Steeped Tea

Another sample I’ve had for a while. Wasn’t too bad but again wash’t all that memorable. Not too strong of an almond flavour, but it could be because I’ve had it a while or maybe I didn’t have enough tea leaves.

Either way… won’t get again.

Had this one this afternoon at work. I didn’t know what it was, but I knew what company it was from and at least some of the ingredients within it and this is the one that popped up.

It’s tart from the hibiscus and the lemon, but it’s not overpowering thankfully. Other than those, I didn’t really notice the other flavours really… Meh…

This one isn’t too bad, but not all that memorable to me.

From my Giant Peach taste off:

This one is peachy but it also has the taste of the other fruits (pineapple, mango, papaya). It’s not too bad… I’m torn about how I feel about this one. But it is really good.

From my Great Blueberry Taste-off this morning:

I definitely prefer other blueberry teas to this one. Won’t restock this one. Actually probably going to give it away, so I’ll call this a Sipdown (sort of) and give it to my aunt.

Yet another two packages of tea landed in my mailbox last night from Steeped Tea. This is one of them.

I’ve never been a huge earl grey fan as I get the dreaded “soap” flavour when I have it, so I don’t have high hopes for this one. This one smells very… lemon floor cleaner to me. :(

My first burning sip was terrible. Couldn’t wait to get into this one apparently… either that, or I’m just that tired. That’s probably it… Anyway, it made me want to add milk and sugar so I did. It almost seems to mellow out the lemony smell a lot by adding the milk, which is making it easier to sip now.

It’s actually pretty good!! Milk and sugar make it better for sure. It’s now a slightly sweet, almost like lemony treat… Lemon is by far the most predominant flavour, but when you smell this one you expect no less. The orange is a nice touch as I think it seems to mellow out the lemon just slightly… or maybe it just compliments it. Either way, it’s a nice addition.

Verdict! I will drink this one and not give it away. In fact I wouldn’t be surprised if I drink it up fairly fast as it’s sort of summer outside and this is the season for all things fruity and light and refreshing. So yes… I will, but I think it will be fast and I think that I won’t restock. It’s not one I would have chosen normally and I honestly don’t think I would think to rebuy. Glad I got to try it out though.

Edit I will admit though. It still has a bit of floor cleaner-ness to it, but it’s not nessecarily in a bad way…? Does that make sense?

Sipping on a cup of this now. Really smooth with vanilla notes. The maple is a little less discernible and I found that I needed to add a pinch of sugar to bring the maple forward. The cinnamon is subtle but I like that, because cinnamon can be sometimes aggressive and I like that I can enjoy the three flavors – vanilla, maple and cinnamon – rather than an overpowering cinnamon note.

A really tasty cuppa.

I never did a proper tasting note for this tea so I thought I’d delete the old note and revisit.

I drank quite a bit of this tea after getting my IUD inserted because for the first few weeks I had steady cramps. This tea, along with midol, did help a bit. The tea is a bit appley and very mildly spicy. Not bad.

However, I have had my IUD removed and switched back to oral contraception pills, and thus I only have mild cramps one day a month, and I’m a lot more likely to just pop a midol and be done with it. I think I’ll just use this tea up (either by occasionally drinking a hot cup or hiding a little bit in my big pitchers of iced tea until it’s gone) and not restock. If I wanted a nice apple and slightly spicy tea I’d rather go with Forever Nuts from DAVIDs.

However, if you like more “natural” remedies for cramps I do recommend this tea.

From my Great Blueberry Taste-off this morning:

Blueberry tea with a black tea base. I’m noticing the blackberry touch, and although it’s nice in its own right, it’s not my thing.

Have other blueberry teas I prefer more.

I got this with my monthly tea-zer program through Steeped tea. I was surprised to see this one as I was thinking about buying 50g of it, but decided against. Now I have a 50g bag to enjoy!

I’m going to be comparing this one to the Nova Scotia Wild Blue tea that my dad got me for Christmas as that’s the one that’s definitely the closest. This tea is nothing like the Blueberry Jam from Davidstea. I didn’t care for that one all that much. But this one and the Wild Blue, I LOVE.

Anyways, this one is VERY similar to WIld Blue. Now, I’m going on memory of the Wild Blue as I haven’t had it in a while, but rereading my note on it is refreshing my memory a little bit.

This one is quite nice. I do wish the black tea base was just a bit milder, so the blueberries could take more of front seat in this one. But that’s not to say that the blueberries don’t to some degree already take a front seat. It’s just I’m not getting the juicy blueberry taste from this one that I was with the Wild Blue.

I was just thinking… I did steep this for 3mins when Steeped Tea recommends 2mins for their black teas. I probably over steeped it, which could explain why I feel like I’m getting some bitterness in the tea. I think next time I would do more than a 1.25tsp for 12oz but do a shorter steep to see if I can kick up the blueberry flavour but drive down the bitterness.

Overall, not a bad tea. Just needs some tweaking. If I still get the bitterness after a 2min steep, then we’ll have to talk. haha

This was another sample that I was a little afraid of. I don’t normally do well with anything licorice.
This isn’t your average licorice tea. The anise is mild and gentle, there is some creamy tones, the black base is present, and maybe a hint of nutty from the rooibos. All in all, I don’t hate this, I don’t think I would drink it everyday, but I’ve had two cups of it tonight.
Thanks Sil for a sample of this interesting tea. :))

I’m not enjoying this tea the way I did last year. I don’t know if it’s the almonds that have changed flavours or if my palette has changed, but I’m not enjoying this one as much.
I’m thinking I might try it as a latte next time. I’ll have to write myself a note to remember that.. haha So much on my mind these days.

WOW! I’m surprised by this one.

Smell: I was really unsure of this one. I can make out the chocolate and I’m picking up a hint of the strawberry. But the almond I’m missing in smell.

But Taste: I’m getting it all: chocolate, almond and strawberry all combined. It’s absolutely delicious! I love the combo. It reminds me ever so slightly of Chocolate Rocket from Davidstea, but this one is a lot more subtle, where the chocolate rocket is just like “Bam, I’m here!” I definitely like the black tea base with these items. And the strawberry instead of the raspberry in the rocket is nicer to me.

I love the sweetness of this one and it’s not too much. It’s quite subtle in sweetness, but you know it’s there. Milk was added to this one to make it a bit creamy, which I love. I’m sure this one would have been amazing on its own, but I love milk in my black teas.

I definitely would get this one again. Absolutely. I’d probably get this one instead of Chocolate Rocket, as I’m realizing I don’t care for the Mate base in teas. I’ve tried several and I don’t think I’ve found one that I really love yet.

When I first had this tea, I found it remarkable how much it really did taste like an after eight, with a nice combination of chocolate and mint.
I’m not quite enjoying it as much this time — honestly I think that the method of steeping I’m using (in my libre travel mug with the leaves still in) is doing it any favours though. The chocolate is not as strong as I may want, but it’s definitely still there — sweetness around the edges of the predominant minty flavour.
I still think that this would be better brewed another way — it’s certainly overstepping this way (which I half expected, it is a black tea base after all), but it’s not horrible even for it.
Still, holding off on rating until I’ve had it “properly”.

EDIT: Had it again, made more according to directions. Finding it watery.
I’m frustrated because I found it amazing when I had it at the demonstration, but I can’t seem to get it just right at home. Ah well, maybe with a few more attempts….

Not bad, not great. Mediocre tea.

I occasionally enjoy a mug of this stuff but not entirely my favorite. My boyfriend absolutely hates it. Alright, not a winner not a loser.

This is the Green Earl Grey de la Creme.

I got this one as a part of the Tea-zer program through Steeped Tea. If you host a party and it has $250 in sales, plus you have two parties book off of yours and they both reach $250 in sales, then you get 6 months of tea FREE!
Wow, the way I wrote that out almost sounds like a sales pitch. Rest assured, I’m not a Steeped Tea consultant. I’m just someone that loves free tea.

Anyways, so I tried this one finally yesterday after getting it a few weeks back. I had the afternoon off ’cause of poor weather, so I thought I should try this one out too.

I’m really unsure of what to think about it though. To me, it had your typical Earl Grey flavour, but it was QUITE a bit milder. it was more like it had a hint of the earl grey flavouring. I found the green tea base to nice as a paring. Only steeped this bad boy for 2mins! And I think doing so has prevented it from going bitter on me which I find green teas do so well!

OVerall, I’m still very undecided as to whether I like this tea or not, but I’ll try it again and update this once I decide what I think about it. As of right now, I don’t think I’d buy it myself, but I know others that would probably love it… so who knows?

Ever since I was made aware of this tea’s existence, I wanted to try it. You see, I love (what I call) Dutch licorice. Love, love, LOVE it. It’s very different from black licorice, or just plain licorice, and you’d tell the difference instantly should you have two pieces one right after the other, or if you’re a weirdo like me and used to eat Dutch licorice by the handful as a child. It came as little kitties, or short and hard stubs, and occasionally (for a real treat!) it was in pastille format and had the weird name of Zout, Double Zout or Triple Zout. Yes, that’s salted licorice folks, and it’s amazing… if you’re Dutch. I rarely ate it as a child (too salty!) however I craved it while pregnant with my now 16-year-old, and if I do run into a European deli, it’s the first thing I look for. My former mother-in-law sent me some just this past Christmas.

So as you can imagine, I had high hopes for this tea. While I love licorice teas, and have had a few (So Long and Thanks for All the Licorice from Butiki comes to mind), none have been Dutch licorice.

This tea? This is obviously made by someone who knows the difference between the two, and called it Amsterdam Licorice for a reason. It’s Dutch licorice, and it’s spot on. I’ve added a bit of sweetener to it, however my next go-around, I’ll add some salt to see if it estimates Double Zout.

Thank you Cavocorax for generously sharing the last of your stash of this with me! I was so excited to get this, I literally opened it and brewed it just now as soon as the package arrived.

1.5 tsp in 12 oz.

This tastes kind of apple-y when brewed, but there’s something about the cloying sweetness of the dry blend that I don’t like. Plus, there are so many small leaf pieces in my sample that getting the infuser clean afterwards is a real hassle. I’m probably just going to compost the remaining dry leaf.

Yummy!! I think I’ll be grabbing this when I’m craving flavoured coffee… This would make a delicious latte!

Smells so good!! Tastes light but flavourful, can’t put my finger on it but I really enjoyed this one!

mmm thanks cavocorax i made this as a super extra strength latte and man it’s good! I’m not sure i’d like this straight, but hell this is delicious as a latte!

I have to say…this isn’t really mint chocolate. it’s after eight. Slight distinction but it’s there. :) (169!)

thanks Cavocorax! this isn’t a terrible cup of tea, as much as you expected i wouldn’t like it haha. I prefer stacy’s licorice chai but this is pretty tasty with a splash of sweetner added to it. I think this would make a pretty good slushie too in summer heh.