Kristal Send Message

104 Followers / 120 Following

Kristal drank White Tip Yunnan Organic - philosophers brew by International House of Tea

415 tasting notes

One of the teas from the sampler pack I got from iHOT. I’ve tried it several times now, actually just finishing up the last of the sample.

Let me just start off by saying how pretty this tea is. Because it’s tips all of the leaves are the same size and shape, almost reminding me of the look of fennel. The uniform look is really nice.

Besides that though, the description of this tea is: “this green tea has a strong, spicy flavour, a hint of sweetness and an outstanding unique character.”. Personally, I do find this tea strong (I actually brew it for only 2min @ 160degree F otherwise there is astringency) but I do not find it is “spicy”. In the aftertaste it is a little sweet, though. Sadly though, I do not find this tea re-steeps well. I brew up two mugs at a time: one for me which has a stronger colour and flavour, one for my husband (his at 3min as opposed to two) and the liqueur is a LOT paler. That’s kind of disappointing.

So with that being said, I did enjoy this tea, but I dunno if I would repurchase. The taste isn’t unique to me and the tea is really prone to astringency, yet it’s not that great for multiple resteepings. This tea is pretty inexpensive so I think there would be other greens I would prefer over this one in that price range.

Flavors: Astringent

Preparation

160 °F / 71 °C 2 min, 0 sec 10 OZ / 295 ML

I Like This

5 likes

0 comments

People who liked this

Profile

Bio

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.