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Kristal drank Sangria by DAVIDsTEA

415 tasting notes

In an effort to use up my herbals, I have bought a number of stronger tasting fruit teas to mix in with weaker herbals to create iced tea with. I normally really dislike hibiscus because of how tart it is, but when mixed with the other teas it can be pleasant as an iced tea.

For this 2L pitcher of iced tea, I mixed in 4 “perfect spoonfuls” (about 10 tsp) of this tea with 2 perfect spoonfuls (about 5 tsp) of plain lemongrass tea. Unlike my last pitcher of iced tea (Sunny Citrus mixed with lemongrass) I was very careful of the steeping time (about 7 min as opposed to several hours) so it wouldn’t come out super tart. I then refrigerated the pitcher to cool down.

I must say, lowering the steeping time was a great idea. This iced tea came out an even mix of mildly tart and citrusy. My husband and I both agree, it is quite refreshing. If anything, I made the tea a little weak and could bump up either the steeping time or use a little more of the leaves.

My rating last year was a 40, but that was an over steeped and leafed version. I’m bumping it up to a 69, but my final verdict is that I still dislike hibiscus and would rather buy other iced teas (i.e. Just peachy, Hard Candy, Mango Fruit Punch) over these teas with hibiscus. Refreshing when mixed with other herbals and underleafed, though :)

Flavors: Citrus, Tart

Preparation

200 °F / 93 °C 7 min, 0 sec 67 OZ / 1981 ML

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I used to drink coffee, but it started to hurt my stomach so I switched to tea. A friend of mine introduced me to DAVID’s TEA and I couldn’t stop after that! I’ve now been expanding my scope beyond DAVIDs away from “candy-like teas” into more natural teas or flavourings. Current favourite stores include International House of Tea (iHOT) and Verdant Tea.

When it comes to tea ratings, I usually only ever rate them once. I know a lot of people on steepster do many tasting notes for the same teas depending on their mood, but I prefer to rate once and if my opinion changes, I will delete the old note and rate again. How I rate teas goes as following:

1-49: Teas I won’t buy again. Either the taste is disgusting to me, or it’s too bland, etc. I’m most likely not even going to finish the tin/bag.

50-59: Teas I wouldn’t buy again; I have to force myself to drink the whole cup to not waste it.

60-69: I’ll finish the cup and even the bag/tin, but I wouldn’t buy these teas again. Teas of this rating are “lacking something”.

70-79:Teas that are pretty good and ones I might buy again. Usually these teas are ones I have to be “in the mood for” and drink occasionally.

80-89: Great teas! Ones I will drink several times a week and often have in my stash :).

90-100: Favourite must-have teas!

My favourite types of tea are green tea and different types of “natural” herbal tea (different herbs, natural flavourings, etc). I cannot drink black or oolong teas due a sensitive stomach. I don’t really go for white tea due to its cost and the fact that it has just a little caffeine (if I want caffeine I’ll just go for a green tea and if I don’t I’ll go for a herbal-no sense on just having a little caffeine). I also like to do iced teas in the summer time, and then I’ll gravitate towards herbal fruit blends that are bagged to cut costs and convenience (it’s easier to throw out bags than clean a filter). Flavours I don’t care for include anything too tart, bitter, artificial, overly spicy or overly sweet.
Also, when I have time (usually when I’m not working much) I like to make tea lattes out of different rooibos blends.

My everyday green tea is Gunpowder since it is strong and not sensitive to temperatures or steeping time which is something I cannot be bothered with when I’m getting ready for work. Other greens I enjoy are dragonwell, sencha, and different Chinese greens. I’m not the biggest fan of yunnan greens since they are so finicky (although I do like gyokuro)

On a day to day basis I usually have 2-3 cups of green tea and several more cups of different herbal blends.

Besides tea I also work at a couple libraries (I am finishing my library tech diploma),am in my early 20s and got married in Oct 2014.