Various Artists

Finishing up Kusmi’s Troika by blending it with Harney & Sons’ Earl Grey Supreme.

Troika obviously got buried by the Supreme, but I’m ok with that. I love the way it turned out strong with bergamot, but also with a malty, bready flavor supporting the fruitiness. Kind of like marmalade on toast.

Again, I know he’ll never see this, but I’m sorry, Marcus! :<

Didn’t have enough of Friday Afternoon Tea’s Courtesan Blend for a second pot, so I used what I had left and blended in Constant Comment for the rest, 2:1 ratio.

This is a huge improvement. Sorry, Friday Afternoon. The orange peel just makes it so much better.

Finishing up my sample of Harney & Sons’ Cranberry Autumn. Didn’t have enough for my daily work tea, so I used Joy’s Teaspoon’s Plum Crazy to fill in the gap. It was about half and half, I’d say.

The result is predominately plum in the scent and taste. The cranberry does come through, as does that raspberry leaf flavor, with the faintest whisper of orange peel. Even with 4 tsp at 3:45, this comes out kind of weak. I need to remember that I have to make Joy’s Teaspoon teas like Early 20’s Tabby would, who always overleafed and oversteeped.

Finishing up Harney & Sons’ disappointing Chocolate. I had almost enough for my daily work tea, but I filled in the remaining gap with Joy’s Teaspoon’s Cinnamon Roll. Sort of a 3:1 ratio.

The cinnamon doesn’t really show up. This is still a tea that tastes like chocolate alcohol. Good riddance.

Finishing up Fortnum & Mason’s Assam Superb, but I didn’t have enough, so it’s 2 parts Assam, 1 part Darjeeling. Still working on whittling the sampler down.

This is an improvement from the plain assam, I think. I can’t really taste the darjeeling’s muscatel flavors, but it keeps the assam from being so dang strong.

Using up my sample of Kusmi’s Anastasia in an effort to make my Cupboard one page again. Slowly but surely, I’m getting there.

I used one part Anastasia, one part Harney & Sons Earl Grey Supreme. The lime notes from the Kusmi tea are present but nearly buried beneath the Supreme. That doesn’t matter much, though. This is still a hearty, lovely cup of Earl Grey.

One part Made Of Tea’s Bai Mu Dan, one part TeaSource’s Hunan Silk, one part Joy’s Teaspoon’s Plum Crazy. I basically made a melon/plum black/white/green mess in order to use up the last bits of a few things. Just tidying up the tea corner.

It came out light tan and smelling more like melon than anything else. Same goes for the taste. It’s actually pretty delicious! Sweet melon with notes of plum, backed up by a light white/green tea flavor. The teaspoon of black tea is pretty much lost. This tastes like what Arizona’s fruity green teas should have been. Kinda sad this was a one-time thing.

Couldn’t decide between Spicy Pear or Spicy Apple by Joy’s Teaspoon, so I made a half-and-half pot. Tasty fall harvest tea.

Finishing up Kusmi’s Prince Vladimir. One part of that, two parts Constant Comment. Clovey, orangey, with a little bit of cinnamon. Perfect for the day before Thanksgiving.

Two parts Teapigs’s Darjeeling Earl Grey and one part Harney & Sons’s Earl Grey Supreme. Made this just to use up the Teapigs EG, the last of my Pick ‘N’ Mix.

I just noticed I reviewed the Teapigs EG seven years ago and had completely forgotten about it. Not that that really says anything about it — I’ve tried hundreds of teas and I’m sure to forget some along the way.

Anyway, I can just barely taste the darjeeling notes over all this bergamot. But that doesn’t really matter to me. This is still a very satisfying, restorative cup.

I made this with 1 part White Tea With Apple and Holiday Spice by The Steeping Room, 2 parts Harney & Son’s Cranberry Autumn. I had bought Cranberry Autumn recently for nostalgia’s sake. I haven’t had it in a few years and wanted to see if I still liked it.

I used the white tea’s parameters and the result is just kinda ok. It’s lighter than a black tea, with notes of raspberry leaf. The apple is faint, mostly hiding behind the cranberry. There is the tiniest bit of cinnamon warmth. All around, this is weak and smells a lot better than it tastes.

My original plan was to blend the white tea with Constant Comment. I should have done that.

Mixed two parts Fortnum & Mason’s Assam Superb and one part David’s Tea S’mores Chai. I was mostly just trying to use up that mediocre chai. Went with a short steep time to try to accommodate the Assam. It worked pretty well, too! The smoky notes and bitterness kind of disappeared. And the chocolate flavor is not drowned out by the Assam at all. I can still taste graham crackers, too.

I blend my teas all the time and almost never record it to Random Steepings. I’m going to change that!

I call it Mango Shortcake.

One part Harney & Son’s Mango black tea, one part The Tea Table’s Bourbon Sunday Blend. It smells like sweet vanilla cake and preserves. So fruity and yet so creamy. I had it hot, but I can’t wait to try it iced. I wonder if I could blend something like this on Adagio.. hmm…

Last Sunday I got a (fairly large amount) of some black tea from Azerbaijan from a friend of mine, who in turn got it from someone who visited Azerbaijan a while back. There is not much information on the box, but the tea is from Lankaran region. Unfortunately, the production date is unknown.

It has a somewhat unusual dry leaf aroma of cigars, peat, prunes. The wet leaves have a similar scent with further notes of motor oil and some more fruity ones.

I am a little surprised how smooth the tea is given the broken up leaves, I was expecting more astringency. Instead, this is a pleasant sweet, woody and fruity black tea with very little (if any) bitterness or astringency. I suppose the smoothness might be partly a result of it being aged (i.e., old). The profile does remind me of a mix of some Georgian black tea I had with a 7 years old purple varietal black tea from Dehong I had recently. The aftertaste is quite sour and has notes of cedar wood, leather, and cookies. It has a decent longetivity and evoves into a sweet one. I also seem to get some body warming sensation from the tea.

I was not expecting much from this tea, but it turned out both a bit unique and very much drinkable. I just wish I had just a bit information about it.

I wasn’t going to drink any more tea today, being the evening and all. But watching a documentary film about sexual abuse of children by priests in Poland made me sick (I couldn’t finish it tbh) and decided to brew up a tea labelled as 2013 Ban Zhang I received from Liquid Proust.

The tea is good…

Song pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNCw9ON4eeo

Today while packing I was drinking another tea from the group buy conducted by Liquid Proust. This one was a semi-aged sheng labelled as “Dat TW stuff”. It was an interesting tea to try for sure, especially given my lack of experience with aged pu’er. I suppose this particular one has seen a relatively humid storage, but I can only guess given the information I have.

The tea was very strong on the camphor and mint notes, but also had a lot of fruity ones. In particular, I noticed plums and, surprisingly, also orange. The orange note completely escaped me initially, but once I noticed it, it captured my attention.

The most memorable aspect of this tea was the qi for sure though. Super dreamy and no rushy feeling. I was drinking the tea from flask also in the bus on the way to the airport, with mist and hail outside, listening to some vaporwave music and it channeled me into pretty eclectic lucid dreams, while also making me feel relaxed and in-peace-with-the-world.

This morning I pulled out one of the teas from the recent Taobao group buy organized by Liquid Proust. On the label it says “Black cake”, which is the only information I have besides the tea itself. Of course, that much I could extract by looking at the leaves anyway :D

Judging by the spent leaves, this is made from older leaves than the standard hong cha production. They are large and stout with thick stems. They remind me of either mid to small sized huangpian leaves or the kind of leaves you would see in Taiwanese oolong production.

The tea turned out to have more longetivity as a result as well. From the 3g, I got 10 infusions of 50ml, but I probably could have gotten one or two more, judging by the fact that some leaves didn’t properly open up after that. Another interesting feature is that the tea can withstand high temperatures very well and in fact needs close to boiling water after steep 6 or so.

The taste is not too pungent, but quite nice. I found the profile to be similar to some pour-over coffee. There is a floral quality that’s common in sun-dried black tea as well as the roasted, tannic and a touch fruity flavour. However, it is sweeter than coffee, even though less so than other black teas. Compared to those, there is more bitterness. I also noticed a tobacco note on top of those. The aftertaste is again not strong, but lasts long. It is drying and reminds me of peach skin.

The mouthfeel is not too interesting, but the relatively light body makes it easy to drink. There is some cha qi too, mostly caffeine like effects I’d say.

Today I am having ripe pu-erh by Pinky Out that I pulled out from the Discovery TTB. Despite being sick, I can tell the tea has a pungent smell that’s very pleasant. It seems that it requires longer steeps than what I am used to with shou. It has a very good body though. Once I tasted it, I felt that there is something missing in the higher notes, which are there but give way very quickly to the earthy/savoury ones. Therefore, after two washes and two infusions, I added some orange blossoms, which complemented the tea very well. I have a feeling it works better than chenpi which is usually used, at least for this particular tea.

[Some zheng shan xiao zhong I received from a friend]

Starts of very light with strong smell of longan fruit and fermented apricots. The fruitiness is definitely present in the second infusion’s taste, which is also more crisp and medium to full bodied. There is some coffee bitterness and in the smell I noticed nettle, strangely enough. Third infusion has more sweetness, akin to sweet potatoes. Starting from fourth, but especially in fifth infusion, astringency appers fully, changing the mouthfeel again.

I feel like this is a fairly unusual black tea, it reminded me of the “Longan Nectar” oolong by Taiwan Sourcing, but it is more sweet and not quite as fruity as that one.

Last night I drank a sample I got from Liquid Proust, labelled only with “1998 dry-stored xiaguan”:

1 rinse, smells like smoke and forest

5 mississippis: smells overwhelmingly smoky, tastes like smoke and the way tobacco ash smells and light bitterness, what the heck is this stuff oh hey the aftertaste gets cool fast. I like this and don’t understand why.

10s: More distinctly charcoal smell and initial taste. I just found myself singing “what the f***… is this s**t? I don’t understand / but I think I might be happy!” I feel the charcoal down my throat. It’s lingering for ages, coolness in the throat and light charcoal breath on the exhale.

15s: Mostly same, except I think there’s something else trying to peek out from behind the charcoal, I just can’t figure out exactly what it is. Some sort of dark fruit, maybe?

20s/25s: I feel like I’m drinking the fire out [under the open grill at my parents’ beach house] once it’s down to smoldering coals and [my grandmother, who passed away a few years ago] is just sitting there watching the corn husks blacken into the night.

30s: A trace of something lively is coming in. I don’t think it’s bitterness? More of a texture thing maybe, a very mild astringency. This is not a sneepy tea despite its age – this is an alert tea. Not manic, just alert. Wish I’d tried it in a morning instead, but 20 years old felt so safe for late at night!

35s/40s: Smelling something.. sweet?… peeking out. Wat. Maybe straw? But not quite. God I’m so confused. The smoke has receded a bit.

45: A bit simpler. Back to tobacco maybe. Bet I could push it much further, but I gotta get to bed and it’s already been a lovely journey, full of charcoal and happiness. I really wish I could buy more of this, but it’s basically a mystery sample.

Rating: 88

Oof, getting into the “Random Steepings” entry is a true testament of willpower…

I received this Grecian Mountain Tea as a gift from Meowster, which arrived with the items I’d requested in a cupboard destash a few years ago. As I recall it was a hand-labeled bag with some Greek writing on it, so I have no idea the company/source (other than it probably came directly from Greece). At the time, I had never heard of Grecian Mountain Tea, and I really enjoy learning (and trying!) new things. The herbs in the bag were so huge and soft, and have a delightful scent that is sort of like a cross between citrus and hay.

I never know how much to use because of the size of these things, so I just stuff as many as I can fit into my corn fiber fillable tea bag. The tea brews up a delightful golden color and smells even more wonderful brewed; oddly enough, I get a caramel apple aroma, as well as honey, lemon citrus, and a slight herbaceous aroma. I don’t think I’ve ever smelled a straight herbal infusion quite like this.

I love the flavor of this! I know there are people who say they get an apple note from chamomile (I never have… I just get a blech-yuck note from chamomile!) but I am definitely tasting apple in this. It also has a honey sweetness, and a slight florality, a touch of citrus, and very subtle notes of hot hay and mint. Mostly I’m getting honeyed apple and sweet flowers.

Thank you so much for letting me discover such a wonderful tea, Meowster! I will happily enjoy this in the evenings, and when it’s gone, I’ll have to look into where I can acquire more.

The Great Un-Steepstering of 2020 Review #11 (08/25/20)

Rather than adding a bunch more individual entries to the (already giant and slow) database when these dry herbs essentially taste like what you would expect when you steep them in water (What, you mean lavender tastes of lavender and ginger tastes of ginger?! Stop the presses!), I’m going to collect these all here since I’ve been using my loose plain herbal infusions stash in a few different ways I want to document.

Culinary Lavender by Silver Fox Lavender Farm

As a bonified lavender fan, this is the one I’ve gotten the most creative with so far. I bought quite a bit from a stall at a Farmer’s Market in Boise (yay supporting local farmers!) so thankfully I still have quite a bit of lavender buds still in-house.

My first endeavor was making lavender-infused hot cocoa by following the recipe here (https://www.teatulia.com/recipes/earl-grey-hot-chocolate-mix.htm), only the portions were so huge (I ended up giving bags to both Todd and my sister!) that now I have copied down versions of it not only halved, but halved several more times from that, down to getting nearly a “sampler size” portion. It’s basically a way of crushing the buds in a spice grinder and mixing them with sugar and cocoa powder for hot chocolate, and the stuff is delicious!

In the winter months, hot lavender lattes are a favorite. I’ve found my favorite way to do them thus far is a half gram of buds per 1 metric cup (a little seems to go a long way!) steeped in 3 parts hot water for 3-5 minutes, then I heat/foam 1 part coconut milk, and mix together with a small dollap of Farmer’s Market honey. I really like the flavor combo of the lavender with the coconut milk! During the summer, I like to cold steep plentiful teabags of it in lemonade, as the lemon/lavender flavor combo is another favorite!

I’ve also been using it to make my own deodorizer spray for the house. I steep a strong infusion (usually a heaping teaspoon of buds in half a cup boiling water), then let the brew cool some, and put it in a small spray bottle with a teaspoon of lemon juice and top it off with water. Makes a nice air spritz and I keep a bottle near every litter box; completely natural and doesn’t bother the kitty!

Ginger by Starwest Botanicals

I’ve been using this almost exclusively to make flavored white rice! While the water for the Minute Rice was boiling, I’d put several teaspoons of the loose ginger in teabags and let them steep in the boiling water, remove the teabags, then add the rice and let it “soak up” the ginger tea to make a lightly ginger-flavored rice. I found the ginger-flavored rice extremely easy on my GI system on days when I was having issues with it due to migraine. As such, I used up my bag I brought home from a co-op on a vacation in San Franciscio quickly. I need to restock!

I also liked mixing this with the hibiscus flowers 50/50 to make a throat balm when I was starting to get a sore throat/cold… the hibiscus was full of that strong Vitamin C hit that I wanted in the early stages of a cold, while the ginger provided the throat balm, and I liked the taste of the two steeped warm together.

Hibiscus Flowers by Starwest Botanicals

I imagine I’m the only person on Steepster who willingly owns (or rather owned… I’ve now used them all up!) plain ol’ hibiscus flowers. My main use was a generous heaping teaspoon per cup cold steeped overnight in lemonade, which gave the lemonade a noticable sort of “raspberry lemonade” sort of flavor that I really liked! I also used them for the 50/50 hibiscus/ginger throat tea for colds, mentioned above.

I guess I had used up way more of my stash than I had thought, because I wanted to experiment with these in Sprite after reading about VariaTea doing so, and I had bought two different bottles of Sprite (traditional and a ginger one… I didn’t even know they made that!) but I had hardly any leaf left! I put a teabag into a tall glass of Sprite, and my findings were that other than turning the Sprite red, it really didn’t change the taste at all. At about halfway through the glass, the Sprite finally started to have a slightly “red berry/punchy” taste to it, but it was still pretty subtle against the flavor of the Sprite itself. By that point there was a) a lot less Sprite in the glass and b) the hibi teabag had been steeping for quite some time, so I guess to get any effect against the sugars/flavors of the Sprite I would’ve needed to use a lot more raw hibi leaf, and also probably done an overnight coldbrew of it. If I restock my leaf (this was another I picked up at the San Francisco co-op, and I can’t easily restock it locally without ordering online), I will have to try that out.

Peppermint by Frontier Co-Op

I had a lot of plans for this… I wanted to infuse cocoa with it, like with the lavender, to make mint cocoa as gifts at the holidays, which never happened, since I ended up using it up just making plain ol’ mint iced tea to soothe my tummy during bad GI attacks for my chronic migraine condition. The last of this from the San Francisco co-op ended up in a big pitcher and is currently in the fridge, and has been going into smoothies, mixing with the smoothie ingredients to leave a lovely fresh, minty taste! This would be nice to restock since I would still like to try out the cocoa idea, but since cheap, bagged mint tea alternatives are easily available here to make iced mint tea for the tum-tum, it isn’t as high of a priority…

Red Rose Buds and Petals by Starwest Botanicals

I still have quite a bit of this left from the San Francisco co-op haul. I have made one batch of rose-infused cocoa, which was just as lovely as the lavender, and have also used it to cold steep in lemonade, which I also really enjoy! I think I may try making another batch of rose lemonade and adding that to fruit smoothies in the future, or if I use up one of the spray bottles of lavender deodorizer and want to switch it up, I may fill one with a rose deodorizer next time.

Portland Teacation #3: Tea Fest PDX

The Saturday of the Portland half of our trip was spent at Tea Fest PDX, and we were there all day, from 9 am to 6 pm. I had only been to one tea festival prior to this one, which was the San Francisco International Tea Festival 2018. Compared to that one, I liked this venue much better (the SF one was super crowded and didn’t allow in/out priveledges, which I had major issue with); this took place at the Forestry Center in Washington Park and there were two different vendor areas, and a building/gazebo for the events. They also had some food options available and there was some seating around. My feet still got thrashed, but there were way more rest areas than SF had. (I have heard that the SF Tea Festival for 2019 moved venues and took care of the issues I had from attending in 2018, so I’m glad for that!) On the downside, unlike the SF Tea Fetival the freebie bag only had a sampler cup in it, but not a bunch of free tea samples. Of course, I have plenty of tea at home and getting to sample from 51 different vendor booths, I wasn’t all that bothered by this (and I actually made it home with my Tea Fest PDX sampler cup… someone stole mine at the SF Tea Festival!)

My memory isn’t as great now, but I will try to recall some of the booths/events that left an impression on me.

Events:

A Discussion of Pu’erh – A free event that Todd and I attended. I recall enjoying it at the time (pu-erh is one of the teas I don’t drink very often and was happy to learn more about) but don’t recall much about it now…

Tea Blending and Tasting Demo – This was a paid event Todd and I attended. The owner of T Project gave a talk about how she does her custom blend small batch teas, and we got to sample three different teas during the event. She also provided a free take-home sample.

Tea, Tourism, and Social Change – A free event that Todd and I attended, and the one of the three events we went to during the Tea Fest that left the biggest impression on me. The owner of Nepal Tea gave a really good talk about how his family started growing tea in Nepal and turning it into a business, how he uses his tea business to help make social improvements in his country, and how he “winged” a tea tour of his farms for tourists where they get hands-on experience working alongside his staff to harvest the tea plants and see all the steps in a very personal way, and how the model worked so well he’s continued to do it as a way of educating about tea and also bridging cultures. Free samples of Nepalese teas were provided during the talk. It was excellent, and I ended up naming my cat “Chiya” when I learned the Nepalese word for tea from this presentation and thought it sounded like a cute name!

Vendors:

Jasmine Pearl Tea – I really enjoyed the Black Wolf flavored pu-erh sample at this booth, which is why it ended up on my shopping list when I visited their flagship shop the next day! It had lovely cocoa and tangy berry notes, reminding me of a fruity dark chocolate from South America.

Minto Island Tea/Oregon Tea Traders/US League of Tea Growers – These were booths of US grown tea (Minto Island is grown outside of Salem, Oregon!) I not only enjoyed what I sampled (Minto Island had a nice iced green, and the Oregon Tea Traders/US League of Tea Growers had a black and oolong on sample from a farm in Mississippi, as I recall), but all the great information these booths provided to me, as this is a topic I’ve been considering covering in a library panel at some point.

Prana Chai – Really amazing sticky chai (there are both honey and agave versions!) from an Australian company. I really enjoyed the mint one, which included peppermint leaf in the sticky chai mix.

Tao of Tea – Probably the most interesting booth visually, as they created a “carnival” look with little minigames you could play (moving different objects with chopsticks, spinning a lottery wheel to “win” free teabag samplers, etc.) They had clay cups to sample their chai from and after drinking you smashed the cup while “making a wish” which was oddly satisfying. I drank up all the freebie teabags they had (a hibiscus herbal blend and a green tea blend) last summer making iced tea before my house move!

PDX Tea – The booth on the vendor floor run by the organizers of the event, where I got to sample a steeping of pu-erh that — if my memory recalls — may have come out in the 1990s. It was a fun experience (despite how crowded this booth was!)

Esteemed Tea Collective – I remember visiting them at the SF Tea Festival, but what struck me is that they remembered me and how big my tea collection was, hahaha! I ended up buying an ounce of Honey Black Oolong after sampling it at their booth, it had such a sweet and smooth taste!

Yaupon Brothers American Tea Co. – I was excited to see a yaupon vendor because I had yet to ever try it! I recall Todd really loved their Florida Chai, but I really loved the Lavender Coconut blend.

Qi Fine Teas – This booth had one of my favorite green teas that I sampled at the festival; they prepared it iced and it was so smooth and refreshing! Looking at their website, I believe the tea was “Cold Beauty Cold Brewed Green Tea from 90-100 Year Old Wild Tea Trees.”

Japanese Green Tea Co. – This tea just barely edged out the Chinese green I sampled at Qi Fine Teas as my favorite of the festival (and definitely my favorite sampled sencha!) It was called Issaku and had a more natural sweetness to it because they grow the tea with sugar beets. I’m pretty sure both Todd and I ended up going home with a canister of it.

Ringtons Tea – I have actually never seen this British bagged tea company before; I really loved the Berry & Elderflower herbal.

Modern Steep – This booth had a tea very similar to a past Bird & Blend tea that I really loved (the B&B one had rooibos, cocoa shells, lavender, and coconut). Since B&B pulls their blends and you never know when (or if) they will reappear, I quickly grabbed their Coconut Lavender Rooibos. The main difference to the B&B blend is it is a rooibos/honeybush blend and instead of cocoa shells it has cinnamon, but I’m hoping it’ll quench that thirst.

SAKU Tea – This company makes powdered latte blends and they were all amazing! I remember enjoying all the flavors I tried at their booth, but particularly liked the Golden Chai (a golden milk mix) and the Ruby Cocoa, a beetroot/cocoa with spices.

Astoria Tea Co. – This booth had the most unique herbal offerings, as they had a lot of Russian herbs I had never heard of or tasted before. I believe I had Russian Chaga and Russian Ivan Chai (made of a fermented willow plant) and the Ivan Chai had such an interesting flavor. I enjoyed it, but fail to try to describe it… I wish I’d picked some up now!

Kinglet Tea – This company made their own bottles of chai concentrates, made to be mixed with one part milk and had iced, and they were very good!

Aesthete Tea – I sampled their Love Potion black tea at their booth, a blend of Assam black tea, rose, caraway, and fennel. I loved the flavor combination but went home with a bag of the herbal version, La Vie en Rose, which replaced the black tea with tulsi.

There were tons of vendors (51 different vendor booths!) so I only noted a few of the ones that left a notable impression/stuck out in my mind. It was a great tea festival and I would love to attend again!

Portland Teacation #2: Portland

The second half of the vacation Todd and I relocated from the coast to Portland; the Tea Fest PDX was in town that weekend, which I’ll write-up separately. Here are some of the teas I recall trying in Portland, on the days we had available around the Tea Fest.

Steven Smith Teamakers: I have always wanted to visit their shop, as I’ve tried (most) of their teas and always enjoy them. In shop I got their “specialty” tea which was limited, Snowfield Oolong, which was served gong fu style. It was a nice high mountain Taiwanese oolong, with a strong florality (especially for lilac notes), butter, and vegetal notes like spinach and asparagus which came out more pronounced in later steeps. It was silky and gave me a lot of energy late in the afternoon when I was starting to feel very run-down. I also picked up a bag of Rose City Genmaicha and Big Hibiscus, two of my favorite SST blends. I was, however, disappointed that even at their flagship store, you couldn’t purchase loose tea “by the ounce” and still had a buy a pre-packaged 4 oz. bag like on their website (I hate having that much of one tea, which is why I stuck to things I like making iced, which uses a lot more leaf…)

Tea Chai Te: I love Tea Chai Te and pretty much have to visit them when I’m in Portland. Sadly, my stomach was feeling a little upset after my Japanese dinner followed by quite a bit of Salt and Straw ice cream (which is just next door to Tea Chai Te) so I wasn’t feeling up to really drinking through a pot of tea. Todd got a pot of Lavender Sunset (a tea I’ve had before, you can find my past review for it here: https://steepster.com/mastressalita/posts/374606 ) and I shared the pot with him, it is one of my favorite lavender teas and was very relaxing. I also purchased a few loose leaf bags while in the shop: Market Spice black and Market Spice rooibos (I have a horrible nasal spray migraine medication and the strong cinnamon “Red Hots” spice note of those teas helps combat the absolutely awful taste the medicine leaves in the back of my throat), and Tangerine Dream (reviewed here: https://steepster.com/mastressalita/posts/371883 ).

Southeast Grind: A little spot we stopped for breakfast before Tea Fest PDX to have bagel sandwiches and tea. They carried Tea Chai Te tea, so with my stomach feeling much better, I was able to sample one I haven’t tried before, their Northwest Breakfast blend. It was a very good breakfast black tea, with a cinnamon brown color and aroma of malt and citrus, with flavor notes of malt, citrus (I picked up both lemon and orange), and cinnamon spice. It was very clean with a light astringency.

Jasmine Pearl Tea: I was a little sad that this tea shop, which I had always wanted to visit, didn’t have a cafe portion to order tea and had no seating, and by this point in the trip (a day after Tea Fest PDX) my plantar fasciitus was so flared up I was dying to just sit down. They would make something behind the counter for you to sample (a tall counter, which you have to stand at…) I tried the Benifuuki Japanese black since I had never had one before, and though I enjoyed it, I opted not to purchase it since it was a bit more expensive. Todd had a houjicha instant powder mixed in oat milk, which was also quite tasty (he ended up buying a bag, since the houjicha powder is dairy-free there; I have some but mine came from a Japanese grocer and has dairy in the powder). I did buy several bags of tea here that I have yet to try (though one I picked up I sampled at the Tea Fest, so I know I enjoyed that one!) I got their French Breakfast, Black Wolf, Dancing Dragon, and Kashmiri Chai.

Tao of Tea: This was their cafe location in Portland (on a previous trip I sampled them inside the Chinese Gardens). This was the one staggering hot day of our trip and by that point in the afternoon I just wanted iced tea… I can’t remember which black tea they used from their line-up to make it, but I know they added fresh mint leaf and some kind of coconut sweetener and it was very good and refreshing, especially with the matcha ice cream I ordered. I was all about cooling down at that point!