87
drank Qi'Lan Fireside Oolong by Teavana
592 tasting notes

As I said a few days ago, I was curious to see how this one would taste as a cold brew. I steeped about a tablespoon in my water bottle in the fridge for eight hours. The cold brew turned out to be much different than I expected! It was roasty, of course, but more like a roasted grain flavor. Actually, I recently took a tour of the Sam Adams brewery where we were able to taste a bunch of their malts. This cold brew reminded me a lot of the caramel malts that we sampled at the brewery. It also has some bitterness that actually kind of works with the flavors rather than being distracting or off-putting.

Overall, I would say that I’m glad that I tried cold brewing because it was quite a surprising experiment. However, I prefer this tea hot over cold in terms of a smoother flavor. Also, with how overpriced this tea is, it seems like cold brews would just use up too much leaf too quickly. I only dared try it because I’m still using the free ounce I have from my Starbucks reward.

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I’m a California girl temporarily located in Boston for school (brrr). I only recently got into teas because I’ve never really liked coffee (too bitter), but I have been a daily barley tea drinker since I was little.

Through some timid tastings and exploring, I so far like:
-Japanese green teas (genmaicha, hojicha, sencha, etc)
-Oolongs! (Most kinds except formosa and dan cong so far)
-Straight black teas
-English Breakfast teas
-Fruity teas (peach, apple, strawberry, other berries)

NOT a huge fan of rooibos, matcha, heavily artificial tasting teas, or anything gingery or peppery, but I’m trying to keep an open mind and taste everything that I can!

I’m trying to sample more straight teas and have been having pretty awesome discoveries so far. Thank goodness for sample sizes!

My tentative rating system:
90-100: Woohoo! I’m loving it, and I’m definitely restocking when I get the chance and/or crying when I’m out.

80-90: Yum! I’ll try to restock if it fits in my budget when I run out.

70-80: Probably would not buy again, but it was nice enough to finish the cup.

50-70: Would not choose this tea for myself if given the situation, but would not reject it if someone offered it to me and would gulp down politely.

50 or less: Nope. Don’t care to taste that tea again, sorry!

I’m always down to swap, so send me a message if anything in my cupboard is calling your name!

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