Teavana & Starbucks

My morning at home was a peaceful montage, where I easily floated through my tasks, sipping my tea and getting read for the day.
I get to work and its all wham, bam, thank you ma’am!
I shall require more tea than just this. Much, much more.

Hmm. May have been giving this tea a bit too much credit. I got my first of the collywobbles after drinking this mornings time. Apparently that vague feeling of nausea I get after some green and black tea blends can appear here, if I’m not careful with the steep.
Good to know.

I am pleased. I looked back on my notes on earlier incarnations of this blend, and I seem to have pretty much hated them. I think my current feelings, of an inoffensive meh, is a vast improvement.
Still, fits the bill for working tea perfectly (which is to say, somewhat forgettable, easy to deal with, not a special favorite.)
Let see how fast I can sip it down.

This tea is much better balanced than I remember it being in years past. That’s a good thing!
Its still a little…. odd. Ooolong, green tea and black tea? The steep time is more a matter of guesswork than of knowledge, but hey.

I have a friend who gives me some of this every Christmas, which is very sweet. Its not my favorite blend, but it does a good job as a work tea, and that’s where it is.
This years version seems sweeter and smoother than in years past, which is an initial good sign. I hope it can continue with this pleasing trend!

And I polished this meh blend this morning. It was nice to have at work, but its also nice to have it gone!
Sipdown.

I’ve brought this with me to work, and have been drinking a cup of it in the mornings. Never more than a cup, though, as the combination of black and green tea can make me feel a little ill, if I drink too much of it, or if I brew it too strong.
Its never going to be a favorite, but it was given to me by someone who is fantastic, so I’m gonna drink it down.
Not long to go, actually! A cup a day facilitates a sipdown in good time.

Perfect blend of flavors

Teavana, the Vichy Bux! Why is this a holiday tea? I don’t get it.

My first infusion was too weak and it tasted like a peach green tea. My second infusion was too strong and tasted like a bitter apricot black tea. I was not overly impressed with the base material but the flavor is very palatable and the aroma is great. I am grudgingly enjoying this, although I’ve given up trying to replicate the store samples.

I bought the iced tea tea bags from Starbucks for this tea. Normally I don’t like a huge amount of hibiscus in my tea but this one is actually really good. It is tart and tangy and fruity and refreshing. I really like this. I get a hint of the cinnamon but mostly what I taste is that hibiscus. This is an excellent herbal iced tea. I will repurchase this.

I was out running around with a friend and she wanted to hit Starbucks. Guess its been a while since the only teas they had last time I was there was Tazo.

I got this tea for something warm and spicy and hopefully not too bad. I was surprised as it was enjoyable.

Chai can be a bit of a hit or miss with me. While I enjoy clove, it too easily dominates, and I despise it when clove dominates. I could barely taste the clove in here. I adore cinnamon, but I couldn’t taste any in here at all.

The flavor I could taste is difficult for me to nail down. Possibly the cardamom. I’ve never had it in anything where it wasn’t dominated by another flavor. If this is indeed what I was tasting, I do enjoy the flavor.

I didn’t realize until looking this up that this is a black/rooibos blend. I normally have trouble with rooibos since it always have a medicinal flavor to it However, this tea, as well as another, I do not get that flavor from the rooibos.

Anyway, if I ever end up going back to Starbucks wanting something hot to drink, I will likely get it again. But its not something I would go out of my way for.

I got this one yesterday at Starbucks (actually the guy I went with did and then I pretty much ended up drinking both of our teas…) and it was okay. Definitely not my favorite tea but something I might end up getting if I need something warm but not caffeinated.

This was super duper tart with a lot of hibiscus and berry flavors to it (raspberry and cranberry mostly), I can taste the passion fruit (so it’s true to it’s name) but it doesn’t really round out the cup of tea well.

Brews up really sweet! A little cinnamon but not a spicy kick. Really good!

Second steep is alright too.

Was steeply discounted at Teavana, so I gave it a go. Will not do so again. By itself, the ‘spiciness’ is overwhelmingly sharp and yet very flat, without any depth of toasted spice flavor or smoothness of rooibos or black tea that I would hope backs such a chai. On the second attempt, I mixed with Red Label black chai grounds as a backing, treating the Oprah Chai like a tea masala. Still no good, too pointy a flavor palette.

I LOVE this tea. I enjoy it much more iced than I do hot though, which kinda goes against the fact that it’s a holiday tea, but I think it’s just better that way. Putting it on ice helps the flavors come out more and taste much more interesting. I’ve always been a fan of green, jasmine, and oolong teas but I never thought to combine them all into one, and it is DELICIOUS. I would definitely recommend it.

Ok, this stuff is just weird. I didn’t expect jasmine from an oolong black blend, nor did I from the smell. When I think Christmas, joyful teas (the ones I’ve had in England, anyway) they were all spiced, like a gingerbread or plum pudding or something along those lines. Warm, earthy, comforting, like you’re sitting in front of the fire sipping cozily once the gifts are wrapped and the kids in bed. Y’know?

This tea… this is just weird. Why I’d think jasmine… why would anyone? I dunno. Not my cup of tea. There’s nothing really special or even multifaceted to it… it’s a floral jasmine, and surprisingly light for a black (it looks like more black than oolong in the tin, but what do I know).

Ordered a large one of these at Starbucks. If you’re expecting a massala chai – warm spices, milk and sugar, etc – this isn’t that. They are there but the flavor that’s front and center is lemmongrass. If you like lemmongrass a lot—and I do—then you might like this on its own merits. The warm spices are pushed to the background by it; whether or not the effect is intended, I think it’s pleasant. The ingredient list on Teavana’s website also list apple (I didn’t taste it specificaly but it would account for the general fruitiness which is more than just lemmongrass would provide) and basil (I don’t know if I’d picked it out if you didn’t tell me, but I’d say there’s some background of it there). I left the teabags in and drank it slowly and I was still tasting it an hour after I finished.

I really wanted to love this. It tasted like cinnamon stick with some other indescribable flavor. Very potent and overwhelming. Maybe if I bought and played with it I could get it to work for me but that is just too much “extra”. I need it to work with little effort. I ordered it from Teavana and my first impression was that I didn’t like it. I was so glad that I didn’t let the impulse bug get me and order it online based on the Youtube reviews and go to the store and buy a cup prepared first. It isn’t awful and I think some people who like bold spice may love it, just not me.

Oh joy! Joy Tea is back at Starbucks! This is one of my faves, so I went before work this morning to see if I could grab a whole box of it to take home. Apparently I am not the only one who loves this tea, as they were all sold out. So I got some made in-store – my craving was pretty strong today. The lovely barista girl gave me an extra tea bag on the side because they were all out of the take-home tea! How kind of her, it made me smile first thing in the morning.

The morning steep was a little on the bitter side because I had to walk to work with the teabag in there, and as it was pouring rain I did not feel inclined to stop on the way and take it out. However, my afternoon bonus tea was simply delicious. The tea smells slightly fruity, floral, and wonderful. I really like the balanced mix of black and jasmine green. A dusting of vanilla and cinnamon (?) helps the tea smooth out to a decadent finish. It’s the little things in the holiday season that make it super awesome (not to mention the beautiful lights being put up everywhere)!

I had to go get this one from Sbux on my lunch break today when I remembered that Joy tea comes around in November! I really like this one, the blend really works well together. It’s kind of sweet, a little but fruity, and you can definitely taste the mingling black/green tea in there. The sweet/fruity aspect of it is more noticeable as it cools down, but it is definitely not too overpowering. Really enjoyed this one! Will be going back for more quite often.

very spicy, lots of cinnamon