15 Tasting Notes
This was another one sent to me by Jaime! Thanks so much!!!
Let me start off by saying that I don’t really like pear-flavored things. Why? I have no idea. I guess that it’s not really the most rational thing, but I just “think” that I don’t like pear things. However, I am adventurous enough to try pretty much any tea at least once and I do like ginger, so I thought that I would give this one a try.
I totally have to agree with TeaEqualsBliss on this one. Her review for this tea sums up my initial thoughts perfectly when she talks about how the ginger pear ratios change before and after this tea steeps. This is another tea that definitely smells different before and after you steep it. Before I smelled more ginger than pear and after it was all about the pear with some ginger. At first I was like… Uh oh. Pear. But it actually smelled pretty good! The flavors blend together really well in this tea and there is just the slight bite of ginger that makes it interesting. Something pear that I actually like!
As this one cools, I notice the flavors come out more as well. In fact, I tried this as a small glass of iced tea the other day and it was very refreshing! In fact… I was at the AJ’s in town yesterday and saw that they had a few Tea Forte boxes and this was one of them, so I bought a box!
Thanks again Jaime for the sample! This is one that I probably wouldn’t have tried on my own, but I really like it!
Hi again fellow Steepsters! Long time no see! I’ve been incredibly busy with end of semester projects, graduation (eek! Well, and yay!) and getting ready to move. I have still been drinking tea though! So some of the reviews to come may be from a bit ago or impressions from a bit ago and the present. Soooo… Here we go!
This was sent to me by Jaime! Thanks a ton! I’ve been wanting to try this forever.
The first time I steeped this, I used the water from my Sparkletts water jug dispenser (the hot side). Well, apparently it didn’t get hot enough that time and/or I was pretty impatient to make my tea (also likely), because after it steeped for about 4 min I tested the water and it was only lukewarm! I figured that I would try the tea anyway, but even as it cooled it still only tasted like water with some spices and pepper. Not too pleasant. I’ve never had a pu-erh tea before, but I figured that that couldn’t be right.
After chalking the first steeping experience up to user error, I tried it again yesterday. This time, I made sure that the water was hot enough, then steeped the tea bag for 4 min and then gave the cup a good stir to mix everything together (as recommended by Jaime). I could pretty much just taste water spices again while it was hot, but as it started to cool, I could really start to taste and smell the chocolate as well as the orange, cinnamon, and nutmeg. This is totally different from cocoa. If you are looking at this to be a replacement for that, then I think that you will be disappointed. But if you just look at this tea as being a different kind of beverage “option,” then you might be pleasantly surprised. This was a totally different tea experience for me, but you know what? I think that I liked it! I am going to try it one more time before I rate it and decide if I want to buy a box once I am finished with the samples.
I’ve made this tea before and haven’t really been able to get into it. But I keep trying. Why? Because while it is steeping it just smells SO good! Like delicious sugar cookies with a hint of citrus. Also, I think that a lot of times that this tea ended up “weird” was due me doing other stuff and just forgetting that I made tea. The first time I think that I made the tea too weak. Then the next time I let it steep for too long. Another time I forgot about it for a few hours and let it get all cold. Total tea fail.
However… Last night I steeped this in a 16oz ceramic mug using two tea bags and boiling water for about 5-6 minutes. And you know what? It was delicious! The husband walked by and was like, “wow, what tea is that?! Smells like cookies!” I actually think that I need to try and grab another
box (or two) while I can still find it!
But still, while reading the tea ingredients on the box, one question remains: what exactly is “natural sugar cookie flavor”? Is there a sugar cookie tree out there somewhere that I don’t know about?!
I teach an early morning fitness class at a local gym and have recently gotten in the habit of making a cup of tea in my travel mug as I stumble out the door at ye olde early hour. This has been especially helpful lately because of both a.) the caffeine, and b.) my travel mug working as a hand warmer as I trudge over to work on the progressively chillier winter mornings.
This seemed like a good time to try the malted chocomate from my 52 teas order. I previously have only tried one mate, so I am not an expert by any means, but the previous one I tried (from another company) was… eh, not so good. I prepared this mate as a tea latte with soy milk and I believe a tiny splash of torani vanilla syrup (hey, it was still very early, so I don’t totally remember, ok? Lol.)
This to me tastes like chocolate and bananas and the soymilk added just enough creamy delicious taste to make it a satisfying morning drink. I don’t get any malt flavoring at all, unless that is what I am picking up as being banana flavoring. It certainly wasn’t bad… just different from what I expected. I noticed that other people noticed the banana-y taste too, so I do wonder. I think that this certainly woke me up. It was really interesting – I felt more awake, but not jittery at all like I tend to get with coffee. I will have to try this again to see if the same thing happens or if I was just imagining it from reading about mate!
Backlogging
I received my first 52 teas order last week! Yay!!! :-D
This was the first tea that I opened. The smell is delicious!!! I’m not if it smells exactly like strawberry pie, but it is a really delicious sweet vanilla-y strawberry smell. I don’t find the smell to
be too heavy on the cinnamon, which I was a little worried about, and I don’t find it to be artificial
smelling at all. It is the perfect balance of ingredients! I tried this first without any milk or sugar,
steeped for 10 min. I could definitely smell the deliciousness while I was drinking it, but couldn’t
detect a whole lot of taste (I was starting to get a bit of a cold at the time though). However,
altogether i would say that it was a pretty enjoyable tea-drinking experience and I decided that I
would make sure to try it again after I started to get over my cold.
