218 Tasting Notes
Decided to give this another go some months later.
It doesn’t really give me the orange and cream push pop type flavor this time, but I do wish the orange was more zest and less, not orange juice, but Sunny Delight. blah
Also tried it iced and the answer to that one is a big no.
Just not my thing really. Tolerable if I need some hot caffeine, but not something I will ever specifically desire.
Well, this looks to be one of those situations where I read the description and reviews and wonder if I received something completely different from everyone else.
Over the last few days I’ve had this a number of times, playing with the steeping parameters (leaf water ratio, steeping time, even the temp) each time. It doesn’t seem to make any difference. The dominant flavor is that of leather. Maybe a little wood, though that seems more tied to the scent of the steeped leaves and not so much in the flavor.
Not going to rate this right now as I am still struggling with the dissonance between my expectations and reality. This is absolutely nothing like it was described. No fruit, no floral, no sweet, no roasted, just tanned leather.
In fact this very much reminds me of a pu’erh I tried once minus the mud (and thankfully rotting fish) flavor.
On the plus side, there is no astringency I can detect. I’d also say its not bitter, but I fully admit my perception there can be off as compared to most people.
I started a pitcher of this cold brewed before I left work last night and I am glad I did. While its in the low 50s outside, its currently 75 here in the office and I’ve been running around moving hardware around and getting stuff setup for today’s tasks. And I am literally sweating and really wishing I had worn shorts this morning.
So a nice fresh pitcher was so lovely to have and I swear I’ve just about guzzled half of it already.
This might actually be improved upon by a cold brew. When I iced it, I felt like it was maybe too weak or didn’t have enough presence. But as cold brew for about 16 hours, that base is there just fine.
Not my favorite, but looks like this is another long neglected tea that I will be sipping down through iced/cold brew this spring/summer.
Growing up back in the 70s and 80s, there were two types of tea. Lipton tea bags and some disgusting instant iced tea mix that I believe we tried once and never bought again.
- Edit – It was Nestea, and at the time, it really was quite horrible. At least to my tastes as a kid.
My parents, especially my Dad, were coffee drinkers, so we almost never had hot tea. That was usually saved for the rare times we would get take out from the one and only Chinese restaurant in town at that time.
Instead we always had it cold. My Dad would take an old large glass bottle that had once contained orange juice (back in the days before everything was made out of plastic), stick in some tea bags, and fill about 1/3rd full of boiling water. And there it would sit on the kitchen counter for what seems like an obscenely long amount of time. And then he would fill the glass bottle up the rest of the way with tap water. And there it would sit, tea bags and all, until we finished it I don’t know why we never put it in the fridge. It was just what was done and I never thought to question it.
To this day, no matter how my tastes have evolved, no matter how many excellent teas from all over the world I have tried, I still want to go back to that Lipton tea bag flavor when it comes to iced.
And, with summer fast approaching, I know I’m going to want a lot of iced tea. And while I have tried so many excellent teas over the years, I can’t help but want iced tea that tastes how it tasted when I was a kid. Instead of me going out and buying a bunch of tea bags, I decided to see if I couldn’t try something that was the same, but yet of a higher quality than tea bags.
And thus this.
Whew! Took me a while to get to the point, didn’t it?
Anyway, my order came in and while I have slated this in my mind for iced, I felt like I should at give it a go hot at least once.
And what does it taste like? Very reminiscent of those tea bags from so long ago. There’s a bit of astringency, but its not harsh and its completely expected. Its not the kind of flavor profile I normally look for in a hot tea anymore, but if I were stranded on a cold mountain top somewhere and I was craving tea, this would be acceptable.
If I were to rate this now, it would likely sit at a solid 50. But my intentions for this aren’t for hot, but cold. And I’ll reserve my rating until after I’ve tried it that way.
I’m still on a cold kick, so I decided to cold brew this one over night.
Funny enough, it tastes almost exactly how it tastes hot, its just cold. I think the base tea is exceptionally well set for cold brews, but the cinnamon scenting in this adds an extra component that I’m not sure on how I feel about this as cold.
I wish I had an idea on what the base of this actually is. I’d love to give it a try without the cinnamon scenting.
Finished this up last night as a cold brew. Well not officially finished off as there’s a pitcher of tea sitting in the fridge. But its no longer in my stash, so I’m considering it done. :)
Not as fond of it cold brewed as it tends to seem just a wee bit more harsh than if I hot steep it and add to ice.
