The NecessiTeas

Note to self: 5 minutes is too long to steep this! The base takes over leaving a hint of popped rice under an astringent black tea. We’ll see how this does when brewed properly because I am sure this is not representative of how this tea actually tastes.

Strawberry milk latte that is actually quite deliciously strawberry flavored. Probably because this is 2 parts strawberry milk to 1 part tea.

Well Black Friday certainly hit my wallet hard but I have 6 tea orders (well 5 orders and a sipsby subscription) on route and one order of clothes incoming. With all that tea inbound, I figure I should get to work on my many teas here. Plus, I recently got Strawberry Milk and I thought this would make for a good strawberry milk latte.

Unfortunately, either my tastes have still not returned to normal following last week/weekend’s sinus infection or this is a muted tea. It’s coming off very watered down. The recommended steeping parameter is 5 minutes and I think this only steeped for 4, which would also be part of the issue but this really is lacking flavor and that seems to have happened before with this tea according to previous notes so I am knocking my rating down from 80.

There was someone who really liked this though.One of the puppies. Sometimes I will give them a little bit of the foam to lick off my finger but today as I drank, a little snoot appeared on the other side of my mug and before I could react a little tongue whipped some foam right off the top.

This made for a pretty subpar smoothie if I am being honest. It is strawberry and…nothing. That’s it, just strawberry. And in light of the milk and all the frozen bits lingering at the bottom of the bag it is a muted strawberry at best.

So I steeped this per the instructions for 5 minutes. Normally I only go for about 2-3 minutes so I was worried this might be astringent but it’s actually really nice. The strawberry cheesecake flavor is distinctive while the base is malty and creates depth. So far I am super impressed with these Necessiteas blends and thank goodness because they are all 2+ oz tins.

In other news, anyone ever play the predictive text game with their phones where you type the first half of your sentence and then let predictive text finish the sentence? If not you should because it’s pretty entertaining. Stupid but entertaining.

Here are a few of mine:

“For Christmas I want a smoothie from the restaurant” – I’m aiming high here.
“All I want for Chanukah is a woman that I will be”
“All I want for my birthday is this one and then that’s it”
“Kris is a good friend because I have no one else”

Sipdown (274)

I was drinking this while working and then ended up getting distracted and walked away from the mug. Then I tried to hurriedly drink it before dinner and noticed that it had an awesome sweet marshmallow and candy cane flavor. Fluffy, soft, and just really nice. I’d get it again.

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY HOLIDAYS ALL!!!

My father arrived today (not for Christmas, but for my brother’s birthday which is also today) with my 12 teas of Christmas from both 52 Teas and Necessiteas. Since I have been following the 52 Teas as Roswell Strange has opened them, I decided to go for a surprise and open up one of the Necessiteas blends instead. I was glad to find this festive blend inside.

This tea is one I have had previously and while I didn’t rate it, I do think I enjoyed it. At least I am certainly enjoying it right now. Necessiteas is great at getting accurate flavors and this is no exception. It definitely tastes like a liquefied candy cane while still being light. I was quite pleased with this morning mug.

Following my experience with the shitty Black Lodge tea, I decided to do something decadent. My plan was to use DAVIDsTEA’s Candy Cane Crush since I knew that was minty and would hopefully help cleanse my pallet. However, I couldn’t find the tin so this seemed like a nice alternative. My plan was to make this as a latte and because sometimes I can be a bit extra, I decided to froth 1:1 chocolate milk to eggnog (as opposed to my standard milk to eggnog).

Alas something is very off here and my guess is the eggnog. The eggnog and the sprinkles I sprinkled on top to make this fancy. That combined with the marshmallow in the tea is making this too sweet…too decadent. And the mint, the flavor I was really looking for has been drowned out. Oops. Today is not my tea day.

My Necessiteas order arrived and I have been sipping on their blends all morning. This I made as an eggnog latte and then tried topping the foam with DAVIDs holiday sprinkles except the foam may not have been able to hold their weight and then a whole lot of sprinkles went into/dissolved in the tea. So, this is sweeter than intended and it certainly didn’t need the added sugar since this is a marshmallow/peppermint blend (YUM!).

Luckily even with the added sweetness this is not cloying. It is smooth and the mint provides a compliment to the eggnog while the marshmallow boosts the creaminess. However, I am guessing this probably is flavorful enough without all the additives so next time I am trying this plain. I will hold off on my numerical rating until then.

Had a rough night. The boys have been sick, Second had a fever of 102 last night. The fevers have gone down, but they’re still cranky today, and I’m tired. I wanted something indulgent so I decided to finish off my sample of this today.

I tried the last of this with milk, and it’s even better this way – sweet, nutty, and creamy! Unfortunately I spilled half of it on the floor. Grrrr. I’ll definitely have to buy some of this eventually.

This is one of the old herbals Teasipper removed from the Here’s Hoping TTB and sent to me. Thank you!

My first though on trying this was that it was very tasty, but definitely didn’t taste like Banana Bread. It has a smooth rooibos base, with a very mild flavor. It mostly tastes sweet and nutty, with an occasional hint of sour in the aftertaste. It’s doesn’t taste artificial or cloyingly sweet like many sweet blends, so that’s definitely a plus. After puzzling over the flavor for a while, I’d say it reminds me of the hazelnut syrup I had last time I was at iHop. It’s quite yummy, definitely something I would consider buying, even if I’m not tasting banana at all. I know these samples are rather old, so that might be part of it.

Here’s Hoping Traveling Teabox – Round #5 – Tea #2
I’m always willing to try any of TheNecessiteas teas! However, this one isn’t on their website so I can’t really tell how old it is. The flavor still seems delicious anyway! It’s more of a syrupy sweet flavor along with some nuttiness that should be walnuts. It’s not fakey banana anyway. I love banana bread! The second steep was also really flavorful – definite walnuts. Not sure how that happens without noticeable walnuts in the blend… A nice smooth and sweet rooibos as well. I’d really love to try more Necessiteas blends. I wish they offered sample sizes.

This a a soft and creamy tea. Nice hay notes with a very light flavour of coconut. Nothing too intense. Enjoyable. Glad to have tried it! :)

Sipdown!

Way too strong on the rooibos! Overwhelming medicinal flavoring. Yikes! I’ll be tossing this in the garbage.

Santea Clause Traveling Tea Box

I was worried this would taste of rooibos, but that doesn’t really appear let alone overwhelm the flavors. Smells very much like the chocolate treat. Mostly minty, a little chocolately, and also creamy. I like this mint-chocolate blend. Perfect for winter.

My leaf may have been old because it didn’t get much from it. I bought it in a mystery box and the seller said some of the teas may be old. The dry leaf is pretty with some coconut slivers, white tea, cornflower and safflower petals. Taste is weak but I am sensing some coconut. I have about 1 ounce so I’ll have to see if I can find something to bring out the flavor a bit more.

Nice relaxing evening drink.Not terribly exciting. I can taste the mint and the chocolate. I really have to try leafing a bit heavier. Helped my wonky stomach and I am feeling a bit better. I think I had a bit toooo much caffeine earlier today. But now I’m all good. :)

Thank you RachanaC (Rachel)-iHeartTeas for including this tea in the mystery box I received from you. The scent of the dry leaves is minty with a bit of chocolate. The taste is balanced and not overwhelmed by the rooibos.

I like my chocolate teas to be a bit more chocolate than this so I added some chocolate stevia. The flavor really blossomed. There are other ingredients mentioned but I’m not sure I taste them.

My tummy was feeling a little wonky so I thought a bit of mint was in order. It worked. I’ll be able to drink it all evening since its a rooibos.

The first reviews of many teas I received from my SIL for Christmas. She works in a small tea shop and totally spoiled me. This one had a lot more Green teas blended-in than I expected, but it steeped more like a White. The liquor was a translucent, light gold colour and brewed beautifully. It wasn’t cream per se, but it was very smooth. The lemon wasn’t too tart. Certainly a tea I enjoyed.

Small Big Traveling Tea Box

I love root beer floats. They are so delicious and creamy and I could eat them every single day in the summertime. So needless to say, I was so excited to try this tea!

This tea has root beer but not really any float. I don’t mind so much, though. I can’t drink soda pop because the carbonation makes my eyes stingy and watery.. so this will be a great alternative for me:D very close to a spot on root beer, just missing a bit of the float. I’m so tempted to throw in a bit of vanilla ice cream in here… :D mm, hello summertime:]

This is a spot-on Root Beer flavor! Very tasty~
I had it warm and it was good but not as good as it is iced (there’s just something about hot root beer that bothers me). The creaminess that I associate with Root Beer Floats isn’t as prominent but you can always add cream. Also, sweetener isn’t necessary but it does make the idea of drinking Root Beer more believable (and enjoyable -especially iced).

This tea has a FANTASTIC aroma right out of the can: very pepperminty and chocolatey. Much of that aroma disappears (or is at least muted) once brewed; once brewed, the minty and chocolatey taste is not as strong as one might thing. (I suspect I over brewed mine, which might explain this.) Good with vanilla or sweet cream creamer, good strong cup.