415 Tasting Notes

85

At first sniff I knew I had a special tea on my hands. Picked only a month ago, this tea smells incredibly fresh- like nothing I’ve had before. I did multiple steepings of this tea, each one being super vegetal: as if I was eating greens! Tasty, very tasty; it’s truly delicious and something to savour.

Flavors: Vegetables, Vegetal

Preparation
175 °F / 79 °C 4 g 8 OZ / 250 ML
Sil

yay!

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91

First order from Verdant tea came in! This lovely tea was a free sample I got. I’m not a big white tea drinker but I love jasmine tea and after a long day today helping out with grad I wanted green tea but didn’t want the caffeine since it was 4pm. Luckily I got this in the mail and knew I wanted to use it right away!

The website says to use 205F water and a 25 sec steep. I did it for the first infusion but changed it to lower temps afterwards since I was concerned about bitterness. Here are my notes from the infusions:

1st Steep: 205F, 8oz (as always), 25sec : lovely, lovely jasmine flavouring that also smells lilac-y. Natural sweetness as well; a great pick me up.

2nd steep: 185F, 35sec: glad I reduced the temp from here on in, cause there was bitterness in this infusion. Same jasmine taste though, and after it cooled down the bitterness was only slightly present.

3rd steep: 175F, 50sec: perfect smoothness with the jasmine flavouring. I think this is the right temperature for this tea.

4th steep: 175F, 1min: much the same to the last steep, perhaps more sweet notes?

I’m stopping here because in spite of the fact that white tea doesn’t have nearly as much caffeine I don’t wanna be awake all night. I’m gunna save the leaves for tomorrow afternoon. Altogether i really enjoyed this sample, and it was fun to change up how I normally steep tea since with a tea like this I usually just do like 1-2 tsp in 10oz water for 2-4 min. This way I can explore the tastes more thoroughly. Looking forward to trying the other ones in my order the same way!

Flavors: Floral, Jasmine, Sweet

Preparation
175 °F / 79 °C 5 g 8 OZ / 236 ML
Kristal

Felt a bit stick for a while after doing so many cups in a short period of time. Next time for trying out new teas I’ll only be doing 3 cups and ONLY in the mornings when I drink caffeine.

Kristal

*sick, not stick.

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76
drank Main Squeeze by DAVIDsTEA
415 tasting notes

A re-review of this tea (delete the old note, make a new one).

Apparently 10 months ago I got this tea as a sample and cold brewed it, and wasn’t super impressed with the flavor. This time I received this tea as a sample I’ve been drinking it hot, and have been enjoying the mild fruity/citrus taste with a herbaceous undertone that kicks me awake in the morning. If DAVIDs doesn’t discontinue this blend I would consider picking up a bit for those mornings when I really need a kick of caffeine (gotta use up a guayusa blend + a roasted mate that I already have, though (although maybe I could buy some fruit pieces and make my own blend with what I already own until then? hmmm)).

Flavors: Citrus, Herbaceous

Preparation
185 °F / 85 °C 4 min, 0 sec 12 OZ / 354 ML
Kristal

come to think of it guayusa/mate would mix well with Just Peachy!

tigress_al

I think you are right, the flavours would meld fairly well together

Kristal

Perhaps i shall try it ;)!

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72
drank Caribbean Crush by DAVIDsTEA
415 tasting notes

Free sample! I told myself I wasn’t going to order from DAVIDs for a long time, yet low and behold they had free shipping on ANY purchase for a few days so I bought their tea filters + 2 50g bags of tea and got samples.

Anywho, I steeped this for about 10ish min in 200F water, then popped in the freezer for a few hours to cool off. The taste is a bit weak but it happens with fruit blend samples. I’m getting a nice fruity taste, a mix of apple with what I believe to be pineapple and it’s only slightly tart. Wish I was getting more cranberry, but again, 5g samples aren’t kind to heavy blends. This tea reminds me of Hard Candy from last year. I may purchase more when the weather warms up to get a better idea of the blend, but for $8/50g I can get a cranberry blend from iHOT for $5.75/50g (sorry, just got to throw it out there since DAVID’s fruit blends seem to be getting more and more pricey and I go through A LOT of iced tea in the hot months)

Flavors: Apple

Preparation
Iced 8 min or more 5 g 10 OZ / 295 ML
apieceofquiche

What’s the name of the cranberry blend from iHOT?

apieceofquiche

Thank you ma’am! I will have a look.

Kristal

Sounds good! :)

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85

gmathis posted a review of this tea today and I impulsively bought it. After experimenting with a peach/orange tea from Tetley and being disappointed I figured I’d like to try another orange blend, especially with iced tea season right around the corner.

I must say I was thoroughly impressed with this tea. It conveyed the taste of a mandarin orange perfectly- probably even better than any blend (which includes loose leaf!) I’ve ever had. I tried it hot and after it had gotten cold and both times were lovely. This tea was about $4/20 tea bags so it’s a really good deal for your dollar.

Flavors: Orange

Preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 5 min, 0 sec 12 OZ / 354 ML
ashmanra

My son-in-law bought some of this for me in Ireland before he and my daughter were even engaged and I really liked it!

Kristal

Nice! I saw this at Safeway (a grocery store I don’t go too very often) so I impulsively bought it. For once, it turned out to be a good decision! ;)

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79

This tea has been on my wish list for about a month, and I impulsively bought it after work today along with one other kind. For a bagged tea, this is quite good. It’s start with a mildly sweet honey flavor followed by a herbaceous taste from the lemon balm, lemongrass and other herbs. Quite nice; reminds me of honey vanilla chamomile from Celestial Seasonings except more herbaceous.

Flavors: Herbaceous, Honey, Sweet

Preparation
Boiling 1 min, 15 sec 10 OZ / 295 ML

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59
drank Bellini by Tetley
415 tasting notes

So I’ve tried making this tea 3 different ways within the last 24h to make iced tea. Here are my results:

Attempt 1: 5 tea bags in 2L pitcher, cold brewed for about 20h. Result: very faint peach/fruity taste with a gross, bitter aftertaste. (possibly from the orange peel since it’s the second ingredient) Quote from the husband “It’s like ‘mmmm, peach!’ but right afterwards: ‘ugh, ass!!’” Dumped the whole pitcher down the drain.

Attempt 2: brewed 1tea bag in 10oz of 200F water for 1 min, placed mug in freezer for 2h to cool down. No bitter aftertaste, but still, not a very strong peach/fruity taste.

Attempt 3: 2L of 175F water, 5 tea bags steeped 5 min then removed. I poured myself half a mug and placed mug in freezer to cool down quickly so I didn’t have to wait as long to try it. Peach/fruity taste is maybe a bit stronger, but still not strong enough. I had this problem with the peach tea from Celestial Seasonings as well. I guess since it doesn’t have hibiscus to give it “umph” it just tastes watery to me.

Overall not a repurchase for me. I will use this tea with Luscious Watermelon from DAVIDs TEA to use it up (faint peach with apple/watermelon taste should be nice) . At least with all my experimenting I used up 11/20 tea bags.

Flavors: Bitter, Peach, Tart

Preparation
Iced
tigress_al

Oh no! This is the one I recommended for you to try. Sorry! I guess I liked the fact that it didn’t have hibiscus

Kristal

haha no worries. Reading the ingredients it honestly sounded great. I think I have bad luck with peach & mango teas. I’m still going to try more Tetley herbal fruit blends for iced tea though :)

apieceofquiche

LOL @ the quote from your husband

Kristal

Haha I know. Luckily since I cold brewed a tablespoon or 2 of Luscious Watermelon in with Attempt #3 it’s quite refreshing and pretty good. No ass taste ;)

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80

Got this as a free sample. Seeing how much I like Lemon Myrtle I figured I’d like this one since it’s lemon balm with spices. Indeed so! Lemon Balm is less lemony than myrtle and more herbaceous. The mild spices are a nice touch too. Overall it’s a nice, relaxing blend. I may repurchase (or just buy lemon balm on it’s own) but I have a LOT of lemon myrtle to use up first (plus I want to dwindle my collection a bit more first. I’m at 30 teas, I’d like to get below 25 before buying anything new (unless something comes out from DAVIDs on limited edition…you all know how they are with reeling customers in with the constant new & limited edition teas).

Flavors: Herbaceous, Lemon, Spices

Preparation
Boiling 4 min, 0 sec 2 tsp 12 OZ / 354 ML

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70

Haven’t gotten to reviewing this. I’ve owned it since Christmas time which Is nearly 4 months ago!
Supposedly, this is supposed to be a mild aphrodisiac. Honestly, I cannot attest to whether or not that aspect of this tea works or not-haven’t really noticed a difference in my libido. However, what it tastes like is peppermint in the foretaste and herbaceous (prob from the blackberry + strawberry leaves and other ingredients) in the rest of the tea. Overall it’s alright. Dunno if I would repurchase based on taste.

Flavors: Herbaceous, Peppermint

Preparation
Boiling 5 min, 0 sec 10 OZ / 295 ML
drpastry

This so sounds like the Fernet-Branca of teas.

Kristal

haha well you may have to order & try it out ;)!

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78

The last green tea from the sampler pack. Interesting how this one is in a sampler pack yet it is not mentioned on the iHOT tea menu. Anywho, it’s a decent green tea. Not super sensitive to heat/steeping time/overleafing and has your basic grassy green tea taste. It doesn’t wow me, but I had no issue using it up. (Overall, I prefer green teas with a buttery or vegetal taste, like gyokuro or dragonwell)

Flavors: Grass

Preparation
175 °F / 79 °C 2 min, 15 sec 12 OZ / 354 ML

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Profile

Bio

I used to drink coffee, but it started to hurt my stomach so I switched to tea. A friend of mine introduced me to DAVID’s TEA and I couldn’t stop after that! I’ve now been expanding my scope beyond DAVIDs away from “candy-like teas” into more natural teas or flavourings. Current favourite stores include International House of Tea (iHOT) and Verdant Tea.

When it comes to tea ratings, I usually only ever rate them once. I know a lot of people on steepster do many tasting notes for the same teas depending on their mood, but I prefer to rate once and if my opinion changes, I will delete the old note and rate again. How I rate teas goes as following:

1-49: Teas I won’t buy again. Either the taste is disgusting to me, or it’s too bland, etc. I’m most likely not even going to finish the tin/bag.

50-59: Teas I wouldn’t buy again; I have to force myself to drink the whole cup to not waste it.

60-69: I’ll finish the cup and even the bag/tin, but I wouldn’t buy these teas again. Teas of this rating are “lacking something”.

70-79:Teas that are pretty good and ones I might buy again. Usually these teas are ones I have to be “in the mood for” and drink occasionally.

80-89: Great teas! Ones I will drink several times a week and often have in my stash :).

90-100: Favourite must-have teas!

My favourite types of tea are green tea and different types of “natural” herbal tea (different herbs, natural flavourings, etc). I cannot drink black or oolong teas due a sensitive stomach. I don’t really go for white tea due to its cost and the fact that it has just a little caffeine (if I want caffeine I’ll just go for a green tea and if I don’t I’ll go for a herbal-no sense on just having a little caffeine). I also like to do iced teas in the summer time, and then I’ll gravitate towards herbal fruit blends that are bagged to cut costs and convenience (it’s easier to throw out bags than clean a filter). Flavours I don’t care for include anything too tart, bitter, artificial, overly spicy or overly sweet.
Also, when I have time (usually when I’m not working much) I like to make tea lattes out of different rooibos blends.

My everyday green tea is Gunpowder since it is strong and not sensitive to temperatures or steeping time which is something I cannot be bothered with when I’m getting ready for work. Other greens I enjoy are dragonwell, sencha, and different Chinese greens. I’m not the biggest fan of yunnan greens since they are so finicky (although I do like gyokuro)

On a day to day basis I usually have 2-3 cups of green tea and several more cups of different herbal blends.

Besides tea I also work at a couple libraries (I am finishing my library tech diploma),am in my early 20s and got married in Oct 2014.

Location

Northwestern Ontario

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