382 Tasting Notes

91
drank Caramelized Pear by Art of Tea
382 tasting notes

I turned to this for comfort after my tea fail. Oh caramelized pear, YOU would never betray me, right?

I knew I could trust you caramelized pear!

(Little do I know, caramelized pear’s delicious taste is a cover to lull me into a false sense of security so that one night when I least expect it, caramelized pear STEALS MY STEREO)

Rabs

And then caramelized pear would be on the lam. A tea and a stereo livin’ on the streets. These two unlikely best friends will embark on a journey of self discovery and find their relationship stumbling along the way.

__Morgana__

I want some of whatever you guys are smokin’. ;-)

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84

Nooooooo, epic chai fail!

I had a hankering for some stovetop chai today so I was making it (with almond milk) AND not only did I get almond milk clumpy fail, I also got extremely weird taste fail! I think I left it on the stove for too long and the almond milk curdled (which I didn’t even know could happen) or burnt or SOMETHING.

Sadface!

On the other hand, the question now is. If almond milk can curdle, why is there no almond milk cheese?

Edit: my use of epic fail has reminded me. I saw this phrase on my exams a lot and wasn’t sure what to do with it. It’s like, well YES, the Great Leap Forward kind of WAS epic fail, but that just seems to lack proper gravitas, you know?

JonTea

I write epic fail in my English essays : example : I think captain ahab is an epic fail because chasing after a whale is dumb and pretty pointless.

Rabs

Sorry about the fail :(

I feel like a fuddy-duddy, but for exams and the like I would avoid using the term “epic fail” or any other meme. It’s apropriate for conversations and perhaps a satirical well-thought-out paper, but it does seem quasi-disrespectful.

__Morgana__

Agreed. Colloquialisms of any sort should be discouraged in formal writing, which exams are. I remember well when I was a TA an otherwise stellar exam answer that started every paragraph with “Well,”. I know it’s hard to believe, given the “well” but it really was heads and tales above all the other exam answers. Still, I couldn’t help myself. I had to write “avoid ‘Well,’” in the margin. And then I had to give it an A.

__Morgana__

LOL. Heads and tales…. Epic spelling fail! The internet has ruined me, I say. Ruined me.

Southern Boy Teas

As a former English major turned Tea Mogul, I emphatically agree. “Epic Fail” has no place in formal writing. It’s like writing “LOL” which I try to keep out of even informal emails (I have been known to slip it in there now and then).

Ewa

Yeah I basically wrote him a note and left it at that. Glad to hear I’m not alone in disapproving >.<

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91

My roommate having pancakes reminded me that I A. had this tea and B. had not had it for a really long time, so….Toast Tea time!

Oh man, I had forgotten how amazing this tea was. Mmm, so tasty. A little cinnamony this time, but that was fine.

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85
drank Malted ChocoMaté by 52teas
382 tasting notes

Back to this for my morning tea. mmm, delicious chocolatey morning wake up call.

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96
drank Almond Biscotti by Teavana
382 tasting notes

The more I drink this tea the more I begin to think it may be my favorite. I mean, yes, ok, yesterday’s caramel cream was delicious candy. And Florence is great too. And my 52teas are supper yummy as well (just a blanket statement there so I don’t have to choose :P) But this just strikes the perfect balance of tea flavor and uh flavor flavor.

It is great for keeping my blood pressure down while grading papers. “MITI is a member of Deng Xiaoping?!?! WHAT I DON’T EVEN- sip ahhhhhhh”

__Morgana__

LOL. Reminds me of an article my mom sent me a long time ago on funny mistakes kids made on history tests. This is sort of the same idea: http://www.venturatoday.net/history.html

Ewa

Oh man, that is the best link. I laughed till I cried. Then I cried till I laughed.

Rabs

Absolutely fantastic link. I was smiling through most, and then I hit “virgins and other mythical creatures” and utterly lost it. Thank you Morgana!

__Morgana__

I loved “a myth is a female moth” and “Franklin invented electricity by rubbing two cats backwards”.

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89
drank Earl Grey Special by TeaFrog
382 tasting notes

Thought I’d take a break from my morning chocomate and try this again. I think I liked it more this time around, the black tea seemed more prominent and there was more of an essential Earl Grey-ness underlying the other lemony flavors. I like how the lemonyness doesn’t make my throat scratchy like it does with the Devonshire Earl Grey.

Gotta reiterate the whole thing about drinking it hot though. The cooler it gets the more the Earl Greyishness recedes, leaving a strong overriding lemon taste that DOES start scratching my throat.

Pretty sure I’m going to get more of this. In the hypothetical future when I am not on tea lockdown and about to leave for Japan.

Preparation
Boiling 5 min, 0 sec

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92
drank Caramel Cream by TeaFrog
382 tasting notes

When I went to smell this tea, I was dubious! It seemed like the Hawaiian thingy had completely overpowered its smell and I couldn’t get anything. But then I looked into the bag and I was like dayum! they just stone cold put caramel chunks into this stuff. That is pretty neat, so I was once again optimistic about the tea.

The smell is VERY nice. Exactly like a caramel candy. And the taste is pretty much exactly the same. It is sooooo good! I just kept drinking it and remarking to my increasingly jealous friends with whom I was chatting on Skype how good it was.

This is by far my favorite of the rooiboses I’ve tried so far. I mean, I also really like the love, but this…it’s just SO GOOD. I basically feel like I’m drinking candy. I also totally forgot about it and oversteeped it but it turned out fine which is always a point in a tea’s favor in my book.

Now, I chose this for my extra free sample – it narrowly edged out the chocolate mint rooibos. I decided on this one because of my experiences with the Art of Tea dessert sampler. The chocolate-minty Velvet tea didn’t really do much for me, while the caramelized pear came out as the best of the bunch. This has basically left me suspicious about chocolate and rooibos (which also helped me resist the ultimate chocolate rooibos during 52teas memorial day sale) Now I feel all vindicated since this stuff turned out so good. Yay for me!

So at this point, I think I just have the Hawaiian thingy left of my samples. I’m not gonna lie, I’ve been putting it off after reading someone’s review about it being far too tart. Given that it’s the source of the overpowering smell in my sample set…this is not hard to believe…that’s why I’m gonna leave it to tomorrow…or maybe the day after :P

Preparation
Boiling 8 min or more
mpierce87

How is this on the rooibos sour wood taste scale?

Rabs

I need to start wearing my reading glasses for the pooter cuz I just read the title of this tea as “Camel Cream” and it sorta grossed me out. :P

Ewa

@mwrawlins2: caveat: I don’t really mind the taste of rooibos, but I don’t think it was particularly present.

Hee hee camel cream. “This tea was quite interesting but I could tell if it was a dromedary or a Bactrian”

Rabs

ROFL!!!!!

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76
drank Stress Reliever by TeaFrog
382 tasting notes

BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN

HIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIP

BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAN HIIIIIIIIIIIIIIP

BEAN HIP!

I was really tempted to just leave this review at that, but I guess I’ll say more. I am, by nature, prone to stressing out about things. The month before I first went to Japan I developed a rash out of stress. While IN Japan and applying for graduate school, I developed ulcers. This past year, in anticipation of my first conference paper, I actually had bouts of unexplained nausea starting FOUR MONTHS before. So yeah, a good stress reliever tea would be…helpful.

Today, I tested the Stress Reliever tea by drinking it while having a phone conversation with my mum who was describing her heart attack like symptoms to me but categorically refusing to go get checked out. I am not sure if the tea helped, but I AM feeling very sleepy right at the moment so it may be…TOO GOOD. Or I may just be sleepy. I DID feel remarkably calm about the whole heart attack thing so…let’s go with it working!

The taste of the tea is your pretty standard herby set up in terms of both smell and taste, although thankfully without anise which seems to be in a lot of these homeopathic type teas and which I am just not that big a fan of. Interestingly, I do feel like I can taste some sort of beanness about it.

Reading the other reviews I begin to wonder if I didn’t steep it for too long, I wasn’t getting much out of the lemongrass at all. Second try is clearly called for!

Second steep: Oh my! What a lovely light lemony taste! There’s a slight herby undertone still, but the lemon is definitely dominating this time. I really must have oversteeped on the first go around. THIS tisane really stands out among tisanes I’ve drunk. I could definitely see getting more of it for destressing in the afternoon.

Rabs

Next time you have this tea I’m hoping that you post the BEEEAAAN HIIIIP etc and leave it with that. That’s fantastic :D

I hope that your mom is doing okay — I think a conversation like that is utterly terrifying. I’m a worrier by nature, but have through the years mellowed considerably. ::send zen inner-strenght vibes your way::

Ewa

Yeah, she eventually admitted that she’d gone to a doctor and was just winding me up. (Punishment for the entirety of my teenage years I must assume) She’s fine, thanks for the concern!

Rabs

I’m so glad that she’s okay, but shame on her! :P

__Morgana__

Bean hip!! A really hip bean! Glad to hear your mom is ok.

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84
drank Love by TeaFrog
382 tasting notes

Here we are again with the orange-flavored rooibos.
I was kind of scared that I would be unable to distinguish between it and the Gingerbread Orange when I first smelled it just because the orange flavoring came through soooo strong. On steeping, the orangeness just got stronger and yes, the color is quite dark, but I’m not sure I’d go so far as to say blood (of any kind) is evoked. For one thing, blood is just not that transparent. (Blood is thicker than tea, ahahahahahaha ahem)

Fortunately, I can definitely taste a difference. his is VERY floral tea, but the rooibos still manages to be quietly present in the form of a nutty undertaste which I think goes quite well. Basically, it leaves me with the feeling that flowers should sprout up whenever I breathe out.

So far this is definitely edging out the other teafrog rooiboses I have tried.

Aside time! I forgot to mention this when my order first came in, but I had a total huh moment when the package came in and I saw that the recommended temperature for the teas was 100/80/etc degrees and then I remembered. You Canadians and your crazy measuring systems that make actual sense! (I suppose that should be You rest of the world and your crazy measuring systems that make actual sense)

Preparation
Boiling 5 min, 0 sec

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68
drank Maghreb Mint by Rishi Tea
382 tasting notes

My green for the day! Minty!

I really need to get more green teas….

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Profile

Bio

I’m a Pole who grew up in Texas, is currently a graduate student in California studying Japan. How’s THAT for random?

Being Polish, my family has always drunk a lot of tea, and I am no different. I may drink more tea than water. On the other hand, I can’t say that I’m very particular about it; I’m generally pretty careless with steeping times and water temperature and I don’t even have a proper teapot (mostly because the lid broke during the move to California ;_;).

I always drink my tea unsweetened and I only add milk in the case of the most egregiously chai-ish of chais. (not really a big fan of milk in general)

Given that so many of my entries seem to be about my morning tea, I felt I should add something here about me and mornings: I fail at mornings. I fail at them a LOT. Therefore I often also fail at proper tea making in the mornings.

Location

Santa Barbara

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