24 Tasting Notes
First of all, thanks to Angel and Teavivre! It always brightens my day when I find new tea in the mail.
The dry leaves are intensely aromatic and full with a beautiful lively green color to them…simply mouthwatering. The liquid taste as fresh and sweet as the dry leaves smell, a beautiful light gold in my glass cup. I have heard the comparison of tasting similar to sweet creamed corn and I can see where it comes from. There is a light bite that comes through which stays on my tongue, making me want more. This tea says spring to me.
Preparation
This is one of the more different teas I’ve had. The flowers come dried, and the steeping instructions are in flower amounts.
For hot tea, I went with 14 flowers dude to my size of teapot at 208 degrees. After letting it steep for 8 minutes the liquid was a dark blue. It looked wonderful in my glass teacup!
The taste is vegetal with a florally sweet aftertaste. It is very mild, even after an 8 minute steep. It’s a good taste and it is an interesting alternative to the usual teas.
Next, I decided to brew some and allow it to cool in my refrigerator. The I poured it into a clear glass and added some lemon juice. It did turn into an amazing dark purple! It was really cool! The taste of the tea now cool was very similar to the hot tea, but stronger. It was rather bland for my taste, perhaps interesting as a base for other teas. Adding the lemon juice and sugar gave it a sweet taste that pairs with the floral sweetness well.
Preparation
Yet another sample from Teavivre! Thanks as always!
This was an unfamiliar name that I was eager to try. The tight coils of leave had a cool, high mountain smell to them, which as I discovered, was because this is a type of high mountain oolong. Sometimes I wonder about how much I do not know! As the leaves unfurled, they produced a very sweet vegetal smell.The liquid is smooth and delicate, with a taste of vegetal sweetness. Due to the mild nature of the tea, there is plenty of room to mess around with steep time without having to worry too much about over steeping. This would be a good tea for someone who enjoys more mild oolongs than some of the bolder flavors.
Preparation
Back to school and back to studying! The perfect time to sit down with some class reading and sip some tea!
This tea starts out in tight coils and blossoms into full, thick leaves. The taste is warm and toasted, Just what I was looking for on this cold afternoon. The major taste of this tea to me is the roasted oolong flavor which there is a perfect amount of. It allows the natural oolong flavor to blend in with the warmth.
As I said earlier, I decided to drink this while reading for class and the taste of the tea really matches the atmosphere. To me, it resembles sitting down in my warm apartment reading and trying to keep the cold at bay. It is definitely a good quality tea. I steeped this one twice and so far it manages to maintain the taste very well.
Preparation
Hello and happy holidays! While it’s a little belated, it has been crazy in my life. I had surgery on Christmas eve and have looked forward to drinking some tea. I decided to start with this one because it sounded so interesting. This is another sample I received from Teavivre, so thanks once again! :)
After steeping this tea, I took in the amazing smell of the warm, wet leaves. It definitely smells like a nice sweet oolong. The taste of this tea is very similar. It has a floral sweetness and smoothness to it that really complements the natural sweetness of the oolong leaves. It is a new and different kind of tea that is one example of the types of tea that keep me so interested in trying as many as I can. This relaxing tea was a great choice to come back to after my crazy, heavily medicated holiday.
Preparation
First of all, thanks to Angel for the sample! I have been absent from tea for a while now, but with the cold coming in and a much needed stress release from finals, this hit the spot very nicely to say the least.
This tea is really yummy and goes well with reading. I steeped it for 2 minutes at 205. The taste is light and florally sweet, much like how I like an oolong. I kinda want to say it’s what I think a standard oolong is like, but a good quality. This tea would probably sit well with people who do not normally drink oolong or who do not like overly strong oolong.
This is one that I have been excited to try. The smell of the leaves is of beautiful fresh strawberry. They produce a gold liquid that has much the same wonderful smell with more strawberry than oolong.
The taste is an amazing mix of sweet vegetal oolong and strawberry. The oolong is strong enough to add to the mixture without overpowering it while still showing that it is a tea with a great taste by itself. It reminds me of strawberry Hi-Chew candy, delicious.
This tea is one that I decided to try that is out of my usual range of teas. The smell is wonderful and smells of fruit and spices. The liquid is a dark reddish brown that smells strongly of the spices.
While I do not know of much to say about the taste of this tea, I do know that the taste is good. This might be the second roobois that I have ever drank, and this is way better that the first. The taste is sweet, perhaps from the mango, but I cannot differentiate the mango and spices well. The beauty of this tea is the strong taste. I think this would be wonderful around the holiday season.
Since it is summer, I decided to expand on my knowledge of flavored teas, though I have not had much luck in the past. This came with an order I placed as a sample, thanks Stacy!
The dry leaves are very fragrant with a strawberry smell. I am not a stranger to teas that have a strong smell and a dull taste but I hold on hope! After steeping, the leaves release some of a sweet oolong smell that blends interestingly with the original strawberry.The tea is simply amazing. I really had no idea what to expect with this tea but it is a pleasant surprise! The taste is sweet and slightly tart that largely resembles the smell. The oolong flavor add a good base of this tea.
The second steep takes some of the strength out of the of the strawberry, but is still great. This gives a stronger backing of the oolong, which is not a bad thing.
I have decided that when it comes to black teas with me, it is either I like it or I do not. There does not seem to be much middle ground. Luckily, this tea easily falls into the like category.
The steeped leave produced a dark gold liquid with what I can only describe as a calm smell. I discovered that this smell was in fact, a reflection of the tea itself. The taste is definitely calming, but I would rather describe it as smooth. To me, this is a good quality in a black tea. To be honest, I do not know how to describe the taste in this tea. I would suggest that it has a sweet taste, but other than that, it just taste fresh and smooth.
This is a tea that I would definitely like to keep around; for breakfast or after a meal or whenever I want a black tea.
