308 Tasting Notes
I tried a bit of my friend’s iced tea to-go. As someone who loves citrus blends, the smell of the dry blend was just soooooooo mouth-watering to resist a taste. It’s definitely not a tea I’d buy for myself. The carrot flavor is too present – carrot pieces AND carrot flavoring?! Blasted carrots. I used to juice fairly regularly. Carrots, oranges, and a bit of ginger was my go-to when I started to feel a bit run down or sick. This tea reminds me a lot of that. There’s no ginger in this blend, but the pink peppercorn gives a slight hint of heat at the tail end of the sip for me.
This was another in-store sample that was just…well…underwhelming. This isn’t a tea that would normally interest me, but a fruity tea with chai spices sounded intriguing. Thankfully it wasn’t just a spiced piña colada. It had some nice depth despite the sample tasting a bit diluted. The mango overshadowed the pineapple note for me (thankfully), and the spices were subtle but present. It’s not a tea I’d rush out to try again, but it wasn’t bad.
Sweet Lime is probably my favorite flavored white tea from the core collection. I had an in-store sample of this while on vacation, and it tasted terrible. I’m not sure how they’re preparing cold/iced tea for samples, but it was horribly weak and diluted. Mind you, it’s a white tea, so the tea flavor is not very strong to begin with. That said, Sweet Lime is a pretty flavorful blend. If I’d never tried it before I wouldn’t even consider purchasing it based on the sample. Super bland. I now understand all the comments I’ve read about the quality of in-store samples. Yikes.
This tea smelled like acetone as it was steeping, so I was fairly certain that I wouldn’t enjoy it. Thankfully, I had no intention of drinking it hot. As an iced tea, the blend was a very interesting combination of floral, fruity and citrus notes. If I’d have been given this in a blind taste, I would’ve never pinpointed the flavor as lychee. To be fair, I’ve never eaten a lychee. I’ve only ever had lychee-flavored things – boba tea, candy/jelly, tea, etc. That said, it was a very pleasant blend with nicely balanced flavor. I’ll be saving a bit of my sample bag to make some boba tea. Again, it hasn’t been one of my favorites during this week of sampling Tea Chai Té blends, but it makes a nice iced tea.
I started my day with this blend – hot and straight. It’s pleasant but not something I’d repurchase. There’s something happening with the aftertaste that doesn’t sit well on my taste buds. It’s definitely a dessert tea. The base is nice, and there’s decent caramel flavor. I’m not getting much in the way of creme brûlée. It’s smooth and rich, but it’s not as decadent as I was expecting given the name. It’d probably make a nice latte.
I had this blend over ice this morning, but I imagine it’d be lovely hot as well (particularly in fall). The pear flavor was really fresh and ripe. It didn’t taste cloying or candied. The pomegranate added just a bit of tartness and sharpness. In fact, the blend reminded me of a more subdued, natural version of Cranberry Pear (one of my top ten faves from DT). Again, the smooth black tea base was hanging back and playing a supporting role.
If I didn’t have a ton of Cranberry Pear to sipdown, I’d be tempted to add this to my next order.
The flavored black tea blends from Tea Chai Te continue to impress.
