Mate Vana Rooibos Caramel .Teavana

May 10, 2006 at 7:51 am | Posted in Herbal Tea, Tea Reviews | Leave a comment

Teavana, priced $$ in 2006 dollars. 😉

looseleaf mix of rooibos plant and caramel pieces (hopefully)(don’t see that many).
…
don’t nobody laugh… it was my first ‘looseleaf’ “TEA” … oops! ,  yeah there goes my credibility! …its ok, pat myself on the back, you have to start …somewhere… and pat myself #2 i didnt buy too much from Teavana, aye-thanks, myself!

Method: brewed in boiled water.

Taste: very nice, full of wonderful flavor, caramel taste is present indeed,
added some sugar -made it “smoother”.

there’s alot of small dust that goes thru the strainer, minor unpleasantness.

Overall: keep? yes, i like rooibos caramel…but not from Teavana.

Sencha Ashikubo .DavidsTea.com

February 19, 2009 at 11:47 pm | Posted in Green Tea, Sencha, Tea Reviews | 2 Comments

Tea Notes> Green Tea> Sencha (for more)

DavidsTea.com (review)(product link)  $18.75/50g = 10.65/oz, 170/lb …i hope i did that right
review sample courtesy of David’s Tea.


a little problem with the label: it says this is a rooibos apple caramel 😉 but sounds tasty 😀

Method: ~2g, 4oz, ~180F(in cup), 2min. (also did others, i tried a 4g,4oz was too strong).


Flavor: vegetal, plant leaf, grass, some green astringent, a little bit of “foody” (as i call it “egg” flavor). I didnt sense any roast in flavor or aroma.

Aftertaste: Most of the time you get a sort of dry/roughness in the mouth (depending on strength of infusion). But also there’s a quite interesting & pleasant component: about 2 minutes after drink, breathe thru mouth, then swallow, you feel a sweetness in the whole mouth (not just throat). This lasts pretty long(depending on infusion strength), even at half hour i still feel something!! … it reminds me of drinking ginseng oolong. Miss the good parameters (temp/time/amount) and i got it quite astringent and harsh vegetal.

Overall: good flavor & aftertaste, con: price, sensitive to parameters (temp/time/amount).

Emperor’s White Tea .The Republic of Tea

May 10, 2006 at 7:47 am | Posted in Tea Reviews, White Tea | Leave a comment

80grams
50 round teabags
~13$ 😦

now. this is my first white tea.
i’ve had rooibos, green, oolong, black, variety of others.
… i wasnt expecting too much.
but this tea was almost tasteless !!!

dropped the bag back in the water
forgot it about 10 minutes… some taste there, kinda like green tea but very faded.
RETURN. me not happy with purchase.
geez, i will never drink this again.
it has bit of taste somewhat reminiscent of McDonald’s frying oil in water.
after some experience with some better teas… this is crap.

keep? NO.

Teavana

May 10, 2006 at 7:31 am | Posted in Tea Stores | Leave a comment

1. teavana in the city

first time with looseleaf was at a Teavana store in SF area. the nice visual setup of the store, carefully planned, with contrast, clean, sparkling clean, and some big silver metal containers … i said… yup they probably sell overpriced crap. and they did, filled up some 2 containers with the herbal rooiboses, paid like 30$ for that 2 years ago. we cursed them, and then when walking back to the car, we observe they accidentally slapped on an extra 2 tin cans, aww, ‘so sorry’.

year passes by, the rooibos are 2/3 empty, but they smell like new! fresh!… the tins i like, nice tins, so i decide to get some tins…

online tea store

2. emailed to ask size in inches of the tins…. week later no reply, i call by phone, and get my answer.

3. months later, decide to order some tins and tea. ordered like 30$ stuff. 1 week later, no charge on credit card, i email them. the complete email response (i blued it):

Please call us at 404.995.8221 with your Teavana order# to check the status of your order.

Teavana Mail-order Hours:
9:00 – 5:00pm
Monday -Friday
Thank you!

Derick Armstead
Teavana Internet/Mail order Dept
3475 Lenox Rd. Ste 860
Atlanta, GA 30326
1.887.374.6583

(>_<) — WTF? do i fuckin work for you… bitch?
… fine… i call, like a good little bitch… longdistance…
the responder says: “the ‘system is giving some problems’ ‘lemme call u back’ ”
me: …?!.. uh, ok
10min later: “oh, uhm, yeah, your order was just shipped”
me: …?!.. uh, ok

… guess what Teavana… eat my shit, cos u aint gonna eat my money again. crackers.

2007 was in the Glendale mall, i see Teavana, wanted to see what theyre up to these days,
i go in, can barely walk 2 steps and the salespeople start jumping on me with questions. very annoying, i start looking in their catalog(actually i was fake reading), questions again: what kind of tea would you like, green, black – i say: im looking in the book … 1 minute later: have you seen our ‘new’ tea cup? …me: no (and stare back in the book)…. then she starts shoving the cup in my face and clamping on its buttons without me asking for shit… damnit!… i just ran out of the store.

I know what they remind me of…mattress sellers with theyr pushy techniques; oh yeah, or of BOSE, Monstr Cables, brainwashing people with theyr ubiquitous advertisements – nice covers for the flaming pile of shit underneath.

well, for those couple teas i got in the beginning, find them here… > clunk <

Tea Reviews

May 10, 2006 at 1:29 am | Posted in | 12 Comments
I love tea. These are my “tasting notes”, organized by type. Some have pictures (usually of tea… :D).
“tea“ = alternative/original/westernized name VAR = varieties of that tea (tea) = additional varieties ^ = link to info
Thank you for visiting, enjoy…
B l a c k T e a
Just Black Tea/ unblended, unflavored, etc:
China black tea “hong cha, red tea, congou“
> Qimen “Keemun“^ VAR: Qimen Hao Ya (A, B), Qi men Mao Feng “Hair Peak”
> Yunnan “Dian Hong“^ VAR: Yunnan Black, Yunnan Gold, Yunnan Gold Tips
> China ‘true black’ tea “hei cha” VAR: Fu bricks, Liu an, Liu bao
India
> Assam^, Darjeeling^, Ceylon^, Nilgiri^, Sikkim
Black, Blends:
> English Breakfast tea^, Irish Breakfast tea^
> Chai Masala^
Black, Scented/ Flavored:
> Earl Grey^
> Souchong, Lapsang Souchong^, Smokey Souchong, Russian Caravan^
> Jagertee^ = black tea + rum
oolongs, wulongs
O o l o n g ” W u l o n g” T e a
Green/ partially oxidized/ fermented wu-longs “jade oolong”
> High Mountain Oolong “Gaoshan Oolong”
> Tie Guan Yin “TGY, Iron Goddess of Mercy, Iron Buddha, Ti Kwan/Kuan Yin”
> Fo Shou “Buddha’s Palm”, “Monkey Picked“
> Bao Zhong “Pouchong, Wenshan Baozhong“
> Dong Ding “Tung Ting , Frozen Peak/Summit”
> Alishan “alisan wu long”
oolongs, wulongs dark, fermented
Dark/ oxidized/ fermented wu-longs “amber = baked, champagne = fermented”
> Champagne Oolong, Fujian oolong, Formosa Oolong
> Bai hao Oolong “Oriental Beauty, Dongfang Mei Ren“
> Dancong “Phoenix oolong, Feng huang dan cong”
> WuYi Oolong “wu yi yan cha, rock oolong” (the WuYi & YiWu Master: MarshalN)
> Qi Lan “Rare Orchid”
> Xiao Hong Pao “Small Red Robe”, Da Hong Pao “Big Red Robe”, Rougui “Chinese Cassia”
> Shui xian “Shui Hsien, Water Sprite”
> Shui Jin Gui “Golden Turtle”
> Bai Ji Guan “White cock/rooster crest”, “White Cockscomb”
green tea
G r e e n T e a
Just Green Tea
Japan ^classification
> Sencha VAR: Shincha (1st harvest), Asamushi, Chumushi, Fukamushi (long steamed)
> Gyokuro (shade grown), Matcha (shade grown, powdered), Guricha
> Hojicha “Houjicha” (baked), Kukicha (stems), Bancha
China “lu cha”
> Longjing “Lung Ching, Long Jing, Dragon Well” VAR: ming, yu qian “1st, 2nd plucking”
> Bi Luo Chun “BLC, Pi luo chun, green snail spring”. Gunpowder
> Mao Feng “huang shan mao feng, yellow mountain fur tip”
scented mixed green tea flavored
Green Scented/Flavored/Mixed
> Jasmine
> Genmaicha^
> Touareg =green + mint + alot of sugar
> Kashmiri pink chai^ =green+baking soda+sugar/salt+sprinkled nuts …sounds good!
everyone’s favorite: pu erh tea
Pu-erh “pu’er, pu’erh, pu-er cha, pooer, po-lay, pu-lay, pooh-erh”
> looseleaf pu’er, Maocha = raw pu’er loose leaf
Shaped: tuo cha “bowl”, bing cha “cake, beeng cha”, brick
> Sheng pu “raw, green” // Shu pu “ripe, cooked, black”
here comes white teas
White Tea
> Chinese white tea “bai cha”, Indian white teas, Darjeeling.
otd tea
Ready to drink Tea “RTD, Bottled Tea, iced tea”
herbal teas
Herbal ‘tea’ Tissanes
of leaf: rooibos, mint, Kuding cha “Ku Ting, Wu Tang, Bitter stalk tea, Qing Shan Lu Shui“, Yerba Mate^
of flower: chamomile, rosebud, linden “lime, tilia”
of grain: barley^ “JP: mugicha, KO: boricha”
not my thing
Display teas, flower tea etc don’t like those, some have glue (i don’t eat glue, i don’t sniff glue, so …no).

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