Revolution Tea

I think what I’ve learned on steepster today is that there is a restaurant called P.F. Chang’s- actually, I do think I remember passing by it in Chicago when I lived there. That said, I am actually drinking this at home as part of a Revolution sampler pack (love sampler packs…) Dragon Eye is a really nice oolong, with just a hint in it of what tastes like peach- but just a hint. It really is very relaxing somehow, and I’m glad that I wound up inadvertently trying it among my miscellaneous samples. I’m about to sound like a broken record here, but this’d be a really good iced tea.

I’m not sure a strawberries n’ cream Kitkat from Japan would ever be a recommended pairing with this, but I went ahead and took that risk anyway. When I went to the Tea tastings at Tea Gschwendner they frequently gave us pieces of Vosges chocolates to go with whatever tea we were sipping. My husband thought the chocolate blunted the tea too much, but I loved the combination.

The cute little boxes are admittedly totally unnecessary- and disguise, I think, pretty mediocre tea. I think this might just be plain honeybush-and the caramel tacked onto the name to describe a characteristic of the honeybush itself. Mostly this tastes of pencil shavings- take the taste of rooibos and make it just a little dryer. Not very tasty at all, no sir.

A palatable white tea, but where is the pear? I ended up ripping open 3 bags and infusing them in a 400ml pot and still there wasn’t a pear in sight. Perhaps my expectations were too high after the bar set by the delightfully juicey and full-flavoured White Peach? Either way, a sad and disappointing tea experience on a dreary and cold Saturday afternoon.

A flavourful brew bursting with fruity and floral goodness. I heart this tea!

For the first 2-3 minutes of steeping, this tea produces a strong and distinctive aroma of pomegranate. Letting it steep longer brings out the floral aromas. You can steep this tea for as long as you like and it doesn’t have a bitter or sour taste. If you look close enough, you’ll be able to spot bits of dried pomegranate seeds in each teabag.

I love the 2nd brew best**. It’s the perfect beverage to start your day with. (:

**Add brown sugar or honey for best results.

I’ve missed this tea too. Light, flavourful, pear. The white tea is the prominent taste, but the pear is in there, faint and very refreshing. And I’ve got a whole box to enjoy.

I proclaimed this to be a Finish Up All Samples and Singles day. Although yesterday I proclaimed that today would be a Go To Winners And Buy Hazo Teas day.

I might still do the latter. I don’t know how well I’m doing with the former. I don’t really have any more samples I can finish up in one cup. And I’m unable to consume 8 cups + of tea in one day.

I let the water get a little too cold, and I guess as a result there wasn’t much of a pear flavour. It just tasted like white tea. Still nice, though. Tasty.

Pear pear pear. Unlike the Doctor (both the Tenth and the Seventh), I like pear. Love it, actually. Especially canned (although I find that many people dislike canned fruit due to the sugary syrupness); it goes well with vanilla icecream. And I needn’t bother with the skins when they’re canned. Plus, the brine is delicious to drink.

The smell of the dry leaves was faint but pleasant. The wet leaves and the tea itself hold a much stronger pear flavour, although it is slighty sugary (that is to say, more similar to canned pears than fresh pears).

Although if you really stick your nose in close, it smells more ‘fresh pear’.

This is another tea from Jillian (how did she know I loved pears!), and I got two teabags instead of one, so at least I have one more to try after this before I have to remove it from my cupboard.

The colour is darker than I expected it to be (I haven’t much experience with white teas except in Numi’s flowering white teas, which brew quite light), sort of a pale black tea colour. The pear smell is delicious, and I think I get a tea smell in there too, but fainter.

Don’t know what to say in terms of taste. Again, I barely remember my last experience with white tea, but this is light, like a very light black. Not vegetable and green (luckily!). There’s pear in there, and it’s pleasant and not artificial and too sweet. I’ve heard that whites can get quite bitter. The pear taste isn’t confined to an aftertaste, it’s there during the sip, but it’s very pleasantly light.

Daaaamn, I quite like this and I only have one teabag left. I wonder how many times you can resteep a white. Hmmm.

Smells like rooibos with a hint of honey and burnt sugar. Tastes much sweeter than I expected (nothing added). The rooibos overpowers. For a blend that doesn’t even mention rooibos in the name, that’s not good. I think I’d rather have an actual caramel honeybush blend, sans rooibos. I can’t really identify the caramel, or rather I can’t tell where the honeybush ends and caramel begins. They are in there somewhere, sweetening things up. I’m getting a bit of a burnt flavor – not sure if it’s overdone caramel or the woodiness of the rooibos. sigh Three’s a crowd when it comes to this tea.

Forgot to log this!
A little over a week ago, some of us traveled 3 hours to go to a collegiate chapter conference of VMEA. Needless to say, we left pretty early to get there by 8-9ish. They had a little continental breakfast there, and I saw a few Revolution teas in the basket, and having liked what I’ve had of them so far, I thought I’d try this one. I oversteeped it the first time, but before it had gotten to that point, I was in love. It wasn’t too overpowering in tea or bergamot, with the added bonus of a hint of lavender. Definitely a good balance for me, a fan of mild to medium strength teas. Probably my favorite Earl Grey so far. Will have to compare it next to Twinings again and reevaluate.

This was very light on bergamot and lavender. Probably should have had it straight but had it with milk. Was a decent cup of tea, actually, just not a good Earl Grey. I will try the other half straight or, perhaps, with honey. Thank you for the sample, janefan!

Wanted something simple upon returning home. A nice comforting cup that doesn’t require thought and will hopefully assist in the digestion of all the bad-for-me things I ate this week!

opened the sachet and brewed in a basket since the leaves always seem so cramped. These are some big, whole leaves! The flavor is definitely stronger this way.

I’ve been brain-dead all day (maybe due to lack of tea?) Hopefully this will help salvage my evening. Tastes wonderful – almost musky? (somehow purfumey without being flowery)

was looking for moderate body, low caffeine, and no overpowering sweetness in my tea this afternoon. Found it in this blend from a Revolution sampler pack (bagged). Not sure how or why it smelled like mint chocolate when dry, but it resolved into a safflower peachy oolong smell as it brewed. Tastes slightly sweet, slightly smoky, and with the faint peach/apricot hint in the background like other notes describe. Very natural and clean tasting. I would drink it again. Also, I think it would be good with asian food (some people mentioned having it at PF changs). Now I wish I’d waited to make this cup with my planned beef & edamame stir fry for dinner :( alas I only have one bag. Silly sampler!

ps – lost track of time and majorly oversteeped (should be 4-5 min) but it doesn’t seem to be a problem! Yay!

Okay, this one smells really delicious. Like ginger and peaches and lovely stuff like that. Really heady and strong. My dad kept stealing the teabag from me and sniffing the contents and oohing and ahhing.

The bag is really cute too. Some sort of silky fabric, and inside… TEA. Like, actual leaves. This makes me very, very happy. I was very tempted to go in there and FREE THE LEAVES but I figured I should try to steep this puppy up the way it’s meant to be steeped: in the bag.

Anyway, since my friend at work gave me the bag, I had no idea what the parameters were. So I just steeped this up for a bit, and… yeah. The tea doesn’t smell as good as the dry. There’s a bit of a musky/musty order, and the black tea smells a bit dusty. But it’s not that bad.

So I go in for the sip and… hrm. The black tea here is pretty bitter. The ginger peeps through and then trounces your tongue. Bounces on it like a trampoline and says “HAI THURR.” It dissipates into a peach flavor that’s actually pretty okay-tasting, except for the fact that there’s a peach hand lotion taste to it. Like if you’ve ever licked your hand after putting on lotion. That sort of creamy/icky/soapy taste. Yeah. I don’t know what it’s doing in there, since I don’t wear lotion, or maybe it’s just some weird by-product, but anyway…

This one was a bit bizarre. Successive sips made it taste better, and when it cooled it tasted a bit better and sweeter, but I couldn’t get past the hand lotion taste. And the bitterness of the black.

Sigh. Well, tomorrow’s Friday and I’ll be able to steep some lovely stuff at home! Looking forward to the NOMNESS.