Culinary Teas
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This tea is the answer to a common conundrum of mine… what should I drink in the morning when I’m feeling under the weather? I need some caffeine to wake up, but I don’t want the astringency that I usually do in a morning cup. This tea is the answer – cooling peppermint blended in with malty assam (my favorite breakfast tea.) Now, you will note that I completely forgot that this contained black tea and had it at 10 pm… but never you mind. It will be great for mornings!
The tea leaves are really pretty, with the contrasting dark black and bright green colors. The smell is 100% peppermint, so I was expecting the mint to dominate. I let it brew 5 minutes – longer than I would usually let an assam go, but I like my tea strong. To my surprise, the mint doesn’t dominate at all. In fact, without any additions it’s mostly malty assam, with a cool finish. I added milk and sweetener, and the assam stood up nicely while allowing a little more mint through. This is not a mint tea, though as it cools I do get a little more mint. I think it would be decent iced, but it might be too minty. I like this much more than I thought I would, though it doesn’t replace my beloved “Read my lips” for a black tea/mint blend.
Preparation
Dessert tea of the night! Gingerbread lattes are one of my biggest indulgences around the holiday time, so I thought I’d try this tea. I brewed the tea for 4 minutes, and then added 1/4 cup steamed milk and a little sweetener.
At first, I was a little disappointed at the taste, which I found timid. I put the leaves back in for another minute, and reminded myself that it may not be as strong as Starbucks, but it’s a whole lot better for me! Luckily, both worked. The extra minute brought out a little heat from the ginger, and I stopped wanting it to have coffee in it!
I can taste the ceylon base, so this tea isn’t totally about the flavoring. There is a nice bit of ginger and some cream. I’d still like it to be sharper tasting, but that’s just me. It’s nice and soothing, especially as a dessert!
Preparation
I love white chocolate, but I’m not sure how the taste translates to tea, since I think it just tastes like sugar and cocoa butter. I threw this into my order because it sounded interesting. The samples from Culinary teas are huge – twice the size of most companies!
The smell of the dry leaves is dusty, and intensely of cloves. I was not excited as cloves are almost my least favorite part of chai (though still, better that than star anise!) I brewed up a whole pot of this to share with my husband. There is an oily sheen to the top of the tea, likely from the melted white chocolate chips. First sip (no additions) is really all about the cloves. It’s sharp and a bit unpleasant. But chai needs milk and sugar, so I added both to my cup.
It’s nicer with the milk, which tames the clove a bit. I still think the flavor is unbalanced. There is a slight creaminess, but I can’t really taste the white chocolate (that’s ok, I didn’t think I would!) I do like the bite of black pepper at the end. My husband, who is far more sensitive to bitter tastes than I, took one sip of his tea and then immediately headed to the fridge for his cinnamon coffee creamer. I don’t believe in non-dairy creamer, so I can’t say, but he said the cinnamon made it much better. I can’t really recommend this one – I would like more spice, but less cloves. Drinkable, but a bit of a last resort tea for me!
Preparation
Not as assertive as I thought it might be, but still a good cup for breakfast! I thought I totally oversteeped this (left the infuser in for 6 minutes while answering some computer questions) but it’s fine. Apparently it can handle longer steeps than most breakfast teas that I have had! I’m not getting much malt, and it’s not super astringent (with milk and sugar, as I take all breakfast teas.) Not my favorite, but I wouldn’t turn it down!
Preparation
I received this one in a swap from TeaEqualsBliss. MMMM, strong, delicious strongness. Just what I need to get me up and going. I normally try not to have anything new so as not to spoil my tasting with food contamination (oh, who am I kidding. I have no taste!). Anyway, I was in the mood for something completely different, so I descended on my sample stash and picked this one out. I was kind of skeptical, looking at all those little tiny pellets of tea, but I am convinced! There is a bit of astringency, which isn’t too bad, and something vaguely bready about the scent. I’m drinking it sans additions, so it is good I only steeped it for two and a half minutes instead of the three plus that they recommend. Even at the lower than recommended steep, it is still plenty strong. I think the assam dominates the cup, with its astringency and maltiness.
Also, I have to say, I had this with grapefruit this morning, and the grapefruit completely knocked out the astringency and robustness of the tea. Taking a sip right after a bite of grapefruit was a completely different experience than taking a sip a few minutes after I had finished the grapefruit. It was mellow and smooth, considerably less in your face right after the grapefruit. Interesting, what tea and food pairings do for each other.
Preparation
YUM!
What a lovely chocolate and rose flavored tea. No, it isn’t as good as Chocolate Rose Romance, but, then, I do think I’m a little biased there. But it is good. The rose and the chocolate are pretty evenly matched. Both are strong components, but I like that I can still taste black tea there too.
This is very, very good!
Backlog: I finished a cup of this about an hour or so ago, and I absolutely loved it. My full-length review of it will be publishing in a few hours on SororiTea Sisters.
Sweet strawberry flavor with a tingly, tart aftertaste, and a smooth chocolate overtone. Very, very good.
The price is hard to pass, I forgot how much I paid, but it was a great price for Ti Kuan Yin. It’s doesn’t have the depth as the teas with a heftier price tag. But drinkable. A little musky, golden brew. I don’t think I would buy, but it’s still good. If you are in a pinch, makes a good iced tea.
I feel this black tea is very astringent, I never use boiling water to brew. It’s a good cream earl grey. I was spoiled by having another, so I compared it to that. I drank it with rice milk and sugar. Very tasty treat. Served it over ice, too. Though I feel I need sugar with it, so I won’t drink it much.
Preparation
My partner is going to be jealous that I’m trying this one without her!
This is my first log from the huuuge variety of teas that I got from LiberTEAs, and one that I knew I’d enjoy as soon as I opened the package to have a sniff… Mmmm.
This tastes more nutty and caramel-y than chocolatey to me, which is not what I expected from the smell, but still very enjoyable. I decided to try this one out instead of drinking hot chocolate – the snow is coming down like crazy – and it’s definitely a suitable replacement. Warm and sweet and soothing. I’m glad I brewed enough for a big mugful.
Thanks Liberteas for a packet of this one!
Dry Aroma:
As my grandfather used to say…“Makes the nose hairs DANCE”. The chai spices are INTENSE!!!!!
It’s quite interesting to look at! Lots of ingredients! I didn’t see any green sprinkles but I have orange and black character sugar-sprinkles.
This infuses to a very odd color…a black cloudy DARK color…I’m thinking the cloudy is due to the spices AND the sprinkle-candies.
Once infused the aroma does change quite a bit! It’s a pumpkin-candy-spice-earthy-mixture of aromas!
My first sip – I had no idea what to expect! Glad I didn’t assume or prejudge!
The spices are the first thing (and the last thing) I taste and they are strong but not as CRAZY INTENSE as the dry aroma led me to believe they were going to be. Appreciated! Then…comes the pumpkin! It’s a squashy-meaty type pumpkin like in soup or stuffed squash – very natural tasting…not sweet per-say but almost malty or maybe velvety would be a better word. In the middle of the sip I could taste the candy-notes but it fades away and the spice and pumpkin pop back into play! This is very interesting. Pretty strong but I like that! I recognize the fact that a lot of creativeness went into this one! It’s a fun one, indeed!
Pretty tasty! I wasn’t sure what the aftertaste would be like but after almost a whole cup it’s quite nice…nothing funky lingers…perhaps some of the spices like ginger…but the aftertaste is much better than I expected.
This is a really pleasant Yunnan. A good one for those who might find other Yunnan teas to be a tad too smoky or peppery, this one is more of a mellow, easy-going kind of Yunnan. It does have smoky and peppery notes, but, they aren’t as pronounced with this cup.
I like this. It is a more seamless kind of Yunnan, with the qualities I’ve come to expect from Yunnan but delivered in a smoother way. Nice.
Oooooooo! Special thanks to LiberTEAs for this one!
The aroma is AMAZING! It reminds me of a spiced wine I had a while back! Ahh!
It’s lighter in color – once infused – than I thought it would be and the aroma weakens once infused but is still present and delightful.
The taste is very different from any flavored tea I have had thus far! I LOVE a tea that makes me think and this is certainly one of them.
The black tea base is mellower and the sugary-goodness shines nicely. I can certainly taste the plum and the spices. I would say the plum is stronger than the spice tho. They match up and pair very well together tho. There is a lingering sugary-sweetness that I LOVE.
Yes…it’s very reminiscent of that spiced wine I remember – what a treat – and a trip down memory lane!
I FINALLY have a Lapsang back in my cuboard! I have definitely missed the smokiness. This version is serviceable but not as smoky as I was expecting based on the intense bacon/jerky aroma. I will gladly drink the rest of this package because it does nip the smoky craving, but will most likely return to Upton’s Lapsang Souchong Black Dragon after this package is gone.
