The London Tea Room

I’ll confess: Since I can’t really taste much, and I’m going to need some serious caffeine to get through this wedding today, I’m aiming at either drinking black teas that don’t really float my boat, or that I’m almost out of. This one qualifies in the 2nd category. I had enough for one potent cup, which I’m drinking now. I’ve discovered that I CAN taste ‘sweet’, so I added a little stevia, & that helped me to taste a hint of the vanilla & black current that makes this tea so special.

I drank a cup of Matcha, and now I’m going herbal.

This herbal tisane is tasty with added sweetness (in my case, stevia). I’m craving something a little sweet, so this is my first attempt at satisfying little Terri.

I tried this the other day at the London Tea Room. To be honest, it didn’t sound that exciting, although I love ginger. Unsweetened, it’s ok. Add a little stevia, and the ginger, licorice, orange peel & lemongrass really sing. I’m not usually a fan of lemongrass in teas, although I do grow it each summer & I cook with it. Here it isn’t too overpowering, and this tea is a warming brew that is just right for me today, when I’m under the weather & needing nurturing fluids. Little Terri is ready for nap-time, so we’re taking this cup (& a few others) up to our room to relax.

It’s been awhile since I drank this one. I started a sipdown box a few weeks ago & have been working my way through my collection, moving teas that were at the end of their stay to the box. Not everything in the box is something I love, but this one is pretty nice! Rich & earthy Shu combined with the tanginess of orange. It’s tasty & I probably need to visit the London Tea Room sometimes soon. It’s downtown, but St. Louis is not that big, so it’s really only about 15 minutes from my house.

Another tea I haven’t drank for at least a couple of months. This was one of the first Puers I drank, all of the early ones being a mix of Shu puer & some other ingredient. I’m finding that now that I’m used to drinking Shu, I don’t really care so much for the blends…with the exception of Bolder Breakfast (the tea spot). This is still a decent tea, although when it runs out I won’t replace it. Very orangy, better with stevia, IMO, although I’m getting where I don’t like that so much either. Maybe next time I’ll add a little Maple instead.

It’s been awhile since I had a cup of this one. It’s an earthy but brightly citrus cup of yum!

Now I’m in the mood for something dark & rich, & this tea hits the spot!
The idea of this particular tea has both intrigued & freaked me out for awhile now. I’m not a big fan of citrus flavors in tea, there is usually an acidity that I don’t care for, but every time I visit the LTR I feel an urge to try this one. So, with my posse of women at my side the other day, I figured, what the heck! If I didn’t like it, someone would, right?

I liked it! I liked it enough to purchase a few ozs. The Puerh base is deep, satisfying, & earthy. Dry, it has a deep smell of orange peel & really reminds me of those fruitcakes my mom used to make. They were loaded with candied fruit, orange peel, etc. I think she baked them a month before xmas, wrapped them in cheesecloth & proceeded to marinate them in brandy, or rum, or something like that. Then when they were ‘ripe’, she packaged them up & sent them out as xmas gifts. They had a dark rich flavor, a sweet sticky density. This tea smells kind of like that.
Unsweetened the blood orange is there, but not overpowering, with a tangy berry flavor. I can drink it plain, but the addition of sweetness really brings out the juiciness of the fruit. It is tart & mouthwatering, deeply satisfying! Yum!

This morning before I left for my gig, I brewed a 16 oz thermal cup of this, adding some stevia. Even without any kind of ‘milk’, it was quite tasty & I sipped it throughout my gig. This is probably my favorite chocolate chai, with a nice amount of spice.

This is the 2nd of my Bathtub Teas today, NOT meaning that it tastes like bath water, LOL, but that I drank it while I was in the bathtub, while reading pep talk letters from NaNoWriMo.com on my iPad and breathing in the aroma of Roses & Chamomile. TMI, I know…LOL

This is like drinking c warm cup of spiced butter. I know that sounds gross, & it isn’t. This tea probably has the butteriest mouth-feel of anything I’ve ever drank, and some yummy spices as well. I didn’t really taste much chocolate, but it was a tasty cup!

I sampled this tea yesterday at the London Tea Room (LTR), & it was quite tasty, especially with a little stevia (yes, I carry stevia around with me everywhere I go, & teabags, but you knew that…). The name makes you think it’s just mate & chocolate, but there’s also some puerh in there, adding depth, along with some vanilla & a little coconut. It was good, & it had promise, so I bought some.

Every morning the countertops in my kitchen are clean when I wake up. By evening they are littered with a selection of cups, saucers, miniature bowls, spoons, various brewing implements, etc. Every tea must have it’s own way of being brewed & served (to myself, mostly), & this one is no different. I want a Latte, so I’m using my tall ceramic cup that has its slide on heat absorbing band.

So I brewed 1 Tbl of tea (to make it strong) in about a cup of hot water for 4 minutes with a little stevia, meanwhile heating up some coconut milk (I did not measure it, sorry). Then I swirled them both together in my preheated cup, & yum! It’s nice & creamy, like a mild cup of hot cocoa. I might use even more tea next time, simply because I go for BOLD.

I’ve been spending the evening winding down, & organizing my (always expanding) tea collection. Anything of any quantity is going into a recycled tin (I have SO many!), & I’m making fun labels for them.

I also started a Tea Journal, to keep track of my purchases & trades. It’s been a nice quiet evening, & I’ve been sipping this soothing minty tea while I played with colored pencils & teas, journaled, talked to one of my daughters, & even blew some soap bubbles!

This tea starts with a lemony essence, that gradually gives way to lavender, then spearmint. The Valerian is there, but not cloying, like it can be. I love Valerian, because it has such tranquilizing qualities (what do you think they named valium after?). This tea kind of reminds me of one of my favorites from my Hippy Days. “Nuclear Casual Tea”, made back in the 70’s by Traditional Medicinals, was a blend of Spearmint, rose petals, chamomile, Hops, Rosemary, & Catnip. So the blend is not the same, & neither is the flavor (except the mintyness), but they have the same goal, which is to help us relax & unwind, & that’s exactly what I’ve been doing! Hasta Manana!

Last week I took my granddaughter to London Tea Room, and while I was there I picked up some of this one. I haven’t had it in my collection for awhile, so I’m enjoying a cup along side a couple coconut macaroons. perfect :)

Two of my adult harp students are here practicing together for a duet performance they will be giving this summer. It’s such a treat to have harp music in the background while I’m doing other things! I’m here if they have any questions, but I’m not actively ‘teaching’ at the moment. I’m also enjoying providing a succession of teas for their enjoyment, with the first one being a pot this coconut oolong, steeped in my green 16 oz dragonfly cast iron pot so it will stay hot for awhile, wit 2 little green ceramic cups. I had a cup too, of course, & it really is tasty :)

What to serve them next…

Pleasant, creamy coconut flavor! Sorry, I can’t really think of anything else to say right now!

In the latest version of my ‘Tea Inventory’, which I updated & printed out last night, I made a note in the margins of how many of each type I have (like 34 black teas!). I’m attempting to drink a cup of everything in my entire stash at least once a month, LOL. I tend to play favorites (who doesn’t?), mostly drinking lots & lots of black tea. No more! I’m hereby officially pledging to award equal drinking rights to ALL of my teas. There is one exception: if I serve a tea to a guest, that counts!

To celebrate I went to the farmer’s market, where there was a chick who has her own local tea company, fairly new. I bought 4 1/2 oz samples:
Celtic Cottage Tea – which is an Irish breakfast type – Assam!
Lemon Meringue – rooibos
Peach Melba – more rooibos
Gingerbread – rooibos
Why so much rooibos, after claiming I don’t like it that much?
Basically, I’m trying to get myself to quit staying up til 2am playing my harp, so no caffeine (except puer, which doesn’t keep me up) after…ah…6:00…or so…

I’m drinking this tea & writing this review in response to Nik’s review of Coconut Pouchong. I love coconut!

The scent of the dry leaves is toasted coconut with a hint of vanilla & something sweet. While brewing, I smell that mildly floral oolong base, always so smooth.

While my tea is cooling down enough to sip, I’d like to say that this is my last cup at home this morning, as a group of my adult harp students & I are taking an excursion downtown to have lunch & tea at the London Tea Room, from whence this blend came.

Unsweetened, this tea has a wonderful floral & toasted coconut taste that is smooth & deep, without being overpowering. There is a ‘wetness’ to it that I don’t know how to describe.

A little stevia & I’m drinking a macaroon! I love macaroons, nomnom, they are so yummy, nomnom…

“Hey? Where’s my cup of tea?”
It’s gone!

I made this at Tony’s to enjoy in my bubble bath.
It’s one of his favorites, & although I don’t drink it often, I guess today is the day.
It’s main feature is a bright & juicy orange, with a touch of bergamot, & a lingering grapefruit finish. It’s a little on the acidic side for my tastes, but definitely bright & cheery. The base is earthy, & almost shu puerh-like, so although I’m no expert, I’d say it’s yunnan.
Note to self: send a sample of the to ks

Sipdown!
The first time I ever drank this tea it freaked me out a little, it was too intense. It was like a slap in the face of citrus & bergamot.
It was also Tony’s favorite tea. He took it personally that I didn’t like it, LOL. He can be like that sometimes, but he got over it.
So did I. This tea is very bright & was initially very acidic to me, but it doesn’t seem so bad now. Although it isn’t a favorite, I can drink it, & with sweetening it tastes very juicy with the flavor of orange, & a little bergamot. Unsweet, it tastes more like grapefruit, & the aroma of the dry leaf is more grapefruity than orangy, IMO.
If you can get past the fruitiness to the teabase, it’s actually kind of nice too, with a bready flavor.

In my sippy cup to drink during the first set!
Basically an earl grey a la Orange, plus stevia

Bubble Bath Tea #2 – very juicy, isn’t funny that I used to not really care much for this tea? Now I drink it in the bath tub.
Calgon, take me away…sigh…

Plans are made to be changed.
It appears that the inch or 2 of snow we were going to get, that would have turned to some form of ice later in the day, went straight from snow flurries to ice. Dammit!

As I stood on the precipice of my doorway, debating on whether I really needed to run errands before my massage, Tim (the awesome massage DuDe) texted, “Lets resched, it’s sleetin like a MoFo!” (Yes, that’s really the way Tim talks, LOL).

So there you have it. I’m back in my PJs, sipping a cup of Tony’s favorite. I bought a few oz at the London Tea Room the other day, as I thought it would be a nice one to share with my Steepster book club pals. The funny thing is, I used to not care much for it, but it has grown on me. It’s an earl grey type with the addition of orange. Although they denied it at the store, I think it also has grapefruit in it. I think an addition of vanilla would be nice. It definitely requires stevia. Anyway, it’s bright, acidic, & fills the mouth with the taste of juicy orange (& a little grapefruit), & that flavor lingers, to brighten up a wintery day.

This is Tony’s (my BF of nearly 12 years) current favorite tea, so I’m reviewing it in honor of the fact that he is the most wonderful man in the world. One of the nice things about relationships is that you don’t have to like all of the same things, & this tea is one place where we agree to disagree.

This tea is dark & bold, which is always a favorable quality in my mind. They created this brew in honor of the diamond anniversary of the Queen. It’s a good quality of tea, though a little on the bitter edge, & if you like Earl Grey with a twist of orange, you’ll be in love, because there’s a hefty dose of bergamot here. Tony loves Earl Grey, especially with a slice of orange brewed in the cup, so when he found this on the menu at the London Tea Room, he fell in love! He’s been drinking it every morning since! I’m Happy, because he’s Happy!
I, on the other hand, am not a huge lover of Bergamot. I enjoy the smell, but the taste has an acidity to it that I find uncomfortable. Nonetheless, I drank this cup with a little stevia, & pictured his smiling face. To each their own!

Last night was my 3rd night in a row of not sleeping well, which is highly unusual for me (I generally sleep like a vampire at dawn), and when I did sleep, my dreams were crazy, scary, & disturbing. It’s not the caffeine, as I’m pretty used to the level I’ve been drinking. In part there is the late night blogging to blame, but I’m also having awful allergies, which always makes me feel irritated from head to toe.

So today I thought I’d be gentle with myself & try a fun little experiment, which I’ll call “Peach Oolong – 3 ways”. I had students today from 10am until 4pm, with a few short breaks, so I felt like the day would lend itself to this sort of thing.

Peach is one of my favorite flavors. The Tea of this experiment is a dark green nugget style Oolong (summer?), mixed with pale chunks of peach, cut at roughly the same size as the tea. Dry, it has the scent of under ripe peaches. I’ll confess right now that it isn’t my favorite Peach Oolong, I prefer a more fall-like blend, so I’m not going to attempt to give a rating.

Brew #1: In a cup, 3 minutes, basically the standard brewing I’ve been doing for years. It’s a very light taste of less than ripe Peach with a brightness to it, & a slightly bitter green backdrop. I just remembered that I usually use a Tablespoon, because there’s more peaches than tea, & I only used a tsp. I re-brewed the leaves & the 2nd cup was less peachy, more green, slightly astrigent. When I use a T it is better.

Brew #2: Same as #1, only I added a few drops of Stevia, which really brought the Peach to the for-front, & my mind’s eye saw the color yellow. This was my preferred brew of the three.

Brew #3: I’ve been reading some tea blogs, so I decided to try something different. First, I gave the tea a quick hot rinse, then I went with 6 brewings:
20 seconds – lightly sweet, pale green
15 seconds – I felt clarity, a mild orchid scent, pale apricot essence
15 sec – Alkaline
15 sec – more Tannic, my mouth was really dry…
20 sec – OK….admittedly, at this point I started losing interest…
25 sec – This last one was like really smooth water…

I have to confess, I didn’t drink all the tea in this series. I drank the 20 sec & the first 15 sec cups, but after that I just sampled them. I tried this technique because…well…just to try it. I suspect it is more worth doing with plain, really awesome Oolongs, & I plan on doing so when the teas I’ve ordered arrive. So really, this was just a trial run, I suppose. But worth trying.