TeaFrog

Another cup of this for the afternoon. Unfortunately I haven’t had the chance to bring any milk or cream into work, so I’m having it straight up. Not quite as yummy as it is with milk and sugar, but still quite good. There’s a really nice balance between the tea and chocolate flavors. I let it go a minute too long in the steep so there’s more astringency than last time I had it, but it’s still a very good afternoon tea.

Mmmm, this one smells so good, it’s just crying out for cream and sugar – but I’ll start it off solo and see how it goes. Steeped for five minutes at just under boiling, the scent is mouth-watering – chocolate and malt. Yum, tastes chocolatey, and creamy as well. Not sure how they get the creamy flavor in there without there being any cream in it yet! I think they must use a fairly mild black tea as the base, because the tea flavors are present but mild. There’s very little astringency or bitterness.

Okay, can’t hold off any longer – I’m putting in the cream and sugar. Wow, it’s really like a light-bodied hot chocolate now, but just enough tea flavoring in there to make it different from that. A little bit of yeasty/bready flavor in there too. I like this a lot!

Just barely enough of this left from my original sample to have one more cup. I’m tasting the malt much more this time around, and though there was a fair bit of dust left in the bottom of the bag, the tea didn’t end up too bitter, and had a pleasing amount of astringency. I’d like to have this one around as a single variety black tea as I’ve found it versatile – good on its own, with cream and sugar, and withstands a variety of steeping parameters.

Back for another try of the Assam, this time with cream and sugar, and steeped just a bit longer than previously. My, that is tasty! More maltiness is coming out now, and I can see that this tea’s strategy is to try to get you to dunk cookies into it. Unfortunately I don’t have any on hand at the moment, otherwise I’d have to oblige.

Trying another cup of this to compare it to my first tasting several weeks back. Again, I’m impressed by the depth of color after even a relatively short steep – it’s a deep and dark brown. I steeped it just a bit longer than last time (3.5 minutes vs. 3 minutes), and found that this brought out more distinctly the dried fruit flavors. Still getting a good amount of malt in there too. No cream or sugar around to try it with those additives this time, but I’ll try to remember them for next time – I think they would work out well.

Really looking forward to this one, to see what distinctive notes I could find in this Assam variety.

First thing, I’m learning a lesson here: I will no longer store anything next to previously opened (even if zip-locked shut) bags of tea flavored with coconut. The scent is too strong and recognizable to me, and it clouds my ability to tell what else might be in there.

So, I’m relying on the steeped scent of the tea (slightly fruity) rather than the dry leaf. The liquor is dark, clear brown, even after barely three minutes. In fact given the depth of the color, I’m surprised by how mild the flavor is. There’s a good mouth feel, a little bit of astringency, and a pronounced peppery note that I like, woven into some more subtle dry fruit flavors, somewhat akin to Darjeeling. I like it, but I think I’ll try steeping it a bit longer next time and see what else appears.

Sipdown no. 4 of February 2019 (no. 22 of 2019 total, no. 510 grand total).

I’m pretty much through all my low rated green teas, so I’m into sipdown territory with ones I’ve really enjoyed. This was a very nice, mellow, take it to work tea. It’s flavor perhaps wasn’t as strong as it was when it was fresher, but it was surprisingly tasty even though it was fairly well aged for a green tea by the time I sipped it down.

Not sure why, but the inside of my mouth is feeling a little sore. I hope I’m not getting sick. I felt a little achy yesterday, I was really dragging on my run today (of course it was ridiculously hot which could have something to do with it) and I know there’s something going around. The 4 year old was visited by the puke fairy Sunday night. Neither of my kids are big pukers, thankfully, so I’m hoping it was the stomach virus I’m told is on the loose around here. And I’m hoping I don’t get it.

This is my last TeaFrog sample from both sample orders and so something of a milestone. I just placed my order for those things from both sample sets that I liked enough to get more of and I didn’t put this on the list. But now I’m second guessing myself. Initially I didn’t think it was anything special, but then again I don’t think I’m tasting it properly because of my mouth issue. I will say that as I sit here typing, I’m finding the aftertaste from the second steep of this really wonderful. It’s sweet, almost sugary, with a very light, very subtle essence of slightly roasty vegetable that almost isn’t there.

I love the way this looks, too. The eyebrows are adorable. Like tiny green commas; almost like green caraway seeds. I can’t smell the dry tea because of the fruit smell-impregnated sample packet. But I’m having a lot of fun looking at it.

I’ve experimented with different times on this one. I started at 1:30, then went down to 1 for a resteep. Then with the rest of the sample I started at 2. All at 175 degrees.

Right now I’m drinking the 2 minute steep. The liquor is pale yellow, basically clear, with some visible solute but not nearly as much as I typically see in sencha, for example. It smells delicately and sweetly vegetal with a dab of butter and an interesting almost floral note.

At two minutes I’m getting a flavor that seems like it would be due to the pan fried nature of the leaves, or perhaps I’m just projecting. But it’s a lightly carmelized vegetal flavor with something dusky at the finish.

The deliciousness of this tea, I’m discovering, isn’t necessarily immediately apparent. I almost wrote it off because it didn’t have a strong initial flavor. I was thinking, oh no, one of those green teas that is indistinguishable from plain hot water. But as it turns out, the lack of seriously strong vegetal flavor initially (reminiscent of drinking the run off from your steamed vegetables at dinner) is part of the charm of this tea and there is a lot of flavor if you’re patient enough to linger over it.

Dammit. I wish I had stuck this in my order. Now I’ll have to wait until I have enough reorders to merit free shipping, and since I just ordered pretty much everything else I like of TeaFrog’s that is bound to take a while. Sigh.

With the first steeping of this unique tea, I could tell this was going to be an awesome pu’erh. Unlike other mini tuocha I’ve tried, this one did not make me wait one, or even two infusions, to reveal to me its delicious earthy tones. The first steeping produced a light brown liquor with a light earthy aroma that also smelled faintly of tobacco. The flavour was rich, even with this first infusion, hinting at even stronger flavours to come. The smoky, earthy liquor was mellow from the beginning, sliding smoothly across the tongue. I was really impressed that this was only the first infusion and yet this tea was giving so much.
The second infusion steeped darker and stronger, smelling woody in addition to earthy. The taste became strong while still not overwhelming. Something of note which I found interesting was the fact that while there is much flavour upon first sipping the tea, very little aftertaste remains behind. The earthy rich flavour of this tea very nearly drove me to distraction as I contemplated it and sat thinking, completely forgetting for a few minutes about the review I was writing.
During infusion three, things changed. The tea went from being the colour of milk chocolate to being a dark brown, akin to dark chocolate. The aromas of the tea grew in intensity, and the flavours increased in strength, lending large amounts of dark, woody flavour to the tea. These flavours reach out and grab ones attention, seeming to strive toward drawing the consciousness into them. Mmm, delicious.
Infusion number four held a certain small degree of bitterness while continuing to carry those flavours from previous infusions. I stopped after four infusions, quite pleased with how this tea had turned out.
I would give this tea an 85/100 on my personal enjoyment scale.

The coconut theme of today’s Steepster Select gave me a hankering for this one – the last of my TeaFrog sample of this variety. Buttery, rich and slightly toasty; I plan on ordering more.

Nothing but rain, rain, rain here today, so it’s about time for a nice warm cup of coconutty goodness to vicariously transport me to a sunnier place. Super buttery flavor, although it’s very light it also has enough body to it to make me feel like I’m drinking more than just flavored water. Quite yummy!

Others have commented on the beauty of finding little pink rosebuds in the mix, and I was also happy to find these miniature beauties floating around among the long white tea leaves and tiny shards of coconut. Nice smell to the dry leaf – coconut is definitely there, and I find that such a strong smell that it’s hard for me to get at what else might be present.

I gave it 2 minutes at 180 degrees, and think that was just about right. I love coconut, so I don’t mind that the taste tends to take over. I’m not getting a whole lot of vanilla in the tea itself, or rose for that matter, but that’s perfectly okay with me. The roses should be there just because they look nice. Next time I make up a pot of this I’m going to try to suss out where the vanilla is hiding.

My last teafrog sample, which I have been avoiding. Because I needed caffeeeeeeeeeine.

I’ll be honest, I actually already tried this tea once, but (stop me if you’ve heard this one) I completely forgot about it for nearly half an hour and by the time I got to it it was TART. Like…my mouth has puckered so much I can’t take another drink tart. With that kind of result due to my own scatterbrain-ness, I didn’t really want to review it. Besides which I would just have bee reusing material from my Stress Reliever post, like so:

TAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAART

TART!

MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMFFFFFFFF (sound of trying to yell tart through puckered lips)

Anyway, this is my second try of this tea then, this time with utilizing a somewhat more sensible steep time, hopefully to better effect for my enunciation.

No idea what color the tea brewed up as because it is night time and the light switch is ALL the way across the room. Red of some kind would be my guess! The result is still tart (no surprise there!) and I definitely get a sense of the bitterness around the edges that Morgana got although it’s not all that pronounced. (Actually I had completely failed to notice it until reading her note. Damn you knowledge! I want to go back to blissful ignorance nao, pls kthx)

While the tartness is not wholly unpleasant, it is still somewhat overwhelming and I am mainly filled with the urge to MIX this with something. But what? Assam Melody to the sort of rescue! Despite knowing that I would be kicking myself for it when I eventually slouched off to bed, I brewed up some Assam to see what there was to be seen. I brewed it for a relatively short time to avoid adding bitter oversteeped black tea to slightly bitter froot tea. The result? Interesting…I kind of wish I had a straight green to try this with and had more sample left to try it with the nonexistent straight green tea. It might have been good! I think the acidty of black tea doesn’t really fit the tang (TAAART) of the tea, but something a little more mellow, like a buttery green tea would complement it well.

That sounds kind of like more effort than I’m really willing to put into this tea though.

This sample was a free sample as opposed to a purchased sample.

I forgot that when you place an order with TeaFrog they ask if you’d like to choose a sample, so I put samples of all the teas I wanted to try in my cart. I hadn’t picked this one because it’s a green/black blend, and I have a black/green blend moratorium in effect. But faced with the alternative of repeating a sample or trying something different, this was the most appealing of what was left.

I steeped like a green, per the instructions. And I got a minty flavored tea, where the mint is the most definite flavor and the tea flavor is mostly the duskiness of gunpowder. The liquor color is that light orange that’s between green and black, but I don’t really get a black tea flavor. I can smell it ever so slightly in the tea’s aroma.

There’s nothing wrong with this tea. It’s just that it’s not enough to make me break the green/black moratorium. If I were going to choose a similar tea, I’d probably pick the GM Vanilla Mint over this just because the vanilla adds a flavor and texture that appeals to me more than the straight mint in this blend.

Sipdown no. 3 of March 2019 (no. 38 of 2019 total, no. 526 grand total).

I struggled with whether to up the rating on this in my last note about it. It is a nice tea, and a subtle one which is hard to do with coconut. But at the end of the day, I don’t really disagree with my initial note on it (9 years ago? wow).

Astonishingly, it tastes pretty much as I described it then despite its age. It was a good take it to work tea.

Closing in on the last of the TeaFrog samples. I have this and two more left, I think.

Wow. The ingredients say pink rose petals. But I don’t have those. I have entire BUDS in my sample packet. Small, but fully formed, complete with sepals, and looking lovely next to the long twisty leaves. I’m smelling the fruity package thing I smell with all the TeaFrog samples, but also some coconut.

The liquor is a clear, light yellow and smells of vanilla and coconut. It’s hard to say which dominates. It seems to move back and forth between the two. I’m not getting recognizable rose scent or tea scent for that matter.

I’ll just say now that one of the things I appreciate about TeaFrog is that with an exception or two, they’re pretty self-aware in their descriptions of their teas. This goes for naming, too. Coconut Vanilla White is the right name for this tea, in the right order. The coconut comes first in the taste, then the vanilla. I get the tea more on a second steep than on the first, and it is mild, slightly sweet and a little earthy.

This is really tasty. It’s pretty sweet, and I think in general I prefer the blueberry white which isn’t quite as sweet and is more unusual (at least for me). Possibly I have that overall impression because I’ve had a lot more coconut and certainly a lot more vanilla teas than I’ve had blueberry ones, so I’ve already experienced successful blends with coconut and vanilla. But I can certainly see drinking this as a light dessert or a comforting sweet afternoon pick me up.

Sipdown no. 4 of 2020 (no. 599 total).

It made a refreshing cold brew, as well as a nice take it to work tea for the couple of days before we were told to work from home because of the coronavirus. It pretty much held up to the original note I wrote about it. I still don’t totally get white tea, but flavored whites are easier to get.

Hope everyone is staying healthy. We are under a shelter in place order here.

A sample from the original sample order. It was in my “white tea” box, or rather carton, and as I’ve mentioned I seem to have a hard time figuring out when to drink white teas so they tend to get short shrift. I’ll be trying to make it up to them over the next few days.

I’m not following the TeaFrog directions. Instead, I’m using the Breville suggested temperature and steeping time for white tea.

In the packet there is a smell that could be blueberry. It’s definitely fruity, and it also smells vaguely like incense. The leaves are stupendously large and twisty, with (my favorite) cornflowers very bluely strewn through the mix.

The tea aroma definitely has a blueberry note, with that incense one as well. It’s slightly wine-like, too. The liquor is a gorgeous tawny gold color.

Yum. It reminds me a little of the GM Persian Melon white tea, mostly because it’s a flavored white, I guess. But it’s different, too. It doesn’t have the fermented winey note in the taste that the GM had. The tea base is earthy rather than winey. It definitely tastes of blueberries, though. It’s got much more berry flavor than the only other (somewhat) blueberry I have to compare it to, Tazo Berryblossom White. I eat a ton of blueberries, usually with breakfast cereal, and this has almost the same aftertaste as the real thing.

Though I hesitate only because I am having trouble finding time to drink the white tea I have now, I think this one is a keeper.

Finishing the last of my Teafrog samples now that my new order is here. This is good, but I’m finding that I don’t really crave an extra lemony Earl Grey very often. The lemongrass in particular is… interesting, but not quite to my taste; it reminds me too much of herbal blends, which is not what I want out of an EG. :/ So, interesting to try, but not likely to be a staple for me.

$6/100g, ~15¢ per cup

Hm. The lemon is very very prominent here. It’s still an Earl Grey, as EG has a pretty citrusy flavor anyway, but I can taste the lemongrass in particular and it’s a little weird to me. I think I’ll like it better blended with a little vanilla tea for a creamier flavor. G liked it as is, but he’s a big lemon fan.

It’s interesting, but I’ve had EG variations I liked better. To clarify: I’m disappointed that I tasted more lemongrass than anything else. I was hoping/expecting it to be somewhat floral, but I really didn’t notice the jasmine or cornflower.

1.1g, 3.5oz, 2nd steep 6 minutes

I tried this last night in my little gaiwan, but I think I need more practice before I start writing notes about teas I made using it. I’m not convinced I used the right amount of leaves, for starters. Plus, I meant to look up steeping times as I know for the little gaiwans they’re pretty short. I just sort of winged it.

Today I’m going for more formality. This is another sample, I believe from the first set rather than the second. This one had been segregated into my oolong box and it wasn’t until I decided to be systematic about my TeaFrog tastings that I went looking for all of my remaining samples and found this one.

The leaves look similar in color to the Upton Formosa in its oolong sampler. There are some things that look like stems among the leaves, and some of the leaves are small and mulch like, but others are larger and more distinctively curly. I couldn’t really tell what they smelled like in the sample packet (in previous notes I’ve mentioned I have run into some trouble as the packets seem to have taken on the smell of the strongest smelling sample that they were packaged with. Unfortunately for me, I had very strong smelling fruit tisanes in each of my sample orders and now I smell fruit in all the sample packets even if it isn’t there…)

The tea brews to a dark amber, and smells toasty with fruity notes. After tasting, the aroma became more defined and yes, I can get a peachy note. It’s not a strong, fruity taste like a flavored peach tea, but it is reminiscent of the nut of the peach.

Second steep, three minutes. A sweetness has come out on this steep that mingles with the toastiness.

Third steep, four minutes. Still nice, but I’m not seeing a tremendous development from the last steep to this.

This was a pleasant and tasty drink, but it didn’t blow me away. I think if I didn’t already have some of the Upton Formosa samples I might be tempted, but this one didn’t surpass those or the Golden Moon for me.

Sipdown no. 54 of 2018 (no. 410 total).

It was next in line, and now it is gone.

This wasn’t the most spectacular iced tea, but it was serviceable. I’m not changing the rating, though, because I try not to base ratings on my reactions to iced things, much less those that have been in my cupboard an unseasonably long time.

This is from the second group of TeaFrog samples. I discovered I actually still have a few more from the first sample group. I have my teas in boxes according to color (well, sort of… I sometimes find that I haven’t been very strict about the enforcement of this sorting mechanism) and I discovered I have a green and a couple of whites that I’d forgotten about. In any case, I think I like darjeeling, but I’m still pretty new to them. So I’m interested to try this one. Especially since it is Far Too Good For Ordinary People ;-).

It’s leaves are variegated in color, mostly various shades of brown upwards toward the paler tips, but there were a few bright green leaves that were somewhat surprising. I don’t know whether something is off with my smeller, but the last few samples from TeaFrog I have had difficulty smelling in the sample bag. The sample bags seem to have taken on a smell of their own. Perhaps they take on the smell of the most aromatic thing in the shipping box. Not sure. But everything smells a sort of berry-like fruity smell to me. I poured this one out into a dish to try to get a better sense, but in the dish I wasn’t getting much of anything. I think the subtleties of aroma were beyond me at that point since I had the fruity smell in my nose already.

The tea smells buttery and surprisingly green! They weren’t kidding about the golden infusion, either. The liquor isn’t dark and “tea colored” like that of some other darjeelings I’ve had. It’s a tawny gold, very pretty.

It took a fair amount of sipping for this to start tasting like a darjeeling to me. Even when I start to get some of the taste characteristics, it’s still pretty different. It isn’t as brisk and perky as some darjeelings. It’s mild, and it has a buttery taste and feel. It isn’t overly grapey and doesn’t have that characteristic darjeelingness that I believe is described as muscatel (though I have yet to determine whether I think is muscatel is in fact muscatel), except very slightly. To me, it’s reminiscent of an oolong.

It’s tasty and different, and, as it describes itself, mellow. I like it. I’m not sure exactly where it would fit in the scheme of things as far as my tea cabinet goes, but I’m happy to think on it.