59 Tasting Notes

80
drank Monkey Chief by tea-adventure
59 tasting notes

Originally I bought this (type of) tea from a local shop. I wasn’t too impressed with it back then. Some time ago I saw the tin sitting in the back of my cupboard and decided to revisite. Since then I drank nearly the whole tin. On second try I do like this tea. After that I discovered a sample of this tea in my little green tea adventure from Tea-adventure. As I’m considering restocking and I. That case generally prefer Tea-adventure due to the favorable shipping conditions I decided to try this sample today.

Normally I go for a 3-minute soak. Today however I decided to stick to Tea-A’s recommendation. The result is a color wise full bodied tea (really yellow green) and taste wise soft, rounded taste with a sweetish tone reminiscent of white teas without the hay-ish overtures. Maybe a bit of green asparagus and butter?

Anyway, on second thought a really good tea and one I just might be reordering.

Preparation
175 °F / 79 °C 1 min, 0 sec 2 g 9 OZ / 275 ML

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drank British Breakfast by THEODOR
59 tasting notes

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drank British Breakfast by THEODOR
59 tasting notes

Lately I’ve been craving coffee. The strength of taste, the bitterness, the ‘kick’… My normally preferred whites, greens, greenish oolongs and mellow (Chinese) blacks just weren’t it. Trying to get off this coffee bing, I decided to try Britisch Breakfast. And what a happy choice that turned out to be! This tea is a ‘real’ black tea with lots of character. It’s strong, it has a slight bitter-ish note and it definitely packs a punch. It probably won’t become a real favorite as I usually like something a bit sweater and ‘kinder’ in taste, but I won’t automatically pass up on breakfast teas anymore either.

Ysaurella

I need to consider more Breakfast teas myself. I often don’t appreciate the bitter note a lot of them have.

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71
drank So Long by THEODOR
59 tasting notes

There aren’t many teas from Theodor I don’t like, but this is one of them. In my opinion the fruity flavoring and the oolongy characteristics don’t really mesh well. It’s not awful, but nothing special either. Not my cup of tea…

Ysaurella

absolutely agree with you on this one. It doesn’t taste like a Theodor to me.

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85

I’m nearly through my stash of Golden Yunnan Black.

IMO this represents the ‘real’ black tea. Black tea like black tea should taste. The commentary by tea-adventure may be that this tea is exceptional and different, but – although the taste is indeed very good (and maybe exceptional, my taste buds aren’t that refined) – it’s also everything I’d expect from a black tea and in that respect not so different.

A good quality tea that taste wise is a happy middle of the road tea, without ‘typical’ taste qualities that one may of may not like.

A real stasher! I’ll be restocking soon…

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 2 min, 30 sec

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88
drank Black Guanyin by tea-adventure
59 tasting notes

It’s been a while since I had this one (actually I’ve hardly drunk any tea lately).

Again I experienced that first moment of “what the heck?”. The fruitiness has something of a cherry flavor to it. It’s also faintly reminiscent of the Quatre fruits rouge of Damman Freres. I love it (after the first few swallows that is…:-)).

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88
drank Coïncidence Blanc by THEODOR
59 tasting notes

This is by far the sweetest Theodor tea I know. I believe it’s a white peony with tropical fruits. As a result it tastes sweet and syrupy in that particular way tropical fruit juice mixes tend to taste. If you’re in for something new that doesn’t emphasize the tea but rather the flavoring this would be a good choice.

Brewing: anything from 3 minutes and up.

Preparation
185 °F / 85 °C 3 min, 0 sec

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92
drank Pêché Mignon by THEODOR
59 tasting notes

Recently I tried this tea cold brewed. After putting it in the fridge I forgot all about it, so it sat there for approximately 1,5 days. This tea turns into a rather nice iced tea. The flavor is a bit less potent cold brewed when comparing to hot brewed but very suitable for a hot summer day!

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88
drank Black Guanyin by tea-adventure
59 tasting notes

This tea really grows on you. Reading back my first entry I saw that I wasn’t overly enthusiastic back then. Now however, I just love this tea. After I finished the sample I bought a 50 grams package and I’m nearly through it already. This is a tea my partner also likes, despite not being a tea drinker, much less a black tea drinker…

I’m bumping the rating up.

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Profile

Bio

What to say about myself and my tea drinking habits? I’ve been staring at the screen, reading other’s bio’s and still can’t come up with something worthwile. I’ll just stick to the basics.

I generally prefer white, green and oolong teas to black teas. As I read a scientific report that stated that black teas lower the level of stress hormones in the blood, I try to add a few cups of black tea every day.

Overall I prefer black teas to be flavoured. The white, green and oolongs may be flavoured or straight.

I brew my teas per cup, mostly in my – much loved – Kati mug with Cha Cult strainer. I’m rather a stickler for brewing time and temperature, so I use a tea timer and watercooker with temperature indication.

I also love a good cup of coffee and especially cappuchino. As far as I’m concerned, a good cappuchino requires a real milk/foam topping, not something made with skimmed milk, powder or the like. Unfortunately a lot of cafes still haven’t caught on to that one and serve low quality coffee and tea (type vending machine and bagged fannings). I hate it when, on a cold winter day, the choice is restricted to bad coffee, bagged fannings or a cold softdrink… :-(

As for rating teas, I more or less make the following distinction:

100:
Nothing is perfect. Probably won’t be using it ever.

98 – 99:
Nearly too good to be true.

90 – 97:
Exceptional.

80 – 89:
Excellent.

70 – 79:
Good. May rebuy depending on price and availability.

60 – 69:
Ok I’ll finish the cup and maybe even have a second, but probably won’t finish the entire package as I have other – (far) better teas in my cupboard.

< 60:
I feel cheated. I won’t ever be buying this again.

< 50:
This really is no good.

< 30:
I hate this. I want my money back.

1:
Beyond horrible!

PS: Recalibrated my ratings according to this index on 23 feb 2013.

Location

The Netherlands

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