Various Artists

I have managed to use up all my bulk straight black teas with the exception of golden monkey. I have mixed them together for iced tea. I dug through my boxes (yes I still have boxes of tea) and found 3 oz of Earl Grey I didn’t know I had. Part of it was used to make my latest gallon of iced tea.

This seems to be an Assam base as there is no Ceylon bite present. The bergamot is highly present. It reminds me of EG that add a little orange rind to the mix but didn’t notice it in the mix. I normally add nothing to iced tea but made an exception as I prefer earl grey lightly sweetened. This takes sweetening well. No bitterness. The bergamot lingers long in the aftertaste.

I reviewed the iced tea at our local Cheddars in the past. It was the best tea I have tasted in a local restaurant. Well today I took my first sip and was majorly let down. Beyond bland. Almost soapy. The meal was otherwise good. I mentioned to the waitress they should go back to the old tea. She agreed and said the new stuff is pretty bad compared to the old. Hope she passes the message on.

Stay with me on this one… Last night we had meatloaf and mashed potatoes. I washed it down with a iced tea brewed from random black teas. It gets interesting. My wife makes her meatloaf with oats (no bread crumbs) and uses chili sauce and Splenda brown sugar instead of ketchup. When I grabbed the tea it tasted for all the world like a really good rose tea. We made a gallon of the tea poured into a dispenser. I filled a glass bottle to drink. I used the same bottle before dinner and the tea was a normal tasty blend of teas. Same with the bottle after dinner. The flavor change with dinner was so unique and unexpected I thought I would share. Looking forward to trying again with leftovers.

Started my day with my usual Deluxe Matcha – from Matcha Warehouse (Red Leaf Tea) – in a cold milk latte. This goes perfectly with an everything bagel.

Lunch at Cheddars where I love their iced tea (and ribs). The tea tastes mildly like hoji-cha (but not really) and mildly earthy. There is a nice briskness to it. The best restaurant bagged iced tea I’ve had.

At home now, more iced tea. This is a homemade blend of loose leaf black teas from The Persimmon Tree (I miss them). I use equal parts English Breakfast, Assam, Ceylon, and Darjeeling leaf to make a gallon and a half at a time. Makes me happy.

Barely made it above freezing today and all I’ve had is iced tea. Maybe this evening I’ll heat things up a bit.

I haven’t been on Steepster for a while. Too hot for tea along with too busy and health issues. This morning I sat on the porch trying to dry out my sinuses. Decided it wasn’t working. Besides I could smell the ash from the Amish home just down the road and it made me crave some Lapsang Souchong. This is a good one – sweet, not too smoky, and not BBQ. Unfortunately the sample does not have the company name on it and I have forgotten from whence it came.

Just stopped in to say hey. Now off to get some Benadryl.

My son wanted to download a game on his computer and I have been wanting to try out a rather large mod for my Kerbal Space Adventure game. We both have metered connections so, yeah, Starbucks it is.

I asked for an Earl Grey iced with a shot of vanilla syrup. She rang it up as a London Fog and charged 4 something for it (seriously $4 for iced tea in a disposable plastic cup? but I digress). Sat down with it at the table and my wife looks at it and says, “That’s not what you ordered”.

“I know. That’s just the price you pay for ordering tea in a coffee place.”

Apparently a London fog has milk in it making it a pricey latte. I didn’t order a latte and probably should have said something, however, it was actually pretty tasty. So much so that I will make this my own self for about one tenth the price at home and I get to use a fancy non-disposable tupperware tumbler. Nothing but the best for me and uncle Si. That’s a fact Jack.

I just noticed that 5 out of my last 7 notes are matcha. Well, let’s make it 6 out of 8. This morning I grabbed a really savory and delicious one. I have no idea what it was but it blended completely and created a tumbler of creamy foam with only milk and 1 packet of Splenda added. I sat at my laptop checking my mail when I noticed I had some root beer left in the bottle. Hmmm, why not? Off came the tumbler lid. Well… hats off to the creative ones who come up with all the awesome flavored blends. I am not one of them. This was drinkable but I wouldn’t recommend the combination.

Well that’s just weird. I often add a splash of caramel and vanilla syrup to my morning green tea matcha latte. It is pretty good. Today I decided to use 1/2 tsp each of Red Leaf Tea’s Caramel matcha and French Vanilla matcha. I love both of them, just not mixed together apparently. It is kind of bitter and the flavors clash. Not sure why I keep thinking I am going to improve on something I already think is perfect. Oh well, its gone already and I don’t have to repeat, but I probably will and that’s just weird.

This morning found me undecided on my cold milk/tea latte. I kind of wanted French Vanilla matcha, but I had that yesterday. Can’t I be more creative? I stared blankly at the packets until my eyes fell upon the Strawberry matcha also from Red Leaf Tea. It was one of those moments when the hands start moving while the brain catches up on sleep. I used a 1/2 tsp of each. Frothing more than doubled the volume in the cup. Slowly added more milk until the tumbler was full. I was thinking strawberries and cream, but this is really is its own thing. One sip is strawberry the next French vanilla, and the next is a unique mix of both. At 7:00 am this is about as complex as I can handle. Very good. My brain just woke from its nap and it agrees.

I have posted my blind taste testing of 12 matcha samples. This was sponsored by Red Leaf Tea. Not offering any spoilers here for those bloggers who haven’t finished their reviews yet. Click the link only if you want to see how it all works out. http://theeverdayteablog.blogspot.com/2015/04/matcha-madness.html

Been awake since 3:00 am. Not on purpose. Later I will be helping my wife with an all day craft show. It is going to be a long day. Miraculously I do still have internet at the moment. Thought it would be gone this morning.

So last night I continued my perfect Earl Grey quest. I mixed 2 parts Nina’s EG, with 2 parts Ahmad EG, and 1 part The Persimmon Tree Lapsang Souchong. Nope this ain’t it. Even at 4/1 the LS overpowered the bergamot. It was a good cup but not what I was going for.

This morning I prepared by volume 1/3 Nina, 1/3 Ahmad, and 1/3 RiverTeas Golden Yunnan. It is real fluffy so I used more and it is only very lightly smoky. I am taking it to the craft show so won’t know till later how it turned out.

I may have just brewed almost my ideal cup of Earl Grey. I mixed half a scoop of my comfort tea, Ahmad Earl Grey, with a half scoop of the much fancier Nina’s Earl Grey. I love both these teas separately. Looking at the dry leaf, I can’t tell them apart. Nina’s new Ceylon blend has the most glorious bergamot scent in the tin. Ahmad brewed has that ragged drying edge I crave and is quite brisk. Brewed together they meld to near perfection. I think it would take only a tiny bit of smoke to reach that hallelujah choir moment. The only tea I recall having that is smoky enough to stand up to strong bergamot is The Persimmon Tree Lapsang Shouchong. I may try a pinch in the mix and see if magic happens yet again. Even if that doesn’t work, I will definitely drink many more cups of this rags and riches blend.

It’s 48F, cloudy with intermittent rain. Perfect day for an icy cold Starbucks Green Tea Frappuccino with Pumpkin Spice syrup. I always get skinny, no whip cream, but forgot to tell them one less pump on the syrup. So it is sweeter than I normally get. It is still very delicious. It is more pumpkin pie like with less sweet but I didn’t mind today. Recommended.

Next time I am going to try peppermint syrup.

If I disappear from Steepster it will just be until I figure out an internet alternative. We may or may not lose service Saturday. Our current company went out of the internet business. To compound it my son, who I was splitting the bill with, decided he didn’t need internet anymore. Like most younger folks he now uses his phone instead of a computer. I am not willing to pay what the big phone company wants for a large wireless data plan for the computer. We have no access to cable, or DSL. That leaves satellite. I am probably going that route if I can get them out here. If I lose connection, I’ll be checking in from Starbucks at least once a week. Frap addiction you know.

Thursday is shopping day. My grown son lives next door and he often goes with us.Today my wife and son decided they were going to die if they didn’t stop at Starbucks. I despise even the smell of coffee. I find the baristas don’t understand tea well enough to order hot tea and besides I am not a big fan of most of their offerings. Bored with green tea frap. My son suggested pumpkin spice without the coffee. Instead I opted to have them make a pumpkin spice frappuccino with matcha. Everyone including the barista flinched. What do they know, they’re coffee people.

In fact it was absolutely delicious. I think I have a new drink for the next month or so. It was made with 2% milk and half the pumps of syrup. For once they actually listened on the syrup. The matcha mixed seamlessly with the pumpkin and spices. It was almost dead on to biting in to cold pumpkin pie as my family always makes it.

Looking for something new? Give it a try and see what you think.

Started the day with a big glass of Teavivre green tea powder and milk. I’m about out and contemplating trying Red Leaf next time. Then grabbed a Lipton Citrus Green Tea as I went out the door. Overly sweet and tastes more like grapefruit than tea but I like it. My wife is having allergy attacks so I took her to the doctor. We assume it was brought on by all the trees we had cut down in our yard (40 at last count). While she went for her appointment, I sat in the car and enjoyed 60 degree weather in July – simply awesome. After the doctor visit we went to the pharmacy where they told us it would be an hour…. so went out for breakfast at 10:00. I had two cups of Mother Parker’s orange pekoe. Most days this is a nice, more than passable, bagged tea with breakfast. Today I caught hints of smoke and a healthy dose of leather. If it wasn’t for the paper taste this would be excellent. If I ever remember, I want to take a Finum basket with me and set the dust free just to see how different it tastes. When we got home I had to make a mad dash to pee. Can’t imagine why.

So I had a burrito this afternoon and poured some queso over it. Then out of boredom I kind of ate all the queso and chips – I’ve been very very bad. I need puerh (and self control). I took a scoop of Nannoushan puerh, I think it was $6/8oz so you know it was good ;P I added 1/4 tsp of cocoa nibs and a half spoon of Teaves rose black tea. The rose is too heavy in this. It needs to be at least cut in half. I can smell the puerh but it is over powered. Good idea – poor execution.

This isn’t random actually, it’s Eco Cha’s Tsui Yu Jade Oolong. But for some reason a couple companies’ entries—Eco Cha, Vintage Tea Works—just won’t let me add to cupboard or write tasting notes; any time I try it just redirects me to my dashboard.

And it’s a shame here, because this tea is wonderful. I have this weird kitchen set-up where when the dishwasher’s on I can’t use my electric kettle (shorts the electricity) nor use the kitchen sink as a water source (our dishwasher hooks up to the faucet…I knew that’d be a huge pain and begged my husband to bother connecting it directly to the water tank but he wouldn’t, so here we are :b). This gets really annoying this time of year when by the time I have a guaranteed free moment for some real tea time right after dinner it’s hard because the dishwasher needs to be on doing the day’s load. I think I’ve figured out a decent solution for now though—I prewarm my king thermos and then fill it with the right temp water from my electric kettle, seal it nice and tight, get out the gaiwan and a tea meant for resteeping (so oolong or green usually), and then turn on the washer. As it does its thing I have a little private gongfu session. Very nice!

Anyway, got this as part of Eco Cha’s recent promotion. The site directions for gongfu brewing are kind of confusingly unusual, so I didn’t follow them exactly but did what I’m used to doing (quick rinse, more leaf and less water, short steeping times, a bit cooler than boiling). Figured if it wasn’t optimal and I should follow their directions I have enough left to do so. But I was pleased with my setup—the first few cups yielded a marvelous true-fresh-flower fragrance, a little like jasmine but also like honeysuckle or summer flowers. Remarkable stuff, not unlike some of Verdant’s best spring offerings (Hand-Picked Early Spring Tieguanyin, White Jasmine). The flavor is sweet and clean and slightly herbal, smelling a bit like clean hay as the flower scent tapers off. Eco Cha mentions this is great cold steeped, and I can definitely see that—it has a lot of the qualities the tastiest cold steeped green teas I had this summer (like Bilochun Green) have. It edges towards grassy as it cools, but the sweetness and true-flower aroma make that pleasant. In the middle of winter this is a fantastic way to transport yourself to a warm sunny field out in the country on a late spring or early summer day. This is a spectacular tea that merits the hype of the company’s copy. The price is quite reasonable considering the quality too—under $4 an ounce or (if I’m calculating right) about $1 a session.

Random amounts of oranges peels, mint, peppermint, and a little bit of ginger. Tastes like orange tea! No mint taste at all! A hint of ginger is there, but no mint! I’m not complaining, it taste great. Pretty close to green rooibos citron.

Another random creation. 2 tsp dry roasted peanuts, crushed, 1 tsp roasted buckwheat, 1 tsp green rooibos. I was going for a nutty flavor. Not bad, but not good enough for me to want to make it again.

2 tsp green rooibos, 1.5 tsp blood orange, 0.5 tsp dried spearmint. Mmmm what a lovely experiment. Will definitely repeat.

Green rooibos, rosemary, and lime. Soooo disgusting. It almost tasted….salty :(

I had some “Wild Strawberry” by Adagio mixed with actual strawberry leaves from my garden. So a nice, true cup of strawberry tisane :) really liked it

Had a cup of Rosemary Leaf tea with two wedges of orange squeezed in. Could’ve been better. I need to let it steep longer next time so the orange isn’t so overpowering.

I have missed Steepster so so much. I’ve been drinking tea but writing reviews has been a trial. I’m encountering a great deal of writer’s block—in reviewing books and tea, researching, even writing the odd email. But I think I am back. I think.

Awabancha was a weird experience. And in not a bad way at all. Weird as in it took me a couple of sips to understand. At first the faint taste of pickle-slight vinegarish saltiness— was kicking me right in the face. Definitely strange when you’re drinking tea. But I kept sipping and it kept growing on me. Sure, there is a slight pickle-ish bite but there is also a slight nuttiness on the finish. It’s definitely different and unique—it’s a step up in weird from pu’er. Perhaps not something I’ll reach for a lot but I will have the odd craving for this one. I can tell.

Thank you to Stacy for sending me this (and other) lovely teas.

P.S. Why isn’t this showing up on my Dashboard?