45 Tasting Notes

64
drank Orange Blossom by DAVIDsTEA
45 tasting notes

Got this on my first venture into the local David’s Tea yesterday.

I was looking to try another kind of orange-flavoured tea, because I really loved the “Orange Lemonade” herbal from Tealux. (I see now that the Tealux blend is a whole different kettle of, um, tea — not a flavoured rooibos like this one is.)

So even though this one is a rooibos base, I thought it might work because the dry leaves had a really heavenly orange and floral smell. I was following my nose. However, when the tea was steeped, the orange disappeared and the other flavours really faded a lot. I don’t think I’d want to drink a strong floral, but I did wish for the orange to carry over into the brewing.

So the steeped tea wasn’t awful, but nothing at all to write home about. Just blah and disappointing.

The package said steep for 4 to 7 minutes – I went for 7, thinking to maximize the orange flavour. Maybe that was too long. Next time, I’ll try shorter.

Preparation
Boiling 7 min, 0 sec

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75

My first Oolong! (thanks to Starfevre)
The black Oolong base is intriguing — has an interesting, sort of earthy scent, and a nice mellow flavour — although still a wee bit bitter, as I typically find black tea to be. A pleasant cup of tea, but as usual, I would have liked more peachiness. I guess I really like a strong hit of fruit. (If it tasted like hot juice, I’d probably be okay with that. ;-)

Steeped in boiling water for 5 minutes, as instructed. Next time I make an Oolong, will try 4 minutes and see if that reduces bitterness.
Tried a repeat steeping (because I read somewhere that some people swear that it gets better with the 2nd or even 3rd steeping), but that resulted in even less of the peach scent/flavour, and perhaps a little more bitterness.

This tea’s got me interested to try more Oolong blends.

Preparation
Boiling 5 min, 0 sec
Starfevre

Multiple steepings works sometimes on flavoured blends, but mostly they’re talking about ‘pure’ unflavoured tea when they say that.

Maryann

Oh! Thanks, that’s very helpful.
And I guess they’re not talking about herbal blends either then, eh? I’ve occasionally tried multiple steepings with herbal teas, but I’ve just ended up with a watered-down version of what I had the first steeping. Now I can stop wasting my time.

Starfevre

Sometimes it works on herbal blends and sometimes it doesn’t. If you really love it, it might be worth trying, except maybe with less water than the first time. I haven’t had much luck with resteeping herbals though.

Maryann

Life’s too short. I’ll stick with one steep. :-)

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70

This tea was okay, but it didn’t really grab me. Overall, I found it a little bland. Not enough mango flavour or aroma. To me, mangoes sometimes have a kind of punky taste/smell that doesn’t appeal to me — and the mango that I could detect in this tea had that.

Preparation
Boiling 3 min, 0 sec

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75

This was a pleasant tea. (Thanks for the sample, Starfevre!)

It seems odd to be saying this, given what Starfevre wrote:
Although I could smell the caramel in the dry leaves, and that was lovely, I couldn’t taste very much caramel. And I couldn’t really detect the vanilla at all. I dunno, maybe it’s my taste buds.

I then tried sweetening it up quite a bit (from 1/4 tsp sugar to 3/4 tsp), and I added a little milk, and that made it better.

It was nice, and I enjoyed it overall, but I really wanted the flavours to be more pronounced.

Preparation
Boiling 3 min, 30 sec
Starfevre

Everyone has different taste buds.

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71
drank White Cherry by Aromatica
45 tasting notes

I’m new to finicky teas, which to me means anything other than: drown it in boiling water and forget about it until you remember it again. ;-)
(well, not quite that bad)

But reading the ingredients, I was really curious about this one – the dry leaves smell very nice, especially the cherry smell.
So I steeped this carefully, according to instructions – letting the boiling water sit for 5-6 minutes to bring the temperature down to about 175F (I also tested it with 2 different meat thermometers, just to see; the digital one read 179F), and then timed it to steep for 3 minutes exactly.
I added about 1/4 tsp sugar.

The steeped tea still smells really nice, mostly the cherry. There are subtleties and complexities that I can’t really describe – probably the green and white tea leaves. I’m not sure I can pick out the jasmine, coconut, rose… but the overall blend of aromas and flavours is pleasant.

For me, there is a sort-of acidic or bitter taste that detracts from the overall. I tried adding a little more sugar (up to 1/2 tsp), and a little milk, and that improved it. I just tried eating one of the dry coconut chips, and that was strangely bitter/acidic/unpleasant (maybe stale?), so next time I’ll fish those out of the dry leaves before I add water.

This tea is interesting and appealing enough that I think it could grow on me, once I get more familiar with the flavours of green and white teas. I do love the cherry smell.
And as I get down to the bottom of the large mug, it’s tasting better!

The description says “5 different types of tea”, but I count only 4 in the ingredients list that I copied from the package.

Preparation
175 °F / 79 °C 3 min, 0 sec

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90
drank Lychee Black by Amoda Tea
45 tasting notes

I really like this tea. The scent of lychee fruit when you open the package and smell the dry leaves is strong and heavenly – just fabulous, and just like lychee fruit.

The Chinese black tea base has a nice mild smokiness. For someone like me, who is still looking for a ‘way in’ to appreciating black teas, this one was nicely smooth and gentle. But what makes it for me is definitely the lychee. Oh, man, the lychee!

I really like that the tea is NOT dicked around with, by the inclusion of other fruit flavours that could/may detract from the lychee. (Can you tell I like lychee?)

Maybe even this tea is a tiny bit bitter for someone like me, who isn’t (yet) a black-tea lover – but next time I will try steeping for 3 or 3.5 minutes, instead of 4.

I had it with a little sugar (less than 1/2 tsp) and a little milk.

Preparation
Boiling 4 min, 0 sec

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41
drank Lemonosity by Yokotea
45 tasting notes

Not very lemony, contrary to its name, and the herbal flavors didn’t appeal to me. Kind of a ‘woolly’ taste, predominantly chamomile.
For me, this tea was blah.

Edit: I just added the listing for this tea, and so far, there’s only one rating — mine — and I gave it 41, and yet the “Steepster score” is 71. I wonder why? Shouldn’t the overall score be an average of the ratings given by people (like me) using this site? A puzzlement.

Preparation
Boiling 4 min, 0 sec
Starfevre

He uses some weird algorithm to calculate the score, weighted to some global average I think.

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75

This is a nice citrus-fruit tea. It’s interesting, the ingredients are almost identical to those in Orange Lemonade (tealux) (http://steepster.com/teas/tealux/33530-orange-lemonade) . . . except here there is “flavouring”, which presumably is the grapefruit flavour, as grapefruit isn’t specifically listed.

Overall, it’s a pleasant tea, and I liked it almost as much as the Orange Lemonade. Very nice blend of flavours. In a clear glass, it has a beautiful soft pink-champagne colour.

. . . Except for the grapefruit flavour, which is a slight drawback for me — there’s a bit of bitterness (or something) in grapefruit, that makes it not as appealing as the tart freshness of lemon. And I also prefer the more vivid orange flavour in the Orange Lemonade. Here, I found the orange a little muted.

Preparation
Boiling 6 min, 0 sec

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82
drank Love Affair by Dethlefsen & Balk
45 tasting notes

Nice sweet-ish tea, flavours predominantly chocolate and strawberry, bit of rhubarb. The little red hearts are strawberry-flavoured.

By the time I’d drunk half of it, the sweet fruity flavour became a bit cloying. I’ll have to try it again. Maybe it doesn’t work to let it get cool.

I brewed this, as per instructions, for 10 minutes with boiling water.
Added milk and small amount of sugar, as the tea is already sweet.

Preparation
Boiling 8 min or more
Starfevre

I find that happens to me frequently on the fruitier teas, especially the steep forever ones.

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86

A very satisfying Chai, in a tea bag. Spicing is dominated a little by clove. I would have liked to taste more of the other spices.

I added sugar and milk.

Preparation
Boiling 5 min, 0 sec
Starfevre

Could try steeping for less time, see if that lessens the clove?

Maryann

Yes, will try that.

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