When I was ordering tea from this company with my groupon, I wasn’t feeling super confident about their blends so I decided to spend part of it on this jasmine green because I thought, hey, at least that should be safe, right?
Apparently not. I knew going in from the photo that pearls these are not. I don’t know why you would have a plain jasmine green and call it “jasmine pearl”, but there you go. If I had looked more closely I would have noticed that the ingredients say green tea and “jasmine flavoring”, which may have been a tip-off. Most jasmine greens are referred to as just jasmine greens since the jasmine is added by drying the tea with jasmine petals, not adding flavoring to the tea once it’s dried. I mean, it could be a nomenclature thing but somehow I doubt it. In the pouch the jasmine smelled artificial and plasticy, and the steeped tea is not much better. Perfumy to the max. The two minute steep was apparently too much because there’s a slightly bitter taste to the whole thing. Perhaps a one minute steep would be better but somehow I doubt it because it’s pretty artificial overall. It’s not undrinkable, but I can’t imagine anyone who likes jasmine teas enjoying it (and those who don’t like them certainly wouldn’t!). Oh well, you live and learn.
I don’t trust Tiesta. A year or two ago, they made a whole bunch of fake accounts on Steepster and reviewed their own teas. Kinda shady.
http://steepster.com/discuss/1070-fake-ratings
Thanks for that link, I hadn’t seen that post, though I documented my discovery of all of that recently on my review for the tea mentioned in that thread (their Victorian Earl Grey). I had bought a groupon for the company a long time ago without knowing anything, and then when I went to spend it recently I regretted buying it but didn’t want to waste the money. :P I definitely won’t be buying from them again.
No, I do not trust them either. I won’t ever buy from them. And, this tasting note makes me trust them even less… Jasmine Pearl is one of those names that one should trust to be PEARLS. It shouldn’t be something that someone just names their tea automatically because it’s a jasmine tea. Just because it’s jasmine doesn’t make it a pearl.
It’s really a good thing that I’m not rating this tea because I would have given it a much lower number.
plenty of lame-ness all round for Tiesta
I totally makes me wish I was really active on Steepster before I bought that groupon. I think I had just joined and so I didn’t check out the company on here before I bought it. Thankfully now I am not likely to make the same mistake.
I think I was a little over-charitable with my rating. Based on the whole experience. This tea really is an affront to jasmine teas. I may have wasted my money anyway but at least now if someone checks this site they may be warned away from it.