4170 Tasting Notes

86

Additional notes: This was a fresh batch from the Ovation sale! I don’t know how old the other sample I had was, but since this was super fresh, I knew it would taste better. It does! But the first steep was three minutes and wasn’t as good as the second steep at seven minutes. It seems like the longer the steep time, the better this one gets. I really love a stronger bergamot, surprisingly, but this one is mild. But it perfectly blends with the pieces of raspberry and orange in the blend. I’m uping the rating a bit from 82.

Preparation
Boiling 7 min, 0 sec

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

93

This was the one tea I bought from Alphakitty that I was a bit worried I wouldn’t like (thanks, alphakitty!) BUT it is delicious!! Fresh mint teas are the best! This one reminds me of Zentealife’s Chocolate mint rooibos that I absolutely love, but this has a black tea base. I don’t think this batch had peppermint pieces, but that is fine with me. The other ingredients are great. There are some cocoa nibs and raspberry pieces in there. I really only tasted raspberry on the first couple of sips, then it gets a bit fainter. The chocolate gets a bit overpowered by the mint but this tea tastes like a mintier thin mint cookie. So this will be my go-to mint teas for morning and the Zen will be my go-to mint tea at night (rooibos). I’m very impressed with this one. I haven’t not been impressed with the many Ovation teas I’ve tried, which just makes it sadder that they are done.

Preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 5 min, 0 sec
Alphakitty

Oh yay, glad you love it! This is a really strongly flavored blend but it’s so tasty.

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

80

thanks again, Starfevre for the trade! Another Ovation tea I get to try. What I love with this one is that the steep color is actually caramel colored! After a four minute steep, I don’t find much caramel flavor, though I did see three caramel pieces in the infuser. There is a lot of caramel pieces, at least in the amount of tea in the bag I have. Maybe I should have added sugar for more of a caramel flavor? The black tea itself has a very deep and unique flavor, that I haven’t tasted before. I like it!

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

98
drank Almond Cookie by Joy's Teaspoon
4170 tasting notes

Additional notes: Sample sipdown! This has to be one of my older teas, but I was savoring this one. I’ll miss it, though I do have an ESP Emporium blend that is a lot like it. I never stopped being MYSTIFIED by this MAGICAL blend! It is so almondy and sweet. The scent is almost better than the flavor. Any tea lover REALLY should try this one at least once!!

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

87

I haven’t forgotten to review this one! thanks for the samples! The oolongs from Tea From Taiwan are the best quality. It’s amazing that even though they are so similar, they are also very different. This one smelled very sweet in the package! Also, even in the samples there are these little packets of something to keep the oolong fresh… almost like how new shoes come with that in the toes! Not to liken this tea to shoes or anything!

First steep // water is very cooled // 45 sec. First and foremost this is very sweet and smooth, silky! It’s almost like a lighter milk oolong, though I don’t think this is supposed to be a milk oolong. It doesn’t have any of the floral/peachy characteristics that oolongs usually have. It’s very good, even on the first cup!

Second steep // water is cooled // 50 sec. This cup is still very much like the first… still no peach/floral/vegetal. The flavor is stronger though. The water might have been a bit too hot. It’s just very sweet, sugary, and creamy!

Third steep // 60 sec. This still isn’t very peachy/floral/vegetal but this time there was a little hint of a cinnamon sugar flavor. It couldn’t have been any actual cinnamon sugar, since my cup stayed the same the whole time. And the last of the cup was a hint of peach! This one was a very light flavored oolong… not as complex and changing as so many of them are.

Preparation
0 min, 45 sec
Kittenna

They are little packets of desiccant to keep the tea dry :)

tea-sipper

thanks for telling me, as I wouldn’t have guessed.

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

96
drank Organic Ceylon by Utopia Tea
4170 tasting notes

thanks so much, Azzrian for including a sample of this in that generous package I’m still amazed that you sent a while back. :D This was EXACTLY the tea I was looking for this morning. At this point, I assume ceylon is much different than this: brisker and more straightforward. But this one seem to have all of the elements that the best black teas have. The leaves smelled like a sunny late summer field of dry grass and the first sips tasted of it too. Then there is a lovely malty chocolatiness to it. And even a bit of smoke, which I love. I almost had a russian caravan this morning… but since it is rare (I’m the only one to write a tasting note for it!) I’m really only going to reach for that caravan when I am most craving it. This tea had a very complex and lovely flavor. A bit bread like. No astringency at all. I really like this one! I’d consider buying some if I’m in need of a nice black tea!

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

81

I have no idea why this wasn’t a tea I chose when I ordered three sample packs from DT, since chocolate raspberry is entirely my thing… but thanks to Starfevre, I get to try it anyway. Maybe I just didn’t want to try all their chocolate teas at the time, or they had other teas I’d rather try like the oatmeal cookie. This doesn’t have too much flavor. I’d say the very sweet raspberry flavor is the strongest, rather than the black tea or the chocolate. I expect not to taste the black tea with DT though! I think I’m picking DT’s black teas when I want a black tea but not so much caffeine. But maybe I’m assuming it has less caffeine since the black tea isn’t as strong? This is nice, but I’d prefer more flavor!

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

98
drank Silk Dragon by The Tea Merchant
4170 tasting notes

Additional notes : Had three steeps of this one this time and the flavor stayed consistently vanilla until the last drop. Unlike last time, when it was still very good but tasted less like vanilla by the third steep. I must have timed all three steeps just right, and you could probably get many many more steeps from the same leaves. This one is very divine and luxurious.

Nicole

Luxurious is the perfect word for this.

Michelle

This is a good one for sure.

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

94
drank Maple Splash by Tealyra
4170 tasting notes

Another one I didn’t try yet from my Tealux order… and I’m the first to write a tasting note! I’m hoping that it is because this one is so new to Tealux… and not because no Steepsters are ordering from Tealux! I think they introduced it right before I ordered. I love this one! It’s like a cinnamony mapley kettle corn! I’m not sure what the 71% black tea means… though the black tea isn’t a super strong one. But that’s fine, since the flavors here are so nice. An entire piece of popcorn fell into my infuser, so it does have a hint of a popcorn flavor. And I love the combination of the maple and cinnamon. It does actually smell and taste like I added actual maple syrup to this. Since this was a sample, I would definitely order a full two ounces of this (but that wouldn’t be for a while now.) And when I looked on tealux.ca they have the Maple Souchong back in stock! I was worried they were getting rid of that one when they introduced two other maple teas. I’ll have to try that one too.

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

87

This one was sent straight from the creator, Starfevre! thanks so much This is the third Adagio tea I have now with hazelnut, but that seems to be the favorite flavor of Adagio teas that I’ve tried, so it’s nice to have a few Adagio hazelnut options. That seems like it would sound excessive to a non-tea drinker though! With this one, it seems the hazelnut is still at the forefront. I really don’t get any of the caramel or cream flavor, sadly. I think the hazelnut in the blend might just be overpowering the other two, but of course, I don’t mind the hazelnut! It does seem like a really great combination for a blend though. I could also taste the bittersweet flavor of the chocolate chips. There were a few in the infuser!

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

Profile

Bio

Hi! I love tea and trying new ones – it adds a bit of variety to my day! Books, music, TV & movies are my thing… and tea, of course.

Some of my favorite tea shops (still operating):
birdandblendtea.com
teavivre.com
52teas.com
svtea.com
whisperingpinestea.com
justea.com
harney.com
Dammann Freres
fusionteas.com
Javateaco.com
Lupicia
Octaviatea.com
Davidstea
eco-cha.com
what-cha.com
singleoriginteas.com
teasenz.com
tealyra.com
Mandala
verdanttea.com

Favorite tea shops (RIP):
butikiteas.com
steapshoppe.com
steepcityteas.com
aquartertotea.com
dellaterrateas.com
zentealife.com
angrytearoom.com
theteamerchant.net
joysteaspoon.com
tealiciousllc.com
Rivertea
Specialteas

My icon photo is Richard Mayhew from the graphic novel ‘Neverwhere’ by Neil Gaiman, Mike Carey & Glenn Fabry.

Most of the teas listed in my cupboard are actually sample sizes. I don’t really have 2,000 ounces of tea around here! Many of my teas have only one teaspoon left… maybe two. But I like keeping them in my cupboard list for reference to what I could be sipping. Usually, I write tasting notes once for each tea. I’m still drinking them, just not writing tasting notes each time!

I’m always in search of: Hattialli, Qu Hao black, Jin Jun Mei, teas using marshmallow root.

My dislikes: hibiscus, ginger (unless in chai), turmeric, bee pollen, charcoal type flavors

My ratings:
95-100 – Super awesome deliciousness favorites – cupboard essential
80-95 – Also pretty delicious
65-80 – Pretty good
50-65 – Okay
1-50 – Probably won’t want to sip it again

I’m planning on being a Steepsterer as long as there IS a Steepster, so if you’re not hearing from me, that means something happened to my health… if you know what I mean. (Or as evidenced by the great computer hiatus of 2019, something happened to my computer… I have a dumb phone so can’t access internet on that. As of 12/20/21 my wifi might start getting unreliable.)

Happy sipping!

Location

USA

Following These People

Moderator Tools

Mark as Spammer