1040 Tasting Notes
Took a quick look through the other tasting notes/ratings for this tea, and was a little surprised at how others felt about it.
I really like this tea. It’s just yummy. Nice plum, nice oolong base, juicy, not tart, really enjoyable cup.
I’m a fan of flavored oolongs in general, but most of them are done with more of a green base. This oolong is darker and that makes me happy.
Do I LOVE this tea? – no, but we can certainly be friends and I wouldn’t mind always having a little floating around.
Just when I thought I was getting all organized, I found a big flaw in my system. If you are going to put tea in baggies and then into tins, not only do you need to label the tins, but you also have to label the bags. I grabbed a bag out of a tin on my way to work today, and then didn’t know what I had grabbed. I had a bag of tea at work, and I knew it was a Teavivre black, but I didn’t know which one it was. Anyway, came home, found the empty tin and it was this one.
This is a nice Yunnan black, it was pretty much what I would expect from a Yunnan black, but I’m not sure it was really anything special. Nice, pleasant, fine for work – nothing really to complain about, but nothing really to get excited about. I have a lot of this one, really need to be working it into my rotation more often.
I need to start drinking mine regularly too. So hard when I have a bunch of blacks that I like better! >.<
Yep – but I should be taking the “like don’t love” blacks to work because I don’t really appreciate them at work, and drink the LOVE ones at home when I have tine to really focus on them.
I think I’m going to try some of them iced. Are Yunnan and Keemun teas good that way?
It depends on what you like. I quite often cold steep Yunnan black with a some fruit tisane to make my own cherry black, or blueberry black (etc) iced tea. I don’t like the ones that are REALLY chocolaty cold steeped – but this one would be ok for my tastes and purposes.
Dexter, I think I may adopt your system. I don’t really appreciate the teas I drink at work either. I can’t savor them like I do at home.
Did you ever decide if you are going to make a trip to Minneapolis? Just curious :)
Ah I’ve done the baggy thing, I’m sure I’ll remember but I never do
Yes, dexter! That’s exactly it. Drink OK teas at work, drink really nice teas at home. This means I need to drink more teas at home!
Not enough sleep last night. Must be the cat’s fault.
Running a little late this morning, about to leave, when that inner voice asks…
Do you have tea in your purse for work? Shrug, Dunno
Reach out and grab a random tin of black tea off the shelf and walk out the door.
An hour and a half later, letting a client vent about something that has nothing to do with us, I’m reaching into my purse for that tin of tea.
Some tea gets dumped into my infuser basket. Hang up with client.
Take basket to kitchen, add hot water, return to my desk. Answer 3 questions.
Crap forgot about my tea. Remove leaves. Take a sip….
AND THE WORLD STOPS
It’s like the stars aligned, the atmospheric pressure is perfect, the clouds part, and the sun shines through. I have the perfect cup of tea. Exactly what I’m in the mood for at the exact time that I need it the most.
I actually said out loud – What the hell am I drinking?
Co-workers look at you weird when you say things like that…. don’t care, I spent a few minutes basking in the moment, then went back to work.
This is easily in my top 5 favorite black teas. Amazing.
Haha darn cats! Mine ruined my sleep last night too lol..but this sounds like an amazing cup of tea. Love those star-aligning moments with tea haha, especially at work, because no one understands how tea can make you soo happy.
Priceless!
Blame it on a cat! I know why you couldn’t sleep. Spreadsheet! That’s why I refuse to make one.
I LOVE my new spread sheet!!! I’ll never look up a tea in my Steepster cupboard again. Looking for a fruit tisane to cold steep – it’ll show you just them. Looking for something to sip down – not problem. I can find anything in seconds. Really wish I had done this a year ago, then I would have that much more history (favorites, things to rebuy, what I thought of…) of all the teas I’ve tried. This was the best investment of my time.
The cat gets blamed for everything that goes wrong in my house…. ;))
I see. You are like my hubby. Whatever happens I’m responsible one. Kids got sick, bad grades, bad groceries, etc.
poor kitty
Lol. Love this review : -) you deserve your best teas all the time. And yay for awesome spreadsheet!
LOVE this note. Now I need to get some
What a great way to express how you felt while drinking this tea. I see that you are in Canada also. Where do you order your teas? Do you pay high shipping fees. Waiting to hear from you, I’m in Ottawa and used to work in Portage-la-Prairie for 4 yrs.
Hi Helene – I order tea from all over the world. Online shopping makes it possible to get almost anything from almost anywhere. There are tons of amazing tea vendors out there. Shipping can be very expensive or it can be free, depends on where you order from and how much you order.
What types of teas are you interested in? China blacks? Japanese green? Taiwan oolongs? Fun flavors? If you let me know what you are interested in, I might be able to recommend a vendor for you or point you to a forum thread on the subject. :))
I finally updates my cupboard. At the moment I have teas from TeaVivre. I received one box of tea samples from Tea Sparrow. Was expensive and I did not order another one. Then I order a box of tea samples from Amoda and did not renew. I find these monthly boxes get expensive. I like white, green, my family likes flavour teas. I am starting to drink black. Not a big fan because I love coffee. Do you know of any monthly box companies in Canada that are worth buying? Maybe you like the price of Amoda or Tea Sparrow. I think it’s expensive but I might be wrong. I will receive samples from TeaVivre soon. I like the quality of their teas. I want to explore more companies that does not charge us to much for shipping in Canada. Waiting to hear from you. Thanks in advance.
I think all subscription boxes are expensive, and then you end up with tea that isn’t your style. I would much prefer to order samples and try tea on my own – but that’s just me.
Teavivre is awesome, glad you found them. I would also check out Tealux:
http://www.tealux.ca/
Really nice straight teas – nice quality, reasonably priced, flat shipping $7.50 under 60.00 or free over 60.00. I find their flavored tea hit or miss, but the straight ones are really good.
Capital Tea Ltd.
http://www.capitaltea.com/shop/home.php?cat=6
Free shipping over 49.00 and they sell all their teas in 20g sample sizes. Great way to try a bunch for a little cost.
Camellia Sinensis:
http://camellia-sinensis.com/en/tea-store
Their tea is more expensive – more high end, but amazing. Free shipping over 50.00
Those three are Canadian Companies, that I really like.
I also LOVE, LOVE, LOVE – favorite source of pu’erh – but nice oolong and teaware. Mandala:
https://shopmandalatea.com/
Shipping is 9.00 flat to Canada – they are out of Minnesota – my favorite tea store.
That should get you started – if you would like more info, please follow me and shoot me a PM.
Dexter: I will have a look at the different sites and will probably place an order soon. This whole tea experience is addictive. I prefer to pay a bit more for more high end tea. At the moment I have the budget because I saved. I am following you. If I have more questions I will send you a PM. Thanks for the help and great info. I think my saved money might dissolved soon in a cup of tea :)
The best advice I can give you is SMALL Samples – try lots of different teas, by swapping or buying samples. As you explores your tastes will change, you’ll find tea you like better, don’t buy large quantities until you know for sure what you LOVE and what you don’t. :))
I’ll echo Dexter here. Small samples! Or you’ll end up with 250+ teas way faster than you think possible, kinda like we have. :)
When you say buy small samples you mean the smaller pack of a tea. Per example a White Tea on Mandala is $8 for 1 ounce. Is that what you call a sample? If so that it not cheap if I want to try a lot of samples.
White tea is expensive and Mandala is high end. Tealux has 1oz/25g white teas from $4.50. The only straight white at Davids is 14.50/50g – smallest amount you can buy online….
Usually is anywhete from 10-25g as the smallest size. Sometimes you can get < 10. Some companies sell these as intro packets is Mandalas is listed under sale items and right now it is only for shou but it is $9 Canadian including shipping for Canadians https://shopmandalatea.com/sale-items/ripe-puerh-sampler-pack.html, Verdant has a 5 for 5 deal that is 11 for us. Sometimes you have to search for sizes ie at Capital tea Ltd. The default size is 100g but when you click on this a menu comes up with available sizes. Prices from under 2 and up for the sample depending on the company and the tea.
I guess I have expensive taste because I like White Tea. At least I know now how to order tea online. Now I’ll have to chose a company and start from there.
Helene Tao Tea leaf had 5g samples some under 2$ for white tea.
http://www.taotealeaf.com/white/
I might order some, great price on white teas. Hopefully they are good.
I’ve only had some of his blacks but they so far have been really good!
5g will not last long :)
OK admitting that I really neglected to pay attention to steeping parameters. This might have steeped for 15 minutes or more. OOOOoooops. I’m blaming the cat – somehow this must have been the cats fault.
Not sure that this is carrot cake, but it does have some of those spices. What I am getting though is the icing – cream cheese icing. Yep spice and icing – and I like it. All the other cheesecake teas, or cake teas – I never really get the “tang” of the cheese cake – this one really has it. Fun little tea, not sure I need to keep it in my cupboard, but was a nice experience.
I need to drink this more often because:
A> I have a lot of it.
B> I really like it.
C> It’s a good cause and I would like to support them by buying more.
A little brisk, but tons of depth. Bold enough to be a breakfast tea, but not offensively bitter or strong. It’s a little finicky, best if not over leafed or over steeped. I found today I liked it at about 1 TBSP/ 10oz mug for about 2 minutes (HOT water at work – maybe 90C ish). Different than the Chinese blacks that I’m used to, but a really nice change.
If anyone doesn’t know about JusTea – you should check them out, they are a non-profit organization that is teaching Kenyan tea farmers to process their own tea rather than selling it to a big company and not being paid appropriately.
For someone who doesn’t really drink green tea, I don’t quite understand why I love genmaicha so much….
This is just yummy. Roasted nuts, a little like popcorn, it’s not too grassy, it’s not too veggie ish, Just a really nice light roasty, toasty well balanced awesome cup of tea.
This is one of my favorite genmaichas.
I was really hoping that this would be a replacement for my beloved, discontinued, Kanpe. It’s not.
This is pina colada with a hint of spice. It’s really really sweet. I cold steeped this overnight and then some. Lots of pineapple, lots of coconut and just a hint of something in the back. Not quite sure on the spice, but it’s just a hint. This tastes like a Davids tea. There is something about their coconut that makes all those types taste the same.
If you like, pineapple and coconut you will like this.
It’s good for a hot summer’s night (would be better if I had some rum to put in it).
Thanks so much TheTeaFairy for sharing this with me.
I’m kind of sad about Kanape as well. I don’t drink a lot of fruit teas but I did enjoy that one.
I know, I love it – I stocked up on it when I found out it was leaving, but I’m still hoarding it. It was just the perfect balance between fruity, tart, and spicy.
Oh well, I’ll keep drinking my one pitcher a week until it’s gone and then hopefully will have found something else.
Let me know if you find something!
Lol, I did not share that one, I got rid of it, thanks for taking it away :-) The only reason I bought it is because I thought it would make a good iced tea for summer…I was wrong!!
Ooh I have some coconut rum I picked up when I was in the Caribbean that I bet would be good in this, haha.
yyz will do – I still have hopes of finding something at Cornelia, but they just have SO MANY TISANES, hard to try them all.
Fairy – LOL it’s not THAT bad, I would like some tart to offset the sweet. HHHHMMMMM maybe I should add a scoop of the H&S one you said was REALLY TART – will have to try that. :))
Mandy – Coconut Rum would be good in this, the alcohol would help cut the sweet. (or the buzz would just distract you)
This is one that I took from the SSTTB. Thanks everyone!!!
Drinking it at work today, and I was surprised at how grapey this was – is that the muscatel thing people talk about? Anyway, whatever it is, this is sweet and fruity, but it’s deep and rich enough to be satisfying in the morning.
I’m more of a purest, I’m not huge into the black tea blends, but this a good one. I could drink this again.
Sounds yum! I love grapey flavors in tea :)
you just haven’t had the RIGHT black tea blends :)
I like Hugo, but I haven’t tried this. I just finished a tin of Full-Steam, so maybe an order….
So what’s the RIGHT black tea blend? I would say that A&D Double Knit is my favorite.
mmmm double knit. so good…. i’m still working on my favourite black tea blend… i’ll keep you posted :)
I LOVE this tea. I had a sample of it and was very fortunate to get a tin from Hugo as they no longer stock it. :P I think they replaced it with Hill Station (another good blend, but quite different!)
OMG & Hill Station were discontinued. Full-Steam is now their only unflavored black tea. http://www.hugotea.com/pages/shop
Full-Steam: 1.76 ounces for $9.89 = $5.62/oz. × 16 = $89.92/lb.
I love full steam. Never had a morning journey. I remember that Terri has them both. I think she likes Full Steam more.
You’re right, Terri enjoyed Full Steam much more than OMJ.
Oh – I must have mixed it up and was thinking of Full Steam!
I love Full Steam a LOT
