Tin Roof Teas

Lightly sweet minty flavor. Next time I would add more tea or steep longer for a richer flavor. Supposed to promote cognitive function. Here’s hoping!

I’m impressed, this is actually very tasty! Thank you for the sample Marzipan!

Tin Roof’s Turkish Delight tea looks beautiful. Long twisty black leaves, whole pistachios, sliced almonds, cardamom pods, pink peppercorns. The dry leaf smells lightly spiced and exotic.
Full review and photos: https://tealover.net/2015/06/tin-roof-teas-turkish-delight/

A flavorful morning blend that is rich and hearty. Not as strong as some Scottish blends I have tried, but a nice pleasing brew with a bit of malty overtones. I have been drinking this blend often this past week, and enjoy the caffeine kick and full rich flavors. Plus a visit to Tin Roof Teas, or a visit to their website is always fun and I come home with new teas to try…

I stopped TNT a while back looking to pick up a new gaiwan, and on a whim decided to pick up a good amount of this tea. This TGY is a traditional so naturally it’s a bit more roastier/darker than say a Imperial grade. It’s decent, I have no real complaints. It holds itself well in gongfu, and my gaiwan seems to like it. The leaves are nicely rolled, and open up nicely. The body of the tea is a bit bolder than I generally prefer my TGY, but it’s not bad. There are good notes of chocolate, and banana which is nice little surprise. It’s a bit different from a standard TGY, because it is darker, it’s almost a bit reminiscent of a Wiyu oonlong in a way, and I can pick up some similarity with a Shui Xian or a Dong Ho Pao. Overall, this is nice, fresh, crisp, and sweet, with hints of fruits, cocoa, and darker oolong notes. It’s nothing that will blow you away, and it’s not really the type of TGY I would probably ever use for Gongfu when friends come over, but I do enjoy sipping on this grandpa style at work, so that’s nice.

I went in Tin Roof Teas and told Ryan I needed a birthday gift for my best friend, and loves double vanilla tea. He told me that this is his proprietary blend and he nearly named it Double Vanilla but thought that might sound corny, so here we have the result!

Naturally, I bought a bag for myself as well to make sure the quality as up to snuff for my friend. I knew she preferred Mariage Freres to Harney Vanilla, so I thought this Chinese base would be better for her than Harney’s Ceylon base.

I think it hits the spot and achieves double vanilla status. My friend thought it tasted a lot like the more expensive White Lion Vanilla. Youngest thought it might be a tad drying but said it was not astringent to her, and I like it very well. It isn’t going to last long. At least they are close enough for me to pick up more when I need it!

I definitely underbrewed this somehow, because I am not getting any flavors at all out of this. That, or this stuff is just really old. I got no tea, and no fruit flavor, and all the other reviews rave (or rant) about the fruity flavors. I will definitely retry this one soon.

Meh. Nothing spectacular. I’m a big fan of Taiwanese High Mountain Oolongs, and I generally really enjoy Tung Ting. However, this was flat, bland, and lacking any complexity or depth. The flavor held as if you were smelling a bag of Jin Xuan, but not actually drinking any. Generally this tea should be kept in a chilled environment, like matcha. I don’t believe this was though, and is probably the reason for it not having any taste. I think i’ll pass.

Loose leaf green tea with whole blueberry’s and jasmine flowers. Mellow flavored tea with strong blueberry flavor without being overwhelming to green tea base. Hints of jasmine throughout. Flavor holds well with first two steeps and gradually becomes weaker with further steeps. Flavors are balanced and can be served hot or cold without taking from integrity of flavors.
Overall a good flavored green tea.

Here’s Hoping traveling teabox – Round 3

Oh my goodness, the scent of this wafting up from the bag when I opened it was out of this world! Seriously, unexpected. The tea itself is really nice, a bit sweet on its own, but I added just a dash anyway. The green tea is smooth and light. I think I may keep the rest of this! I had never heard of the brand, but apparently they are a small tea company out of Raleigh, NC.

’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!