Culinary Teas

You’ll loose your head over Sleepy Hollow Pumpkin Chai Tea! However, please don’t carry your head around with you after you loose it because nobody wants to see that. It’s just gross and there are infinitely better ways to get attention.

This pumpkin chai is really tasty and not overly spicy as far as chai(s) go, and that’s a-okay with me because Sleepy Hollow Pumpkin Chai is anything but light on flavor. I infused 1 tsp. of tea in 6 oz. of almond milk and this made for a wonderful afternoon treat.

My only quibble is that my sample had no trace of those kickass, colorful sprinkles pictured in the photo above. I deserve sprinkles! Fortunately, the lack of sprinkles did nothing to affect the flavor of this yummy blend despite the injury to my inner child.

Hmm…I wonder if having this at work is truly representative. I don’t have my gaiwan or my teapot—I’m just using a mesh ball (which I filled only halfway, when I know oolong expands way more than that). And the water here doesn’t taste great. But surprisingly, this is a friendly little tea that seems to be working within my limitations!

Smell in the bag is pretty average oolong: green-ish, fruit-ish, vegetable-ish. (And rather fresh-smelling, which speaks well of Culinary Teas; this is my first order from them and already I’m impressed.) In the mug, the brew is a dark gold verging on light brown; I have little tea dusty bits in the bottom, which I am a little surprised at because I haven’t noticed that sort of thing with other oolongs. There isn’t enough of them to continue brewing after I remove the mesh ball, anyway, which would have changed the flavor.

There is no bitterness to this at all; it has a nice sweetness that lasts all the way through the cooling of the mug (I am notoriously slow to drink tea). The flavor is smooth, green-y, and unobtrusive. It’s simple enough in flavor, in fact, that I’m wondering if I should have steeped it longer than three minutes. The package said 5-6 min., which (for an oolong) sounded like somebody’s wildly incorrect guess to me, but perhaps I should try this with a little more time and see if I can get more flavor, or at least more complexity, without courting bitterness. I am usually SO careful to avoid bitterness that sometimes I think I am not getting everything I could out of teas in terms of flavor!

At any rate: this seems like a promising tea for those times when I want something fresh and tasty but not demanding of my attention. But it’s hard to tell at this point. I will try it with a longer steeping time and see what happens. I’ll also bring it home so I can try it with my wider range of brewing options (teapot? Teapot? Baby, I miss you…) and see how that changes things. Wouldn’t surprise me if the tap water here at work is just messing the whole brewing process up.

This is a fabulous Assam. Bold but not quite as bitter an Assam as others I’ve tried. It has a strength to it, but it is more of a gentle kind of strength, rather than the sturdy flavor of some other Assam teas.

Delicious and rich! Wonderful! My full-length review for this tea will publish in a day or two, I hope you’ll watch for it on SororiTea Sisters!

This is a lovely way to start the day … and yes, that means I am starting the day at 1:35pm. I like it better that way, because it means I totally missed morning, and my opinions of mornings are not real positive. I’m not a morning person.

This is very hearty, good and strong. Astringent, but not bitter. I do notice a slight sourness to the undertone, as mentioned by my SororiTea Sister, TeaEqualsBliss. It’s not off-putting, instead, I think it seems to enhance the overall experience by giving the palate something different to explore.

A lovely cuppa. My full-length review: http://www.teareviewblog.com/?p=19045

A lovely, hearty black blend. Make that Hearty with a capital H. It has some heft to it, with a strong flavor and a nice biscuity quality that I’m really enjoying. A strong astringency to this one, too, so I prefer it with a splash of milk and a little sugar or honey just to soften that edge.

It’s warm, comforting and at the same time, quite stimulating. A very satisfying cuppa!

Gingerbread is one of my favorite flavors/scents. I even have a smencil that’s gingerbread scented, so Culinary Teas Gingerbread Cream Tea was no dissappointment. Add in some sugar and milk and it’s smooth creamy flavor is delightful. The only thing I would complain about is that it doesn’t have that sharpness that ginger has, and some people may like that better in the end. Brewed two teaspoons per 16 oz. water, steeped for three minutes.

Visually this tea is mostly black twisty leaves with a few golden threads mixed in. The smell when dry is smokey, and when wet slightly vegetal. I brewed this for three minutes and found the unsweetened flavor okay with just a hint of maltiness. I like my Assam’s to slap me in the face with malt and this did not. A perfectly decent breakfast tea when sugar and milk are added.

It sure IS Raspberry and Rooibos! Sweet and true! I like this! It’s jammy! YAY!

This tea is fantastic. A wonderful way to wake up.

Serving this non-latte, with just a little turbinado sugar to enhance the spices, this is an amazingly good chai. The description is pretty spot on, with caramel-y tones in the foreground and the white chocolate coming through near the finish. It’s very delicious. The spices are somewhat mild, but along with the smooth white chocolate finish comes a little peppery kick. Overall, it is warm and sweet and very yummy.

Keemum 3 Monkey is a very interesting tea. I like my black teas smoky and this Keemum has a lovely subtle smokiness. The Culinary Teas website mentions that this tea has been said to have an aroma of a long unopened jewelry box with hints of incense. This is not an appetizing description, but I totally get it because there’s an almost cedar aroma and essence to it. The flavor overall is subtle for a black tea with a medium body and low-ish astringency. And it’s bread-y or rather toasty and cocoa-y… weird but good.

Awesome!

This is the kind of tea that you want to start the day with, but it is also wonderful later in the day (like now!) so long as you’re not planning on taking a mid-day nap or going to bed at an early hour. That is to say, this is one stimulating brew!

This is really a delightful cup of tea, good and strong, and even though it has a lot of gusto, there is also a tremendous amount of comfort in this cup. It has that yeasty, malty, biscuit-y kind of taste to it, as well as a beautiful caramel-y sweetness (and even some honey-like tones in there too). A really rewarding cup of tea.

Margaret’s Hope 2nd Flush is one fantastic Darjeeling! I would describe it as a thin-ish to medium body tea. The liquor is bright but not overly astringent which is just delightful. I defiantly taste berry/ currant notes as promised, and in many ways this tea is rich and wine-like. However, I don’t taste the much-desired muscatel essence at all. Oh well, that’s all right by me because this tea is a joy to drink.

Backlog:

This is a tea that I reviewed previously, but because they sent me another sample of it, I reviewed it again. What the heck.

http://sororiteasisters.com/2014/10/29/sleepy-hollow-pumpkin-chai-from-culinary-teas-2/

It’s a yummy chai. And I think that this one is a little different from the previous Sleepy Hollow Pumpkin Chai I reviewed, if for no other reason than this sampling didn’t have the candy sprinkles in it. I’m just fine with that, as I think that candy sprinkles in tea are over-rated. I might understand some candy sprinkles in a blend like ‘birthday cake’ or something like that – but, it seems like the candy sprinkles thing is getting way overdone.

Anyway, that’s my rant about that for now.

A yummy chai. A good strong kick of ginger and cinnamon. The black tea has a smooth, rich flavor but it’s not quite as robust as I might have wanted it to be. I mean, with a chai it should be a strong black tea base to support those strong spices.

At first, the pumpkin flavors were somewhat reserved, but after about a fourth of the cup was consumed I started to pick up on the savory-sweet notes of pumpkin.

Overall, a pleasant cuppa. I previously rated this a 95 and since I’m now “discontinuing” the practice of numerical ratings, I cancelled the numeric rating for this. With this particular tasting, I probably would have given it a 90 even though I think I may have enjoyed it more this time than previously – it’s just that my tastes are a-changing.

Well, this tea arrived just in time, didn’t it? A perfect Halloween tea. I am drinking this with just a bit of turbinado sugar right now, and it is really good, but I think it might be better with a bit of steamed milk to make a chai latte.

The pumpkin flavor is well-pronounced in this blend. The chai spices are strong too, but, they do not overpower the pumpkin flavor. It is really a very well-balanced blend.

So, I’ve now had two cups of this … first with just the sugar to enhance the spices, and now, I’m drinking a chai latte! OH YUM! Pure awesomeness in my mug right now. It tastes like pumpkin pie filling topped with whipped cream that has been blended with my chai tea. So very good!

Check out my full-length review here: http://sororiteasisters.com/2011/10/31/sleepy-hollow-pumpkin-chai-from-culinary-teas/

I’m actually a fan of this tea. It’s definitely has a mellow-creamy pumpkin flavor without all the spices normally attached with pumpkin…. pumpkin anything actually. One of the thing that bugs me about pumpkin flavored (anything) is that it usually has strong cinnamon/cloves/ginger that detracts from the pumpkin. This tea does not-so I’m a fan.
A little sugar helps bring it all out and maybe some (soy) milk.

backlogging…

REALLY? I’m the first to log this!? I hope I am not the last! This is a real delight! I can taste the white chocolate but it’s not over the top and I can taste most if not all of the spices! It’s milky smooth but with spice!

This tea is soothing and delicious. I’m definitely tasting that dreamy incense flavor, as well as dark red wine and cacao. there is also a pleasing floral note. I’m also getting a flavor I can only describe as ‘leather’, one that I’ve had before in similar black teas. Truly, it’s ‘leather’ in the best possible way! This is a quality cup.

Thanks for this LiberTEAs! I have been wanting to try this one! I am impressed! This has a wonderful strawberry flavor on top of the sencha. If you can’t have a Long Island Iced Tea with the ‘happy juice’ this is the next best thing!

Wonderful! I love a good Chai latte, and with this, I don’t even need to add milk, because the vanilla gives it a nice creaminess without the milk. The spices are delicious and warming, perfect for this chilly autumn evening. I’m really loving this.

The black tea base is strong with hints of malt. A nice balance of sweet and astringent. The spices are in good balance also, one particular spice doesn’t really stand out and overpower the other spices. It tastes very harmonious and the vanilla gives it a sweet, creamy touch. So very nice.

A bit over done yesterday – backlogging
but perfect today :) YAY!

A mighty fine Assam!

Medium strength for a black but very satisfying! There are hints of natural fruity notes trying to peak out. It does have a nice even taste and is fairly malty!

I like it!

I love this. I drink honey tea when I want something sweet, mostly on mornings before school and it’s so tasty, even when it isn’t hot anymore!

A delicious tea. The cherry is a very delicate yet deep flavor, if that makes sense. It doesn’t overpower the cup, but it is always present and accounted for. It is sweet with a hint of tart. The almond gives a sweet nutty flavor to the cup, and the black tea is a mellow, even-toned kind of tea (Ceylon).

This has a very luxurious kind of taste to me, like something I’d be sipping in a spa or something. Mild and calm. Not too astringent. Not bitter. Sweet, but not too sweet. Delicious.