Teavana

This will be the first in a short series of backlogs, I have been drinking tea, including new samples from Adagio and Ricky, but I cannot rate them on first taste.

I have been drinking a lot of tea in effort to reduce my cabinets, I have successfully cleaned out three of the large teavana tins, yay! Working on some more. See previous review for this tea, my rating has not changed.

I did however try this one hot with half and half, it made it creamier, a little thicker, but still delicious.

I was concerned about this tea because it is described with “especially tempting” when sugar and milk are added, as if the tea itself needs additions in order to be good. This was not necessarily true. Personally, I do not like adding milk or cream or any form of dairy to flavored teas because I think it interferes with the flavor. I will add some sugar to help sweeten and brighten flavors, but usually not dairy.

That being said: the tea brewed by itself (no milk or sugar and hot) is good, it is a strong black tea flavored with almond and cinnamon. The combination (black tea, almond and cinnamon) can be a little bitter and I see why sugar is suggested, however it was overall decent.

So I tried it with just sugar. This combatted some of the bitter, but it was still there. Unfortunately, I found the sugar addition to also remove some of the almond flavor and then found a strong tea, with slight almond flavor, but predominantly cinnamon.

Finally, I gave-in and tried it with sugar and milk and I have to say it was still decent, however by this point I was getting almond/cinnamon aroma and less taste of the two.

Overall, I do not think that the adding milk and sugar is necessary for drinking this tea. I can see the marketing idea of making it more like a cookie, but I think this is a decent tea by itself, you do not need to fix what is not broken.

Enjoy.

I am back to my EBT this morning. This is a familiar taste. I have been experimenting quit a bit lately with different teas, it feels good to start the day out with a solid tea. From the last time I drank this tea, I have tried a Yunnan…it was not what I had hoped for…although it was a good cuppa while drinking the Yunnan, the headache that came afterwards was horrible. So I have retired the Yunnan to the storage shelf. I wonder, will I ever find the perfect breakfast tea? Or is this a life long search for that perfect morning cuppa?

12/14/09 My Teavana order arrived tonight. I have been busy putting the Rock Sugar away and the teas into tins. This English Breakfast Tea is what I have been searching for…smooth taste, not bitter. Takes well to sugar and milk. Reminds me of coffee. Thanks to all the reviews here at Steepster, I think I have finially found my daily tea. I have been able to get 3 infusions, making this tea very affordable for everyday drinking.
12/18/09 I really like this tea. Three infusions. It reminds me of coffee when you add milk. Just a few crystals of rock sugar and you are good to go. This is my morning tea.
12/21/09 Got four infusions from this tonight. This is fast becoming my everyday favorite. Just plain and simple and the price point is affordable and with getting multiple infusions too, I am more than happy with this tea! I do add a few rock sugar crystals and a splash of milk…tastes heavenly in my cup.
12/29/09 I did not drink all the tea in my cup today…This is a first..Maybe I am over this tea?! 12/30/09 too much rock sugar..ugh:( poured out, reinfused the leaves w/an added pinch. Better, drinkable. 1/1/10 just ok1/3/10 brewed plain no sugar I like it better! Waiting for my Yunnan to come….

If asked to describe this tea in one word, I’d have to pick “smooth”. Smooth not only in flavor, but in texture, as this brew seems to transform ordinary water into tea-flavored milk. Being that I am a purist when concerning Earl Grey, I tried this tea with a bit of bias, and while I still wouldn’t call it a real Earl, I would go so far as to call it a damn fine tea that is more than worthy of its modest $4 pricetag.

My pal that works at Teavana (imabandgeek4eva) picked up a bag of Tung Ting Jade Oolong Tea for me when it was discontinued, which was pretty cool! The very first time I used the leaves, I put a spoonful of little round rolled leaves in my teapot and thought “Gee, there’s no way those little tiny things are going to flavor a whole pot!” and added another scoop or two. Now, if you’ve never had Tung Ting then you’ll be tempted to do the same when you try this – but don’t! The leaves unfurl and expand like crazy in hot water, so when I peeped into my teapot after a few minutes the entire thing was full of leaves and completely oversteeped! >_< Well, live and learn, live and learn…

So when I brewed the tea today, I was careful to use a more reasonable amount of leaves, and I may have gone a little too light because the flavor’s not very strong today. But then, I also took the leaves out after 5-6 minutes instead of steeping for hours and hours, as I sometimes do, so I think this is closer to the “proper” flavor of the tea. It’s light and rather vegetal. It’s nice, but one of the reasons it has taken me so long to log it is because it’s also rather bland/neutral and difficult to describe.

A nice tea. Rather nice with a drop or two of lemon juice, which most oolong teas (in my experience) are not.

It’s a very finicky tea, but worth it. I usually put in a little extra and sweeten it slightly.

This is one of my favorite teas from Teavana that I tried for the first time this summer. Unfortunately my water heater in my dorm room can’t quite handle getting a constant 208 degree temperature when heating the water, so sometimes it ends up scalded a bit. For those making this tea, I highly suggest you keep your eye on the temperature.

This is a very exciting tea with A LOT going on with it. Strong lemon flavor with a raspberry undertone. Gives a nice even caffeine kick. Pair this with the Himalayan Black from Teavana for some extra goodness.

I steeped the heck out of this one today and… MMMmmmmmm! So nice. I’m going to pick up more today, I think I NEED it. :)

Wonderful fresh peach taste. Not at all like a black tea with peach you might find in a restaurant. It is a mild tea with enjoyable fruit taste. This is fantastic mixed with an earthy black tea. It is easy to over-sweeten this tea, be careful with the sugar.

Finished out my two ounce bag today. Got a lot of floaties through the filter. Still not my favorite tea, but enjoyable when I feel like sipping lightly fruity perfumed water. haha

This is a difficult tea to rate for me. I like the flavor a lot but I find myself over-steeping to get just a bit more body out of it. Obviously, that turns a bit too bitter. I just don’t know that the cost to enjoyment ratio is there for me.

Sure, it’s a beautiful white, but a bit too light for my taste buds.

I was pleasantly surprised by this tea. For some reason I’m always tempted to buy chocolate mint teas, but I find I rarely like them. This, with just under a teaspoon of sugar, really hit the spot.

I had a very good cup of this at a friend’s house before watching Christmas Story for the first time. Made for a lovely afternoon!

I can see the ingredients here clearly. I’t smells kind of sweet strawberry kiwi like. I only steeped it until the color showed not the full five or six minutes or too long. This brewed to a medium pinkish purple. And suprizingly the dreaded hibiscus did not overwelm and make this too sour. And this was good slightly sweet sour and tasted like strawberry with abit of kiwi.

The first tea from Teavana that I can safely say isn’t the slightest bit overpriced. As soon as I took my first wiff in the store, this became an instant favorite. The leaves in this tea are of a very high quality that no other Teavana tea that I’ve tried has even come close to matching. I use a mesh ball strainer for loose tea which usually leaves a tolerable amount of tiny escapee leaves and general detritus floating around, but this tea has none of that whatsoever. The flavor itself is surprisingly similar to the smell of the dry leaves minus an extra chocolaty note that I didn’t pick up in the actual tea which isn’t incredibly strong, but has a deep complexity which seems to dance around in the space between floral and crawfish boil. I can’t really describe it, to be perfectly honest. You’ll just have to try it yourself.

Not the best Earl Grey I’ve had, but it’s the best among what’s available in my local area. It’s also the cheapest thing on Teavana’s menu, making it a good daily drinker for patrons of the store. I typically use this tea as filler to get the 10% discount that Teavana offers when you buy a pound or more.

I was skeptical about the chocolate chunks from the beginning, but being the chilehead that I am, my thoughts of “OMGOMGOMG PEPPERS IN TEA!!!” overwhelmed my judgment. On the first try, I found it to be fairly lackluster in flavor with or without additives like sugar and/or milk. It also left me with a headache and deep feelings of buyer’s remorse after drinking it. I believe it would be more enjoyable to eat this tea as trailmix rather than to steep it into the bland, cloudy liquid it is intended to be. Maybe then, you would actually be able to taste the peppers.

I do plan on trying it again for the sake of second chances and the fact that I spent $6 on the stuff, but it won’t be any time soon…