470 Tasting Notes

90
drank Bergamot Sage by Rishi Tea
470 tasting notes

Today is a no-caffeine day for me. I have to wake up painfully, depressingly early tomorrow (about an hour after I usually go to bed ;~;) and on top of that I have to spend the whole day with my in-laws. Both of these situations definitely call for a soothing herbal blend, and it’s way too early in the day for my usual herbal tea (which puts me to sleep in about 10 minutes). However, I’ve had this tin sitting around for a few days and it seemed like the perfect opportunity to try it out!

At first sniff I was a little confused, as it smells like straight-up peppermint. I have peppermint tea, so I was really hoping there’d be hidden complexity here. Once brewed this is a very unusual blend—the peppermint is there only as a background note, with the citrus and sage a lot more prominent. I wasn’t sure about sage in tea but I LOVE it. So comforting and almost savory. There’s also a soft pine taste going on, and this really feels like a holiday tea to me. It reminds me of eating leftover stuffing and sitting around the Christmas tree! But it’s not so seasonal that it feels weird to drink it now—in fact, the citrus gives it a bright, spring-y feel as well. I am usually just so-so on herbal blends, but this one is so complex and tasty that I think it is going to become a cupboard staple.

Preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 6 min, 0 sec
K S

What is your usual herbal that puts you to sleep?

Alphakitty

Marketspice’s Knockout, does exactly what it says on the label!

momo

I was thinking about getting some of that, good to know it works!

Scott B

I hate no caffeine days. I don’t think I’m addicted to it, but I do feel kinda empty when I have to go rooibos and decaf all day long.

Alphakitty

I definitely feel the same way—so craving a strong cup of assam, but it’s just going to have to wait.

Scott B

good luck!

Daniel Scott

Pine! Whee! An under-appreciated note, I think.

Barb

Keep Calm and Carry On!

Rishi does have the most odd-sounding blends, don’t they? I will have to look for this one because sage is one of my favorite cooking herbs.

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92

I’m mildly lactose intolerant so I try to drink only one cup of tea with milk today. I already had chai this afternoon, so why am I having earl grey? Well I got my Upton order today, and when I opened the bag for this it was like, “sweet baby jesus this smells JUST like sugar cookies!” Naturally I had to drink it immediately—I’m kind of surprise didn’t try to chow down on the leaves. Yes, it smells that amazing!

I love earl grey and have far too many variations of it, but this is definitely one of the best I’ve tried (which is good, since the smallest option is for 250 grams!). It’s sweet and creamy, with the vanilla and cream tastes front and center. The bergamont is also definitely there, and the citrus/cream combo makes me think I’m drinking ice cream. I know this isn’t a dessert tea, but it really might as well be. The actual tea flavor is there in the background, a soft and mellow black without any real astringency, though the other flavors definitely outshine it. I’d still put my beloved White Cream Earl Grey from Culinary a bit ahead of this due to how very prominent the vanilla is here, but only by a nose—this is a divine cup of tea for sure!

Preparation
Boiling 4 min, 0 sec

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88

I love chai and I love floral blends, so this seems like a match made in heaven for me. (Another match made in heaven: pretzel sticks and Trader Joe’s Cookie Butter, which I am eating in combination with this tea) Brewed, it’s pretty much exactly what I expected: a medium-strong chai blend with a seductive undertone of rose, jasmine & lavender notes. The spices are definitely more prominent than the floral note, which is what you want in a chai! They’re not TOO strong though, even though I added an extra teaspoon to my teapot after my weak chai experience a few days ago.

This is not the strongest chai, but I think if the spices were any bolder it would really overpower the rose. For me, this is a perfect everyday tea—I think it would pair really well with Indian food, I’m almost tempted to get takeout just to try it out!

Preparation
Boiling 5 min, 0 sec
Alphakitty

As a cat-lover, that song makes my heart melt! So cute~

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91

I had a tea disaster earlier this evening involving expired milk that was mis-labeled so I decided to go with something safe and relatively simple. I haven’t had this since I first got it in March, actually (I’ve honestly had too many new ones to try since then—I need to stop buying tea!) but it’s just as comforting as I remember. The dry leaves smell like heaven, creamy and almost caramel-like.

That caramel smell carries over to the actual tea, though it’s not really that present in the taste which is as sweet and creamy as I expect it to be. That’s kind of vague, but… basically, it’s a very sweet & mellow tea with lots of milky flavor. It’s got that hint of floral/vegetal taste that you’d expect from a lighter oolong, but those notes are definitely in the background. I’m not ashamed to admit that I add a pinch of sugar to this to bring out the milky notes even more! Sugar in oolong is kind of blasphemous to some, but it really works here for me. I almost want to add some milk just for the hell of it… but I don’t have any. Ah well, next time!

Preparation
190 °F / 87 °C 4 min, 0 sec
Angrboda

Gosh, that does sound rather disastrous! O.o

Missy

I had a near miss with tea last night. I basically forgot how to do the math for adjusting my leaf ratio. I came out on the very low side for a tasting, like half as strong as it should be. It wasn’t nearly as hard to fix as that milk sounds though.

Alphakitty

There are few things in life more disappointing than pouring milk into tea and watching it curdle ;~; However, I saved the leaves and made a second steep today so nothing really went to waste thankfully. Tea is pretty forgiving of the abuse we put it through!

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89

My cat like to sleep on a hay bale in my neighbor’s lawn, and he always comes home smelling of sweet, fresh hay. It’s such a nice smell, and one I associate with warmer weather. And it’s exactly what I smelled once I poured this tea into a mug! Hay, a bit of fresh-cut grass, a hint of floral orchid. They really ought to make perfume that smells like specific teas.

There’s no actual hay in the taste (which I suppose is a good thing) though I am getting a tiny bit of grassiness. It’s mostly nutty and floral-tasting, with hints of hazelnut (or maybe pine nut, it’s very faint) and orchid. It’s a very clean, crisp tea. For some reason it makes me think of spring in a cup!

Preparation
180 °F / 82 °C 6 min, 0 sec
TeaBrat

this sounds nice!

Angrboda

Awww kitty ♥

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70
drank West Cape Chai by Rishi Tea
470 tasting notes

I feel like I am doing something very wrong with this tea unfortunately. When I opened the tin I let out a little gasp of glee—it was so… chunky! I love when chai blends are chunky and you can see all the whole spices. No flavoring or ground-up nonsense here! So I though there would be a big POW of flavor. The first steep was with just under boiling water for 5 minutes, 2 teaspoons for 12 ounces of water. Added milk & sugar as per usual with chai and it was… just okay. You could taste the “chai” part but it was SO weak. Like, it tasted rather similar to lightly spiced milk. Eurgh.

Tried again, 2 teaspoons for only 8 ounces of water and 8 minutes of steep time—I decided to treat it like a rooibos rather than a regular chai (I was afraid the first time 8 would be too long for such strong spices, and my other rooibos chai I do for ~5). I don’t have any experience with green rooibos so perhaps it needs some sort of extra-special treatment? I didn’t really taste the flavor of it in either steep though there was almost an herby background in the second one.

Well, the second cup was just as weak as the first! Actually it was both stronger and weaker in a weird way—a more watered-down flavor but I could actually taste the layers of spice. Cardamom, cloves, and anise mainly. I’m wondering if I got a bad batch because it seems to get rave reviews here… maybe my tin was just weaker overall? A disappointment to say the least—I love love love chai and this is just not cutting it.

EDIT: My email from them lied to me and this isn’t green rooibos. Makes my experience with it a little stranger!

Preparation
Boiling 8 min or more
Scott B

Upton has a good Rooibos Chai. Yogic Chai makes a Rooibos Chai, but I’ve never tried it-their regular Masala Chais are good.

Alphakitty

I am definitely planning a big Yogic Chai order in the future, they have so many flavors I want to try! I think after my disappointment with this blend I am going to add their Vanilla Rooibos Chai to that list~

TeaBrat

Aww. Sorry you did not like this one, it has been a long term fave of mine! I don’t think there’s any green rooibos in though. :-?

Alphakitty

Hmm, you’re right—for some reason in the email confirmation it had it listed as green but the ingredients on the tin are different. I didn’t taste it either way though sadly.

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82
drank Citron Oolong by Rishi Tea
470 tasting notes

This smells like Tang. I opened the tin and it was like, “what the heck my tea smells like powdered, sugary drink mix.” I wasn’t really sure if this was a good thing or a bad thing, but it has some good reviews so I certainly wasn’t going to put off trying it!

This is a really pretty tea, at least half of my tin is jasmine blossoms which are so cute. It looks like potpourri—I want to put it in a little bowl and my house can smell of Tang. It’s a lot less Tang-y smelling once brewed, and the jasmine comes out more. The citrus is even less prominent when you taste it. It’s still there, but pretty soft. I taste a lot more orange than lemon, with tons of floral jasmine in the background. The citrus and floral elements blend together perfectly, and this is a smooth, mellow tea. These are two flavors I really like, but there’s a problem—I can’t taste the oolong base at all! I love oolong, and this really could be listed as a Citrus Jasmine herbal blend and I’d believe it. I’d definitely rate it a lot higher if there was, you know, actual tea flavor. I was a little disappointed when I first drank this, but I think I’ll enjoy it more next time now that I know what to expect.

Preparation
190 °F / 87 °C 3 min, 0 sec

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88

It is cold and rainy out, but sadly I am not at my apartment with my rainy-day teas. I’ve already taken most of the ones from my house, but thankfully I got my shipment from Rishi today! I am a sucker for sales so I jumped on their Mother’s Day one—I ordered too much, but I essentially got 1 tin for free and free shipping as well because of the sale. This is how I justify a lot of my tea buying: it’s on sale so I am saving money (even if it’s money I wouldn’t have spent otherwise ^^;).

So I’m waiting to go to the movies (to see The Avengers for the second time—part of a late mother’s day adventure because my mom is awesome) and a wonderful tea-filled box arrived. I sniffed them all and this was the clear choice for today. It smelled like ground ginger, not fresh, which was interesting and perfect for a chilly day. The steeping instructions seemed kind of off, more for a black than a pu-erh, but I decided to go with it and hope 5 minutes wasn’t too long. It came out fine, not too strong at all! It brewed up so dark though, almost coffee-colored, and smelled like yeast and a bit earthy. Definitely a good smell, at least to my nose.

The taste, surprisingly, is both fresh and dry ginger, a combination I’ve never had in tea before. There’s that spicy, hits you in the back of the throat heat you get from ginger root, and that mellow baking flavor from the dried. The pu-erh is definitely a nice addition as it gives a fullness to the cup, it’s not overwhelmingly ginger the whole way through but has a rich, earthy finish. I don’t really taste any of the orange, though—which is better, I like it being just ginger. Ginger + orange = the holidays to me. I can see this as being a blend I regularly reach for on colder, wet days (which happens quite a bit this time of year in NY).

Preparation
Boiling 5 min, 0 sec
TeaBrat

this is a good one for nasty weather!

Alphakitty

Yes, it was really the perfect day for this to arrive!

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93
drank Sinharaja by Golden Moon Tea
470 tasting notes

So it’s probably too late to be drinking black tea, but oh well! I don’t get to bed until painfully late anyway and I just got this in the mail and was dying to crack it open. I’ve had it before (in that damned free sampler they suck you in with) and knew I’d definitely have to make a purchase in the near future.

Ceylon definitely isn’t my favorite variety of black. It’s good as a base for flavored blends, but overall it doesn’t really have a strong enough taste to make me crave it on its own. Well, obviously this one is different—it’s very complex with notes of molasses, honey, caramel and chocolate. Yup, a lot of dessert-like undertones, which I love! I sometimes find dessert teas overpowering, with the flavors a bit heavy-handed, so this is like a very very light version of a dessert blend for me. I don’t really get the berry notes they claim it to have but I don’t like fruity teas a whole lot so I am certainly not going to complain! It’s also got a nice astringency and is very smooth and strong—not strong enough to really wake you up in the morning, but it’s a perfect “curled up in bed reading a book all afternoon” tea.

Preparation
Boiling 4 min, 0 sec
Azzrian

This is one of my favorites from Golden Moon!

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90

It’s Mother’s Day, and I am making my mom a lemon loaf. It’s her favorite baked good but she usually gets it at Starbucks, which is good if you’re in a rush but good lord do they overload it with sugar and also use lemon “flavoring” instead of the actual, well… lemon! So I decided to make her the real stuff with much less sugar, heaps of lemon zest, and cream instead of oil. Well, I ended up with a ton of extra cream for some reason even though I only got one of those teeny containers so of course I decided to put some in tea! I never put cream in my tea (milk or nothing) so I thought it would be a decadent treat perfect for Mother’s Day!

This is (fittingly) my mom’s tea—I also placed an order at NMTC but passed up this blend even though I love rose because I thought it would be too similar to my Princess Grey. Sadly, I was wrong—but not so sadly, they still have free shipping until May 31st so I feel like some of this will be coming home to me. I thought this would be a good “converter” for my mom—you can have it with milk & sugar and it’s pretty strong. She’s a coffee person but is trying to switch to tea to cut down on both caffeine and sugar (she puts in so much!).

When I opened the bag I was hit by a very, very strong rose flavor—it was almost overwhelming. I love perfume-y teas but not when they taste like perfume (if that makes any sense)-and this really had an “essential oil, gonna rub it on my wrists” kind of smell. Thankfully it mellowed out a lot once it was brewed, and is nice and richly floral. The rose actually isn’t nearly as prominent as I thought it would be, and there’s still the bergamont flavor from the “earl grey” part of this tea. The base is nice and gentle—I like assertive teas, but not for a soft tea like this. It’s so… ladylike! It makes me feel like a fancy British lady, though I am not at all British. The cream makes it soooo good, even though I used a teeny bit. I already have a straight-up rose tea so I don’t really NEED this one, but it’s good enough that I want to get it anyway.

Preparation
Boiling 5 min, 0 sec

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Profile

Bio

Tea has always been a passion of mine, though I got away from it during college. A lack of cupboard space and a constant influx of people into my suite made me pretty much abandon my teas at home. But now that I’m done with school, it’s definitely come back with a vengeance—to the point where I’ve purchased about 65 different kinds in the past 3 months!

I like most kinds of teas—yes, even peach, which I used to think I disliked!. Oolongs are definitely my favorite, and I’m an avid fan of earl grey, floral teas, and chai blends along with anything melon. The only kind of teas on my “no” list are rooibos blends (which gives me headaches) and banana flavored ones since bananas are public enemy #1 in my mind.

The best thing about tea for me is how you can be passionate about it and still have it integrate into all of your other hobbies. I like a lot of things: writing, video games, books, sewing, figure collecting, astronomy… it’s a long list. But whatever I’m doing, I can have a cup of tea in hand!

Location

New York

Website

http://www.plastikitty.com/

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