Lindsey Send Message

Had a cup iced. Not impressed. A somewhat bitter and very grassy green with an artificial-tasting “tropical” flavor.

Not bad, but not outstanding. It’s on the mellower end of Assams that I’ve tried, with a bit of malty goodness but not very bold. It’s a good morning tea to keep at the office though, since it holds up well when cool (if you’re like me and you don’t have time to drink it all up while it’s still hot!)

I’m in the process of moving (have been for nearly a month now – yuck), so I’m not allowing any new teas into the house. No swaps, no purchases, no orders.. nothing. It doesn’t make for many interesting tasting notes.

Just drinking down teas that I already have – and have therefore already reviewed. Like this tisane: it’s good. Mild, buttery, and I can actually taste macadamia nuts. Or maybe it’s just macadamia “flavoring,” since there didn’t seem to be many nut pieces in my scoop; either way, it’s delish.

Ugh, I hate packing.

I’ve been hitting the cold brew hard lately. Lots of tropical, sweet, or fruity-flavored teas.
But I wanted a little break this afternoon, so I decided to go with an old favorite. It didn’t disappoint. I’ve written quite a few tasting notes on this one, and I love it just as much now as when I first tried it.

LOVE this cold-brewed. Almost went through an entire pitcher of it by myself in just 3 days. Whoops. Thankfully, there’s about 6oz left, so now I can say that it took me 4 days. (Small victories.)

You all are going to laugh at how I steeped this one. I’m at work, so I don’t have my preferred oolong brewing tools – all I have in the office at the moment is a smallish brewing basket and some t-sacs. Not going to cut it for a big leafed oolong. So I took a giant pyrex measuring cup that my coworker brought in, filled it with the leaves, added exactly 8oz of water that I heated in my electric kettle, and covered it with a giant Gladware lid that someone left behind. When the steep time was up, I poured it into a mug through my tiny basket to strain. It may have been ghetto-fabulous, (and totally ridiculous) but it worked! The leaves had plenty of room to expand :-)

Okay, on to the tasting note….
Very, very nice. The dry smell is quite a bit milder? than some of the other milk oolongs I’ve had. Not nearly as vegetal.

Leaves opened nicely on the first steep – about 80%ish after 4 min. Fully opened after a longer second steep. Planning on trying a third steep in a little bit.

Taste: This is smooth and creamy, like a milk oolong should be. Not as vegetal as some others I’ve tried (I’m looking at you, Dobra), and not nearly as fussy. Pleasantly toasty, smooth, lightly nutty, and easy to brew – even if you’re limited in your supplies. Seriously, I just steeped this in a 32oz measuring cup.

Final verdict: YUM!

Cold-brewed in the Takeya pitcher. (Have I mentioned how much I love that pitcher yet?) I used about 9 scoops of tea to 64oz water and let it steep for around 12 hours.

When I scooped this out, I was impressed by the tea leaves they used — they were furry, decent quality white tea leaves! I’ve found that a lot of flavored teas skimp on the quality of the actual “tea” part. Not the case here. It made for a very happy Lindsey! (Note: I’m not sure what effect that has on the price of this guy – Mine came as part of the Summer Collection boxed set, so I have no idea how much it normally costs.) I also noticed that this one uses shredded coconut as opposed to the big pieces like Coco-Lemon Thai.

This tastes great iced! Nice and light, with a definite coconut butteriness. Slightly toasty, as I find all the best coconut teas to be. Coco-Lemon Thai used to be my favorite coconut white, but… I don’t know – this one may have replaced it. I like the simplicity of Coconut Grove. More of a pure coconut tea. Yeah, okay, I know that’s a stupid obvious statement because there’s no lemon or ginger or anything else that Coco-Lemon Thai has…but it still bears mentioning!

Ah, this one tastes MUCH better a lower temp. Did two steeps, both around 160.

Very light tasting tea, with strawberry as the stronger flavor. The vanilla, or “cream,” comes out more as the cup cools.

An enjoyable cup. Thanks JennyFur for swapping!

Okay… this was my second attempt at this one. The first time around, the first half of the cup was just okay, but as I got closer to the bottom (and it started to cool), it got gross and muddled-tasting. Just scummy sweetness and a whole lot of licorice and spices – like an artificial mess of flavor. Tossed the last bit down the drain.

Lest anyone say I didn’t give it enough of a chance, I tried again today. But this time, after just 5 sips I had to dump it out… could seriously not finish the cup.

Something about it just makes it tolerable for the first couple sips, then it seems like the taste builds on you and turns… off, somehow. Lowering my rating.