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Organic Japanese Sencha was today’s DT’s offering. I think I’m getting burned out on green. This one was okay, but I don’t think I’m that big a fan of Sencha. The smell of spinach was strong when I poured, and the resulting cup was very vegetal and grassy with a bit of astringency. As far as straight up greens go, I like the Emperor’s Clouds and Mist from Teavana better than the Japanese Sencha. There are processing differences, right? I don’t know. I had high hopes for this one, hoping to find a slightly cheaper straight up green that I liked as much as EC&M, but alas, this one was not to be.

Backlogging from the other day….

This one was really good! The mint didn’t overpower the green tea like I thought it would. It was a very relaxing cuppa for a quiet night at work.

Ack! I’m the first person to write a tasting note for this tea! Oh the humanity! Words cannot describe how I have no words to describe tea without prompting!

I quite enjoyed this tea. It seems to be a good afternoon tea. It isn’t full and dark-tasting like an assam. It tasted clean, if that makes sense. Pure tea. It wasn’t astringent, and had a smooth mouth-feel, but not heavy. I think I’ll enjoy another cup of it tomorrow afternoon, and pay closer attention (I was, truth be told, rather distracted today with a holiday party and work and such). It still tasted good even after it had completely cooled. I bet it would taste lovely iced.

I’m beginning to think that while I enjoy flavored teas, my heart really belongs to straight tea, maybe with some jasmine thrown in for good measure. I think I get more out of them simply because I’m not struggling so much to taste the flavor that I think I should taste. Food (or drink) for thought, I suppose.

Steeped for three minutes at boiling, as per instructions.

Oh Elf Help, I wanted to like you. Your taste improved dramatically when I ate some raspberries. But before that? You didn’t taste like much at all. You smell lovely, very fruity, and wonderful. If you tasted as wonderful as you smell, I’d be head over heels. Oh well. You were also, truth be told, competing for my attention with some very compelling knitting. And it is hard for any tea to compete with that, no matter how much I like a tea. You really did have no chance. Sorry, but I think we should go our separate ways. No hard feelings, okay?

Say what you want about Teavana’s blended teas, with all the stuff in them, their straight teas are damn fine. I love this tea. After spending the afternoon fighting with my computer trying to make iTunes work correctly and failing to get it to even start, I was frazzled and in need of some comfort. Also, I’d eaten a lot of truffles, and wanted something unoffensive or strongly flavored (maybe I should have waited six hours to drink The Skinny from this morning!).

Day 7 of the DT 24 days of Christmas revealed The Skinny. I’ve read reviews of it before, and spent some time reading reviews just now. I don’t tend to buy into detox/weight loss claims of anything and so I always am vaguely annoyed when I come across them. This does have ginger in it, so I do get that it could have nice stomach settling properties. But that is all I think I can concede. So anyway, off my high horse and into the tea.

I like this tea. It has a lovely warm flavor, what with the citrus and the ginger (citrus always says warm to me. Maybe because I live in Florida, so citrus is a warm weather food here.). The citrus isn’t so overwhelming, which makes me reconsider my citrus-tea antipathy after the Countess of Seville—maybe it was too much bergamot. Anyway, back to The Skinny. It has the earthy taste that screams Pu-erh, but it isn’t overwhelming. More of a back note. I’m not sure how much I taste the oolong, since I’m not overly familiar with straight up oolongs. The ginger and ginseng definitely are the dominant flavor notes for me, followed by the citrus.

Despite the health claims it makes, and despite the name (really, The Skinny?) I think this one will go in my shopping cart. It would be a good after-lunch tea what with the ginger and caffeine. I still prefer Le Digestif for dinner, mainly because it is herbal, and I have enough problems sleeping without caffeine at night.

I was rather off-put by the idea of another DT green tea from my Days of Tea this morning, so I shelved it for this afternoon. I’m glad I did, I wasn’t in a green mood this morning and am now. This one is much tastier than the Countess of Seville. I could do without the juniper berries, as anything that reminds me of gin is a nonstarter, but other than that, its a pretty good tea! It is, however, one I don’t see myself reaching for too often. I think I like Le Digestif better (shocking, I know). I’m glad I got to try it though. It is a nicely balanced blend of green tea and herbal; one flavor doesn’t overwhelm the other.

Ack. Oh dear. I thought I was going to like this one. I like earl grey, but the citrus was overwhelming. I really wasn’t interested in finishing the pot. I’m actually not sure if it was too citrus-y or too much bergamot. Either way, it was too much. I think I like my greens more subtle than this. Maybe a shorter steep would have helped this one. I did it for three minutes, like DT suggests for their greens. Maybe 2 minutes or 2 and a half would have been better. Oh well, I’ll never find out. I don’t foresee myself ordering this one again.

Backlogging from yesterday.

I had high hopes for this one, but low expectations. I love chocolate, but my first experience with mate was a plain Celestial Seasonings that left me with that “never again” feeling. So it was with a bit of trepidation that I approached this one.

The tea smells wonderful. If it tasted half as good as it smelled, I’d be a happy camper. The verdict? I’m a satisfied camper. It wasn’t bad, but nothing special, I thought. It did sort of redeem mate (like, I might be willing to try more teas with mate) for me, but apart from the smell, it was just sort of meh.