894 Tasting Notes
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
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
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
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.
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
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
glad you got a chance to go in :)
Give it a try a some lower temperatures and see what you think. 195 or 200.