6105 Tasting Notes

94
drank Toasted Walnut by DAVIDsTEA
6105 tasting notes

Been a while since I’ve had this one! Sweet, nutty, coconutty, delicious. Perfectly steeped today too! Go me! Nice reward for a successful committee meeting :D

Preparation
3 min, 0 sec
Plunkybug

I haven’t had any in a while!

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

98
drank Gui Fei Oolong by Butiki Teas
6105 tasting notes

An unexpected sipdown tonight! Didn’t realize I had so little left! Luckily it’s on the shopping list for a certain day in the too-near future…

I was in a rush and only gave this 6 minutes of infusion time today, and it was less ice winey but still ddeeeeeeelicious!

Preparation
180 °F / 82 °C 6 min, 0 sec
Donna A

Had some of this today-really delicious!

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

99

Can’t have an indulgent feel-good evening of teas to help my work without some Marshmallow Treat! My packet only has enough for like, 4 cups left, so Frank had better get on a re-blend soon! (Or I might fail out of grad school. Just saying….)

Anyways, this was a tea of last night. Gotta conserve, so other options are for tonight…

(Also, I have noticed the past couple times I brewed this up that it’s remarkably resilient to oversteeping! As long as I’ve waited until the right temp, which is ~82C, going over 3 minutes doesn’t seem to ruin the flavour too much. A touch of astringency, but hardly even noticeable. Great since I keep oversteeping it!)

Preparation
175 °F / 79 °C 3 min, 0 sec
I <3 Teas

Whoa this sounds interesting.

Plunkybug

This is one I have really wanted to try…

Stephanie B

ooh sounds intriguing! added to my to-try list… (getting ever longer)

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

94
drank Mayan Chocolate Chai by 52teas
6105 tasting notes

Ha, I’m a terrible tealogger sometimes. Forgot I brewed this up all nice and delicious with milk and sugar last night. I was working on a presentation until the wee hours of the morning, and it was deliciously indulgent. With that presentation completed, I’m now working on #2 which is to be given tomorrow morning. Yay for committee meetings… Anyways, I had two tasty cups of it (but forgot to reduce the water for the second cup to make it better. Sad sad.)

Preparation
Boiling 3 min, 0 sec

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

84

I was craving a creamy coconutty tea tonight. Not quite this one… haha, I just realized that it is/was DavidsTea’s Buttercream that I’m craving! (Or Persimmon’s Coconut Creme, but Buttercream is better.) Glad I figured that out! Anyways, this was the only non-black coconut option I could think of for the time being (I’m sure I have tons of others, I’m just blanking). It’s highly satisfying and toasty as usual, but I’m really craving that touch of sweetness that either of the other two teas would give me. No regrets on brewing this up though, I haven’t had it in a while!

Preparation
195 °F / 90 °C 3 min, 0 sec

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

87

For whatever reason, I’m really enjoying this today in spite of still thinking it a bit on the weak side. I can really taste the delicious base tea, with the light spicing floating overtop, and it’s really quite pleasant. I needed a change from the teas I’ve been drinking repeatedly lately, and I bought 2 oz. of this one, so into the cup it went! Good choice, self :D

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 4 min, 0 sec
Claire

Rayn is really in love with this tea, and he likes it best with about 3tsp to 14oz of water.

Kittenna

I actually think that might be the ratio I used! It was three rounded/rough teaspoons in my large mug, which is likely 14 oz. (Or perhaps 12, but I suspect 14).

Bonnie

I thought this was 3 tsp plus 1/2 tsp to 14 oz. so you’d be weak at 3 tsp. (2 tsp per 8 oz is on the website)

Kittenna

Well, they were generous teaspoons to be sure, but thanks for pointing that out! I think I may have assumed 1.5 tsp to 8 oz. Wonder if that’s part of the problem! It’s enjoyable today though :D

Claire

I wonder if Rayn likes weak tea now, or if I should make this stronger for him?

Bonnie

Claire now has a dilemma! Check back for a report at midnight!

Claire

Bonnie – I’m cracking up! Rayn goes to bed around 11:30, but stay tuned…

TeaBrat

I’m on the edge of my seat! :)

Claire

Drumroll…I made him some tonight with 4 teaspoons for 14oz of water and he said it was refreshing, and the flavor was perfect. I just need to read instructions more often!

Bonnie

Maybe he was referring to you and not the tea being perfect Claire!

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

83

Definitely ended up taking this to go yesterday as well. A light fruit punch is pretty much what I get from it, and really, that’s good enough for me! :D Even waaaaayyyy oversteeped, it’s still good.

Preparation
165 °F / 73 °C

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

91

Nom nom nom. A travel mug of this one accompanied me to the boy’s house last night! Drank it in between pathetic attempts at playing songs on Rocksmith. I am clueless about playing the guitar (which is super frustrating because I’m decent at piano, and seem to think that the two should correlate a heck of a lot better than they do!) Ah well. Practice makes perfect…

Preparation
180 °F / 82 °C 2 min, 30 sec
LiberTEAS

I do hope that this one was in the 12 Days sampler, although I didn’t order the sampler, Frank usually offers the teas in the sampler box as a limited reblend … and I’d love to get more of it.

Rebecca Lynn

Lime Jello Salad? How bizarre!

Kittenna

It is soooooooooo good!

Babble

Was this tea a popular tea when it was released? I think this was before my Steepster days. It doesn’t really sound that appetisizing to me, but I’ve heard really good things about it (I also ordered the 52teas christmas sampler, too)

I <3 Teas

Hmmmmmmm I may want to get some of this. Not sure how I’ll like it.

Kittenna

I don’t know if it was popular when released… it was sent to me in a trade (it was before my time too). I suspect it will not be in the sampler….

I <3 Teas – this one isn’t available anymore, unless it’s reblended :(

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

80

Thanks Teavivre for yet another generously-sized sample of a tea I’m quite interested in trying! I seem to have developed a fondness for jasmine whites instead of jasmine greens, so hopefully this one works for me!

The aroma emanating from the packet is strongly of a sweet, delicious jasmine. It almost makes me think candy! Delicious. The tea is a bit more subdued (probably a good thing), but has a nice jasmine aroma that makes me think of Chinese food (haha), but unlike the tea I have at my favourite Chinese restaurant, the flavour here is sweet and delicate (and quite floral, although that’s the same), and completely smooth and silky. All the jasmine deliciousness without the bitterness/astringency from green tea.

I’m not quite sure whether I prefer Verdant’s Yunnan White Jasmine or this tea (I’m not likely to keep multiple white jasmines on hand), so will have to do a comparison one day.

Preparation
185 °F / 85 °C 2 min, 0 sec

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

Thanks to Teavivre for a sample of this tea! I haven’t tried too many dragon wells yet, so am happy for the opportunity to try out another one and see how it compares!

The aroma of the brewed tea is light and sweet and a bit like boiled veggies (although that’s really only a hint). Unfortunately, I think I really underleafed this tea (forgot I was using a bit mug, and probably only scooped in ~1.5 tsp), and I am not getting a lot of flavour from it in spite of oversteeping it by over a minute. What I can taste is a bit of rock sugar sweetness in kind of a boiled veggie broth. Not astringent at all (but I’ve found that dragonwells don’t seem to get as astringent as some other greens for whatever reason). I’ll have to give this another shot later, but it’s certainly promising!

Preparation
175 °F / 79 °C 3 min, 15 sec

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

Profile

Bio

I have always been a tea fan (primarily herbals and Japanese greens/oolongs) but in the last year or so, tea has become increasingly more appealing as not only a delicious, calming drink, but as a relatively cheap, healthy reward or treat to give myself when I deserve something. I should clarify that, however; the reward is expanding my tea cupboard, not drinking tea – I place no restrictions on myself in terms of drinking anything from my cupboard as that would defeat my many goals!

My DavidsTea addiction was born in late 2011, despite having spent nearly a year intentionally avoiding their local mall location (but apparently it was just avoiding the inevitable!). I seem to have some desire to try every tea they’ve ever had, so much of my stash is from there, although I’ve recently branched out and ordered from numerous other companies.

I like to try and drink all my teas unaltered, as one of the main reasons I’m drinking tea other than for the flavour is to be healthy and increase my water intake without adding too many calories! I’ve found that the trick in this regard is to be very careful about steeping time, as most teas are quite pleasant to drink straight as long as they haven’t been oversteeped. However, I tend to be forgetful (particularly at work) when I don’t set a timer, resulting in a few horrors (The Earl’s Garden is not so pleasant after, say, 7+ minutes of steeping).

I’m currently trying to figure out which types of teas are my favourites. Herbals are no longer at the top; oolongs have thoroughly taken over that spot, with greens a reasonably close second. My preference is for straight versions of both, but I do love a good flavoured oolong (flavoured greens are really hit or miss for me). Herbals I do love iced/cold-brewed, but I drink few routinely (Mulberry Magic from DavidsTea being a notable exception). I’m learning to like straight black teas thanks to the chocolatey, malty, delicious Laoshan Black from Verdant Tea, and malty, caramelly flavoured blacks work for me, but I’m pretty picky about anything with astringency. Lately I’ve found red rooibos to be rather medicinal, which I dislike, but green rooibos and honeybush blends are tolerable. I haven’t explored pu’erh, mate, or guayasa a great deal (although I have a few options in my cupboard).

I’ve decided to institute a rating system so my ratings will be more consistent. Following the smiley/frowny faces Steepster gives us:

100: This tea is amazing and I will go out of my way to keep it in stock.

85-99: My core collection (or a tea that would be, if I was allowing myself to restock everything!) Teas I get cravings for, and drink often.

75-84: Good but not amazing; I might keep these in stock sparingly depending on current preferences.

67-74: Not bad, I’ll happily finish what I have but probably won’t ever buy it again as there’s likely something rated more highly that I prefer.

51-66: Drinkable and maybe has some aspect that I like, but not really worth picking up again.

34-50: Not for me, but I can see why others might like it. I’ll make it through the cup and maybe experiment with the rest to get rid of it.

0-33: It’s a struggle to get through the cup, if I do at all. I will not willingly consume this one again, and will attempt to get rid of the rest of the tea if I have any left.

Following These People

Moderator Tools

Mark as Spammer