The Spice and Tea Exchange

The last of this is being used for a little experiment. I have blended my last perfect teaspoon of this with a perfect teaspoon of Harney and Sons Vanilla black, to see what happens.
It increases the creaminess of the tea. Now that I think of it, why arn’t there more vanilla and chocolate blends?
Well, this is a sipdown for black chocolate. Sipdown!

This is probably the thing that most closely resembles a no frill chocolate tea, and its pretty good! You really do get a dark chocolate flavor. I’m almost done with this, and next time I’ve got a little experiment that I’m going to try with it.
I dont know if I’ll be getting more of this, but I do like it. Its no frills, which is sometimes just what you need.

I got some of this at a Spice & Tea Exchange in Ashland Oregon. I have been questing for good chocolate teas, being a firm lover of chocolate.
This tastes like bittersweet chocolate, which is not a bad thing at all. This is smooth, and rich, and very dark tasting. I like it! Good for days, like today, when my sweet tooth rules my head.
My quest for chocolate teas continue! If you know of a good one, let me know.

This is my final The Spice and Tea Exchange (TSTE) entry in the trilogy purchased by my thoughtful wife last weekend. I hate to see these selections come to an end. The first two that I tried, Black Chocolate and Lapsang Souchong, were simply amazing. Let’s see if TSTE can keep the run alive!

When I opened the zip-lock pouch of black leaves with blue, yellow, and brown specks, a very strong fruity/blueberry aroma was instantly revealed. It was a natural smell, not fake or chemical.

I steeped the leaves at 212 degrees for four minutes as recommended in the instructions on the pouch. The brewed color was a deep amber. A robust blueberry odor gushed from the pot.

My first sip produced a sweet, smooth, and very blueberry taste in my mouth. The flavor was much like the smell: sweet, full, and very natural, without any artificial inclinations. The taste was like fresh blueberries had just been picked and squeezed over the tea. The black tea attribute was in the back of the bus at no disadvantage to the great flavor.

The taste remained delightfully unchanged with all subsequent sips (and then gulps). Bitterness was nowhere to be found. The aftertaste was sweet and fruity. It reminded me of the glass of natural blueberry juice I drank a while back.

I wasn’t that fond of fruity teas as most of the ones I tried seem to have a chemical or perfume-like taste. However, the flavor of this tea was excellent. It was wonderful at breakfast and I’m sure it would be equally terrific at lunch, dinner, or iced. This blend was great enough to make me give the fruity tea category another chance!

To say that I am extremely impressed by the quality and flavor of TSTE’s teas would be a gross understatement. As I mentioned in an earlier tasting note, their selections are somewhat pricey at about $5.50 per ounce. Having said that, I also feel that the quality matched the price. All three of the selections that I tried were absolutely incredible. I may need to send my wife on another trip to the Washington, D.C., area soon! :-)

This is one of my most refreshing summer green teas. I tried to drink 3+ cups of tea a day and this always seems to make my list. The coconut is light, at times subtle depending on how it was brewed.

This tea is excellent in the later afternoon. I also find it extremely refreshing when poured over ice on an especially sweltering day.

After sweet black teas, I believe my next favorite category is smoky black teas. I’ve tried a few Lapsang Souchong teas in the past and liked them all. I was looking forward to trying The Spice and Tea Exchange’s (TSTE) entry in this arena. Their black chocolate tea showed me that they know how to load a tea with flavor.

As I opened the zip-lock pouch of thin black tea leaves, my nostrils were instantly slapped soundly by a potent campfire aroma. It was a deep rich odor that almost smelled like burning hickory wood.

I brewed the leaves at 212 degrees for four minutes (my choice as TSTE does not include steeping instructions). The finished liquor was a deep amber color. A strong smoky smell that reminded me of my Boy Scout campout days erupted from the tea pot and filled my kitchen.

The initial sip shot strong smoky signals to my taste buds at the speed of light. Although quite potent, the taste was also smooth and complete. The smoky flavor of this tea was so well defined and complex that I kept trying to identify the components that comprised it. (I’m still leaning toward hickory wood.) There was no bitterness whatsoever. The flavor of each sip was as full and detailed as the one before. The aftertaste delightfully echoed the great flavor. The black tea taste took a backseat as it usually does with good smoky teas.

This is a fantastic Lapsang Souchong tea with all of the elements that you would want in this blend and more. I will be reaching for this selection in the morning again soon. TSTE’s teas are pricey but I don’t feel cheated.

Sipdown! 77/365

Good – I’d had this one before! Anyhow, I was very pleasantly surprised by the first infusion of it – it was quite lavender-heavy, which of course I adore! There wasn’t much rose to speak of, possibly a consequence of age. However – the second infusion was pretty unpleasant – there was a floral aroma that I absolutely hate coming through (patchouli? I don’t know, it was gross.) Not sure where that came from, or why it wasn’t present in the first infusion. Maybe it takes a bit of time to infuse. Either way, I thought this was good, and then it wasn’t. Sad, but at least the first cup was good.

Pretty sure this one has lost a lot of its floral by sitting for so long… but it’s not too bad iced anyways! Hot-brew and chill method. Thanks to Indigobloom for a sample!

My sweet wife took a trip to the Washington, D.C., area this weekend and I was unable to go. To make me feel better and missed, she picked up some teas by The Spice and Tea Exchange for me while she was in Annapolis, Maryland. Due to my insatiable sweet teeth (a whole mouth full of them), I naturally reached first for the Black Chocolate tea pouch this morning.

The moment I opened the small zip-lock pouch, a powerful and sweet dark chocolate aroma drifted from it. It smelled so good that I was ready to munch on the short black tea leaves without brewing them!

Finding some restraint, I steeped the leaves at 212 degrees for four minutes (no brewing instructions were on the pouch). A dark amber-colored brew was the result. A strong and inviting chocolate aroma floated from the tea pot.

The very first sip produced a full, sweet, and rich dark chocolate flavor. There was no need to search for the chocolate flavor. It exploded against my taste buds like Fourth of July fireworks.

All sips (and then gulps) after the first one remained consistent, smooth, and steady. The flavor was always sweet, chocolate, and delightful. There was no bitterness lurking in the taste, not even a hint of it in the dark chocolate. The black tea flavor was quiet and in the background. Chocolate was the indisputable star of the show.

The hot chocolate flavor of this tea was so luscious that I was tempted to drop a few marshmallows into it. I thoroughly enjoyed this selection at breakfast, but this blend must also be incredible at lunch or dinner for dessert.

This was my first experience with The Spice and Tea Exchange and it was a terrifically memorable one. If you love chocolate (and who doesn’t?) and are a sweet-a-holic like I am, you won’t be able to drink this tea fast enough…or just enough!

This is a pretty decent as a flavored iced tea. Your basic “tropical” fruit flavor with a decent enough generic green base tea. I bought it because the proprietor told me it was her most popular selection. I actually preferred the Mystic Dragon! But both are fine. These flavored greens are the kind of thing I prefer iced, which is perfect for summertime! :)

I picked up 3 teas at The Spice and Tea Exchange on vacation last week. Decided to ice this one up…oh man is it good! The green teas are of decent quality, and the mallow flavor really comes through. I do not get a ton of strawberry flavor from this one, but what I do get is relatively natural and not at all fakey like some flavored teas. I am looking forward to trying my other 2 selections from the Spice and Tea Exchange! :D

I love unintentional surprises!
I forgot I bought this tea last fall during a camping trip to the Smokies. Detoured for a shopping trip in Gatlinburg, TN. I just found it under a bunch of bags of dried beans.
The dry leaf has a nice cinnamon and fruity aroma.
The tea liquor is a deep dark magenta, like pickled beet juice.
The aroma is complex and spicy, mmmmmmmm really lovely.
I was expecting a lot of sour due to the hue and hibiscus but no, it’s rather sweet with a nice spicy background from the cinnamon. I do taste plum and it really goes well with cinnamon. I think that this tea was a great find and I am happy to have a nice rich herbal tea for an evening cup.
I see that several tea companies offer a cinnamon plum blend that I might try as well.
I really like this flavor!

First smell (dry) was awesomely chocolatey. On a second sniff, I noticed something a little smokey. Glance at package “Ah, it’s Keemun.”

Did a 2 1/2 min steep in boiling water. Color is red-brown, smell seems more leathery than chocolatey now. Tastes complex, lots of layered flavors. Malty chocolate with a kind of leathery, scotch-like background.

I dig it, but it’s probably not going to be a repurchase for me.

The dry leaf aroma of this tea is AWESOME! It smells like creamy, lemon-y goodness. Like lemon meringue pie! There were huge chunks of dried lemon in the blend and lots of yellow calendula petals too (which look exactly like marigold petals by the way).

The brewed tea aroma is mostly woodsy green rooibos with a hint of lemon zest. That’s sad. I hope the lemon creaminess returns in the flavor! I really dislike red rooibos, but flavored green rooibos is usually okay. This brewed aroma is making me second guess myself. Time to try it and find out!

Mmm, lucky for me, that lovely lemon creaminess has returned! The green rooibos base is still pretty strong though. But the added flavorings are nice. It’s worth noting that the lemon in this is very natural and zest-like. It doesn’t taste incredibly tart or citrus-y like lemon pulp or juice. It’s definitely more akin to zest.

I’m going to add a tiny bit of Truvia to see if I can make the flavors really pop. Well, it kind of worked. There’s just no way past that rooibos base. :P This is just okay in my book. But I can see how this would be the perfect late night treat for rooibos lovers. At least it won’t keep me up past bedtime. :)

This is one of those teas that gets pushed towards the back of my tea stash and as a result I don’t pick it too often. I think part of this is because I’m not a huge fan of The Spice and Tea Exchange. I LOVE going into their store and I love the little sample teas that they have, but more often than not I get home and steep those cute little samples and I find them lacking in some way, or often with an odd flavor. (Wondering is this could be because they are in a store with so many other prominent scents from the other spices, etc.?) Anyway, I wasn’t too picky this morning and just randomly chose a tea from my drawer and this was the lucky winner. I didn’t have much hope while steeping it, and even made a second container of my old standby tea to take along with me to school just in case I didn’t like this one. I’m happy to say that I was surprised! This isn’t a tea that is bursting with flavor or that has a lot of fun undertones that you want to keep sipping just to figure it out – it’s more of just an all-around pleasant tea. It may be one that I turn to a little more frequently after my unexpected experience with it this morning.

-Dry blend has medium black tea leaves and twigs with a few pieces of dried pears.
-Dry leaves smell faintly of fresh pears. Tea liquor aroma is of strong black tea with a hint of sweet caramel and fruit.
-Tea liquor is a clear medium golden brown color.
-Earthy and malty flavor with a subtle caramel finish. Very light pear aftertaste.
-Best with milk and sweetener.
-Fair tea. Faint flavor of sweet pear and caramel with a light maltiness.

Cold-brewed this one overnight and enjoyed it this morning. Delicious! Sweet, buttery and tastes like wonderful, lovely coconut. No complaints.

This was good, but I found that it had a very mild flavor, which was surprising for something containing cloves! It tasted more like a spice cake (which could be a carrot spice cake, I suppose) than a cupcake to me. Nothing in there to simulate cream cheese or sweet frosting.

I do have to say that it’s an improvement on David’s Tea Carrot Cake, which stunk of artificial perfume. This one actually smelled of the ingredients – mostly cinnamon & clove. It would make a good autumnal tea, with its harvest spices, so it’s interesting that they did a limited release of it during the spring months.

As a side note, what is up with calendula petals in all in my tea?! I was curious about it yesterday, so I did a little research, and apparently, calendula petal is “the poor man’s saffron.” It’s supposed to have a slightly bitter, peppery flavor that can be either tangy or salty, and it’s commonly used in soup stock. Seems like an odd choice for tea, to me! (Not that I think I’m tasting any of those flavors, but that’s the flavor it’s supposed to impart.)

This really does taste like an orange creamsicle. It’s uncanny. The rooibos isn’t too strong, because I hate that, but it is quite strong so it’s borderline. But the orange and cream is very strong and quite lovely. I added a big splash of milk and 1.3 tsp of sugar to my 14 oz mug. Then I added more tea after I drank it because I shared the pot and the pot fills my cup twice exactly but my neighbour who I shared it with has a much smaller mug so I had some left over.

Anyway, this is pretty good. Not something I’d buy though, because of the strong-ish rooibos, but I like it enough to drink the rest of it. Thanks to Pia M for this sample.

we were drudging through historic Williamsburg. my sister and i had run out of things to say to my dad and his wife a few hours ago. we all had a beer to ease the tension. then my sis and i spotted this place! tired of looking at old buildings? go shopping for tea! the tea wasn’t super top notch or anything, but we could purchase small bags of a nice variety and it was super fun to smell all the tea.

this was a sweet little treat tea. thanks oddree for sharing as ALWAYS!

i love tea! i’m so grateful to have it in my life! i know i sound crazy! but seriously. what other simple things are this easy to enjoy?!

now don’t get angry but i did dump out a tiny little tea tin this morning. it was a tiny cup’s worth of root beer tea. my sister wouldn’t drink it and i was tired of looking at it. this Berry White tea was also in the orphan box. (box of teas my sister said she wasn’t gonna drink and mostly they were samples i’d given her cuz i wasn’t gonna drink it either hah) i drank this one again because i had never reviewed it.

[side note: i have a ‘tea purgatory’ and a ‘tea orphan box’. ‘tea purgatory is where i keep teas i don’t have room for in my cupboard yet, and ‘tea orphan box’ is where i keep the last bits of tea that i didn’t really like and don’t wanna try again but there’s just that little tad left] [oh the science of tea organization systems]

it’s very red red pink liquor. and it tastes just like that. it tastes pink. and by that i mean it tastes like it’s hibiscus trying to be a larger variety of berries. but it’s not awful. it tastes kinda festive i guess.

now off off off to mail some swaps! (and then a lame subcommittee meeting zzzz) (but don’t worry i have some watson tea for the meeting so it will be alright i bet)

i drank this yesterday for breakfast. it smells of the most relaxing and loving rose bouquet. it’s currently the only caffinated tea i have in my collection, so i suspect i’ll be drinking a lot more of it until my deliveries arrive.

I am very much in the mood for this kind of tea right now… something milky and creamy. I am really trying to drink more of the tea I have in my collection before buying any more. I’m making progress, but it’s slow progress. I always find that I crave other teas than the ones on my shelves. Anyway, about this cup…

The scent of the brewed cup is wonderful! I detect whipped cream, coconut (of course), a bit of buttery oolong and something like vanilla ice cream. I’m hoping that the scent translates into the taste because I would rate this tea a 95 based on scent alone!
Sipping… not really tasting whipped cream or vanilla.. but more of a green oolong with coconut. I suppose that I expected this, but the scent fooled me into believing that there would be something in addition to the coconut. The first part of the sip is of a very green oolong and then the coconut notes come out. As the cup cools, more of the oolong’s buttery notes appear and the cup becomes more silky.

This is a very solid cup and I think it would be very tasty iced. When it gets warmer, I’ll try an iced version. Thank you, Lindsey for a sample of this tea!