4124 Tasting Notes
I went out to brunch with my boyfriend this morning. We went to Hattie’s, a southern style place known for their fried chicken. They have a special brunch menu until 2 on weekends, and I happen to love brunch food, especially when it involves grits. :D Anyway, I ordered a hot tea and I was pleasantly surprised when the server brought me a mug of hot water and a small glass jar with several flavors of tea bags to choose from. They had the usual Lipton and then four different kinds from Harney & Sons. This was the one that sounded the best to me at the time. The dry tea bag smelled just like red hots (the cinnamon candy, also known as cinnamon imperials)! I steeped it for about 5 minutes.
I was very pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this tea. I don’t consider myself to be a big fan of cinnamon. It smelled and tasted like a milder version of red hots, and it was very sweet even though I didn’t add any sugar (the ingredients list mentions “sweet cloves” and I have no idea what that is). I didn’t really taste the black tea base at all since the spice flavor was pretty strong. I could definitely see myself keeping this around, especially in the autumn and winter months. Very comforting!
Flavors: Cinnamon, Clove, Orange, Sweet
Preparation
Trying this one cold brewed this evening – since it’s the weekend, I’m not too worried about having caffeine this late. I used a teaspoon of pearls for 8 ounces of water and left it to brew in the fridge for six hours.
The floral is just way too strong for me when this is cold. I can’t taste anything but jasmine! I think I may try this again and just use a very short steep time, maybe two or three hours. Or I may try it hot brewed and then chilled. Ideas for tomorrow! :)
Preparation
I’m trying this one cold brewed this evening, and it turned out quite tasty! I let it cold brew for six hours yesterday, then strained the leaves and left it in the fridge until now. I can definitely pick up all of the lovely citrus flavors and the bergamot is nice and mild. Quite delicious with a little bit of sweetener! :)
Preparation
So today when I was perusing the grocery store, this rascally little can of sweetened condensed milk somehow found its way into my basket. The little troublemaker must have hopped in when I wasn’t looking, and I didn’t have to heart to tell him no when he obviously so wanted to come home with me. True story.
Actually, this is all boychik’s fault…
I love this tea so much with milk and sugar – it’s like a very mild chai with vanilla and just that hint of sweet orange and under it all, I can still taste the black tea base. This time around I tried it with sweetened condensed milk and I’m really pleased with the result. It’s yummy and creamy but it doesn’t have that distracting/overpowering cream note that happens when I use half-and-half. And the sweetener is built right in, how cool is that? I love anything that allows me to be lazy. :P Thanks, boychik!
Preparation
Sipping on this one this afternoon as I nibble on crackers and cubes of parmesan. I needed a little caffeine pick-me-up after doing some shopping and food prep for dinner tonight. I brought home a bottle of light agave nectar from the store – it was on sale and I was curious how it would compare to sugar. I don’t seem to notice much of a difference but it seemed like I had to use more to get the same level of sweetness.
As a general question, what types of sweetener do you guys use? I’ve seen that brown rock sugar sold on several tea sites, is it worth using?
Looking forward to your responses! <3
Preparation
I use sweetener very occasionally, sometimes to help bring the flavour out of flavoured teas or in chai. I only use maple syrup, brown coconut sugar or honey.
No, never – the whole point of tea, for me, is that it’s leaf + water. I don’t want to get into the habit of putting milk and sugar in it, aside from the occasional latte.
I use organic cane sugar only sometimes. My brother got me some rock sugar with a Teavana gift set and I personally don’t see what the big deal is.
After having that lovely latte with Bouquet of Flowers earlier, I decided I needed another one! Yeah, I’m kind of a fatty… What of it? :P I selected Troika because of its orangeyness, which I thought would pair really well with cream and vanilla.
Followed the same method as I did for the first one. I used 6 ounces of strong brewed tea plus 2 tablespoons each of milk and half-and-half (which comes out to 2 ounces). Heated and frothed the milk while the tea was brewing, but this time I added a little splash of vanilla extract along with the sugar. This came out quite tasty, sort of a creamsicley version of a London Fog. I actually really love the flavor of the vanilla extract – it’s a very natural vanilla flavor that reminds me of vanilla beans. Will definitely make this again and I can’t wait to try this method with St. Petersburg for a spiced version! :D
Preparation
Now I’m really thinking I need a latte of some sort. I’ve got a few teas that would work very well for this…hmmmm…decisions, decisions.
I can’t help it, I love creamy things too much! I guess 2 tablespoons of half-and-half isn’t that bad… Right? ;)
Made this one into a lovely London Fog this morning. I used almost two teaspoons of tea instead of my usual heaping teaspoon and it came out perfect. I also used half whole milk and half half-and-half (lol) because I find that when I use pure half-and-half, the cream note can kind of overpower everything. Warmed the milk and frothed it up a bit with a whisk before adding it, then added a couple teaspoons of sugar. I think a real London Fog is supposed to have vanilla syrup, but I don’t have that lying around. :P Delicious! I love that light floral note in this!
Preparation
Did a cold steep for six hours on this one. It came out a light and slightly murky yellowish green. As I expected, it pretty much just tastes like licorice root with maybe a tiny bit of cinnamon/orange/vanilla if you really look for it. Still doesn’t taste at all like green tea (or any tea). However, I find that I don’t quite hate licorice root as much when it’s cold, so I did drink this one as opposed to dumping it. Meh.
Preparation
So this is my second jasmine pearl tea (the first being free sample from Yezi). I wish I could taste them both side-by-side, but without that option, I think I like this one a little better. The little pearls are tightly rolled and about a quarter inch in diameter. The smell of the dry tea is amazing – such a strong and sweet jasmine aroma. It smells like actual flowers, not like a perfume, which is a very good sign. The directions say to use a tablespoon (!) of tea per 8 ounces of water, so this is what I did. I think in the future I could definitely get away with using less per cup.
The brewed tea smells very jasminey, though definitely not as strongly as the dry (thank goodness). I can also catch a hint of a sweet, vegetal green tea behind the jasmine. I really enjoy the taste of this tea. The jasmine flavor is prominent and it’s definitely the star, but I can also taste the sweet and mellow green tea base. It came out a tiny bit bitter for me, but I think using less tea or maybe a tiny bit shorter steep would eliminate this. The aftertaste is very floral. I found this was delicious with just half a teaspoon of sugar – it seemed to round out the jasmine flavor.
Flavors: Jasmine, Sweet, Vegetal
Preparation
This was another one of the teas that I put in to cold brew earlier. I didn’t necessarily think it would be good chilled, I’m just determined to try everything cold. May I just say… NEVER AGAIN! This is almost comically horrible, in a way that I almost burst out laughing when I took a sip. It’s just bitter on top of bitter with an aftertaste of roses. I don’t know, maybe florals just aren’t good for cold brewing.
Ew. Yuck. Blegh.
Preparation
Hahaha, I’m sorry, but I LOL:ed at your distress. I’ve also had exactly one tea that made me burst out laughing because it was so incredibly bad.
…but tell us how you really feel. :) Seriously, I have tried some teas as cold steeps that turned out the same way. At least you’re willing to experiment!
Mmmm brunch with grits :-). Jealous!