Tealuxe

The bergamot flavour is muted but it’s a nice creamy tea and one I wish I’d have purchased more of. They promoted it to me as Birthday Cake tea and I can see why. I only wish I’d have purchased more.

Wet, spongy earth. Steel, iron and sun showers. Trees and mushrooms follow. Nothing raw or herbal in this cuppa. At the same time, I found it approachable for a pu-erh, on the sweet rather than fecund side of earthy, and might just brew it for a pu-erh n00b on a chilly autumn day. I myself drank it in the Tea-luxe window, and enjoyed two steeps to my pot.

I’m just now getting around to this sample I pulled out of the TTB. It’s a nice tea but it’s not standing out as anything super special. There is a teensy bake-y taste but it’s otherwise very ordinary. Brattle Street does have a nice clean taste to it with minor astringency. I ended up adding milk and sugar and it made a pretty good breakfast tea.

I’m not always a fan of fruity type teas, I find them to to bee too much. But this was a very nice blend. Sweet, light and just the right balancing of its varying flavors. Great iced or hot, though I prefer it iced myself.

This is probably one of my favorite tea blends right now, especially iced with soy milk or light cream, honey and a touch of sugar. The hint of mint in as a nice, clean and refreshing element.

This is pretty darn yummy stuff =) To me, it seems very subtle; I don’t know if this is because they’re old leaves (this is a hand-me-down from a friend) or because it’s just a subtle cup of tea. Very lightly flavored. The smell and the taste blossom in a lovely way over the steeping, from a nutty aromy and taste to slightly more grassiness as the pouchong taste comes out. Very light. The smell is toasted coconut, the sip is nice, delicate green flavor, and the aftertaste is really all coconut again. Lovely! =D

A friend gave me a bag of these leaves recently and I’m very pleased she did! I’m on the lookout for really intensely citrusy earl grey teas, and this has a nice citrus flavor with great Earl Grey depth. You have to watch it because it can turn bitter pretty quickly—for that reason, I don’t love this tea as much as some others I’ve tried.

This is really delicious tea!! It tastes like sweet cream with the depth of Earl Grey. Very caramelly. I drank it recently on my first quest to Tealuxe and selected it as part of my endeavor to find very citrusy Earl Greys. This wasn’t exactly what I was looking for…but it is delicious!! Be careful not to overbrew it, because bitterness is unpleasant in this.

This is the first tea I have tasted that really reminded me of drinking a beer/hard cider. The pear flavor really comes through as an effervescent sweetness that makes it feel like I’m drinking a Magner’s Irish Cider or Woodchuck Pear Cider. In fact, it isn’t as cloyingly sweet as some hard ciders can be and I have no idea what might cause the “beer” flavor in the tea. But now that I’ve used up the sample I bought, I’m going back for a bigger batch!

Steep Information:
Amount: 2 tsp
Additives: none
Water: 6 ounces filtered boiling
Tool: Mesh basket strainer in cup
Steep Time: a little over 7 minutes
Served: Hot

Tasting Notes:
Dry Leaf Smell: lemon, floral
Steeped Tea Smell: ginger, mint
Flavor: lemon, mint
Body: Medium
Aftertaste: spicy ginger burn
Liquor: dark cloudy brown

Steepster Traveling Teabox Tea

Weird. Really that is the best I can say. Starts off woody rooibos, shifts to minty, then ginger burn. It’s not unpleasant. It’s just odd.

Post-Steep Additives: none

images: http://amazonv.blogspot.com/2010/03/tealuxe-loose-leaf-rooibos-tea-thayer.html

Today I went to Tealuxe for the first time. I ordered the Strawberry Sencha, and the woman at the register asked me if I wanted a “regular” or “large”. I said regular, which apparently means 16 oz in a to-go cup :/ The tea was way oversteeped and bitter. After I diluted it with LOTS of water, it wasn’t too bad, so I think it was just the preparation that made this tea undrinkable. For that reason, I’m leaving the rating off. The strawberry flavoring was delicious…I hope I’ll be able to try this another time steeped shortly.

Edit: Okay, I turned this into a really delicious iced tea (ultra, ultra diluted). Yum!

This is a decent green-style example of Ti Quan Yin. It’s fresh, has a strong floral breath, and holds ginger, ginseng, and lychee throughout. Towards the throat, this tea brings a slightly sour tang and then finishes clean. I think it would benefit from a little roasting, but in this form it works well as something bright and smooth.

I do love this tea. I like it best really hot. This cup taught me that as I made it, stepped out to do a few things, and came back to my typically favored really warm cup. At that point I thought it could really use some sugar. Now it’s even cooler and I’m not digging it too much. But one cup of not-digging-it-as-much tea is worth it to have a better understanding of how to serve it.

This is the coziest tasting tea in my cupboard. Every sip is part tea, part earl grey, and part comfort. I especially like that though there’s strong flavoring to this tea, it’s still clearly tea. A lovely way to kick off this week!

Update: The baby might love this tea, too, as he’s kicking around a lot more than is typical at this time of day. That, or he hates it. I’m going to go with love, though. :)

Another Update: This tea is best pretty hot. As it cools to the temperature which I normally prefer my tea, it’s a bit bitter.

Another gross day outside, another hot pot of tea to keep warm indoors! I love this Earl Grey. It’s a strong one, and rich, but it is everything I want Earl Grey to be. I suspect people used to the more standard Earl Grey might find this objectionable, but for those looking for something more, this is probably it.

I love this even more than I expected!!! It’s clearly earl grey, but it also is richer and more powerful than I would normally expect from any earl grey. I highly recommend it!!

A very decent cup, at a decent price. I’d put this near the ~50% oxidation level. It’s got good stonefruit character, a nice softness, a bit of mint-like sensation on the smack and a pleasant buzz. A great daily drinking office tea. Apparently, organic.

I really wasn’t sure if I would like this or not…so…I just grabbed enough for a cup…it’s finishing the infusion now…It smells like Rooibos, Orange, and Chamomile. eeeh

It’s a murky light brown in color.

It has a very sweet and juicy taste to it. Almost like when you bite into an orange…and the juice squirts you in the back of the throat and you nearly choke…lol…anyhow…the first sip I wasn’t too hot on but it did get a little better…tolerable.

It tastes like an orange-E Rooibos…light on the Rooibos…with a VERY small hint of Chamomile…thank the tea gods for that…I’m not into chamomile but this is doable.

I like this one better than I thought I would although I doubt I would buy it if I saw it. Then again it’s one of those don’t judge an herbal/rooibos by it’s blend, I guess. It’s not too bad, really, I guess.

The strawberry is pleasantly subtle and over all the tea is pretty smooth

very nice clean, green tea.