139 Tasting Notes
Sipdown! I finished this one very quickly, probably because I brought it to work and am really enjoying it. I love the coral-pink colour it brews, and the smell is amazing! This another one of those “apple pie in a cup kind” kind of blend, and it is quite enjoyable. The aroma is reminiscent of pulling a freshly-baked apple pie right out of the oven, and the baking smell wafts gently all over the house. It is slightly cinnamon, slightly nutty, with a sweet apple background note.
The flavour is much the same: the apple taste is quite close to sweet, gooey baked apple pieces rather than the crunchy fresh type! Goes really well with the cinnamon and nut flavours. It is slightly tart, but not overwhelmingly – I don’t think it needs any added sugar or other flavours. It is already jam-packed with its own flavours! What a yummy treat. :)
Drank this one at work the other day. At work I have a bunch of teas that I brought from home, but all of the black teas I have there are flavoured, and sometimes I am just not in the mood for coconut or maple syrup in the morning. I brought over this wonderful oolong from home (yes I know its not a black tea, but the roast level on this one puts it more in black territory than green).
I remember the fist time I tried this one I thought the taste was a little off putting. I think that was long before I tried a few of the Rishi oolongs (FFS IPHONE STOP AUTOCORRECTING, OOLONG IS A WORD KAY?) and decided that I really enjoy the unique flavour of this type of tea. This one is quite nice, slightly malty and earthy at the same time but not overpowering. Quality straight oolong tea, love it! It’s actually very similar to the Ruby Oolong I finished recently; brews the same tone of Amber and has very similar flavour notes, just less of the cocoa/cherry undertones.
Pulling this one out again after a while of not drinking it. Actually, my tea strainer was not washed, so I just needed a bagged black tea, and I think this was the only option (apart from Lapsang Souchong, which I am not mentally prepared for this morning), as everything else is loose leaf.
Getting a slightly smokey aroma from this, a bit more than I remember from last time, but it may be because I had this buddy-bagged in the same ziplock as the Lapsang Souchong, so I may have absorbed a bit of that overwhelming aroma. Probably not the best idea looking back, but it didn’t make that much of a difference. The flavour is still nice: assam-like, very smooth and full-bodied. Just what I needed for a pick-me up.
Had this one yesterday to go from Blenz while meeting up with a friend to study at the library. I was actually delightfully surprised with this tea. I never knew Blenz had such a unique variety of teas to choose from! Much better than Starbucks’ options, that’s for sure.
The aroma was actually very citrusy, and since I was only told this tea was “dragonwell”, I wasn’t expecting such a zingy, fresh aroma. It was quite nice, though. The flavour was also very delightful. While hot, the citrus did not come through in the tea. It was more creamy and smooth, a solid and quality green tea base. As it cooled down, the zesty citrus also appeared in the flavour, and tasted just like it smelled earlier. I really liked it, and wanted to go back to buy some for home, but the sales associate didn’t really know what he was doing and I had to catch a bus, so I left it for another time.
I will be revisiting this tea!
(Sept 2016: Wow, the Steepster Thief really doesn’t like this tea. Second review it’s eaten!
Thankfully, I found my written notes from this that I didn’t throw away, so here they are in point form:
- another Rishi sipdown
- smells very smooth and malty, slightly earthy like freshly wet soil
- not exactly “ruby” colour, more like amber, leaning towards orange
- very smooth, reminds me of a whiskey/bourbon type body, but less sharp and more rounded tones… still deep though
- pleasant and high quality, enjoyable to drink)
Haven’t drank this tea in quite a long time. And considering I still have three tins of it (from my Starbucks days), I should probably start giving some away…
Anyways, iced tea time! Haven’t made iced tea since I finished off that lovely and convenient bagged English Earl Grey that I brought from Slovakia. Since the weather (finally) turned hot this week, I figured it’s time to make more classic iced tea. This was the only other earl grey blend that I have, but I was wary of trying to use this for iced tea, since this blend gets quite bitter and astringent if left in for too long or overleafed. It’s also very sensitive to proportions and steeping time, so I babysat is closely while in the making.
Didn’t make simple sugar this time, I figured I would start using that 3lbs jar of Belgian Rock Sugar I got years ago from Teavana, which conveniently sits almost full ever since then. A 1:1 teaspoon ratio of sugar to tea works well in this case. After brewing, poured in maybe a teaspoon of organic lemon juice, and presto! I actually liked it so much when I was taste testing it hot that I poured myself half a mug to have now. The only downside is that the astringency really does come through, even with the two teaspoons of rock sugar in it. And it’s not like it doesn’t taste sweet – it does, but the black tea base, for whatever reason, leaves that sandpapery feeling on the tongue no matter what. Whatever, I was kind of expecting this, but I can still make it work- it’s yummy nonetheless. I considered increasing my rating a bit, but this tea needed so much help to be enjoyable (and I still have to overlook that bitterness…) that I decided against it.
Rather sad to be finishing this one off! I must say, it really grew on me, and I ended up looking forward to drink it every day at work. I love the balance of robust flavour that this tes has. Like dance partners intricately locked in a tight yet perfectly executed three-way tango. ( /creativity)
The most prominent two favours are the sweet and creamy coconut and the earthy oolong base. Then comes the pineapple as a very subtle yet perfect finishing touch that adds just the right amount of tang. It’s rare, in my opinion, that a tea is blended with such balance, where there is the right amount of each ingredient without any of them overpowering the others. I really enjoyed this one, and I hope to get my hands on it again I the future.
I like the creativity! It’s fun. This sounds like one I’ll have to try.
Haha, thanks! I got inspired by reading Wocket’s notes and had to give it a try. However, by the time I sat down with my tasting notes and my iPad, it was pretty late and my creative juices were running quite low.
Oh my god, this Wocket person is a delight. I’m following them now, too.
Haha, I know right!? Wocket, you are welcome for the free advertising. ;)
I met up with a friend in the vicinity of a DavidsTea yesterday, so I took the opportunity to grab a couple of teas that I’ve heard really good things about. Grabbed this one along with Forever Nuts. I drank Forever Nuts yesterday while catching up on The Good Wife Season 6 before I start the last season, and I enjoyed it, though I don’t have any notes this time.
Banana Nut Bread is another very heavy tea. I got 30g, but it is literally only enough tea for about 2 16oz cups. I left it to steep for about 10 mins, since I want all the flavour I can get, if I’m only going to have 2 cups of it. It smells pretty good, almost like an actual banana loaf with a hint of nuts and dates.
Taste is just OK. I don’t get a whole lot of the banana flavour, probably because the sales assistant only manages to get two tiny pieces into my purchase, one of which I made sure to include in my steep this time, and one for next time. I do get a lot of nut flavours, mixed with a kind of heavy sweetness that sits kind of weirdly on the tongue. I don’t really taste the dates either, but maybe I just can’t identify them in the rather confusing mix of flavours. I’m glad I got to try this one, but I don’t think I would get this again. I enjoyed Forever Nuts a lot more!
Edit: As I’m trying to finish this cup, I’ve decided that I actually don’t like it at all. It leaves a weird aftertaste, kind of sour, which doesn’t make sense to the sweetness of the tea. Maybe I’ll try the rest iced.
I remember making lattes out of this: I would brew 4 “perfect spoonfuls” for like 10 min (stiring a lot) until it made a cake-batter like consistency, and then mixed it with hot, frothed milk. Sweet and good in my opinion, but messy, finck-y and so expensive since its so heavy
Wow, it brews that thick just by itself? Not that I’m surprised too much, but that’s weird!
I tried brewing it the first time in my steeper and it was awful trying to clean it out because it was so thick. Switched over to a metal mesh cup strainer instead. For a successful brew I still find you need to stir it around ALOT to release the flavours.
Study time tea. Not sure why I felt like pulling this tea out today. I was actually looking for more of an energy pick-me-up, but this is an herbal tea. I haven’t tried it in a long time now, though, so I kind of wanted to give it another shot.
Tea brews a dark fruity red, but the aroma is less poignant than I remember. It’s a lot weaker than last time, or many I am just remembering incorrectly. If I sniff from close up, I can catch mostly just the coconut, apple, and hibiscus notes in the aroma. I added a few pieces of rock sugar to it, because I remember feeling like the tea was quite heavy on the tart/bitter hibiscus. Hopefully the sugar will help balance it out.
First sips are promising. The sugar is definitely helping, because I can still feel some of the sourness, but would be quite stronger without the sweetener. Quite a fruity tea overall, with lots of apple and berry notes coming in through the flavour, and definitely lots of hibiscus. Still, it’s just okay. Though the sugar helped it a bit, the blend itself is not THAT enjoyable, though I feel satisfied enough with my choice today to drink it peacefully.
Drinking this for the second time: was at mom’s house the first and didn’t take notes. I do remember that I enjoyed it the first time too, though!
I’m still quite a new traveler of the oolong territory, but I think I like most of them. This tea is definitely one of the better oolong teas I’ve tried. The aroma is slightly malty and earthy, and reminds me a bit of dark chocolate and cherries (although maybe the tea description just influenced me to expect this!) I’m still not that great at picking out subtle notes in the aroma/flavour, but nevertheless the aroma is hearty and satisfying.
I find the flavour to be quite the same as the aroma: slightly malty, earthy, with subtle hints of other flavours that mix really well with each other. It is not overpowering or bitter, and overall enjoyable to drink!
