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I’ve been mixing Uptons Roasted Oolong with Uptons Amber Oolong, Both of them and some of my favorites, They taste great together. I’ve been drinking them Iced here lately 1 tbsp of each in a half gallon pitcher usually to cold brew sometimes I add warm water if I dont want to wait on it lol.

50% Ureshino Tama Ryokucha – 50% Uji Kabuse cold steeped for nine hours.

Drinking this iced and it’s incredibly refreshing. This method of brewing produced significantly more sweetness than the traditional brewing method. Through the cold brewing method, the liquid takes on a cloudy green color like that of matcha ice cream and the tea actually has some similarities to that taste wise as well. This stuff is lightly vegetal with little hints of cream, sweetness, and citrus. Great combination for iced tea.

After my morning cup of Earl Grey Creme Vanilla (Upton), I found myself really craving Rosy Earl Grey – that I haven’t had in my cupboard in many months. So I improvised. To my infuser basket with the used Earl Grey Creme Vanilla leaves I added 5 Rishi Jasmine Pearls and a small pinch of Upton’s Rose Congou. Yay! Vanilla Rosy Earl! This is definitely satisfying my very specific craving.

Cherry Cheesecake Genmaicha (52teas) and Fruits D’Alsace (Harney)

Coldbrewed with a bit of simple syrup added. It is light because I didn’t really put enough tea for the amount of water but very flavorful. The genmaicha is most noticeable but there is a definite fruity aspect given by the Fruits D’Alsace. Decupboarding both teas!

I think I’ve figured out how to enjoy my Almond Happiness.

This morning I gave it one last ditch effort. 12oz travel mug, 1.5tsp Almond Happiness by 52 teas and 1 tsp Vanilla Cream by NMTC.

The Vanilla Cream had been one-note and bland, and the Almond Happiness was all-around disappointing, so I figured that I’d at least have a bit of a creamy vanilla tea, if nothing more.

Well, those two teas plus a bit of agave and half-and-half make a nice chocolatey, almondy brew, with a hint of vanilla and coconut. I don’t love either tea on their own, but I’m pretty happy with the two of them together!

I wanted an Earl Grey Cream tea.
I have no Earl Grey Cream tea.

I was searching through my stash for something that would get that rich, heavy sweetness across, and I stumbled upon the Copley Square Vanilla by Tealuxe. “I can make an EGC,” I thought to myself. “Too bad I don’t have any EG.”

I did have one EG – the Lavender Earl Grey by Epi Tea.

I figured I would try it. Couldn’t hurt. So I steeped 1 heaping tsp of the Vanilla with 1 sachet of the EG for ~3 min.

Meh. It’s not that rich creamy taste I wanted. I got a bit of bitterness, which could have been from oversteeping – I didn’t time at all – but there was also an uncomfortable dryness that I think was the lavender. It took away from the richness of the vanilla I wanted.

Ah well. Off to the tea shop…?

50/50 ratio of Adagio’s Chocolate Chip to Adagio’s Birthday

Creamy and sweet!

Backlog
These 7:30 am classes are NOT doing my sleep schedule any favors… It’s mate day!
This was my second mate before 10 am.

I mixed about a teaspoon of Adagio’s Hazelnut (sipdown… so sad) with a teaspoon of Adagio’s Caramel and a teaspoon of Fusion Tea Room’s Roasted Mate.

The result is fantastic. Roasty and naturally sweet, I’m definitely getting some chocolate and hazelnut. It’s too bad I’m out of the hazelnut now!

Rooibos Lemon Cloud – Adagio; Caramelized Pear – Art of Tea

Steeped the RLC, and decided to add some of the CP in.

It’s actually not bad. I added a bit of milk, and it kind of overpowers the pear, but it’s pretty good iced.

Damn, though, I’m going to need to stock up on that CP. It’s incredible.

Paradise Found (David’s) and Strawberry Lemonade (Teavana)

I’m a bit frustrated at myself for ordering David’s just to take advantage of the free Paradise Found, and then not liking it. I mean, I suppose I couldn’t have known, but it’s still disappointing. In all my sample-sharing, I found just a little bit of Strawberry Lemonade left over from last semester in the back of my stash, and figured it couldn’t hurt to try it.

Steeped 3 min, 1tsp PF, 2tsp SL, 1tsp rock sugar – 16oz.

Blech. I preemptively added rock sugar and reminded myself why I don’t do that… too sweet. Also, too much SL. It was drinkable, but cloying and tasted sort of like Kool-Aid.

Sigh.

On the plus side, a friend I’ve been trying to make plans with for months years now said “I intend to see you soon,” so maybe we’ll finally get to see each other? Living 200 miles apart has its downsides. But super excited to finally see him again!

DOCTOR WHO SERIES – JACKIE TYLER

Comforting and protective, she’ll give you a hug while simultaneously kicking someone’s ass for you.

A combination of chamomile, orange, rosehip and rosepetals, this tea is sweet and light and just a little bit tart. The chamomile lends it a bit of honey flavor at the front of the sip, and it finishes with the rosehip and orange.

Really, really good. Much better than expected. I’ve had an idea for this forever, and never had the ingredients to make it happen. I kind of feel as though I should be logging these as separate teas, since the ingredients are more or less finalized… but oh well. When I get around to doing the label artwork.

So let me first register my utter hatred with temperatures over about 80F. I mean. I would MUCH rather the winter weather when it’s so cold that my feet go numb through my shoes than this utterly unbearable 90+ weather. Especially since we don’t have air conditioning. I just… it’s awful.

#Rant over.

Cold brewed a mixture of Boston Tea Company’s English Breakfast and Twining’s Irish Breakfast. I was going to originally do just the IB, but the tin was a lot lower than I thought. So I figured I’d just go ahead and orchestrate some positive race relations while I was at it. (Sorry. Irish history is a bit of a favorite of mine.)

It’s a good black tea! Not remarkable, but good and solid with a bit of milk and sugar! Really good for cooling off :)

DOCTOR WHO SERIES: John Smith

John Smith is the pseudonym used by Ten in his stint as a human as a teacher in an English boarding school. It’s strong, traditional, and very, very English.

A blend of Earl Grey, vanilla and hazelnut teas. Drank with a touch of sugar and milk, as befits your traditional English teas.

I like this. When I want an Earl Grey, I almost always go to one of my flavored ones – it tones down the bergamot a bit. I’m tempted to try selling these on Etsy or somewhere, but I don’t know if they’d sell!

DOOMSDAY – DOCTOR WHO SERIES

Ingredients: Jasmine-scented silver needles, rose petal, lavender, chamomile, spearmint.

Thanks to a lovely friend of mine, I’ve sort of become enamored with Doctor Who… It’s delightfully nerdy, and following Cara McGee’s lead with her Sherlock teas on Adagio, I am blending my own Who teas. This was my first, and may still be my favorite.

It’s a little bit floral, minty and cool, but still very very soothing. Doomsday is a terribly sad episode, and I basically just blended together some of my favorite flavors. This tea is wonderfully comforting.

Another matcha limeade – a perfect pick-me-up for a summer afternoon.

Matcha limeade is delicious – 2 Tbsp each sugar and lime juice, 1 tsp matcha and 16 oz water and ice. The sweet and sour limeade is a perfect complement to the slight bitterness of the matcha.

My first try at matcha. This was from the bulk section of a local natural foods store, so I don’t really know anything about it except that it was about 1/3 the price by weight of the Rishi matcha. I prepared 1 tsp with about 1 cup of 175 degree F water. At first I mostly tasted the bitterness, but after a while, vegetal and subtly sweet flavors began to emerge. Any suggestions or references for preparing matcha would be greatly appreciated.

So last night I steeped some Cinnamon Swirl Bread by sTEAp Shoppe. I got two great steeps out of the leaf and went to bed. I did not dump the leaf as I knew there was more to give. However when I woke up this morning I still did not want to waste the leaf but on the other hand needed a really STRONG cup of black tea to give me a boost after only a few hours of rest.
So I added some Fengquing Dragon Pearls from Teavivre!
VERY nice combo!
The pearls woke the Cinnamon Swirl Bread right back up without covering the wonderful flavors or the yummy puerh!
Can taste the pearls wonderfully as well.
Best of both worlds in two excellent teas!

Red Leaf Tea mix of Passion Fruit and Coconut in Almond Milk.
Reminded me somewhat of a Pina Colada.
Excellent mix.
I don’t care for the Coconut alone, or without milk but in the Almond Milk, which was Vanilla flavored this blend was YUMMY!
So much better – and healthier than a milkshake or alcohol.
May not be as healthy as straight unadulterated traditional matcha but you know what – I have a sweet tooth so this is a better way to satisfy it.
:)

My first matcha in almost 2 weeks I think – since I have been sick. Finally today I feel well enough to enjoy one!
I mixed mint, white chocolate and french vanilla OMG it is SOOOOOOO good!
It is like a milk shake!
Oh I made it with milk and creamer (Latte style) but these flavors blended are bliss!
Yummmmy its good to be back! :)

Pumpkin Pie Cheesecake Matcha Mix Latee YUMness!!!!!
Perfectly balanced with one big scoop of pumpkin pie and two scoops of cheesecake.
Mixed with milk, non dairy sweet cream creamer, on ice.
DELICIOUS!!!!!
Going to enjoy the rest of this cup now – should take all of 1 minute to suck it down.

Combined Strawberry Matcha (its gone now unfortunately) and Champagne Matcha both from Red Leaf Tea of course.
OH MY GAWD!
This is magic.
Sweet, comforting, delicate, delicious, love on a stick.

Banana Mocha Match!
Eat your heart out Starbucks!
I don’t think I could have over paid for a better flavored matcha!
One scoop Banana matcha – one scoop Mocha Matcha – Milk, Ice, Sweet Cream Creamer. OMGOODNESS!

Caramel Cheesecake Matcha – It was so good – wish I had enjoyed it more though I gulped it down in stupid speed! LOL
It was a huge glass gone in a flash!
Its not just the wonderful amazing flavors though its like I NEED matcha!
The energy is so pure and wonderful!
LOVE MATCHA!!!!!!!!!!!!