TeaFrog

Smoooothness =) Was craving a snack but couldn’t work out what I felt like having, so I went for tea instead. This tea is absolutely inabadmoodcravingjunk kind of satisfying ;-) Beautifully buttery and fresh with a perfect balance of grassiness and sweetness.

I’m very pleased with this. I used 2 tsp for about 14 oz of water and it came out just right – the spice flavors are well balanced and naturally sweet. The natural flavor of the rooibos is there in the background too, and plays well with others. I think I’ll end up having some of this on hand as one of my non-caffeine drinks.

Sipdown no. 22 of 2018 (no. 378 total).

No. 2 continues to praise the iced form of this. He said it tastes “modern.” I’m not sure what he means by that — the synesthetes among us might conclude that he means as a color it’s silver, chrome, metallic rather than gold or bronze. That’s how I think of it, anyway.

I had the last little bit hot this morning and enjoyed it.

I found a tin of this. It was on the lower rated side of the black teas I’ve rated, so I decided to put it in the cold brew rotation.

But since I haven’t had it in a while, cold or otherwise, I decided to have a cup hot to remind myself what it was like that way, too.

It’s been a long time since I had an Earl Grey, period. I tried this at a slightly lower temp than boiling, but as I didn’t steep it in the Breville (to avoid lingering bergamot) and I seem to have lost my tea thermometer, I can’t be sure of the exact temp.

It’s tasty, but I stand by my original assessment that something about it doesn’t fit with my mental category of Earl Grey. Perhaps it’s that it’s more lemony than orangey. Not sure.

On the upside, No. 2 tried the cold brew and said it tasted like “it’s high quality tea” and assessed it as “so good.”

Getting close to the end of my TeaFrog samples. I think I have three more. This is one of them.

The dry mix is very pretty, the lemongrass is very green against the backdrop of the Ceylon and there are little flecks of blue where the cornflowers show through. There’s a light neutral color as well that looks like the lemon peel. I’m not really seeing jasmine, though it could be that some of the flecks that look like lemon peel are actually jasmine petals. It doesn’t have a strong scent of bergamot (or otherwise) in the packet.

The tea has a lemony aroma with a bergamot undercurrent. It has a lemony taste as well. A bright taste. The bergamot is pretty subdued, secondary to the lemon. I am not getting much in the way of jasmine.

It’s hard to say whether it’s tastes like an Earl Grey so much as a lemon black tea with bergamot? It does seem to me the lemon is the stronger taste of the two. It’s actually very nice; it’s different. I don’t think I’d buy it to fill an Earl Grey need. If I order some, it will simply be because I like it.

This sample packet contained a really interesting mixture. Bit chunky pieces of roasted chicory that looked like tree bark or mulch, red peppercorns, and what looked like little chocolate chips among a tan colored substance that must be the ginger. The dry mix smells like spicy mocha. It makes a thick looking brown liquor.

The aroma of the tisane smells like chocolate, coffee and pepper. I’m not really picking up on much ginger here. The taste is similar to the aroma. Lightly chocolately, lightly coffee-like, with a zing of pepper that stands out most of all. The ginger hangs on to the chicory and mellows it into a sweet coffee-like flavor with a ginger overtone.

It’s a really interesting flavor, one I haven’t come across in a tisane before. I could see wanting it every now and then, especially during colder months. It’s a little too unusual and slyly intense for more than occasional drinking, at least for me.

Another TeaFrog sample from a prior Steepster Select. This was back before I started to shun rooibos. ;-) Actually, I don’t really shun it even now, I just have a lot more understanding of my own taste preferences with respect to it now than I used to.

This has the same basic flavor profile as The Necessiteas’ Peppermint Pattie, and yet, its rooibos is far more present. It’s more present in the nose of the dry mixture, in the aroma of the steeped tisane, and in the taste. It’s in the first position in all of those, followed by mint and then by chocolate.

The rooibos isn’t bad tasting as rooibos goes — it doesn’t have a lot of sawdust or pencil shaving qualities, but I can’t get away from the fact that it is the number one flavor. This is pretty much the exact opposite of what I am looking for in a rooibos blend, though I know I’m not typical.

So I prefer the Peppermint Pattie for this flavor combo in a rooibos. I didn’t think that one was perfect either, as the rooibos flavor played a little bit of hide and seek. But it was pretty good at the hiding part and gave the number one taste spot to the chocolate for the most part, followed by the mint.

This one isn’t really attempting to hide, which I’m sure is the preference of the true rooibos fan. It just isn’t mine.

Sipdown no. 43 of 2018 (no. 399 total).

This made a very enjoyable iced tea. No. 2 was singing its praises this morning, so I just put the last bit in to cold brew along with some of the tippy Assam from Tea Table to make up the last two spoons.

Another TeaFrog sample, since I’m on an Assam kick this morning.

Fascinating. In the sample packet, the tea smells fruity! Like cherry or some kind of berry flavor. Not quite as tippy looking as the Teavana or the Teas Etc., but still quite pretty.

The steeped aroma has a hint of fruit too, which was unexpected, but nice. It’s got a smooth, slightly sweet character. I’m now more convinced than ever that the Teavana Assam Gold Rain’s bakiness was an aberration in flavor. It must have been the batch I had.

It brews a little darker than the Teas Etc. Assam Reserve, and leans more toward medium bodied. It’s not particularly sweet, and I don’t get maltiness (as I think of maltiness), but there’s something very nice about it. It’s just a good solid black tea, without anything at all offensive about it, but without much to distinguish it either.

This is another of my TeaFrog samples from a previous Steepster Select. I’ve got some chai on the stove and thought I’d give this a try while it’s working.

What are “crackle bits”? (Do I want to know? ;-)) Whatever they are, they must be what is responsible for the fragrance of the dry mixture actually smelling like tiramisu. Uncannily so. The chocolate and cocoa alone wouldn’t do that. The rooibos in this mix is red, but I can barely smell it in the sample packet. Will my luck hold?

Alas, after steeping, I can smell the rooibos, primarily. The accurate tiramisu smell has been diluted. And unfortunately for me, since I like my rooibos to be virtually silent, I can taste the rooibos in this blend. It’s not bad for red rooibos, but I much prefer rooibos as a backdrop for other flavors to play on rather than as a flavor unto itself.

There is a suggestion of tiramisu in the taste, but oh, if it had only tasted exactly like the smell of the dry mixture! As it is, the rooibos is too prominent in the flavor of this tisane for my taste.

Those who like rooibos in their rooibos and a suggestion of flavor in their flavored rooibos rather than rooibos as a vehicle to make something that tastes not at all like rooibos would probably like this. If they can follow that last sentence…

Sipdown no. 83 of 2018 (no. 439 total).

A good, milk chocolaty tea — not much to add beyond my original note than that it also makes a surprisingly good cold tea.

It is nice to have such an embarrassment of riches in my cabinet that even the “lower” rated teas are awesome.

Another of my TeaFrog samples from a previous Steepster Select.

I’ve been running around all day: kids swimming lessons, my workout, my haircut, younger kid’s friend’s birthday party, and finally got home. I’m really tired, but somehow it seems a little pathetic to go to bed at 7 p.m. So I thought I’d try some black tea to wake me up a little.

In the sample bag, the tea smells delicious. It’s a sweet chocolate smell, a milky chocolate. I was thinking chocolate liqueur, and then I realized it’s pretty similar to the smell of chocolate syrup. I can see chocolate chips in among the dark brown leaves.

After it steeps, the aroma becomes less sweet and less intense, and takes on more of a chocolate baked goods quality. The liquor is lighter in color than I’d expected. It’s a sort of bronze color.

Yum. Tastes like…. chocolate! It’s very chocolatey. More chocolate than tea, by a lot. It’s interesting because it’s like drinking a grown up version of hot chocolate, by which I mean hot chocolate stripped down to its essence. No milkiness, no creaminess, no frothiness, no chewiness, but a lot of the same essential comfort flavor of warm chocolate without all of these. It’s kind of surprising.

As for the cream, I don’t taste it independently, but I understand it. It’s the difference between a baking chocolate flavor, and a sweetened chocolate flavor. It’s as though the chocolate here has been sweetened with lactose, though I can’t taste a cream flavor. The tea itself shows up more in the aftertaste than elsewhere; it has a sweet, mild flavor that goes well with the chocolate.

Most of the chocolate teas I’ve had have other flavors in them as well. This may be the first solo chocolate I’ve had, and it will be a good benchmark as it seems to be a solid, standard sweet chocolate flavored tea.

I could tell as soon as I sniffed the dry mixture that it would be much less tart than the Hawaii Cocktail. The berries provide a lot of natural sweetness, which is evident in the fragrance of the dry mixture.

It makes a bright red liquor after steeping, and indeed, it is much less tart than the Hawaii Cocktail and not at all bitter. I mostly taste strawberry, and behind it apple. It doesn’t require sweetening primarily because of the strawberry, though it isn’t particularly sweet-tasting.

A much happier second encounter with my TeaFrog samples, though I’m not presently in the market for a primarily strawberry flavored tisane.

In honor of the recently expired Steepster Select in which I didn’t participate this time around, I’m breaking out one of my samples from the last TeaFrog Steepster Select (which explains why I didn’t participate this time, I still had all the samples from last time intact until a few minutes ago).

I wish that I had tried a different sample for my first TeaFrog venture as this one and I didn’t get along very well.

Initially, I thought it was going to be similar to Tazo Passion, Teavana Caribbean Breeze and The O Dor Je M’appelle Dorothee. It’s a pretty, chunky, blend with a lot of dark red and brown tones, and some lighter neutral colors that appear to be the tropical fruit. I could smell the hibiscus in the dry blend, but the main fragrance I got was currants, followed by the tropical fruit, primarily pineapple. So far so good.

On steeping it turned that beautiful dark red color that these other three tisanes share, but after that things took a different turn. Toward the extremely tart. I could smell the tartness in the aroma of the blend after steeping, and on tasting it was confirmed. Very tart, and slightly bitter around the edges (it stays with in the aftertaste and I’m thinking it is at least partially from the orange peel). Not what I generally prefer in a fruit blend as I like ’em sweet.

I put a bit of sweetener in to see how that would change things, and while it did sweeten up and bring out the fruit flavors more, it didn’t do much to turn around the bitter note.

So sadly, my first try was not a success. I have a lot of other samples, though, so I’m hopeful!

Review by Mike D: “This green tea is also known as “precious eyebrows” due to its descriptive leaf shape. The rolled leaf is delicate, and boasts shades of dark jade green. A slightly sweet smell to the very small, uniform leaf size, indicative of good finishing and quality tea…”

Read the full review at: http://www.itsallabouttheleaf.com/374/tea-review-teafrog-chun-mee-china-moon-palace/

I’m finishing up my sample of this but unfortunately am not getting the Kettle Corn type flavor that I did last time. This why I sometimes dislike blends, the flavor is very much dependent on the particular mix you get in your infuser. I guess this time I got more fruit and less genmaicha because it just tastes like a nice fruity green tea. Perhaps I would like it more if I had started my day with a black tea instead of this. Why did I start with a green? I never do that.

Impressive second infusion. I was a bit concerned that the awesome Kettle Corn creation would be lacking in at least one side of the flavor combo (either the popcorn or the sweet, fruity side) but I was not disappointed. This is really good. I’m very pleased with this tea. It is different, smooth, and flavorful. If you enjoy genmaicha, this is worth at least one try.

The first time I had this tea, I guess I didn’t shake up the bag enough because I ended up with a good fruit flavored green tea, but not much of a genmaicha presence. Today, however, I was a bit more careful when making the tea and am presently drinking a tea that is slightly sweetened genmaicha. Fruity, slightly sweet, nutty, buttery. Almost like the Kettle Corn of tea. I’m really enjoying this as an alternative to traditional genmaicha. I could see myself wanting this tea every so often just to switch things up a bit.

It’s nice, but it’s nothing particularly special.

Yay for genmaicha! My review was just posted at It’s All About the Leaf. Check it out: http://www.itsallabouttheleaf.com/745/tea-review-teafrog-genmaicha-organic/.

This is so good. It is a great example of what genmaicha is and should be. I would really suggest this one by TeaFrog if you are wanting to try genmaicha because it is smooth, buttery, and tastes like popcorn that is perfectly popped, not at all burnt or stale. I love drinking genmaicha in the afternoons and think that it is the one type of tea that so far I can NOT live without. Good job, TeaFrog! This is a perfect example of a classic.

I am almost out of this tea. I have gotten multiple infusions tonight and each one tastes as good as the last. Buttery notes wash over my tongue as I enjoy the toastiness of this brew.

Nice and toasty. No seaweed notes are in this blend. Good for an afternoon snack with no calories…you gotta love that!

First, let me start off saying that I am not too fond of green teas. MRAWLINS2 keeps telling me that Japanese greens are better. Today we tried this tea. The smell in the bag is like burnt popcorn. The taste in my cup is Butter popcorn. Very filling tea that would make a great afternoon snack. I am currently at 3 infusions and will probably push this to four before the afternoon is over. I am really surprised at how much I like this Japanese green tea:) Thank you for sharing your tasting of this tea with me today:)