53 Tasting Notes
Consistently tasty, and always a nice evening treat. I guess I’m kind of backwards from most people… I drink black/darker teas in the morning, and then when the evening comes I drink green tea before bed. Am I weird?
Anyway, I love the aroma and taste of this tea. It’s so complete and well rounded. The first time I drank this tea (a long while ago) my mom took notice and now we enjoy this tea together a few nights a week. She loves the stuff.
My only gripe is that I have to keep a spoon around to stir around the resting matcha powder on the bottom once in a while.
Preparation
From Morning to evening that’s my order.
Black/oolong/green/white/herbal
Oh wow, I don’t drink nearly that much tea during the day… I usually choose one tea to take to work, usually one that I can resteep a few times throughout the day (unfortunately Ryokucha is one that I cannot reinfuse more than twice.. maybe not even that much).
I’ll be honest, I’m normally a darker tea kind of guy… I like deep, complex flavours, and as I’ve recently discovered I’m not a fan of added novelty flavours like caramel or coffee because they don’t taste like what I expect…
That said, this is a very light tea. A very, very light tea. However, somehow it manages to be on the right side of the “tastes like water” fence. It has just enough going for it to give it a unique, calming tea with almost some sort of buttery finale.
I had some sort of food poisoning last night so my body was recovering from a long battle (that it lost). I wanted to treat it to some sort of soft, calming tea.
I believe I chose the right one for the job.
Preparation
I am not a believer that white tea should be brewed with lower temperature, even though many vendors instruct so. I am a believer of using hottest boiling water for white tea. May or may not work for you :D
Many people on here have said that bai mu dans are good for migraines, though I cannot confirm that. Sorry to hear about the food poisoning. Never fun.
I think the instructions said 195F which I was actually really surprised with, but it turned out great.
Oh wait! That was for the White Rose Bai Mu Dan. I don’t know if the same applies to the plain one, but I don’t see why it wouldn’t.
I loooove this one. Seriously at the top of my list. The flavors are just so delicious!
@Ricky The plain one says to brew at 160-165. Their latest method for brewing Downy Sprout [which is phenomenal, by the way] involves using boiling water, but that’s also at a really short steep time. I think that hotter water may affect caffeine content in the tea, as well.
Actually the temperature I put up was an estimate of what I was hoping I steeped the leaves at. At work we just have a water boiler kettle, but it doesn’t have a thermometer or anything so I have to guess based on time and how much steam is coming off if the temp is right. In any case, I may not even have waited long enough to bring the temp down to 180. =S
@takgoti, thanks for the tip. I’ll be sure to suggest this tea next time someone in the house gets a migraine.
I’m trying this tea again today…
Still has that odd taste that I’m not quite sure how to describe. My friend described it as “fishy”, so take that as you will. Essentially, it is a slight bit easier to drink than last time, but I still had to lower the rating a bit because I think I gave it too generous of a rating last time. At least it’s slightly more drinkable this time around, but I don’t get any enjoyment out of it like I do with my Samovar teas…
Is Samovar really that untouchable?
Preparation
Maybe you’d prefer the method Carolyn suggests: 1g of leaf per oz of water, pour boiling (or almost boiling) water over the leaves and let steep for 15 sec. Decant and throw away this steep. Boil more water and steep for 20 sec. This is your 1st drinkable steep. Continue steeping for 20 sec til you find the cuppa too weak for your taste then increase by 10 sec.
I do normally follow a similar set of steps, but I think the fundamental problem here is that I dislike the taste of the leaves. I’m following the same procedures that I would when I steep Maiden’s Ecstasy so I’m fairly certain that this simply isn’t to my liking… Thanks for the suggestion, though.
I have some of this tea on hand, and will start on it next week. It will be interesting to see what it tastes like, in light of your recent reviews.
Best wishes,
Sherubtse
First try at this one… Not much to say other than I was struggling to finish the first cup. I don’t know why, but it looks like I’m not turning into a fan of these “flavoured” teas with random bits of things that sound delicious, but in actuality aren’t meant to be in tea…
Too strong of a sweet taste for my liking, and the aroma was almost a turn off right from the start. Unfortunately, I’m going to have to continue trying this one since I have a whole packet of it so I may revisit the review of it later, as usual.
Also, for the record, I usually love anything with the word “caramel” in it.
Preparation
Have you tried Botanical Indulgence’s Creme Caramel Oolong? It’s ahhhmazing!
Hmm, no I haven’t… But unfortunately it looks like their location and method for ordering teas seems not so international friendly. I’m sure I’ll find a decent caramel-ish tea in due time.
This is my first time really trying a pu-erh other than Samovar’s Maiden’s Ecstasy. I have to say, this tastes much more “organic” than the former, and the bit about floral notes is completely true. I’m actually surprised as to how different this tastes, while still maintaining that typical “earthy” pu-erh charm.
I’m only on my first infusion so I may have to adjust the score later on, but as of right now I’m a bit turned off by the floral taste I’m getting. Perhaps after a few infusions it may go away.
Preparation
It didn’t go away… and now I’m wondering if I’ll be able to cope with the overpowering taste for quite a few more tries until the bag runs out. Either that, or I’ll get used to it.
This tea is on my list of ones to drink. Will get to it after I use up the Sencha I have on hand.
This is a very interesting herbal tea. It’s pretty complex in its flavours, given that there are quite a few things thrown into the mix here.
First thing you’ll notice is the smell as you open the packaging. What a comforting smell of apple pie.
Then, the next thing you’ll notice is the colour. The beetroot pieces really come out here, causing the entire drink to have an almost rosy look. Not quite what I expected.
You’ll then be intoxicated by the aroma, which in turn will prompt you to take a sip, causing you to sink down into your chair and let out a big sighhh.
It’s not technically a true tea, being a herbal and all, but if you’re in the mood for something unique yet tasty, this is worth a try. Especially if just reading the description raises your eyebrows a little bit. Now I just wish I had ordered more…
Next time I’m going to try this in the form of a latte. I can only imagine how interesting that’s going to be.
Preparation
This is my “tried and true” tea that I always go back to after sampling different types of teas or even novelty ones. I think it’s kind of a taste that you have to learn to love — as with most pu-erhs — because it’s not flavoured and is simply earthy and dark. I like it because it gives me a very interesting and sustained energy boost for a few hours without any sort of crash at the end.
It was one of the first teas that I ever tried (I skipped the bagged teas) coming from being a coffee/latte kind of guy, so I guess that explains my liking for the pure darkness of this one.
I’m still playing with the steep times though. Sometimes I only leave it in for 45 seconds (the first two steeps) but then with later steeps I leave it in for longer, sometimes 5 minutes. I believe most of the caffeine comes out within the first 2-3 steeps, and the strength starts to drop after the 3rd or 4th steep. It’s good enough to last me through a long day.
Preparation
Have you tried Numi’s Chocolate Pu Erh? I’ve had the bagged version, but I think it does have some coffee/mocha qualities.
I just checked out their site and it looks like they don’t provide shipping options to Canada, or at least it’s not made easy.. I’m usually wary of flavoured pu-erhs after my experiences with something called Coffee Pu-Erh from a local tea shop.. My taste buds were simply confused as to what I was drinking, haha.
Haha! I love coffee flavored teas! But then again I also love almost all CIATCs (conondrums in a tea cup)!=D
This tea finally arrived the other day, and so I figured I would take some to work and give it a try for the day. The first impression I got when I smelt the leaves was that it was going to be a very unique and interesting citrus oriented tea. That was a pretty accurate first impression.
Honestly, for the first few sips I was wondering if I was going to like it enough to finish the tin I got. Luckily, those thoughts were washed away fairly rapidly once I got more into it. As teaplz perfectly explains, this is much more of a “dark citrus” as opposed to the “sunny Florida orange” citrus. As such, I would be comfortable in saying that this is a good tea for the winter. How appropriate, given that this morning we have a nice and crisp -16 degrees Celsius outside, with a “feels like” factor of -22. Perfect for this tea. ;)
