244 Tasting Notes

85
drank Lychee and Rose Cold Brew by Teapigs
244 tasting notes

Oh, friends, we were SO close! I love rose and I love lychee, but tart hibiscus and I are very rarely on the same wavelength. This blend is light, refreshing, suuuuuper lovely, and would have been even lovelier without the hibiscus. Prepared plain: it’s unsweetened, but it doesn’t need sweetener. I had no idea rose and lychee made such a great combination. If I ever get more of this, I shall try sweetening it with a drop or two of Rooh Afza, which is a rose-flavoured syrup.

Flavors: Hibiscus, Lychee, Rose

Preparation
Iced 7 min, 0 sec 2 g 17 OZ / 500 ML
White Antlers

I bet that would make a delicious iced cooler for the hot, muggy East coast summers.

Nik

Definitely! So far (knocks head) I’ve had great luck with their cold brews.

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75
drank Mao Feng Green Tea by Teapigs
244 tasting notes

Huzzah! I’ve been trying to hard to like the teas included in teapigs’ 2020 advent calendar and I haven’t been having much luck. But this is a nice one! It’s very light, very mild. I get the kind of grassy, green notes, maybe a touch of rice, but not the super vegetal flavour that gives a lot of green tea its depth. I’m happy with this “shallow” one. =] Drink it quickly, though—I could feel bitterness creeping in as soon as it started to cool.

Flavors: Grass, Green, Rice

Preparation
175 °F / 79 °C 4 min, 0 sec 2 tsp 8 OZ / 236 ML

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70
drank Earl Grey Strong by Teapigs
244 tasting notes

Ach, this should have been amazing. Earl Grey is one of my favourite blends. And don’t get me wrong—it is nice, it’s just weak, like every one of their bagged blends I’ve tried so far. I have my Earl Grey with (non-dairy) milk and (non-sugar) sweetener; by the time I added just a bit of each, the flavour was gone. I’m not a fan of the added lime (and miscellaneous “natural flavourings”), either. I’ll stick to the bergamot-heavy Earl Grey blends that can withstand a little milk ‘n’ sugar.

Flavors: Bergamot, Citrus

Preparation
Boiling 4 min, 0 sec 2 g 8 OZ / 236 ML

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25

The hibiscus is strong in this one. And there’s another flavour I can’t identify. Smells and tastes bad. Blech.

Flavors: Hibiscus

Preparation
Boiling 5 min, 0 sec 2 g 8 OZ / 236 ML

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18
drank Chamomile Flowers by Teapigs
244 tasting notes

Oh, goodness. I’ve had chamomile tea before, but always a blend, never pure chamomile. This smells and tastes just awful. Not flowery, not with a hint of natural sweetness (as implied), just kind of flat. If this is how pure chamomile smells and tastes, I need to stay away and stick to blends.

Flavors: Cardboard, Herbaceous

Preparation
Boiling 5 min, 0 sec 2 g 8 OZ / 236 ML

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35
drank Chai Tea by Teapigs
244 tasting notes

I’m so irritated. The dancing figure on the packet, “bolly good,” “chai tea,” “the colour and vibrancy of India in a cup”—all of it. At least the ingredients are pretty close to proper chai, except for the vanilla. Prepared with (non-dairy) milk and a non-sugar sweetener, the blend is weak and needs way more ginger. I am engrumbled.

Flavors: Spices

Preparation
Boiling 3 min, 0 sec 2 g 8 OZ / 236 ML
White Antlers

It sounds like TeaPIGS is well named. : (

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82
drank Peach and Mango Cold Brew by Teapigs
244 tasting notes

If you’ve ever had peach-mango juice or—even more similar—peach-mango water enhancer (those drops you put in your water to make it more palatable), this is just like that. It’s actually a little bit surprising to me that there are so many ingredients; all I taste is the peach-mango flavour mix. Anyway. I’ve never had a cold brew herbal tea sachet before and it’s really nice! It’s light and refreshing, as it should be, and the flavour is true enough that I wasn’t even tempted to add sweetener.

Flavors: Mango, Peach

Preparation
Iced 5 min, 0 sec 2 g 17 OZ / 500 ML
Izzy

I’ve been meaning to try this one! Glad to hear that it’s good :)

Nik

Yay! Hope you like it, Izzy.

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70
drank Calm by Teapigs
244 tasting notes

This is a very chamomile-focused blend, with a tiny bit of tang at the back end. I’m not a fan of tart, so I prefer this kind of herbal blend without lemon-lime flavouring. It also tasted a bit … vegetal? to me, which was really surprising. Pleasant enough, just not outstanding.

Flavors: Herbaceous, Vegetal

Preparation
Boiling 6 min, 0 sec 2 g 8 OZ / 236 ML

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50
drank Jasmine Pearls by Teapigs
244 tasting notes

teapigs 2020 advent calendar, day 2. Needs more flowers. =) Nice fragrance, but gets too bitter, too quickly. I would blame the preparation if I hadn’t been so careful about the water’s temperature and the steep time. I’d also be happy to give it another go—just in case I goofed—if they hadn’t included just the one tea temple in the box. =)

Flavors: Jasmine

Preparation
175 °F / 79 °C 4 min, 0 sec 2 g 8 OZ / 236 ML

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75
drank Spiced Winter by Teapigs
244 tasting notes

It’s always strange to me when I see a tasting note from like eight years ago on a tea made by a company of which I’ve only just heard. I had no idea teapigs had even been around that long. New to their blends, I ordered their 2020 advent calendar thing so I could give them a try. This was day 1.

Spiced winter is quite nice. Ingredient-wise, it’s nearly identical to RoT’s “chai” (spoiler alert: not chai), which I recently tasted—except this this has a red rooibos base, unlike RoT’s base of black tea. It turns out I like this better. But I adore red rooibos and could drink it plain all day, so it was all but guaranteed that I would like this blend. I’m just glad teapigs didn’t call it chai. =P

Again, though, my complaint is that the flavour is too weak. I’m beginning to think this may just be a consequence of buying bagged tea, but I could swear I’ve drunk bagged tea before that was both bold and flavourful.

I generally like to prepare my first cup of a new blend plain and the second cup with some form of non-dairy creamer and non-sugar sweetener. Sadly, teapigs saw fit to include only one tea bag (sorry, “tea temple”) in their advent calendar thing, so I took just a couple of sips of plain tea before adding oat milk and stevia. I feel like I liked it better sweetened and with milk, but I’m not super certain.

Flavors: Cinnamon, Rooibos, Spices

Preparation
Boiling 8 min or more 2 g 8 OZ / 236 ML

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Profile

Bio

2012.10.07: I hear people like to understand other people’s ratings, so here’s a loose guide:

01-29: Dear God, why.
30-49: I’ll finish this cup, I guess, but no more.
50-59: Meh.
60-69: Decent. Maybe I can blend it with something else and make it better.
70-79: Heeey, this is quite good!
80-89: I love it, but I’m not in love with it.
90-100: Permanently resident in my Happy Place.

Update: I have steeped, and it was good. =] Still a tea-ophyte, though.

This is a tea site, so I feel like “well, I’m Indian” should be enough of an introduction. Because, I mean, it’s kind of in my genes, right? But the fact of the matter is that I’m an absolute tea-ophyte.

I’ve just discovered a world beyond Celestial Seasonings. I’ve just discovered “sachets” instead of “normal” tea bags and bought my first loose tea sampler. I don’t get the whole water temperature and steep time thing yet, nor that if I want to get a yixiang tea pot, I’d need one for each type of tea. I have this infuser ball thing, but I haven’t used it yet.

Don’t cringe, but right now I’m still just boiling water and pouring it over a teabag, adding some sugar, and drinking a nice, hot cuppa. I’d like to learn more, I think, and I’d like to train my palate. I figure participating in this community is the best way to do that.

So ya. Hi!

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South Jersey, US

Website

http://about.me/bleepnik

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