Various Artists

I cheated on my tea tonight and had a homemade old fashioned chocolate soda.

Knocking out another Design A Tea single serve sample. This one is orange spice. I could swear I had this one before but maybe not.

Orange and spice in black tea is one of my favorite flavor profiles. It also reminds me of the holidays. Remember when you were a kid and you would stick whole cloves into oranges to make a decorative and great smelling thing to hang up at Christmas? The first smell of this leaf reminded me of that.

There were whole pieces of orange peel in there, and that was nice too. The flavor of the tea is fine, I get more clove than anything, and it’s a bit astringent at their suggested 4 minute steeping time (although the tea isn’t terribly strong). It’s another itty bitty tea packet out of the basket though, so it feels like progress.

Today’s random tea was another Design a Tea creation: pineapple orange oolong.

It was also my first oolong.

I was surprised at the quality of the leaf mixture. There were pieces of pineapple and orange in there. I just expected flavored tea since this was one of the single serve sample things. My husband said that the steeped leaf looked like potpourri.

Anyway, it was nice, not Earth-shattering. I got two nice steeps out of it….or was it three….anyway, the last one (which was either the third or the fourth) was pretty weak. Up until that point they were nice.

And, it got rid of something in my tea basket.

I’m drinking another Design a Tea creation, this time Pear Spice black. There are a few reasons that I picked this one. It’s black (and we are still in the “black zone” time of day). It’s a single serving and it gets rid of one of my teas – even though it isn’t one listed in my cupboard so the number doesn’t go down. And it sounded good enough.

I never met a clove I didn’t like, and the “spice” part of this is definitely clove. The dry leaf smell was strong with it. Interestingly, the tea itself doesn’t taste much like clove. It tastes like black tea with a little bit of pear flavor, and almost…banana? Not enough that I hate it but it’s sneaking around in there somehow.

It’s fine, but won’t make the reorder list. That’s what samples are for, right?

This was a caramel vanilla black tea mix from Design a Tea. Nice. A bit astringent. I have to say that I had a lot of fun mixing flavors on their site, and each tea came in a cute little one serving package labeled with the flavor and type of tea. Fun stuff.

In other news, I had some surgery in February and have been restricted since then with what I could do. Today I get a final review with the surgeon and hopefully all restrictions will be lifted. I hope so, I’m itching to do some yoga or something.

No idea where to categorize this tea or feel there’s a need to start a new tea entry on Steepster for it.

Anyways, drinking a pomelo herbal tea I found in Honolulu, just off a small shop in the mall. No labels on the tea, ti even came out “bulk bin” style. Expensiiiive! Looks like little cubes of melon, pineapple and other citrus. No apple (interestingly, herbals do like loading on apple for filler). I used 4t for a tumbler of iced tea, steeped for 8 minutes. The flavor is interesting. A little zesty and melony. Kinda grapefruity, but not like a pomelo really. It’s good, could be better.
Darn this tea was expensive, and heavy.

In the Not My Cup O’ Tea TTB

Peach Apricot Black Tea
There was no company name on the package. It is in a black envelope with a white oval label and an oval window to see the leaf. I wish there was info on the tea because I really like it. I made a cold brew and I am really enjoying it. Mild peach apricot flavor with a nice black base. Great for a summer day.

I had a very interesting iced tea at the Windy City Ribfest today. Fig Vanilla Black Pepper. Sounds strange but it works. Fig is one of my favorite flavors so I just had to try it. It is rather sweet as many fig teas are with the vanilla coming in second. It had a somewhat cream soda taste. I could barely taste any black pepper…. maybe just enough to keep it from being cloyingly sweet. (The tea was pre-sweetened). Too bad I can’t have more but it was just a street vender guy who didn’t really have any info on a site or anything.

Well, I had my first intro to tea party. I had a bunch of retired teachers over and introduced them to loose leaf tea. I thought there were going to be about 13 people and then at the last minute a bunch of people RSVP-ed and suddenly there were 23! Just getting the logistics of where to put people in the living room was a challenge. :D

I wasn’t trying to be an expert and try to go with the unflavored teas as this was just a general intro. I basically made teas that I enjoy in each of the basic groups: black, green, white, herbal, honeybush, rooibos and mate. I made 7 teas… Earl Grey Creme from Teavana, Citrus Green from Adagio, Youthberry from Teavana, Chocolatea from Sereneteaz, Tropical Fruit Rooibos from Spice of Leaf, Vanilla Honeybush from Infusion Bouteaque, Chocolate Rocket from David’s.

Juggling the making of tea was less tricky than I thought. The Breville did a great job!

We had a lot of fun and everyone seemed to really enjoy it. Most of the people had never had “good” tea before and were very excited.

I served raspberry scones, butter cookies and cucumber sandwiches using my grandmother and great-aunt’s best china. Everything looked so nice with the good silver, china and fancy cloth napkins.

After they left I was so exhausted!!! I had really gotten my self stressed trying to figure out the logistics of the whole day. But it was fun!!

This is from the TTTTB.

Well after watching the new Doctor Who, I think the 12th Doctor should have a Lapsang Souchong base because I see a smokiness in his character. I’m not sure what else it should have but I think the Doctor will reveal himself and we can add more.

I’ve enjoyed the first of the new season and looking forward to more Twelve.

Okay in a flurry of activity before Doctor Who starts, I made Rory, Amy, and Eleven. Okay, well, way to much black tea!!! The teas were good but not as exciting as they should be! All in all, the DW 6 pack sampler was not really totally impressive. I bought and drank it for contact with Doctor who during the hiatus. Still good enough for a cup now and then. Even good enough for 6 cups in one day. But I am glad they are samples not the full size.

This is a cautionary tale… some teas just don’t mix. We have all mixed teas on purpose but … I had half a tumbler of Fig Rose left. I went out and came home, decided to “top off” my Fig Rose and saw I had something in my teapot, added Samuri Chai by accident. In case you ever wondered… that is not a good combination. Blech! Right now I don’t think I could handle a cup of either tea without the memory of the bad tea overwhelming the cup.

I have a lovely sample of plain matcha from Red Leaf Tea. Unfortunately, I’ve found that I really don’t like plain matcha. However, I really like flavored matcha lattes. I’ve been making mine with plain almond milk and adding a little bit of flavoring. Today I used chocolate and hazelnut. I poured it over a little ice and I’m in heaven! I’ve had two of them today! (How do you make a guilty face?)

We are redoing the bathroom floor. Today we are pulling up the tiles and the backing board. Ugh! Not fun! About half way through job I took a break and had my first latte. Super-energizing! Worked some more… had the second latte! Oh, I feel good! Maybe I should just live on lattes!

I have never had a bubble tea before. I was on an architectural tour in Chicago. We stopped at the French Marketfor a bit. Of course, I zoomed in on the shop selling tea. They had too many choices of loose leaf to make a decision quickly so instead I chose to try a bubble tea. I got a margarita bubble tea. Totally yummy, loved the tapioca bubbles but… where is the tea? Maybe there is a variety that is more tea-ish, but I didn’t taste tea at all. Altogether a lovely drink but I don’t understand the use of the word tea. Maybe they were originally less a flavored drink, more tea.

Combined some Almond Plum Perfection (Teavana) and Nutty Almond Cream (TiestaTea). Terrific scent. Lovely almond cream with the mild tartness from plum/hibiscus in almond plum perfection. I am not a hibiscus fan but it adds a little punch so the tea isn’t bland. Loving it!
I’ll have to try this cold.

I had some old friends just “drop-in” OMG! The house wasn’t clean and I was so embarrassed. I really played up my sore knee as the reason why the house wasn’t clean. ;-) After they left, I cleaned the house like a crazy person. It only took about 20 min. so I felt even more guilty that the house was so messy! :< But alt least now it;s lovely. Now I want my friends to come back to the house now that it is looking lovely.

It’s amazing how you can take two pretty good teas and make them better. I took two tsp of Afternoon Delight (Gunpowder green) by SereneTeas and one tsp of Apricot (black) by Cameron and threw them in my Breville with 3 cups of water, 5 min steep and a couple drops of Stevia and Oh my goodness! What a lovely tea. I drank a lot of yerba mate this morning and didn’t want toooo much caffeine so I went with a moderately (high) black and green combo. What a scent, what a nice combo! I found before that Afternoon Delight was pleasant but more of a floral herbal taste. Not any more. I don’t taste much apricot but the black gives the Afternoon Delight more body. What a great find for a new cup of tea using what I already had in my cupboard. Always a good, thrifty thing to do!

Thank you Cheri for passing on this lovely tea. I really enjoy trying new combinations. The pieces of kiwi are huge and the toasted coconut was plentiful. I wasn’t sure what else is in it so I just brewed it as a herbal. It’s tasty but perhaps a little strong. Maybe brewed 3 minutes would be better. Maybe its black tea. Still quite tasty. I’m not sure if I taste the flavors distinctly. I think this should be resteeped so I might add more to this note.

I combined Almond Plum Perfection from Teavana with a little French Plum by Cameron. Pulls up a bit more of the plum flavor (Duh). A sweet tea that I made as a nice cold brew. The hibiscus in the Almond Plum Perfection is mellowed a bit by the cold brewing. I brewed it for about 8 hours. Nice refreshing cold tea!

I made a lovely cup by blending Almond Plum Perfection (Teavana) and French Plum (Cameron’s) at a 4:1 ratio. Very tasty. The little extra plum adds quite a bit of taste. A little black but not too much, so I feel I can have this in the afternoon.

I ordered some samples from Design a Tea. Super cheap, pick your own flavors and base. I received them today… awesome. My first is a rooibos base with rum and almond. The aroma when I first opened the sample practically made me swoon. The rum and almond aroma go so well together. I added just a bit of Monk’s Fruit to sweeten it. Yummy! I might have to actually order some of this blend for my cabinet.

I am so upset with myself. I made a really great cup of tea and I have know idea what is in it. I unintentionally cleaned up the kitchen counter (Last time I do that!) and put the teas away. I think it was Angel’s Kiss from SereneTeaz and Apricot from Cameron’s. It seems to have black and green teas and some lovely fruits. I’d highly recommend it if i knew what it was! ;-p

BUTIKI EDUCATIONAL TRAVELING BOX

So here we go! I think I am going to edit this one post as I go with my tastings. It is going to be easier to keep it organized that way.

Bolivia Green – Wow! I am absolutely loving it. The leaves are long and rolled up a bit, they steep into bright yellow color that, to me, usually means it is going to be a delicious green. The aroma is flowery and syrupy, it tastes like a cross between a dragonwell and a maltier gunpowder. It has creamy mouthfeel to it. As it cools, I detect a really shy notes of bitterness. It is really yummy and I wish I knew where to get more of this potion! :D 90/100

Darjeeling 1st Flush #3 – This was very subtle and unassuming, with no bitterness. I love the color of the leaves, it almost looks like a green tea! The liquor was also pretty light for a black tea. I detected some flowery notes as well as some mild citrusy ones. It was good, although lacked character a bit. 78/100

TTBC2 #19

Backlog from last night.

This tea is Spicy Cherry by Herbal Infusions. Somehow I cannot find it on Steepster and I guess I am far too lazy to add it. Even more so because it’s not on Herbal Infusions’ website anymore.

It’s a flavored rooibos blend. The cherry flavor was mostly medicinal and not particularly tasty, while the spicy element was hardly there. Very boring cup. I have noticed it is so difficult to flavor rooibos just right.