Custom

So, I’m sitting here bored and thought I would do a little blending on my own. I used Lapsang Souchong, Keemun, and Formosa Oolong. All of these teas are from Harney and Sons. I surprised myself, this is a real smooth blend similar to Caravan and Russian Country. The tea had no bitterness and was really tasty. I love the smokiness in this blend of tea. Its so easy, I just used equal amounts of each tea. I’m not going to rate this tea as it is something I put together, but I love it.

You won’t find the comapny which sells this, as it is exclusive to Me. I am experimenting with adding rosemary to me tea, since I love it. It tastes just like…Rosemary. I have to use less, as it is VERY dominant.

Yeah, I’d say no to lipton base. Real green tea full leafs and real mint leafs, little sugar, and you have yourself the best Sunday afternoon desert tea.

My family actually brews Loquat tea in our house. My mom, after having been advised by a colleague of its health benefits, decided to gather Loquat leaves and brew the tea personally in a big double dutch oven pot in out kitchen. There is hardly any preparation of some sort, the leaves are as they are from the tree. They are not dried, fried, mortared and pestled. It is a simple preparation but long nonetheless. The fresh leaves of the Loquat tree are boiled for several hours resulting in a clear peach-colored substance.

The tea itself should be enjoyed without additives. It is best served hot, because the aroma itself is very inviting. It has a warm, vanilla-esque scent when it’s boiling. Very very mild flavor, a little woody (but maybe because it’s fresh…).

It’s good for you! It can cure some cancers!

Mmmm, these two were made to be together! The sweet, buttery caramel blends so smoothly with the creamy, tangy cheesecake. I am loving this! It’s a fantastic combo!

a tea blend i made up from the teas in my desk.
i decided to get creative and fancy. make a thing of it.
cuz this is a desk celebration in honor of the raise and title change i just got! effective 2 days ago!
a hazelnut double vanilla cinnamon black with cream and sugar added.
decadent cake in a cup!
now i will turn my music up and for a moment as i finish sipping . . .

i blended the dregs of 4 different mapley chocolate teas.
3 of the 4 are herbal and 3 of the 4 are della terra teas.
i was organizing my tea because my tea tins arrived!

LOOK AT THIS!!!
deep drawer: http://instagram.com/p/Uh6GZyIc-N/
shallow drawer: http://instagram.com/p/Uh6QRIoc-a/

there are still a few labels i need to make, but i’m basically there.
i am pleased with the aesthetics. i went to art school you see.

I mixed close to a teaspoon each of The Whistling Kettle’s Salted Caramel and their Chocolate Cake Honeybush. Reason being I can’t recall if I mix the cake or their Nutcrunch honeybush with the Salted Caramel…because both of those look pretty similar. SO I tried it and it is def. not these two teas mixed together. This isn’t bad but it isn’t the salty-sweet combo I was looking for this morning.

I have been craving star anise seed for some reason….. also tartness. I decided to make Yu Lu Lan Cha western with a single star anise and two medium pieces of hibiscus. Made 4 steeps and combined them and put in 3 spoon fulls of light agave nectar. Warm the a anise see was strong, a little too much. I will use a smaller one next time. When it cooled a bit the hibiscus showed through more with a nice tartness. Iced this is even better….. or slushi that is. I left it to long in the freezer. The added herbs are more balance and the roasty chocolaty tea shines through.

Overall very good. I like how the tart hibiscus helps cut the spicy licorice flavor of the anise. Might try it again.

I saw someone mention earlier today that they wanted to try a combination of Della Terra’s Autumn Leaves and a lapsang souchong. Not only did I think that sounded very good, but I have samples of both that I want to clear out. So I combined Autumn Leaves with Lapsang Souchong from Happy Lucky. I figured the lapsang would overpower the Autumn Leaves, so I used extra Autumn Leaves. The lapsang is still overpowering and the maple doesn’t really come in until after the sip and in the aftertaste. This smells really good, but will have to be messed with to get the taste right.

1.5 tbsp for 375 ml

Sencha green tea taste and sweetness with rose and artificial cherry flavour in background.

Thanks to Indigobloom and Sil for sharing this with me!

Sipdown! Drinking a random tea that i’m too lazy to log since it’s a sipdown. Victorian Afternoon Tea from Kittenna This is a bit astringent for me but it’s overall not a bad little tea. Certainly glad i got the chance to try it :)

Edit: Also forgot the rating on this is linked to all my entries haha this would be about a 73 :)

Final uber secret sample from stacy. lol Yes i’m having fun doing this, though mostly it saves poor stacy getting a ton of emails from me to give her feedback AND maybe sparks some interest in the rest of the world for her secret concoctions.

I have to say on this last one Stacy…WANT! I didn’t get much of the non red flavour in the first steep that i had but the red flavour is what makes me super excited about the rest of the sample bag of this one. I also don’t usually like non black flavoured teas as much but this one hits the spot. It might be worth having this on the website someday…or a blend similar to it. Just saying :)

Secret Stacy sample #2! I have to say after trying this one, I am even MORE anxious for Stacy to produce a caramel tea. Yes I know poached caramel pear is on the way but that’s a pear tea in my head. I want a delicious creamy caramel vanilla tea….nothing to interfere with the deliciousness of caramel and vanilla.

Digging this one Stacy! Sans “yellow” stuff :)

Surprise Stacy Sample!

I’m not sure how much she’d want me to give away but I feel compelled to write tasting notes when I try things. This one is a delicious green coloured blend that i am quite enjoying tonight. I am missing out on the chocolate side of it, but i can imagine how this would taste with the chocolate blending in with the tea. Yeah…i’ll be on the look out for this one. 78/100 Stacy – since it’s a work in progress :)

(hopefully that’s abstract enough of a tasting note lol)

SIPDOWN! well kind, but not really since it’s not in my cupboard BUT since this is my last morning with access to my tea stash, i decided to celebrate getting my cupboard down to under 180 before my trip with my last cup of the sample Stacy sent me of the custom blend we’re working on. Since we’re hoping to have it finished by the time i get back, i thought it was fitting. Plus i just wanted something tasty and delicious. :)

Logging for posterity

Working on the Strawberry Rhubarb Pie with stacy and i’m super excited about it. Added a bit of spices to the sample she sent me and made my other half try it. It looks like he and i are in agreement on the whole hibiscus thing – sorry steepsterites, this blend will have them…in small amounts! for extra tangy rhubarb goodness :)

Anyway cinnamon was a success…nutmeg…well i’m not sure i added enough so I will leave that to the master blender Stacy heh

Just tracking tea drinking… I’ve been, over the holidays, drinking the samples that Stacy provided to me for the strawberry Rhubarb pie blend that won her contest. I’ve been trying to spend some time drinking both versions to get a sense as to which one i prefer, and which captures that strawberry rhubarb pie essence. It’s looking like the one with hibiscus may yet win out, which i know may have a few ppl questioning trying the blend, but i promise if it does get added to the blend it will be in moderation lol. Anyway it always amazes me how stacy (butiki teas) can so amazingly capture flavours. I’m having a blast with this blend, so much so that I may need to do another custom blend from her sometime in the future!

Caramel pumpkin cheesecake matcha smoothie. Inspired by the tea of the same name by 52 teas.

2 parts pumpkin pie matcha; 1 part each of cheesecake and caramel matcha.

Deeeelicious!

This mornings creation? Black Cherry Cheesecake Matcha Smoothie. I think tomorrow I’ll try black cherry caramel :) In any case this is delicious! I think the blackcherry is becoming my 3rd favourite matcha…maybe