Teas Etc

The pellets don’t look too appealing, and during the steep they don’t do much more then expand a little.
The aroma is sweet, and the taste is new to me, and quite pleasant. But I can’t place it. Maybe it’s the ginseng, or maybe it’s the tea. I didn’t taste any licorice.

More tea, less steep time. Still a little thin.

Good color and good flavor, but maybe a little thin, and not as malty as i was expecting. Next time, I’ll try more leaves. Maybe shorten the steep time also.

Yummmm! Light, sweet, woody and just all around goodness :-)

I have finally gotten around to trying this tea that the wonderful Rabs had sent me in a swap. She said it was her favorite and that by me being a jasmine lover and a fan of earl grey, should appreciate… of course I was intrigued and eagerly awaited this! Unfortunately, I tend to drink alot of my tea at night or in the evening when I have some time to myself and the kids are in bed; I will usually seek out the white teas so I wont be tossing and turning all night. But today I decided I will make the time and try this out. Looking at the tea I noticed a full rose bud alone with several rose petals, very pretty against the black leaves! But by seeing this I was scared this would taste overly rosey, which is not my forte. Now, putting all of that aside I steeped this visually appealing tea and took my first sip and the rose was not overpowering at all! The jasmine I would say was the strongest note, followed by the rose and then the bergamot. But here is where the magic happens… the flavors all meld together quite nicely… to the point where I simply wonder how did they do that?!

This is a very good and different earl grey tea and I thank you Rabs for letting me try this one :-)

Sometimes, steepster friends, one has to take a step away from drinking tea. Shocking, right? But our hobby, it comes with hazards — like consuming many times more than the safe daily dose of caffeine on any given day (500mg being the extreme outer limit of that dose). The half-life of caffeine is something between 5 and 6 hours for an adult with a liver functioning at full capacity — i.e., assuming that you’re not taking additional chemicals like Rx drugs or somesuch into your system, or drinking alcohol, or otherwise suffering from compressed liver function. With single cups of loose-leaf black tea weighing in at 25-110mg depending on preparation…and my love of chai, which extracts as much caffeine as possible from the leaf?

Suffice it to say, it’s occasionally a good idea to purge the system of caffeine and rehydrate with something other than a hardcore diuretic from time to time!

Restraint is so difficult. :(

Okay, enough of the public health and safety notice. I picked this tea today because I wanted something that screamed, ‘I AM BLACK TEA!’ while still being very clean, crisp, and easy to drink. It beat out the assams in my cabinet to that purpose…though I notice that my favorite ceylons seem to have a lot in common with assams — a berry-like scent while steeping, some malt, some of that subtle molasses-like character. It still retains that light ceylon crisp/briskness, though, that almost makes me hallucinate the flavor of lemon, thanks to a long mental association with iced tea.

Backlogging from yesterday.

A rather good ceylon. I thought I’d written a tasting note for this one before, but I can’t find one. Ahwell. It’s very much like Sinharaja — smells of berries in the dry leaf and on the steep, has a bit of the molasses malt thing going on that tends to remind me of an Assam. I suppose I prefer Ceylons that do.

Strangest thing, though…as I was steeping this, I kept smelling pepper. Black pepper, of the sort that comes in shakers. It wasn’t just a freak accident, either; I didn’t have to hunt for the smell…it kept hitting me as it wafted out of the steaming cup. Weird.

So far, this is my favorite green from Teas, etc. It is mild and not too grassy.. a great afternoon treat.

I have fallen in love with this tea! Does anyone else recall the mention of “Bohea” in “The Rape of the Lock” by Pope? I first encountered this word back in my university days.

Belinda and her bohea and her billets douxs is duly celebrated by Alexander Pope. I ever more appreciate the luxurious and wealthy life Belinda led when I sample this Bohea which came in a package numbered “6” in the wonderful, generous “Geek Pride” package which RABS so nicely sent to me.

One sniff of the dry leaves and I knew that I would love this tea. One person’s old ashtray is another person’s heady perfume! And so this tea brought me waves of exhilaration. It’s a smoky/sweet adventure treat!

Essentially tasteless and it’s no good as ice tea, either.

Taking a break from my sewing for a late lunch (potato and red pepper frittata – yum!) and a good sit down with a cup of tea. My back is killing me from all the bending for cutting fabric!! To keep the sewing talk tea related – here is what I’m sewing with:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/spoolsewing/4558525372/

Photo courtesy of the shop I bought it from, Spool in Philadelphia. I made napkins!! I love cloth napkins :) They are reversible, and each one has a different, complimentary colored back, and topstitching all around.

Anyway – the tea review! I couldn’t help but revisit this tea, even though I just had it the other day. I am so happy to have another Thomas kind of tea that I almost didn’t believe it could be true! I had to test it again! I used a little more leaf (but did not increase the steeping time) and it is just phenomenal. All the things I love about Thomas are present: bready and malty and so honey sweet.

Thanks Rabs!!! I would never had thought to try this one on my own! Steepster once again makes miracles! :)

This one courtesy of my fairy tea sister Rabs! Thank you sis!

I am off from work today, so I took this opportunity to brew a gigantic 16oz mug of a type of tea which I like to take with milk and sugar (I’ve decided bringing milk to work on a regular basis is just too much fuss when there are so many teas that are great sans milk to enjoy).

This is quite the delicious, bready, malty Assam!!! Do I dare say this tea reminds me of Thomas Sampson?! I used 2 teaspoons of tea – I think that if I use 3 and take this baby another minute I will have an excellent tea to go to when I am on the rebound!!!! I am now going to enjoy Thomas to the fullest extent, knowing that when he is gone, I will have this guy waiting in the wings.

Thanks Rabs!!! That’s what sisters are for ;) ★high five ★

This is lemon Pez. Pez has a unique taste to it that I’ve always really liked and this tastes like the lemon Pez, though with not as much sugar. There’s a natural sweetness but not to the same level as Pez.

Huh. I think I might like this. It strikes a note somewhere between munching on a lemon tree branch and lemon candy, like one of those old-fashioned candy sticks. There might be slight hints of Pledge, but really, the sweetness keeps it away from that too much. And as the tea cools just a tad, the lemon tree branch is going away and I’m getting lots more lemon candy. It’s really nice. I could totally see myself buying some of this.
~2.3g/7oz

I have really never tasted a Jasmine tea I didn’t like. This one came as a free sample with my new travel tea mug from Teas etc. I tried it out in the mug and it was neat to see some of the flowers unfurl. it tasted a little bitter toward the end, because of the way the leaves remain in this particular mug after steeping, and not because of any flaw in the tea. I didn’t get any shakes or nervousness from the caffeine in this, so that makes me a happy camper.

very light and tasty.

The jasmine magnolia oolong just wasn’t what I was looking for so I gave it to the husband (who enjoys jasmine teas more than I do) and decided to bust open this sample. Mmm, good choice. This is buttery and has notes that remind me of a milk oolong – that sweet, creamy, almost fruity taste (that I sometimes read as Juicy Fruit gum). As it cools, there’s even a faint kettle corn like tastes. I would totally buy this one.
5.1g/10oz

It’s very dry. I can taste a little bergamot but it’s mostly the rosy. It’s a very girlie tea – not enough Earl.

A very girlie tea. Mostly rosy and jasmine-y with faint bergamot. I wouldn’t really even classify it as an Earl Grey because of the faint bergamot. I really liked the jasmine aspect of it. It tended to get a little bitter as it cooled.

I have been wanting to try a smoky tea, and I have wanted to try Bohea ever since I saw that Colonial Williamsburg sells it on their site as a historic tea. Today I got to address both of those wants! We heat our home mostly with a wood burning insert and this tea smells like my clothes and hair after I have started an oak fire and gotten in the smoke a bit. That’s a good thing to me – speaks of home and hearth. I don’t TASTE the smoke, I smell the smoke, but after you swallow your sip the smoky flavor drifts lazily up into your nose. I can definitely see how smoky tea can have passionate followers, and I think for myself it will be something that I occasionally crave but wouldn’t drink every day. In winter this would be especially good, though I just got back from a 30 minute walk in 93 degree heat! Thank you, TEAEQUALSBLISS! I can say I have now had a lapsang style tea and….I like it! It is definitely more smoky than my beloved Queen Catherine from Harney who gets me going on tough days, but I hear this is one of the lightest and truer to the original historic lapsangs. Only steeped for three minutes – the smoky leaves had me scared! Tea flavor is lovely, though, but after I made it I read that long steeps won’t hurt this tea.

I find this tea pretty groovy. It’s sweet and woodsy and comforting and refreshing… And for some reason I really like the sound the little pellets make as I toss them into my teapot. It’s so cheerful and tinkly. How do they make those little pellets, by the way? And why is it only ginseng teas that are pelleted?
4.6g/9oz

Mmm, I like it. Light, a bit woodsy/reedy, with a hint of something that is almost like licorice. Oh, I just read the company’s notes and it does have licorice in it. So that makes sense! Anyway, I’d totally buy this tea – it’s tasty.

The only other ginseng oolong I’ve had was King’s Oolong, which I also liked. I can’t remember that quite enough to accurately compare but I think this one is a bit milder but perhaps a little rounder flavored? Maybe.
5.2g/10oz

Tough time rating this.

I think that Bai Mu Dan is just not one of my favorite whites. It’s slightly…what? Vegetal? Musty, in addition to being sweet? What’s the adjective I’m looking for?

Anyway, I was still pleasantly surprised by this. I’d forgotten that it included rose petals, and experienced a minor moment of apprehension when I read the ingredient list on the cannister — rose tea is just not my favorite thing, either, and I was beginning to worry that I’d made a very strange, silly decision.

Not to worry, though; the berry taste sits first (it doesn’t scream fresh strawberry to me, but I don’t have any trouble identifying the flavor as strawberry) and the rose is actually a rather lovely complement. I can see the shreds of coconut in the leaves, but I have a difficult time detecting the note in the tea, which is sort of disappointing — I love coconut — but may be a good thing; I’m not sure whether or not the tea would have too much going on if it were more present than it is. Maybe it’s worth locking up a small amount of this with some additional coconut shavings to see what happens.

A very pretty tea with a very pretty flavor, and a nice change of pace from the solid, unflavored teas I usually drink. I’m not sure whether or not the taste would hold up to being chilled on ice, but it could be fun to try.

I got this sample with my first Teas Etc. order, and on my continuing quest to reduce my samples I decided to try it this morning.

In the packet the dry leaves have a sweet citrus smell. It’s a sweet grapefruit smell. It reminds me of how my mom used to serve grapefruit for breakfast. Sliced in half with sugar sprinkled over it, eaten with a “grapefruit spoon.”

It brews to a light brandy color and smells like a grapefruit! The tea is mild and smooth and has a substantial mouth feel. I can’t tell what kind of tea it is from the flavor. It could be a mild, non-smoky keemun or maybe a mild yunnan. There is a sweet citrus flavor that blends nicely with the tea and a surprising grapefruit aftertaste.

I would not have picked this to try. I like grapefruit ok, but it’s not a favorite of mine. I’m glad I got a chance to taste this though. It’s actually surprisingly delightful. It might even be delightful enough to encourage me to order a small tin.