Tamarindel Send Message

A very fresh, vegetal dragon well, with mostly green bean notes, but also a hint of sweetness and nuttiness. Very good!

I got a pitcher packet of this in my last David’s order because I just needed to spend a couple more dollars to get the free shipping, and I absolutely love it. The sarsaparilla tastes amazing. I don’t get any cinnamon, supposedly the main ingredient in the tea, but I guess it’s doing it’s doing it’s job because the blend tastes great, all that root beer flavor without the sugar overload. But now that the whole packet is gone in this one pitcher, I’m faced with a restocking problem. Drinking this hot sounds kind of nasty, and with cool weather setting in, I don’t think I’ll be making many more iced pitchers. Should I just buy it now and save it till next summer? What are the odds that David’s will offer it again next year, since it was a special collection tea?

Pondering this deep philosophical riddle.

This reminds me of the Nepali silver, in that it is an oolong with olive and musk melon notes. This is a smoother, milder take on those flavors though. The leaves are small but whole, slightly bronzed. They look a bit like Russian olive leaves. The liquor is a light golden brown. While this isn’t my favorite style of oolong, it tastes very wholesome and natural, and now and then it makes for a nice change from the floral oolongs.

There’s an unusual amount of natural sweetness in this unflavored black tea. Bold plum and wine notes. Honestly, I was so surprised at how fruity it was that I kept wondering if I had scrubbed the steeper out well enough after previously brewing herbals, but I find the fruit flavor mentioned in several other notes, so it’s not just me. I love fruit, so very pleased with this one!

H&S sent me a sample sachet of this; I’m not crazy about darjeeling but neither do I hate it. Unfortunately I screwed up my one shot to try this as immediately it was done steeping, I got distracted by people and dogs and didn’t remember the tea till it was decidedly tepid. At that point it tasted like very standard bagged darjeeling, nothing special. And maybe it IS standard, but I’ve no way to tell now, so I’m just noting the fact that I don’t know. This is a non-note. A note of what wasn’t noted. (Sorry guys, some people always have to take a thing too far.)

Ditched the Snickerdoodle and steeped up some of this. Much much nicer! For some reason I was expecting an emphasis on watermelon, whereas mint is actually the dominant flavor. The two make an interesting and refreshing combination. I am drinking this hot and it’s good, but such summery flavors just beg to be iced, I think, so I will probably try that tomorrow.

Got this as a sample in the David’s order, because they never fail to send something rooibos. This is the kind of over-spiced nightmare I try to avoid. I have to second MooKiwi’s comments about cinnamon hearts and cinnamon gum. It tastes EXACTLY like cinnamon gum, even down to the weird xylitol flavor. Also, it’s sickeningly sweet.

I got a few dragon wells in a Teavivre sampler and really missed them when they ran out, so I was excited to find some in the Tealet boxes. Definitely tasting similarities between this and Teavivre’s, but while theirs was decidedly savory, this has some sweet and nutty notes along with vegetal flavors. I didn’t know there was such a range. Really nice, can’t wait to try the other dragon wells :)

Oh happy day, my David’s steeper just arrived! I’m replacing an on older model from Teavana; it really held up remarkably well, but it had the terrible design flaw of a non-removable filter, and eventually it just got caked up. Teavana must have realized this happens, because their new model does come with a removable filter.

Anyway, I couldn’t wait to try it out, so I steeped up one of the teas that came with the order, this herbal Strawberry Rhubarb Parfait.

It’s a brilliant rosy red (looks beautiful in the crystal-clean steeper) and smells like strawberry candy. But while I DO get the strawberry, the rhubarb, and the yogurt flavor, this is, emphatically, hibiscus tea. Not bad, but nothing special. I far prefer David’s goji pop; it too has hibiscus, but there it’s one voice among many, it doesn’t shout out everything else.

Oh well, it’s drinkable and I have to have something herbal to keep me from going caffeine-crazy on all these unflavored teas I’ve got.

The wiry leaves in this are so dark I was under the impression it was a black tea until I checked the label. Instructions said to use 2 tsp. and I took my best shot at that — it comes as such a tangled mass that it’s difficult to separate any and impossible to measure.

Dry this smells of citrus and hay. The wet leaves smell like sweet seaweed. It does taste like a green tea, but a very dark robust one. Now I taste the citrus AND the seaweed. It’s astringent, but only mildly. Not unpleasant.

Overall, this is a green tea with a LOT of character. Very interesting. Definitely worth trying.

p.s. It stands up very well to a second steep. No loss of flavor at all.