43 Tasting Notes
Decaf vanilla black tea, I bought the tea sachet version a couple years ago. The tea smells a lot like boba milk tea but doesn’t taste like one. Being decaffeinated it sacrificed some of its flavors, it doesn’t have wood, floral, or honey notes like regular black teas. On its own it tastes like slightly astringent water with vanilla scent, this tea can make milk taste good and not really the other way around.
sold for $9.45/20 sachets
I got this pack for free and I’ve been wanting to get this review out. Here we go:
Jasmine Bi Luo Chun(3-Scent):
Jasmine flowers inside the tea. The first steep was very floral, but the jasmine scent from the second steep was significantly weaker. The Bi Luo Chun flavor later came to be much more prominent than the jasmine flavor. Still very pleasant. Hydrated leaves are roughly 1-2 inches long.
Jasmine Mao Jian(5-Scent):
Favorite among family members. Shinny dry leaves, the green tea base has a sweetness that’s almost pastry like. Jasmine lasted significantly longer than the Bi Lou chun but the floral flavor isn’t the strongest from this pack. The green tea did not have the savory profile many Chinese green has, it is not quite vegetal. Hydrated leaves are 0.5-1 inches long.
Jasmine Zhen Wang(7-Scent):
Furry long leaves, very perfumy. The jasmine scent is sharp and very in your face. I think part of the fragrance and sweetness is from the tea base, there’s a juicy, vegetal quality to it. This tea handles brewing very well, one time I reused the same leaves for three days and the tea still came out flavorful. If you want to make jasmine milk tea this will be able to take the milk. Hydrated leaves are roughly 1-1.5 inches long.
Jasmine Bai Hao(9-Scent):
Fur on buds, very uniformed, extremely clean. I expected this to be the strongest from the sample pack but the Zhen Wang was much more potent than Bai Hao. I would describe the drinking experience of this one as “sipping on flower water.” There is no astringency, bitterness, or other unpleasant flavors from the white tea, it’s very delicate. Hydrated leaves are all roughly 1 inch long and have a very faint mung bean scent on top of the jasmine.
I think this pack will please everybody. The uncles and aunties, the ABCs/ABGs/ABBs, the boba addicts, the Chinese restaurant lovers, the moms, it’s a crowd winner. If you are drinking this yourself this is A LOT of jasmine. I’ve been sharing it with people lol
sold for $39.99
Earl grey tea bags. I taste bergamot mostly and a little woodiness from the tea. No tartness, bitterness, or astringency detected, very middle of the road. I would recommend this to friends at a supermarket.
sold for $12.00/50 tea bags
https://www.republicoftea.com/earl-greyer-black-tea/p/v00583/
Rose black tea. Dry leaves smell like Chinese dried plum, the tea taste like charcoal with a bit mint and a weird sweetness, I think they added stevia in this. Rose flavor is not at all presented. No astringency. The wet leaves smell very smoky.
I bought mine for 7-ish dollars and this is a regret buy. I liked the earl grey and had high hope for this. This is the first time I have loose tea with sweetener added and it taste bad. I added milk now the whole thing tastes like burnt rubber. Yeah no.
sold for $11/ 4oz
https://taooftea.com/product/rose-petal-black/
Loose black tea leaves. Sugary smell from dry leaves, yam scent from wet leaves, this one does taste good when you flash steep it and ONLY when you flash steep it. Honey, malt, light fruit.
Problem: The tea isn’t made out of buds, and real Jin Jun Mei is an all buds tea. Most leaves are broken, majority at 0.5 – 0.75 inches, longest at 1 inch.
The tea is reminiscent of a Jin Jun Mei and tastes pretty good if you steeped it the right way, but it’s still not a Jin Jun Mei, like how a good salmon roe is not a caviar. For that reason points are deducted, but this is the better tea from Yunnan Sourcing’s Jin Jun Mei sampler.
sold for $7.50 / 50g
Green tea bags. You can see the rolled up green tea inside the muslin. Gum like spearmint and green tea that’s almost unnoticeable until the very end of cup, this actually tastes fine. This is the best one of the teas I bought from Kusmi, didn’t notice astringency or smokiness.
sold for $12.90 / 20 bags
https://www.kusmitea.com/us/spearmint-green-tea-organic-VMENBIOMASTER.html?v=21651A1120
Jin Jun mei sampler. Spoilers: None of them are high quality jin jun mei, professional sommeliers might not consider any of these real jin jun mei. All the brews came out red or orange instead of golden. The set is $44/200g, it’s on me to think it’s possible to get the real stuff at this price point. The teas taste fine, but these are fancy lapsangs at best.
sold for $44
https://yunnansourcing.us/products/introduction-to-jin-jun-mei-black-tea-sampler
while I’m here is there anyone that can tell me how to get the profile function to work? I’ve been wanting to add a bio but it gets erased every time I hit submit.
I wish I knew! Perhaps someone who is more computer savvy than I can help.
Thank you for trying to help! I appreciate it!
Nobody who has signed up since the Adagio takeover/Great Steepster Freeze (funny, we’re in a mini freeze right now) has been able to create a profile. I think the original intention of the new site admins was to reduce spam activity. You could try emailing info@adagio.com
I wasn’t aware that Adagio runs this site (and that Steepster is in a mini freeze.) Thank you so much for the info! I’ll contact them and see what happens next!
Green tea sachets. The dry leaves look dark and broken, the tea smell of chestnut, grape, and light nori. This tastes too much like a longjing. Savory chestnut, nori, vegetal sweetness, but lacking floral orchid notes. Pretty good for tea bags, would buy again if I went on a business trip and saw this on the shelf. I bought mine from Sprouts for $6-ish? I’m listing the price from the official website.
sold for $9.99 / 15 bags
Jin Jun Mei. Dry leaves smelled like toffee, wet leaves smell like burnt yam, I flash steeped this and the burnt scent still can be picked up from the tea. This might be the maltiest tea I ever had, light in sweetness and fruitiness. However it completely lacks the floral quality a jin jun mei should have, I feel like I’m drinking Horlick without sugar. Doesn’t taste bad, but this does not taste like a high quality jin jun mei.
sold for $8.25/ 50g
Oolong tea bags. Sugary smell upon hydration, taste like a toasty dong ding with nori and light fruitiness. Extremely light astringency, no bitterness. The tea bag performed pretty well.
Is this tea unique? It get rarity points for being from Korea, flavor wise it’s not. Is the tea good? Yes it is. If the price was cheaper this could be a potential repeat buy. I bought mine for $10.49.
Sold for $14.99/ 20 bags
The loose version is better than the sachet and we overleaf to compensate for the losses from the decaffeination process. If you have any sachets left, perhaps try over leafing a bit to make it more enjoyable? I usually tear my sachets open and measure the leaf for most tea whenever I can.
I should try the loose version in the future. I agree with using more tea because I did think one was a bit light.