Art of Tea

Special thanks to Kristin for this one! I was unable to locate this one steepster or art of tea’s website. So I added it!

When I smelled this one I was afraid I would hate it but it’s not that bad thanks to the Lemon Myrtle!!! It’s the saving grace, here!

The Apple helps as well and the Green Rooibos isn’t bad. The Feenel would have been the primary flavor had it not been for those ingredients. Tulsi and Neem blend in and the ginger is swimming around there somewhere.

lovely. a bit tart, gorgeous color, great flavor. it is snowing outside, NPR is asking for money (rightly so) and this cup is perfect. thanks art of tea!

Another Jaime tea! Thanks Jaime!

This one reminds me more of a Darjeeling than a Ceylon. Either way the taste is ok…but…I wouldn’t suggest a 2nd infusion unless you don’t mind a slight bitter taste.

Another tasting possible because of Jaime! Thanks so much girlie!
This is lovely! It really IS! Peony and Coconut and white tea! Very nice! Very true…not fake tasting! Very calming and tasty! There is a sweetness yet a tropical feeling to it that is neither to extreme on either end. YUMMO!

Thanks Jaime for sending this to me! It’s been on my wishlist for a while now!

This is a strange tisane! First…I will say I DO like this. I like the way it tastes! BUT…

It’s weird because it doesn’t really make much sense…I would say it’s fruity…like apple and pear but I would say smooth, per say. It’s also weird because it goes on and on about the chocolate-goodness but I really can’t taste any chocolate. This also has mint in it but if I didn’t read the description or see the mint in the blend I wouldn’t have been able to guess it had mint in it.

I will say this…I could smell and taste both the apple! There are LARGE chunks of them in there! This is a nice, tasty touch. It smells a little pie-like…almost like apple pie. There is a bread/pie-like quality to the aroma. It doesn’t taste like pie, tho! I would say a nice apple rooibos if I had to name it based on taste.

Like I said…I think it’s yummy BUT…I’m disappointed about the chocolate claims and can’t really taste the mint either and I really think there could be some pear in here and if there isn’t it tastes like there is!

So…based on taste – if I didn’t know what the ingredients claim or know the name I would say 79-ish…but because there are so many ingredients and claims and a name like this and me not being able to find those notes and touches or claims I would say like a 40. So…I’ll go with a 60 because like I said…this is so unusual it’s just something I had to mention. It’s almost like they put the wrong name with the wrong tea/tisane and the wrong tea with the wrong ingredient list!

Thank you Jaime yet again for sending me this tea as well as all the others yet to be reviewed.

I was taken back a bit by this one. I have to have about 3 sips before I really understood it. I think it is because I had a black tea right before it and my tongue was confused and the palate wasn’t cleansed. Nevertheless, once I go to know it a bit better I got a strong creamy base with an essence of coconut. I did enjoy it quite a bit but need more time with it.

ACK! I don’t like to write negative reviews but this tea just tastes foul to me, nasty. Now that’s dreadful to say. I just wrote about an oolong last night that I adored and gave a score of 100. I love oolong teas and have many in my cupboard. But this was an expensive tea and reading about the notes of cinnamon and amber, well, as an oolong lover I knew I had to try it and I treated myself to it. Now I have a 3.5 oz tin that I won’t use and it is very disappointing! And the color is not purple, though it says so on the tin and in the description, but a deep brown like other brown teas. I keep wondering if they put the wrong tea in the tin but I know they didn’t because it looks just like the picture. I was careful not to over-steep because it said it was good for many infusions. That says to me “LOOK OUT, THIS TEA IS GOING TO GET STRONG FAST!” but it didn’t taste too strong nor bitter. I feel like I’m at a wine tasting for a new and highly regarded wine with rave reviews and I’m looking sheepishly around the room at everybody applauding it and I want to creep out because I dislike it so. Perhaps it is an acquired taste, but as I said I have and love many oolongs so an oolong taste is familiar to me even though of course they are all different. Here I go to trudge back into the kitchen, throw it out, and brew something else. I really need a good cup of tea. THIS isn’t it!

Darn you Hibiscus! Sneaking up on me!!!! You hang your head when you approach me now, don’t you!? Not knowing how I will react! You used to attack but this time around more of a tip-toe!? Time will tell…

Jaime! Thanks for this sample from Art of Tea! You Rock!!!

Now…onto the review…

This smells like Apricot, Pear, Apple…tastes likes Apricot, Apple, Orange, Hibiscus. But the Hibiscus isn’t overly distracting! I think the tartness pops more the colder the liquid gets, actually…so I would personally try and drink this while hot to avoid the tarty hibiscus…

Not too bad! Glad I got to try this!

Jaime! You are awesome! Thanks so much for sending this one to me! I have been wanting to try it for a while!

At first sip I thought this was creamy and that was about it besides the honeybush/rooibos flavors but then I waited about 2 minutes at room temp…things changed from there on! The blueberry plumped right up and was tasty. There is still a great deal of creaminess to it. I’m not sure if I would say cheesecake-like but certainly creamy! As for aroma I can smell the blueberries slightly but not overly so. It is VERY dark in color once infused. The after taste is a blueberry and ends with a tiny floral taste.

This is nice! Oddly…and I don’t know if I would say this about many other tisanes…I enjoy the creamy flavor mixed with the blueberry…I appreciate the blueberry not tasting fake or too loud!

Ladies and Gents, being a lunch lady ain’t easy sometimes. We had the annual Thanksgiving bash at one of my schools today, and while it went surprisingly well, it’s always a crazy-busy-happy day that leaves you wanting to sit back and have a beer.

So, instead, I went to Cuppa and grabbed a chocolate strawberry latte with extra chocolate on my way back to the main office. Now to finish up this paperwork and start a long weekend!!

Another pit stop at Cuppa on a day where everything’s going crazy (really, who delivers 18 cases of yogurt without thinking something’s wrong with the order?). Ordered a Chocolate-covered Strawberry latte before realizing that they have new teas!!!! So I’ll definitely be heading back down soon to try those out.

Still, this latte is fantastic…a pureed chocolate-covered strawberry. Definitely a sanity-soother (and it’s pretty darn good as a plain tea, as well).

Have been driving around to my schools this morning, and just happened to visit the one that’s not even a block from Cuppa. So, I stopped in for a latte…

Chocolate-covered Strawberry: Strawberry Santiago, frothy milk, and chocolate syrup.

Commence drooling.

Art of Tea Sampler 13/24

Yummmy in my tummy…this tea is very good! I never thought I’d enjoy a rooibos that wasn’t heavily flavored/blended/covered in sugar, but this is right up my alley. The blueberry is light and sweet and the cheesecake flavor is really in there. It is so good. I’m happy to have this tea to try courtesy of Jaime. Can’t wait to try the rest of the dessert teas. This is going on the shopping list for sure! I would love more of this blend around for my evening consumption!

I received this sample as part of a FB Contest so I feel a bit remiss in not bragging it up a bit. I do see where the others found this slightly medicinal taste to the cup. The berry when paired with the rooibos base gives off this note that is akin to cherry Nyquil. Further, the vanilla was not quite as prominent in the flavor profile as I would have liked. I was able to remedy both of these issues by stirring in a splash of french vanilla creamer. This largely squelched the medicinal notes and added that vanilla component that I was hoping for. Art of Tea has several other blends that I enjoy and I don’t see myself becoming compelled to order this one again. (Cinnamon Fig, Carmelized Pear, Classic Black to name a few).

This one took a little while to grow on me, but now as I am nearly finished with the cup, I am finding that I quite enjoyed it. It has a nice, creamy taste and body. I like the black currant… the white chocolate… and even the hibiscus here isn’t bad.

I like!

Thank you LiberTEAS for sending me this lovely blend. I truly was excited to try this and I did enjoy it, mostly because the pear really came through. I didn’t score this higher because to me the rooibos and the pear didn’t blend together as well as I would have liked. It was like they were two separate entities forced to be roommates and only sort of got along. I felt there needed to be another buffering agent added to make it all mesh together a little better. Although, I don’t know what it would be. Nevertheless, still worth a try and still very happy I had a chance to try it.

This one comes camping with me so needless to say I trust it. It’s hearty enough to stand up to a nearby campfire and easy enough to contribute to the mood without being conspicuous in any way. Nice hints of wild Dan Con sweetness and spice on the back end and in the hui gan. A great introductory sheng beeng.

Trusty.

Now this is a Puerh I can drink. It’s smooth, earthy and sweet. It’s the sweet part that is really making this work for me. The coconut and cocoa make this really enjoyable. There is definitely a nutty taste mixed in with the sweetness. I’m just so happy to have a puerh that I can drink a full cup of, and am contemplating drinking more of! Thanks LauraR for sending this tea my way! I hope to try a few more infusions with these leaves and will report back.

I just received my prize from the SororiTEA Sisters Blog contest yesterday – Thanks LiberTEAS !!!!

I decided to try out one of my new teas to recover from a brutal exam. And this tea sounded nice a happy! It tastes delicious. It tastes like white tea with a hint of melon and a little bit like honey but that may just be part of the tea or the melon flavor. I throughly enjoyed this tea, and I am feeling much more peaceful now :)

On steam aroma alone this smells exactly as this tea is titled…like classic black tea. It unfurls further malty/creamy excellence on taste. It’s a very robust cup with a smooth taste – buttery in parts – with only a slight astringency, depending on brew time and temp. There’s even a cocoa aspect detectable in the finish. It’s not a surprise this won accolades.

Full Review: http://www.teaviews.com/2010/10/05/review-art-of-tea-classic-black-3/

I made a pot of this the other night and had a cup hot and then put the rest of the fridge. This was the last of my Art of Tea dessert sampler that I had to try. I must say I have loved every tea so far and this one was no exception!

This tea is all about the banana! It smells like BANANA and it tastes like it too, but I really enjoy banana and banana bread and banana runts and pretty much all banana flavored things, so that was a good thing for me. I am not really getting much chocolate but I am also not getting that “I am trying really hard to be chocolate but I’m just not” flavor that I get from most chocolate flavors. It also tastes a bit of roobios but I love roobios especially flavored roobios.

On another random note this tea tastes pink to me and yes I know colors don’t have flavors but if they did this tea is what pink would taste like. I think I might think that because it has this fruity sweet flavor that I associate with pink candy that I don’t know the flavor of, but its yummy!

This tea is great both hot and iced and while I don’t think I would drink it every day I am definitely looking forward to the rest of my hefty sample.

The hint of french vanilla, as it turns out, is a bit…overwhelming? The Bergamot is too subtle.

Cinnamon Bun Latte = WIN.

Backlog from yesterday afternoon. Stopped in ay Cuppa to pick up some scones for breakfast today (M&M scones…yum!), and grabbed a “cinnamon bun” latte for the 2 hour drive to my cousin’s rehearsal dinner. Delicious!! Definitely made the drive much less stressful!