16025 Tasting Notes
Final tea left to try from Tea Desire! Somehow, I managed to save this one for last even though it’s been taunting me since I bought it! This tea is $8 for 50g, which is the high end of Tea Desire’s pricing. The sales lady shared with me that this one is pricier because all of the tea leaves are soaked in Champagne; personally I just find that really interesting.
I ended up buying 50g of this one, which is the smallest amount you can get at their store, and man did I get a lot of it! The amount of dry leaf that equals 50g is about enough to fully fill one of the tins from DAVIDsTEA. It’s a lot!
The dry leaf smells very rich and decadent and juicy! There are lots of large bits of currants, and lots of full currants as well! Smelling it, I’m reminded of really high end jams and jellies. It’s so sweet smelling too! Very, very sweet. Almost too sweet in fact (but not quite). The predominant smell here is definitely juicy black currents! Mmmm
Steeped, the liquor is a darker golden yellow that smells EXACTLY like the dry leaf. Same juicy black currant scent and sweetness. This might just be the best white tea I’ve ever smelled. If this scent could be captured into a perfume I have no clue how much I’d be willing to give for it! Probably a whole lot.
First few sips: Oh it’s so sweet! It tastes just like black currant jam, with the light taste of white tea and champagne kind of floating on your tongue in the aftertaste, along with a much lighter tasting currant flavour. I have no clue how someone could justify adding a sweetener to this – it’s SO sweet as is. Every sip is perfect! There’s absolutely no bitterness or astringency either.
Honestly, this might be the best white tea I’ve ever had. I’m going to have no trouble going through my 50g of this! For sure I saved the best for last! Even if this is a one hit wonder and doesn’t resteep well, the first cup more than makes up for it (I am excited to resteep though).
However, if you don’t like the taste of currants or really sweet teas this one probably isn’t for you – just a warning.
Preparation
Since I just put in a Della Terra order for six new teas to try, and since I have a package on the way from the VERY kind Dala, it’s probably a good idea for me to actually try all the teas I bought earlier this week. I only have two teas left to try from my purchases, so I think the goal for the rest of the night will be to try them both, starting with this one!
I saw this one on their website when I was looking at different things to try, and even though this is a green tea I was really curious! I checked to see what people on Steepster thought of it and, well, the tea wasn’t even listed here – let alone reviewed. I had to add it in! When I went in store to go check it out, the sales lady said it was very new – one of the newest teas they were offering, but that it seemed to be doing well with fans of green tea. I’m not really a fan of green tea, so I’m not really sure what I should be expecting.
However, upon smelling it, I was sold! I don’t smell stinky vegetal (and seaweed like) green tea – I smell fresh fruits! Like listed in the description, I honest to goodness smell sweet, juicy mangoes and lychees! I smelled every other tea they had in stores with lychees in it, and this is the ONLY one that smelled distinctly of lychees. YES! I love love love lychees! All of the bathroom products in m apartment are lychee scented (and soap, body wash, shampoo, lotions), and lots of my make up has lychee scent in it too! Mmmm! The great part is that this doesn’t even smell artificial (not that it is, but most lychee teas seem artificial to me) at all! It’s kind of interesting, actually, considering the blend doesn’t have any actual bits of fruit in it – just “natural flavour”. The dry leaf looks quite pretty too; it’s a whole range of bright cheerful colours!
For my first cup, I steeped 1 tsp for three minutes (the high end of the spectrum for their recommended steep times). The liquor is a sort of golden yellow, and smells more grassy than it did as dry leaf. It’s still quite fruity, and I get a very full aroma of mangoes, with a much subtler scent of lychee. The sickly sweet “cocktail syrup” smell the dry leaf had is gone now, but it still smells pretty delightful.
The green tea base is pretty present – definitely not covered up at all. For me, that’s a bit of a downside, but I can see it being a plus for others. Right alongside the green tea base is a very authentic mango taste. The lychee flavour is there too, but not as present and not easily detected without some searching. The after taste it leaves is really present, and it DOES remind me of a Asian fruit based cocktail. I like this tea! It’s not totally what I expected, but I like it. I guess you could say ‘come for the lychee, stay for the mango’? It’s not something I can see myself craving on a daily basis or anything, but right now it has a place in my cupboard.
I’d like to try steeping it for a shorter period of time in the future, I wonder if in doing that the green tea base would be less present and therefore wouldn’t cover up the taste of lychee as much? And, dare I say it, would sugar enhance the flavours or make it taste really artificial? Hmm…
Preparation
Sweetened with around 1 tsp. of sugar & enjoying with some raspberry jam covered toast! Mmmm…
I had an issue with some bitterness last time, but nothing similar to that this time! Some very light floral notes here accompanying the light notes of berry – I’m sure that’s the Reisling win adding to the tea.
Preparation
This is definitely my favourite DAVIDsTEA, by far. Everything about it is sweet and comforting, and it reminds me of home. On my first few days in Saskatoon I drank the greater part of 50g worth of this tea. It made me feel at home in, well, my own home which at the time (and still sometimes now) felt so foreign to me.
The dry leaf smells like dark chocolate and strawberries – and whenever I have someone over for tea (family or friend) this is the first tea I make them smell (I love opening up my tins and making guests smell them all). I’ve smelled other chocolate strawberry teas, but this one I honestly the best one I’ve ever smelled. I do tend to overleaf this one – usually putting in closer to 1 1/2 tsp. instead of 1 1/4 tsp., but oh well. The last batch I bought has next to no visible bits of strawberry, and yet I can still smell the strawberries quite strongly.
I can drink this straight without adding anything to it, and I firmly believe that adding sugar or milk would ruin the perfect balance of this tea which is why it’s the only tea in our house that I’ve expressly forbid Tre, my roommate, from drinking. I just will NOT let him ruin it with excessive amounts of sugar.
Unfortunately I let this cup steep just a bit too long, so it does have a faint bitterness to it, but that’s my fault and not the tea’s. I won’t hold it against you Love Tea #7. Even so, I still taste rich chocolate and subtly sweet and juicy strawberries. There’s even a creaminess to this tea that you wouldn’t (or maybe you would) really expect. This is a perfect dessert tea great for curbing those inclinations to sit down and eat a straight tub of ice cream.
Oh, I really needed this tea today. I was just about to delve into the pale of strawberry ice cream in the freezer – but Love Tea #7 you saved me! For whatever reason, I’m feeling deeply home sick today. Well, not exactly home sick – I don’t miss my home as much as I do my workplace and all my friends from work.
I miss you Danielle, Haley, Alyssa, Tyde, Stewart, Mandeep, Aime, Renee, and Kevin! So much! Really, I just miss everyone.
It’s been a long day…
Preparation
When I first bought this tea I had no idea what was in it. I hadn’t read the ingredients list at all – I was just sort of interested in the name and sort of on a whim asked if I could smell it. It smelled like creamsicles to me, but heavy on the citrus. And there was a very, very faint smell of something I thought was mint. I got a very small amount of it to try – and I’m happy I did, because this has turned into a favourite herbal tea of mine that’s perfect for before bed on those days when everything has gone all wrong.
I now have about 100g of it – I find it THAT good.
To me, the dry leaf smells most predominantly of gooseberries and oranges – I still don’t get an overwhelming smell of the Spearmint and if there’s one thing I dislike about this tea, that’s probably it. I appreciate and welcome when a nice slap in the face of mint. For anyone who has never been fortunate enough to try cape gooseberries, you really should! They come in the coolest little husks and taste like a tropical tomato. The most similar taste comparison I can think of is a tart pineapple.
Steeped, the liquor is a brighter, just verging on a orange, yellow colour. The smell of the steeped tea, like I’ve seen mentioned here, is definitely creamsicle, with a freshness truly brought out by the Spearmint. And taste wise, I can taste the vanilla creaminess of a creamsicle too. The mild tartness definitely comes from the gooseberries, but it’s a tartness I really enjoy! And yes, way deep down I can taste spearmint too – more so on the tail end of the sip in a way that makes this a very refreshing tea.
I just love this tea though! At any temperature it’s delicious and occasionally I can even get a second steep out of it, albeit one much milder. Still good though!
A Gooseberry and Orange Creamsicle.
Preparation
Out of the four teas I bought from Tea Desire, this is the one I was most interested in! It’s a flavoured green tea AND a Chai, both of which are tea types that are very hit or miss for me. However,smelling the dry leaf has me really excited to try it.
It’s hard because I have no idea how to explain how it smells, and yet I know EXACTLY what it smells like. In my senior year of high school in commercial cooking class we vegetarian “Sweet and Sour Meatballs”. The meatballs themselves were made with crushed nuts, yogurt, cottage cheese, and different sorts of shredded cheese. What the dry leaf really reminds me of is the “sauce” that the meatballs were cooked in. Sadly, I don’t remember all of the ingredients that went into the sauce, but the ones I do remember are ketchup and apricot jam (both in quite generous amounts), and then I know there was some sort of spice added to the sauce as well. The dry leaf smells exactly like this! And, that sauce was really weird – but SO good.
Following Tea Desire’s steeping instructions I’m steeping a generous teaspoon of this for about two and a half minutes. Honestly, I have no idea what to expect – but if this tea tastes anything close to how it smells I’m sure I’ll like it.
Steeping, the most prominent scents are cinnamon, cloves, and apricot. Maybe it’s because I’ve already made an association to those Vegetarian Sweet and Sour Meatballs, but I also smell a very sweet sort of tomato scent. The liquor actually reminds me of the colour of dried apricots or apricot jam.
First few sips… Mmmmm! It does taste more spicy than it smells, but in a good way. This is definitely a very sweet and spicy tea. Most prominently, I taste the cinnamon, pink pepper kernels, apricot, and cloves. I’m happy I’m not getting a distinct sense of ginger – it’s by far NOT one of my favourite flavours and I tend to avoid food and drink in general with prominent ginger flavour.
I love this tea, and I don’t have anything like it in the rest of my hoard so I feel like, once the 50g I have is gone, I can restock this pretty much guilt free! A success on the Chai and Green Tea front!
Preparation
This is the first tea I’m trying out of the four I got from Tea Desire! Unlike the other teas I purchased, when I went to smell this one in store (they open the tins and then wave a fan over the leaf which blows the scent towards you) I was only able to smell the black tea base (since it’s described as an “East Frisian’s delight” the base is likely some sort of ratio of Assam and Ceylon) – none of the vanilla. Since only some of their teas have the ingredients listed I had to ask what was in this one. The sales lady told me that it’s black tea with vanilla bits and a natural vanilla flavouring. I was hesitant to purchase because I couldn’t smell any vanilla, but she promised I would taste it so I decided to give it a chance.
At home, I was able to smell the dry leaf much more closely, but I’m still only able to smell the black tea base – no vanilla. For my first cup I’m using 1 heaping tsp. for my mug and steeping it with boiling water for 4 minutes (the recommended time is 3-5 minutes so I just went right in the middle). Steeped, the liquor is a darker amber colour. It smells strongly of black tea, but again I don’t smell anything vanilla-esque.
First few sips and I’m hit with a very full bodied black tea. Black tea is definitely the dominant flavour here. A take a bigger sip (almost a gulp really) and let it sit in my mouth for a while. The longer it sits the more I’m, at this point surprisingly, tasting vanilla. After swallowing, the vanilla taste really hits me in the aftertaste. It’s a very creamy sort of vanilla, but it doesn’t taste artificial at all either. I understand where the “velvety” part of the name comes from.
The more I drink from my mug, the more I’m able to taste the vanilla without searching so hard for it. However, the black tea is also tasting fairly bitter as well. Once there’s only about half a mug left I add about 1/2 a teaspoon of sugar and a small splash of milk. This really tones down the bitter black tea, while still letting the taste of the black tea be present. It’s also really brought out the taste of the vanilla – which is another plus.
I do enjoy this cup, but I also dislike that I have to add both sugar and milk to enjoy it – I prefer a tea I can just drink straight. I don’t know if it’s something I’ll repurchase once it’s gone. Since it sort of needs the sugar, it’s also something that Tre can drink without me feeling like he’s wasting the leaves by adding a lot of sugar to the cup. I’m sure he’ll be excited for there to be another tea in the house that he can drink without my nagging him.
Preparation
I’ve been neglectful! I have probably about 3 days worth of dishes piled up in my sink (many of them various teacups or mugs). I should probably wash those. However, there’s no rule that says I can’t do that while enjoying a cup of tea. I think I’d like to try my Genmaicha again. I really want to like green tea!
Again, I’m gonna do this following the parameters McQuarries has set out on their website. And, unlike last night, I’m also going to resteep these leaves a few times.
First cup: much the same as last night. Really nothing different to comment on.
Second cup: I resteeped for the same amount of time (1 minute). It’s actually a pale green this time, not a yellow. Smelling it, well, I smell seaweed. This time I’m also smelling a nutty aroma which I couldn’t smell last time, even though I could taste it.
First sips, I taste roasty toasty nuttiness and green tea – no seaweed! I need a few more sips to make sure: yeah, there it is in the aftertaste. But it’s oh so subtle. I can handle this. If that’s all the seaweed I’m going to taste in this cup then I’m pretty sure I can enjoy it. Really, it’s not too bad. Maybe it’s just that it’s an aquired taste? Maybe the more I drink it the better it’ll get.
Third Cup: For this steep, I kept my time at 1 minute. Toasty and actually really quite yummy. I’m not getting any seaweed taste at all. The nuttyness is pretty much gone or, at least, it’s very subtle now. I don’t think I’d want to push past 3 steeps. MAYBE I could do a fourth, but at the moment I don’t really want to push it. I do think I might have to up my rating a little bit.
I think, next time I drink this, I’m going to play around a little bit with the steep time on the first cup. But, I probably wont drink this for a little while – I still have the teas I picked up from Tea Desire to try yet (two of them are flavoured greens), and it’s been awhile since I had some of my favourite DAVIDsTEAs, so that might be my next cup of that day.
Also, I now have 9 freshly cleaned teancups/mugs in my cabinet! Shame on me for letting them all sit in the sink for so long.
Preparation
Up until now the only straight green teas I’ve had have been the sort of ‘generic’ type of bagged teas (Lipton’s straight green tea comes to mind; I currently have a box of it sitting on my dishwasher for when I have guests or family over). This is my first real loose leaf, unflavoured green tea. I bought it today at McQuarries on a whim. Somehow I’m going to find a way to enjoy green tea! However, I’ll be honest – I have very low expectations that I’ll actually like this tea.
Regardless, this is another tea that I had to look up (on their website) recommended steep times/portions and what not for since it’s not listed on the little baggy that it came in. For a cup, 1 tsp. steeped for 1 minute. Again, this is my first time making Genmaicha teas, so I’m doing this exactly like how they recommend to. And, it’s worth noting that since I’ve never tried another Genmaicha I’ll have nothing to compare it to directly.
The dry leaf smells like seaweed. I don’t smell anything I can qualify as rice. I should note that I hate seaweed. I hate sushi, and seafood in general. Bleck. This cup smells really gross…
Although, the smell of it steeping was enough to wake Tre up. I think that’s good?
Liquor is a pale to medium yellow colour. Now that it’s steeped, the seaweed smell isn’t as strong. Looking at it, it reminds me of melted butter. On that note I’m going to take my first few sips. Actually, it’s not as bad as I expected. I do taste seaweed, and I can taste green tea. But, there’s also a sort of sweetness to it that I wasn’t expecting. I can also see the “roasty” sort of taste comparison that’s been mentioned on other Genmaicha tea reviews. As I get closer to finishing off the cup I’m tasting more of a nuttyness, and less seaweed.
I think I’d be willing to play around with other Genmaicha teas if I could get my hands on smaller amounts; there’s no way I’d buy another 50g of this. And, I will play around with what I do have to see if I can find a way to better enjoy it. Perhaps it’s because my expectations were so low, but I’m pleasantly surprised right now! If I could find another version of Genmaicha with a less pronounced seaweed taste then I’d probably like this a lot more.
As my first straight, loose leaf green tea I’ll consider this a success.
sounds neat!