333 Tasting Notes
I enjoyed this blend, although it wasn’t at all what I was expecting. I thought I’d get mostly orange and oolong flavors, but in reality the dominant notes were definitely ginger followed by hibiscus, with citrus as a fairly distant third. The oolong base hardly came through – but it’s quite possible I underleafed my cup, and that could have a lot to do with it. I didn’t notice any berry flavors, but then those are often overwhelmed by hibiscus. This tasted more like a tisane than a tea, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Ginger + hibiscus isn’t a combination I’ve tasted before, but I thought it worked quite nicely. Thanks to Steep City Teas for the sample!
I’m enjoying this tea. The coconut flavor is quite strong and surprisingly authentic, and the mouthfeel is rich and creamy. I almost feel like I’m drinking coconut milk – or light coconut milk, at least. I can’t really taste the tea base, and I’m not getting any pineapple notes – I didn’t notice any chunks of fruit in my sample either. Thanks to Steep City Teas for this sample!
I had high hopes for this one, but the flavoring is too sweet and artificial for me. The aroma and flavor are both heavy on the strawberry candy notes. I’m not noticing any papaya, but then I often find papaya too heavy on sweetness and too light on any other flavor. This tea is very sweet, so it could well be that the papaya’s contributing to that. The green base doesn’t really come through.
This is my least favorite of the Steep City samples I’ve tried so far. I tend to prefer my fruity teas lighter/less sweet/more natural, and this blend’s just not to my taste.
I got a sample of this tea from Shelley_Lorraine. I was excited to try this one – it’s my first from Della Terra, and the blend itself sounded so whimsical.
Dry, the tea smells a lot like Republic of Tea’s Ginger Peach – it’s reminiscent of those gummy candy peaches more than it is of the actual fruit. I’ve always found Ginger Peach’s aroma to be pleasant, but, as with so many RoT blends, the flavor is disappointingly weak.
That said, I’m pleasantly surprised by the strength of flavor here. The dominant note is definitely gummy peach, although the green base (sencha?) provides some distinct – and pleasant – vegetal undertones. And it’s a good thing it does, because I’m not picking up much from the veggie additions themselves. Same for the lemongrass.
This was a fun tea to try but – aesthetics aside – not a distinctive one. It’s not a blend I’ll be purchasing, although I did enjoy my cup.
A friend bought this tea and found it too floral for her liking, so she kindly passed the leftovers on to me. And I’m very glad she did – as an admitted fan of floral teas, I think this is delicious.
It doesn’t taste all that much like mango – the tea is much crisper and, as mentioned above, significantly more floral. I associate fresh mango and mango juice with a sort of heavy sweetness that’s absent here, and I don’t find mango particularly floral. If I’d tasted this tea without knowing what flavor it was meant to be, I probably would’ve guessed lychee (which is another flavor I really like, so no problem there).
The oolong base is quite delicate. It doesn’t really hold its own against the fruity/floral flavoring, but said flavoring is done so well I don’t mind. I drank this hot (and plain) today, but I bet it would be amazing iced.
I love genmaicha, and this is a nice bagged option. It’s really nutty and toasty. The tea base is prominent, but not to the point where it detracts from the toasted rice notes. It’s mildly vegetal. I’m not noticing any bitterness, even though I definitely oversteeped this time (and probably used hotter-than-optimal water).
I got this as a sample in the March Lupicia newsletter. It reminds me a lot of their Neptune, which I also sampled recently – the black base tastes the same, and the fruit flavoring strikes me as similar although that one’s supposed to be something like “fruits & honey” vs. the strawberry here. The dry teabag had a very strong strawberry candy aroma, but the brewed tea smelled and tasted more generically fruity. The black base is definitely dominant. I’m glad I got to try this tea, but it’s not one I’ll be purchasing.
This came as a sample with a recent Lupicia purchase. The honey-fruit flavoring reminds me of Lupicia’s Piccolo – it’s generically fruity, and perhaps slightly artificial. It’s not very strong here – the flavoring holds its own against Piccolo’s rooibos base more than it does against Neptune’s black. Said base is a pleasant, vaguely malty black. I don’t think I’d buy this tea, but I did enjoy trying it.
