Kittenna Send Message

634 Followers / 399 Following

6119 tasting notes

Onto another tea, fun fun! Tried this one at work before and found it gross (or flavourless, or something objectionable), so brought it home to try here, even though it should be pretty difficult to screw up a black tea, right? Maybe I steeped it too long initially.

So this time, I noticed chocolate chips in the bag. Not sure if I saw these last time, or got any in my teaball, but I made sure to get a couple in there and you can definitely smell it in the steeped tea. Actually…. it smells quite marvelous. Chocolatey with a hint of fruitiness.

OK! This time I’m actually tasting something! Perhaps I should try Fantasy Island tonight too(?) Definitely tasting that lovely chocolatey flavour that IIRC Read My Lips has, but unfortunately, my sense of the fruity flavour is that it tastes rather fake. The strawberry in Strawberry White tasted much more real; perhaps this is a case of either mixed flavours or artificial flavouring that I don’t care for. Ah! I figured out what it reminds me of. It makes me think of cherry candy kisses. Or other fruity filled chocolates, which I’m not the biggest fan of (I prefer nuts, caramel, etc.). Which explains why most people like it, but I don’t (same thing with these filled chocolates!)

So I’m really not sure what happened with my first couple cups of this. Thinking oversteeping (I only did 3.5 minutes with it this time) and a lack of tasty ingredients in the teaball, since I remember only tasting black tea last time.

Glad I got to taste the true flavours of this one, but it won’t be a re-buy. There are other flavoured blacks, chocolate teas, and strawberry teas that I would rather drink.

ETA: Second steep the next day is surprisingly good. Just under boiling water, for four minutes, and I’m getting lovely chocolatey fruity flavours. It’s a bit mellower than yesterday, so tastes less like a filled chocolate, which is nice. Still not enough to make me want to buy it, but it’s certainly pleasant enough to drink, and you even get two steeps!

Preparation

Boiling 3 min, 15 sec

I Like This

12 likes

0 comments

People who liked this

Profile

Bio

I have always been a tea fan (primarily herbals and Japanese greens/oolongs) but in the last year or so, tea has become increasingly more appealing as not only a delicious, calming drink, but as a relatively cheap, healthy reward or treat to give myself when I deserve something. I should clarify that, however; the reward is expanding my tea cupboard, not drinking tea – I place no restrictions on myself in terms of drinking anything from my cupboard as that would defeat my many goals!

My DavidsTea addiction was born in late 2011, despite having spent nearly a year intentionally avoiding their local mall location (but apparently it was just avoiding the inevitable!). I seem to have some desire to try every tea they’ve ever had, so much of my stash is from there, although I’ve recently branched out and ordered from numerous other companies.

I like to try and drink all my teas unaltered, as one of the main reasons I’m drinking tea other than for the flavour is to be healthy and increase my water intake without adding too many calories! I’ve found that the trick in this regard is to be very careful about steeping time, as most teas are quite pleasant to drink straight as long as they haven’t been oversteeped. However, I tend to be forgetful (particularly at work) when I don’t set a timer, resulting in a few horrors (The Earl’s Garden is not so pleasant after, say, 7+ minutes of steeping).

I’m currently trying to figure out which types of teas are my favourites. Herbals are no longer at the top; oolongs have thoroughly taken over that spot, with greens a reasonably close second. My preference is for straight versions of both, but I do love a good flavoured oolong (flavoured greens are really hit or miss for me). Herbals I do love iced/cold-brewed, but I drink few routinely (Mulberry Magic from DavidsTea being a notable exception). I’m learning to like straight black teas thanks to the chocolatey, malty, delicious Laoshan Black from Verdant Tea, and malty, caramelly flavoured blacks work for me, but I’m pretty picky about anything with astringency. Lately I’ve found red rooibos to be rather medicinal, which I dislike, but green rooibos and honeybush blends are tolerable. I haven’t explored pu’erh, mate, or guayasa a great deal (although I have a few options in my cupboard).

I’ve decided to institute a rating system so my ratings will be more consistent. Following the smiley/frowny faces Steepster gives us:

100: This tea is amazing and I will go out of my way to keep it in stock.

85-99: My core collection (or a tea that would be, if I was allowing myself to restock everything!) Teas I get cravings for, and drink often.

75-84: Good but not amazing; I might keep these in stock sparingly depending on current preferences.

67-74: Not bad, I’ll happily finish what I have but probably won’t ever buy it again as there’s likely something rated more highly that I prefer.

51-66: Drinkable and maybe has some aspect that I like, but not really worth picking up again.

34-50: Not for me, but I can see why others might like it. I’ll make it through the cup and maybe experiment with the rest to get rid of it.

0-33: It’s a struggle to get through the cup, if I do at all. I will not willingly consume this one again, and will attempt to get rid of the rest of the tea if I have any left.

Following These People

Moderator Tools

Mark as Spammer