6105 Tasting Notes

74

Well, I tried to sip this one down, but no such luck. I ended up making a travel mug’s worth of this one, mixed in a ratio of 3:1 with Super Ginger. The result was ok, and I dosed it well with honey and drank much of it up. The remaining bit that I discovered in my mug a few hours later had kind of a funky smell to it, though, so I just dumped it. Honestly, if I’m going to have ginger/lemon/honey tea for a sick day…. I’m just going to heat up some hot water, squeeze in some lemon, pour in some honey, and if available, dunk in some ginger slices. No need for a tea that has honeybush and other ingredients in it. (Over the past couple days, I’ve had a few cups of honey/lemon/water… quite tasty.) The exception may be a tea that contains licorice and/other other medicinal-type ingredients, which I think I may endeavour to find today, being that my throat still hurts.

Preparation
Boiling 8 min or more

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87

Mmmm, also in the travel mug. I found this to be quite soothing on my throat yesterday evening, which was good. Hopefully another couple infusions of it today.

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

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100

Yeeaaaah, so even though I’m now a cup away from a sipdown on this one, it will be a fake sipdown, since I ended up caving and buying another 50g pouch from DT, since this one is so good and probably will never ever return. I still think it’s way overpriced for what it is, but… it’s so tasty!

Oh yes, so… speaking of, you know, too many teas and such. I fixed a couple tea things in my spreadsheet and have come up with an unofficial count of teas in my cupboard, so that I can keep track of my sipdowns (you know, since everyone else is doing it!)

drumroll

There are currently approximately 801 (ahahahahaha) teas in my cupboard, which includes both swaps and full-sized teas (and in some cases, multiple iterations of the same tea, but from different people, or bought at different times). I do say approximately because I don’t have the time to double check everything, and also, I never did count up all the teas in my box from LiberTEAS, so I just called that 50 samples. My numbers will be subject to change as I sip things down and discover they were not initially counted, but oh well! Maybe I can get to 500 sometime soon…?

Preparation
190 °F / 87 °C 3 min, 30 sec
TheTeaFairy

You gave me a headache…your situation is out of control girl. (LOL)

Kittenna

Haha, I know. The only good thing is that I’d say most of them are sample sizes. Not all though, sadly…

Shmiracles

good gawd. i’m stressed just thinking about 801!!!! since i’m suck a hyper organizer and reducer that would totally stress me out.
oh but the tea adventure you will have :) !!

Terri HarpLady

OMG Kittenna!

KiwiDelight

Oh wow… That number doesn’t register. I can’t imagine having that amount of tea O_O Good luck going through all of it.

Dinosara

LOL! You make us all feel better about our stashes, Kittenna. :D

Tealizzy

Holy cow! That’s a lot of tea!!

OMGsrsly

I kinda want to attend a tea party at your place. How many teas could I try? :)

Kittenna

What is the capacity of your stomach? :P

OMGsrsly

I think I’d end up uncomfortably sloshy before I even made a dent. :D

Kittenna

Story of my life, haha.

Sil

i told you guys she was crazy!

Kittenna

I have a lot of one-cup sipdowns to do, but I’m hampered by thesis + sickness. It sucks. I don’t even want tea again today because my throat hurts :(

Indigobloom

So what is your sipdown goal? I think you had said 500 earlier

TeaLady441

It sounds like you resteep a lot too – that must make it hard to actually use up tea. Good luck!

Lol @ Dinosaura

Kittenna

Yeah, I feel guilty if I don’t re-steep. :(

Sil

sometimes….sometimes you just need to let it go….

Kittenna

I do sometimes! I don’t feel guilty if I re-steep and it’s gross and I have to dump it :D Just with oolongs and stuff that keep giving… oy.

Sil

oh. yay. oolongs. yea…gotta resteep those. :)

also… i’m totally keeping your rhubarb crumble tea until you learn to drink your 1 cup teas!

Kittenna

Hey, I’m trying. Not my fault I keep getting sick :(

tea-sipper

WOW that is a lot of tea. Thank you for making me feel better about the amount I have. :D

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100

Brewed this one up for a travel mug yesterday. It tasted pretty good, but I think I’ll save the rest of this one for evenings. I was just craving it like crazy and really wanted to have a cup of it yesterday! I did give the leaves a second infusion pretty much immediately, however, and drank that long before I got to the infusion sitting in my travel mug. So delicious.

(Also, I way oversteeped the first infusion… gave it like 3.5 minutes or something, when I intended 2. It’s fine of course, though.)

Preparation
Boiling
Sil

i wish i was getting anytihng out of this besides laoshan black. sigh

Kittenna

Uhhhh if you don’t like yours I’d swap you straight LB for it…

Kittenna

Are you drinking it from a travel mug? My first cup of it was straight in a mug, and I nearly died it was so delicious. Certainly unmistakeable LB flavours but not the same.

Sil

i’ve had it both in my giant mugs and in the travel mugs…can’t swap! finished it all up! :) I’ve had it nearly every day since we split the orders lol i just haven’t logged it every time :)

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I suppose this could be called a sipdown… I stole the last of my roommate’s pouch as… I’m sick again! Wooo. Less than two weeks after nursing a sore throat for 4 days, I have one again. Sigh. At least I don’t feel overall terrible, but sore throats are seriously the worst.

Anyways, this tea. Didn’t smell too bad (I was expecting it to be much worse), and surprisingly didn’t taste terrible (and the licorice was pretty mild, not sure I even could taste it), but there was something off about the flavour that I couldn’t place, and didn’t like. It wasn’t objectionable enough that I couldn’t finish the cup, and if I noticed that it helped I would certainly drink it again, but would never choose this as a cup of tea to enjoy. I don’t honestly know if it helped my throat a great deal; I followed it up with other sick-tea mixtures, so it’s tough to tell. I might pick up some Cold 911 (if that’s still around) to try if this thing doesn’t let up…

Preparation
180 °F / 82 °C
K S

spraying your post with Lysol… feel better soon!

Kittenna

Probably a good idea! And thanks… hoping I recover quickly.

Terri HarpLady

Gargle salt water! Suck on a clove of garlic! Drink lots of water.
My favorite tea ingredients for sore throat: ginger, echinacea, lemon, honey, elderberry
I hope you feel better soon!

Starfevre

Elderberry syrup!

Indigobloom

and oregano!! that stuff will banish any sickness :D

Kittenna

Thanks guys. Wish I had picked some of that stuff up earlier… definitely pretty sick today, and I just got a bunch of immunizations as well, so am not at all motivated to go sort things out right now.

Indigobloom – I’ve had Oil of Oregano previously. It tasted terrible, even with honey, sigh. Not sure it worked terribly well either, but it was a few years ago.

Terri HarpLady

Bummer that you’re sick, Kittenna :(

Indigobloom

oh yah it tastes awful for sure!! I hate it. So I try to grab the capsules, but it’s more expensive that way and not as easily absorbed.
Get better soooooon!!

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86

Yeah, this definitely remains a favourite for lugging around places in a travel mug. I’m not even honestly sure that I ever taste pumpkin pie anymore, but it’s desserty enough that it’s usually the first to go, even if I bring along 5 mugs! The chocolatey flavour just stands up very well to the mug :)

Preparation
Boiling 4 min, 0 sec
TeaLady441

So do you still think this one is better than the Grandma’s Pumpkin Pie? Maybe I bought the wrong tea. Or maybe I should have bought both.

Whoops.

Kittenna

I can give you a sample if you want. I have both :)

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83

Brewed this up for a travel mug as well. I remember to be cautious with the infusion time, as last time I think it ended up rather bitter, but for whatever reason, I don’t think I particularly like this one hot/warm. Room temp though? The white chocolate really comes out and it’s pretty tasty!

Preparation
195 °F / 90 °C 2 min, 0 sec

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80

Also travel-mugged, and drank sweetened. Delicious!

Preparation
Boiling 6 min, 0 sec
Autistic Goblin

It is an awesome tea!! :D

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75

Another travel mug tea from yesterday. The lack of astringency means that I don’t hate this tea or anything, but it’s certainly not my favourite. I cannot WAIT for my teas to come in from Stacy… I’m getting nearly 5 oz. of the regular PTA in either straight or flavoured form. Sooooooo awesome…

Preparation
Boiling 4 min, 0 sec
Sil

Heh did you get around to placing the order?

Kittenna

Nope. Will take care of it tomorrow. Ended up spending way too much of the weekend elsewhere, and got nothing done…

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93

Replenished my stash of this one with help from Sil, and decided to make up a travel mug of it yesterday. Tasty, although I don’t think I like this one cooled as much as others.

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

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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.

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