Custom

2:1 ratio of Blueberry black tea and Maple Cream black tea (both by Metropolitan Tea Combination). Holyyyy, I think I’ve created a monster. This is delicious and now I think I’ll have to do up a tin of this. Thanks to the black tea I’ll be wired for the rest of the night, but it’s so worth it.

The blueberry is delcious and tastes like actual blueberries as opposed to that candied stuff. The maple cream balances it out very nicely and it makes for a smooth tea.

Steep: 3 mins.

Della Terra Dubbele Chocolade + Caramel Creme

Sipdown on the Dubbele Chocolade! And not quite enough left for a mug. So I tossed in some Caramel Creme and was blown away by the deliciousness. These two seem meant for eachother, soo much more tasty when paired (which is saying something, cause I loved them both individually). The result is sweet-but-not-too-sweet dark chocolate and burnt sugar with an ever so slightly creamy quality that rounds it out keeps the darker flavours from being too much.

Second tea of this lazy morning for me. Enjoying being curled up on the couch by the window with hot tea and a hefty book & happy to have some quiet time all to myself while my love sleeps in.

2 tsp Butiki Teas’ Raspberry Truffle + 1/8 tsp Adagio’s Peppermint

This combination was inspired by Marketspice’s Holiday Tea that I tried earlier today. I eyeballed the Peppermint, so I’m not 100% sure what the exact amount was. It’s definitely less than 1/4 tsp though. I’m excited for this one! I hope the ratio works out well.

The brewed tea aroma is mostly raspberry with only a whisper of mint. The flavors were a little too quiet for my liking, so I added some Truvia. Hello! That worked! I’m getting a nice balance of raspberry, chocolate, and mint now. The mint could probably be stronger, but then so could the chocolate. I really love chocolate.

My husband gave me a bunch of Lindt and Ferrero Rocher truffles on the morning of our wedding. I’m trying to make them last. But all I want to do is stuff all these glorious truffles in my mouth pronto! LOL! This tea is a good compromise for my waistline. Tea to the rescue!!! I’d rate this combo an 88.

1 tsp 52teas’ Cashew Turtle + 1 tsp 52teas’ Double Chocolate Decadence

The last time I tried Cashew Turtle, I was underwhelmed. Which is weird because I LOVED that tea a year ago. So today, I decided to add some extra chocolate with Double Chocolate Decadence. You can never have too much chocolate!

As usual, I added a splash of skim milk and some Truvia. Mmmm, this is a delicious combination! I lucked out. Well on second thought, I don’t see how this could have turned out badly. One great tea plus another great tea equals one super awesome cuppa!

Chocolate is the dominant flavor, as would be expected, followed by caramel. The nuttiness is subtle and light but definitely not imagined. I’m really enjoying this. Yummy! What a great dessert tea! I’d rate it about 90.

Raspberry Leaf + Tulsi Basil + St. John’s Wort
Trying to turn my mood around. Added some honey but it still feels medicinal. Christmas cookies helped it go down. Not sure it’s changing my outlook overall though…

Steeping partner in crime at work brought me this in a hand-labeled baggie. Blended it herself; she was so proud! As she should be—-good, stout black tea base and raspberry that’s really berry, not chemically or unpleasantly tart.

Since I was playing with a homebrew with no recommended time/temp, I think I may have overdone just a touch. Believe I may ask for The Recipe.

I thought I felt a cold coming on this morning. My natural instinct is to either hit the Greek Mountain or the white tea…hard. In this case, I still had plenty of Rwandan white and Kenyan white to work with. I couldn’t decide which to use. So, I went with both. A simple blend of 2 tsps. of each in a 32oz. teapot.

The results were rather surprising. The Kenyan white helped to mellow out the Rwandan some. I’ve found the latter was just shy of harsh sometimes – like Yue Guang Bai. This had a very mellow, grassy, and slightly floral lean. Overly pleasant.

Here’s hoping it helps combat the zombie plague.

After developing a taste for iced coffees, I finally talked myself into having tea instead of coffee. I brewed up the last of my chocolate mint tea (that may or may not be from the actual chocolate mint plant) and added milk.

In the words of Takei, Oh my!

This is delicious! Lovely and minty and chocolatey. The milk brings out the mint and chocolate more and then it makes it creamy. Like mint chip ice cream! Decadent~!

I’m not sure if this is a tea blend or actual leaves from the chocolate mint plant, so I decided to put this tea in here. One of my old roomies sent me this tea and I brewed it up today.

The liquid is a dark brown. It is like I’m brewing up a black tea instead of an herbal, so I’m not sure what I’m getting. The scent is like a hint of cocoa. I’m not getting any mint in the taste, but it does remind me of a Hershey bar. It is really interesting and I have enough to brew another cup. I might try it with milk next time.

Since the Stash Double Spice Chai and the Twinings French Vanilla Chai were not completely satisfying on their own, I decided to mix them together and see what happened. I brewed the two teabags for five minutes and then added milk.

The combination of the two is pretty delicious. The spice is enhanced by the vanilla in the Twinings tea. The vanilla is actually more flavorful and less artificial with the strong spices from the Stash tea. I have been drinking these two in combination for about a week and I am sad to say that I have run out of my Stash Double Spice Chai.

This combination was delicious while it lasted and was a good replacement for hot cocoa. I’m going to drink my last cup of this slowly while enjoying the first snowfall of the year.

A couple o’ weeks back, I found a canister that I usually kept Lapsang Souchong in. What I hadn’t realized was that there was also an opened bag of Risheehat Vintage Spring (2011 First Flush). At first, I lamented. I loved the Vintage Spring for its freshness, but now the bag smelled like smoke. Then I thought, “Eh, let’s brew it up.”

And I loved it.

I tried it again this morning, same result. Loved it. There was muscatel with a hint of smoke. I thought the accidental Lapsang scenting would supply more of a smoky palate, but it was understated – which I liked.

However, this prompted me to try a new approach. I took the Lapsang out of its bag, and put it in a do-it-yourself filter teabag. Then I put it in with the naked Darjeeling. They are both, now, occupying the same canister, and will for a couple of days or so. I’m trying a Jasmine green tea-ish approach to see if more smoke can affect the Darjeeling leaves.

Fingers crossed.

2.5tsp caramel, 1.5tsp cheescake, plus some almond milk and 1/2tsp of sugar.
I had to make it a strong one so that it would fill up my large mug, and so it could overpower the almond! and it worked. Well mostly.
There was a little more almond than I would have liked but then the matcha was edging on bitterness. Hrm. How to fix that… think think think! (I heart Winnie)
I gave some to my aunt and you should have seen her eyes. They bugged out, it was too funny! but she had to reluctantly give the mug back because it was too late in the day for more caffeine. (she had coffee and I made a cuppa Curiosity brew) So, I’m making her one for breakfast :P
Anyhow, I have a job interview this morning and was full of nerves last night so couldn’t sleep! not good right before bedtime!
Really hoping I get it. It’s an HR/Marketing/Admin role so right up my alley. Oh man I want this…
(Somehow I forgot to post this? written last night so if you see any past/present tense confusion that’s why!)

Well, this isn’t a combination, just a tea without a home. A tea labelled “Peach”, from Azzrian!

Unfortunately, although there is peachy flavour, even a 2-minute infusion resulted in astringency, and compared to the other teas I’m drinking, I’m not fond of it. Ah well. Thanks anyhow, Azzrian (and if you have any insight onto the company of this tea – let me know!)

Backlog from Thursday. So I went to make a thermos-ful of Grandma’s Pumpkin Pie from Della Terra, but discovered that I only had enough tea left for a regular cup, not a thermos! At which point creativity (not really) struck, and I dug through my billions of boxes of tea and found my sample of Creamy Pumpkin Spice from iHeartTeas, and threw in about a teaspoon’s worth of it as well, since I seemed to recall liking the black base of it, but preferring the spicing of DavidsTea/Della Terra’s pumpkin teas. I must say, it tasted pretty darn good! Left me craving more pumpkin tea, that’s for sure (and I just discovered tonight that I only have a single cup of Pumpkin Chai from DavidsTea left! Oh noes!)

I think this one also survived a second infusion before I had to throw it out, so I was quite pleased :D Would probably rate this a touch higher than Grandma’s Pumpkin Pie, so close to 90??

So I had a little left of the following two samples way-back-when from Azzrian: Buttered Cranberry Orange Scone Honeybush (that’s a mouthful) and Custard-Filled Maple Long John Honeybush (also a mouthful) – both from 52Teas. I decided to combine them to create one super powerful honeybush concoction. I call it … Buttered Custard-Filled Cranberry Orange Maple Long John Scone Honeybush TM .

And you know what? It’s not half bad. I’ve been letting this steep since forever and all the flavors work together. I’m definitely getting orange most of all, but there’s sort of this creamy undertone with it as well. I can dig it.

And the best part is, I’ve cleared not one but TWO samples out of the way to make room for other teas. Now I have to tackle the 500 other samples I have.

Today I’m out at a vegetarian festival and spending the day in St. Augustine. Weee. 

Unfortunately, I’m feeling so bloated all day today. Already had some matcha and random green tea (which I did not log), and even took some medicine, but still feeling bloated and blehhhh. 

I don’t know this area well but I found a coffee shop that has a lot of different teas. It’s so disorganized. It’s really just a bunch of glass containers and random teas all stacked on top of each other, in front, and behind. You can’t even SEE all the teas at once and there in this tiny little corner and you have to crane your neck. So NOT a tea store. LOL. But I’ll take what I can get. 

So I figure since I have all these teas at my disposal, I would make a random concoction to do something about my bloating. I do a little google homework on what herbs are best. Anise, fennel, and peppermint. Well, they have ONE of those herbs – mint (peppermint or spearmint? I have no idea). But just to make things interesting I start rummaging through the teas and adding a random assortment of other herbs. My final concoction had this as the ingredients:

Mint
Ginger
Spicy orange
Apple

It’s um… interesting. I thought I would throw in some fruit for some vitamin C but mint doesn’t mix well with fruit. And I threw in the ginger because.. Why not, right?

I also brought along some honey juuuust in case. It’s not the worst tea, but it’s not amazing. Obviously being an herbal tea blender is not in my immediate future. Only time will tell if it helps the bloating 

The BF wanted to go to a cigar/beer joint here, so I brought along my tea. They also have tea here but it’s ONLY Celestial Seasonings Berry tea. Um..no. So here I am at a cigar bar, sipping my crazy herbal tea, surrounded by smoke, alcohol, and jazz music. I’m sorta hip. 

As a side note, I wish St. Augustine had a true tea shop. It has so many other cool stores, dangit. Then I could move here and work at one. I could open one myself, but I’m soooo lazy and unmotivated. But who knows, maybe one day I will. You heard it first on this abnormally long and over-detailed tasting note. 

Having David’s Pink Passionfruit + S&V’s Berry Nice cold brewed. I’ve done this quite a few times already in order to get through the Berry Nice since it’s way too sweet on its own, but at the same time, I kind of feel like I’m wasting the Pink Passionfruit since it’s so good on its own. I’m also nearing the end of both of them.

I’ve yet to review JagaSilk’s Masala Chai black matcha mix on its own but I wanted to see what it would be like if I combined it with Two Hill’s coconut green matcha mix.

6g of Masala Chai + 10g coconut matcha + almost two cups water + some half and half.

And I’m left with what I was crossing my fingers for: LIQUID KHEER. I was hoping for that since this chai is heavy on the cardamom.

This is really great, perhaps better than how both taste alone. The creamy coconut smooths out the milled spices, which I’ve found can sometimes be a little harsh if you don’t get the water to mix to additives ratio down properly.

I cold brewed a mixture of S&V’s Berry Nice and Tea Desire’s Blueberry Cream because the former is quite chemical and Fruit Roll Up-/Berry Hubba Bubba-like whilst the latter is too earthy from the strong beets.

The result? Some pretty interesting, yet strange, tea coalescence. The first couple sips are BAMMO! Hubba Bubba berry chemical scariness, but then the more you sip, your taste buds get used to that, and gradually in the aftertaste comes the beetroot.

While this concoction is more tolerable than the two by themselves, I still wouldn’t recommend running out to get these teas and replicate this experiment.

On the bright side, I’m nearing the end of the Berry Nice, since up until now, I’ve been sneaking in just a bit of it with other teas, such as David’s Pink Passionfruit.

Wanted to finish up the rest of my Den’s Tea genmaicha so I mixed some with 52teas’ Marshmallow Treat Genmaicha, resulting in a refreshing cold brew. Den’s cut down on the sweetness of the Marshmallow Treat. It was a great balance. Very summery.

Over the past couple days, I got the idea of trying JagaSilk Aztec hot chocolate with Red Leaf English Toffee matcha. As much as I like the former, lately, I feel like it’s been a little ho-hum, and as for the latter, I just got out of the habit of drinking matcha on a regular basis. So much sense, this makes!

I prepared this on the stove top with two teaspoons of hot chocolate powder, around one teaspoon of the matcha, and a cup of soy milk. The result is fantastic. The caramel flavour in the matcha really complements the chocolate, and the matcha seems to bring out more of the heat in the hot chocolate.

Trying to use up my DT Red Velvet Cake. Waaaay too sweet on its own, so this morning, I thought I’d go with half Red Velvet Cake, half H&S Soho. Definitely improved the situation! Because Soho isn’t as sweet, it cut the overwhelming sweetness, plus added a hint of coconut. Coconut Red Velvet cake! I think I officially found a solution to my problem.

This is my favourite chance blend including Red Leaf Pumpkin Pie black matcha so far. I combined the following:

1/2 cup cooled 52teas Double Chocolate Decadence
1/2 cup soy milk
3 ice cubes
1/2 tsp vanilla agave nectar
1 tsp (maybe a little less) Red Leaf Pumpkin Pie (black matcha base)

Blend it in the Magic Bullet and surprise, surprise, we have a wonderful cold chocolate pumpkin pie latte.

This particular matcha gives more oomph to the Double Chocolate Decadence, since I find that tea kind of boring on its own.

Third matcha beverage today. I’m going to be going at my schoolwork for the rest of the day for sure.