TeaSource

Very smooth berry flavored tea. If you are looking for a solid berry flavor that is not tart then this is a wonderful blend…

When I first saw the blend’s ingredients, berry flavors and pepper, I was curious… And then when the blend arrived in the mail and I same some red peppercorns…. So I was expecting this tea to taste like a sweet and spicy combo. Somehow, I could not detect the pepper AT ALL. But, hey, I am from Louisiana!

As an added convenience, the TeaSource sells its blends in two convenient sizes: 2 and 4 ozs.

Thanks to Meghann for this sample!

Tea Earl Grey, Hot.

This Earl Grey has a clearly bergamot flavor. The black tea base is tasty. The two together are pretty good. I do think I like my Earl Grey Creme’s better than plain old Earl. This was pretty good alone, held up to milk well also. Lupica’s is still my go to Earl Grey with Teavana’s Earl Grey Creme coming up a close second.

Meghann M sent this one to me. I’m infusing now! I don’t think I have ever had any of the TeaSource Teas before so I am excited!!!

Black Tea…check…
Lemon…check…
Berry…check…

This isn’t too bad. I don’t know if it is something I originally would have picked up for myself the first time around but if I was a regular customer would probably have sampled some.

I really needed a black or flavored black before moving on to some of the other teas in my NEW pile so I thought I would try this.

Honestly, as I sip this…it’s growing on me more…

I would say the black tea taste is mellow to medium and the flavoring is about the same.

Fairly tasty.

Thank you to Meghann for this sample. The dry tea has got a wonderful typical Earl Grey scent and there were quite a few white tips visible in my sample. The brewed tea is a very good Earl Grey. The bergamot flavour stands out clearly. The quality of the black tea seems to be decent at the very least and perhaps better.

I would most certainly recommend giving this a taste for those who are in search of their perfect Earl Grey BFF.

Thank you so much to MEGHANN for sending me a generous sample of this tea. I certainly tasted the cherry in the tea and, although you can see the coconut, I did not pick up on the coconut taste. It was a very pleasant afternoon tea, but I’m not likely to invest in a full bag unless the flavor really “pops” out distinctively.

I enjoyed it, however, because the light taste of cherry was very nice, but it made me crave a more distinctive flavour.

I made up a pitcher of Lemonberry black tea this morning so I would have a refreshing caffeinated tea to drink upon returning from work. This tea pulled through when I needed the afternoon pick me up.

The aroma is strong on the lemon, light on the berry, but in the taste, both were more subtle. The black tea base took over the flavor of the tea more than the citrus or berry. I’ll have to give this a try hot and see if more of the flavors that were in the aroma can be brought out.

Bumping up a few points for it’s great taste when iced. I actually craved more of this tea today. I may have to pick up some more of this when I head to MN in two weeks. I love that my family lives so close to this tea store. Loving the cherry flavor. Maybe I can mix it with another coconut tea (pina colada honeybush?) to get more of the black forest cake flavor.

Made up a big pitcher of this iced today. Had several cups throughout the afternoon. Not sure what it is in this tea that makes the water so murky, but it was definitely a thick tea. Not getting a black forest cake flavor, mostly just a black tea with bing cherry flavor, but I do enjoy it iced.

I can definitely taste the tart cherries in this cup. There is a faint hint of coconut, honestly I was hoping for a bit more coconut, but it sure looks pretty mixed in with the tea leaves. The aroma reminds me of Teavana’s Sour Cherry Serenade but the taste isn’t quite a sour, this is a much more mellow blend. I will have to try this iced soon!

This is one of my favorite teas. I constantly have a pot of this in the fridge for iced tea and love having it hot for a change in the morning.

Drank a strong cuppa of this this morning. Didn’t care for the flavors in it much. It may have just been the amount of fruit mixed with the black tea so early in the am. (I left the house at 4am). I think I need to stick to a strong, malty Assam. Something didn’t quite mix right in the blend for me, I just couldn’t pick out what specifically it was.

Funny how stating that “I’m not in the mood for greens these days” puts a person in the mood for greens. The thing is that most of the time one cup of something is enough for me and then I want something else. And that means that most often I only steep once, which for greens, especially unflavoured greens, seems a little wasteful to me. I tend to have the same sort of problem with pu-erhs. But on the other hand, if the alternatives is just having unused leaves just sitting there on the shelf going boring, then what’s really the difference? So I’m allowing myself to be wasteful. (Although it feels really really odd!)

This is one that EvaPeva sent me and I have to say that I didn’t have the patience today for letting the water cool properly and what not to ensure the best brewing. So I cheated. Brought the water to a boil, added a splash of cold tap water and steeped. Normally I just let it boil and then wait a little while while it cools off. I have by now developed a rough idea of how long to wait before pouring the cooled water on the leaves, but doing it this way I have no clue if the water is still too hot or has gone too cold.

In spite of my lack of control it actually turned out rather nice. At first sip it was insanely butter-y, but that particular sensation has flattened out a bit to a much more tolerable level with the next sips. After that it’s very smooth.

It’s a mild sort of flavour. It’s not the in-your-face greenery that I’ve learned is typical for the japanese greens or dragonwells. The artichoke notes are there if you look for them, and especially if you slurp a little. They’re just a little more discreet here.

The really weird thing with this here green is that the chamomille not-note I found in the razzleberry green from 52teas? It’s here again. It’s the same thing. No chamomile while I’m actually smelling the cup, but as soon as I take my nose away, there it is. It’s like the tea has a note of the memory of chamomile in the aroma rather than an actual note of chamomile. That’s really odd! I’m not sure how I feel about that.

Good morning all.

Just a small cup of this before leaving. I’m going to be away for a few days, so I’ll see you again on monday or tuesday (depending on exhaustion levels). Just a little to wake up on and settle the nerves and such.

I got this one from EvaPeva, and I just realised that I haven’t posted about it before. I know I’ve had some of it at least twice though, so that’s bad negligence on my part I guess. She was sending me some japanese greens, as you know, but included a couple of other goodies, like a good supply of this. You would think she knew that this is a green type I’m quite fond of!

I just wish I had time for more than these two steeps. At least I used the gaiwan, otherwise I wouldn’t even have had time for one. It’s really very nice. I don’t really have time to go all in depth about it, but it’s definitely a very nice little tea.

Okay, I gotta be off, Steepsterites! I’ll see you in a few days.

Tried this iced today while picking out a few flavored blacks at Teasource in MN. I’m so glad I found the time to stop by this tea shop.

The passionfruit flavor in this tea is quite strong, it is the strongest flavor I am getting out of this tea, other than the tea itself, which holds up nicely to the tartly sweet passionfruit. I got 2 ounces to try of this for myself. I wish it was possible to try a smaller portion of the tea, but 2 ounces is the smallest they sell. I did walk out with 5 different teas to take home. I hope I find one or a few that I enjoy.

I got this from EvaPeva and shared some of it with Cait who found yesterday that she really liked it. So I felt inspired to give it another go today, in spite of not really being in a pu-erh mood.

It’s going quite nicely with this banana I’m eating.

Oh yes, this is more like it. This another of the teas that I got from EvaPeva.

After a 30 seconds steep this is already almost as black as coffee and the aroma is all full of earthy goodness.

Ouch, bit too hot, though.

Compared to that awful green stuff, this is the nectar of the gods. On it’s own, though, I’m not really getting anything out of this first steep other than standard pu-erh. It does taste like there might be a lot of steeps in it. The sort of leaves that you could keep using all day without any noteworthy change in flavour or intensity.

I don’t think TeaSource carries this any more. I am about to admit defeat. I think I have yet—in recent memory; this bag has been around a long time—to steep a cup at any time and temp that results in anything but bitterness. I just want it to work so badly—-it’s an Kopili Assam, which I love in black form. I hate not liking a tea!

I ruin this one more than I get it right. There is about a half of a fourth of a degree leeway on this one before it goes wickedly bitter. A basic green ought not to be that finicky!

It’s taken me several times to find the sweet spot for this one - it’s a “no kidding I mean don’t put boiling water on the leaves” green. But at just a couple minutes with gently heated water, this actually does turn into a nice, sweet Assam lite.

I think I’ve worked out the formula to brew three “varieties” of this one in one pot: just under three minutes for me, another minute for my husband, yet another minute for what he’ll ice down at work (he likes the bitter bite of oversteeped green…go figure). At the three-minute point this morning, anyway, I’m catching a little bit of nutty-sweet to balance the greenness.

Husband has been reading about the health benefits of green tea for … uh, things that ail guys his age … and ordered this hoping to find something that isn’t quite so vegetabley. Out of the pouch, it smells very close to a traditional Assam, maybe just a touch lighter. Fresh brewed, the green hits you before the maltiness, and is a touch bitter. Which hubby likes. I need to experiment a little more with proportions, but will do so willingly to be able to share a pot of tea with my spouse!

Comes in 1" cubes of pressed leaves. Is more in the Taiwanese/Green leaf production style which might be surprising if you’re expecting to see a blacker tea. But the flavor notes are wonderful. Floral top notes are very subtle, a somewhat grassy finish, but not overdone. Won’t be everyone’s favorite oolong, but my palate appreciates the grass/floral combination and I could imagine it pairing well with savory foods vs. sweets. I’ve gotten at least 3 fine steeps from my single-cup measure, TeaSource’s instructions recommend using 1/3 of a cube.