Yesterday's Teas - China Tian Mu Qing Ding Organic & Caramel with Caramel Pieces

My latest order for tea came in yesterday and I decided to give a couple of them a try.

The first, China Tian Mu Qing Ding Organic, was actually one of the free samples they send with your order. I have to admit that while I am a huge fan of black teas, I havn't had much experience with green teas. I have enjoyed the pre-made iced green teas, but most of those are so sweetened it is hard to know what you are really tasting.

Overall I was mildly impressed. It is hard to go against the instinct that the longer you infuse it the more flavor you will get out of it (in reality it just turns teas bitter). My general understanding is that green teas range from a smokey flavor to a grassy flavor. This was towards the grassy end of the spectrum, but not so much that I felt like I was just drinking grass. The one thing I did enjoy was that it had a nice semi-sweet aftertaste. I have much more learning to do on the green tea front, so I am unsure what else to say about this one now.

The second tea I tried yesterday was Caramel with Caramel Pieces. This was one that I had been looking forward to, but was kind of disappointed in. The smell was amazing, however the taste did not live up to its smell. It just seemed to have a bit of a flat taste too it. I usually expect a good black tea to hit me with a lot more flavor than this one did. I will certainly give it another try, but I am not expecting too much out of it in the future.

As well as all the tea, I also ordered a bag of raw rock sugar crystals to sweeten tea with. It is recommended over table sugar because it is able to sweeten things without messing with their original taste/flavor. I included a little bit of the crystals in each cup of the black tea, and it did do just that- unfortunately I probably wouldn't have minded if it did cover up the flavor in that one!