82 Tasting Notes
After an outdoor concert, I am completely sunburnt. But right now I am freezing because we just discovered how to fix our thermostat and now I’m sunburnt and living in an icebox of 66 degrees. Time for some golden moon tea!
The color is very brown, and warm looking but there’s not a very distinct smell to it, though I think with all these fluctuating temperatures my sense of smell is not so good at the moment.
Well, it’s not that sweet and considering the name, I was definitely expecting a sweet tea. The flavoring tastes a bit weird. I’m not really tasting any honey … or pear. In fact, it’s almost really bitter and sour tasting. No matter how much I try to taste some flavor theres just none that really stand out to me. I’m thinking that the water wasn’t exactly boiling when I put it in but still, it shouldn’t make this much of a difference!
Ah! there it is. I think it was just a matter of it cooling off a little bit. I definitely got a taste of honey with some pear, but it still doesn’t taste sweet. I feel like I need to put some sugar in this tea or something! Not a bad tea, but every now and then I get this really weird metallic bitter ish taste that makes my teeth feel awful. It’s part yum, part yuck, and part indifferent.
Preparation
It seems I have been living in the engineering building. I really need to figure out a way to bring tea with me, cause I crave it so bad all day long!
I decided to brew some of this. I’ve always had a tough time steeping greens correctly since they’re not really that forgiving with water temperature and I have no way of regulating temperature.
The smell is very sweet, and the color is a pale yellow green. Hmm, I’m thinking I didn’t get all the flavor out of this cup. It tastes kind of watery, then again I did sort of make it in a rush since I wanted tea so bad! I definitely taste some melon flavor, and the green tea flavor is sort of there as well. I know it’s a sencha taste, but I always thought sencha was more bitter and stronger than what I’m tasting? I’m not a green tea expert though. The more I drink, the more flavor comes out, and I’m really liking it. It’s a pretty subtle tasting tea, at least this cup was, and I’m liking it. I think I’ll hold off on a rating for the next time I drink it.
ETA. Okay, after finishing my cup I really liked this tea a lot. It had some sweety flavor from the melon but at the same time I really did feel like I was drinking a salad from the cucumber and green tea flavors mixed. Very nice flavor and tea :)
After trying to pick a tea randomly, and only getting greens and blacks. I just decided to go for a white tea from the golden moon sampler.
This tea has been tempting me for a while, but I’ve held off since the description says it is “enchanting with a touch of honey,” which i dont have any of right now!
The smell is lovely and melon-y, and the color is so delicious looking as well. Can’t wait, here goes! Wow, so subtle, yet so delicious. This is a flavored tea done right. It’s making me feel foolish for drinking Teavana’s “flavored whites” for so long. The melon is making such a sweet tea, and the taste of the white tea still lingers. But this cup is oh so subtle and utterly fantastic.
Really, this tea is absolutely amazing, I think i’m going to finish it so fast, and I wish I had more than a sample size. This is going on my shopping list, immediately!
Finally drinking some tea ! I spent all weekend visiting a friend, and even though I brought myself Pomegranate Oolong bags from Harney, I missed my loose teas! I also ate a months worth of food (and greasy fast food) in two days and my stomach is hating me, so I went for some of my silver needle sample. Just wanna finish these white tea samples from adagio up!
I mixed this with a tiny bit of snow geisha from teavana. Yes, this is definitely a “drink some kinda bad tea to make room for other tea” kind of cup.
But surprisingly it came out really well! I added the tiniest amount of snow geisha, and since the cherry flavor of that tea is ridiculously strong, and the flavor of the silver needles is fairly vegetal it is a nice combination that cancels out the vegetable taste but doesn’t have cherry overkill.
I think I may have discovered how I’m going to finish my snow geisha ;)
Now that my sense of smell is back, I’ve decided to finally try some of this tea. It’s been tempting me since it arrived in the mail a few weeks ago!—My first purchase from 52teas!
The smell before steeping was very very fruity, almost reminded me of the smell of coconut rum, or pina colada. After steeping, it still has a strong smell of fruit, but it smells a little weird, almost like butter or lotion-y.
Anyway, here goes. oh…my…god. This is amazing. It’s delicate just like white tea should be, but at the same time has such sweetness from all the fruity flavors in it. In no way are the many fruits overpowering the white tea, which I feel is what most flavored white tea blends tend to do. It’s hard for me to pick out specific flavors, but I’m definitely tasting hints of coconut, papaya, and pineapple as I sip on this drink.
It really does live up to its name and description… It’s like a tropical explosion in your mouth! (…thats what she said) But really—this is such a great tea, and I knew just by reading the description that I would love it since I love flavored white tea, and most of the fruits included in it that it was calling out to me saying “buy me!”, and what a great purchase it was ! :)
Preparation
Another sample from Meghann M. I didn’t realize getting random tea samples is so much fun. Just felt like after having a huge dinner, and really getting sort of tired of doing homework, green tea would be the best pick me up.
used 1.5~2tsp for 5ish oz. no sugar. Not really quite sure what temperature or length I steeped it for, but I guesstimated. This is why I rarely get green teas. I don’t have any type of thermometer and dealing with heating water in a microwave is very tricky.
The color is very light green, it’s been a while since I’ve had a tea this color, and it makes me excited. Can’t really smell much of anything though. Hmm, I’m wondering if I steeped this long enough. The taste is very very subtle, I can barely taste it. Let me apply newton’s law of cooling and maybe I’ll taste some more flavors! (The fact that that was the first thing that popped into my mind, makes me think I need to take more breaks inbetween doing homework…)
That helped, as it cools down I’m tasting some hints of green tea and even some ginger, but it’s really not strong at all. If i go for a resteep I will try to make it longer to get more flavor out.
ETA: second steep I added some rock sugar and steeped it a little longer with hotter water. Much more flavor in this cup, and the ginger adds such a nice kick to the tea! The mix of ginger and green is such a good one! If only my first steep had caught all this flavor!
After lurking in the Take it Away discussion thread, I finally posted and got this tea from the wonderful Meghann M today!
Studying and doing homework all day I was waiting so eagerly to get home and make some of this! Used 2tsp for 8oz. The smell is so fruity and pomegranate, but it smells super strong! The tea is so dark, a very brown red color.
Okay, I think it’s finally cooled down enough for me to drink, here goes! nope, still too hot. I can’t taste anything besides hot water….
Okay, it’s cooling down, and its still not tasting like much. I definitely taste some hints of pomegranate but mainly it just has a generic rooibos taste to it. Not quite sure how to describe it. It’s got a little tang to it, but I’m still not tasting any pomegranate flavors. After it smelling so strongly, I’m a little surprised. I think next time I make this I’ll steep with some rock sugar, I think a little sweetness will help the flavor of this tea.
It’s a very relaxing tea though. I like the little kick of flavor it has, but at the same time the strong is so smell it almost makes me expect more of a strong flavor (and I’m kind of glad its not!)
Preparation
Dear chai, it has been far too long since we’ve met. Now that our paths have crossed again, I wonder if it will be the same or not.
Steeped with rock sugar, added a splash of milk. It has been way too long since I’ve had a tea with milk! The smell is so wonderful, and so blatantly chai. The cinnamon definitely adds great smell making me even more excited to try this tea.
This definitely has a great chai flavor. It almost is too subtle though, but I’m sure I steeped it the right amount. The cinnamon flavor is great, and just all the spices make this a very flavorful cup. What’s really odd is the aftertaste. It’s almost bitter, but not quite, almost like gunpowder. Oh wait, wikipedia tells me that kashmiri chai uses gunpowder tea as a base—no wonder! I’m still not used to the taste of gunpowder tea, making this cup slightly disappointing.
Aside from the gunpowder-y aftertaste this is really a great cup. I don’ know if I would buy this again, but it definitely reminds me how much I miss having chai around (even though I’ve only drank it out of bags before)
Preparation
I’ve had this sample for a very long time, and I usually use them to just add to the Teavana flavored white tea. but today, I decided to try drinking the sample again and see if i still don’t like it, or just simply because my sense of smell has been non-existant, and so my taste has been off.
The color is very light, though I think it’s a little more yellow than it should be. Hard to tell. The taste is very bland, I’m probably dealing with really unfresh tea here. guess the adagio tins aren’t that great for long term storage. Definitely drinkable, and since I need a major detox right now it’s perfect.
I remember when I first had this sample tin, it tasted very much like vegetables, and vegetables that I’m not fond of. The aftertaste was odd as well, and all I could think of is I hope that not all silver needle tastes this way. I love flavored white teas to death, but if this is what true white tea tastes like I guess I won’t be drinking any…ever.
Preparation
I don’t have problems w/ their teas getting old quickly… odd… do you have sample tins, the canisters, or pouches?
I have the sample tea tins. my taste buds are also pretty off right now i think (cause of sinus issues), but the flavor there is not as strong as i remembered it to be when I first had the sample.
My tins are so tight I can’t pry them off so I have a hard time believing air would get in. Hopefully it’s just sinus issues and you’ll feel (and be able to smell) better soon!
Got my order from Den’s tea today! And now begins my neverending search for the brown-colored green tea my host mother in japan made every day.
I apparently have no sense of smell right now, so I smelled nothing after pretty much sticking my nose in the actual bag and taking a huge whiff. My roommate and her friend both described it as smelling “fishy” and like “fish food”… not really pleasant apparently. (I think they are too used to smelling my fruity teavana blend teas!)
The color is very very brown, almost like dirt. I looks very dark in the cup I’m using, along with the bad lighting in the room but it’s still fairly dark, especially for a green tea. It seems its cooled off a bit, Here goes. Hmmm…..
I’m not really tasting much of anything. Maybe it’s because it’s too hot, or possibly because i have no sense of smell right now. As it cools down I’m picking up more flavors but I’m not quite sure how to describe it. First thing that came to mind was metal in my mouth, I’m getting that weird tingling sensation your teeth get. Definitely not pleasant. The more I sip, the more this weird metal taste seems to be coming out. I hope that’s just from the packaging and not from the tea. It’s really awful.
I’ll hold off rating this one till I make it again when I don’t possibly have a sinus infection
Ugh! Be careful drinking hot tea- sunburn can really mess w/ your internal temp. I got extremely burnt one summer (like just before blistering, skin turned leathery like I had sclarederma (sp?), didn’t leave the house for 3 weeks except to go to church cuz it hurt to wear a bra, I couldn’t move cuz it hurt to push my chair) and I ended up w/ the shakes- so here I am sore and burnt to a crisp, but I had 3 blankets over me to stop the shivering. I suggest white tea next as it helps lower body temperature. Hot tea to warm you up from the house temp and white tea to cool your insides:)
Ouch that sounds awful! I’m not that badly sunburnt but I will remember that. I have to always wait for tea to cool off though before drinking it, i have a cat’s tounge. Thanks for the tip though, i’ll remember that. I didnt realize white tea helps lower body temperature. Good call since I drink lots of it normally ;)
Yep, that’s why it makes such a good iced tea:) I always take some w/ me when I go out for Mexican.