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Ok, now this pu’erh I can handle!

The dry leaf did not smell offensive (like some other pu’erh), I picked up mostly citrus. Tastes good too! Maybe it would be too much of a generalization to say I don’t like pu’erh. Actually, I’ve never really said that, I only said I didn’t like DAVIDs chocolate pu’erh. The first few sips I get almost none of the oh so unmistakeable pu’erh taste. As it cools I get a bit more of it but it’s not too much to be a turn off. Ladies and gents, we have a winner. For me, anyway.

Last one for the night. Unless I get up at midnight to drink some more. Have you ever wanted to stay up all night drinking a whole bunch of tea? That’s me today. My very own tea fairy, Dexter3657 sent me a whole bunch of them (including this one) and since I’m having trouble deciding which to drink I just want to stay up and have a tea marathon. But that’s just crazy talk because I’d be craving stuff in 3-4 days.

Well, I’ve been eyeing this tea on the website for what seemed like forever and today I finally have it in my cup. Gorgeous, gorgeous tea. Dry leaf nose is bang on cantaloupe. Beautiful golden liquor. Flavour matches the dry leaf smell. I want to throw ice in here so it can be as refreshing as cantaloupe but I’m afraid to water it down so I’m second steeping overnight in the fridge. I had just enough for two small cups so I’m hoarding the next sample until I really can’t take the craving anymore.

Now I must go and visit butiki teas for my very own 10 lbs of this. Ok, I’m kidding, but only partly.

After taking repeated sniffs of the dry leaf i swear it smells faintly of chocolate but theres no chocolate in here according to the ingredient list. So i sniffed it again. maybe it smells like really concentrated dry fruit. I love the smell! I smelled the wet leaves too but I’m not getting any cherry off those. Just tea and a faint floral aroma.

At 1.5 tsp for 2 minutes with near boiling water, this tea can put hair on your chest. Ok, maybe just my chest. Liquor is a clear, deep reddish brown. Sadly, not too much cherry in the 1st steep, sweetened, hot version. Moderately astringent. Slight cherry aftertaste but still more floral than anything else. Loong aftertaste. In go some ice cubes and more sugar while water boils for 2nd steep. Not a whole lot of change between hot and iced version. Aroma doesn’t really match the nose in my opinion (Note to self: 1.5 tsp of this is too much tea for me).

2nd steep: Less astringent, thank goodness, I was going to get me some tweezers! Still searching for cherry. Nope. Not here.

While I am thankful it doesn’t have fake cherry flavour, I would not in a million years know this was a cherry tea in a blind tasting. I either need more practice or there’s only enough cherry in here so we cal call it cherry but not so we can taste the cherry. Although there are dried cherries in the dry leaf, I saw one. Ok, I actually licked it. Hey, It’s my tea, I can do what I want!

Thank you, Dexter3657 for the marvel of a box you sent my way, including this one.

If you like Pina Colada
And getting caught in the rain…

Tell me you’re not singing that in your head when you think of this tea! Or maybe not, if you’re a gen Y-er. Ugh, did I just date myself?

I do not like Pina Colada. Therefore, I am not a huge fan of this tea. It tastes good iced but i cannot comment on it as a hot tea as I have not and will not try it hot.

It’s not picky when it comes to steeping time or temperature but fairly monotone in the way of flavour notes. Coconut and coconut. It’s strange because the wet leaves (can you call it leaves if there’s no tea?) are mostly fruit chunks yet for me it tastes entirely of coconut. And it’s oh so sweet.

Dry leaf nose is all coconut. too much, too sweet coconut (as opposed to a nice whiff of it like in the organic buttered rum). Liquor is deep yellow and tastes like coconut water. ditto for the aftertaste.

It is with great excitement I announce I made a good cup of iced Kokomo green! I say “with great excitement” because I was really kicking myself for buying this after two first disastrous attempts.

I lowered the temperature and used less tea, much less than the label suggests. It’s got great flavour now but a little on the weak side. I still have to play with the tea amount to see if i can get it a touch stronger minus the bitterness but all in all — progress!!!

I am not changing my rating because I still think they screwed this label up but I feel a little guilty. Thing is, it’s a finicky and unforgiving tea!

A few years ago someone gave me a box of bagged but higher grade (oxymoron?) organic jasmine green tea. It was my favourite tea ever. Unfortunately it had been a while since the lady who gave it to me had purchased it herself and she couldn’t remember where she got it from so I was not able to replace it. I don’t even remember what it’s called anymore. I should have saved the box. I tried a few other jasmine greens over time but could never find another with similar taste.

During one of my shopping visits at DAVIDs my partner picked this tea for herself. In true nxtdoor fashion i bought 100 grams. We mucked it up a couple of times by using either too much tea, too hot water or too long a steep.

I finally got it tonight. 3 minutes is too long a steep for my taste so I did 2 min and 30 seconds. It’s fine now. Not bitter, not astringent, not too floral …. But sadly I have not found my long lost love. Maybe I just grew out of jasmine. It will be a while before I reach for this one but it is a fine tea. Just not for me.

Well, my friends, unlike other fruit blends, this one has a higher tea to fruit chunks ratio and if you brew following the label instructions, I’m going out on a limb and say that you will not like it!

5 minutes?!? Oh my good god. I steeped it for just over three minutes and it was bitter. Have you ever had bitter melon? It is to date the only food I cannot eat. Ditto for this tea!! Also you may wish to dial back on the amount of tea. I made originally just over two cups and thus put in two DAVIDs TEA perfect measure spoon thingy worth of tea. Label says 1.25 tsp (am assuming per 8 oz cup). I really think someone screwed this one up. The 2 tsp of dry leaf turned into half a cup of wet leaves, if not more!

Nose: ripe papaya; Liquor was a strange shade of orangey green and taste, well, bitter melon!

Down the drain it went.

Back to the drawing board: I sacrificed the sample of Mango Fruit Punch (which consisted of a disappointing two pieces of dry tangerine/orange, 4 tiny chunks of dried pineapple and some jerky looking thing I can only assume to be mango peel) and combined it with a scant tsp of Kokomo green for just under 2 cups of hot water. Temperature be damned but it was somewhere around boiling, I’d say 90 ish. Steeped for exactly two minutes. It is now a drinkable beverage with bitter finish only.

Buy large quantity of this at your own peril. (I hope Dexter3657 is not reading this because she’ll cluck her tongue and moan “I told you to be careful”).

The moral: blend it maybe, but definitely use less and as others have said, do not oversteep (maybe taste at 2.5 minutes and decide)

What is it with mango blends obscuring the tea leaf? This is my second mango tea where I can hardly see tea in the dry blend (the other was Teavana’s Mango Oolong Chai where you couldn’t find the actual tea with two free hands and a flashlight). Despite this, I can taste the tea even though I know from others’ notes they cannot. It’s not so much that I can taste it, more like I feel it. You know, the tannins in your mouth when you rub your tongue on the top back of your front teeth — if you have them :)

But let’s get back to the task at hand.

Dry leaf nose is tropical. I can’t really vouch for mango smell because it married all the other smells while in the bag, but it’s tropical alright. Brews a mango flavoured friendly yellow liquor.

I am not doing backflips over this one, maybe I put too much ice. Will revisit. It is a pleasant iced beverage to have though.

20 minutes later 2nd steep! I went for it not expecting much. Really hot water and without a timer because I wanted to forget it. It’s been maybe 15 minutes. Still flavourful. Skipped the ice on resteep. I thought warm mango juice would be a turn off but no. :) you can even try a third steep I bet, because of the large chunks of fruit and peel in there.

So far this is my go to hot tea in my modest, fledgling collection.

The smell of the dry leaf alone — vanilla and coconut — is enough to make one’s mouth water. There are large chunks of vanilla bean (I wondered what the bark-looking pieces were so I stuck one in my mouth only to discover it’s a piece of a rather large vanilla bean) and shreds of toasted coconut. Pretty blue petals that the box informs me are cornflower peek through the black tea leaves.

1st steep at 4 minutes with near boiling water gives a dark brown liquor. Stick your nose in and you might find it smells more like tea, less like coconut and vanilla. Ditto for the taste. Coconut is there but I think this one is a 3 minute steep for me.

2nd steep is more coconut, less tea, but somewhat watery. Would never steep this 3 times. Brown tasteless water is not my thing. :)

Throw in a sweetener of your choice and some booze and Bob’s your uncle.