284 Tasting Notes
After finding out this is Dexter3657’s favourite tea I went for it again this morning to see if I can change my opinion. Didn’t. I brewed this for the drive to work (at 6.30 am) and it’s still in my cup as I write this, at 10 am. Not a winner for sure. (But then I hated blue cheese upon trying it for the first few times).
Boiling water, 4 minutes for first steep.
Coffee on the nose makes this appealing. Dark liquor also fools one into thinking “coffee”. It just smells too marine for me. Not fish, really, more like nori (sea weed). And I swear I taste something that resembles aspartame or some artificial sweetener. I will try the tea again later with creamer and ice, I find it more enjoyable that way, but still will be a struggle to drink this.
The rating, temperature and time buttons are stubborn, aren’t they?!? I steeped at 98C for 4 minutes as advised by label.
Caramel on the nose and palate. I poured some In a clear glass to assess colour: caramel. Duh. It looks like a nice bourbon or a dark rum.
Found 4 minutes to be perfect as a first steep for me. Sometime four minutes is way too much (buddha’s blend from DAVIDs TEA for example) so was worried but went with it for testing purposes. Caramel through and through. I hate milk but I can see this would be delicious as a creamier version. Maybe I bastardize it with coffee mate and see what happens.
I would love to do blind tastings on teas and write notes without having prior knowledge of ingredient base… but I can’t since I’m buying them based on their online descriptions, not based on sampling. Why do I say this? Because this tea smells and taste like caramel to me. But then I read “English toffee” on the ingredient list and I think to myself: is it caramel that I taste, or English toffee? And what about the coconut?
Will replace, at least until a better caramel tea comes along.
Preparation
On the nose, mint and cardamom. I was initially going to go with mint only but after taking a whiff of my cardamom spice jar I revised. :) I urge you to try if in doubt.
Though I rarely would pick peppermint as a tea, it is the only tea I would consider having when I’m in the mood for Moroccan inspired food. Also if you’re into movies, watch “Cairo Time”. if your not reaching for your mint tea stash at some point during the movie, well, you can call me an ignorant fool.
With lots of sugar or agave, as a hot beverage it’s nothing short of delicious. I tried it iced just last night and was surprised at how poorly it faired. Mint was amplified for me to the point of unpleasantness. Did not finish the iced version despite the shot of booze i threw in.
Drink this hot and sweet.
They should have just named this Rose Strawberry because visually, as well as the nose and palate are all screaming rose. In wines, legally they must list the grape varietal in a blend based on the leading percentages (I.e. if it’s 70% Cabernet and 30% merlot, they will call it a cab merlot, not the other way around). I wish this was the case with tea because I’d bet a paycheque that this tea is more rose than berry. And champagne?!? No. (Since champagne is actually a region, not a flavour). But I digress…
I’ve tried it both hot and cold, used different temperature water for the hot version, steeped for more, then for less, without a lot of variance in the end result. Tastes weak and much like rose water. Liquor has nice colour though.
This tea was a miss for me. Will not replace.
This is what I love about this site. Everyone has different tastes and experiences with the various teas. I’ve certainly experienced the fishy/sea weedy/dirty sock taste on other pu’erhs but not with this one. Maybe I just can’t pick it out from behind all that coffee.