95
drank Banofee by A Quarter to Tea
6105 tasting notes

Yikes… Steepster and I appear to be having some battles tonight… but hopefully they’re now over. I’m suuuuper behind on posting and reading – just got home yesterday from a surprise trip to take baby to visit my parents/sister/nephew, and I really don’t care for using Steepster on my phone.

Anyhow! I had my husband pick up my massive box of teas from VariaTEA yesterday, yay! It’s probably literally like 2lbs of tea (I didn’t actually check). Anyhow, this was on top so I figured I’d give it a whirl.

The aroma is amazing. Like… basically the best caramel banana I’ve ever smelled. And the flavour actually matches it – except that there’s a strange bitterness lingering at the back. I think it might be from oversteeping, though – which I really hope, because this tea otherwise is stellar. I’m fairly sure I steeped this for a decent amount past 3 minutes, so I’ll try to be more careful next time, and rate it then. This tea is destined for a rating in the 90s, I hope!

VariaTEA

It sounds like I gave you a lot of tea but mostly it was teas that you had bought. Some from me.

VariaTEA

Also, I steeped 1.5 tsps in a 12 oz mug for just over 3 minutes at 200F and it wasn’t bitter but the base comes through more than I liked. I think I would almost understeep this.

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VariaTEA

It sounds like I gave you a lot of tea but mostly it was teas that you had bought. Some from me.

VariaTEA

Also, I steeped 1.5 tsps in a 12 oz mug for just over 3 minutes at 200F and it wasn’t bitter but the base comes through more than I liked. I think I would almost understeep this.

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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.

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