Michelle Butler Hallett Send Message

1 TB for 450mL water, bare.

My first milk oolong, this.

The scent drove me wild. Wow. Creme brulee, condensed milk, toasty cream — oh, my. Like the silky fur of healthy short-haired cat: more, more!

First infusion (4 minutes) is more vegetal than milky, but that haunting lactose is still there. Each sip is different, with nuances of leaf, butter, faint flowers, and sweet milk. I’ve read other Steepsterites’ notes that the 2nd infuson of this one is best. I look forward to it while meantime blissing out on the first infusion.

This oolong is a totally new experience for me. And hey, it just helped keep me from freaking out about my kids spilling red soda on beige carpet.

1 rounded TB for 450mL water, half a packet of stevia (equiv 2 tsp sugar)

It’s baaa-aaaack! DavidsTea has been tweaking the recipe a bit during this blend’s long absence, and they’ve re-classified it as one of their green tea blends versus a rooibos blend. That said, the amount of caffeine in the old blend could not have been very high; I regularly drank Super Chocolate before bed with no problems. The green tea that is in here is much more noticeable in appearance: long, dark and twisted.

The bright — sometimes fruity — taste remains as a dusting of cinnamon plays with the gentle green rooibos. I am seeing much more green tea in this than before. The cocoa bean pieces seen bigger. While this tisane hardly tastes like a cup of drinking chocolate, it does now taste a bit more of naked cocoa, and the mouth feel is creamier.

Much less of a fruity taste, I’m finding, more of a mellow, almost mediative blend of gentle cocoa, tea and rooibos. Yes, “gentle” is getting used a lot here. The tweaks to Super Chocolate are not major, but they are lovely. If anything, this unique and terribly healthy tisane (I credit Super Chocolate with a major reduction in the number of colds I got this past fall and winter) is better.

Long live Super Chocolate.

PS — I also used slightly cooler water than usual. Directions say to use 98C water; I suggest cooler than that, maybe 87 out of respect for the green, but not much cooler or the rooibos won’t develop.

1 bag for 250mL water, bare.

As with Stash’s decaf Earl Grey, much nicer when steeped with water just off the boil versus boiling. Treat this blend as a green, and it will serve up nicely spiced black tea without bitterness. I’d suggerst steepig no more than 4 minutes; after that, the cloves can take over and add a medicinal taste. This is a bagged and decaffed tea, so keep those limitations in mind.

1 bag for 250mL water, bare.

It’s a bagged tea. And a decaf bagged tea. So it has limits. I have found this one at once harsh and dull, and a bit thin in body.

But, the other night, quite by accident, I made it with water just off the boil, at much the same temp I’d make green tea with. I didn’t get to the kettle in time, and then got distracted, hence the cooler water. Guess what? It greatly improved this tea. Steeped in slightly cooler water, it comes out sweet rather than bitter, gentler, and almost creamy, with a touch of Keemunish smoke in the aftertaste. The bergamot balances quite nicely without smelling like either perfume or furniture polish. I really enjoyed it.

16oz, soy, no whipped cream.

Oh, yum. Oh, calories, Oh, not so bad calorie-wise without the whipped cream. Must ask if there’s sugar syrup in here and get it without next time — but mondo refreshing. I love matcha blended with soy milk, and this cold blend goes down nice and smoooooth. Sure, straight-up matcha is better, but got a milk-shakey type drink, this is great.

1 short (8 oz) with soy.

In. Love.

I like matcha with soy milk — like it a lot. I first tried the combo in the Matcha Monsoon smoothie from Booster Juice. In a nice warm latte, the combo’s even better. A bit sweet — does anyone know if I can get this baby unsweetened? The matcha itself is vegetal and creamy, too.

All in all, a bit heavy with the soy milk and sweetener. I’be be willing to try this with half skim, half 2% milk, or maybe even with all skim, to see if it’s a bit lighter that way. But when I’m willing to drink 150 calories, this is YUM.

4tsp for a 3-cup pot, bare.

Spring! Snow is nearly gone here, though we might get another dump yet. Even so, leaf buids swell and birds sing and freckles pop. Jasmine is all about spring to me — even the darker aspects to its scent (the indoles, I guess), because spring is beautiful but rarely tidy.
Jasmine also calms me, settling jumpy nerves, and makes me feel beautiful.

Even crappy jasmine green tea from a mall food court teriyaki stand can do that.

So when I get excellent jasmine green, like the Dragon Pearls from my local teashop, or some of this limited edition Jasmine Green from Damn Fine, I go to new rooms of heaven. This one even pleases the tea gods.

Jasmine green tea can also relive some of my arrhtitis pain. It’s no cure-all, and I;m not saying it will help anyone else, but it does help me.

This jasmine green, when treated nicely with the right remperature of water, gives no bitterness, no soapiness, and no dusty old perfume scent. I think it’s under-priced, but don’t tell the Damn Fine guys that. I tend to hoard my green teas, usually preferring black or rooibos, but I need to drink this one off before it goes stale … oh, woe is me (hahahahaha).

Excellent jasmine green. A really good balance. LOVE.

1 pyramid bag for 250mL water.

Smells great — peaches, peach fuzz, a bit of mango.

Tastes bitter and soapy. Boiling water, just-off-the-boil water, cooler water — doesn’t seem to matter. Mineral bitter and soapy, at that.

1.5tsp for 400mL water (approximately — tea was made for me)

Had a meeting at a trendy coffee shop this morning. They also sell loose teas. The teas are properly stored in aritight canisters. Many coffee shops proudly display their loose tea in cavernous jars — pretty to look at, but damaging to the teas, as both air and light gnaw at them.

I don’t know where Hava Java got this sencha, but it was the best I’ve ever tasted. A vegetal note in the aroma, then full-on sweet green CREAMINESS. Not a drop of astringency. No brine. No lawn-clippings. The water was also not quite boiling, which helped. But seriously: creamy green tea! Like a matcha and soy milk latte. Heaven.

Can anyone recommend a sencha to me that sounds like the one I just described?

1 bag for 250mL water, bare,

Strange, to me.

All lemon, at first — an earthy lemon, as the ad copy promises, but also a slightly medicinal lemon, with a muted China green aftertate. No mate taste at all, though you can smell it a bit in the vegetal earthiness. The initial scent put me off, but now that the lemon-wrestler has dissipated, the liquor is delicate and refreshing. It’s like the lemon scent has been pent-up and just explodes when hot water hit the leaves.

One confusion bit: the foil packet says to steep 4-6 minutes, while the little tag on the end of the string says steep 2-3 minutes. I steeped mine for 5 and am quite happy, but the continuity error in the packaging irks me.

The lemon taste and scent comes and goes as you continue to sip.

This would be great to drink while staring into a fire.