Unknown

not sure the company, but this is clearly chai (from a round tea bag).

Brewed this tea at the STI tea certification class. Clean, light taste.

It’s been a few days since I’ve logged anything, hmm.

Brewed a cup this morning with a splash of milk and a two teaspoons of sugar. I really should be more generous with tea leaves, I’m always too stingy with them.

It’s loose leaf tea (of questionable quality) that I bought a while ago from a grocery store, and I’m pretty sure it’s ancient. Always a gold bag, and always masala chai, it’s kind of funny.

This was another tea I had at a friend’s house. It is good loose leaf material, with Ceylon and Chinese green tea in it. Not sure whether ginger goes well with green tea or not, it’s definitely good with black tea. I’ll have to try it again. I know I like this tea, but I’m just not sure quite how much

I had a couple cups of this nice bright green tea this morning to combat a winter cold.

So! Attempt #2 at making iced tea for real. The first one was a lemon tea and I did not find it palatable at all. This particular tea came with the iced tea pitcher thing I bought.

Overall…I oversweetened it. It’s not terrible, just very sweet. Well, I’m still getting the hang of iced tea and I’ll know not to put that much sugar in next time. The iced tea pitcher performed admirably. I cold brewed the black tea (one packet’s worth, loose) in the steeper overnight for about…11ish hours.

Attempt #3 coming soon.

My friend came over today and he just got back from a month and a half long trip to Asia! He went to Korea, China and Japan, I’m jealous haha. He brought over a tin of this type of tea to try today, he got it right at the tea farm near West Lake. I’m very pleased that he brought some over for me to try!

I had to look up Longjing tea, and once I found out it was Dragon Well, I was like oh I can figure out how to brew this. So I went on Verdant’s site and looked up the parameters for Mrs. Li’s Dragonwell. We decided to try it Dragonwell style, where you put about 4-5 g of tea in a glass and add the water and just keep topping it up, as that’s how my friend had it in China. First of all, WOW, they know how to pack a tea tin there!! The thing was just bursting with tea, and none of it was broken up, it was all in perfect large flat leaves! The color was a rich, vibrant green, they looked very nice. It definitely smelled like a Dragon well, that nutty green tea scent.

So we made this in the glasses with 175 degree water. The first cup was very nice, but difficult to drink due to the leaves all being at the top of the glass. The next couple of top ups were easier to drink though. Man, the flavor was delicious! Very reminiscent of Mrs. Li’s fall version, the nutty sweetness and a definite sparkling quality. I was super impressed that the leaves never got bitter, even when there wasn’t much water in the cup. I think my favorite steep, in fact, was the last time I topped up the glass. Maybe because I could actually sip without eating the leaves, but it was soo delicious!

I’m not sure what exact farm this tea was from, as I can’t read the Chinese characters, but it was really good. I can’t wait to have it again, he is going to bring it over again to have when my boyfriend is back from working. Yay for tea!

I received this in a TTB that I organized long ago on another site. It was a home blend by one of the participants, made to replace one of their favorite teas when it was discontinued. I picked it for my morning class tea, as I was still craving something sweet. I definitely get the sweet strawberry flavor, its very smooth and creamy. However, I’m getting more of a chocolate flavor than a vanilla flavor. Its still very good, just not quite what I was expecting.

Finished off the last of this! I’m up bright and early to start my EMT course. I’m really excited and nervous, so I wanted a cup to calm me, but I also wanted caffeine to keep me going since it is a 6.5 hour class! I haven’t had much straight black teas yet, so it’s still difficult for me to comment on this. I really need to try more so I can understand the differences between bases and really know what people mean when they talk about Assam, Ceylon, etc.
As for this tea, I added in some interesting almond and cashew cream that I found at the store and thought would be fun to try. This is smooth and not bitter or astringent at all.

I’m sure I’ll regret this caffeine later, but for now, oh well! I was craving a tea with milk, so I decided to try this. Unfortunately, I let it go for about six minutes! It was bitter, so I had to sugar it up to make it drinkable

Enjoying my last of this sample from Rie

It’s definitely one of the better green oolongs that I have had. Too bad I can’t order this one :(

This was a bonus sample in my swap from Rie. Thanks!

I really am starting to appreciate green oolongs more than I used to. They aren’t my favorite teas, but I think I can be in the mood for them sometimes and might even keep a few in my regular stock.

I brewed this one western style as I didn’t have a lot of time, but it came out pretty good. It has a very delicate floral aroma and a creamy texture. I think when it comes to flowers, as long as they aren’t jasmine and they aren’t slapping me in the face, I can appreciate them in my tea.

Rie tells me that her family brings this tea back from Taiwan. I suppose I’ll have to find my own source for a good Gaoshan oolong if I want any more.

Digging through my basket of samples/swaps. I think I must have received this in a swap. No idea from who, or what it is.

It steeps up a super dark red colour, there are some apples & a huge blackberry in it.
It’s sweet & tart & maple like. It’s quite good, & would probably be fantastic iced. Just wish I knew what it was.
As it cooled it was super tart, it could have used a larger mug with more water.

but overall a nice surprise.
I’m pretty sure there was maple in here, because this morning the infuser was stuck to my counter.

So I got this tea in a little baggie from one of my coworkers a while ago and while I have almost no idea what’s in it (besides some sort of chocolate flavour, almond slivers, and whatever those little round red balls are (peppercorns?)). It’s got more ingredients than that, but I’m not going to go tasting each one to figure out what it is. I’m just going to steep this in my Breville. Made a wild guess at steeping parameters.

This really smells very chocolatey along with some other dessert-y flavours that I can’t identify very well. Caramel perhaps. Something else, definitely. The taste doesn’t really live up to the smell at all, even with a bit more sweetener than I normally use, still not sweet. The initial aftertaste is quite nice, though it fades very quickly. I think this is going to be a quick drink after the second cup cools down as I can’t see myself sitting here and savouring it. I have about a cup’s worth left, I think, so this is not a sipdown of…whatever this is.

I wanted to log this because I drank it and I think that’s important, but I really have no clue what this is.