111 Tasting Notes
I decided I’d go ahead and do my tasting note, even though like I said before, I diluted it on accident. As it cooled, it got sweet enough for me to taste it enough to up the rating, and be able to give a decent review. (I’ll still put in another one tomorrow, after I taste it again, just to be doubly sure!)
Smell: Dry, in the bag. OH MY GOODNESS BLACKBERRIES! But creamy blackberries. And I think I could smell a hint of vanilla. It almost smelled like a blackberry dessert of some kind, cobbler or something. Either way, a good aroma. Steeping it was about the same, but more blackberry and less of everything else. Still yummy, and exciting!
Taste: At first, I couldn’t taste a lot, and it was a bit astringent, and had a sour mouthfeel (anything bitter leaves a sour aftertaste for me.) BUT—I could taste a hint of the blackberry as I swallowed, on the back of my tongue, and as it cooled and finally accepted the two packs of raw cane sugar I added, the blackberry came out, very smooth, really sweet, a bit tart (good tart) and the vanilla came out in a creamy note. When it finally got really cold, it sucked and tasted really bitter, but I don’t like any tea cold unless it is iced and mean to be iced, and this tea I don’t think is. It is VERY good, VERY yummy, I cannot WAIT to try cream in it, and it will make an EXCELLENT desssert tea, as well as a pick me up! Yay!
Unfortunately, I have yet to fully read and finish anything Jane Austen wrote. :( As I dig deeper into this tea, I need to go pull out some of my Austen novels to enjoy with it…
Preparation
Now that would be really cool! Sipping this tea reading her novels! I hope you like it more once you get the steep down but if you do not that is okay. I had a love hate relationship with this myself which is why you got so much of it lol. Its good but I think I wanted to love it more than I did. My feelings won’t be hurt if you don’t fall in love with it. Still, its not a bad tea at all and worth having until you have more things you like more :)
I actually do really like it! I know that with a better steep, and maybe some cream (though it’s good without) it will be awesome! That’s why the rating went up, is because once the flavors came out it was like “AHHHH!!”
Yup I liked it with cream too :)
Me also!
THANK YOU SO MUCH AZZRIAN!!
So I’m drinking this out of a mug, and I think I may have put a bit too much water for the amount of tea. I think I ended up steeping 1 tsp of tea in probably 10 oz of water instead of 8, so this tea is still good, but the flavor is diluted a bit, I think. That being said, I am going to wait on the tasting note. I like making sure I did not mess up. So far though, the taste is good, so I think it will be excellent!
First time I drank this, it was ok. 3 minutes was the maximum suggested steep time and it tasted a bit bitter. I also forgot to add my review. Lol
Second time, first review.
Smell: Eh, you can’t really smell the tea. I’d blame the bag, but I’ve had lots of fragrant bagged teas. Once steeped, the smell is nice and fragrant but not too much.
Taste: I steeped it two minutes and it was AMAZINGLY good! A nice and smooth EG, not too strong, and very accepting of cream. :-) All in all, I’m very happy!!
Preparation
To be honest, I usually don’t like straight black tea. It’s too bold and kind of bitter to me. But a good English Breakfast and good black tea, once adjusted to the perfect taste, is great. And this happens to be that tea!
Smell: You know, since it was bagged, I didn’t take the time to really smell it, but what I did get was just a smooth, bold black tea smell. But good, you know?
Taste: It’s rich, a bit sweet with a nice strong flavor. I added a little bit of honey, no sugar this time (see, I can enjoy tea with no sugar! Though I have to think back on that because I may have? I’m almost 100% positive I didn’t though) and it came out amazingly well. The honey gave it a pleasant flavor and smoothed out some of the bitter that I find in straight black teas. And it had the slight caffiene kick I needed, and it was just really yummy for a black tea! Unfortunately, I only have one more bag………:-(
Preparation
My last sample that I haven’t logged from Fusion Tea Room!
So this tea…
Well…hmm…see…I……it was good. But…….it……….sigh It wasn’t what I was expecting, to be completely honest. But let me just review it and then explain.
Smell: Dry, in the bag. CARAMEL CARAMEL OH MY GOODNESS IT SMELLED CAKEY AND YUMMY! Though I did not taste chocolate at all. I mean, I guess maybe it was there….somewhere. Steeping it smelled WAY caramel-y! Yummy.
Taste: On the site it said this tea could be drank straight. I’m sorry, but THAT IS NOT TRUE! For me, at least. When I drank it, it wasn’t sweet and I couldn’t taste anything yummy. (Maybe I steeped it wrong, I don’t know, but at 8 mins and boiling, and following all instructions, twice, I don’t think so.) So I put in one packet of raw cane sugar, and that gave it a bit of a slight caramel taste. Slight. One other packet and it was SUPER sweet and SUPER caramel tasting. That was all though. It had a creamy caramel taste, a rich mouthfeel (haven’t been stretching my tea vocab, I need a start) and a pretty caramel color. Some slight cream may have made it better, maybe even more steep time. All in all, the tea wasn’t bad, I just couldn’t taste lots of yummy stuff. Sorry FTR, this one I don’t think is for me! (But I enjoy it enough to finish it, and keep trying to see if maybe it was something I did…I’m just not convinced this tea isn’t a slice of heaven, all of the other reviews were SO GOOD. So yeah, another go.)
Preparation
Yeah instructions are not always best – you will find as you have here you have to play around to find what suits you. While I PREFER a tea I don’t have to add stuff to in order to make it amazing you will find with many and in my opinion especially the dessert type teas – you do. I always add cream and or sugar to my teas that should be sweet but are lacking. I mean chocolate cake tea SHOULD in my view be sweet! Don’t feel bad about adding things to it if that is what it takes but yeah if tea does not arrive and taste the way I feel it should without adding a lot of goop to it I usually won’t reorder.
I like it enough to reorder, but I have to definitely play around with it.
Thank you Fusion Tea Room!
Smell: Dry, in the bag. It was very spicy, and I could definitely smell cinnamon and cardamom, and a hint of orange. It reminded me of chai a bit. There’s also a lot of ginger. Yummy smelling, but strong, so I couldn’t sniff it too much. LOL Steeping there was a lot of cinnamon going on, but that’s ok with me.
Taste: The cinnamon and all the spices were at the forefront, which is nice. It’s not too overpowering or strong. The orange is there, but not too much. It’s subtle. I do taste it though, and I like it. I also want to say I can taste the rooibos, but I’m not sure because I haven’t had enough of it yet to know it’s taste. Same with the tulsi. It’s all very yummy though, with a warm taste that isn’t too spicy. :-)
Other tasting tidbits: two packs of raw cane sugar. No cream, but I think I saw a review that said it was good with it, despite the orange. I’ll try it next time.
Preparation
Thanks to Naomi at Joy’s Teaspoon for this!!
Ok, it took a few minutes of tweaking to get this right, but after I did…
OH.
MY.
GOOD.
GRACIOUS!!!!
Yeah, that good. Ok, maybe……a little under that, and I am not really physically showing the excitement, but I can enjoy this tea. A lot.
Smell: Dry, in the bag. Chocolate-y. But dry, unsweetened cocoa chocolate-y. And I’m not too fond of that, usually, but this smelled yummy. Steeping it smelled like that, but kind of burnt, which I’m just going to atrribute it to the fact that it was in BOILING WATER. So yeah. Hot.
Taste: The first sip with no sugar was yucky, and had no real flavor to me. Sorry. Second sip after 1 packet of raw cane sugar, was sweeter, but still no good. Packet #2…eh, almost. A bit chocolatey, but not perfect. It took 3 packets for me, which is ok because I like sweet. I let it cool a bit, added a few extra chocoalte chips, and then took a few more sips.
The chocolate flavor is the bittersweet of dark chocolate, and again, unsweetened cocoa. To me, it is a subtle flavor at first, and then kind of grows, but it isn’t a strong, overwhelming flavor. Honestly, that’s kind of what I want, BUT at the same time I REALLY LIKE THIS TEA. After a few more sips, I added some cream and that finally made it perfectly chocolatey for me and just YUMMY. The chocolate is creamy and rich, but again, a bit bitter. You have to enjoy chocolate that’s not overly sweet (like dark chocolate) and you have to like something that still has the taste of tea. For me, I loved it, though it did take a few adjustments.
I used 1 1/2 teaspoons, 8 oz. of water, 212 degree and 4 minutes steep time. Add 3 packets of raw cane sugar, a few extra chocolate chips, and a little bit of cream and you are good to go! Just don’t go overboard!! :-)
UPDATE: I let this cool a bit, to “warm” rather than hot, and it is SOO GOOD! SO SO GOOD!! The chocolate has gotten a bit sweeter, like milk chocolate, though there is still the bittersweet notes. It all mixes perfectly, and the cream makes it SO MUCH BETTER!! Upping the rating…
