96

June Wedding! This is another borrowed tea from the last Here’s Hoping Traveling Teabox (thanks so much to tea-sipper for organizing and to all that contributed teas to the box!) I’ve never sampled a tea from Georgia, so I was happy to get the opportunity to try this. I only kept a single serving of this, and prepared it as a hot cuppa. It was that first cup of the day, as I thought a black tea would be a good choice after a rough night of sleep.

The aroma from the cup was very malty and honey-sweet, reminding me immediately of some of my very favorite Chinese blacks (like Black Dragon Pearls), so I had a good feeling before even taking a sip I was going to enjoy it. The taste confirmed this! The tea had notes of malt, apricot, a hint of warm cherry at the back of the tongue, and a honey sweetness and very subtle smokiness that lingered in the aftertaste. It was a very smooth cup, lacking bitterness and holding only the most subtle of astringent drying of the tongue after the sip. Overall, this is the exact kind of black tea that is to my tastes, and now I’m very interested in trying more Georgian teas!

Flavors: Apricot, Cherry, Honey, Malt, Smoke, Smooth

Preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 4 min, 0 sec 1 tsp 14 OZ / 414 ML
Bluegreen

I wanted to try Georgian teas for a while but was deterred by their historic reputation of being cheap and mass-produced. Yours is the second or third very complimentary review of Georgian What-Cha teas. And if they truly taste more like Chinese and not Indian teas – I must try it!

Thank you for such a detailed review, that’s Steepster at its best.

Mastress Alita

I certainly want to try more too, since I’ve only tasted a single cup, but this one came off with a lot of similarities to Black Dragon Pearls or TeaSource’s Hunan Black Reserve, both China blacks I really like. I’m not as much a fan of Indian blacks (at least not Assams) and it certainly didn’t fall in that spectrum of black teas for me.

Steepster is great, though sometimes I feel like my Wishlist after reading reviews each morning is getting as out of hand as my actual tea shelf, hahahaha!

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Bluegreen

I wanted to try Georgian teas for a while but was deterred by their historic reputation of being cheap and mass-produced. Yours is the second or third very complimentary review of Georgian What-Cha teas. And if they truly taste more like Chinese and not Indian teas – I must try it!

Thank you for such a detailed review, that’s Steepster at its best.

Mastress Alita

I certainly want to try more too, since I’ve only tasted a single cup, but this one came off with a lot of similarities to Black Dragon Pearls or TeaSource’s Hunan Black Reserve, both China blacks I really like. I’m not as much a fan of Indian blacks (at least not Assams) and it certainly didn’t fall in that spectrum of black teas for me.

Steepster is great, though sometimes I feel like my Wishlist after reading reviews each morning is getting as out of hand as my actual tea shelf, hahahaha!

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Bio

Hi! I’m Sara, a middle-aged librarian living in southern Idaho, USA. I’m a big ol’ sci-fi/fantasy/anime geek that loves fandom conventions, coloring books, simulation computer games, Japanese culture, and cats. Proud genderqueer asexual (she/they) and supporter of the LGBTQ+ community. I’m also a chronic migraineur. As a surprise to no one, I’m a helpless tea addict with a tea collecting and hoarding problem! (It still baffles me how much tea I can cram into my little condo!) I enjoy trying all sorts of teas… for me tea is a neverending journey!

Favorite Flavors:

I love sampling a wide variety of teas! For me the variety is what makes the hobby of tea sampling so fun! While I enjoy trying all different types of teas (pure teas, blends, tisanes), these are some flavors/ingredients I enjoy:
-Dessert/chocolate/vanilla/caramel/cream/toffee/maple
-Sweet/licorice root/stevia
-Vegetal/grassy
-Floral/lavender/rose
-Spices/chais
-Fruity
-Tropical/pineapple/coconut
-Bergamot (in moderation)
-Roasted/nutty
-Tart/tangy/hibiscus/rosehip

Disliked Flavors:

There are not many flavors or ingredients that I don’t like. These include:
-Bananas/banana flavoring
-Hemp/CBD teas
-Smoke-scented teas/heavy smoke flavors (migraine trigger)
-Perfumey teas/extremely heavy floral aromas (migraine trigger)
-Gingko biloba (migraine trigger)
-Chamomile (used in blends as a background note/paired with stronger flavors is okay)
-Extremely spicy/heated teas
-Medicinal flavors/Ginseng
-Metallic flavors
-Overly strong artificial flavorings

With the exception of bananas and migraine triggers, I’ll pretty much try any tea at least once!

Steeping Parameters:

I drink tea in a variety of ways! For hot brews, I mostly drink my teas brewed in the western style without additions, and for iced tea, I drink teas mostly brewed in the cold brew style without additions. Occassionally I’ll change that up. I use the https://octea.ndim.space/#/ app for water-to-tea ratios and use steep times to my preferences.

My Rating Scale:

90-100 – Top tier tea! These teas are among my personal favorites, and typically I like to keep them stocked in my cupboards at all times, if possible!

70-89 – These are teas that I personally found very enjoyable, but I may or may not feel inclined to keep them in stock.

50-69 – Teas that fall in this range I enjoyed, but found either average, lacking in some way, or I’ve had a similar tea that “did it better.”

21-49 – Teas in this range I didn’t enjoy, for one reason or another. I may or may not finish them off, depending on their ranking, and feel no inclination to restock them.

20-1 – Blech! My Tea Hall of Shame. These are the teas that most likely saw the bottom of my garbage can, because I’d feel guilty to pass them onto someone else.

Note that I only journal a tea once, not every time I drink a cup of it. If my opinion of a tea drastically changes since my original review, I will journal the tea again with an updated opinion and change my rating. Occassionally I revisit a tea I’ve reviewed before after a year or more has passed.

Inventory:

My Cupboard on Steepster reflects teas that I have sampled and logged for review, and is not used as an inventory for teas I currently own at the present moment. An accurate and up-to-date listing of my current tea inventory can be viewed here: https://tinyurl.com/xjt9ptx3 . I am open to tea trades (within the United States only!) at this time. Note that I will not trade teas that I currently have in a quantity less than 50g (samplers, 1oz packages, etc.) or any teas that are currently still sealed/unopened in my cupboard.

Contact Info:

Feel free to send me a Steepster PM, or alternatively, check the website URL section below; it goes to a contact form that will reach my personal e-mail.

Location

Idaho, United States

Website

https://teatimetuesdayreviews...

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