TeaSource

I received a catalogue from Tea Source, probably quite some time ago, but I only got to my post office box today. I perused it, thinking, “Oh, that sounds good,” and “Oh, I bet that’s yummy!” But I am not ordering any more tea for a while. That’s not really a hardship since I do have a few Tea Source teas in the cupboard, including this one. It is a lovely, warm tea. So nice for a winter afternoon. It’s not super cold yet, although I saw on the TV weather that it is expected to get below zero later this week. (Oh, goodie!!) And an inch or so of snow too. (Double goodie!!) I have plenty of this left, so I think I’ll have it again in a few days.

Had this one this morning when it was still a lovely 50 degrees. I just love mornings that =start out cool and then it’s sunny and 65 during the afternoon. Anyway, I needed something this morning, and this one was the one I pulled out. the sense of smell is very muted, so I didn’t get a lot of flavor here, but it was warm and slightly spicy. Really, really nice this morning when it felt like fall.

I cold brewed this and I don’t believe I care for it iced. It’s not by any means bad, but I definitely like it better hot.

This was my evening tea to help me stay awake while I plowed on in the manuscript. Tasty. Spicy warm. I think this is a fall tea, not a spring tea. I have a friend who LOVES this tea. At the moment it is her very favorite, go-to tea. I don’t love it as much as she does, but it certainly is tasty. Wonder what it would be like iced?

Yahoo! By using my hair dryer I managed to unfreeze the window enough to get it closed! Good thing, too, as it’s a bit nippy out there tonight. I’m sitting down now with a cup of this tea and my knitting. It’s a great way to end a good day.

This tea is warming, spicy, and just a little sweet on its own. Last time I made this tea I must have had quite a bit of cinnamon in it, because it left me with that odd, coated dry mouth feeling when you have too much cinnamon. Tonight this is just about perfect. Think when I re-steep I’ll make some cinnamon toast to go with it.

Took this one with me to church tonight. I still enjoy the spice of it. Noticed the cinnamon especially tonight. Left a curious dry mouth feeling that I sometimes get with cinnamon.

And I really have to say I freaking LOVE my new travel mug. I bought it at a Castel Rouge (SCA) fundraiser up in Winnipeg last winter. I didn’t use it much until lately, when my old travel mug finally gave up the ghost. This one remains cold on the outside, even when boiling water is poured into it. I made my tea around 5:15 and took it with me to church. It sat with its lid off for about 2 hours. I put the lid back on to drive home. Tea was still HOT. No leaks, cold outside, hot inside, what’s not to love?

I bet this tea would be marvelous to drink on the first cold night of autumn. It just feels like fall to me. You know, falling leaves in gold and red, high school football, and cold rain splashing on the windowpane. I can definitely feel the spice in the this tea. I can’t detect the other flavors, but just the warm tea and warmer spices is enough to give me enjoyment. Glad I ordered this one !

I tried a cup of this at my former roommate’s house and really enjoyed it! It literally tastes like a taffy-covered apple. At the beginning of the sip, I mostly notice a smooth, natural apple flavor that reminds me of a crisp, tart Granny Smith. In the aftertaste, there’s a wave of licorice sweetness. Another great option if you’re looking for a dessert tea with a white base!

Cooking TTB #7

Wow I’m really powering through the TTB today but then it is the perfect weather day for sitting around the house with tea and a book. We don’t get much winter weather here in SoCal and it’s foggy, drizzly and about 12C outside today which is a nice change to the usual sunny skies. If you combine the weather with the fact that I’m about a quarter of the way through the fourth outlander novel, Drums of Autumn, and that this is the first free time I’ve had all week, it all combines to mean I’ll be creating a me sized dent on the couch today!!

This tea is delicious! It’s the perfect malty breakfast tea with a surprising and delicious touch of smokiness! Such an unassuming tea in its packet, I picked it it up on a whim because of the name and was very pleasently surprised by just how complex it actually was! Yum!

Thanks to Lala for the Apple Cider Spice experience! The leaf smells just like how its name suggests, although the spice aspect is fairly faint. You can tell that there is cinnamon in it but it melds into the acidic aroma of the cider. Once brewed, the cider really pops out. It smells like a Yankee candle in here. The spice is nearly absent in the flavour, as well, but I’m enjoying the cider note in this.

No bitterness or astringency to be had either. Thanks again, Lala!

One of my new, favorite teas. I’m generally middle-of-the-road about spice teas, but this one hints at vanilla (even though I don’t see that ingredient suggested) that is like a middle note that ties together and slightly tones down the high notes of spice and citris with the low notes of black tea.

Cooking TTB #13

Once again, I tried a tea without knowing what it was supposed to taste like and was left saying, “Seriously…what the heck?”

Now, if I was held at gunpoint and forced to give an answer to what this tea tastes like, I would have said a hot bath. I am well aware of the fact that I should not have tasted a hot bath before in order to even be able to compare a tea to a hot bath, but I’ll be damned if I could compare it to any other thing in this world. (For the record, I am now attributing said bath-like taste to the ginseng) It’s like when you eat something that tastes like horse (like pork chops—forgive me if you like pork chops)…only you’ve never eaten horse and what you really mean is that it tastes the way horses smell when they’re hanging out in a barn after racing….no? Am I the only person who totally associates smells with tastes? Those two senses sort of run on connected systems, so…I can’t be the only one.

Anyway, this tasted the way a hot bath smells when you don’t put any soap in and the water is all steamy. Yeah. So, this tea and I will probably never meet again, and that’s okay by me. But, I can appreciate its ability to give me a very strange sensory experience.

Cooking TTB #12

This was so cool because the flavor of this tea changed like three times just within one sip. It smells distinctly of strawberry and tastes quite fruit as it hits your tongue…but, then it goes straight oolong while it hangs out on your tongue..and then, oh joy!, the strawberry sweetness is there in a different way as you breathe in after you swallow. Lovely. I enjoyed this for sure. I’ll be keeping some more cup’s worth of this!

Cooking TTB #10

I didn’t expect this to be nearly as delicious as it was! I made it without reading anything about it and was pleasantly surprised at just how malty it was. I had it with some cookies after dinner, which was perfect. My coffee-drinking grandmother said it was so good that she’d even like a cup. So, because I am eagerly trying to get through as many samples as possible from the TTB before sending it on, I figured I’d give her my cup and get to try another tea! :) This makes me more curious to try other high-quality English Breakfast type teas since I’ve been generally avoiding them thinking they’d be pretty much all the same (shame on me). I’m also happy to have tried another new tea company!

This is my first time with mugicha, Japanese barley tea. I’ve read it’s a popular iced summer drink. I am drinking it hot and in the winter, so I suppose this’ll be different than the usual.

There’s a cereal this reminds me of… If you’ve been to the USA and have had Honey Smacks or Golden Crisp, I think those cereals are made from popped barley because the flavor and scent is just like this tisane.

The infusion here is a pale gold color, so I’ve definitely brewed this on the lighter side. I only used 3 oz of water, but I had a pretty small sample of it to try. It tastes malty, grain-like, roasted, slightly sweet. It’s very easy to drink. I really could see myself enjoying this more often. It reminds me of houjicha but with more maltiness and grain flavors.

A-OK by my book!

Cooking TTB #14

This is such an interesting oolong! The leaves really do have a blueish cast and they are rolled into tight little pellets that look kind of like pebbles. The flavor is also unlike other oolongs that I’ve tried…no vegetal flavor or silky mouth feel. Instead it’s heavy on the ginseng with a lingering sweet licorice aftertaste. The re-steep was very similar. I’m glad I got to try this, but it’s not something I would reach for again.

Teeny Tiny TTB Round 2

When I saw this in the box, I wondered how similar it was to TeaVivre’s version and decided to try it so I could compare. Visually, it looks the same, just a plain green rolled oolong with small to medium pellets. Dry scent was very slightly strawberry, but I don’t expect anything to have much of a scent with the number of teas in this box.

The steeped tea smells like vegetal, slightly floral oolong and strawberry candy. Hm, this has very little strawberry flavor. I only get a small hint of fresh strawberry at the end of the sip. Most of it is just generic, slightly grassy green oolong. Luckily it’s not floral.

Teeny Tiny TTB Round 2

Hooray, I got the box! And there are actually quite a few things I want to try, which is awesome. I’ve actually heard really good things about this tea, though for some reason it has barely any reviews, and a low rating? Weird. The leaves look nice enough, they’re black and quite thick and curly. There are a few blue flower buds mixed in as well. Dry scent is sweet blueberry jam.

Mm, the steeped tea smells very blueberry, and it’s actually quite convincing too. There’s that deep sweetness but also a little hint of tart that makes me picture fresh blueberries instead of jam. Hm, this is way too light on the blueberry for me. If I drink a blueberry-flavored tea, I want it to taste like blueberry. It mostly tastes like a somewhat woody base tea with a little bit of blueberry and a touch of floral. Meh!

Very light tea, fairly strong chamomile flavor.

Strong body. As dark as coffee if you steep up to 30 minutes. Rebrew up to three times. (I usually do first brew at 4 minutes, second for 8.)

Love this, so delicate yet also complex. I could drink this every day.

The ginseng and licorice don’t taste at all like ginseng and licorice, because they meld together to create something entirely new that is very pleasant. It has an aftertaste that leaves the mouth feeling smooth and cleansed.
I brewed this in my YiXing pot that I have seasoned with Blue Beauty Oolong. The cumulative taste has made it a wonderful choice for an YiXing pot.

I don’t believe this is something I requested in my swap with Inkling but I am so glad she included it because it’s great! When I read both “ginger” and “peach” in the description, I immediately thought this needed to be iced so I dumped the whole sample in my gravity steeper and started brewing. I actually wasn’t sure if this was for me but then I smelled the wet leaves and it was a noseful of peachy goodness.

When it came time for drinking the tea, I worried the base might take over but from the first sip, I am happy to announce that the mouth-watering peach smell translates perfectly into the taste. The base is incredibly smooth which allows the fuzzy peach-like flavor to shine all the while, a slight kick of ginger underlying the sip keeps things interesting. Once again Inkling has not only introduced me to a tasty tea but also a new company to explore. This is why I love swaps! Also, thank you Inkling for such a fantastic package :) 182.