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First mug of this one made at home. 1 tsp tea in 16oz water. I made it in a mug then dumped it into a travel mug to take on a walk. The perfect end to a big (late!) brunch with my brother.

Sample from ShayneBear! This one is like an Earl Grey with caramel syrup. I actually quite like it. In fact, I might order a “London Fog, no vanilla, with caramel drizzle” at Sbux one of these days.

Sweetened a bit, with a dollop of soy creamer. Pretty much how I take all my black teas. The tea hasn’t gone bitter, although there is some astringency coming through. I’m pretty impressed with this bagged tea! I’m definitely keeping Kusmi Tea on my “to order” list!

Edit: Second steep for 4 minutes. I’m surprised that there’s so much flavour left. It’s not as strong as the first cup, but it’s definitely close. And that’s even after eating a little smoked salmon.. :)

Yum!

This tea smells super rooibos-y when I just sniff it, but if you can get past that and actually take a sip, it’s lime all the way. Wow! It definitely reminds me of pie.

I don’t have much to say. I spent the afternoon at work lifting heavy things when I shouldn’t be lifting things, came home and had a cola with rum to make up for that terrible Cherry Cola tea. But I think it might actually be time to sleep, not time to drink more tea.

Oh hey. Apparently I missed putting this in my online cupboard. And apparently I haven’t had it yet!

After my failed Cherry Cola tea flavoured popsicle, I needed something comforting to cleanse my palate. Hence a white chocolate hazelnut Ritter Sport, and some tea that smells (and tastes!) like baked goods.

I don’t really get “oatmeal raisin cookie” out of it, but I do get delicious spiced baked good. A different spice from the Grandma’s Pumpkin Pie one, even. I had a big raisin in my brew basket so there’s less tea in here than I expected, but it’s still delicious. I can taste the tea in the background, the cinnamon, a carb-y sweet baked flavour (not really getting oats, though), and some extra sweetness from that raisin.

I really like Della Terra’s black flavoured teas. Well, the ones I’ve tried. The green ones are good as well, but since black teas are closer to my heart, I love them more. :)

1.5 tsp in 12 oz water, 1/4 tsp sugar, 1 tbsp soy creamer.

I got this tea to make popsicles, and I’m afraid I’m not sold. The smell when brewing is heavy on the anise, and it’s interesting that I can pick that out of the “cola flavour”.

I brewed 1/2 cup double strength, added 1 tsp sugar and about 1/3 cup soy creamer. Chilled overnight, then poured into my Zoku popsicle maker today.

There’s something wrong with the flavour. I can see where it’s going, but blech.. It’s weirdly musty and spicy, and honestly I’d rather have an organic/natural full-sugar cola mixed with creamer and frozen. :/

I’m not too impressed with this tea. Not much else to say, really. Just that there are other teas in my cupboard I’d rather be drinking.

Of course, I have a couple bars of soap that essentially smell like this tea. So it’s not the smell that I don’t like. Just the execution in the blend is kinda meh.

The last time I had this tea I ignored the Silk Road brewing instructions, thinking that they underleaf drastically.

Not true.

1 tsp in 16oz of water, and this tea is perfect. I added 1/4 tsp sugar and some soy creamer, just to make it a richer cup. I’ve done 1 hour + of yoga and a 20 minute body weight workout. I’m tired and need the pick-me-up!

This is such a nice Earl Grey. Really. I love this one. Not too floral, the vanilla adds some extra flavour without being in your face like the vanilla syrup added to a London Fog (Which seems recent. The first few times I had a London Fog there was no sweetener added.). It doesn’t need milk or sugar, I just like to add them for extra comfort. If you want more vanilla, use vanilla almond milk. :) I even love the black base on this. It’s starting to hint at astringency at a 4 minute, boiling water steep, but I think even 5 minutes would be fine if you wanted a stronger tea.

Yum. Definitely a tea I will try to keep stocked in my cupboard.

Since I’m sitting here working on my payroll forms, I figured I’d give myself the welcome distraction of drinking a tea with multiple short steeps. This one is from Heather at the Victoria meetup and swap. I am doing this with a tea cup and a brewing basket, because I am not yet coordinated enough to not burn myself on my wee tiny gongfu setup.

I’m also probably underleafing this, but I wanted to try it both this way and with more of a Western style, to see what I prefer.

So.
- few second rinse
- 8 second steep. This is really floral smelling. And also frankincense smelling. Damn, I scrubbed and scrubbed this cup and the filter basket, and poured so much boiling water over them. :/ I hope this isn’t too contaminated with the Earl of Anxi. Huh. Now that it’s cooled enough to drink, it smells like flowers but tastes like… green bean water. So weird.
- 10 second steep. I washed my cup out a couple more times. It’s really reminiscent of snap pea crisps, only not salty at all. I don’t know that I like drinking veggie tasting tea.
- Ok, I have to take a break from this.

I received a sample of this when I was in the other day. We were chatting about teas and I mentioned my dislike for Laoshan Black, and he suggested this one as, I think, being similar but different. Maybe.

The colour is a dark ochre. It’s lighter in flavour, but it still has that weird burnt flavour. In this case it’s like toasted walnut skins – astringent and weirdly nutty. I think my mom would call it “earthy”. If you like walnuts (or, uhh, just the skins!), I can see this being a good flavour.

It’s too astringent for me, although it’s a different astringency than what I’m used to. It’s not one where my first though is to add milk, where I do if I over steep my breakfast teas and they end up on the astringent side.

After adding some soy creamer, still no. Maybe with real milk, but I don’t tend to consume much milk that’s not fermented.

I have enough to try a smaller cup, and I think I’ll steep it for only 2 minutes next time.

Time to move on to the tea that keeps on giving – steep 5 of the Earl of Anxi.

Edit: Do you like my cell phone picture, taken under shoddy fluorescent lights? :)

This is the maple tea of my dreams. Some almond milk was added, but no extra sugar.

I got a cup to go as I’m heading out on a hike. I didn’t pay attention to the steeping as we were geeking out about teas. I think I’m bringing some samples by my next day off!