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this is two entries in one because I can

I call it: a story of hibiscus – or why do I keep drinking pink things even when no hibiscus is involved?: an autobiography

Teavana Very Berry White + Berry Kiwi Colada
so I went to Teavana just for this berry kiwi one, smelled it, loved it, and then the associate’s like “we have a sample on the floor” (THEY CHANGE THEM OUT?? what) and it was with very berry white, and it was amazingly good so I got 2 oz of both because I just found out I can get a 30% discount at Teavana.

then I came home and had some immediately, which I sweetened with some sugar I own for whatever reason. I probably used way too much because it was more berry than anything and I could taste the coconut prior to this. Instead I had hibiscus with some berry. That’s ok. This is a heavy mixture and it’s not going to take much to run out.

I also ended up just like room temp steeping the rest while I finished the first glass. That one worked a bit better.

Then yesterday I did Raspberry Riot Lemon Mate + Peachberry Jasmine Sutra which turned into an even worse hibiscusy mess but I couldn’t for the life of me remember which tea I liked mixing w/Raspberry Riot. OH WELL.

by the way if you like the tea/lemonade mixture at Starbucks I recommend sweetening it with raspberry, I am so addicted. I do the black tea but I was talking w/another barista who does it with passion tea. I also do half the pumps because otherwise it just tastes like raspberry and insulin resistance. And a cute guy gave me it for free today downtown FIST PUMP.

Ok since this drink is only possible in two US cities right now I’m sticking it in here.

So Starbucks in Atlanta and Austin have like a sodastream-esque machine for making three sodas and they’re also pushing carbonating iced teas and possibly those refreshers? So the manager said they were told green tea doesn’t really work but she found a way…by mixing it with the ginger ale. She is very insistent on drinks, I love it. I had told the guy when I first got there that I was fine drink-wise but she had him make her one when we were getting started then of course had to get me to get one.

It was worth it! I’m pretty sure all the sugar has destroyed me. I have been really trying to limit my carbs but I think I’m going to have to triple the amount that’s ok on days I work hahaha. As much as I don’t want to I don’t think it’s fair to limit what I can taste so that I can tell people how things taste. And that seems to be a big thing w/my manager. Don’t know what something tastes like? Taste it. And I really like that because it drove me crazy at my brief time at Pinkberry that tasting things was not done very well (franchisee was too cheap to even allow free yogurt after work or on a break. Ridiculous.), and I think when you’re working somewhere with food you had better know what everything’s like so you don’t give that lame “everything’s good!” crap when someone asks you what you like.

Ok anyway. If you have the opportunity to have such a thing as this green tea ginger ale, you must. I think the sodas Harney & Sons sell come in such a variety? I’m not sure what the exact parameters are (yet) but it was really good. And it has that fresh ginger taste to it, which typically isn’t my favorite but goes so well with green tea.

I’m excited to try the passion tea lemonade this way. I’ll do that Wednesday hopefully!

Teavana Peachberry whatever + Fruta Bomba, coldbrewed

Ok I thought Fruta Bomba was a green, but the leaves are really dark? I know for a fact it was this tea in this container but it just weirded me out. The entire tea overall turned pink, which I know is a result of Peachberry whatever jasmine ridiculous name.

I hadn’t had either of these in forever so I really have no idea which one is doing what. I did 4 tsp of each and their one common denominator is peach. Then there’s the hibiscus, the jasmine, the strawberry, but I’m not getting much else out of the fruta bomba one, no citrusy notes, not even lemongrass given how much of it looked to be in there.

It’s pretty much just fruity, unidentifiably fruity, with a bit of jasmine. I definitely would not combine these again, or I might use only 2 tsp of Peachberry.

BY THE WAY I GOT THE JOB! Well, conditionally on passing a background check. It’s w/Starbucks, I’m excited. I also got school all settled, I am doing 6 credit hours for the next 2 semesters so while not being able to finish this fall is sad, I have plenty of time on my hands. Also I learned that even though my GPA will likely suck around a 2.17 when I’m done, I can boost my GPA with classes before applying to grad school so if I do go that route it’s not pointless.

YAY

When I go to my boyfriend’s, I bring along a reusable bag filled with teas that are small samples, or just a bit left, in hopes I can finish them off. That was precisely my plan to ice Teavana’s Precious White Peach again, but I did not have enough for a full 16oz. I have a very small amount of DavidsTea’s Kanpe with me, definitely not enough for even a cup, but I figure I’ll throw it in there too.

They actually don’t have any ingredients in common from the looks of it, but I figured why not give it a shot. I have more Kanpe but it’s still a sipdown combination of excellence.

I only had this peach tea by itself once and I had to delete the note so I can’t remember much of it. I do remember it was not hibiscus pink, which this turned thanks to Kanpe.

I might have let the temperature get too hot for the white tea? It’s very bitter. Which is weird, since you know, it’s not very much white tea in the first place. It starts off very strongly tasting like Kanpe, with the addition of peach before going bitter like that. The cinnamon is pretty strong too, I really was not expecting this to taste so heavily like Kanpe when I barely had enough for a cup of it hot, let alone iced.

I’ll probably finish the glass anyway but I’m glad that I have no more of that white tea. It really isn’t very good and it seems to be incredibly picky.

Teas Etc Persian Lime + Mahamosa Spearmint

This was AWESOME. I made a quart pitcher of iced tea, and I believe I used 1 tbsp of spearmint leaves and around 2 1/2 tbsp of Persian Lime. I don’t think I added any sweetener to it, but I do remember that I completely missed starting the timer on my phone so I had to guess at steeping.

It turned out perfect so that was fine. The lime and mint were perfectly matched, I was worried I didn’t have enough mint in there but it was just right to give a burst of mintiness at the end.

I have no idea what else to say since it took me hours to finally finish this and this tea was from yesterday. Blah.

DavidsTea Stormy Night + Chocolate Orange

A friend was curious what she could mix that was a chocolate tea to tone down the cinnamon in Stormy Night. I thought Chocolate Orange sounded like the best bet, and it’s definitely good.

Stormy Night came off as really thin-bodied the first time I had it, and the puerh gives it more of a body. The cinnamon is way less intense, as is the coconut. It doesn’t taste like slightly chocolatey cinnamon coconut water anymore.

I’m gonna try it w/cocoa canela tomorrow. I’ve only got enough Chocolate Orange for one more cup so I think I’m going to have to drink it on its own, but this was a good experiment.

Precious White Peach (thanks to Chuckieroy) + Peach Tranquility (thanks to tperez)

I had the white tea peach one before when I was at store I don’t like naming. I can’t remember now if I had it hot or iced, I feel like it was hot and I didn’t like it. It seems so suited to iced tea.

To add more peachiness to it, I threw in the peach tisane.

It’s not very much white tea to begin with just as PWP, but it’s still kind of there, along with peach. The tisane adds some pineapple to it too.

I just realized that I had been trying NOT to drink anything peach after having so many recently LOL but these honestly are the best tasting ones.

I have four matchas I could actually review for credit but I instead got distracted by the idea of mixing these two.

Bavarian Creme + Raspberry Truffle matcha!

I haven’t had either of these in awhile so I’m not sure how the raspberry truffle is on its own anymore, but you can bet I haven’t forgotten the bavarian creme one. I went for a hot latte preparation (or a hat if you start thinking about the next word you’re going to type too soon).

The chocolate seems to get lost this way, so it reminds me of raspberries dipped in cream. There is a slight mocha-like note at the end though. From what I remember, I like the Bavarian creme matcha better cold. But I like it together with this one for sure, I’m going to have to start going through these matchas quicker because I want so many new flavors so much.

another attempt at just entertaining myself using Teavana blends:
(3 tsp of Raspberry Riot Lemon Mate + 2 tsp of Blackberry Mojito + a mug full of 175* water) x 2 min = something that most definitely needs to be poured over ice (and then saved for cold steeping).

I like Raspberry Riot because it’s like caffeinated juice and I could go for that right now. Then I thought, well, I have all this Blackberry Mojito that I like by itself, what if I had a bit of mint to the mate?

I’d actually not steep them together in the future because I prefer the mate steeped a long time and obviously I don’t want to steep a green tea more than a couple minutes. So I’m not sure if this will really be like caffeinated juice today (although that’s why I went with 3 tsp), but I do taste both the raspberry and the lemon. Blackberry not so much, but the mint is definitely there.

Also this makes it way too hibiscusy. I can stand both of these teas on their own without thinking they’re too bad, but this one…yikes.

I tried.

Teaopia Strawberry Fields + Whispering Pines Coconut White

I only had 1 tsp of the Teaopia tea, and 8 oz requires 1.5 tsp…and I was using a 12 oz perfect tea mug. What’s close to the top of this shoebox that I can add? Coconut!

I love coconut and strawberry together. I was worried this coconut tea might be too old to really be really coconutty because I completely forgot about it (this is the first time I’m drinking it) but it’s very balanced with the strawberry flavor.

It’s very sweet, almost like frosting. And I finished a sample of a tea!!!! Amazing.

[blend of chais – oolong and mate – from place that doesn’t deserve to be named]

Someone returned it and I got to keep some of it. As I found it absolutely vile when sweetened, I figured I’d try it by itself while I waited in line to vote.

Hahahaha I didn’t wait in line to vote, it took me 10 minutes max, and that’s only because I had to be all chatty with one of the poll workers.

Also I’d like to take this opportunity to thank Georgia for making it difficult to vote for third party candidates, I actually gave up trying to vote for Jill Stein because I had so much trouble writing myself in for state representative. In fact I gave up writing myself in there and put “Bruno.”

Sadly I don’t think he’s qualified but nobody was running against this guy, and it was a valiant effort.

Anyway. I do not like this really. It was gross by itself, it did taste better for a bit after I added some coconut milk…but now it just tastes grossly sweet for some reason.

Yep, don’t get the hype. Disagree with the kid who told me it tastes like tea because it doesn’t in the end. But he was a smart cookie, I gave him some tisane and he asked me if it was from China. I thought it was pretty cool he associated tea with China, cause when I was his age I’d probably been like WHAT IS A CHINA.

But yeah, I know other people like this stuff so into the swap thread it’ll go later.

white earl grey (thanks darby!) and an herbal citrusy lavender from a company I will not name but am PEACING OUT ON so whatever. if you want to know more I have a massively long tl;dr but it’s worthwhile I think and I’ll msg you it.

I just have no idea how to quit, but I am sure not going in there Friday. I also do not give a single cookie about burning a bridge, because in my future profession a reference from a company a step above a shady used car dealership won’t help me :)

so yeah never buying their teas again but I’ll drink what I have because I only have ones that aren’t terrible. A customer actually came up with this and I was so excited by it I wanted to make it for her but of course that wasn’t allowed, god that entire model is STUPID. But thankfully I was doing nothing important as she was leaving with her cup so I was able to ask her how it was, and so I had to try it myself since she gave it a thumbs up.

It is good though. I just don’t like how the herbal is so moist all these pieces stick together. Not too fond though of white tea for an EG, it’s kind of bland. It really needs a black tea.

Remembering I have approximately 8572329 of Teavana Tarocco Ruby Orange, I decided to add a bit to ZenTea Caribbean Breeze for a glass of iced tea.

Caribbean Breeze already had some orange in it, so now it’s more of a strong flavor, with lemon underneath it. The green tea is kind of hidden, I steeped it for a green because I didn’t want too much orange.

I’m going to continue experimenting with ways I can use all that stuff up. I have barely touched the surface and I’ve had it for far too long.

First try recreating Teavana’s Thai Tea Blend

1 tsp Della Terra Teas Coconut Trees & Vanilla Fields
1/2 tsp Simpson & Vail Rooibos French Vanilla
1/2 tsp Simpson & Vail Almond Sugar Cookie

Drinking it alongside Thai Tea Blend to compare. It might be too much almond. The Almond Sugar Cookie is pretty strong…it permeated the entire box. I’m not a fan of almond tea so this was not pleasant. But I know there’s almond in Thai Tea Blend and I can handle it.

It might need a bit more vanilla. One of the ingredients tastes a bit perfume like and I’m wondering if that’s the almond cookie also. I picked that one because it would have a bit more vanilla too, so it’s weird.

Otherwise it’s pretty damn close. I think it actually has more body than the original.
Now to figure out which one has the floral notes and to try to replace just it.

I thought it was funny on Facebook, DavidsTea actually asked what combinations people make right after I did the oolong one last night. So I had to try this after seeing multiple people mention it.

DT Organic Banana Oolong + Love Tea #7

I guess it sort of works? The Banana oolong is not banana enough for me. I used enough of it for a whole cup while I used about 3/4 tsp of Love Tea, and Love Tea is still the stronger flavor in here. I let it cool for a long time since it was definitely all Love Tea at first. Now that it’s cooler there is a bit of the banana in the aftertaste but not enough to make me think, “this is a banana split!” I hadn’t had Love Tea in a good bit though so it was nice to have it again, although maybe too rich for breakfast but who cares.

I don’t have anymore of the banana oolong but I think I will try this again with 52teas’ Bananas Foster. Drunken banana split!

3/4 tsp DavidsTea Vanilla Oolong + 3/4 tsp DavidsTea Quangzhou Milk Oolong

noordelijk was going to mix these two but didn’t like the milk oolong, so I found my little bag of the Vanilla Oolong tonight and decided to try it. Since this milk oolong reminds me of frosting, I thought it could be pretty good. And I didn’t particularly care for the Vanilla by itself.

I think maybe the ratio might need to be tweaked because all I get is milk oolong. Maybe there’s a hint of vanilla at the end. So if anything, it’s a way to make the milk oolong last a really long time. It does taste just a little bit different, but not enough to really make a difference steeped western style.

As it cools there’s a bit more vanilla but for me it’s far more tolerable than the Vanilla Oolong on its own. It tastes like oolong frosting after all.

This morning I was feeling adventurous so I mixed the last of my assam sample in with some yunnan from the Nature’s Tea Leaf. The result is a very hefty cup with lots of malt and the spicy yunnan aftertaste… yumm. I should really look for some more breakfast blends with yunnans or just make up my own. Somehow I am always disappointed in the tradtional assam/ceylon breakfast blends.

Now that I have a proper freezer that I can actually use for making ice, I am sure more herbal tisane experiments are coming!

This ended up being delicious: mix equal parts plain organic tulsi, spearmint and lemon verbena. Brew hot and pour over ice or refrigerate. It’s delicious… :)

1/2 tsp rooibos, 1/2 tsp spearmint, 3/4 tsp cacao nibs, with 8 oz water, then iced to make 16 oz.. Refreshing with a hint of chocolate and subtle sweetness.

I am on a quest to make the perfect bedtime tea. One thing almost all nighttime blends are missing is a creamy factor, which makes sense since they are herbals 90% of the time. And the rooibos ones I can’t drink, so that is not an option! So I’ve decided to just do it myself.

This time: 52te’s Lemon Dreams and Harney & Sons Vanilla Comoro (which is decaf). I did the ratios about half and half: the results were tasty, but the lemon/chamomile/honeybush overpowered the black/vanilla combo. I’m thinking maybe 3 parts vanilla to 2 parts lemon dreams next time.

Though my ideal blend would be mixed myself: chamomile, lemon peel, cinnamon bark and vanilla comoro (since, you know, it’s a bit in the pain in the butt to blend my own decaf vanilla!). Maybe with a little lavender… I really need to make a Mountain Rose Herbs order!

I’ve discovered the best iced tea in the world.

One part Steep City Tea’s Coconut Grove + one part Butiki’s Cantaloupe & Cream.

PERFECTION! The cantaloupe and coconut are perfect together, complemented by both cream and a soft hint of rose. I actually made this by mistake—I had half a cup of each in my fridge from past cold brews that I just hadn’t got around to finishing, and they were so similar in color that I mistook them for the same tea and poured them together. Thankfully the result is pure, delicious magic.

Apparently I am on a pumpkin kick today! Due to the cool weather, I decided to whip up a hot matcha latte with:

Pumpkin Pie + Chai + Maple Syrup

YUM! Pumpkin and Chai are a natural combo, but the Maple is what really makes it. It adds an amazing sweetness right at the end. This is the perfect tea for a day like today!

The other night I decided to experiment a bit with my matcha and made two iced lattes: one for me, one for the bf! Aka I drank half of his, since he is a slow drinker and I kept sneaking sips haha. They were:

1/2 Cookies & Cream (black, distinctive) 1/2 Caramel (green, delicate)

and

1/2 Bavarian Cream (50/50, distinctive) 1/2 Coconut (green, distinctive)

The goal was to see how the black & white bases fared when paired with a regular green base. Both were a great success! The caramel cookies & cream was my personal favorite: I LOVE the black base so much, and the juicy caramel flavor just brought it over the edge into matcha nirvana.

The Bavarian Coconut was good too, light and tropical! It really tasted like a coconut cream pie. The white was a little lost though, since it was really only 25% of the mug. I do have a 100% white blend in the mail, so I plan on making a white/green Mango Rose latte next time!

At the suggestion of Scott B I made a maple blueberry tea! I added a generous pinch of Tea Guys’ Wild Blueberry to my once-brewed Maple Sugar leaves and something magic happened. I was worried the flavors wouldn’t be fully balanced since there’s a LOT more maple, but the lower water temp worked in my favor. The blueberry is quite strong, but the fruitiness is balanced by maple goodness. Oh my, this is heavenly. I’m almost tempted to buy extra ounce or two of each just to mix together!

EDIT: Made a second glass of this iced with a bit of brown sugar, I didn’t think it would be that good cold but decided to experiment anyway. And OH MY it is delectable, the maple is even sweeter and more pronounced chilled and the blueberry pops as well.