Fusion Teas

This is momo’s leftover sample. I downed three cups and burned my tongue. Worth it.

This is my second genmaicha experience, the first one being 52tea’s s’mores genmaicha. I think I love them. It’s like…hot liquid rice crispie treats.

I’m trying really hard to like this, I’ve had a few cups this weekend – played with steep times, amount of leaf. Nope can’t do it. It’s was too spicy. In your face cinnamon and clove. I don’t think the balance of spice is wrong, there’s just too much of it. Totally cover the caramel and the pu’erh. Nope don’t like it. Glad to have it out of my cupboard.

I guess I didn’t like this very much the first time I tried it, but something changed from then to now, because it went down much easier this time around. On my last note I had decided that I might like it better if I added sugar and cream. I didn’t do that. I had it straight up.

There was still that earthy roasted flavour, but this time around it was more appealing.

Thanks Dexter3657 for sending me this sample!

This is a backlog from yesterday. I had this in lieu of my morning coffee, as I had slept in, and The Man left me no coffee, and I was too lazy to brew any.

This is earthy and mushroom-y. Maybe a little too mushroom-y for my tastes. I drank it bare. I was able o finish the cup, but I think for the rest of this sample I will be adding cream (maybe sugar). Maybe I will like a little better then. I didn’t get too much roasted flavour, but I was still not quite awake when drinking this. Next brew hopefully will work out better!

Thanks to Dexter3657 for a sample of this !!

No rating until I try it again with different parameters.

I had tried this one quite some time ago, and had promised that I would re-visit it, since I thought I had messed by adding too much honey. I am now sipping this, and my opinion has not changed.

I didn’t add honey. Just a teaspoon of white sugar. I am not very fond of this one. I am getting ginger and something else, but not cookie. Has kind of a funky taste. I like sweets, but this one is not for me.

My thanks to Dexter3657 for letting me sample this one, and opening my horizons to new experiences! If you don’t try, then you don’t know what suits your liking.

Thank you Dexter3657 for sending me a sample of this tea!

When I saw that I got a sample of this, I thought, ‘ohhh, this is gonna be goooood.’ I love gingersnap cookies (probably that spice thing that I so enjoy). But then I opened the pouch and found it quite strongly fragrant. Hmmm. Well, maybe brewed it will taste different.

I took a couple of sips after the recommended brew time, and thought, ‘Ok. Not bad. Maybe add a little sweetener.’ I think I added too much sweetener, ’cos then it turned sickly sweet.

I’m not going to rate this one right now, because it may have been my heavy handed approach with the sweetener. Next time I’ll added a little at a time, or leave it out completely.

I am really conflicted about adding flavoured creamers to teas. I do it with some teas but ultimately I think won’t my teas all taste the same if I keep putting hazelnut creamer in there? What’s the point of purchasing expensive tea then? It’s like buying a bottle of expensive wine so you can make mulled wine.

I have a sample of this from Dexter3657 but after my experience with DAVIDs Jumpy Monkey, I kept choosing other teas over this one until there was no more “new” tea left to try. And last night I read someone else drank this and said it tasted like coffee. I was sold! I could barely wait till today to drink this.

To me, the only way this tastes like coffee is if you maybe ran out of coffee and you ran out of filters too so you decided to just make coffee with yesterday’s grind. :)

I don’t like the smell of the dry leaves and even less so the wet ones. I will keep trying in the spirit of learning but… Yah… That’s when the hazelnut creamer came out of my fridge.

What does this tea taste like? I couldn’t tell you. Maybe straw. Wet straw. Alrighty, then. I am looking forward to my next mate. I mean, if I got to where I could drink Rooibos, I’m sure ill get there with this too!

Another from *Dexter3657*’s box of happiness – if this is the Fusion roasted maté you sent?

I’d never had roasted maté before, and given what I’m finding out about my extreme pickiness over roasted flavours in teas, wouldn’t have thought I’d like it much. But it’s a favourite of Dexter’s, so she included some to let me try, and I’m really, really glad she did, as I loved it! I like coffee flavour, just don’t like the actual taste of the stuff, unless it’s well drowned with milk (substitute, these days) and sugar, which just isn’t how I want to drink stuff every day. So anyway, I decided to make it as a latte, and put in about half a teaspoon of coconut palm sugar per cup. I tasted a bit before adding the hot almond milk, and I was surprised at how much I liked it even then, as it had none of the coffee bitterness I dislike, but just a nicely roasted, maybe slightly nuttiness. As a latte – yum! Cara thought it smelled like a fresh scone, which made me rethink my original coffee smell, but I modified it to smelling like a coffee walnut cake. :) We both thought it was delicious anyway.

I didn’t have the straight sleepy attack I had after drinking the green maté cteresa sent me, but I definitely felt more on the relaxed, wouldn’t mind curling up on the sofa side than the energized one! As caffeine after 5 or 6 in the evening decidedly causes me problems sleeping, it’d be kind of cool to discover that maté made a nice bedtime drink! I’d never have tried this without the care package, and am very happy to discover a new kind of tea I really like – thanks again!

This is my #5 sample from the TTB-A.
The flavors are very rich & buttery, almost overly so. It’s been years since I had carrot cake, due to my inability to eat Dairy & gluten, so I can’t say for sure if this mimics the taste or not, but it’s spicey & tasty, that’s for sure. I’ve been wanting to try more rooibos blends, mainly to wean myself from drinking caffeine all the way into the evening. My teas of choice tend to be straight whole leaf teas. This TTB is filled with dessert teas of all kinds, including quite a few rooibos blends. The interesting thing is that drinking dessert teas tends to make me want a stout Black tea to have with my ‘dessert’!

Another from TSTTB! #7, maybe? I’ve already lost count!

I thought this tasted like very rich and delicious caramel. Complex (yes, this honeybush dessert tea has nuances! A creamy-ness. A cake-ness. A burnt sugar-ness). It could have been because this was the very last scoop in the bag and the chocolate was gone, or perhaps it’s just the way I taste these flavors, but chocolate never entered my mind when drinking this tisane. I’m intrigued enough to pop this into my order to find out if there may be more chocolate in a full pouch, I’ll tell you that! Even if there isn’t, this one is superior to the caramel rooibos I have in my cupboard, and I’ll be extremely happy with it if it tastes just as it did last night.

The last of my TSTTB portion of this tea, and I am so sad to see it go! Both my husband and I greedily slurped our cups, oooohed and ahhhhed (“Cake! It really tastes like carrot cake!”), and enjoyed every last bit. So nice with a little honey and milk. How did they do it? Fusion captured all the subtleties of the cake itself — walnut, spice, cake, even baked carrot!

SO getting bought the minute I get paid :) Off to research what you guys think of the other Fusion Teas so I can cobble together an interesting order.

My first selection from Tea Sipper’s Here’s Hoping Traveling Tea Box!

It truly has carrot cake qualities. The spice, the gentle sweetness, even some cake-ness! I drank my cup in a flash. My husband found this one to be excellent, too. Not only have I never had a carrot cake tea, but I’ve never sampled a tea from Fusion Teas yet, so this was a double treat I most likely would not have had if it wasn’t for the traveling tea box. So glad to be a part of it!

Here is a picture I took of everything in the box as it was sent to me. There are so many teas I couldn’t even fit them in the photo!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jackiemania/8599265002/

!!!

I was waffling over making another cup of tea last night as it was midnight, but I was still yelling at my microeconomics homework, claiming it had calculus when it did not. So this being a rooibos, it made sense.

I honestly do not know why I even made this. Carrot cake is the only cake I would ever turn down, except in cases where I really want cake then it doesn’t matter. I’m not sure why I thought carrot cake tea might be better.

It. Was. Not.

First I knew we were going to be having problems because the smell of red rooibos was overpoweringly medicinal in this one. And now I can’t remember if I was doing well with dessert rooiboses or not…I think I was. So I had thought I’d be fine.

And then I took a sip. And it was just too much grossness for me. It first tasted like it’d be good but I don’t know where we went wrong. I could only take that sip and then I made a mad dash for the sink.

That one that comes up with a green rooibos base sounds like something I could do, this one will be returning to a tea box as it is not for me.

Last tea sample in the 5 I was sent from Fusion Teas. sad face

1st smell: Deep, orangery and interesting.
1st taste: I think I might of steeped it to long, next time I’ll try it at 5 minutes instead of 10. I think the longer steep brings out the hibiscus, and bah, can’t say I am a fan of that.

This is a sample thanks to the gang at Fusion Teas.

For a couple of years I’ve loved Perfect Peach from Bigelow, and ever since I started drinking loose teas…I’ve been looking to replace it. This tea comes very close. I found the temp suggestion to be a bit odd, and alittle frustrating….it suggests 203, well I don’t have that one, but I do have a 200 for French Press, so that is what I used. I am really wishing I had bought online the kind of kettle where you can set whatever temp you desire, instead of set buttons.
1st Smell: The sweet heavy smell of peaches really come thru.
1st taste: Same. I love the smell of peaches, and have yet to meet a peach tea that I don’t like. LOL. So even though it didn’t quite match the taste of Perfect Peach, this tea I definitely want to get again! And who knows, maybe after adjusting temp time/steep time I might find that it does match.

I got this as a sample from the cool gang at Fusion Teas. check them out if you havn’t already.

I am not sure why I picked this one…I don’t even like Champagne all that much, and Raspberries can be hit or miss.
1st smell: light, sweet.
1st Taste: Same with a dry bite at the end….I say bite because I wasn’t expecting it. This tea is not a dessert tea, but it is one I would consider having with dessert, sweet enough to be a good pair, but not overpowering.

Would I get it again? I am not opposed to the idea, but not sure how often I would drink it. As much as I would dearly love to have thousands of teas to choose from every day, I really need to think in terms of how often would I drink it. Devised a rule for my tea cupboard: If I buy a bag of tea at least 3-4 times, and maintain in liking it, then I will continue buying it and it gets it’s own tin/box. I only got so much room:(

This is thanks to the Fusion Teas Gang.smiles

1st smell: Truthfully when I smelled it…I didn’t care for it, it didn’t smell bad, it is just…….I didn’t expect it to smell like cereal. None the less I went thru with preparing it. The package said 170 temp, but instead of going lower, I decided to use the green tea button at 175. (The next lowest temp was 160. I felt that would be too low, but thinking next time I will try that one.)
1st taste: With my sugar taste buds being impaired, I added a handful of rock sugar to the cup before pouring, and ended up adding some apriva as well.. Anyways…1st taste: As you might of guessed, with my 1st smell thinking it smelled like cereal, as was my 1st taste. lol. But as I’ve sat down with my cup, I begun to have a growing appreciation for it. For the most part I do like herbal and fruit Tisanes, and fruity white and green teas, but lately alot of my fruit teas have been kind of tasting the same, though varied in strength. That tells me I need to change it up a notch, so hoping that I can find some greens and whites that aren’t fruity, or at least not overwhelmingly.

This is a sample thanks to the gang at Fusion Teas.

I had wanted to review the last tea that I had from the Teavivre tonight (Apple Awakening.) But I was too curious about this one that I had to try it out.
This is an interesting tea. Lately I’ve had a completely unintentional theme of coming across teas/tisanes that are quiet, but still enjoyable, despite my preference for more crazy/complex teas/tisanes.
1st smell: MMmmm smells great! I smell both the lemon and rose at once, though not to perfume-y. For those who don’t care for perfume-y teas, I don’t think you’ll have anything to worry about.
The tea is an Oolong base, which I still don’t know much about…but that’s ok. The package suggested 180, unfortunately that is not an option on my kettle, so I went with 175, thinking a lower temp would go better. Maybe I should try the Oolong setting next time, to see how that goes? (190) Whatcha all think?
1st taste: Like I said, quiet. The perfume smell goes down a fair amount.
2nd steeping: So far….not quite standing up to a 2nd steeping. It is still drinkable, but noticeably weaker. But I think I still got about 2-3 cups left in the package, so we’ll see.
The question is, would I buy this tea? Yes I would.

Lately I have not been rating my teas, at 1st it was because I got out of the habit, but truthfully, I am not comfortable with the rating system. Though if you asked me why, I would be unable to articulate why I don’t like it. But I don’t believe in judging others for making different decisions, so those who do like it, Go for it! Grins

Thanks, Azzrian!

So I didn’t wake up until 11:30 and now I am quite pleased that this Universal HD channel is playing James Bond movies all day long. Last night was kind of terrible so I am doing nothing today. Except later painting my nails with previously mentioned James Bond nail polishes.

I used a tablespoon of leaves for 12 oz of water so this is a bit stronger, but I agree with Azzrian that it seems like Genmaicha Light. It’s just really missing the good savoriness I was after with a cup of genmaicha.

It’s by no means terrible, though, it’s just not very savory. It’s sweet, maybe think kettle corn instead of popped rice.

I’ve already got plenty of genmaicha that I like so this one would not be something I want to have around after this sample is done, but it might be a good candidate for a cold brew.

Sample sipdown!! I’ve been trying far too many new ones lately and I need to focus more on purging. AND getting to know the other new ones better :D
Since this was in the baggie, it also seems to have lost a bunch of flavour. Oh well.

Had a cuppa yesterday. Backlog!!
and I could have sworn this one was from Kittena, but I don’t see any notes from you so now I’m not sure?! but then I don’t see any notes from anyone I’ve traded with…
Anyhow, I quite liked this! the mango is very mild, and the mate is nice and robust. Added honey to the first infusion because I wanted to taste the mango more, and the mate was overpowering it. It had some depth. Second infusion, the mango emerged more, but in a tart sortof fresh mango way. Yum!! better than the other mango mate I have, no question.
Thanks Kittena or whoever sent this my way!
Rating: 86

Another great tea from K S! Thank you!

I saved the leaves last night because I really wanted to know if this flavored green resteeps well. It does! It does! This is still delicious, and since it resteeps it just became economical enough for iced tea.

I just told my girls that I want them to help me. I am not allowed to buy any more tea until Christmas. Of course, as soon as the words were out of my mouth, I started outlining the exceptions, one of which was I can spend ten dollars on each trip to Tin Roof Teas. Then I changed it to twenty just in case. Some intervention this is gonna be, they don’t even go with us when we go to Raleigh!

How serendipitous that we will be up there today! We are returning a box turtle (Fluffy) to her home territory. Yes, we are spending all that money on gas for a box turtle. I hope she appreciates it. My daughter found her at the foot of the stairs at her apartment and thought she should bring said turtle to us. That is great, but we don’t want to put her in with our rescue turtles and turtles need to be in their home territory, which is very small, and with their slow metabolic rate they have little exposure to each other’s diseases. A new turtle coming into an established population can wipe out almost the whole population, so back home she goes. We will find some woods near where she was found and release her there. She was probably run out of her home by new construction.

Oh my! This is such a treat! And it ceases from the generous K S. Many thanks!

It is after two a.m., I can’t sleep, and I can’t put down the book I am reading. (The Art of Racing in the Rain, gmathis!) Since I can’t sleep, most likely because of all the caffeine I imbibed earlier, isn’t it a great idea to get up and make MORE TEA?

This one has been teasing me, though, so I had to have it. I was determined to try the white buds puerh first, and I did that, but I sniffed this one you see and it started tantalizing me. This is amazingly sweet and good.

I don’t think I have ever had a berry flavored Sencha, so I am thrilled with this one. Smooth, sweet, and fruity fruity fruity. And I am finally getting sleepy, so maybe the L- theanine is kicking in. Sam and I will head off to bed now. :) Right after I check Tin Roof Teas website to see if they have this…

This is one that I got from tattooed_tea. I’m glad to have it in my cupboard!

This tea. It is so unlike what I expected! But still tasty. There aren’t many fruity herbals that I don’t get along with. And I love peachy flavoured things, so how perfect? I steeped it hot and then stashed it in the fridge to sip on later.

When I first opened the packet I was overwhelmed with peachy goodness. I happily stuck the bag under my girlfriend’s nose. “Fuzzy peaches!!”
Yep, she’s right. It smells like fuzzy peach sour candies, which are one of my addictions. At this point I couldn’t wait to try it!

I love the colour that this steeps up to. The deep wine shade was unexpected so I took a peek at the ingredients. Hibiscus? Yep, hibiscus. Onward!

This is pretty tasty as an iced tea, but again, not what I expected. The peachy flavour is prominent, but there’s also a delicious dark berry/currant flavour coming through. Mm, I do love black currant. The tartness of the hibiscus brings everything together. Overall, I like this blend, but it’s not as peachy as I expected based on the name and scent. I don’t think I’d get this one again, but I’ll happily finish off the packet!