Babble Send Message

Thanks to Teajo for the generous sample!

I don’t normally drink too many black/green tea blends. I’ve found they can be finicky and hard to manage. But, when I got the opportunity to try a tea from Teajo, it jumped out at me so I thought I would give it a go. The tea has a very pleasant smell to it, and you can definitely smell the orange peel.

The brewing parameters are all of over the place for the tea. Apparently you can use anywhere from 180-212 F degree water? That’s a pretty big range. I’ve always been told to brew a blend at the most delicate level – so since greens are more delicate than black, brew it like a green.

Once brewed, this definitely tastes more like a black than a green. I imagine people who are a fan of “breakfast” blends or Assam would be a fan of this as well. It’s not quite as astringent as a breakfast blend would be, which makes it more appealing (I’m such a wimp when it comes to bitterness). The flavors are very light on this.

This is definitely a more unique tea and not bad.

It seems like just yesterday that it was a close race between Pumpkin Pie and Black Cherry for flavor of the week. Black Cherry squeaked by to win, and I happily jumped on the chance to order it. I was a little hesitant, since sometimes cherry flavors can be a little too artificial tasting, but I went with it anyway. As usual, I got the robust flavoring on this with the basic matcha. I took a whiff of the matcha, and I could definitely tell it was black cherry – no question.

This was prepared in a water bottle with 1/2 teaspoon of matcha. I put it in, shook it up, and tasted my beautiful creation.

WOW!! This is really good. I was not expecting much from this matcha, but am happily surprised. This is just as good as Boysenberry, maybe a little bit better. The black cherry flavor is potent, but not overpowering and not too sickly either. No sweetener needed. If you are a black cherry fan, you will not be disappointed. It definitely does not taste like cough syrup. I really want to get some cola matcha and mix this together to see how it would go. I bet it would be delicious.

Definitely glad I decided to take a risk and buy this matcha on sale.

As a reminder, you can buy this matcha here: http://www.redleaftea.com/matcha-tea/black-cherry-matcha.html

Since I had such good luck with the Boysenberry matcha, I decided to try another fruit-y matcha. There are so many fruit flavors and I couldn’t pick one, so I went with this blend of tropical fruits called “Tropical Matcha”. I got the robust flavoring, as always, with just the basic matcha. When I first got a whiff of the matcha it smelled very fruity, almost candy sweet. Not sure what to expect.

Like before with my Boysenberry, I put 1/4 teaspoon in a water bottle a shook it up to give myself a nice fruity drink. The flavor is very light on this one. It tastes a lot like a fruit punch of some sort. It’s hard to specifically point out one type of fruit over another. If you’re a fan of punches, I’d definitely give this a try. Since I was having a hard time detecting the flavor, I added another 1/4 teaspoon. The flavor was a little stronger, but I didn’t really get that overly strong matcha taste, which is good. I bet tossing some sweetener in here would bring out the fruit taste even more.

While I don’t enjoy this quite as much as the Boysenberry, it’s another good chilled matcha that takes little prep work.

As a reminder, you can buy this matcha here: http://www.redleaftea.com/matcha-tea/tropical-matcha.html

Eh… I’m not sure how I feel about this tea. Not getting a lot of flavor and the base green tea just doesn’t taste good. I think I was expecting something “apple”-y and got something a little too grassy.

I’m going to leave a rating off for now. Maybe I’ll give it another brew and see how it goes…

Thanks, STEAp Shop for the sample! This is for the Virtual Tea Tasting 9/23/12

Thanks to Amanda for the sample!

Although I love bananas (they’re the most efficient fruit), I’m not the biggest fan of banana flavorings. So why did I request a sample of this? Because my boyfriend LOVES banana flavored things, and because who doesn’t want to take every opportunity they can to get their boyfriend to drink tea?

When I brewed this hot, it was actually quite nice, but that was because I couldn’t really taste the bananas in it. I was reading reviews that it’s better iced, so I waited for it to cool down and sure enough, those banana flavors come through the cooler it is. Even cooled-down it’s drinkable, and this coming from someone who doesn’t really like banana flavored things. Never got a chance to toss some sugar in it, unfortunately. My boyfriend liked it so much hot that he didn’t even wait for it to cool down. Good thing I set a little bit aside to do some post-hot testing ;)

I told my boyfriend not to like this too much, since as we all know 52teas come and go. Perhaps they will reblend it, though, and if so I may pick it up knowing it’s something a banana lover and a banana-flavor unlover can both enjoy.

I’m not a fan of Lapsang Souchong – or at least the little that I’ve tried. Something about “smokiness” in my teas just doesn’t sit right with me. I don’t know what it is.

Anyway, I tried this with hesitation, and it’s not bad. It’s definitely a muted smokey flavor, and not unbearable like a straight LS might be. I’m not really getting any of the coffee or chocolate flavors either, though, unfortunately.

I’d recommend this to someone who doesn’t like LS, but doesn’t hate it either. I wonder what someone who LOVES LS would think of this.

Thanks, STEAp Shop for the sample! This is for the Virtual Tea Tasting 9/23/12

Hey, this isn’t bad. When I brewed it hot, I could definitely taste the cinnamon but was having a hard time tasting the berries. It reminded me of an apple cider, even though there are no apples in it. But then as it cooled off, the berry flavor came through a lot more and the cinnamon flavor became a bit more muted. This is much more enjoyable cold.

I like how there are varying steep times, too. I’ll have to see how the flavor changes the second steeping of this later tonight.

Thanks, STEAp Shop for the sample! This is for the Virtual Tea Tasting 9/23/12

I had already tried the Caramel matcha in the green tea base, and it’s definitely been my favorite so far of the desert teas. When a bunch of people ordered the black matcha base for Cookies and Cream, I was a bit jealous. So, when Caramel came back on sale I knew this was my perfect opportunity to try it in black matcha form. I decided to spring for the “There’s Matcha in there?” Flavor level because I had trouble tasting the Cheesecake flavor at the Robust level when I ordered it with the White. Plus, I wasn’t sure how strong the black would be.

I couldn’t find any official instructions on what temperature of water to use. For green matcha you use green tea temperature water, so I figured for black matcha (since it’s black tea) I would use sort of less than boiling water.

I didn’t sift the matcha this time around, and that may have been a bad idea. I noticed the black matcha made big clumps a lot more than the green or even the white did.

I prepared my usual whisk in a bowl method, and it was too bitter for me without anything added. So, I popped in a little milk and a packet of raw sugar to help bring out the flavor.

Well, it definitely tastes like caramel and black tea. I don’t know how I feel about this matcha. It’s not bad, it’s not great. There’s still a little bit of bitterness that comes through. I may have to give it a few more experiments before I make a final verdict, but for now I’m not overwhelmed, but it’s not unbearable either.

As always, you can get the matcha in green or black form here: http://www.redleaftea.com/matcha-tea/caramel-matcha.html