Art of Tea

This is one of the teas that I received from Jaime in my Secret Santa package – thanks Jaime! Now that I can TASTE again, I can resume trying the little mystery teas from my package! yay!

This is really good. I love the way the peppermint and rose comes together. The flavor of the white tea is a little obscured by the rose and peppermint, but, it isn’t completely overwhelmed. The flavor is sweet, bright and crisp! It is minty but there is a good balance between mint and rose… the rose offsets the mint just enough to keep this from being too minty, and the mint offsets the rose enough so that it is not abundantly floral.

A very pleasant white tea!

i didnt know herbal tea’s didnt have the same healt properties as black, white and green teas. this tea is not bad, just tastes like spring rain water

This is another tea from Jaime’s awesome secret santa package. This is one I was totally thrilled to receive because I have been wanting to try it for quite some time, in fact, it was on my “list” to order with the next Art of Tea order I placed. yay! Thank you Jaime!

This is really yummy. The description from Art of Tea is pretty much spot on – I am tasting the maple-y, apple-y kind of taste here. This is very autumnal tasting. Warming and comforting, the kind you want to curl up with while wrapped up with a cozy blanket in front of a fireplace. Very nice!

Another TeaEqualsBliss sampling – thank you!

I really like this. It is very flavorful – a lot more flavorful than I had imagined it would be given that it is a white tea. It is sweet and fruity and delicious. YUM!

Thank you to Jaime (my secret santa!) for sending me a bit of this tea… it’s my mystery tea for today!

When I first opened this package, I couldn’t believe it wasn’t a fruit flavored tea, because it had such a strong, fruity aroma. This is something that subsides once brewed, though, as the liquor is much softer in fragrance.

Softly sweet, smooth, and robust. This is really delicious. I like it very much! It has a nice undertone of sweetness that falls somewhere between honey and caramel. It is an invigorating tea. Delicious, slightly malty, but with a pleasant, wine-like finish that is fruity and slightly dry. Nice!

Finishing off the last that I have on hand of this one. Yummy!

Here is my full-length review of it: http://www.teareviewblog.com/?p=16180

This tea was sent to me by my Secret Santa (Jaime!) and is another of the “mystery” teas that she individually wrapped. I’m having so much fun with the package she sent me!

This smells really nice. It has a nice fruity aroma but the ginger makes sure that it’s not too fruity.

Delicious. The combination of guava and ginger is a deliciously different one. The guava is sweet and smooth and the ginger is not terribly hot or peppery, but adds a nice, underlying tone of warmth throughout the sip. The white tea is fresh and sweet. Yummy!

5-6 mins is a good infusion length

The berry comes out more…of course I did a double shot so that did help, too! Pretty Good! Increasing rating but also a SIPDOWN!

This one has been on my shopping WISH list for ever it seems! Thanks to LiberTEAs I was able to try it!

I’m not going to lie…I wanted to try this one because of the name! I’m not usually that way but there is an occasional tea that ‘gets my attention’ because of the name, specifically…this one was that tea! Or in this case TISANE.

Pros and Cons to this one tho!
PROS:

Not a pro or a con, really, just an observation…
CURRANT. The primary flavor that I am tasting is CURRANT. It’s good and tasty and not overdone. So, because I am enjoying that aspect of the flavor I suppose it is a PRO but again you have to like currant.

CON:
I would love to taste more white chocolate! There isn’t enough White Chocolate at all! It’s very faint…I want more!!!!!! Lots more! What I can taste of it I do like but it’s teasing me! I want that taste magnified greatly!

Not that it’s a CON but I would love to see – with the addition of more White Chocolate – what this would taste like with some caramel in it!

Also…it does have that stereotypical rooibos taste to it!

The PROs do outweigh the CONs and I think this is a great starting point and they are on to something here but I really want more white chocolate!!!! HEY! Did I mention I want more white chocolate!?

Overall…still tasty and I would certainly drink it again!

Steep Information:
Amount: 6 tsp
Water: filtered, boiling ~22oz
Tool: Cast Iron Teapot with Mesh basket strainer in cup
Steep Time: a little over 6 minutes
Served: Hot

Tasting Notes:
Dry Leaf Smell: fennel, lemon, spices
Steeped Tea Smell: lemon, fennel, hints of ginger, smoother
Flavor: ginger tang, lemon, sweet
Body: Full
Aftertaste: strong fennel flavor that coats the toungue
Liquor: translucent dark red-brown

I did not like the aftertaste, if it wasn’t so strong and bitter I think I would have liked the tea more.

June 2010 tea judging panel

“The result of our tea judging panel was a close one! After some thoughtful reviews and discussions, Art of Tea is proud to announce that we will be moving forward with the most well-received blend, tea #2 (the one consisting of tulsi, fennel, neem, lemon myrtle, apple, green rooibos, ginger). It will be called Vata, and the release date is set to be sometime in October as part of our new Ayurveda line introduction.”

images: http://amazonv.blogspot.com/2010/12/art-of-tea-loose-leaf-herbal-tisane-q2.html

Another mystery tea from Jaime’s secret santa package!

It smells amazing. I haven’t even brewed it yet, just sniffing the dry leaf – and the blueberry and the jasmine really come together so beautifully in this blend. I’ve tried blueberry jasmine blends before, but, I don’t think I’ve tried this one yet. So, I look forward to trying it!

The green tea is light with a fresh, somewhat vegetable-like flavor and a bitter note toward the middle of the sip. Not an off-putting bitter, but a savory one. The blueberry is the strongest flavor here, but the jasmine has added her distinctive sweetness to the cup as well. A nicely balanced cup. I like it very much

Thank you Jaime!

This is the first tea that I tried from the many, many teas that my secret santa (Jaime!) sent to me. She individually wrapped each tea, and sent just enough of each tea for me to taste it and review it. She knows me well! This is absolutely perfect for me, because as much as I like tea, I think what I like best is being able to drink tea and then write about it. Having just this much… is PERFECT, because then I don’t have to find a place to stash the rest of it. (there is no such thing as too much tea, but there is such a thing as too little room to keep tea)

So, since these are all individually wrapped, I don’t know what I’m going to be selecting until I’ve selected it and opened it… kind of like the 12 teas of christmas thing, which was a lot of fun for me. Jaime has allowed me to extend that excitement for many many more days! Thank you Jaime!

OK… on to the tea. This is delightful. Delicious. YUMMY even!

Sweet strawberry. I can taste the honey-esque tone to it, and I like that. A beautiful tea!

I completely forgot I had this when I was digging through – all blurry-eyed – for a good black tea this morning. This was sent to me by Jaime in a tea swap a couple of months back. I hadn’t even touched it. Not for lack of want, just lots of reviews to get outta the way. Anyway, I’m glad I did. On first (aromatic) impression, it seemed like a gentler smoked tea than others I’ve tried. It was smoky and toasty but not forest-fiery in its delivery. Flavor-wise, I had a similar impression. This tasted rather crisp, actually. It was a blunt black, but not in the “burn-your-eyebrows-off” sorta way. In short, I liked it. Quite surprised by its character.

wonderful. the peachiness is just right, blended behind the tea leaves. truly lovely.

Jaime sent me this and I think it’s very tasty! I am enjoying it much more than I thought I would! The Guava and the Ginger are both at perfect intensity levels for my liking…paired with the floral flavors this makes for a lovely flavored white! Ahhhhhhh!

Yes, this tea was meant for a longer steep! There’s still notes of honeysuckle, but it’s not cloyingly sweet now. It’s dark but rather delicate, and slightly astringent, but that adds to the tea rather than detracts. It’s got earthy undertones as well. Not something I’ll invest in again, I don’t think, but nonetheless a unique tea that I’m happy to have tried.

It’s about 6 am, and I’ve been awake for over an hour. No, I’m not carefully stuffing a turkey for our Thanksgiving meal (I’ll frost the cake later today, but that’s probably as far as my contributions to the meal will go). I simply lack the ability to sleep in when I’m allowed to sleep in.

So, as quietly as I could in my parents’ sleep-filled house, I rummaged through my bag o’ tea to make my morning cuppa. This is one of the new teas that Cuppa started carrying, and rather than just having a cup there to try it, I went ahead and got an ounce.

Brewed up, it smells of tea and honeysuckle and earth. Taste is actually much, much weaker than the color suggests (it’s a dark amber). It’s very sweet, as though honey has been poured liberally into it. And really, that’s kinda all I’m tasting. There’s a slight tea taste, as though it were trying to over come the honey. Next time around, we’ll try a 5 minute steep. I’ll hold off on rating it until then.

Update: Increased steep time to ten minutes. Still think that I should have used more tea in the first place, but the raspberry is now apparent in both the scent and the taste. Delicious. A wonderful blend of raspberry, citrus, and woody flavors.

Hmm. This is the first cup of Raspberry Nectar I’ve thus far tried; I think I should have steeped it longer.

The scent in the bag is lemongrass, full stop. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but neither is it raspberry; when dry, the raspberry is more a suggestion than an actual component of the scent.

Brewed cup also smells strongly of lemongrass, but this time the honeybush is more detectable. Unsweetened blend tastes bright and citrusy, with a definite (but not overpowering, luckily) base of rooibos, and a bit of raspberry floating around in there somewhere. Sweetening brings out the raspberry and honeybush, and complicates the flavors nicely.

I am allowing the tea in the kettle to steep a little longer, now. I expect that the raspberry flavors will come through more clearly if the tea is a little stronger. (I also should have used more tea, most likely.)

All in all, very tasty, if a bit mild. The lemongrass is fantastic, and the rooibos is almost enjoyable. It certainly isn’t obnoxious.

When Meghann posted about this tea a while back, I knew I had to try it. On my next visit to Cuppa, I mentioned it to the owner. Lisa ordered some, and it came with her most recent delivery. I was going to buy an ounce, since I like playing with the steeping parameters on puerhs, but then I smelled it. I got two ounces, because I know this is going to be grand once I find that magical time/temp combination.

Seriously, this is one of those teas that has to be sniffed to be believed. Smells awesome dry, and the scent of the brewed cup is just as good. It smells like something baking…chocolate and coconut and sweet. No hint of that rather distinct puerh scent.

Still need to work on getting the time/temp right. This cup seems a bit watered down to me. Very sweet, and coconut is in the fore. The cacao is more in the background and aftertaste, and I’m not really getting any puerh taste. Will steep for 5 minutes next time around…not sure if I’ll resteep these leaves or not. But I can tell from this cup that it really is going to be mind-blowing once I find the time/temp that’s just right! For now, I’ll give it an 80…but that very well may change.

Thanks to TeaEqualsBliss for sending me a bit of this to try!

Delish! I love the blending of the apricot and the pear – the flavor is very authentic, so authentic that I can almost taste the pulp. It’s very nectar-like.

I do wish this blend didn’t have the hibiscus, but, it is still quite acceptable with it. Yummy!

Thank you Caitlin for sending this sample! This one is interesting. I decided to try this tea without looking at the reviews or description. My initial impressions were about appearance. I saw rooibos and chunks of fruit perhaps. The smell was so faint and slightly sweet. Upon steeping, it was a nice red brown color. It tasted sweet but a little tart. I got a warm feeling of vanilla seeping through the mix of sweet and fruit. I really love rooibos and vanilla combinations.

Overall a decent blend. The fruity tartness threw me off but it wasn’t very powerful which was good.

SIPDOWN. I will miss this one!
See other notes :)

I decided to revisit this one today! I still like it! A nicely flavored white. See previous notes :)

Thank you Jaime!!!!! :)

Another goodie! This is lovely! Both equally blueberry and pom without being tart! YUM!!!!!

GOOD both hot and cold!