SpecialTeas

THIS IS SOME GOOD FUCKING TEA. PRETTY FUCKING MELLOW AND SMOOTH, TRADITIONAL TYPICAL TEA FLAVOR ALL IN YOUR MOUTH.

DRINK IT IN THE MORNING. IN THE AFTERNOON. WHENEVER THE HELL YOU WANT TEA.

IT’S FROM MOTHEFUCKING KENYA, ISN’T THAT SWEET?

I got this in a swap from Jude. Just enough to make a 4-cup pot of it, perfect! Not so awesome that this tea seller has gone out of business?

This is a nice cup of tea, malty and sweet with a bit of caramel flavour to it. Very tasty. This tea gets a bit smokey as it cools though, not enough to turn me off, just enough to make it interesting.

I dug this tea out of the back of my cupboard while rearranging some stuff today. It’s kind of ridiculous how I’ll hoard teas if I know a blend is discontinued or the company no longer exists. But tea doesn’t keep forever so today I opened the bag and made a cuppa.

The flavour is slightly smooth and nutty mixed with fruity citrus notes and hints of spice. It isn’t so spicy that I’d call it a chai but there’s notes of cloves and ginger to give the blend some character.

Loose
Appearance: knobby oolong, small curl, bicolor
Aroma when Dry: creamy, notes of cucumber
After water is first poured: creamy, vanilla, cucumber, faint mint notes
At end of first steep: sweet, creamy, buttery, faint mint
Tea liquor:
At end of steep: light buttery yellow
Staple? Unsure, first tasting
Preferred time of day: afternoon, evening
Taste:
At first: buttery, earthy, chewy
As it cools ? Notes get deeper, less creamy, more vegital
Additives used (milk, honey, sugar etc)? No
Lingers? Yes, velvety floral notes with hints of woodyness

Second steep (4min)
Tea liquor: light yellow
Aroma: fruity, floral
Taste: rich, woody, floral
As it cools: gets fruity, very brothy melon, cucumber, mint, and slight salt notes

Third steep (4 min)
Taste: rich, salty, floral,cucumber, mints, melon notes
lingers like restuarant tea

Fourth steep (5 min)
Taste: serviceable floral restuarant tea, still lingers

Pronounced pine and smoked flavor. Cooling and astringent. A perception of ashes in the back of the throat.

This was brewed very strong, using the whole sample packet and boiling water for over 5 minutes.

Finally opened my sample packet and used up all the tea.

Tastes like a coconut cassava casserole. Sweet,“thick” and yummy—with a “baked yam” note.

No astringency detected in the black tea base. Just a slight “coffee-esque” bitterness edged with cream.

Pretty good. RIP SpecialTeas!

Truly wonderful! I’m generally a Kenilworth girl when it comes to Ceylon, but the light, refreshing complexity of this one really won me over. I’ll keep this one in stock regularly if I can.

I am the worst swap partner ever. While I always send out my parcels and delight in receiving something in return, I rarely get to actually drinking the tea. That said, I extend endless apologies to Mercuryhime who sent me some of this as well as a handful of oolongs to try…a year ago. Oy. It all ended up in an envelope in a basket in my cupboard underneath 50 or 60 other samples. I hope to remedy my tardiness though!

Opening the bag, I’m hit by an intense citrus aroma, one I am calling lime. The lime is fab. There is something behind that though that is dusty and musty – that’s probably the bergamot. I’m not getting any creme but neither does this smell like a typical earl grey. I’m not a huge Earl fan, but I like Lady Greys and Cream Greys, so this could be great.

Steeped, I get lime and orange with a sweet creme beneath, I am reminded of those popsicles with vanilla ice cream on the inside. Creamsicles, maybe? Anyway, the steeped aroma is delish and decadent, I’m loving the vibe I get now. The first sips are mild, sweet with some light citrus in the background. The taste still holds with the steeped aroma, popsicles and ice cream! There is no dustiness from the bergamot and no bitterness from the black tea, so I’m gonna call this blend a win. I get the sense that it could become bitter as the cup cools but I’m off to enjoy it quickly. Yum, and many thanks to Mercuryhime for sending it to me!

Sipdown! 831.

This is quite a tasty cream earl grey. Light bergamot, very creamy. I think it’s one of my favourites, although that means nothing since it can no longer be purchased. Oh well! Thanks LiberTEAS

Last night when I was rifling through my box from LiberTEAS to find my Cherry Cheesecake Genmaicha sample, I came across this little gem and instantly developed a craving. Which I didn’t satisfy until the morning, when I actually remembered to drink some of the tea. It was delicious. And it still is, cold and everything. I really need to pick up some more Earl Grey Cream of some variety; unless there’s some hiding in a sample box that I’ve forgotten about, I have almost none left. The horror!

After my recent sipdown of DavidsTea’s Cream Earl Grey, I was craving it rather badly (figures), and decided to look through my giant box of teas from LiberTEAS to see if there was another variant in there, since she is fond of earl greys. Sure enough, I found one!!! So this came with me to work tonight in the no-longer-quite-so-chai-scented Timolino.

Unlike the DavidsTea version, I found this one to be much more like a straight earl grey upon the initial sip, with the cream coming more in the aftertaste. This could have been an artifact of brewing the tea a bit stronger than intended, but I don’t think so, I think the cream aspect was just done a bit differently here. I have to be honest and say that while the tea was still hot, I really wasn’t getting much of the creaminess, and was therefore kind of disappointed, however as the tea cooled, the delicious creaminess emerged more and more. I definitely like earl grey creams better a bit cooler!

Anyways, I think I’d be likely to choose either DT’s or Upton’s Cream Earl Grey over this variant (which is probably ok since I think SpecialTeas is no longer?), but all three are quite delicious. So much nostalgia for me!

Thanks for including some of this for me, LiberTEAS , and saving me from having to run to DavidsTea to get my fix! I still have enough for at least another cup; hopefully I can stave off the craving for a while longer (or perhaps there’s another cream earl grey lurking somewhere in a swap box that I have yet to track down…!)

Oh dear. I drank all of this without writing any notes! Hmm…what can I remember about this…? I remember not being all that impressed, honestly. I threw out the first infusion as a wash, but the following infusions were so weak and watery for a puerh. The leaf seemed to be finely ground so that might explain the rapid loss of flavor. I made it again but drank the first steep. Not too bad. Smells like wet earth tastes a bit like cocoa. It doesn’t fill your senses with flavor like other puerhs I’ve had. I guess I started with the good stuff and now I’m spoiled. :)

Thank you for sharing with me TeaEqualsBliss!

Backlogging. I want to thank Mercuryhime for this one!
I enjoyed a few cups with my sister on Thursday Evening. She had never had flowering tea before. She liked it. She said it was a nice mellower green tea.

I enjoy flower teas. I thought it was alright. It wasn’t overly intense in anyway. It was a fair Jasmine and a fair green tea flavor combo. I seemed to enjoy this one a bit more iced than hot.

Additional notes: I’m running low on this save-from-a-fire tea. Next time will be a sipdown! I was worried it had no flavor left based on the fragrance alone, but upon steeping, the flavor bloomed right into the mug. VERY HAPPY about that. I really wish I could find if this tea was sourced anywhere else. It is probably my favorite tea ever and DEFINITELY by favorite Earl. My pouch is from Steepster Select so maybe they know where the source is from?
Anyone have recommendations of their favorite funny novels? I’ve been reading too many darker books lately…. (hence why I needed to dive into some bright bergamot today).

Additional notes: The flavor in this is still amazing for THREE steeps as far as the bergamot goes… this is ancient tea here. The creme has disappeared sadly. But the bergamot is probably the strongest bergamot blend I have. The black tea is still perfect.
MUST steep this with a teaspoon and a little bit extra in another teaspoon. Two steeps with 3/4-2/3 full of a mug on the third steep.

I haven’t been catching up with Steepsterers notes lately and I miss them and hearing news of everyone!

Additional notes: Oh my gosh, this is still SO delicious. It’s so old! Has to be one of the oldest teas I have. The two SpecialTeas I have really have lasted the years, and the other was a green tea (which I assume ages the fastest of any type of tea.) This is still my favorite Earl. I love the strong black tea, the strong bergamot, and the strong cream (it even seems to have the texture of cream). The three components seem to be battling it out. So so good. One teaspoon even, and the third steep is amazing. It could probably keep going with more steeps.

Additional notes: More or less future notes for myself, as I doubt anyone has this tea any more anyway. I don’t know what it is but it is the most magical Earl. The third steep even! It’s more vanilla/creamy than the other two. I drink it every once in a while but there are only a few precious teaspoons left! If anyone ever has any that they want to get rid of (no matter how old), I will buy it!

One flat teaspoon in my metal infuser
Steep #1 // 6 mins after boiling // 3 1/2 min
Steep #2 // 4 mins after boiling // 5 1/2 min
Steep #3 // just boiled // 8 min

Additional notes: Yep, I love this one. I got three full really delicious cups of this. With 3or4, 5or6, and 7or8 minute steep times. I should have been paying more attention because they were steeped perfect. My two favorite teas are SpecialTeas so I really miss them! I wish I had tried more from them before they were bought by Teavana, since the three I tried were so so good. I’m probably saying the same things I said in the other tasting notes…

I love love love love Creme Earl Grey! It’s my new favorite! I somehow have in my possession three blends of earl grey in the last month! This was sent to me by Rumpus Parable (thank you!). I love the perfect mix of creme and bergamot and a black base. I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t even like bergamot by itself. I could drink gallons of this stuff. But this is why you don’t try the horrible tea bag labeled ‘earl grey’ and then assume you won’t like any other earl grey. As far as my Battle-of-the-Creme-Earl-Greys goes (see the Element Creme Earl Grey), this one is pretty darn similar to that one. Is it possible it is the same blend? But the more I have of this, the better. I won’t ever get sick of it! (I think I’ve already had six cups of creme earl grey in the last two weeks!)

Actually, I’m not sure if this is the tea I have. It’s one steepster select gave out but it is labeled Creme Earl Grey. Can someone confirm if it is the right tea? I couldn’t find Creme Earl Grey and I figured it would be on steepster somewhere, as it was part of Steepster Select…

Backlogging and based entirely on my memory

Experience buying from SpecialTeas http://steepster.com/places/2931-specialteas-online-stratford-connecticut

I bought two pounds of this during SpecialTeas’ going-out-of-business sale at the beginning of 2011 for 75 % off (I think we paid roughly $12 for it).

This was a flavor-added gunpowder green tea (although they don’t mention ‘gunpowder’ in the description). As with The Blanc de Cassis initially my wife and I liked it, but over time it lost it’s appeal (although it took much longer to lose it). It was still enjoyable after it lost it’s initial appeal, but just not as good as the other green teas we began drinking. Still, I more-or-less enjoyed the last pot I made of it (about a month ago). I tried slipping this one past my wife with the last pot, and right away she remembered not liking it (foiled again!).

I bought two pounds of it of it because it was inexpensive, and I was looking for a flavor-added green tea. It was a visually appealing tea with all of the colorful goodies in it. Overall I was satisfied with it (I think my wife was mixed). It did have a couple of pleasant spicy notes in both the aroma and the flavor which complimented what the gunpowder had to offer fairly well. The amazing thing about gunpowder is that it seems it has better longevity than most other green teas because of its shape: the leaves are wrapped into tiny pellets thus exposing very little surface area to the elements that often work to quickly degrade a green teas fresh flavor. Although some of the tea from SpecialTeas (and Teavana that we bought at the same time) were starting to taste flat, this one never did. Overall, this was a reasonably good flavor-added gunpowder.

Thank you Mercuryhime for this sample. While its not my all time favorite tea by any means I didn’t find it as bad as most. I enjoyed its breakfast cereal flavor – I did have it for breakfast though. I feel I did over steep it or perhaps steeped it too hot as there was a bitterness but I won’t hold that against the tea – that was my fault – was too sleepy still while making it.
I would try this again. Don’t think I will run out and buy it (yeah right I order online but you get the drift) but I would not refuse it either!

Delicious tea… the first Pu Erh that I had ever tried, I first compared it to the taste of lake water when you fall while water-skiing, but that taste always brings back fond memories so not only is the tea delicious, it always makes me happy when I drink it.

A nice smoky oolong with a bit of fruitiness. Highly oxidized, it’s almost like a light black tea.