652 Tasting Notes

100

Peppery and welcoming. Clears my mind. No bitterness. Very clean. An excellent Yunnan.

Preparation
Boiling 4 min, 0 sec

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84

A really good blended bagged Darjeeling. Makes excellent iced tea. Does not get bitter. Sharp and snappy with some muscatel and astringency. Much better than many alleged Darjeelings on the supermarket shelves. (Twinings, I’m glaring at you.) Utterly dependable. One of my go-to teas.

Also forgives a long steep.

Preparation
Boiling 3 min, 45 sec

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74

Clean and packed with caffeine. Forgives a long steep. Hardly a delicate or fancy tea, but delicious and dependable.

Preparation
Boiling 5 min, 0 sec

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63

Lime. Just lime. Incredibly refreshing if you have a cold and might even aid recovery the morning after a hard night. But know this: LIME. In all its overpowering and possessive glory. Caveat drinker.

Preparation
Boiling 5 min, 0 sec

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56

I keep steeping this too long to get more spiciness and end up instead with bitter Assam and a few bits of cardamom. The anise ruins it for me — I strongly dislike anise. Otherwise a bland chai. Expensive. Not sure this one is worth the retail price, though other Numi Teas definitely are.

Preparation
Boiling 5 min, 0 sec

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90

My favourite Earl Grey, ever. The presence of bits of bergamot, versus ‘bergamot flavouring,’ with a decent black tea, makes an enormous difference.

Sadly, this tea is very hard to find in my part of Canada, and Numi doesn’t ship outside the US.

Preparation
Boiling 4 min, 0 sec
B

Favourite Earl Grey ever, huh? I think that means it’s worth trying! I’ll be on the look out for this. I’m highly critical of Earl Greys so I really want to try this!

Michelle Butler Hallett

I like Stash’s Earl Grey, too, though their Double Bergamot knocks me over. I like Twinings Earl Grey least, finding it smells like furniture polish. I once drank a tin of it just for the sake of collecting the tin. Blech. Never again.

Now that I’ve held forth on Earl Greys, can we still be friends? ;)

B

Haha, yes! Though I do actually like Twining’s Earl Grey! I get what you mean about the smell though, the ‘Lady Grey’ is a bit more mellow when it comes to that.

I have to revisit Stash, I think! I had some of their Chai in my cupboard for way too long because it was before I started drinking a lot of tea. But I’ll certainly give their Earl Grey a shot.

heatherwassing

Have you tried the Tazo Earl Grey (ordinary bag, not full leaf)?
I do not like Earl Grey teas as a rule most of the time, but the quality of the bergamot in that one is — to me — unsurpassed. It’s more floral than perfumey. Very sophisticated and lovely.

Michelle Butler Hallett

Only the full leaf, and that was steeped in milk in what Starbucks calls a London Fog, which I kinda liked, but would have liked a lot more if the tea had been steeped in a bit of boiling water first. I’ll look for the Tazo EG next time I’m missing his Earlship. Thanks.

Michelle Butler Hallett

@ Beckara: Yes, Twining’s Lady Grey is lovely, but one of those that I’m so rarely in the mood for that I don’t keep it in my stash. I do have a small bit of a blend called Baroness Grey from a local teashop, and that’s lovely, too. I’ve been working on a blend with Baroness Grey, a first-flush Darjeeling, and some smoky Caravan. Not there yet.

B

OooI sounds exciting. Also, I’m becoming jealous of your local teashop!

Barb

I just checked Numi’s website and althiough they say shipping to international addresses is not a “standard” option, they do invite you to call or email them for info (scroll down almost to the bottom of this page):
http://shop.numitea.com/Policies/ShippingInformation.aspx#availability

mkevin

You can find this tea on Amazon. It has been my standard morning tea for a while now.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001EQ5IKQ/ref=wms_ohs_product

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72

A fun tea. The scent coming all pent-up from a tin can be a bit overwhelming, but that’s rose petals for ya.

So, China black, chocolate and rose petals … steep gently, maybe sweeten if you like … a wickedly good afternoon or evening tea. A good balance. I feel more beautiful after drinking it; that’s chocolate and roses working their magic. If you like flowery teas, definitely try this one. Would make a lovely accompaniment to dessert on the way to … um, sorry, better keep this PG. :)

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 3 min, 45 sec

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I ordered this in a 50g pack, which I’ve not come close to finishing, and have since received several free samples of it. I want to like it more than I do, but I find all I taste is sugar and a dull China black tea. Am I not brewing it strong enough? I don’t taste anything pumpkin pie-ish, either, just more sweetness. It tastes — to me — almost as though the tea has been much stronger and assertive but eventually got whittled down by committee until it became inoffensive. No spice kick, either. A calm and gentle chai, just not to my taste.

Preparation
Boiling 4 min, 0 sec

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75

I dunno about skinny-ness from drinking this or any other tea, but something did counteract my last pigout. Maybe this tea. Maybe not.

It’s sharp with the ginger and ginseng. Quite hot with the ginger if you steep it over 3 minutes. The pu-ehr itself is almost lost until the gentle aftertaste.

Overall, I really like it once I start drinking it, but it’s not a go-to tea. Given my jeans size, perhaps it should be. ;) This one is like Earl Grey for me: I have to be in the mood for it, but when I am, nothing else will do.

Preparation
Boiling 5 min, 0 sec

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83

Strange — but delicious. Wow. I dared myself to order this one, because my first reaction to the ad copy was ‘Blech! That sounds terrible!’ But it’s not. Deep, a bit sweet, almost heavy. No astringency. No maltiness (oh my, imagine coffee beans with Assam: hurl!). Just one delicious fusion, straight out of The Tempest: ‘Has suffered a sea-change into something rich and strange.’ Want to try this one with a bit of stevia later. Would probably stand up nicely to milk.

Preparation
Boiling 4 min, 30 sec
B

This was the ‘Tea of the Day’ today and I gave it a shot. I’ll be the first to admit that I have a bad habit of over steeping teas in the hey-I-need-to-let-this-sit-for-three-minutes-oh-look-a-bird! way, so when I made it at home it was a bit too earthy. The little sip I had today though, was delicious!

Michelle Butler Hallett

I over-steep all the time, too, either I get distracted or I just plain forget. Sometimes I set a timer … when I remember. :)

I steeped this one again today, 3 minutes, half a pack of stevia … wow. Like anything pu-ehr based that I try, the more I sip it, the more I like it.

I find if I over-steep pu-ehr it upsets my stomach.

Paul M Tracy

I just recently stumbled across DAVIDsTEA online. Unlike your reaction, I read the description for this tea (two coffee bean extracts, chocolate, caramel and almond) and thought “yum.” I’m looking forward to trying this one and I’ll keep your steeping instructions in mind.

Michelle Butler Hallett

Hi, Paul. They’re hardly instructions, just a note of what worked for me.

I came to David’s Tea online, too.

Michelle Butler Hallett

One of my cats went nuts when I opened the packet of Coffee Pu’ehr this morning. She loves the scent of it.

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Profile

Bio

Writer and tea fiend. Author of CONSTANT NOBODY, THIS MARLOWE, DELUDED YOUR SAILORS, SKY WAVES, DOUBLE-BLIND, and THE SHADOW SIDE OF GRACE.

I prefer straight teas but will try almost anything … so long as it’s not tainted with hibiscus. I loathe hibiscus.

Floral oolong and complex black teas are my favourites.

Location

St John’s, Newfoundland, Canada

Website

https://michellebutlerhallett...

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