Silver Tips Tea

additional notes: This one just isn’t as fruity fantastic as even the TeaHaus – Mango Pineapple yesterday, yet this one is much fresher (years) than the TeaHaus. Maybe the pineapple and mango of the other is just a better balance. But this one has a tangy note, or an odd flavor to the fruit which isn’t really mango to me. And the black tea just isn’t as good as the malty black yesterday. I tried to figure out the flavor before eating some canned pineapple.

I have a list of teas that will be sipdowns NEXT time I drink them and right now that list numbers at 70.  So that counts for something, right?  I just have to stop hoarding last servings. The last one to review from my Silver Tips Tea order!  This tea has been holding up really well, now that it is almost a year old (I think the mango chai I bought at the same time has somehow lost much of its mango flavor – what the heck, so why not this one too?)  There is certainly a sweet fruity aroma from the pouch!  Huge chunks of mango, so I try to get at least one in the infuser each time.  It looks like there is at least two types of black tea in the blend – one of which is CTC.  The flavor is certainly fruity on both steeps.  I’m not sure if I could distinctly call it mango – but I don’t know what else I would guess the flavor is.  There is a mangoish starchiness to the second steep.  The black tea is brisk enough!  I like the fruitiness (whatever it happens to be) with the dark tea.  I’m just crossing my fingers the flavor doesn’t fade for a while. Great for summer and I don’t even have to try it iced — it would be great iced.
Steep #1  // 1 1/2 teaspoons for full mug // 20 minutes after boiling  // 2 minute steep
Steep #2  // just boiled //  4 minute steep

2020 has just been the worst of years, it’s a surreal rough one.  I thought the world was handling a global pandemic hopefully well enough, I thought more negative things would be happening during a pandemic (as it doesn’t take much in normal times) but then it takes an utterly bizarre heartbreaking event like the death of George Floyd to really set off a powder keg to everything else.  So many similar things happening to so many people along these lines all the time.  George Floyd is certainly one of the more obnoxious deaths in all aspects here.  Everyone should know better by now how to treat other human beings, let alone law enforcement.  Watching the older man be shoved to the ground for no apparent reason by law enforcement, and just passed by bleeding, when they KNOW how many cameras are out there… These are not the people who should be supposedly protecting people.  Sure, being a cop is a tough job that most people could not do… but if you can’t do it RIGHT, choose another field.  A few bad apples, etc… and that goes for all aspects of these events… a few criminals shouldn’t be used to ruin every person of color’s life.  Every bad cop shouldn’t make it more difficult for every good cop.  Everything being so one sided either/or republican/democrat. Everything is just so generalized all the time!! It’s just been a grieving type of year for so many things.  Anyway… I might just be talking about tea most of the time, but there is so much else in my brainpan, as I’m sure is the same for all of you.

I bought this about a year ago with a handful of other teas from Silver Tips Tea. The name of this one sold me on it — I love the idea of a great FRENCH BREAKFAST tea.  It was really the name because now I’m wondering why the heck I would buy a Ceylon base vanilla that doesn’t even have vanilla pieces in it?  Any decent vanilla tea MUST have vanilla bean IMO.   Ceylon is my least favored black tea, personally the flavor is just not for me. To my tastebuds, Ceylon is just boring and flat. There is vanilla flavoring here but it is faint and the Ceylon that I don’t really like detracts from the vanilla anyway.  The second steep has even less vanilla… So this one isn’t for me… but I’m on the lookout for the best vanilla bean tea….
Steep #1  // 1 1/2 teaspoons for full mug // 18 minutes after boiling  // 2 minute steep
Steep #2  // just boiled //  3-4 min
2020 Sipdowns: 39 Teavivre – Jasmine oolong

Ashmanra’s sipdown challenge – September 2023 Tea #4 – Your hardest to reach tea

“Hardest to reach” for me means a stack of three boxes of tea.  This tea is in the bottom box — I have to move the top two boxes.  The bottom box is mainly my box of teas for teas I have extras of, that I like to stay out of the way — like a large amount of Tiesta’s I Gotta Colada when I knew they were discontinuing it.  This tea is fine — it’s aging now into a muddled generic fruit flavor.  But at least there are two different black teas here — one being a CTC.

Mastress Alita’s Sipdown Challenge Tuesday, February 9th: National Pizza Day –Tea #2

additional notes:  YEP, I’m a pineapple pizza fan!   This tea is a mighty fine pineapple tea – straightforward pineapple on a brisk mixture of black teas.  I’ve written about it before, so I will refrain from saying more.  (Also having a stromboli today for pizza day!)

Another from my Silver Tips Tea order… I think pineapple teas are few and far between so I had to give this one a chance. I’m glad I did! It is full of PINEAPPLE flavor, 100% cannot be confused for any other flavor. It’s simply full on ripe pineapple. There is only occasional pineapple pieces in the package, so it’s mostly flavoring but I really like it. A lingering hint of floral at the back of the sip. The base tea looks like two different black teas: A CTC black tea with another slightly bigger leaf tea (bigger than the CTC leaf size anyway). I like the combination of the two black teas… it can’t help but add some depth with two different teas. Steeping 1 1/2 teaspoons might be a little more astringent than I’d like but I don’t want less pineapple flavor in my mug. I probably could have waited a couple minutes before brewing the second steep. I like this one!
Steep #1 // 1 1/2 teaspoons for a full mug // 18 minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep
Steep #2 // just boiled // 3 minute steep

Mastress Alita’s sipdown challenge – September Tea #3 – A tropical tea

additional notes: Not a true sipdown again! Maybe soon as I only brought a bit on the trip with me, but I also don’t want to burn through all my tea options. This is the benefit of almost always resteeping. :D I fear this is the mango chai that eventually just tastes earthy. EARTHY. The less fresh it is. Which I was trying to avoid as I had a mango chai in the past that did that…. ah well, it was cheap and this tea isn’t fresh anymore.

Somehow I was on the internets looking at teas during my buy-ban (a no no!) and noticed they had a mango chai that was being discontinued. So I just had to buy some and a couple other teas. I had a mango chai years ago that I loved and was hoping this was the same. The flavor is what I remember the other mango chai being, but I think the other tea had a couple other spice ingredients included. I’m not sure. This is CTC black tea (looks like with some other black tea mixed in as well) with plenty of spices and actual mango pieces and flavoring. I love there is mango pieces AND flavoring, the flavoring is sure to be immersed in the tea with both mango elements. I love the briskness, the boldness of the black tea matching the strong spices. The mango doesn’t get overpowered either. It’s delicious. I’m very happy I bought some before it’s gone. (still some available as I type this!)
Steep #1 // 1 3/4 teaspoons for a full mug // 18 minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep
Steep #2 // just boiled // 3-4 minute steep

Edited to add: I feel bad buying a couple teas in my buy-ban BUT it has been almost six months without actually buying any teas, and six months is probably the record for not buying teas…. since I started drinking teas. So the record was beaten anyway.

Really nice, light tea that gives you a mood boost. The leaves are robust and can take multiple steepings very well (I’m on my 4th brew from the same set of leaves)

Reminds me of a red robe tea. Nice.

I like this tea. I now realize that among the blends that I’ve really enjoyed, keemun has been a strong flavor component.

Not a fan.

I really enjoy this tea. Nicely scented — mellow and just the right level of smokiness. I brew Western style. The first steep was great, didn’t really work for a second steep. I would buy this tea again.

I am trying as many milk oolong teas as I can get my hands on. This is a lovely tea, buttery and smooth, good for many steeps.

While not a black tea fan, I heard good things about 1st flush Darjeeling and decided to take advantage of a sale at SilvertipsTea. I think this tea is best brewed with a gaiwan. I was surprised by how delicate, flowery, and smooth the first steep was. This tea’s fragrance reminds me of Bai Mu Dan. Successive steeps had more typical black tea qualities—a sweet, tangy, and wine-like orange hued liquid with a pleasantly mild astringency. It left a good first impression.

This is a nice cup of tea to wake up to. The flavors are complex (my tea language isn’t sufficiently developed in order to describe it). I would call it robust. Not at all floral.

This is my first tasting note! I want so much to like this tea as it was recommended highly to me by another customer at this tea shop. It is a strong tea, and I do detect a cocoa-ish aroma. I am afraid that I will be writing very boring tasting notes, as I am not able to detect any other flavors. That said, this is a nice strong tea.

The first tea I tried from the August Steepster box.

Tea of the morning…. I am not that experienced with Darjeelings, but this one is good and smooth, even plain, for this not-usually-plain-tea-drinker. The leaves are green and brown, the liquor is amber colored. I do get the light astringency mentioned in the description. I will be interested to see what everyone else thinks of this one….

24 oz teapot, 4 1/2 actual tsp tea, 3 minutes with boiling water. No additions.

This was one of the free samples from the tasting I attended on Saturday… bagged, but not too bad. I added milk and some agave, but I think the milk at this workplace (I have two) is always on the edge of turning because this tastes really heavy and earthy. I’m not enjoying this cuppa much because of it :(
Not gonna rate it this time, I have another bag so hopefully it will be brewed under better circumstances then.
Atleast I’m getting some caffeine out of this deal. Hmph.

This is a wonderful cuppa! It’s very smooth and well balanced for a black tea. I detect no astringency. It has a hint of richness that has convinced me to make another cup, lol.

I don’t know if I used too hot of water or steeped for too long (4 min too long?) but this was very astringent while hot and warm but once it cooled down it was decent. It would make a better iced tea in my opinion. I’m normally a fan of Assams and Assam blends but this is a straight Ceylon with no flavoring (like French Breakfast – which I like). Worth a try at least once! I’m glad I was able to get this as a sample (Silver Tips Tea does one free sample with every order:)

This is a nice balanced cup of tea. It’s smooth with just enough umph. I didn’t taste any astringency. I had it this afternoon when I got off work.