1379 Tasting Notes
For a tea that is named to sound welcoming for any morning I thought it sounded perfect for the morning after my birthday. It said two brew two teaspoons per litre of boiling water and to steep for 10 minutes, so as I have only brewed enough for one cup I have put in half a tea spoon of tea which was steeped for 4 minutes and one cups worth of boiling water.
My tea contains no creamer or sweetener for the purpose of this analysis.
Colour: Very dark chocolate or soy sauce.
Smell: Cinnamon and cardamom shines through making it sweet yet freshly citrus.
Taste: The Cardamom is very strong but it tastes fairly light. Personally I don’t like cardamom but this really is very nice and subtle. You can taste the cinnamon which goes nicely to add in some sweetness but as for the licorice I cannot taste that at all but I imagine it was only added to give an after taste or very slight flavour which I cannot personally detect. It gives a warming effect and I must admit that it is rather nice to drink in the morning to aid waking up.
Overall: I shall be drinking this tea quite a lot because it really does help me cope with the mornings. The taste yet subtle is still pleasing and I am guessing that the longer you leave to steep the more flavour it will have (perfect for mornings that I need more kick with).
Preparation
I selected this tea from a garden centre yesterday and my husband bought it for me as a birthday gift. We only went to the garden centre because they have a large aquarium and we have recently purchased a tank so we needed to stock up on little fish (we got 6 Cardinal Tetra and 2 Skunk Corydora). I have never tried echinacea tea before so I thought it would be lovely to try it, it even says on the bottom that it is great to drink in winter. In February now and where I live had been getting colder and colder each day so I thought it would count as winter conditions.
My family had booked a restaurant for my birthday so with the tea purchased I rushed out of the shop and headed on home to start my ritual of wondering what to wear and what make up to use (this takes me hours to decide and in the end I am never happy with the result) so as you can imagine I was busy all night. Then when I was being picked up to head on down for dinner I opened my front door and found that 4 inches of snow was settling on the ground and it was still pouring down. The rest of the night the snow became more violent in the wind and more and more settled onto the ground. On the drive home there must have been 10 inches of snow everywhere and it meant it was one slow and arduous drive back.Waking up this morning and feeling a little rough from my Jack Daniels last night I remembered that I had bought a winter tea. Either I had good timing buying the tea or the heavens has opened up and given me a birthday gift as now I can drink this tea as designed. So as I sit here with my faithful cat friend by my side and wrapped up in two blankets here is my analysis.
Colour: Golden brown honey.
Smell: Very peppery and herby.
Side Note: The tea bag floated (no matter how hard I tried to sink it).
Taste: Similar to cardamom pods but not quite as strong and with a peppery kick that tickles my lips. It reminds me of Indian Masala tea but on a weaker scale. It’s very warming which is why I imagine it says to be used as a winter tea, as I drink more and more my body seems to be tingling all over with relaxation and warmth. It is a very odd feeling and appears to be making my stomach feel full. For me the taste is not desirable but it is certainly interesting and with quite a few tea bags left I will drink this again but after this snow has cleared it will not be for a while.
Preparation
I only found out about the Ringtons company who deliver tea and coffee to your doorstep a couple of days ago. My mothers friend gets them to deliver to my mother house (as my mother is in all of the time) once a fortnight and I was lucky enough to be over when they knocked on the door. Taking advantage of the tea part I asked what sorts they carried and found that they are all own branded. As soon as he said Connoisseur I was hooked in and bought them to try as an every day tea.
I must say that after trying a lot of everyday tea and disliking a lot of what I have tasted (Tetley’s, Yorkshire, PG Tips etc) I was very impressed with what this tea had to offer. This tea has no bitter after taste, is strong without being ridiculously so and remains fresh in the cup even as cooling. I am used to drinking Twinings every day tea and I must say that this is a competitor when it comes to taste and value.
Over all I would say that I am very happy with this tea and shall continue to buy it in the future to vary my everday drinking tea’s to two brands. I would recommend to anyone that is a fan of fresh and strong tea.
Preparation
Colour: Honey Coloured
Smell: Very vanilla scented and reminds me of the strong vanilla candles you can burn.
Taste: It has the light, fresh yet slightly bitter taste of green tea but it is very much in the background as the vanilla is powerfully dominating. Pleasingly different but at the same time extremely strong. The vanilla tastes like vanilla pod so it has the thickness of real vanilla (instead of a subtle flavour like synthetic vanilla).
One of the strongest green tea’s that I have tasted, I will drink this mostly as an afternoon tea as I find the vanilla very relaxing while at the same time being strong enough to keep me awake.
Preparation
I was given some of this tea from a friend. It is very pleasant in both aroma and taste. Added to my shelf as I adore citrus tastes.
Colour: Dark Honey
Smell: Sharpness of the grapefruit yet also the sourness of the lemon. Light yet very fresh and citrus smelling.
Taste: Again the most domineering flavour is the grapefruit but you can still taste the lemon and lime in the background with a hint of the green tea. I would say this lives up to it’s name and is delightful to drink for a ‘pick me up’ so it would be grand to be used as a morning tea. Warning for those unsure about citrus flavours as this is quite strongly citrus.
Preparation
I purchased this from a seller on eBay from China. Orange is one of my favourite flavours and aromas so when I saw exactly what this tea was I fell in love with the idea of it being naturally flavoured. It arrived today after weeks of waiting.
My tea examination contains some of the tangerine casing as well as the pu’erh tea.
The smell is very pleasing, you have the freshness of the pu’erh and the slight sweetness citrus smell from the tangerine.
Colour is a warm, dark reddy brown (overall colour would be medium).
Taste wise this tea is beautiful. With the fresh and light pu’erh tea taste you also have a wonderfully uplifting tangerine taste that manages to also stay light and fresh. Very easy to drink and is now one of my favourite tea purchases.
I got 100g (three tangerines) of tea for roughly £6.50 including shipping. Bargain!The preparation time was what I was advised from the seller and I would say that it is a decent strength and is about right for me. If you want a very strong brew then leave it in for say 2 minutes. You can also re use the tea three times but you must double the steeping time. So first steep use is 1 minute, second steep use is 2 minutes and so on.
Preparation
I have a sample of this tea which was a free gift for my order of another pu erh tea.
Smell is light and slightly aromatic.
Colour is medium red (like the reddy brown leaves at the end of Autumn)
Taste is light, warm, refreshing. You can certainly taste that the tea is ripe.
I would say it’s a good every day pu erh tea as it is so light and refreshing. With little to no real age it’s by no means extra special but it is very pleasing all the same.
My preparation details are from the manufacturer. They also say that you can also use the same tea for more than use but you must double up the steeping time for each additional use. (So cup one is 1 minute, cup two is 2 minutes etc). I imagine that 3 cups of tea would be the limit before you use all of the taste.