27 Tasting Notes

90
drank Hoku by Lupicia
27 tasting notes

I’ve been to Hawaii only twice, but after buying a small tiny tin of this the first time, I learned my lesson and bought 150g the second time around. This tea is just phenomenal. The quality of the oolong is out of this world. This is a very, very fresh tasting tea. It’s sweet but not too sweet. Fruity, but not like an herbal/tisane.
There are tiny little confeito candies in the tea, probably flavoured with juice, which really gives it that sweet flavour. This tea needs no extra sweetening, it’s really quite fabulous without any added sweetener. My friends who don’t even drink tea are always impressed by this one as well. I think it’s one of my favourite oolongs. Lupicia really knows how to do oolong well.

Preparation
190 °F / 87 °C 2 min, 45 sec

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98

This tea. THIS TEA! This is my favourite tea ever. EVER. Before this tea came along, that title belonged to Exotica (for good reason!) but this one… oh what can I even say about Midsummer Night’s Dream?! I could write an essay on this tea and it just wouldn’t be enough. It wouldn’t even touch the surface on how amazing this tea is. I love citrus teas, and I’m particularly fond of citrus teas with a kick. This one is hands down a keeper. I initially bought 200g of this when DavidsTea was planning on getting rid of it and then it turns out they ended up keeping it. WELL GOOD. Because it’s heavenly. Ohhh this tea..
A reviewer previously mentioned that it has an unidentifiable citrus taste that’s followed by a creamy, almost creamsicle flavour. This is a pretty good description, but I would just add that the mint, although not prominent in the initial flavour itself, really shines here. Imagine if you will, a citrus tea that is warm and thick on the tongue, followed by a cool, creamy hit. Yes. That’s this tea. A rich, citrus flavour with a hit of cool creaminess in the aftertaste.
Iced, it’s just out of this world, but it’s also incredible hot.
The only reason I don’t give this one 100 is because of the dry tea itself. It is so ‘chunky’ and has some big pieces that aren’t evenly distributed. I tend to make a big batch and down it over the course of a day or two to really get the full flavour of this tea, but sometimes I just want one cup, and going through the tin to pick out all the bits and pieces of the tea to get a full flavour is kind of annoying.

Preparation
Boiling 6 min, 30 sec

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40
drank Azteca Fire by Teavana
27 tasting notes

I want to love this tea. On paper it sounds like I would. On paper, it is perfect. In execution? Not so much. This certainly does taste like hot chocolate made with water, that said, made with too much water. It’s such a shame because it smells DIVINE. I’m trying to figure out whether it’s best to just exchange the tea for something I know I like or to find another use for it. I’ll probably end up doing the former.

Preparation
Boiling 6 min, 0 sec

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84

Total keeper.
Absolutely amazing. I love amaretto anything really, and the Amaretto tea from Davids has been my go-to for that thick, marzipan flavour. Not anymore. This one really hits it out of the park. There’s that unmistakable amaretto taste but it’s more complex here and not just straight-up amaretto. It’s a rich blend of juicy grape and amaretto. Who thought the two would work so well in a tea? Not me. But I’m glad someone did because WOW it’s good. The aftertaste is grape, almost like grape juice (the real stuff), with a hint of tanginess but it’s creamy, oh so creamy.
This one is just great. A favourite for me!

Preparation
195 °F / 90 °C 3 min, 0 sec

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84

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drank Berry Kiwi Colada by Teavana
27 tasting notes

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30
drank Copabanana by DAVIDsTEA
27 tasting notes

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55
drank Strawberry Cream by Teavana
27 tasting notes

This tea is… decent.
I am not particularly a fan of hibiscus teas so I had a hard time convincing myself to give this one a try because the first ingredient on the ingredients list is “hibiscus flowers,” which is too bad since it’s a white tea. I can’t say I was too happy about that but I eventually did end up buying a 50g bag for myself, considering the list of ingredients mirrored the list of my favourite strawberry tea (Teaopia’s Strawberry Fields) almost perfectly.
The smell of this tea dry is just heavenly. It smells like fresh strawberries topped with a huge dollop of cream, but there was a faint apple scent as well. Once steeped, the smell becomes a lot more syrupy/sugary. It smells… artificial. This was a big letdown but I decided to base my judgment on the taste test and not the smell. And that’s where the true letdown happened.
Hibiscus. Hibiscus everywhere. Hibiscus really took the wheel with this tea and almost completely overpowered the fruity notes. It is definitely less pronounced when cooled down, but the strawberry flavour that comes through then is definitely not as Pow! Fresh In Your Face Strawberry! as I had hoped. It’s quite artificial tasting. This is not necessarily a bad thing. I can see this tea being quite wonderful brewed with a lemonade or with a few shavings of frozen lemon added to it (which I will try next) but a substitute/rival to Strawberry Fields it is not. Someone on the Teavana site mentioned that cutting down the tea to around 1/2 to 3/4 a teaspoon greatly reduces the artificial flavour so I’m not giving up on this tea just yet.
This tea is not as delicate and light as I would expect from a white tea, which is disappointing considering the price tag, but I think there’s a great tea hiding here, just maybe a little fussy.

Preparation
175 °F / 79 °C 2 min, 15 sec

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55
drank Strawberry Cream by Teavana
27 tasting notes

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50

I must be in the minority here, but this tea just doesn’t cut it for me. I bought a small 25g bag and was completely intoxicated by the smell. That brittle… heavenly. Strawberries.. wasn’t really smelling much of them. And then there was that granola smell that came out of nowhere and surprised me. I looked back at the package to make sure I’d picked up the right tea. I had. So I shrugged and made a cup. That smell of buttery brittle went away almost completely once steeped, and it smelled like a caramel tart with strawberry topping, which wasn’t too bad but I was expecting more of a luscious, fruity taste with a buttery tone to it, like that of Buttered Rum. Alas, this was only the beginning of my disappointment.
The steeped tea wasn’t bad, it was actually quite good, but I could not get over that bitterness that began creeping in about a quarter way through the cup and got increasingly stronger and stronger until I couldn’t even finish it. With a quarter left to go, I just tossed the tea out. No more strawberries, no more creaminess (however faint it may have been).. it all became caramel and bitter.
I’m not a fan of the black tea base in this one. I think it could have been fantastic as an herbal.

Preparation
Boiling 5 min, 0 sec

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