672 Tasting Notes
This is the best orange flavor I’ve found in a tea, plus there’s a delicious hint of creaminess here. When I was picking out teas I had a hard time deciding whether to get this one or not, because I have no love for darjeeling, but I adore all the citrus, especially orange. Happily this darjeeling isn’t bugging me at all. It’s like a mellow black base, which is great, I’m not even getting the muscatel, just beautiful orange.
Preparation
Quarter to Tea order came in :) Most of the teas in this box are new to me, but this one I did try awhile back.
It tastes completely different now though.
The old one had lots of sweet carrot notes. Really buttery and creamy.
This has like an earthy coffee flavor?
This is my first cup out of the bag, so I’ll be experimenting with different steeping parameters, but I didn’t oversteep or overheat the water, so I’m not sure what’s going on. Hmm, a tea mystery. (I just started reading Murder on the Orient Express, and it’s thrown me into a detective frame of mind.)
Couldn’t hold out any longer — I opened the new bag of Brioche. There’s such a nice subtlety to this tea. It’s flavored, but the flavoring doesn’t stand out distinctly from the tea, they are melded together in fresh baked goodness :)
The flavor has a nice broth aspect, but it’s kind of weak, and I’m really wondering how much leaf I should be using here. I did about 1.5 teaspoons this time (the leaves are wiry, so a bit hard to measure). Is this one of those tablespoon teas?
On the plus side, very smooth and no astringency at all.
Preparation
I’ve made this twice since I got the new bag and messed it up both times. First I put it in the steeper right after making Mother’s Little Helper, and the eucalyptus fumes came through in a big way. The second time I was just not paying attention and made the water too hot. I’m sure it’s good and I’m relieved to have some dragon well on hand again, this is just to say I have yet to get a clear reading on the new batch. I’m getting lots of mineral notes in this cup, but it may just be the over-heating.
Another sample. Points to Capital Teas for putting visible chunks of real mango in this. It paid off, because it tastes really mango-y. The smell of this for some reason was a little weird? But it tasted good.
There is a lot of other fruit in here too, but to me it didn’t really come through distinctly.
Oh happy day, my Teavivre order came in! This was one of the samples. I think I might be getting a bag next time. It’s really good, but how to describe? I’ve gotten some really unusual tasting teas from Teavivre, but this is not one of them. This has got a really classic profile. Rich, smooth, dark. I wouldn’t have thought ‘sweet potato’ on my own, but when I read it in some of the other notes, I could kind of see how that fits. No astringency at all, which is nice. I want to say this reminds me slightly of Golden Fleece, but I drank that so long ago I’m not sure that’s an accurate memory.
Preparation
Got a sample sachet of this and I couldn’t remember if Hot Cinnamon Spice is the mildly cinnamon tea that H&S makes, or the cinnamon cabinet in a cup that H&S makes.
Gentle Reader, I am sorry to report that it is the latter and I am going to have to dump this cup, because it is SO ridiculous. I will eat snickerdoodles all day, I LIKE cinnamon, but I cannot take this.
Also, I resent that the tea comes sweetened with something? I don’t know what it is, but I can add my own sugar if I want it, thanks. The cinnamon in this would actually be much more bearable if it wasn’t so sweet.