408 Tasting Notes
Thanks lovely cteresa for sending it over me.
but I won’t rate it.
I love vanilla (good ones only ! this is an aroma which cannot bear mediocrity to my opinion)
I love ,but really love, raspberry, my favourite fruit.
So what’s the problem ???…it’s me !!!
I trust cteresa (her tastes & opinions are so reliable), this is surely a very good rooibos. I trust Angrboda as well of course, I love so much your reviews and your notes !
The point is I think I really do not like Rooibos …until now…but will persevere : L’appétit vient en mangeant…as we say in French ;)
Preparation
Thanks so much to Azzrian for sharing this tea with me !
This is my first Della Terras tea and I was very excited to taste it especially because I fell in love with the name of the tea.
… but unfortunately not with the tea itself.
The blend is so beautiful with a lot of multicolored little candies (stars of David and little golden balls).
I found the tea base too light for my taste. The aromas of marshmallows was overpowering to me as well (but after all it is supposed to be a marshmallow tea ! – but I was expecting something with a much more pronounced caramel flavour).
I think this tea delivers its promises to be a marshmallow tea – I have enough blend to do a second big mug of Eight Candles tea and sure I will give it another try.
Preparation
hello steepsterites !
Happy to recover the possibility to send a note.
I had this tea yesterday afternoon at a Mariage’s tea room.
So perfectly prepared by the wonderful & so kind people of Mariage.
The smell was amazing : just like amaretto – we can say the almond overpowers the 2 other nuts (pecan and walnut)
The taste is just not so impressive, nutty, just nutty.
Pleasant but nothing more.more walnut on the taste, impossible to me to detect pecan…
we can just feel a very very little bitterness due to the nuts but it is not a desadvantage, it adds some personnality to this tea.
Better with crystal sugar, it add some sweetness too.
Well I think I didn’t prepare it properly. It is my first Matcha and I have no tools to prepare it, just drop it in the mug, put some water, tried to mix it it with few water first thanks to a spoon and then dropped the rest of water.
It wasn’t bad but wasn’t exceptional.
I thanks darby for sending me some of her matcha but need clearly to improve the way I prepare it !
Preparation
I haven’t tried my first matcha, yet, but from what I’ve read, I would suggest the following:
- Try a small bowl instead of the mug.
- Try a regular kitchen whisk instead of the spoon, or a fork if you don’t have a whisk.
- Be sure to use the right amount of matcha. Most recommend starting with ¼ or ½ tsp (about 1.2g or 2.4g).
Hope that helps!
yes it helps ! thank you Nick :)
Oh! I forgot to mention another preparation method that I learned here on Steepster (I feel bad that I don’t remember who pioneered it). If you want to have it cold, you can put your matcha in a water bottle, add cold water, and shake shake shake it. This is the lazybones method that I plan to try for my first cold matcha because it sounds like it would be difficult for me to mess it up. :D
that sounds easy thanks Nik !
I found this video, which I think is very nicely done, and it’s the japanese way of doing it, but not the ‘ceremonial’ way of doing it…. so maybe just watch it and adapt what you need to -to make it work for you ? anyway, nice video – worth seeing http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NRB93In-rE
when looking all over for a tea bowl, I found the following dimensions most common…. so for your small bowl, try one about this size …. 9cm by 13cm {or thereabout +/-} but that is assuming you use the little bamboo whisk.
…. anyone ever make matcha with an immersion blender?
Fleur – i do! usually when i’m making a matcha latte though :)
thanks girls :)
I use an immersion blender for the lattes and my daughter uses an Aerolatte. They work great!
I have the chance to drink this blend thanks to LaFleurBleue who sent me a generous sample.
It is a nice and qualitative tea.
The dry leaves are amazing, very long but curved and very dry.
Once steeped, the leaves are very large almost entire.
The scent is not very strong but steeped, the aromas are there.
The tea base is a very good black one.
I really like it without being absolutely in love but maybe because I mainly drink flavoured teas and this one is not.
Preparation
I’m coming back to tea life after a big cold.
I wanted to taste Nosy Bey for a while now.
The perfume of the dry leaves is absolutely divine : vanilla and peaches.
The aroma is clearly a vine peach head note (not peaches but really vine peaches- In France our vine peaches are almost red (pulp) and the skin of the fruit is more or less grey ).
We can taste a very present and opulent vanilla behind.The black tea base is absolutely sweet and has no hint of astringency.
This is a delightful aroma, vine peach is a wonderfully perfumed fruit and this tea reveals perfectly its qualities.The presence of the vanilla just sublimates it and makes it very generous and luxurious.
A great afternoon tea, almost a fruity dessert tea.
Preparation
mmmm that sounds divine!
Glad you’re feeling better!
thank you Bonnie :)
Sil : yes it is really :)
We will need to have that swap sometime in Janvier so that I can taste some of these delicious teas! It should be a little quieter in the new year :)
no probs Sil, January is fine for me as well
That sounds wonderful!
I don’t much care for vanilla, but this sounds really good.
I think I can recognize a DT in a blind test- or blind taste.
I don’t know, there is a signature, something like a kind of special vanilla maybe…an aroma I get everytime I drink one DT.
So this one is a DT as well. I have the same complaint about the tea base, too weak for me, I don’t have the feeling to have a tea but more an infusion, once and again…bis repetita…
The dry leaves scent is a perfection, very spicy and mild cinnamon mainly + pumpkin of course.
I was expecting something stronger as it is a chai but it’s a very light chai to me.
I think I am quite happy with this tea because I normally dislike pumpkin and I found it fair. If the tea base was stronger I would probably even have really liked it.
Forgot to thanks Darby for giving me the opportunity to taste this blend ! Thanks so much Darby
Preparation
I know what you mean. I can tell the same tea base taste in 52 tea’s and the same tea smell/taste in some other tea companies. I wish they would have someone come in with a fresh nose. STOP USING THE SAME BASE ALL THE TIME! The tea scents smell muddled then the flavors get muddled too.
hehe, I remember expecting more of a chai out of this too my first time. I just treat as a pumpkin spice tea now :D and I prefer Red Leaf Tea’s pumpkin pie matcha to it, or the pumpkin caramel cheesecake by 52 teas
I went to the DF shop to buy in person the tea Figue Fraîche but they didn’t have it !
I wanted a tea with fig so I bought this one at the MF shop.
MF rarely blends figs (Boléro has some but it’s clearly not the leading note).I found this one by chance just looking at their website and when I didn’t have the chance to buy at DF, I did know what to do instead.
So I am the first to review this tea and it is strange because the name of tea is an homage to you dear North Americans.
The aspect of the dry leaves is really beautiful : beautiful big petals of a mysterious blue flower (MF says this is a flower which is growing on the pacific coast…any idea dear pacific coast residents?)
Once I steeped it 5 minutes and it’s too much, astringency was really there and I disliked it.
I did it again with 4 minutes steeping and this is perfect, no trace of astringency nor bitterness.
The scent of the steeped leaves made me very happy : I had the fruits and especially fig.
Drinking it is a little bit different, I got more vanilla & exotic fruits (weird because not mentioned by MF but I picked Mango first I think)and the fig but behind.
The black Chinese tea base is nice
This is a very nice afternoon tea, it’s probably not to me to say but I think is this is a beautiful tribute to America.
Preparation
It’s my first Butiki teas and I need to double thanks Nicole.
Thanks for the sample and thanks because this tea is really wonderful.
The dry leaves scent is very maple but once steeped, the pecan nuts are the main flavour to me, but on the maple syrup base – this is really well done.
The flavours are so natural and so subtle, it is a very high pleasure to sniff and to drink this tea.
I really really really love it and now I feel sooooo sad not to have enough blend to drink another cup ! It means I need to order it for sure.It goes in my shopping list.
Merci Butiki Teas for this exceptional creation.
Preparation
I’m so glad you liked it! I thought it was unusual. It was a hit at my Halloween tea party with a few ladies who “didn’t like tea.” :)
imagine so what happened on a lady who does like tea :)
This is a yummy tea. My husband asks for it now from time to time and he is usually a coffee only kind of man. I may have to get another cup of this now :)
I’m so glad that you enjoyed this tea! This is ONE of my favourites from Butiki!
I’m thinking that maple pecan is a perfect complement to oolong flavor. Making note!
This is yummy!
I am not very confident with green tea, to me tasting a green is like playing lottery.
I find greens a little capricious especially because of the bitterness we can sometimes get (even if we steep the correct time)
This time I won at the lottery ! Thanks so much to cteresa for permitting me to taste this fantastic blend – I am just surprised you didn’t review it yet-sure you will asap your cold will disappear :)
Delicate and refined green tea base without any hint of bitterness nor astringency.
I get more the fruity notes (berries)and behind, in the supporting role the floral notes (rose is the floral leading note to me and then lavender)
I really enjoyed it – did anyone tried it iced ?
Preparation
Sounds like an interesting green. I, too, usually find greens too bitter and when fruit is included it is often too tart for my tastes. Rose and lavender sound like a good addition.
I have had it, but did not want to write the taste notes then because i think I did it not quite right and want to try again. Plus for some reason I am in a mood where flavoured greens seem to not quite work for me in the same way as blacks.
My feelings are more or less the same of yours – this is typically an awesome blend, the scent, oh I would so buy it as a perfume.
I also think there was a definite and very interesting thyme note, and rosemary maybe as well? but the thyme was there, which was so unusual but worked so well.
iced, that is a good idea, though not sure if my stash will last long enough for me to try it.
and oh, they make a rouge de provence – which I sniffed and am definitively getting 50 grams from one of these days.
you made this one sound exquisite!
Hmm now I am not so sure if red rooibos is for you. We all got our own tastes! But I can not think of any rooibos more likely to convert you than this.
But maybe green rooibos, have you ever had any? It does not have that particularl rooibos body but it has more body than tisanes though and be lovely on its own or as basis for other teas. It is really quite different!
I’ll give this rooibos another try – it has everything I love especially raspberry so I’ll give another try (I always give several try to teas and chances to people too !) sometimes we need to learn by trying again & again, it’s probably what I have to do with rooibos.
It is true about people surely! Teas should get their chances as well!
An idea, do not brew rooibos TOO cold – at least 90, 95 maybe even, and at least 5 minutes (some rooibos not much longer but this one is not a problem how long it stays.) try 95 and some 6 minutes or so.
thanks for the tip about temperature it may be why I found the rooibos not bodied enough to me
Ysaurelle, I too am having difficulties with red Rooibos, finding it bears some kind of medicine aftertaste most of the time…But I’ve come to appriciate a few, such as David’sTea Ô Canada, and some Tealish very fruity blends. Il’l be happy to share some with you soon. You are right about wanting to try more than once, there’s lots of teas I wouldn’t be having otherwise :-) I think cteresa is right about the green rooibos, maybe you should give it a try, it’s very different from the red…
Definetely brew it a bit hotter and a bit longer. I used to be very heartless with rooibos – free boiling water and many many minutes and that is not perfect either particularly for some blends, but 90-95 and 5-8 minutes should be good.
Green rooibos is worth trying! I think Kusmi makes plain unflavored green rooibos but not sure it´s worth buying from them, it´s relatively easy to find unflavoured green rooibos. I have been flirting like mad with theodor´s home page and they have also unflavoured and one or two green rooibos mixes (thé des swenkas I think). I have bought at supermarkets (Intermarché) flavored green rooibos teabags from a south african brand called carmien which were OK. And I got a nice green honeybush/green rooibos mix from this place http://teahouse.de/ which is called wiener apfelstrudel but actually tastes of hazelnuts. It exists! Germans seem to particularly like green rooibos blends, most of what i find is German.
This was the very one that turned rooibos for me. I had said for the longest time that I didn’t like it, but this belnd showed me that I apparently do like it when flavoured. Perhaps red rooibos just can’t be salvaged for you. Oh well, we win some, we lose some.
I can’t say about the green rooibos, though. I’ve only ever tried that once long ago, so I can’t remember what it’s like, but I’ll join the people encouraging the experiment anyway. You never know. :)
I found one I liked : mango lassi from Butiki teas :)
And I got to send you a couple green rooibos samples for you to try – just in case! I will send you a mail.