Mandarin Orchard Green Tea (Decaf)

Frikkin ACE! Stupendous :D
It is indeed tantalizing my tastebuds. Yum Yum!

A Berry Frui-tea July! I figured it was time for another bagged tea revisit, and I found this one at the back of the ol’ cupboard. I had five bags left, and figured I could do a cheeky sipdown if I made a quart of iced tea and used the last teabag for a hot cuppa.

I remember I used to really like this tea, and I’m very picky with bagged green teas. But now… ya… no. It just tastes odd to me. It just seems that bagged greens just can’t do it for me anymore. It at least doesn’t taste overwhelmingly-artificial-mandarin like most of the mandarin green and white teas I’ve tried of late, but the flavor tastes… off. A little… chalky, or metallic. I’ve had one other decaffeinated green tea before, and it also tasted metallic to me, so I wonder if my palate just picks up the processing those teas go through as having a somewhat metallic taste? I’m also finding that the green tea tastes more hay-like than grassy… but I imagine that probably has to do with the age of the tea, because… err… I just checked the expiration date on the box, and am not willing to admit that date publicly. (This is probably the SAME BOX I remember enjoying so fondly in the past! Daaaaaaaamn… I uh… should probably clean out my cupboards more often… At least drinking old tea never killed anyone, right?) I’ve certainly tasted worse (PTSD flashbacks to being a poor college student and thinking it was okay to buy Flavorite brand bagged green tea…), but this certainly just doesn’t taste right. Bleh…

The iced tea (brewed hot and then chilled) was only a slight improvement, but not by much. It still tasted very weak, and the same sort of off-putting hay/straw and metallic flavors seemed to be there beneath the mandarin flavoring. Meh.

All this did was make me want to steep my Green Tea with Mandarin Orange from TeaSource… The mandarin in that particular tea is a bit strong and a little artificial tasting, but the sencha base is really nice and grassy at least, and while the mandarin is a little cloying by itself in a hot cuppa, it makes a really nice cold brewed tea, and is even better steeped in lemonade. This just feels like a very, very weak comparison to that loose leaf tea now. Though I can see why I liked it back in the days before I had nice loose leaf teas…

I’m still not rating this as harshly as I feel I should, just based on the age of the tea, which may have a lot to do with the tea feeling so weak. But I still feel like that weird metallic flavor has more to do with the decaffeination than the age, since I’ve encountered that issue before, so it isn’t entirely off the the hook.

My favorite decaf, for a sweet, relaxing treat before bed.

I like this tea and drink it regularly. I do wish you could it had a stronger citrus flavor. I do like it better with sugar, but it is fine on its own.

I actually didn’t really like this much at all. I detected a bitter note after my first taste and was forced to add sweetener, which I hate doing. I believe a good tea should stand on its own. I’m hoping I will be able to salvage some of it by adding another tea mixed with it. Maybe a fruity herbal of some sort.

Citrusy flavour, but I would have wanted more. I prefer citrus-flavoured teas. BUT the aftertaste of coriander disturbs me, not expected from a mandarin/orange-flavoured tea. I guess you would love it if you love coriander though.

i had this at a confrence. it was awful. it might have been the water used, but Im skeptical to try it again.