3705 Tasting Notes
Ancient Alphabet challenge – V
Yum – another favorite holding up. I should be able to enjoy a couple more mugs. I recently rediscovered fresh pineapple with frozen whipped cream on top and how delicious a combination it is, so this tea is a bit like that. Pineapple!
Ancient Alphabet challenge – U
So I got a bit creative with ‘U’. I was going to have this tea to represent ‘N’ but I realized I only had two other ‘U’ teas and they were much newer than this one. So I’d rather have this one represent ‘U’. This tea with these OLD chocolate curls really needs to be sipped down. It’s fine! It’s a roasted oolong, so I can’t really taste the chocolate at this point anyway.
Mastress Alita’s sipdown challenge – May Tea #1: A grape/muscatel tea
I tried to go for my oldest Darjeeling, which just happens to be this one. I thought I would focus on sipping this down, but it’s still so good I don’t want to finish it. Some of these older harvests of teas, they really make me wonder what happened with some of the newer harvests (NOT saying I tried the newer harvest of this in particular). But this harvest is so old yet so nuanced. Full and rich, not really a typical Darjeeling but also has those fruity grape notes. To make it a fun tea theme day, I also drank ‘Lovers Leap’ alongside Bird & Blend’s ‘Crush & Blush’. These two teas were great together!
Ancient Alphabet challenge – T
I can’t believe this is coming up in the Ancient Alphabet lineup? That is a shame, as not only have I never seen this available at other tea shops, but it’s quite a nice tea that I don’t have often enough. The name is apt. It IS like toasty caramel on a perfect for this combination rooibos base. I made sure to get a big caramel piece in the infuser. It’s still available at Fusion Teas! I’d keep it around. It fits that Comfort Tea niche in the cupboard.
I had to get a tasting note for this one in, especially as it is part of the allergen sale. I LOVE this one. It’s the ultimate of dessert teas. It’s very sweet, coconut, banana and mango. Very fresh coconut even a year later. Very banana and coconut on a lovely rich rooibos base. It tastes like a banana/coconut cream pie. The name is accurate! I have enjoyed this one a few times, so my sample is almost gone. I would love to get more.
Steep #1 // 1 1/2 teaspoons for full mug // 20 minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep
Steep #2 // just boiled // 12 minute steep
edited to add: The very long second steep was even more full and rich. The ultimate dessert tea.
Did I love the name of this one! Vanilla! Mint! I had to try it. Sadly, there is Eleuthero Root in this blend, which to my tastebuds is very medicinal flavored and it’s drowning out my dreams of what I wish this tea to be. I hardly taste any vanilla and what should be peppermint tastes like spearmint to me. There should also be honeybush here, but I don’t notice it. Maybe that is where the vanilla flavor is located. So whatever Eleuthero Root is has kind of ruined this one. But again, happy to find all this out for the small price of one dolla.
Steep #1 // 1 teaspoon for a full mug // 35 minutes after boiling // 1 minute steep
Steep #2 // 30 min after boiling // 2 min
Flavors: Medicinal, Spearmint
Ancient Alphabet challenge – S
Aw, I really liked this one but now it’s quite faded. I could swear I’m only tasting blackberry leaves. I had to check the ingredient list to make sure that there isn’t actually blackberry leaves here. There aren’t. So it’s sad to say this has aged terribly. I’d buy it again but only when the cupboard is tamed. (Not like I can buy it again.) Well, that throws what I said in my last tasting note out the window…
Ancient Alphabet challenge – R
Now that this is ancient, the smoke is all but gone BUT that means there is room here to notice that this base black tea is quite delicious. Not a horrible Ceylon covered in smoke, but probably keemun. It’s delicious. All of these old teas have really been shining. So I think this Ancient Alphabet challenge was successful in reminding me that the old stuff is still worth steeping up, even more so than I previously thought.
From the Cinco de Mayo sale from last year. I’m trying to write some notes for the last few teas before then, if they happen to have a sale again this year (though I will be refraining from that sale this time around.) This is a decent example of English Breakfast. I can tell it is NOT just Ceylon, and looking up the info, I’m correct. It still isn’t the best black tea I have ever had, but it’s a mix of Ceylon, Chinese and Indian teas. There is a sweetness here, dried hay, and when it cools, hints of stonefruits. The second steep gets a bit more bitey, but retains that fresh fruit quality, then maybe hazelnuts. (I notice a flavor note from another Steepsterer says “nutty”.) Worth trying for a dollar!
Steep #1 // 1 1/2 teaspoons for full mug // 24 minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep
Steep #2 // just boiled // 3 minute steep
On another note, it looks like Maya Tea is going allergen free, so they have many good blends on sale to make room for new recipes.
Flavors: Hay, Hazelnut, Stonefruit
