml and well it was too strong, especially brewing grandpa. It turned out quite bitter with vegetal notes. Certainly past its prime time, moreover my preparation method wasn’t the most clever one. I have still lots of to try so won’t rate this time. I noticed as well the minerality, but hey so strong as those previous notes.

Need to re-try and with less leaf

I bought this a while ago now, but the flavor seems like it’s staying consistently vague since I bought it.  I’ve been trying it with different steeping parameters and I think I’ve found the right way to brew it now.  Two teaspoons for a full mug with a very short steep and cooler water makes the flavors pop better than if I just try to oversteep the tea on the first cup.  I’ve found one minute steeps work best on teas with subtle flavoring, especially if there are not really any additional ingredients other than flavoring.  Honestly, it would be difficult to make a tea taste like Salty Caramel Pumpkin with flavoring alone and that is what this is.  Black tea and flavoring.  Like possibly the flavoring was added to a tea, it was taste tested, and someone were asked to think up a name for it… it MIGHT be “salty caramel pumpkin”?  It’s tough to tell what this tastes like otherwise.  There is a hint of salt, sweetness, and maybe the savoriness of a pumpkin, but only if you’re really trying to reach.   Raisins in the second cup when it’s cooled.  I like the depth of the black tea – it’s comforting with these flavors in autumn.  But I will definitely be steeping this tea like this in the future.  Both steeps had equal amounts of flavor.  Otherwise, any longer than one minute and it starts tasting like plain black tea.
Steep #1  // 2 teaspoons for full mug // 22 minutes after boiling  // 1 minute steep
Steep #2  // just boiled //  3 minute steep

Also, how did I forget to mention?  It’s The Morning News Tournament of Books Super Rooster time!  Already in the thick of it.  For any bookish fans… I’ve been following this for years and now the WINNERS are competing against each other.  This is a highlight of a dismal year, for sure:  https://themorningnews.org/tob/superrooster/welcome-to-the-super-rooster.php Yes, I have read all sixteen winners.

Two tea bags I received from derk. Thank you!

In aroma it indeed reminds me maple syrup, at least that one I was lucky enough to try in Finland (cheap stuff, it was said it is from Canada, supermarket brand). It was my first and last experience with it, and it is actually 4 years old one. But when I smelled it, it was exactly that. Ah well Vaahterasiirappi .

Anyway back to Czech Republic. It’s quite cold, around 10°C only, cloudy and I need some tea which reminds me this! And this looks most promising.

The aroma, as I said, reminds me maple syrup. Little bit of ginger, but luckily not that much.

Taste is more watery than I thought. But it is maple-y for sure, little heat of ginger is there as well. Quite sweet, but somehow expected. Warming inside, smooth and coating the throat which is welcomed in this chilly weather. I feel quite chilly as well though we are heating up.

It is pleasant tea to these days.

Okay, people. I’m back. This whole not having a working computer at home thing is killing me. Hopefully, I can get that issue resolved in the next couple of weeks. In the meantime, I’m going to bust out a handful of reviews while I’m here at my parents’ office in town. This was one of my sipdowns from either late August or early September. I found this tea to be enjoyable though inconsistent and confounding. No two cups were the same. Sometimes I loved it, and sometimes I totally hated it.

I prepared this tea in the Western style. I steeped approximately 3 grams of loose leaf material in around 8 ounces of 194 F water for 5 minutes. I did not rinse the leaf material prior to infusion nor did I attempt any additional infusions.

Prior to infusion, the dry leaf material emitted aromas of raisin, tobacco, prune, baked bread, and pine. After infusion, I detected new aromas of malt, straw, strawberry, green olive, honey, rose, smoke, and orange blossom. In the mouth, the tea liquor presented notes of grass, straw, pine, raisin, strawberry, raspberry, cream, butter, prune, baked bread, pine, green olive, green bell pepper, honey, grape leaf, and smoke that were balanced by lighter, subtler impressions of earth, orange zest, tobacco, roasted almond, black walnut, rose, peach, orange blossom, and marigold. The finish of each sip was smooth, malty, nutty, and rather vegetal with some indistinct fruity and floral characteristics.

I tend to greatly enjoy Darjeeling black teas produced exclusively from the clonal AV2 cultivar, but this one was more of a mixed bag. For the most part, it was still a more or less very enjoyable offering, but there were times in which the aroma and flavor components I found to be the roughest and least appealing stood out more to me than I would have liked. As a matter of fact, I absolutely despised the first two cups of this tea that I brewed and ended up sitting the rest of it aside for a couple of days. I found it way more enjoyable after picking it back up, so maybe there was something up with me when I first tried this tea, but even after I resumed going through the remainder of my pouch, the tea remained somewhat inconsistent from cup to cup. Overall, this was a very solid tea with a lot to offer, but it was inconsistent and temperamental. I have definitely encountered several other Rohini black teas that I have found to be more enjoyable.

I brewed this right away when it first came in my subscription, and really didn’t care for it. I found it tasted like sticks and slightly of cinnamon. I was almost going to give it away, but decided to try again with the remaining bit I had left. What a difference a month makes! It’s a lovely soft cinnamon, with tasty caramel notes. Very sad it’s actually sold out now. I’m actually finding that many 52Teas blends benefit from a rest of a month or more. I always get so excited when my subscription comes in, but the flavors definitely need time to develop.

I cold brewed this in milk and the first sip was sooo familiar. The chai latte from Starbucks is what comes to mind, though with less sugar, which is preferred. However, that’s not quite accurate because it has the pumpkin vibe too. I like it and will be writing a more through review sometime in the future. Until then, thank you for sharing, CuppaGeek!

I love pop/soda/cola-flavored teas, and not long ago finished off a bag of Gourmet Root Beer that was fantastic. I actually had the coveted rare large 50g bag of this tea, still unopened, from 2017, and as I’m trying to finish off all teas in my collection from that year, it got moved over to become my next focus tea for cold/iced brew.

I tend to prefer black teas brewed warm and then iced, so that is how I prepared this batch — I steeped 7g of tea in 2 cups 205F water for three minutes, strained, and then added an additional 2 cups cold water (and two teaspoons liquid sugar to help add to the pop factor) to the mason jar, let it cool on the counter for about 15 minutes, then put it in the fridge to chill overnight.

Mmm! While I don’t think I like this one quite as much as the Gourmet Root Beer, this is still a very solid pop-flavored tea. I’m getting a typical cola flavor (I think adding the bit of sweetener may have helped bring that to the forefront), followed by candied ginger and lime zest. I’m not able to make out notes from the base as distinctly with this one as I could with the root beer tea, either, but it is very smooth and refreshing! I’m definitely going to enjoy going through my bag.

I purchased this tea a couple weeks ago, but don’t see any info for it on their site now. :/ It’s supposed to be a lapsang/chili mix. I love the name. It’s definitely lapsang, but I’m left waiting in vain for any bang. It’s just a nice lapsang with no chili in sight. I feel chili cheated!

Having this again this morning. SO GOOD. Perfectly creamy, with just a bit of salt. I’m going to have to place a DF to grab more of this. I’ve also decided to grab their advent again. I wasn’t going to…but I can’t resist.

TEA
I guess this was a very cheap cake at one point. It is now only $58 USD for 400g. Plantation Yiwu tea from 2012 aged 3 years before pressing. It’s developing aged tastes. I wonder where the maocha was stored for those 3 years.

Appealing, appetite-stimulating aromas come from the dry leaf like beef jerky, hickory smoke, cranberry and a mild honey-brown sugar. When warmed the sweetness smells more like caramel. The aroma is of tang, smoke, strong camphor and wintergreen and a meaty umami. With the rinse I pick up on old furniture and books, steak and camphor.

Once brewed, the aroma is of marshmallow and tobacco. The main flavor of the tea is straw which displays itself in a somewhat viscous body. The tea is kind of sweet in a nectar-caramel-red fruit way with some added florals and bright tobacco, hints of leather, minerals and decaying wood, somewhat metallic. A tangy, mild bitterness penetrates the tongue, leaving it uncomfortably numbed. I feel camphor deep in my throat. The aftertaste is the strong point. It is definitely violet with very light caramel.

This is a short-lived tea with decent mouthfeel and a strong aftertaste, good for a daily drinker. It’s not a bad tea by any means but my preferences in sheng do not lean this way. It was nice to try an Yiwu plantation tea with what seems like some humid aging taste to it, so thanks for the exposure, mrmopar :) At some point, I’ll be making another note when I move into a round of tasting all the Hai Lang Hao puerh I have.

LIFE
I didn’t get any sleep. First my old girl woke me, hissing and spitting at the sliding glass door to the garden. Then I was startled awake shortly thereafter by what sounded like a massive explosion. And then again at 5am by my neighbor across the street banging on the front door. My first thought was oh-fuck-is-there-a-fire-are-we-evacuating.

Turns out some amateur lifted my motorcycle from the front yard and out into the street. Lifted — because the steering lock was on. Ran into our trash cans on the curb because amateur thief and trash night. He woke up my neighbor who chased him off several times over the course of getting ready for work before putting a cable and lock through the back wheel. The amateur totally bashed the steering lock cylinder, so now I can’t even unlock the bike to move it. And he left his hammer, which the police took. What’s amusing is that I have a tool kit with all kinds of useful things in an easily accessible compartment on my bike.

I hope the night happenings aren’t a sign of things to come today.

I’m not sure whether to lead with the tea (which was delicious) or the setting (which was equally delicious).

Aw, tea first. Delicate and delicious. It leads with sweet cinnamon, then the maple and cake batter essences catch up with it. Light and sweet and delicious. (I don’t normally associate waffles with cinnamon, but maybe you do.) A very nice pairing with oolong. Reminds me more of breakfast rolls than waffles, but we’re splitting hairs over a lovely cup of pastry goodness.

Setting…sunshine, mid 60’s. Backyard glider; quiet neighborhood; not an AC or lawn mower to be heard; just breeze rumpling the leaves and what’s left of our container garden. Book on my lap untouched. Can I have about a week of this?

Thanks so much, derk!  I kind of ruined this one though.  I don’t know what happened.  Maybe the water needs a filter change.  Possibly used too many leaves, not realizing how much a white cake would expand.  But the flavor was bitter all the way through.   Hints of lemon in the second cup, but then bitter again.  I was VERY tame with my steeps, so I don’t know how this was so bitter. Then there were some strong chemicals being used in the house that smelled very strongly, so I didn’t want to risk ingesting these weird chemicals that may have floated onto the damp tea leaves for a third steep, so I sadly had to discard the leaves.  I wouldn’t have bothered to even write a note for this, but now it’s gone, so I had to write something to acknowledge the sad ruining of this tea.  Both by user error and possibly chemicals.  mrgh. I won’t rate this one because it doesn’t seem fair. Derk’s tasting note said ashmanra had more success with this one, but I say derk had more success than I did. AND I’m even more sad about it because ashmanra’s note says this is the white counterpart to Ruby 18… I love Ruby 18 so I would have really loved not to ruin this one.
Steep #1   // 47 minutes after boiling  // rinse // 1 minute steep
Steep #2  // 47  minutes after boiling //  1 minute steep
2020 Sipdowns: 77

Sipdown. Really enjoying this! The strawberry and pancake flavors are both distinct, and work together extremely well. This is one of my favorite of the pancake blends, as it really tastes like a stack of pancakes covered in fresh strawberries. Added a splash of oat milk, and it’s quite a creamy treat.

I just eyeballed the amount of tea and brewed.

Not boiling, again I think it was around 80°C.
The sencha base is quite nice, although in taste isn’t the most present. But it was grassy and smooth. The expected flavour profile is there present! Yep, I notice it was quite melon-seed like and overall it was round and nice. Of course, recreating the melon flavour without any actual melon is quite hard, but I think they managed it fairly well!

Food pairing: Blueberry and cream koláč (kolach) and our garden apple, Wealthy varietal. Yum!

Seems to be going toward red sweet potato in age. Still fruity as all get out, lots of baked pear. Less spice. Still sweet with that classic GABA tang which is well bridled. I strongly advocate for leafing this one heavy and doing long gongfu steeps or the method that warranted this a 100 rating — stewing for hours. Either way, it’s versatile with no bitterness and only slight drying. This GABA oolong would be great for loose leaf beginners as it can be prepared a variety of ways and at different temperatures. And for the more advanced, there’s complexity in this brew if you want to go searching.

This is SMOKY. The combination of the lapsang and blend of spices makes it very much a BBQ experience. I actually like it, I just chose the wrong time to drink it (it’s 100degrees outside). This will be excellent when it’s chilly out.