894 Tasting Notes

77

I went into Tao Tea Leaf today and picked up far more teas than I was planning. This is the first of that lot.

My first sip was kind of meh. A touch of bitterness and astringency, and that sort of generic black tea taste. My second sip I burned my mouth. I was feeling a bit disappointed, but then third sip… oh my. The sip itself is nothing too interesting – same as my first impression, but the finish on this tea is magnificent. Sweet potato and corn and sweetness and malt. I wanted to sip this slowly, to savour the lingering finish, but I also wanted to keep sipping it the moment the finish started to fade. Suffice to say this cup didn’t last long.

Fingers crossed that I can get a second good steep out of these leaves.

Flavors: Astringent, Bitter, Corn Husk, Malt, Sweet, Sweet Potatoes

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 2 min, 0 sec 1 tsp 8 OZ / 236 ML
Sil

glad you got a chance to go in :)

Ubacat

Give it a try a some lower temperatures and see what you think. 195 or 200.

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82
drank Apple Custard by DAVIDsTEA
894 tasting notes

This was great. Appley, creamy and sweet. I think I had a wee bit of soap residue despite repeatedly rinsing my tea wear, as there was a faint soapy note that crept in and felt out of place. But even with that I like it enough to buy more than just my sample.

Flavors: Apple, Creamy, Sweet

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C
OMGsrsly

It could also be the coriander seeds, if you’re sensitive at all to cilantro. :)

Anlina

I’ve never found cilantro soapy – I really love it. :)

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65
drank Bubbie's Baklava by DAVIDsTEA
894 tasting notes

At first this tasted like a pretty generic cinnamon apple tea, but I’m liking it more as I sip at it. There’s a noticable nutty note which I like, and something on the finish which I can’t describe but is a little different.

It’s alright but nothing special. I can’t taste the oolong, and it doesn’t taste anything like baklava.

Flavors: Apple, Cinnamon, Nutty

Preparation
190 °F / 87 °C 6 min, 0 sec 1 tsp 6 OZ / 177 ML

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66
drank Earl Grey by Higgins & Burke
894 tasting notes

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Okay, what kind of sushi restaurant not only doesn’t have genmaicha but also has no idea what you’re talking about when you describe it?

Oh well, the straight green worked well with the food, which was quite delicious.

Cheri

Crazy!

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I’ve been eating out a lot lately and that means drinking a lot of bagged tea. This was tasty with sugar, cream and two squirts of hazelnut syrup.

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85

Sipped down my sample last night and it was delicious. Id pick up more if I came across it but I don’t think I’d go to great lengths to get more.

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I had restaurant iced tea with dinner tonight, which means very sweet, lemony tea mix type iced tea. I always find this kind of iced tea both refreshing and too sugary. I can’t make up my mind.

I do always like going down to the US and ordering iced tea that’s actually cold tea, which you just don’t get here in Canada.

Dexter

Baked Expectations and Stella’s Bakery both serve unsweetened cold tea as their iced tea. But I agree, most places serve the overly sweet mix. :))

K S

Next time order unsweet iced tea. They should have both. I never get sweetened iced tea when we are out.

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91

Oh so tasty. I made this with about 6oz of hot water, 6oz of milk, two teaspoons of sugar, and a teaspoon of chai – tossed the whole thing in the blender and mmmm deliciousness. This has that intense spicy punch that you typically find in cafe chai lattes, which I’ve found difficult to replicate at home. It’s pretty well balanced – there’s cinnamon, but not an over abundance of it, and a fair bit of heat (ginger?).

There was a fair bit of gritty mix at the bottom of my cup, but other than needing to skip the last couple of sips this was pretty damned perfect.

Flavors: Cinnamon, Spicy

Preparation
1 tsp 12 OZ / 354 ML

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drank Genmacashew by 52teas
894 tasting notes

Huh this is quite different than I was expecting. There’s a fairly typical genmaicha base, but the other flavours remind me more of a sweet rose than cashew. I’m enjoying it, but my expectations are getting in the way a little bit.

Thank you to my Secret Pumpkin TraceyC for letting me try this!

Flavors: Grass, Roasted, Rose, Sweet, Toasted Rice

Preparation
180 °F / 82 °C 2 min, 0 sec 1 tsp 8 OZ / 236 ML

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Profile

Bio

I grew up drinking jasmine green tea with meals, but really fell in love with tea on a trip to Britain in elementary school. My first great love was Earl Grey, and I still adore it and all its variants.

I discovered the beauty of loose leaf tea much later, when, on impulse, I picked up a few teas that were on clearance at a home store. My introduction to loose leaf teas were Masala Chai and Provence Rooibos by the Metropolitan Tea Co and an unknown brand of kukicha and gyokuro (little did I know what a precious treasure I’d stumbled onto with that.)

At the time I was lucky to live in a place with multiple tea shops and several places to have afternoon tea, which is a delight I still miss.

Tea is part of my daily ritual and a nice, affordable way to appease the collector in me.

I enjoy distinctive whites, greens and oolongs, flavoured blacks, and herbals that are heavy on the citrus, lavender or mint.

Rating rubric, to give myself some consistency:
0-15 Yuck, not even drinkable.
16-30 Disappointing, not really inclined to give it a second try.
31-45 Disappointing, but maybe there’s potential? Worth one more try, prepped differently.
46-60 Mediocre, not terrible but not memorable.
61-75 Not bad. I’ll definitely finish what I have and might buy again.
76-90 Very enjoyable. Tasty, complex, it’ll keep me coming back.
91-100 BEST! I love everything about it and I will drink it forever.

Beyond tea, I’m a sex educator, polyamory activist, and radical queer. I love backwoods camping, abstract painting, baking & cooking, nail polish, cats, ceramic sculpture, and home nesting.

Location

Winnipeg, MB, Canada

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