Tea Tasting: 3 Teas for Iced or Cold-Brewed Tea

[Shamanjoe]

Baroness

I had some of the same thoughts about the Classic Iced Tea. It was crisp and refreshing, but it didn't taste very bright to me. Maybe with the addition of some lemon the acidity would help it, but I'm not too fond of citrus in my teas. Other than that, it was very nice, just not distinctive enough to make it into a regular rotation for me.

I think I brewed it a little lighter than you did, but it still tastes somewhat like Lipton to me. Any thoughts?

[Shamanjoe]

The Yin Yang leaves have a distinct tropical fruit aroma. I found the fruit taste a bit odd; this is a bit unusual as I do drink scented teas fairly often.

The Oolong was toasty and pleasant but a bit on the weak side. I'll need more tea-to-water to make this one ice-able.

Finished off the Yin Yang last night. It was a very nice tea, but I don't agree with the decision made to flavour it. As soon as I smelled the dry tea I knew it was mango. As far as the flavour goes, it's a fine mango tea, but I felt that any green tea/black tea contrast that might have been there was lost. I'm not sure that the combination makes a more effective base for the mango flavour either. I have had my share of mango tea with a base of just black tea, and I don't think that the flavour came across any better using the blend. I do think that if it had just been green tea though, the flavour would have tasted somewhat off.

I started by brewing a sample of the tea hot to taste it. Then I let it cool to room temperature before putting it in the fridge overnight. I tasted it in the morning by itself, and then over ice. The black tea in the base came across, though a little lightly thanks to the addition of the green tea, and it had a very mango-forward flavour. I followed the same procedure for the rest of the tea, and kept it in a pitcher in the fridge. Very nice all around, and very refreshing, especially on one of the warm evenings we've been having here. I'm just not sure that the yin yang concept makes much of a difference with the flavouring they chose. I'd be very interested in tasting this tea unflavoured.

[baroness]

I had some of the same thoughts about the Classic Iced Tea. It was crisp and refreshing, but it didn't taste very bright to me. Maybe with the addition of some lemon the acidity would help it, but I'm not too fond of citrus in my teas. Other than that, it was very nice, just not distinctive enough to make it into a regular rotation for me.

I think I brewed it a little lighter than you did, but it still tastes somewhat like Lipton to me. Any thoughts?

I brewed an orange pekoe of the Lipton ilk and throughly chilled it as a comparison to the Classic. The OP tea seemed flat/one-dimensional and not noteworthy. It might be helped with some lemon or lime, but was NOT in the CITea league at all.

The Yin Yang leaves have a distinct tropical fruit aroma. I found the fruit taste a bit odd; this is a bit unusual as I do drink scented teas fairly often.

The Oolong was toasty and pleasant but a bit on the weak side. I'll need more tea-to-water to make this one ice-able.

Finished off the Yin Yang last night. It was a very nice tea, but I don't agree with the decision made to flavour it. As soon as I smelled the dry tea I knew it was mango. As far as the flavour goes, it's a fine mango tea, but I felt that any green tea/black tea contrast that might have been there was lost. I'm not sure that the combination makes a more effective base for the mango flavour either. I have had my share of mango tea with a base of just black tea, and I don't think that the flavour came across any better using the blend. I do think that if it had just been green tea though, the flavour would have tasted somewhat off.

I started by brewing a sample of the tea hot to taste it. Then I let it cool to room temperature before putting it in the fridge overnight. I tasted it in the morning by itself, and then over ice. The black tea in the base came across, though a little lightly thanks to the addition of the green tea, and it had a very mango-forward flavour. I followed the same procedure for the rest of the tea, and kept it in a pitcher in the fridge. Very nice all around, and very refreshing, especially on one of the warm evenings we've been having here. I'm just not sure that the yin yang concept makes much of a difference with the flavouring they chose. I'd be very interested in tasting this tea unflavoured.

I didn't feel the Yin Yang was mango flavored; to me it was fruit punch, i.e. pineapple with perhaps a bit of guava. The fruit flavors, whatever they were, pretty much obliterated the tea flavor notes.

[Shamanjoe]

I had some of the same thoughts about the Classic Iced Tea. It was crisp and refreshing, but it didn't taste very bright to me. Maybe with the addition of some lemon the acidity would help it, but I'm not too fond of citrus in my teas. Other than that, it was very nice, just not distinctive enough to make it into a regular rotation for me.

I think I brewed it a little lighter than you did, but it still tastes somewhat like Lipton to me. Any thoughts?

I brewed an orange pekoe of the Lipton ilk and throughly chilled it as a comparison to the Classic. The OP tea seemed flat/one-dimensional and not noteworthy. It might be helped with some lemon or lime, but was NOT in the CITea league at all.

I agree our sample version seemed a bit brighter than the standard Lipton, but for the life of me I couldn't taste much of a difference in the flavour profile.

I forgot to add to the last post, I had the same problem with the Oolong. I'm going to have to brew it a lot stronger to make a good iced tea out of it.

[Shamanjoe]

Finally putting the little one to bed, and brewing up the last of the three samples, the Bai Yun Oolong.

Based on my hot sample tasting, I'll be brewing this one with a much higher leaf to water ratio than the other two in this tasting. 2 litres of filtered water (minus approximately a cup to make some hot tea to sip tonight) off the boil for a few minutes to get it down to the right brew temp, plus the remaining tea. I used two rounded tablespoons for the hot tasting, so I'll be adding the remainder to the water. I'll brew, let it cool naturally, then refrigerate overnight. I'll try it straight and over ice, and report back.

[Shamanjoe]

The Bai Yun Oolong was a very nice iced tea. I tasted a little bit on an astringent taste, but I think I left it a few minutes too long. It did not detract from the nice toasty taste at all for me. This is quite refreshing as an iced tea, a little bit on the light side even with the much higher water to leaf ratio. I think this was my favourite of the three just because its not what you would expect from a standard iced tea, it is nice, light and refreshing.

[Richard Kilgore]

Thanks to Tea Source, Norbu Tea and The Cultured Cup for providing the teas for this Iced Tea TT&D. Thanks also to baroness and Shamanjoe for participating and sharing their detailed tasting notes with us.

If there are any more comments on this TT&D by the participants or members in general, please post them here in this topic.

Stay tuned for more Tea Tasting & Discussions. Currently there is an offer of free samples of Darjeelings from Tea Source for a TT&D, and there are two more TT&Ds lined up. If you subscribe to this eG Forums Coffee & Tea Forum, you will be among the first to know.