Georgia Tea Company

I snagged this out of one of the ttbs I participate in, and, while I can’t remember which box this came from, I want to tell the sender thank you. This is yummy. It almost has a blueberry muffin flavor to it, and it’s creamy even without adding milk. Rooibos blends are very hit or miss with me. This one is a hit!

From the Round 3 Here’s Hoping TTB

This is a blueberry flavored herbal that I can get behind. Lots of sweet/tart blueberry flavor and very little of the woody rooibos flavor. I didn’t add milk to my cup, but I think it could be a nice addition. I might try that at another time. The rooibos flavor does come out more as the tea cools, but the berry flavor is still predominate. This is easily one of my favorite rooibos blends, and it’s definitely a keeper.

I tried this as it was in the TTB I currently have. I was in the mood for a black based tea as is frequent. I like the Upside Down versions of black tea, so thought this might be a nice one to try.

I sweetened it with a bit of natural sugar to help bring out the pineapple. It was present, but I think if I didn’t know it was supposed to be pineapple I might just call it a fruit tea, w/no berries. It was a nice tea, but not what I was hoping for … I must be a sucker for the “cake” versions ;)

TTTTB

I really wish I liked this tea…but the flavour just hits a wrong note with my palate. It comes across rather generically fruity and – although not unpleasant – just doesn’t bring me enough joy to even finish the cup.

This is nice. I had just enough for one mug of it, and tonight was the night. I hate drinking boiling hot teas, so I let this one sit some to cool, and wow, it is perfect. It’s nice and chocolaty. it’s not something I would want all the time, but on occasion, this would be a nice treat.

I decided to add some milk to see if that would make it more like a hot chocolate, since it’s really chocolate, but I’ve decided that it was better without. Ah well.

I admit it, I wanted to try this because of the name! This is a really thick and rich tea! It reminds me of the Hobbee’s tea, minus the stomach ulcer levels of cinnamon and orange (my tastebuds love it, but my stomach protests). It has that same almost coffee like base. The spices are nice, the tea becomes bitter as it cools, it is a little better sweetened. I like it enough to drink, but wouldn’t buy it.

Backlog:

Georgia Tea Company nails the black currant flavor on this tea … and I like that it doesn’t overpower the flavor of the rich black tea base. A moderate astringency. Tangy and slightly sweet with hints of raisin.

Not an artificial currant flavor, it has that tart flavor that I’d expect from a currant tea. I’m not usually a big fan of tart, but, this IS a black currant tea, so I expected it here, and it isn’t too much. Somewhat reminiscent of wine. Nice.

Here’s my full-length review: http://sororiteasisters.com/2014/03/09/black-currant-flavored-black-tea-georgia-tea-company/

This sipdown (176) was brought to you in part by the lovely ifjuly who surprised me with a bunch of fine samples in February!

And this is a nice, smooth, sweet tea. Yum. A little bready, too?
Not sure how else to describe it. I’m cold and shivery and need to focus on drinking this tea to warm up instead of analyzing while it cools!

Thanks again for letting me try this.

Sipdown!

Drank the last of my sample, still just tasted like slightly sweet green tea with a hint of almond, zero cookie.
Possibly due to age.

Didn’t notice this last time but the wet leaves look like some sort of weird salad, haha.

Goodbye, mediocriTea!

Wow, given the amazing reviews of this I was hoping to love it… Buuuut the sample I had is likely pretty old and I didn’t find it flavorful at all.
It tasted almost like an oolong to me, it was buttery and green and a pretty good tea, for a straight tea, which it wasn’t.

I didn’t get any almond or cookie taste whatsoever. I even tried to make a small cup of tea with this, using more leaves than normal to ensure I wasn’t underleafing.

Sooooo I’m disappointed. But I won’t rate this on account of it likely being old.

TTBC2 #3

This is a nice, although pretty uneventful, green tea tweaked slightly by the pleasant sourness of a cherry. I guess it’s a cherry, because I couldn’t quite tell just from the taste. I think it smells more like it than tastes like it. The base (a sencha?) is not bitter, but then is not much of anything else.

As the tea cools down the “cherry” flavor starts to taste a little powdery, kind of like cough medicine that some people mentioned in their reviews. I didn’t really detect that when the tea was hotter.

Either way, a nice afternoon cup, nothing I would crave or need to have in my cupboard on hand, but I’m glad I could try it!

Backlog:

Now, we’re talking. A beautifully rich, flavorful black tea. Lovely notes of cacao and caramel. Nice heft to this tea – something I could start the day with.

Here’s my full-length review: http://sororiteasisters.com/2014/02/18/golden-monkey-black-tea-georgia-tea-company/

TTB Tea 11: I remember having this a long time ago and really liking this, but now it just seems kinda weak.

This was my tea of choice at work today.
I normally like golden monkey, and I normally like Fujian teas and I liked this one, but I thought it was just ok. I just feel I’ve had better examples of this type. It was ok, nothing really wrong with it – I just didn’t feel it was special. I think I’ve drank some really good black tea lately and anything that’s just “good” it’s quite cutting it.
I think this is a good tea, and I encourage others to try it, but it won’t make my top 10 list.
Thank you so much ifjuly for sending some of this my way.

A sample from ifjuly! (She sent a really good collection of teas!)

This one was fine. Nothing special about it, but tea enough. Better than some, worse than others. :) Little bit of hay as it cools. Not sure what makes something Irish Breakfast as opposed to English Breakfast or any other Breakfast.

Is it weird to say “you know, this is not bad!”? That’s what I said in my head. It doesn’t have quite the depth and complexity of flavor some really fantastic blends somehow manage, but it’s a surprisingly smooth, well balanced cup with a nice bittersweetness and some heft, but not enough to make an empty stomach groan or milk a necessity. It’d make a perfectly decent every-day-ho-hum-done-nicely first thing tea. I wasn’t expecting too much after feeling disenchanted post-holiday haze about how some of Georgia Tea’s blends seem like resold stuff and a few of their things kinda felt like duds to me, but this reminds me they’re actually fine quality-wise for some stuff. I shouldn’t be so harshly dismissive.

That said, I think I’m going through one of those glorious “tea just tastes FRICKIN’ FANTASTIC” phases right now—everything I drank last night was like nectar of the gods satisfying in that strong immediate way I sense has more to do with me and where I’m at right now randomly than the teas maybe. Ha. I love those phases. Was tempted to write another late night private love letter ode to tea; I was that smitten.

Here’s hoping tea box

Very, very sweet! Like creamed asparagus with added hover. Light and smooth with no dryness.

Sipdown no. 69 for the year 2014.

When I drank this yesterday I got interrupted because I was late to pick up No. 1 at an activity. By the time I got back this had cooled quite a bit.

I meant to mention that the dry leaf mixture has a really interesting aspect to the aroma which I would describe as “creamy” though it’s probably more accurate to say it has unexpected depth.

Sipping this at a warmer temperature and a more leisurely pace, I’m enjoying the way the oolong plays off the green tea and the fruit flavors. I can definitely taste the oolong more than the green tea but it has a very round quality to it, no rough edges at all, no pungent champagniness (I am assuming it is a darker Formosa oolong though I really don’t know what kind it is—but I don’t get the sort of creamy floral notes I get from greener oolongs). I also taste it quite a bit in the aftertaste, where it leaves a more typical nutty impression.

A tasty afternoon tea.

This was another sample I got a while ago along with the lovely kettle I won in the trivia contest giveaway. I remember thinking at the time that it was risky to give this out as a sample (the thought crossed my mind that there might be a message in there somewhere) but I was pretty thin at the time (now I have some pounds to lose).

In any case, this reminds me of the Divine Temple also from Georgia Tea Co. only darker, duskier, heftier (Weight Loss tea… seewhatIdidthere?) It, too, is a mix, this time of oolong and green, and it too has tropical fruits in it, this time mango and papaya, that come through in the flavor as a mixed tropical fruit flavor rather than identifiable separate flavors. It’s less busy than the Divine Temple, which I appreciate. I prefer it overall for its greater heft and simpler flavor profile, though I can see times when a white/green mix would hit the spot better than a green/oolong.

Hubby gave this a go last night and I asked how he liked it.. thumbs up was the response I got. He steeped at a lower temperature than I did previously, I will have to do the same and see if I get the same reaction since my first try was mostly rooibos.

I tried this one last evening. Thanks MissB for sharing this one with me.

Smelled of really yummy chocolate in dry leaf form. Steeped it was rich and deep flavors, but I didn’t really get chocolate.

I drank most of the cup and will try this one again with different steeping perameters and see if that makes a difference for me… was so looking for the chocolate that I smelled.

I will hold off on rating this until I give it another go.

Sipdown no. 62 for the year 2014. The BF thinks I need to start drinking up tins that take up space rather than little sample packets. But I’m on such a roll sipping down the samples! He’s right though. I am going to adopt a strategy of making my commuting to work tea something from a tin I have a fair amount of and like but don’t love.

I was considering whether this deserves a ratings bump. It’s quite tasty. I think I’m going to stick with where it is, though and here’s why: it has so much going on it’s a little too busy to enable me to really appreciate all of what went into it. It’s definitely an ensemble cast of a tea, and there’s nothing wrong with that in a blend—in fact, one might argue that that’s the way a blend should be with no one flavor taking front and center. But as a matter of personal preference I tend to prefer teas that have stars and supporting roles that I can identify. My impression tonight is: tasty fruit (undifferentiated) tea (undifferentiated).

I am fairly sure I got this sample as part of a give away a few years ago here on Steepster in which I was the lucky recipient of a beautiful cast iron teapot from Georgia Tea Co. If memory serves there was a trivia contest involved and my lightning fast typing skilz served me much better than my actual tea knowledge, but in any case I knew enough to win. ;-) I believe this sample was one of a couple that accompanied my contest winnings.

I am wondering how it is that I haven’t tried it until now. The ingredients list alone is amazing. It’s like the Long Island Iced Tea of non-alcoholic beverages, the Heinz 57 of tea, insert your favorite metaphor here for a cornucopia of ingredients both tea and fruit. Whoa.

I’ve steeped mixed black and green teas before, but I don’t think I’ve steeped a mixed white and green. The suggested steeping time scared me a little—I worried that the green would go bitter. But fortunately, it didn’t!

The dry leaf has a light fruity smell, a little berry, a little grape, a little tropical. The steeped tea smells mostly like pineapple to me. It’s a light yellow color.

The taste is sweet, fruity, nectary. I expected the pineapple to predominate in the flavor because of the aroma, but it doesn’t. I can taste it, but I also get a softer flavor, likely the mango and papaya. I don’t really taste the other fruits as separate flavors, but they all combine into a nice, light fruit flavor that isn’t in the least cloying, bitter or anything else fruity whites and greens can sometimes be.

I noticed there’s jasmine in here from the ingredients list, and it’s a pretty strong flavor. I’d expect to smell or taste it taking over, but it doesn’t. In fact, I’m not really noticing it. If I didn’t know it was in here, I wouldn’t know it was in here if you know what I mean.

A really nicely balanced fruit flavor, with just a hint of tea peeking through in the aftertaste as a nutty roastiness.