Julius Meinl

A big bags section after long time. I don’t expect anything.

And it is… nothing to write about. Yes, it is green tea, cheap, though not bitter (probably colder water made it actually drinkable), hay-like. The peach is sweet and well present in taste, though artificial and far from “ripe and fresh pieces of peach”.

Pretty much meh, but I finished it and that’s plus. Maybe it is age.

I have no idea about this tea, just it cames from big bags section of my tea “cupboard”. Tried to find some information, it was added to catalogue in 2010, but that means it appeared in collections around this year. So, it can be 10 years old tea actually.

But foil wrappers are saying – we can save the tea for you.

And they did quite well. Yeah, it was quite malty tea with little dark chocolate notes. Wasn’t bad actually, rather tasty – but, the drying taste wasn’t perfect note of it. It was as well somehow bit rough on tongue. And I have not overbrewed it! Who knows if it was because age?

Much better tea this time. Although still very sweet one, but not by stevia.

Strawberry and cream black tea. Nothing really wrong on this one, as well nothing great. It is exactly that. Strawberries taste genuine, maybe too strong on cream flavouring.

But it is nice.

Oh, I love this tea. Love, love, love. As much as I love complex and fascinating teas with 25 or so different ingredients, there is so much to be said for simplicity. Blue Sky is a delicious tea that needs only three ingredients to be wonderful.

And oh, how they combine! The sencha is a good grassy flavor mellowed out with a light sweetness from the mallow and roses. It’s floral without being perfumey. It tastes bright and delicate and it brews to a lovely pale yellow. It always makes me think of spring! And in the middle of a Chicago winter, I need spring.

If you can’t tell, this is one of my favorite teas. I drink it whenever I need something to make me feel happy or calm. Definitely recommended to anyone who likes flavored sencha and herbal teas.

I was given a bag of this as a holiday present from a professor that I was a TA for. What a thoughtful woman! She really knows my tastes. :)

One thing to be careful about with this tea is not to overdo it—it calls for one tablespoon per 16 oz, and if you put too much leaf in you will be tasting jasmine for the rest of the week.

Unfortunately, that’s really all that you taste anyway. Jasmine with undertones of jasmine and just a hint of jasmine. The jasmine completely dominates the sencha. I suppose I can’t really fault the tea for this—it’s sort of what it promises. But it would have been nice if they were balanced a bit better.

If you’re a jasmine fan, go ahead and give it a try. Just remember, a little bit goes a long way!

I’ll admit, I was initially put off by the name of this tea. Green Grapeberry? It sounds like one of those syrupy sweet fruit teas that I used to buy in high school, drink a cup or two of and then never touch again. Or even worse, a flavor of kool-aid. OH YEAH!

Fortunately, this tea is nothing like that. I ordered a pot of it while having dinner at Julius Meinl because they were out of Blue Sky, which is the exact same blend except that Grapeberry has sunflower blossoms. It does not have any grapes or berries, however. ;)

I thoroughly enjoyed drinking this. It was light and delicate, sweet without being overpowering, and floral without tasting like perfume. I would very much recommend it to anyone who likes floral teas, but I don’t think I could recommend it to people who only like strictly unadulterated green teas. There’s just too much herbal for that. But if you’re not a purist, I’m sure you’ll enjoy this.

Not to mention, it paired WONDERFULLY with my winter vegetable spaetzle! Mmm.

Was served this in a cafe when I ordered chai. I’ve never seen the brand sold locally. Served in a tall glass with milk and cinnamon sticks. It was very full-bodied, and the spices blended beautifully. So far I’ve only seen it in this one cafe in town.

I normally like Julius Meinl teas, but this one is just so-so. Not bad or offensive, just really bland.

Extremely smooth, refined, delicate.

I was really liking this tea in my pre-Steepster days.. it’s Chinese Sencha blended with rose petals and mallow flowers. The mallow definitely shines through with a bright sweetness, and you can taste a bit of the rose, as well.

My boss found this when cleaning out her office and said “you like tea, don’t you?” while throwing it my way. Don’t love rooibos, but as I said in my previous tasting note, this stuff is pretty good. Very nice creamy vanilla flavor.

I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m just not a huge rooibos fan. I don’t dislike it, but I just don’t find it all that appealing. That said, the vanilla flavoring in this is good. I have a tough time finding vanilla flavors that I like – either they’re too weak or too sweet – but this is a nice, creamy one, similar to the vanilla in the Monk’s Blend that I had this morning.

Julius Meinl is a European-style coffee shop that has a big location here in Chicago. They have a massive wall of cheap loose leaf teas. I bought this about a year ago along with a black sour cherry blend and a green blend. This brews darker than you would think for a black/green blend. It’s very, very fruity – I can definitely taste the berry and tangerine notes the description talks about. Lighter than I would’ve liked, but still good.

The dry smell is a bit overpowering, like a cherry cough syrup, but the steep is lighter and smoother.