politicalmachine Send Message

I found some of this in the back of my cupboard! Still smells amazing, light and fruity.. great finish.

I had this with a ton of honey today, and decreased the steep time. It tastes a lot better sweet. So from now on, i’ll liberally dump tons of honey in it, this also means a rating bump upwards.

I just opened the pouch of Boo-berry, I’ve been hard at work trying to finish the entirety of all my stash so that I can focus on getting fresh teas. I’ve changed my attitude on the procurement of tea for the past while, and that’s partly the reason I haven’t made a great amount of entries on Steepster lately. I realize that if I have a big collection of tea that gets stored for long periods of time, you won’t ever finish any and thus you will have a whole bunch of teas (probably past their prime) sitting in your shelf for 2-3+ years. I opened up a pouch of green tea earlier this year that was at least 3 years old, and it really didn’t taste good anymore, so much to the point that I threw the whole package out.

So now, I’m determined to finish what I have first and then procure more along the way.
I’ve been looking forward to this one (I love blueberries!) but it has been somewhat of a letdown. The taste doesn’t really come through after steeping, from dry leaf it smells great and full of flavor but that doesn’t translate into the finished product. The tea comes out slightly astringent and mellow. It’s fully drinkable, but lacks the bang and the wow that I was expecting. I don’t taste the marshmallow at all, perhaps there’s not enough of it? Or perhaps I’m not picking up that flavour profile.

Alas, I am confused. I don’t really know what this is. Chai Coffee tea! Baked Coffee beans so it doesn’t taste like coffee. It actually doesn’t. I get Chai.. and I’m not sure what else.

On another note, I actually got this sample from Craig Buntin himself last summer and forgot about it until I discovered it today (perhaps past the freshness peak). Story is he showed up for one of my Marketing classes and asked for help with marketing the product. It’s a pretty interesting concept but I think I would still need to be convinced that this is a “premium” product.

Curiosity has led to what I would describe as the high end teas found in this world.. Much to the same way we have A and then B list actors/actresses, premium tea is rare to find, and in the mass market of today.. especially with flavoured teas, tend to be on the lower end side. I mean certainly, loose leaf is better than tea dust in bags but just because it’s loose, really doesn’t mean all that much.

I think the general conception for most people is that if it comes loose, it’s the good stuff. But that’s far from the truth. Once you really start to realize how much quality differs on how fresh the tea is or really how intact or how “young” the leaves are. By my definition, if you get a tea, and you open it up and find half of it is cut up little pieces, 1/4 of it is just twigs, and then there’s the dust.. well that’s quite simply a crappy tea that’s offset by added flavouring and other stuff.

Welcome to what I would actually call something of quality; not that this is anything high end, but up there, before the point prices become unreasonable. Teamasters (Stephane) has been running his blog for a few years and he sell legitimate tea from Taiwan. Fresh. It even comes with a harvest date, that’s as specific as it can get. He writes up tasting notes and usually photos of all his tea that he sells served of course in its appropriate teaware. I was really enticed to try some of this “good stuff” out and it looked really nice.

I received this long ago but was kind of saving it until i drank down my large collection of rather lower end stuff from all over. My stash is still getting smaller and I’m still pretty unwilling to buy more stuff until most of what I have is done. Needless to say, I finally got to it today. Nice large rolled up balls (for a lack of a better word) and the still really fragrant smell really do look so much better than what I am used to. These happen to be handpicked so, all the more better. As noted, it is a very nice and light and sweet oolong, very appropriate for the price and the low altitude that it is grown at. Also as noted it lacks character of the higher altitude stuff but is great for a beginner like me.

This was one of those, “heeeey, what is this??? Let me try!.. oh waiit. you don’t have stock?” teas.. if that made any sense. I’m always a sucker for new things so when I saw this, with macadamia nuts (which I love). It was a purchase decision. Clearly though, I think when they put up this tea, it sold out way too fast and vanished from shelves for a good few months. I remember on the Davidstea fb fanpage there was one fellow who asked every week if they would restock it…

Eventually though, i forgot about it.. until now. Got 25g to try it out, also seeing that davids noticed the interest and demand for the product and raised the price from like $6.75 to.. $9.. wonderful.

The leaves remind me of grape leaves just more smaller pieces, taste is nutty and vegetal though not at all unpleasant, brew was fairly dark, it was enjoyable – innocent. Pretty easy to drink this one though it doesn’t come across as something memorable. I read somewhere that mulberry tea contains some extract that inhibits the absorption of carbohydrates? Oh noo. (well good for women looking to lose weight perhaps). I need caffeine.. and you take away my carbs that give me engery? nooo.

In all cases, nothing bad about this tea but probably not something I would really crave for constantly. It does come slightly pricey as you have to use more leaf than a standard black per brew.

Hey look! I found some more of this! I thought i ran out long ago..

This was one of my first Davidsteas, I remember being sold on the smell of it (which is I guess, how they make most of their business). I’m actually pretty happy about this one; it smells wonderful, looks and tastes almost like white wine. It’s also on the expensive side, which i really wonder how i coughed up $20 for a 100g bag/tin.. Kinda sucks that they don’t make this one anymore, I would say that this was one of the better ones I’ve tried.

It’s finally cold outside, came home and decided that I need some tea. I added a good amount of honey into it making it a very nice smooth warm drink =)