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Tea #4 from the HHTTB

tasty. finally. And, of course, a tea that I like would be one that is not one of the steepster big hits. Yep, that’s me, always a rebel. ٩(^ᴗ^)۶

The mint in this isn’t very loud, but that’s ok. I selected it because I like mint teas and I like this one, so that’s the important thing. I like that none of the flavors are offensive. Absolutely nothing leaving a questionable aftertaste (really big deal for me). It’s cozy and herbal with a dash of pepper. Strange sounding health-herbs? sign me up! I don’t act as crazy new-agy as I did when I was younger, but those traits still reside in me nonetheless. I can’t help but think myself something like Topanga from boy meets world. She admits that she was the strangest girl ever before ‘growing up.’ Incidentally, for a very brief period of time at a school I only attended for a few months, several kids did refer to me by that name. I really was a weird kid, for sure. :)

Tea #3 From the HHTTB

bleh, nope, I can’t do it. I just don’t think I’ll be able to finish this cup. At first, I though maybe I could, but it’s not happening.

I read ahead of time that it had a smoky base, but I thought for sure the fennel and spices would mellow it out. Well, I don’t know if they mellow it, but they do something for sure. It’s sweet and smoky at the same time, but not a good pairing imo. The only place smoke and sweets can get along is while making s’mores :p
note to self: stay away from all smoky Chinese black teas!

Tea #2 from Here’s Hoping Traveling Teabox

First, a little story:

I used to buy essential oils regularly from Mountain Rose Herbs. When I first started ordering from their website some, i dunno, 5 or 6 years ago maybe, I noticed the loose leaf tea section. At this time I was a heavy coffee drinker, though I did have the occasional bagged green tea. Mountain rose herbs was the company that put the first tea-spark in me. I thought, “wow, loose tea. . how natural and exotic!” But something about it also intimidated me, like I wasn’t good enough for that fancy realm. I frequently browsed the tea section on the website and even went so far as to purchase two tea infusers, but I never purchased tea.

Fast forward years later, I purchased my first loose tea, but not from Mountain rose herbs. I looked around frantically for the tea infusers that I knew I still had in their original packaging, but couldn’t find them. Incidentally, I found them, finally, a couple weeks ago ^^

So, anyway, here I am presented with a tea (or rather, tisane. .but lets not get all nit-picky now) from the company that should have been my first, so I had to try it (thanks Tea Sipper for leaving it in the box ;) )

I was skeptical because of the ginger root (strong ginger makes me nauseous, ironically enough), but I’ve come across several ginger-containing teas along the way that haven’t put me off. The ginger in this one is stronger than I’d like, but it’s alright. The tea as a whole is very soupy/broth-like as someone else already noted. And certainly herbaceous, with a slight sweetness on the way down.

I don’t know if I’ll order this specific blend, but it has inspired me consider checking out Mountain Rose’s tea collection again :)

Tea #1 from Here’s Hoping Travelling Teabox

I was quite excited to brew up a Houjicha. It’s been a long time since I’ve had a Houjicha tea and I was craving one.

I thought at first that there was something wrong with this tea, like maybe it has been affected by other tea flavors in the box. I detect a strange sort of generic fruitiness in the back ground. Aside from that, it certainly doesn’t taste like the Houjicha teas I’ve had before. I don’t know quite how to describe it, but I don’t like it. Reading the other reviews here, I can see that it should taste unique, but I don’t know how much of what I taste is the tea or how much is tea box ‘pollution.’

Yeah, ok, so the root beer flavor is pretty authentic. The rooibos comes through pretty strong too. The novelty of it wore off after the first cup. It’s just not TEA. well, obviously, it’s rooibos. But root beer? not really want I want. I don’t even drink soda. Ever. At least not in some 8 years and before that I drank it quite sparingly. The last time I had root beer was way back when as a kid when my parents went to pizza every friday night and root beer was the pizza-beverage of choice every time. Ugh, I hate pizza too. Nonetheless, there was something almost nostalgic about this tea the first time I had it, enough to make me try another cup, but it’s just not working out for me. Some cozy family memories are best left as they are, in my head.

Just finished off the last of this today. Not many teas remain favorites after several cups. It is a lucky tea that can make it past two cups and still maintain my interest. I really can’t explain it — how it is that I can think that I absolutely love a tea and then the second or third time I have it, I can’t stand it anymore. Does this happen to anyone else or am I really so unusual??

I’m really running low on teas that I like in my cupboard. I still have some 40 teas that I just want to be rid of, half of them are my husbands and he won’t drink them! gah. I need some money!! Im so jealous of all of you who can order tea like every week. what are you sacrificing for it? real food? cable television? lol. Fortunately I have a couple of traveling tea boxes to look forward to. I hope they aren’t too dominated by crazy novelty blends though. Someday, if I can, I’m going to start a non-dessert-tea box. That would be awesome.

Sipdown.

Meh, really not the best black tea ever. it’s a take-it or leave-it sort. I’m still not certain what characterizes a Ceylon as the others I have tried since first logging this have different characteristics. Relative to the others, this one doesn’t stand out as exceptional.

Several cups later I still love this tea. I have about one serving left and it is the last (unflavored) green tea in my cupboard. I’ve been trying so hard to earn my next tea shopping spree by using up what I have. Now I feel like I still have a full cupboard but nothing good to drink (kind of like the clothing in my closet, lol).

I have many teas that are just so-so and I’ve decided that I’m a princess and deserve only the best (haha). So I won’t drink them. Then, my husband has managed to accumulate a fair number of teas that only he likes, but he rarely drinks tea over coffee, so they sit around taking up my cupboard space, making me feel like I have more than I do. I periodically ask if he still wants to keep one or more of them and he always replies in the affirmative.

Part of my reason for earning the ‘right’ to shop for tea is so that I can justify spending money that I don’t have. As long as there is a sizable number in my cupboard, i can’t do it! boooo.

I purchased three more sample sized bags of this since I first logged it. I have finished off one and a half of them. I like this tea less every time that I drink it. The most recent cup I did not even finish.

The woody flavor that I commented on before is making me feel slightly sick. I don’t even detect the honey that I thought I noticed before (who knows, maybe the first experience was clouded by other food I was eating at the time).

Anyhow, I still think that this is a good quality ceylon, but not for me.

I love green tea. It was the first and only tea I drank regularly in sachet or bagged form until I discovered loose leaf (and that teas besides green exist. . lol, not really, but…). Back in the day, I’d leave my teabags in the cup the whole time while I drank. Fortunately, many of them were forgiving to my ignorance. The very first loose tea I purchased, naturally, was a sencha. The staple every-day tea of Japan, I thought it would be my one and only. But Sencha and I, we had a rough start. Several bitter and astringent cups later, I ended up getting rid of my very first bag of sencha (and it was a big bag, as I expected to like it). As I got more experienced with tea brewing methods, I gave sencha another shot. Sencha tends to be the most picky of my green teas to brew just right. Could be just the specific ones that I’ve tried, I don’t know. At any rate, when I brewed them just right, they are the best cup of green tea.

So here I am confronted with a sachet of sencha (free sample from H&S). I quite mindfully heated my water to exactly 165F and steeped my sachet for 1min30sec in an 8oz mug. The flavor is surprisingly sweet and not the least bit bitter, but it is weak. If only I could guarantee a way to increase the strength of flavor without adding bitterness, this could be a worthwhile repurchase.