557 Tasting Notes
Backlog #4: I don’t think I will ever not have Lipton tea bags in my cupboard because sometimes you just need a plain tea that is hot and sweet. Nothing fancy, nothing frilly. Just something that you can’t screw up very easily unless you let it sit for far too long.
Plus it does make a fantastic iced tea.
Backlog #3: After the whole cherry ordeal, I decided that I was ready to try some of this Earl Grey. The only Assam tea that I have ever had has been in the Twining’s Irish Breakfast so I was expecting something extremely bold that I would need to have with milk.
Oh my god! Was I ever wrong about that!
This tea is utterly fantastic. The tea base is sturdy but not overly bold. It tastes like good tea. But the bergamot is just awesome! It tastes like you took a whole bergamot fruit and just squeezed the juice into your tea. It is fruity and juicy and leaves a clean and fresh taste in your mouth that you get right after you eat a ripe orange.
It is just utterly amazing and unlike any other Earl Grey that I have had.
The only thing is that you have to have it plain. Even if you add just a drop of milk, the tea base disappears and the bergamot turns sour. But if you have it plain it will be just fantastic!
Thank you Teajo Teas for letting me have a sample! I think I’ll have to explore the rest of your Assams if it is anything like this one.
Backlog #2: This was one of the samples I got from Nina’s Paris and I was hesitant to try it after I looked it up because I am not the biggest fan of cherry. But I wanted to try it before I had it with my fiance.
My first mistake was smelling the dry tea. It smells like Robitussin cough syrup. That made me a little nervous. But once you brew it, the tea smells utterly fantastic! I would love to bottle the scent and smell it when I’m having a bad day because it smells like a mix between freshly baked cherry pie and a Yankee cherry candle. (both scents that I love so your mileage my vary)
Once brewed I tried it plain and it tasted like cherry, but it wasn’t a bad cherry. Little tart for my liking so I added some sugar, just one teaspoon of sugar so I didn’t have some tea with the sugar. It was nice and pleasant. The cherry flavor was balanced and not too overly cherry. I was actually liking it pretty well.
And then I started to read a book with my second cup and I let the tea cool down. Boom! Insta-cherry. Very strong and the sour cherry popped out. Once it cooled it was just way, way too much cherry for me.
So, if you like cherry then you will love this tea. I’m not the biggest fan because I’m not the biggest fan of cherry. Which is sad because I think this would be an excellent iced tea.
This does make me interested to explore their other rooibos blends because it was very balanced and it didn’t taste woody. Plus they have the zodiac so I can see if I like what they have for Scorpio.
Preparation
Backlog #1: All I remember about this was that I was really tired of HonestTea tasting like flat tea with lots of sugar and I was thirsty after work. So, I decided to try the big canned tea by Steaz and I do love peach.
This was surprisingly tasty! It actually tasted like tea with a big punch of peach in the background. Well, it was more like peach with a green tea aftertaste. But, it actually tasted like tea and even though it was sweetened, it did not taste like canned tea.
They have some more flavors so I think I’m going to make a point of trying them all because you do get tired of water all of the time. And sometimes you don’t have the energy (or want) to brew and drink hot tea.
I couldn’t stay away from this one and I had to give it a third steep of about seven to eight long minutes. It is very light in flavor with rose at the beginning and apple in the middle. I like it better if I think of an apple tea with rose instead of a rose tea with apple.
I think I am worrying mom with tea samples though. These samples just came in small packages in an envelope. Mom said that the envelope was almost opened (even though it didn’t look like it had been opened or searched) and she almost didn’t give them to me. For her sake, have other people’s samples came like this too? Or was there more packaging involved? I mean, the tea looks like tea and the individual packages are whole, but she is worrying a bit and her worrying is worrying dad. I don’t really want to worry Mom either. (and yes, I’m overage and a legal adult. My family is just really tight knit and they tend to worry about me some)
Yep, a business sized envelope with three tiny clear sample bags containing almost powder. I don’t know if it is supposed to be that fine or if it got crushed in the mail. The tea was fine even if it looked a little odd.
Thanks! That will probably make my mom feel better. Between her and my friends thinking that all tea in the mail looks like marijuana it isn’t easy convincing them that it is actually safe to consume sometimes (even if they know that it is only tea)
Haha! My hubby says that one day they are not going to believe me about those leaves in the mail! But every time I mail tea in an envelope I go to the post office and have it marked for hand canceling so the leaves don’t get squished. I always tell them up front it is tea leaves. Ice I opened the envelope I received from someone in the parking lot and realized how it must look, so I quickly stuck it in my purse. It was a ton of Moroccan Mint samples from Missy! One sniff and they would have known it wasn’t anything illegal! Don’t worry, I think everything would be fine. They can identify the real thing pretty quickly! It is nice to have someone to care, isn’t it? :)
Depending on how many samples I send, I usually use a manila padded envelope or a small box. I always include a note though :)
It is nice to have someone who cares for my safety. I just wish they were tea nuts too so they would understand! Lol.
I got a sample of this and three other teas from Nina’s Paris. It arrived yesterday and my finace and I shared a cup of this earlier this morning.
Dry, it smells exactly like a sour green apple. It smells so sweet that it almost smells like the sour green apple candy lollipops that I used to love as a kid. It smells delicious.
The first steep separated out into two colors of tea at first because I poured it from my french press into teacups instead of my little teapot to use as a fair cup. So my cup was extremely dark and tasted like slightly sour fermented apples while my fiance’s cup was light and tasted like silk roses. After it was combined, they both tasted like smooth and slightly sour apples. Almost a wine taste but kinda not. The base tea was so mellow that I didn’t really taste it but it made the tea nice and smooth.
I did try a second steep and that tasted mostly of apples. More toned down but still smooth with no roses. I added just a touch of sugar and that made the rose pop a little bit more. But this is really mostly apple.
I’m not sure if I like it or not. I really, really want to like it but I can’t really taste the rose. I have enough to try it one more time so I’m going to do that before making up my mind about this tea.
