218 Tasting Notes
Another one from my swap with azzrian. Having this one as my post-Christmas lunch tea. Lovely and sweet, very delicate black base too, not at all bitter. Very smooth. A nice dessertish tea to ease into my Christmas Day belly with no discomfort. And now, for doctor who proms!
So this is the first ever tea from my first ever tea swap! International and everything. Thanks Azzrian for this one ( and the others, they look delightful). This is my first array into American tea companies (the only teas I had while there visiting about 5 years ago are not worth mentioning).
The smell of this dry is so good! To me, it smells like chocolate covered strawberries you get from the Christmas Hills Raspberry Farm in my state’s north. They do both freeze dried and fresh covered strawberries. The smell in my house right now is of the fresh covered berries, all warm and melty. I can’t do that smell justice in words, maybe you have a place nearby that does something like that and know it? My other half just bounded (literally!) over from his cup to sniff at mine. I can tell I’m going to have to hide this from him, based on smell alone!
First sip – it’s still pretty hot, but the smell is getting to me, must try! Oh my! How tasty! I got a huge hit of chocolate in my mouth, with a hint of the strawberry at the end. More sips – definitely very chocolatey, with just a hint of strawberry. The black tea base is very soft, not at all bitter, and compliments the flavours well.
An FYI – when trying a new tea, I always have my first cup without additions, unless there is unanimous suggestions to do so on here. For this tea, I’d very happily drink it straight, but if you have a sweet tooth, adding some sweetener would go well, and would probably bring out the strawberry. Milk would also be nice, but I’ll probably have it black.
I’ve just had a few nibbles of a muesli slice for breakfast (I know, it’s a dessert tea, but I’m rebelling) which is sweet, and I can taste the strawberry more. Yes, this one will have a bit of sweetness in the next cup I think. The strawberry is lovely! With the sweetness in my mouth, the chocolate and strawberry are very well balanced and work very well together. The black base is just sitting there, underneath, providing a nice home for the strawberry and chocolate. Not competing, supplementing.
Yes, I really like this! The only other berry/chocolate tea I’ve had is DavidsTea’s love tea #7, which is nice, but this is better.
Just delightful! Thankyou Azzrian!
(I steeped it for about 4mins, iPad functionality does allow for precise time selection. Was boiling point water).
Preparation
Just because its the 2nd last work day before Christmas. Well third, but tomorrow is my first full day at the market with The Art of Tea, and talking about tea for 6 hours doesn’t count as work. Even if I start at 7am. And even if I’m getting paid.
So today is for Elf Help, because who doesn’t need help getting through the 2nd last day of work before Christmas (and not running away early because my DavidsTea order and my swap box from Azzrian arrived this morning and I desperately want to try all of it now!)
Advent calendar day 11. This is one of the few teas I’ve had that gets the hibiscus blend right. There’s enough for you to taste the flavour, but not too much that it goes really tart. The other flavours are appley and cinimony, like Forever Nuts as others have described. I’ve enjoyed having another cup or so of this in the advent calendar this year.
Preparation
I went to Melbourne for a long weekend about 6 weeks ago, and went to the Oriental Tea House about 4 times and tried lots of their teas, both full cups and testers. This was a delicious iced tea they had for testing, so much so that I had to grab a box to bring home. The other half and I have been having this iced in the last little while quite a bit, we’ve almost gone through the whole 100g! Looks like an order might be needed…
So what does it taste like? Sweet and refreshing and very tasty. So good as an iced tea. If you order from the Oriental tea house or live in Melbourne, I’d definitely recommend checking it out.
Will probably be doing a bit of backlogging on some of their other offerings today, but in general, OTH do lovely teas, so I’d recommend a look if you’re interested. The yum cha is also good!