592 Tasting Notes
I was at the mall today and passed by Teavana. I’ve had some unpleasant in-store experiences, so I just passed right on by. On my way out of the mall, though, I was in a pretty good mood and thought I could probably handle any pushy salespeople. As soon as I entered, I told them I wanted an iced tea to go so they didn’t even have a chance to try to push things on me. The girl working was actually pretty nice and showed me some teas I might enjoy without pushing me to purchase any. Phew. I feel like this is turning into a diary entry, so let me just cut to the actual tea tasting part.
While my experience at Teavana was surprisingly pleasant, I was disappointed somewhat by this tea. I love love love asian pear, but this tea was not as sweet as the title might suggest. Also, the aftertaste is heavily floral/perfume-y. Not sure what elderflowers are, but maybe it was that? Whatever asian pear taste there might be was quickly replaced by the sensation that I had accidentally swallowed someone’s perfume. I had this tea on my shopping list originally to try, but I don’t think I will be purchasing more for myself. Oh well, at least I tried a cup (a ridiculously expensive one) before buying a bunch and regretting it!
BREAKING NEWS! I have slowly but surely been converting my mom into a tea drinker. About a month ago when I first started getting really into tea and discovered Steepster, I would ask my mom if she wanted a sip of whatever I was exploring. She would politely decline and stick with her usual coffee. Eventually curiosity got the best of her and she started taking a few sips at a time. Fast forward to tonight when I got home she casually asked if I was planning on having some tea. I said I probably wouldn’t and she basically demanded that I brew her up her own cup, haha! I’m still exploring teas and now I have someone to try with me (until I move back to Boston at least). Sorry for the rambling, I just wanted to revel in my proud moment there.
Now that storytime is over, I have found myself reaching for this tea more frequently these days almost as a palate cleanser. It’s reliable, clean, light, less caffeinated, and delicious. It can get slightly bitter if I don’t keep my eye on it, but still drinkable. As I’m exploring teas, I have come across some that I don’t like as much, so it’s always nice to have a cup of White Orchard to renew my faith and keep me going.
PS Whole Foods was having a 50% off sale on Mighty Leaf bagged teas, so I’ve basically stockpiled this tea. Yay!
Thanks to Laurent for the rooibos samples! I’ve actually only had rooibos once before and did not care for it too much. Anyway, I didn’t look up what flavor this was supposed to be because I’m trying to train my nose/I like surprises. Upon smelling the dry leaves, I definitely detected the sweet tones of caramel. Likewise with the tea, there was a strong caramel scent. The caramel was not as strong in the taste of the tea, but still made for a decently sweet cuppa.
I’m not giving this an official number rating yet because I’m still trying to figure out my feelings about rooibos in general and don’t want this tea to get caught in the crossfire just yet. Good thing I have more samples to explore!
So I received a coupon in the mail for $10 off at Sur La Table, hooray! Since I already have most of my baking needs covered, I decided to go for the cutest tea infuser: The Deep TEA Diver. I’m so enamored with it that my mom makes fun of me, haha.
Anyway, newly equipped with my deep tea diver, I turned to Paradise Green. I usually am nervous about green teas because I’ve had quite a few bitter experiences (literally) with green teas. I love this one, though because the fruity, tropical notes complement the green tea well while covering up the bitterness without any sweeteners. Yum!
Next time I may try this iced. Either way, I’m surprisingly happy about this one :)
Mmmm peachy goodness. I just had this at a bakery that carried Lupicia teas, which was very convenient because I had been wanting to try this tea without having to buy a bunch of it. Now that I’ve tried it, though, I want to buy a bunch of it!
The smell and taste are a punch of peach flavor right away. As the cup cooled, the texture became a little more greasy, but that may be because I was eating at the same time, so I’m not gonna hold it against the tea until I try more of it.
I’ve been a little MIA from my tealog lately because I’ve been getting a lot of pearl/bubble/milk tea like genmaicha and roasted barley milk tea, yummm.
Anyway, this is sadly my last new sample from The Persimmon Tree black tea sampler. I really liked this one. The tea leaves smelled very fruity as did the tea at first. As it cooled down, more of the jasmine notes came out. The lingering aftertaste was also predominantly jasmine. Normally, I’m on the fence about jasmine teas, but I really liked it paired with passion fruit in this one.
Overall, I’ve been really happy with my samplers. I’m already thinking about reordering 3/5 of them. Maybe 4 if I’m feeling spendy. I highly recommend these samplers! I’m probably going to try out the green and white ones, too :)
Ok, so I don’t have the most sensitive palate, so this tasting note might be a little confusing. So right when I opened up the packet, I definitely had a punch in the face of minty chocolate kind of like an Andes mint but mintier. After that first burst of smell, there was this lingering smell that I did not care for. The tea itself also starts off with a burst of mint flavor followed by some chocolate-y notes and then an aftertaste that tastes like that lingering smell. It might be the cacao nibs, some other flavoring in the tea, or the type of black tea maybe. Anyone have ideas?
Anyway, I like the initial smell/taste of the mint, but that aftertaste is kinda bugging me. We’ll see what happens with this one.
This is one of my last samples from The Persimmon Tree, sad! Anyway, as soon as I opened the little packet of tea, I was greeted by an overwhelmingly vanilla scent. Almost like a vanilla candle scent minus the wax and/or smoke. The tea turned out to be a light golden yellow with the same perfumey vanilla smell. Not to get repetitive and boring, but it tasted just the way it smelled. It reminds me of a watery vanilla bean ice cream (in a good way). Slightly creamy, definitely sweet enough without anything added (my favorite kind of tea!).
I can definitely see this one being more of a staple in colder weather, so I’m adding this to my buy list for next time I order from The Persimmon Tree!
