two leaves and a bud

Don’t have that much experience with Assam’s but this tea has a pleasant bitterness and definite maltiness that people are referring to. Very good breakfast tea (to compliment the part of the name) and gives a refreshing “wake-up sleepyhead” boost. Both dry leaves and steeped it smells very enticing.

Another packaged tea that I like more than I expected. Good balance between the vegetal and nutty tones. I prefer loose teas, but would recommend this to someone who prefers to stick with bagged tea.

There is nothing more fantastic than a cup of Earl Grey tea with a bit of vanilla and a bit of (almond) milk. One of my favourite breakfasts is toast with plum jam and a cup of this tea. This particular Earl Grey doesn’t have a really strong Bergamot flavour – I always buy the loose tea and use my favourite mesh ball to steep it. The best part? Amazon carries it with Prime shipping, so whenever I’m running low, I just click the “oneclick” button and more tea magically appears.

Just made some with milk and a little bit of honey. Loved it! Not too overpowering.

I really thought I logged this here MONTHS ago…but…here we go again…

This is alright for a Houjicha. It’s roasty and nutty. It does end sweeter and leaves a slight nutty aftertaste.

Pretty decent :)

Sipdown, 238. This is the last sipdown I will be doing until I get home from this trip, and by then my stash will have grown by an uncountable number of teas. At least I got down below 240 before the trip! My next goal will be to drop below 200, and then I will reward myself with a tea order that I have been plotting for almost two months now.

Today I discovered that there is a small cafe in the courtyard of the building I’m working in, and I got free hot water this afternoon from them in my travel mug. Score! Now I can get an afternoon fix a little bit easier.

Well my hotel had the tiniest “continental” breakfast every (just cereal and coffee), but they also had a machine that dispensed hot water. Score! I made a mug of this to go with me to the collections today. Now it is the afternoon, though, and I could really use another cup of tea, my energy is suddenly flagging a lot. I don’t think there is an electric kettle in the breakroom, unfortunately. I am tempted to run out and buy a milk tea at Asha. I think I can spare the 15 minutes or so.

I made a cup of this for the first time in a long time the other day but it got ruined because I guess my travel mug wasn’t cleaned properly. This time it is clean!

I went to a coffee shop at the airport and ordered a hot tea, but got them to fill my travel mug with hot water and give me the tea bag separate. I was given a choice between two seemingly different decaffinated Tetley tea bags. LOL no. I kindly took the tea bag and then back at my seat and whipped out a sachet of this.

I forgot how pleasant this is. Smooth, malty base, well-balanced citrusy bergamot. These are good travel sachets to have, and they are available at some grocery stores.

Round two of the Earl Grey side-by-side tasting! I’m doing 5 at a time, each tea brewed under the same parameters: in a tea filter bag, for 3 minutes with 205°F water. I dunked the tea filters around to make sure they were getting enough water flow since I don’t usually use them.

This is the tea I drank tons of throughout Argentina, and I almost forgot to include it in the tasting! This round was the more surprising round, as these Earls had very different characters. This was probably the most traditional one, and it holds up as definitely tasty. It’s a well-rounded tea, with a floral-style bergamot (not added florals, but that somewhat floral character that bergamot can sometimes have), with a citrusy aftertaste. This is a Ceylon base but it has a completely different character than the others from the first round. It seems a little different from a very traditional Earl, but it’s hard to pinpoint right now. Overall a top contender.

Usually I don’t try to steep a sachet of this in a single cup of hot water, but I had had it with crappy tea lately so I did it anyway. That combined with a 5 minute steep was too much for this tea, and it got bitter. The second steep was better. I think I’ll have to do a few short steeps in the small (6oz?) cup to use the sachet, but I really need my tea. Only about a week until I’m back to the states and my cupboard full of goodies!

My choices are pretty limited: this or Tower of London, and I have less of Tower of London so I want to save it a bit. I don’t mind, though. When I’m at home I almost never drink the same tea every day, so while I might think “oh I could drink this every day” when reviewing a tea, it’s never put to the test. But you can’t go wrong with a pleasant Earl Grey for an afternoon tea (at least in my mind!)

Mm, afternoon tea. I’m not disappointed that I bought this Earl Grey to bring with me, because it’s quite tasty. When I go through these sachets, I might have to consider picking up some of the loose version of this tea. Very smooth, nicely bergamotty, tasty tea base. It goes without saying that this is much nicer than some of the tasteless teabags I’ve been having lately!

First an earthquake. Then a hurricane. Now a volcano?!?! Ok, so the Chilean volcano has been erupting for months now, but that doesn’t mean that it didn’t just cancel my flight from Buenos Aires to Trelew, Argentina. Sigh. Now I’m booked on an overnight bus, and I’m chilling at a cafe with wifi in the bus terminal until it leaves. What to do but have a cup of tea? I brought sachets of this tea with me to Argentina to have when my tea options were thin. I already had one pot of flavorless argentine black tea earlier today, so I busted out one of these for one. I haven’t tried a lot of the bagged teas in the supermarket, so I took a gamble and grabbed this one.

Perfect for an afternoon pot of tea, served with a bit of almond milk.

I very much prefer Earl Grey with lavender to traditional Earl Grey. I’ve grown just bored enough with the traditional take to seek out blends with other elements; I’m also keen to try Earl Grey with vanilla.

A delightful Oolong. Sweet and smooth. Pleasant floral notes throughout. It starts off sweet, and about mid-sip, there is a slightly sour fruit note that pops in there just to lighten the sweetness a bit. The finish is soft and sweet – the sweetness lingers.

Very nice.

These pearl are top notch! I really liked the flavor last week when I tried them. BACKLOGGING. They are sweeter than most and not funky-floral-bitter or stale like some pearls can get. These are NICE!

An excellent Earl Grey. I really like Earl Grey with lavender, I find that the flowery notes of the bergamot meld very nicely with the lavender. This tea has a very pleasing bold, malty base. The bergamot isn’t perfume-ish here. Full-flavored and smooth, with a sweet finish. Nice!

A lighter Houjicha. Not bad

Backlog: I had some Hojicha this afternoon. So mellow and smooth. One of the best Hojicha teas I think I’ve come across!

Yay! My order from O Pair arrived just now! Just as I was starting to think about what I’d like to have for lunch, my order of the most unbelievably delicious crackers arrived! (You can read my full-length review of them here: http://tinyurl.com/4xgvf3t ) Today, I decided to try these with Hojicha from two leaves and a bud. YUMMMMMM!

This tea is deliciously toasty, with a lovely caramelized sweetness. The toasty notes of the tea bring out the fig flavor of the crackers just a little more. So very yummy. Very smooth.