Tin Roof Teas

’Here’s Hoping’ traveling teabox Round #2 // Tea #21
There is quite a bit of this one in the teabox, but it isn’t in the Steepster system yet! It’s actually quite good, though that may be because there was three goji berries in my infuser! Very fruity! The green tea was on the mild side (but to be honest, the three gojiberries were taking up a ton of room in that teaspoon anyway, so blame the gojis… but I loved the fruitiness!) I might take a few teaspoons of this one out of the teabox for later…
Steep #1 // 30 min after boiling // 3 min

Super smooth, floral,l fruity and light! I don’t have a lot of experience with oolongs, but this seems pretty okay in my book.

One of the best Yunnan teas I have had this past year, filled with spicy tones on an earthy background typical of this type of tea. The golden tips make up a bold and smooth brew with a wonderful aroma. Multiple steeps brings out more soft smokiness that haunts your taste buds long after the tea is gone.

I enjoy this tea steeped for less than the recommended time, and it works wonderfully for both western and gong fu brewing.

I am working my way through my older teas, trying to clean out the stash to make room for new ones. This is a standard oolong. I was hopeful for something more with “fancy” in the title, but it’s just a solid cuppa. It stands up well to multiple steepings, but doesn’t change in significant ways (the way that many of the best oolongs do).

Sipdown (202/206)!

Thanks VariaTEA for the sample (and I think Josie Jade by extension?), but I really wasn’t all that impressed, and I kind of knew I wouldn’t be just based on the smell.

This one smelled like really high quality, fancy ass rich people soap. Which, yes, is totally a thing. It’s always like overly complex flavours like “Cocoa Shea Butter with sea Salt and Coconut bits” and shaped into ridiculous things like a sea horse or an open clam with a pearl inside. Is a simple “bar” not good enough? Thing is, as far as soap goes it smells pretty fucking phenomenal – but when you get down to it, it’s just soap.

That smell really carried into the taste as well. Rich, extravagant flavours but bottom line – it was soap. I honestly felt like had I poured it on my hands I could have lathered up with it. No one wants that from their tea…

Josie Jade, I am so sorry as I know you like this one but it is not for me at all. I am finding it cloying and the coconut tastes off to me. I tried to get through it but it got dumped. Thank you for the chance to try it as it sounded amazing but it just seems that this tea and I are not compatible.

Tea #28 from HHTTB2

I could pretty much sum this up with ‘Meh.’

It’s thin, and mildly bitter. Has some astringency. The vanilla is mild and hits on the roof of my mouth in the beginning of the sip. Whe strawberry is pretty fair, sweet and not artificial tasting, but it’s faint and not enough to compensate.

Edit: I gave Fiance my cup to finish. His first evaluation was ‘This is pretty inoffensive.’ Followed up with ‘Oh. Actually this is quite pleasant.’ So to each their own, I guess.

Tea #5 from the HHTTB

Meh. This is a mediocre tea. It’s watery and bitter. The strawberry flavor is ok, but not enough to make up for the rest. I don’t get much in the way of vanilla, except that it might be what I detect in the aftertaste, can’t quite tell.

This is a very good tea with sugar and cream in it. I use Half-n-half creamer along with the perfect tea rock sugar from Teavana. It has a more doughy taste with very little spice. Even though the tea states there is a spicy hint to it. I find this tea as a good sort of fill you up tea.

The base is a pretty basic decaf. I am not HUGELY sensitive to caffeine but after 7:00PM – 8:00PM I try to switch to decaf or caffeine. The yummy thing about this tea is that DEEP vanilla flavor. I hate fake-y vanilla. Abhor it. The vanilla here is pure deep vanilla bean sweetness. This is a great caffeine free late night desert tea.

I am a huge fan of Harney and Sons Vanilla. This tea rates comparable to my old decaf favorite.

I got to try this after a trip to Tin Roof Teas while visiting North Carolina. If you get a chance to visit this tea store while in NC I highly suggest it.

I love grapefruit teas. This tea has a really nice green base. When it was first brewed and at its hottest temperature the flavor of the grapefruit was somewhat muted. As it cools the grapefruit becomes more pronounced and the flavor becomes more juicy.

This is a really nice green tea. I am so enjoying drinking this and sipping this cup. I got to visit Tin Roof Teas yesterday since I am in NC visiting my offline friend and fellow steepserite Heidi. If you are in NC and near the store you should check it out!

Tea #13 from Another Traveling Tea Box

The base is a nice earthy oolong, and that’s the first thing I can taste, then the fruits hit, linger for a bit and give way to the tea again, and that has a nice woody, very slightly vegetal aftertaste. The rose doesn’t really have a specific point where I can taste it, but there’s a definite subtle floral floating around.

The mango is easily picked out in the fruity mix, but it bleeds into something that reminds me of watermelon Jolly Ranchers. Or Bubble Yum. The watermelon element reduces greatly as the tea cools, but it really threw me off while hot. Maybe cold steeping would remove it?

Tea #25 from Another Traveling Tea Box

This tea reminds me of watermelon bubblegum with a hint of rose, it’s really an odd combination. I thought that maybe my sense of taste had gone wonky again from my cold, so I put this up last night and tried it again today. Nope, my sense of taste is fine and now I’m thinking what tastes like artificial watermelon to me is likely the combination of aronia berries and mango.

Another from the Here’s Hoping teabox. Decaf?! I certainly can’t taste that this is decaf. It must be the lovely bright bergamot hiding it. However, this is supposed to be a “bouquet” but there is hardly hint of a rose, even with rose petals included in the blend. Really nice for a decaf earl grey but not if you’re looking to taste the roses.

While this one is NOWHERE as gross as the last strawberry tea i had, it’s still not really up there. there’s a bitterness to the cup and the vanilla must have gone for a walk ‘cause it’s not in the house. heh that being said, in relative comparison to how awful the previous one was…this is so much better. But i think people could do better. it just doesn’t have that bursting with delicious strawberriness that i want it to.

244 terri… pick up the pace! grin

Another tea from the HHTTB

I’m not always a big fan of earl greys, but this was not bad! I added a little stevia, just a pinch, & that made the difference.

“Another Traveling Tea Box?!?!”

Ooh! I love floral teas that don’t taste like potpourri! This one is very nice! I can definitely taste the rose and jasmine. It’s lightly sweet too.

“Another Traveling Tea Box?!?!”

I thought the blend I had this morning from Tin Roof Teas was quite nice, so I was looking forward to trying this one. The dryleaf is very, very sweet smelling.

I don’t taste much of the base- Lightly veggie and salty from what I can discern.
The sweet flavor is slightly nutty, very floral, and has an aftertaste of bubble gum. There is a slight savoriness from the almonds and cinnamon. Not as good as the blend I had this morning, but definitely better than the adagio blends I’ve had the last few days.

From “Another Traveling Tea Box?!?!”
The base is a dark, woody oolong with a darkly vegetal aftertaste that manages not to get bitter. The fruit elements are natural tasting. I distinctly taste mango, but I get a generic berry flavor- probably because I’m not familiar with the berry they use in this blend. From the description, I was afraid this would be too perfume-like, but it kind of tastes like the mango, blueberry, banana protein smoothie I get every morning! Yum!

First tea of the morning and it’s not good. I’ve had this Royal Grey blend for a while, and I believe that it’s been discontinued. I think I had one cup when I first purchased it, and then it slowly moved towards the bottom of my tea drawer. The dry leaves smell heavenly of very strong bergamot. The tea itself has a grassy aroma with just a hint of bergamot. It has a very odd flavor of grassiness with a light bergamot finish. The aftertaste is really too bitter and just doesn’t go well with the bergamot at all. Adding a little sugar did help, but the bitterness is still there. This just isn’t the tea for me. :)

-Dry blend has a mixture of medium and large green tea leaves and twigs.
-Dry leaves smell heavily of bergamot. Tea liquor aroma is of green tea with a faint hint of bergamot.
-Tea liquor is a clear bright medium yellow color.
-Fresh grassy flavor with a light bergamot finish. Slightly bitter and strong bergamot aftertaste.
-Best with sweetener.
-Poor tea. Unfavorable bitter note with a strong bergamot flavor.

Thanks whatshesaid for this one :)

I’m getting the rhubarb but very little, if any cream. The black tea base is overtaking the flavours. I’m finding that with a lot of black teas – it seems a delicate balance for flavours with black tea. I’m enjoying this one enough, but I’d prefer if there was more of an actual rhubarb and cream flavour.

I am drinking this sample from a friend just so I can have a sample sipdown! I will be making another tea shortly because this isn’t doing anything for me. The base feels a little rough and grassy and the coconut isn’t as strong as it could be. Maybe I did something wrong but I know for sure the water wasn’t too hot. If anything, it was too cool. Steeped for three minutes.