two leaves and a bud

My favorite morning tea: nice and bold, with a bit of milk and sugar to smoothen it out nicely.

I’ve been drinking this tea relatively consistently in the last couple weeks and I am always happy with it. I love the flavors that come out but since I am still a teenager and my taste buds aren’t fully developed I generally add a bit of milk for creamy and sugar because I do still like sweetness.

Ah-yum. This brought joy to my life this summer working out in Massachusetts. Some proper tea in the morning was much appreciated…good basic EB with a toastiness that is really brought out by a splash of soymilk. (P.S. It’s good to be back to Steepster; it’s been far too long.)

What a wonderful aroma and floral flavor!! A great tea when unwinding after a long day or if you don’t want a lot of caffeine!! Just as great the second steeping!!

I think I prefer dark oolongs like this to the lighter ones, though I enjoy both. I believe this is the first unflavored dark oolong I’ve tried. It has a nice smooth, roasted taste. Thanks TeaEqualsBliss for a nice large sample of this! I feel like this would be good with some spicy Asian food of some kind

Thank you hannaspring for this Sample Tea!

Comfort tea is needed again today.

Colorado has really been through some tough times lately.

First the fires… 2 lives and 720 homes lost.
Now a massacre.
A college student came here last year to go to grad school. WHY did he kill?

Why?…. is one of the themes that runs through life.
“Why?” And, “It’s not fair.”

My children used to say that to me. “Mom, it’s not fair.”
“Yes, Aaron (or Anna), life is not fair and never will be fair.”

Pain, suffering and death does not respect who is inflicted.
In the same way noone complains about an unexpected, undeserved reward. We delight in the good fortunes that arise in life without feeling bad about it .

Today is very sad though. I want to take the opportunity to tell the ones I love how much I value them.

I’ve been drinking Chai for comfort. I like the ginger and the scent.
I picked up the fragrant teabag which was all lumpy with spices…and brewed 3 minutes.
The scent was so full and sweet. I could smell the orange with the cardamom, ginger,clove and cinnamon.
There was a good bite of spice without bitterness.
I added almond milk and sweetening which almost doubled the volume in my mug.
Yum nom as many Steepsters say.
I can see why a large package of these sweet Chai tea bags would be nice to have available for home or to take on the road.
I honestly do like this Chai! A warming hug type of tea.
(I’d love to give more oomph to this review…but I’m in a mood that is too quiet right now.)

Might be a good time to join with all who oppose evil in the World… and lift up the families who have lost loved ones. The people still in the hospital and critical… so many who are in shock.

(I will pray…as the vigils (watchfullness) continue….lighting a candle)

We Steepsters are people who care.

For those who died. Memory Eternal! http://youtu.be/VIxQ_B3Wpzg
(The music is Rachmaninoffs full Vespers…very beautiful…I heard it live 2 years ago.)

I’ve been slowly working my way through a box of this one. I swear this tea smells exactly like soap when you put your nose in the cup. The flavor is odd because there’s lots of things going on in here that seem to be competing, chamomile, mint, lemongrass, valerian, hops, anise, ginger, kind of overkill but the overall effect is relaxing for sure. I just don’t think this tastes particularly good. I’ve been having problems sleeping lately & I’m hoping this sends me off into slumberland, I might even have 2 cups.

I picked this herbal tisane up at Whole Foods a couple of weeks ago but am just getting around to trying it now.

I really like the flavor here and it seems very relaxing – the only downside for me is it’s very minty and peppermint gives me acid reflux sometimes. I like the chamomile, the licorice and the lemon balm. It seems very well balanced and refreshing. I’m not sure I would buy it again due to the strong peppermint flavor but otherwise it’s very enjoyable and will hopefully bring the Sandman by soon. :)

A little disclosure: I have only ever tried this tea when served to me in restaurants. So, I have no idea what temperature the water was, how long the water sat out before they brought it to my table, whether or not the tea bag was stale…basically, there are a lot of variables going on.
Every time I have tried this tea, it was weak and bland. I have steeped it for 2 minutes, I have let it steep for the entire time we were eating, and nothing improved the watery taste. The liquor stayed a gutless pale yellow and the taste, as I said, was flat.
Again, I have no idea if this is an issue with the tea itself or with water temperature or brewing time, but I have been underwhelmed every time.

Wow! This is a very lovely Darjeeling, light, fruity (muscatel!) and decidedly slurpable!

I really enjoy the flavour of this tea, its a little pricey for me but made more enjoyable as it was a gift.

I meant to log this back when I started the box, but failed. Oh well.

It’s mostly pretty grassy, with a bit of butter. Steeps to a very pretty yellowy color. Oversteeping gives it a sharp note somehow, but I’m not sure how to describe it. Not bad, but not good enough that I am going to go buy another box, and I’m not really regretting having finished it. Still, I drank 15 cups of it, so it’s not like I really disliked it.

Thanks again Two Leaves and a Bud for sending me this sample.

I honestly wasn’t a huge fan of this one. It was a little flavorless and the flavor I did get was a mineral like taste. Only once did I get a vegatal flavor but it wasn’t nearly as strong as I would have preferred.

I hope someone else tries this and experiences something better. I have enough for two more cups and will give it a try again and change my steeping perimeters. I hope to get a better result. Until then, this was not my cuppa.

First, I want to say “Thank you” to Two Leaves and a Bud I really appreciate your sending me this tea to sample.

Can I just say “Wow” I was very surprised by this one. It’s rather good actually. It’s light, fresh, and has best lingering note that only occurs in a Darjeeling. I am not sure how to put that flavor into words but I am sure you know what I am talking about.

I’d say try this the next time you want a Darjeeling. :)

I have had a really gnarly cold for the past week or so, preventing me from consuming tea in the way I normally would. In fact, especially toward the beginning of being sick, drinking tea would aggravate the rawness of my throat if I didn’t use an absurd amount of honey (to the point where I might as well be drinking just hot water with honey and no tea at all). So I have been out of the loop in the meantime!

For the past couple of days, I’ve been able to drink a little tea and (mostly) taste it, but it wasn’t until this morning that, upon making a cup of tea, I could also smell it properly. So exciting!

This Tamayokucha is like a breath of fresh air to me right now. It’s a great tea to start with when being able to drink tea once again. It’s mild (overall) and has a nice flavor. While it’s never going to be one of my favorite teas, just now it’s making a very nice impression on me, immediately following over a week with practically no tea at all.

Still a far cry superior to other bagged teas, this is one I would likely bring along with me on expeditions where carrying loose leaf is just not a good idea!

I am going to refrain from adding a number rating to this tea on this note. As I get into this description, you will understand why.

I was visiting family down in Arizona and, while waiting for a shop to open, decided to pop into a coffee shop that advertised fine tea on their sign. I found the tea selection and it was all Two Leaves and a Bud. I was pretty excited because the boxes provided some good information about each tea and it was clear the company knew what they were talking about (and doing). After some deliberation, I decided to give the Tamayokucha a try.

As they were getting the tea ready, I asked them what they knew about the company (since it was new to me). The shop owner looked at me with a blank expression and just informed me, with a question in her voice, that it was the tea company they liked the flavor of best of the options they tried. They didn’t know anything about the company or their tea. But that’s okay. I wouldn’t expect them to know about every brand they carry, but it was a little off-putting the way they reacted to the question.

After a minute, I was handing a burning hot take away cup. Seriously. Even with a sleeve on it, my hands were burning. I also wanted to take the tea bag out early with how hot the water was. I was pleased to see that the bag was a silk pyramid bag with plenty of space for the leaves to expand. I was not pleased to see that the entire bag, string, label and all, were flat at the bottom of the cup. I had to find a way to fish it out and ended up burning myself in the process with how hot the water was.

I had to sit for 5 full minutes without touching it for it to sort of be cool enough to sip. It was extremely disappointing. The tea didn’t taste…. like tea. It was almost buttery and left a weird after taste.

From reading this tale, it’s pretty freaking clear that there were issues with how the tea was prepared and served. Not to mention the fact that it was probably relatively old and may have been a little stale by the time I ordered it.

So this is something I’d like to try again in the future. Perhaps order samples of the different teas the company has to offer and go from there!

this is a nice tea for the current chilly early spring weather. the floral aroma gets me excited to see spring flowers. the dry leaf and brew have a very strong jasmine scent, but the tea is only subtle in jasmine flavor.A little bit of the grassy green tea comes through. The package says to steep for 5 minutes, but that was too long. the tea was too bitter. i’d say don’t do more than 3 minutes. A simple and refreshing tea.

I assume this entry is the same tea that I tried. On the company website, it’s now called “Organic Tamayokucha Green Tea (Light Caffeine).”

For those of you who know me, I scheduled regular write-ins for National Novel Writing Month at Moscow Bagel & Deli when I lived in Idaho. And on those cold November evenings, I would always order a large cup of tea. And I always chose from the selection a teabag of Organic Tamayokucho Green Tea by the Two Leaves and a Bud Tea Company. Why? It was the only green tea I liked from the selection. And green tea, for me, is a familiar thing. It doesn’t become a distraction in of itself when I’m concentrating on something else. This is one of those times when a diva tea is not wanted.

The tea is almost yellow with an aroma and taste that was very mild. There’s no bitter, astringent, or off tastes. It’s green tea, stripped to the most basic. There’s no wow factor, but I think that’s the whole point of its charm. It’s stoic, supporting, and gets the job done.

Recommended for: those scared of strong green teas
Brewing suggestions: 90°C/1 teabag per 1 cup water/steep 5 min

This is another of the generous samples sent along to me by Two Leaves and a Bud recently. Early on, I can say that I enjoy the fact that this has such a mild jasmine aroma. That’s because this isn’t a scented green, but a green with some jasmine petals in with it.

I brewed the tea related to the specifications on the package and I think it was too long. It said 5 minutes steeping (I did closer to 3 1/2 minutes) and I think it was still too long. There’s a weird after-taste that I’m not particularly fond of. Other than that, the tea itself is pretty light. I like that there is very little jasmine flavor… almost nonexistent, yet enough to be able to tell it’s there if you’re looking for it, I guess.

I’m not explaining this very well, am I?

In any case, I think if brewed a little shorter, this would taste better to me, but overall, it’s just sort of “meh” to me.

Thank-you to Melanie for this sample. I just came back from an outing at the local Museum. Venetian Glass by Dale Chihuly for those of you who know him. Fantastic! I have always loved the way light plays on glass (a couple of you live by Orient & Fume in Chico,CA and a few in Seattle where Dale is from). Anyway, afterwards my daughter Annalisa and I went to a Turkish shop for pastry and tea/coffee. She had pomegranite tea and I had Turkish coffee with cardamom. Nice small cup of heavy but good caffeine and semolina coconut honey cake. So good! I was not in the mood for more caffeine at home so decided to try an herbal tea. This Pomi-berry sounded interesting. The dry mix looked like a fluff of fine grass and white dust with some dry apple chunks and a very few pieces of what turns out to be pomegranite. I steeped the herbal tea 3 minutes creating a fragrent blush rose liquor. The flavor is somewhat odd. I could not place it at first. Camphor? No. Ah…now I have it…Lavender. How wierd. Apples, Chamomile, Pomegranite, Lemongrass and Lavender. A bit too odd for me. Not gross but odd. Maybe a roque fairy would like this or a real die-hard lavender lover but I just can’t put this together and say yum… I am glad to try it though!