TeaBrat select Send Message

Hi Steepster. I am so far behind on tasting notes it’s kind of ridiculous. There is just no time to taste teas with me being at work all of the time and being gone a lot on the weekends. Sad but I hope you haven’t missed me too much ;)

Recently got this at a Peet’s for cheap. They are discontinuing their tea line and bringing in the Mighty Leaf brand. I find this to be kind of a bummer and wish I had tried more of the Peet’s teas when they were around.

So jasmine does not tend to be a super favorite of mine. But if it’s done well it’s ok. I used two teabags in my tall glass tumbler. For a bagged tea, this isn’t too bad. The jasmine seems fairly strong and the tea itself has a vegetal quality that ends on a sweet note. I find some jasmine teas to be a bit bitter but this is pretty good. I definitely prefer the high quality jasmine pearls as the flowery flavor is more subtle. Might try using one less teabag the next time to give it more of a watered down & subtle effect.

I will probably end up giving the rest of this to my boyfriend if he wants to drink it (he likes the convenience of teabags). If you live near a Peet’s and want to try any of their teas, you need to act fast!

Looks like I am the first person to review this particular tea blend. I got this from Happy Earth the last time I placed an order with them. This seemed like it would be a good after lunch tea as the peppermint, cardamom and ginger will all aid with digestion. It’s a bit odd having a green chai instead of a black chai but I actually like this a lot. It’s spicy and pungent! I rarely drink green tea with soymilk but it’s pretty good that way… and also plain. I’m glad I bought this…

This is a very pleasant oolong from Tea Ave. Roasted TGY’s don’t tend to be a big favorite of mine, but I am enjoying this. The nutty and roasted barley notes hit me first, and then it has a sweet/fruity aftertaste where I’m getting pineapple. I’m not finding the subtle bitterness mentioned on the package… maybe if I had steeped it longer I’d be getting that. I’m not sure of my exact steeping temp. as I’m drinking this at work but it’s definitely below the boil.

An interesting, complex tea but not one I feel compelled to add to my collection at this point.

I wasn’t the biggest fan of this one. I found it a little disappointing because I was hoping for more rose and what’s there is extremely subtle and light. Almost to the point of being non-existent for me! Other than that it is nice, sweet and a bit creamy but just not finding it as intoxicating as the Wenshan Baochung I had yesterday. Might have been better if I had gong fu’d it, but I am never at home to do that it seems.

Finished off my box of this today, I never added it to my cupboard but it was gone fairly quicky after I purchased it. I drank this a lot as an after lunch digestive type of tea, my currently I’m on a ginger & peppermint mix or just plain ginger. I may get some more at some point but I still have a cupboard full of tea to drink at home. =)

Trying this tea from my recent TeaAve haul. I don’t really have the capacity (or time) to gong fu things at work so I made this Western style in my glass tea tumbler this morning.

First of all, this tea smells absolutely amazing. It is worth it for the smell alone, I think. It’s definitely honeysuckle and very intense! If you don’t like floral smelling teas, this may not be the one for you. The taste is really nice, buttery with macadamia nut, a hint of fresh greens and flowers. And maybe a bit of coconut? le sigh

I will have to gong fu this soon because I’m most likely missing out on some really subtle flavor variations by steeping it once Western style. Still I’m pretty impressed with this so far. Glad I bought some!

I also like how TeaAve has such informative packaging, For instance this tea has a roasting level of: 01, An oxidation level of: 1.2, a mountain altitude of 400-800m, an Origin of PingLing District in New TaiPei City and a Cultivar of Quixin. Plus you get steeping insructions — that’s a lot of cool information about your tea. ;)

Evidently combining spearmint and peppermint is a mint melange? I think there should be at least 3 ingredients to qualify as a melange, but I guess I’m being picky :)

I was jonesing for a simple mint tea the other day. My old standby, Twinings, was at home so I decided to get this from the Spicely store. It’s a pretty standard mix of peppermint and spearmint and kind of tasty. My main complaint is the price – $10 for 20 teabags seems like a lot when we’re talking about plain old mint. Bonus that it’s organic but I wouldn’t buy this again unless I was feeling desperate. I liked it better with a little plain cane sugar.

Interesting that they recommend steeping at 190 F as I’ve always used boiling water for mint teas.

I just reviewed this recently so please read my previous tasting note. I got a whole 2 oz. bag of the tea and I was surprised at how big the bag is, but the leaves are huge and fluffy! This is a great mid-morning tea and perfect for work as it is non-fussy and needs no sugar or milk. just yum! Floral-olive-nutty goodness.

p.s. Steepster seems really like a graveyard lately, I think a lot of people stopped posting after the site functionality issues which is too bad. I’m also on Insta under the name of: TeaBrat if you want to follow me there.

Thank you CHAroma for this tea and for swapping! I though today was going to be more productive today but I spent almost 2 hours at the gym and then had to take a nap after lunch because I was so tired out from all the exercise ;)

So anyway after waking up from my nap it seems like a cup of tea is on order. The dry leaf smells so much like I recall Boo-Berry tasting, of course it has been years but yes it smells like a blueberry flavored cereal. As for the flavor, I am definitely getting both the blueberry and marshmallow, but I felt like the black tea base got kind of bitter. I used boiling water and steeped for around 3 minutes and also used a pretty big sample for a large mug of tea. Anyhoo, I liked this better after adding soymilk and a little coconut sugar which helped cut down on the bitterness a bit. Not my favorite thing from 52 yeas but I am enjoying the blueberry flavor.

A few years ago I went a bit crazy with buying FF darjeelings and samples and ended up with a lot of teas I couldn’t drink before they went stale. Last year and this year I got the FF darjeeling sample packs from Happy Earth Tea and really liked trying a few to see which ones I liked the best. Now I’m only going to have one FF darjeeling in my stash for now and that’s the Arya Ruby which I bought a full size of.

As for the Muscatel Valley, I drank this at work so I don’t have an exact idea of my water temp but it was well below boiling. Color of the tea liquor is a medium yellow and the aroma of the brewed tea reminds me of bee pollen and a flowery meadow.

This is a gentler tea without a lot of astringency and definitely doesn’t need milk or sugar. I don’t know why you would add milk to a darjeeling but maybe some people do.

This has a nutty taste that reminds me of some green oolongs I’ve had. Definitely picked up on a mango note and a slight muscatel finish that’s a bit zingy and cleanses your palette. It has a very relaxing and happy quality as I’m sitting here sipping it. If I had more of this to play around with I probably would try steeping it for shorter periods of time, say 1 to 1.5 minutes. Enjoyable, though the Arya is still the winner for me this year :)