6111 Tasting Notes
(DavidsTea 2022: 97)
Second tea I tried, and one that I found by total luck – a different pistachio tea was listed in the tea menu, but this one came up instead! And Ros hadn’t even added it to Steepster yet, which is really surprising! (Is it new, or is it a rename of something existing?)
Anyhow, it didn’t taste like anything I’d had before… buut, if I’m being honest, it didn’t taste like much at all. Didn’t really get pistachio, or macaron, it was just kinda fruity and sweet? I’ll have to give it another try. It wasn’t bad, but certainly failed to leave much of an impression.
(DavidsTea 2022: 96)
Storytime: So, the other day someone posted in the DT subscription club FB group with some of the new and unreleased summer teas – I had no idea where they found them, and the post was deleted before I actually had the chance to read it. However, it made me go snooping, and I found the summer tea menu online on the DT site, and then when I searched for some of the new teas…. they were already on the website (and, I also found a handful of others simply by luck of choosing the correct search terms)! So I made an order of 9 presumably unreleased teas (2 returning, 7 new). This was a few days ago now, so I’ve received my order and I believe at least a couple of these teas, including this one, have now been officially released, but I’m feeling both devious and confused at how I was able to locate and order these teas already. (There were another 3, 2 new and 1 returning, that I opted to order later, and at least one other new tea is now on the site that wasn’t when I made my order.)
So yes. Lots of new teas to try, and also scolding from husband regarding volume of tea purchases. Haha.
This is the first I tried: it smells candy-sweet and I’m delighted that it doesn’t contain stevia (though it does contain sugar). It’s a little fakey tasting, but definitely strawberry (and kiwi too, whether or not that’s just power of suggestion). I did enjoy it, but especially the aroma that wafts from the cup – I kept smelling it throughout the day, presumably from the infuser, and my mouth watered every time. Won’t be a repurchase from me but I feel like it’s going to be a popular summer tea.
(52teas (Anne) 2022: 220)
My goodness, this is spicy. Enough so that I can’t finish my cup tonight because spice-related heartburn. However, earlier sips, while spicy, were also a delightfully real, bright raspberry flavour. I just wish the spice was a little bit lighter! (I’m hoping it was just a coincidence of ingredients and subsequent cups will be more tolerable).
The spice comes from the little bits of chili pepper in it – so you want to be sure to shake the pouch to redistribute the ingredients so that you don’t get a bunch of chili peppers in one measurement. I cut the chili peppers (in this case, there are two types, smoked chilies and cayenne chilies) in to pieces (I don’t use chili powder or pre-cut chili flakes – I get the whole chilies and cut them myself. (I do this to remove a good portion of the seeds so that it’s not TOO spicy.) Anyway – that’s the way I would recommend approaching this (and other teas spiced with chili from me). If you’re still hesitant with the spice – look closely at the tea before you steep it – and remove some of the little slices of chili peppers.
Thanks for the advice! I may remove some of the chili pieces next time – it was just a bit too hot for me but the flavour of the tea was so lovely!
yeah – I often get comments about the opposite – that it’s not spicy enough – so with this one in particular, I remember thinking, if I’m gonna call it “picante” – it better have a good kick of spice. So I cut up more chilies than I typically do. (Example: when I made the Mayan Chocolate Chai – I had several people contact me to tell me that it’s not as spicy as Frank’s version of the same tea – and the reason is that instead of using cayenne powder, I used whole dried cayenne peppers and sliced them up – the cayenne powder is obviously going to be spicier because the powder is intensely spicy – but I didn’t like the idea of using cayenne powder.)
At least with the cut up chili peppers, if someone wants something with less spice, they can see the little pieces of chili and remove some of them. (Just be sure to wash your hands after you handle those chili peppers – don’t touch your eyes!)
(52teas (Anne) 2022: 218)
This is admittedly another oversteeping victim, so it’s a little bit bitter, but I’m not getting much in the way of any flavours aside from toasty rice and some marshmallowy creaminess (probably the rice pudding essence?). Odd. I’ll refrain from rating because of the oversteep, but not really a favourite of the genmaichas so far, and missing the apple/cinnamon I’d expect here.
(52teas (Anne) 2022: 217)
Mostly tastes like oranges today – a nice bright orange, but not a great deal of depth to the flavour. I was hoping that the white tea base would have that ‘aged’ flavour that a few others either have or have developed, but no such luck. However, I did just remember that I oversteeped this quite badly, so probably shouldn’t jump to any conclusions about it after this cup. It’s decent enough despite the oversteep.
(52teas (Anne) 2022: 215)
2022 Sipdown 103/365!
Mastress Alita’s Sipdown Challenge March 2022: Tea flavoured like my favourite pancake/waffle topping
Had to hunt to find a maple-flavoured tea, because of course, what better to have on pancakes/waffles (even though I’m not the biggest fan of either). Real maple syrup though, not that fakey flavoured syrup, yuck. This tea is pretty tasty – I recently made “pear sauce” with an abundance of pears from a last-chance fruit box, and now knowing exactly what cooked pears taste like, this tea is pretty true to that flavour! Plus maple. (I didn’t add maple; I left my sauce unsweetened as it was for my son).
I think this would be a good tea to reblend sometime! Hint, hint.
(52teas (Anne) 2022: 214)
Strange, I have it recorded that I drank this in Oct 2021, but no note. Oh well.
I think I oversteeped or overleafed it a bit – a bit bitter – but lots of maple flavour, toasty, marshmallowy genmaicha. I like it, but wish that bitterness wasn’t there. Otherwise, it’s quite tasty!
(52teas (Anne) 2022: 213)
Review for the Dec 2018 advent reblend of this (it looks like I might have 3 versions? Also Jun 2016 and Jan 2020). It’s… alright. Not a huge favourite. Some raspberry, but it comes off kind of plasticky? Maybe cookie aftertaste? No almond that I can detect. It’s pleasant enough, though.
