143 Tasting Notes
Sorry for the lack of posting. I was annoying ill last week and was grumpy most of the week. So much cursing and capslock on Facebook. At least this week seems a lot better for a few reasons.
1. The tea idea that I told Frank (52 Teas) about got made! I can’t wait to have french toast in a cup!
2. After weeks of searching I found one electric tea kettle that seemed actually worth trying. I swear I don’t understand how we can have this technology, yet no company can make an electric tea kettle that doesn’t leek, break down quick, or have a horrible plastic smell. At least I eventually found this one. I should be here by Friday or latest Wednesday.
3. I got all my tea cups (3) in from verdant tea! They are all so pretty. My only regret is that I didn’t get more of the Lotus one with the brown rim. That cup is sooooo pretty. It’s not even pure white; it’s kinda light blueish white. I also didn’t know that the lotus composition could differ so much as well. But I am so glad that I have one, and that just makes me cherish it more.
4. I got my order samples from Yunomi! I can’t wait to try the sencha, black tea, and the cherry blossoms!
So anyways on to the tea. I had been drinking this when I had my head cold last week and I think that it helped. It took some of the pressure out of my head, helped clear out my nose, and kept it from running. My ear is still kind clogged up but I am so much better then I was last week.
Either way even though I still about 2oz of this I bought another pouch of this tea. I never want to be out of this one. It has become my go to green. It can be either sweet or savory depending on the amount of leaf you use. And so deliciously spicy! Hmmmmmm spice….
Preparation
Story: Well today has been a bust. I woke up to my dog being sick. We think he might have ingested something, but don’t know what. He was breathing hard and wouldn’t eat, and would barely drink. Someone told my mom to give him a pinch of Pepto and to give him lean boiled hamburger meat. Of course when I get back from the store he comes out and eats food out of his bowl………. at least he is better now. sigh this is so not how I planned my day to go. What a waste.
Tea: Backlogging from a few days ago with this one. I am slowly getting through my samples……. slowly. I brewed this with the gonfu directions on Verdant’s website; though sadly I forgot to do a second rinse. Here are my random thoughts from each steep.
Steep 1: Must and spice, sorta of malty. Still need to understand linen flavor but I think it taste it. I am getting some Caramel now.
Steep 2: More sweeter. slight menthol on the tongue. sweetness yes. omn nom.
Steep 3: More cakey now. A slight spice coming through. tasty. minty menthol after taste
Steep 4: Sorta of cinnamon and heavy linen and semolina
Steep 5: Stronger cinnamon. Not so much a flavor as more of that dry spice tingle I associate with cinnamon.
Steep 6: More savory taste and some minty after taste.
Steep 7: Caramel like savory and sweet with a smidge of mint and cinnamoness
Steep 8: Crisper less savory and more cinnamon taste. very sweet is back. Semolina again maybe. Also still cinnamon. Pine dew maybe.
Steep 9: CINNAMON LEVEL AT 8000!!!!! lots of salty caramel and a hint of pine dew…..yum!
Steep 10: lots of pine dew. some cinnamon after taste. Also savory, but lots of pine dew in the beginning sip.
Cooled: more savory caramel and cinnamon
I then did a couple of western brews, but I didn’t like them as much. They were very strong of burnt caramel, but that was it. I liked how through the steeps it got less caky/malty and turned into salted caramel cinnamon, but with a bit of woodiness and menthol to keep it from getting to bold. I never could get the nuggets to break apart.
Overall it was very good. I wouldn’t call it uber complex, but it was what a would call upper middle shelf. Very good flavors from beginning to the end of the sip. It would be good for someone who doesn’t like earthy Puerh’s.
Preparation
I am geek chuckling at the fact that the 8000 cinnamon level is at steep 9.
Would Mae a good later infusion latte.
i need a long weekend to have a puerh party! Sit and go through 1-2 in a day. heh love this review!
Very nice review, I enjoyed reading this! (happy the dog is feeling better! )
@Bonnie: That sounds like a really good idea. I wound’t have though about using a pu erh in a latte.
@Sil: ahah you and me both. Glad you liked it.
@TheTeaFairy: Thanks! Yeah he was pretty bad. I just can’t believe he snapped out of it right after I got back from the store. I was like, “I’m so happy your feeling better, but….. did you have to do right after I bought stuff for you?”
I made a full review on how to make this tea along with another tune sharing as well. I also made a facebook page as well check them all out!
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Tunes.N.Tea
Tea: http://tunesntea.wordpress.com/2013/05/14/tea-triple-c-tea/
Tune: http://tunesntea.wordpress.com/2013/05/14/tune-ten-long-years/
100th note!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (You can never have enough exclamation points)
This is the tea that I made for my mom custom for mothers day. She loves raspberries so I started off with that as the base (it’s decaf so she can drink it after work. Then I added chamomile to help her relax and then honeybush vanilla to add a smoothness to it. When I got it in the pack it smelled really good. It had a nice light fruity smell with vanilla and chamomile. The brew smells good as well.
The taste is pretty good. The only problem I have with it is that it doesn’t have a lot of raspberry flavor. It is kinda there, but it isn’t the fresh tart flavor I was looking for, but the more sweet candy kind. The chamomile and vanilla seem to dominate, and has a floral undertone.
While I like it I want it to have a little bit more of a tart edge. I think next time I am going to brew it longer, since it seems adagio’s decaf teas don’t turn as bitter as there normal teas. That might bring out more raspberry flavor. If that doesn’t work I might take out one of the raspberry leaves and put in hibiscus instead to add tartness.
Do any of you guys have any suggestions?
P.S. My mom did like it a lot though so, YAY!
Specifics
Pot: Porcelain
Water: 8oz per steep
Leaf: 2 tsp (5 grams)
Steep Time: 2:45 minuets; 3:00 minuets
Sweetener: a good small spoon full per 8 oz
Combined two steepings in one cup.
Preparation
FIRST NOTE WOOOOOOO!!!!!!
Ok when I saw this tea I had to grab it. I love Franks banana flavor and it has coconut? YESTH!!!
Ok the dry leaf smells exactly like banana pudding. It’s a really strong sent too. Very sweet and creamy, with a lot a banana and a hint of coconut. The brew smells just as good as well.
Ok one thing I have noticed is that Franks banana flavor doesn’t come out when it is hot. I mostly tasted sweet black tea. But hey, you eat banana pudding cold right? So after I put a nice bit of lite agave nectar in my cup and left it in the freezer to get cold……. it was perfect. Supper sweet and pudding like. I loved the hints of coconut as well. The black tea base is good as well with a nice light malty flavor and little astringency. I bet this would do great as a late’.
Overall it is a very good tea and definitely taste like banana pudding. The only down side is that it isn’t as good warm, but that is fine with me.idea pops in head I SHOULD EAT VANILLA WAFERS WITH THIS!!!!
Specifics
Pot: Porcelain
Water: 8oz per steep
Leaf: 1.5 tsp (5 grams)
Steep Time: 2:45 minuets; 3:00 minuets
Sweetener: a good small spoon full per 8 oz
Combined two steepings in one cup.
Preparation
I’ve found with many of Frank’s teas that they don’t re-steep very well. So combining two steepings in one cup could have diluted the flavoring. Maybe it would taste better warm/hot if you drink one steeping at a time?
I was tempted to get this one, but I’m not a big fan of Frank’s blacks. ZOMG, latte, with whipped cream, banana slices and vanilla wafers!
@CHAroma: Yeah I have read that before. But, usually when I combine them I still get a decent amount of flavor. That and with some of his blends if I don’t combined they can be really overpowering i.e. Cuba Libre. I think it has more to do with the type of flavoring; and after the few banana flavors I have had from him they don’t do well hot.
Next time I make it though I will just do the 1 steep and see if anything changes, since the possibility is still there.
@Awkward Soul: I KNOW!!! I have been wanting to do that, but I am all out of almond milk and they were out of it the other day at the store.
When I was going through my stuff from when we put in new carpet and tile (which I still need to sort) I found the box that I put KallieBoo! samples that she sent me a while back. Which was awesome.
Sadly When i put the tea samples in the box, for whatever dumb reason I didn’t take into account that the box has a supper strong musty smell. I mean REALLY STRONG! ARgu, why I put them in there I don’t know.
Anyways when I went to brew the tea it tasted decent enough. Green tea with a nice touch of mint and a hint of cocoa. Then a super strong taste of old must. damn………….
Tea lament: I swear I am becoming a tea hoarder. I ordered some more 52 teas, even though I still have a lot of samples of other teas left to go threw. Sigh at least when I am out of school I will have more time to drink and log in tea.
I have had this tea for a while and been waiting to rate it, since I have been messing around with it. But I have figured out weather or not I like this tea….. I do.
Ok the first time I smelled the dry leaf it wasn’t the best thing. It smelled like chocolate liquor, but in a meh way. However, when I bought the tea Frank had just made it and he also mention to other people talking about the smell that he might not have let them air out as long as they should have, and that it would disparate over time. Needless to say he was right. When I went to smell my tea today it was great. It smelled so toasty, gooey sweet and chocolaty. YUM!
The taste is pretty good. You got the gooey sweet from the marshmallow, a lot of chocolate flavor, and a toasty butteryness coming from the genmaicha. However, there was one flavor I wasn’t getting that is part of a s’more…… gram cracker. Luckily I figured out that if I put a small (very small) piece of cinnamon stick in my tea pot it helped add that cinnamon gram cracker flavor that it was missing. I do kinda wish it had more lapsang souchoung so it could be a bit more smoky though. Then again I am the kind of person that either roast there marshmallow to perfection OR get it on fire and let it burn a nice crispy shell around it. Hmmm burnt sugar…..
Overall S’mores Genmaicha is a very tasty tea. If you are looking for a good sweetly flavored Genmaicha or something a bit different to try, pick this one up.
You can read more at my blog here:
http://tunesntea.wordpress.com/2013/05/02/tea-smores-genmaicha/
Preparation
So I ordered this along with a few others the when they were re-blended; I also don’t know why I put my tea spending on hold, since I never listen to myself.
Ok, I don’t know if the new vegan flavors Frank is to blame, but lately it seems a lot of his new tea’s have this weird sanitized alcohol liquor smell. All though people have mentioned that when a blend is re-made quickly they get that smell due to not being aired out long enough or settling first. It does smell gooey sweet though, like cake flavored vodka.
The overall taste though was good! Very buttery. Maybe unami quality to it, but more sweet.
Feeling lazy so not going to go into much detail (I think there are enough tasting notes though.) I am going to compare this one to the smores one and see how that goes.
Specifics
Pot: Porcelain
Leaf: 1.5 tsp
Water 8oz
Steeps: 2 combined (16oz cup)
Sweetner: 2 spoonfuls of light agave.
Preparation
I bought this tea on a whim one day during a sale……Glad I did.
The dry leaf smells really crisp bergamot with the fruity berry smell of currants. Wet leaf smells just the same but with the wet leaf of the tea coming threw as well. I had heard from other people on steepster that this blend was a bit strong, being white tea with bergamot and all. So I decided to brew three steeps together and combine them. It turned out perfect! The bergamot was at perfect level and gave a nice crisp menthol like citrus flavor which was backed up and broadened by the black current flavor. The tea was able to poke out through the flavors as well, adding to the crisp sweetness of the fruits. It doesn’t even need sweetener either. It taste pretty good iced too; flavors are a bit stronger and it leaves this cooling sensation in your mouth.
Overall it is a very good tea. I actually went a head and bought another pouch. I recommend this tea to anyone who likes strong bergamot tea, but wants something other then a black tea base.
Brewing Specifics
leaf: 2tsp
Pot: Glass
Water: 8oz
Temp: 185F
Steep: 1 minuets; 2 minuets; 2:20 minuets.
Preparation
This is the 2nd time I have tried my free sample from DT. The first time I was dumb and fallowed the instructions on the pack…… never again.
Ok the dry leaf of this smells EXACTLY like Jelly Belly beans green apple with a hint of carmal. The wet brew smells similar as well. I have to say though, I am not digging this tea. The little bit of the tea base that pops through is ok, but I get this astringency from it; though I didn’t brew it in a glass tea pot and stuff. The flavor unsweeten is ok. It has a weird sour note, and just taste fakey though due to the artificial flavoring. Usually I am not too sensitive to artificial stuff but it seems in my tea I notice it more; seems black tea’s pull them off better. The flavor just isn’t working. When I added a spot of sweetener it helped pull the flavor together better, but it was still meh.
I kinda wonder why they used artificial flavoring for apple. I mean white and green teas can already taste crisp and sweet. If they just kept the dehydrated apple pieces and used natural flavoring it would taste more like a real apple.
Overall I don’t like this tea. It just taste fakey and ick. I am not rating due to the lack of water temp measuring and playing around with it, but if I was going to rate it I would give it a 50 or lower
