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I’ve apparently had this before but I don’t remember it and I kinda liked it and I made it 3 times tonight because the first time I gave it to my mother (who really loved it especially the aroma and the finish, and told me as I asked her that she felt a lot like she was doing a wine tasting since I asked her a bunch of questions about this). (She just reminded me to not forget to mention the turkey poop). After I made it, I went to empty the no-name gravity infuser outside since they do not have a functional garbage disposal and it fell to pieces, one of which I did not realize had come off.

So when I made myself some of this, it did not hold the water and made a huge mess. While we were trying to find the piece that I don’t even know what it looks like, outside, in the dark, I definitely touched a piece of turkey poop, which is just as disgusting as it sounds. And we did not find it.

Thankfully I had left behind a large teaball when I visited last time so I was able to make this for myself with the 3rd set of leaves and yes it tastes very good. I over leafed a bit I think which meant it had almost the perfect amount of vanilla flavour for me. The tea itself was pretty light and definitely smooth as anything and the immediate aftertaste was really nice though not so much now so I should go eat or drink something else soon.

Maybe it was the thrill of victory of overcoming all of the obstacles to drink this tea but it was pretty damn good.

I think I’m done with this tea. I don’t know what it is, but blech. I tried it without any milk this time and the bergamot is soooo strong and bitter. I just can’t deal. So yeah, I have a lot and I’d like to get rid of it. January will see it on the Get Rid Of It thread, I think.

I definitely did something wrong to this. It’s almost tasteless. I can smell and barely taste the bergamot as well as some sort of generic black tea flavour but everything else is lost. Too little tea? (It is old) or possibly too short a steeping time? Too much milk? Too little sugar? Hard to say. I have one more cup to try to get this right today then I am moving on to something else.

After receiving this in the mail from the crowd funding campaign (I don’t remember which one, kickstarter? indiegogo?), I finally opened this and made myself a cup (at…2am, yay!).

Added milk and sugar as is my wont with black tea. A bit more of each because I’ve heard that good Kenyan tea can be a bit strong on the astringency and needs a bit extra and I’m glad that I did because this is simply a very very good cup of tea. Probably not the best it could be because I reheated it in the microwave once because I forgot I was drinking tea but otherwise it’s very very malty and a bit chocolatey and it tastes a bit fruity to me too, though I couldn’t tell you which fruit, other than not the more acidic citrus fruits. Very subtle to me though. The malt flavour comes through the most. I have another cup of this to go tonight and probably resteep the leaves tomorrow. I’ll add anything if something is different between now and then.

ETA: And apparently this is tasting note #400. Woo!

This tea was very much on the more hibiscusy side of life today. More sour than I like it. Made it to share with my new(ish) friend who was helping me clean today. She said she liked it.

Drinking this again after forever. One of my friend’s friends (who is becoming my friend) is helping me clean my place and she can’t have caffeine so I made this and it’s still really good. I put in a bit extra because it is so old at this point.

A bit too much milk in it, I think, but it did bring out the cream flavour very nicely. I still love this combination of flavours.

Made this again (hey, I liked it okay?!) but a bit differently so I thought it was worth it’s own tasting note.

For the first time ever I deviated from my milk-and-sugar routine with black tea and added chocolate soy milk and sugar. I liked it, but I don’t think I prefer it over the original way. Slight chocolatey flavour is nice but the soy taste that lingers is distracting and I can’t really taste the tea at all anymore.

I don’t actually remember if I purchased this one or if it came as a sample but thanks regardless, Mahamosa Tea!

This is a really nice vanilla tea. It’s currently competing with my other favourite vanilla black tea to be on top but I don’t have any of the other right now to compare them side by side so I can’t for sure say which one I like better.

The smell is almost caramel and sweet but the vanilla taste, along with the actual vanilla bean pieces in the loose tea make this a really nice nice vanilla tea. Not quite as overwhelming as I like my vanilla to be but it’s a great tea nonetheless. I added a bit more sweetener than usual and I steeped for a shorter time than the package indicated (because I never steep a black tea for 4-5 minutes on the first try, wow that seems like such a long time).

Trying this cold this time around. Made a double batch because I put a few too many ice cubes into the blender so 16 oz of skim milk, 2 Tbs of matchaccino and a bunch of ice cubes. Blended it all up and WOW. I can see why Red Leaf Tea says that this is the best way to go. I can totally just drink this whole thing down stat. It’s amazing. Just wow.

So, I probably brewed this wrong, having JUST looked at the Verdant website and seeing a steep time of 1 minute (I did 2) and a temp a little lower than boiling. Also I think I may have underleafed. By at least a teaspoon. (Having made about 27 fl oz of tea (according to my quick and dirty ml to oz conversion) and put in 3 heaping teaspoons. more like 3 teaspoons. yeaaaah. I’ve gotten out of the habit of using my breville and I forgot that ~750 ml is actually ~3 cups and not 2… Oh well. Next steep I’ll add some new leaves. So yeah, this is weaker than probably it would be at it’s best.

Another reason I’m probably not liking this as much as I probably would be otherwise is that I’m out of practice with tea tasting. With the summer and my inability to make iced tea in a reasonable fashion without it sucking and then my need to be out of my house as much as possible to try to keep from sinking into a deeper depression…there’s not been much time for tea from my own collection. At least, made the way I like it.

Still, this is very enjoyable even with those caveats. Hikaru the kitty knows it has my attention and not her so she’s trying to knock it over with her head. She’s been much more needy since my Groucho kitty died on Monday.

Anyway, it tastes very silky as said in the outline on Verdant, and I can definitely taste some very warm spices, possibly the cinnamon mentioned, though I like it a lot better than actual cinnamon, which I don’t like so much. The morels come through more on the aftertaste. All in all, it’s quite pleasant and I’m sure I’ll enjoy it even more as my ability to taste more nuances comes back.