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This is my first cup of tea of the day. Last night was a late night for me, because we spent most of the night watching Lost, and then I spent a good amount of time contemplating it. So when I did wake up this morning, hubby wanted to go run errands. So I haven’t had time to make myself a pot of tea until a little while ago.

I just realized that I’m running a little low on this tea, so I guess I will need to buy more then next time I place an order with Lupicia. This is one that I cannot fathom not having in my cupboard.

I LOVE Earl Grey teas. This is the best of the best, in my humble opinion (although I still have yet to do a side-by-side with the Steven Smith Lord Bergamot, which is either equal to, or only 1 or 2 points behind this one). I love the black tea base, which is Keemun instead of the traditionally used Ceylon, which brings a depth of flavor to the blend that most Ceylon teas are incapable of doing. Rich, almost wine-like, slight smoky notes, even slightly toasty-ish.

The Bergamot is citrus-y with pleasing floral notes – and not too strong so that it comes off as perfume-y. It toes that line very well.

Of all the Earl Grey teas that I’ve tried, this one is just about as perfect as they can get.

Ah… my precious!

Of all the teas – yellow is my favorite. I don’t drink it very often (as you might notice from my tasting notes) because it is so precious… I tend to hoard it and only treat myself to it every once in a while. I really need to get myself out of this tendency… I deserve yellow tea more often. :)

This tea reminds me of spring at my gramma’s house. The room where I would sleep, just outside the window, there was a beautiful honeysuckle vine that covered that corner of the house… and when the windows were open in my room and the winds would blow (it was So Cal, so there was usually always a breeze) I would be treated with the most delightful aroma imaginable – honeysuckle and fruit tree blossoms! (she had a lot of fruit trees in the back yard too!) This tea smells like that… and tastes like it too.

I love this tea.

My first tasting note today, and using up the last that I have of this tea. Sorry to see it go, but, glad to have more space in my tea cupboard. (actually, it’s more 4 shelves, plus TWO DRAWERS in my china cabinet/tea cabinet of tea, plus a rather large bowl and a box of samples).

I’m currently on my second infusion of this tea. The first was lovely… I made it a latte (but I didn’t froth the milk), and this makes it sort of more like a “breakfast blend” sort of tea rather than a maple-y tea. I like this one much better without the milk.

This is one of my favorites from Tea Guys (my favorite is their Papaya Ginger, which I have hidden from myself in my large stash of tea LOL). It has a nice, maple flavor, sweet, but not too sweet, the black tea has a very smooth taste to it. Maybe the next time I order from Tea Guys, I might just have to order this one again…

Know what? I like having enough of this on hand so that I can drink it whenever I want without worrying that I’ll run out and not have it on a day that I really crave it. Thank you for reblending it Frank. :)

Yum. Yum. Yum.

As I said in my Butter Pecan Post, I am not normally a big fan of bananas. I do like bananas with ice cream (cold stone), I like chocolate covered frozen bananas (but they aren’t really a favorite treat, they are more like a treat that I have when I’m someplace like Disneyland more because its a “tradition” than because it’s my favorite), I like bananas in smoothies and now, I like banana flavored tea… (I have a banana green tea that I haven’t yet tried from Tea Farm, going to have to actually crack that one open and try it soon). But, as for peeling a banana and eating it… well, I’d rather eat just about any other fruit. I like bananas ok… but they aren’t my favorite fruit, not by a long shot.

And, I’m not particularly crazy about rooibos. I don’t DISLIKE rooibos, but, I prefer honeybush (or even green rooibos) to red rooibos. And sometimes I do dislike rooibos if they happen to have been blended in such a way so that the saccharine-y taste comes out. Because that is just icky. I don’t have to drink saccharine sweetened drinks anymore because I don’t live with my stepmother anymore… (cue the little munchkins to sing that song when the house landed on the witch)

I actually probably wouldn’t have tried this tea if it weren’t for Frank’s explanation of how it came to exist in the first place. I felt sorry for Chelsea. So I ordered this tea.

And I LOVED IT. It is my favorite from 52Teas…. well, that I’ve tried thus far.

Chocolate. Bananas. YUM. YUM. YUM.

I received some of this in a swap with a friend of mine.

Nice and fruity. I prefer green rooibos to red rooibos, the green rooibos seems to have more of a fresh, light taste instead of the woodsy taste I get from the red. I also find that there is less of that artificial saccharine-y taste to the green rooibos.

Very pleasant tropical flavor. Sweet. Nice.

I ordered several samples from Upton a while ago, and the package arrived as I was sick so I had to put off trying them… and I’m just getting around to trying the first of them now…

Hmm… Breakfast Blend at 7:20 in the evening. OK!

I tried it first without any sweetener or milk… and it’s really good like that, but, I think I prefer it with a little milk and honey. Without the milk and honey: wine-like quality to it, hints of black currant. Also a woodsy note as well as a deep, yet subtle spicy tone.

With milk and honey: much nicer! the spicy notes come out to play a little more, the woodsy note seems to have been replaced with a molasses-y, honey-ish sort of characteristic. The wine note is less discernible but still present in the finish. It has a very tannic quality to it.

Nice! Now, I’m off to the TRB to submit a review of it!

This is a bit of a backlog because I was away from the computer this afternoon whilst I was enjoying this tea.

This is definitely one of my favorite Darjeeling teas (I love Darjeeling, so, I have several “favorites”) It has a very nice fruit quality to it. I could taste apples and grapes. It was a little less woodsy this time than I remember it from previous tastings, and a bit less musky. But, still extraordinarily delicious.

Since I didn’t rate it numerically last time I logged, I shall do so now, since I can taste again!

Yay! I got my order today!

YUMMMMMMMM! Nutty, smooth, buttery, creamy – DELICIOUS! I like this one A LOT. I am almost (almost) liking it as much as the chocolate banana.

Come to think of it, Frank… bananas would be very good in this blend too. As would a little (little = a lot in LiberTEAS language) chocolate. :)

I’m having another smoothie with this – but this time I’m using organic Kefir instead of organic yogurt – Whole Foods didn’t have a decent price on my favorite yogurt the last time I was there, darn it! – but to be honest with you, I think I like the Kefir better than the yogurt in the smoothie! It has a gentle, sour-cream-ish tangy quality to it that yogurt lacks.

This time around, I also tossed in a banana, mostly because we had one on the counter and I wanted it consumed. To compensate for the extra fruit (I added more peaches too), I used a tablespoon of ginger matcha instead of a couple of heaping scoops.

The result is a yummier smoothie! BETTER than anything I could get from jamba juice. Now, if only I could convince my kids of this. My daughters look at these matcha smoothies and say “eww… it’s green!” LOL

Yum! This morning, I decided I wanted some apple pie! I went a little overboard on the latte part – I don’t think I used too much milk, so maybe I warmed it up a bit too much because, it got FROTHY… fast!

Despite my misadventures with the frothed milk, this is one yummy cup of tea. Here is a link to my review of it on TRB:

http://www.teareviewblog.com/?p=11307

I think I like it best with the latte (just don’t overdo it like I did!) because it really brings out the sweet cinnamon notes.

Edited to add: For the second infusion, my milk frothed perfectly (I did have the first batch just a little too hot, I suppose!) and as is true with most teas, the second infusion is much tastier than the first. Loving it!