New Tasting Notes

10 years later, I’m reviewing this tea again.

A new batch, of course. (Though I’ve been known to still enjoy tea several years past the best before hah.)

Sweet potato with floral and citrus notes. The mildest bit of astringency at the back of the tongue, not unpleasant at all.

The citrus note is providing some focused energy, which is nice and quite helpful while recovering from flu/grief symptoms.

But I find myself wanting the comforting cocao notes of the Teavivre Golden Monkey. I know what tea I’m having tomorrow.

A thoughtful work friend brought me back a little souvenir from a tea shop run in Springfield, Missouri (Chabom Teas + Spices). This is a new-to-me brand.

The Holy Grail of Decaf Black Teas does not exist. It is a myth that I will chase down until my poor old heart gives out. It’s either next to the pot of gold under the rainbow or with the black sock I’ve been trying to hunt down for two years. Ty-Phoo Decaf is the only tea I’ve tried that’s a contender.

That said, this one isn’t bad. Like all unflavored decafs, most of the flavor has been leached out in the treatment process, but it has a nice color and a nice, hefty body. Puts a little weight on your tongue. With an additive—little milk; little mint; little something—it might just fool me.

Day 12 of the Inoki Bathhouse advent calendar. This was pretty but I found the flavor a bit meh. Sort of a generic “Chinese green tea” flavor with maybe a hint of floral if I really look for it. I really liked the flowering rose, but this one just didn’t have that same vegetal-floral balance.

Day 11 of the Inoki advent calendar. This is a nice ginger – zingy with a hint of sweetness. It reminds me of Fever-Tree ginger beer, just without the sugar. It even resteeped well, which doesn’t always happen with ginger. Just needed a long brew time on the resteep.

Our hotel in London gave us free cheese and tea every night, and we always chose this one! It was relaxing to wind down with some warm chamomile with oat milk. This doesn’t get good reviews, but I found it to be lovely! Just what you expect from a chamomile.

Such a unique tea! It’s surprisingly fruity, and reminds me of cooked apples or applesauce.

Not a favorite. A touch of bitterness in the aftertaste, and the flavor profile is pretty forgettable.

Sipdown

I like this one best full strength and not making a resteep and combining the two. You seem to get more rich chocolate that way. Some teas I don’t notice a big change in flavor doing the “two steeps and combine” method, but I do with this one.

I am not the world’s biggest fan of Earl Grey but I do like it on a Keemun or other base with deeper notes, and I also like it with orange, cream, or vanilla flavor added. The chocolate was good, too, and I shared a sample with a friend who adores almost all Earl Grey and she really loved it.

I recently added a random weekly tea selector to my spreadsheet, which chooses two random teas when I reset it for the week. This is one of the two chosen for this week!

I haven’t had it in ages, so it was fun to see it come up. Full-size teas that I’m not actively trying to sip down tend to get neglected in my cupboard, at least until they’ve become old enough to make it into my oldest teas basket LOL. This is pretty close actually, being from fall 2022.

Anyway, I really enjoy this flavor combination. The oolong has both fresh green and toasty grain notes, and strikes a nice balance of the two. The blueberry reminds me of the dried version that I used to enjoy in Blueberry Morning cereal, and is quite sweet with a syrupy, concentrated quality. I do taste a hint of banana, but it’s mostly adding creaminess. Still reminds me of some kind of blueberry granola!

Sipdown! (5 | 82)

Wasn’t a big fan of this (and it looks like I’m not the only one). I find it a bit harsh as green teas go – it does have some beany/vegetal notes but there’s also a lot of mineral and smoky flavors going on, and a bit of astringency. It’s also a bit bland overall?

Was interesting to try, but it’s not one that I would repurchase.

These were a Mother’s Day gift from Ashman. I have been out of jasmine pearls for a while and really only loved Teavivre’s but I told him I wanted to try these since they are a new offering. They have previously only been available in the Piccadilly location.

My complaint against Harney’s Dragon Pearls is that I don’t care for the base. The jasmine seems okay, but the green tea is harsh and sharp to me. The attraction of the Teavivre Premium Jasmine Dragon Pearls was that I love their jasmine teas pretty much across the board (they have many) and I liked the base a lot. It was calm in a cup.

I made three steeps of this. It was sipped beside my wall of jasmine vine on the patio from a tiny bamboo hat cup. The instructions call for boiling water and I wasn’t brave enough to do that on my first try with these. I used 175F, and for reference Teavivre calls for 185F for theirs. I steeped for three minutes.

I am so glad we got these! The base is just right for me. The jasmine is a little lighter than I expected and probably lighter than Teavivre’s, but it is possible that increasing the temp to what F&M calls for would bring out more jasmine. I am very happy with the base on all three steeps. The jasmine was almost all gone in the third steep but the green tea was nice.

I will try it again using their parameters now that I know I don’t have to tame a sharp green tea to enjoy it.

Has the usual shou qualities that I love — slick and oily texture, earthiness. Mild sweetness and has a great color, super dark red.