Zen Tea

Used my last bit of this today. I’ll be ordering more. It’s a great basic black to have around. Stronger than a lot of teas, but no bitterness or astringency. Perfect way to get myself way to get myself going in the morning.

Today I was doubly thankful for this tea. My daughter had to go back to school because her school chose to end spring break two days early to make up for the days they missed from Hurricane Sandy. Needless to say, my girl was not a happy spirit when she came to the breakfast table this morning. She eased in to her day with a cup of Strawberry Cream. I drank my tea and avoided all conversation while she grumbled about the unfairness of life. Thank heaven her brother, who goes to a different school and is still on spring break, was asleep. By the time I had resteeped my tea she was heading out the door and even managed a polite goodbye before walking to the bus stop. Sometimes twelve-year-olds can be scary little creatures. *shudders * :)

Sipdown!

So much to do today. I’ve been playing nursemaid or been sick myself for well over a week. Now that everyone has recovered (fingers crossed) I have a to-do list a mile long to knock out. Thankfully I still have a bit of this in my pantry. Simple, rich, smooth, and strong enough to kick me into gear.

My thanks to the Irish for knowing how to make an excellent cup of tea. ;-)

6am came way too early. I didn’t even consider the other teas in my pantry. I grabbed this and made myself a deliciously strong cuppa. Even though this is strong there is not a hint of bitterness. Good stuff!

This is a really good Irish Breakfast tea. It’s simple and steady and just… good. I guess all tea drinkers need one or two basic teas (black, green, or otherwise) that they can turn to time after time. When it comes to strong black tea this is my choice.

I bumped my rating up a bit because I finally wrote out my rating system (although it’s still rather vague) and I feel like this tea could be a mainstay in my pantry for a while.

Oy. After feeling like I had the black death for a few days I’m beginning to feel semi-human again. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, autumn and I do not get along. Anyway, I received several samples while I was sick, and I am excited to try them.

This is a nice Irish Breakfast. Stronger than some, but nothing too over the top. It uses tea leaves that have gone through the CTC process, so it’s difficult to pick out nuances in the tea. Still, it gives the caffeine kick I want in the morning, and there is no bitterness to be had. Just a smooth steady cup of tea. I added sugar to my second cup but ignored the milk. I did like it more with sugar, but that could be my sweet tooth talking.

Thanks Zen Tea for the sample! Trying new teas is always fun. :)

Can’t believe I forgot to leave reviews for the samples Zen Tea was kind enough to send. Just finished the last of my sample for this tea tonight. Its incredibly delicious, sweet and nutty, and the white base is excellent. Definitely going on my must purchase list.

Mm this was a good choice for my next cup. It’s incredibly smooth. Nice vanilla/hazelnut flavor. Very relaxing :)

A nice creamy oolong when you can’t decide what you want. Goes very well with chocolate :)

Had a pot of this lovely oolong. I forgot how creamy and smooth it is. Mmmm :-)

Blah I’m happy I had this in my tumbler at work today. I’m amazed at how many rude people there are. This delicious tea helped me and kept me from boiling over.

Finished the rest of this :[ Now I’ll be craving more until I actually remember to order it. It has definitely made my top 5! :]

A big thank you to Zen Tea!
I completely forgot I had this tea until I looked in my sample drawer. And I’m happy I did because it’s pretty dang good! This is a very delicious oolong. Definitely the first hazelnut/vanilla oolong I’ve had. It’s unique but I really like it. It’s a slightly buttery flavored tea and kind of creamy. The hazelnut fits nicely with the nuttiness of the oolong. You can taste the vanilla but it mostly rounds the edges of the nut flavor. MM this one is really delicious! If you like oolong teas then this one is a must try for you :]

Additional notes: I wanted a chai pu-erh this morning so here is this one! Thank you MissB for sending a bit over! I only had two teaspoons left in my sample and I’m definitely interested in buying more when my samples run out. I adore this blend and I’m shocked more people haven’t tried it. I’m the only person in the ‘own’ list on its page! I’m a little worried because it is mostly organic (and especially the organic coconut) that this blend would taste old quick. But it’s still tasty! Maybe not as amazing fresh, of course, but still tasty. I have even more appreciation for this one now because it has chocolate carob which I really love now – really nice chocolate flavor. The vanilla beans crunching in my teeth. Slight coconut and pepper flavor. It’s a very earthy blend. I’m surprised the yerba mate is green and not the roasted kind, but steeping it boiling doesn’t seem to ruin the mate. If you’re a fan of pu-erh, this is definitely one to try. I wish a bought a couple sample pouches with my recent Zen order just to add to teaboxes. Did I sell this one enough? I’d love for more people to give it a try.

There is two listings for this tea now, so I’ll post it on this one too:

Spicy deliciousness! I wanted to try this one because it’s an interesting
trio: pu-erh, yerba mate, and chai! It sounded good! This is actually the week I tried my first and third pu-erh! You’d think that because this is also a pu-erh and a mate, the chai spices would be diminished and lost, but they aren’t! It is just as spicy as though there were only the spices here, and the mate and pu-erh weren’t taking any room in the infuser. Cinnamon! Ginger! Sadly, I can’t really tell there is coconut here. Pu-erh in general I find doesn’t have much flavor, so I’d probably prefer black teas in the future, since I love as much flavor as possible. I had this with some more of that pumpkin pie I had the other day. It’s feeling like fall! As I’m sipping, I feel energized already! Maybe I’m just partial to chai, since it was the first tea I had… This blend is really really good. Overall, I’m impressed this had so much spicy flavor while still including the pu-erh and the mate. It seems like there are bonus ingredients in this blend! It goes beyond a pu-erh, yerba mate, OR a chai. Also, eveything here is organic! You’d have to be a billionaire to order all the amazing teas out there, but this is one going on the shopping list. I can’t wait to try more from Zen Tea. The site is hard to find in a search, so here you go: zentealife.com thank you Zen Tea for supplying the samples!

I got this as a part of a VERY generous promo on behalf of Zen Tea. As a part of this we got to pick the tea we wanted. I picked three that I wouldn’t normally try.
This one, when brewing smelled almost like cough drops. But, tastes super sweet and smooth. I LOVE this tea, I’m beginning to realize that I love rooibos. Very excited to try my other choices.

I really like this tea. You get a nice black tea base, but you get this sweet creaminess. I love that you can actually taste the strawberry’s. It reminds me a lot of DT strawberry shortcake. This is very yummy :)

I’ve been searching for the perfect coconut flavored tea for a while now and I’m happy to say I’ve finally found it. I’m absolutely loving this. Thanks Zen Tea for the sample!

I think this is my first white tea ever! I liked this tea quite a bit, I love the creaminess it has. Its sweet but not overly sweet. Very nice :)

Sadly, this one is gone. It’s one of my favorite teas. The flavor is magical and is relaxing. It has a nice pu erh base and then a minty cinnamon flavor kicks in. Vanilla kind of rounds the edges. I will miss this tea!

Thank you to Zen Tea for sending me this!!
So… this is my second time trying to write this review… my computer freaked out and I lost the first one.. But anyways I’m not much of a mint person but this tea is fantastic! The mint is the first flavor you taste but it’s not too strong. The vanilla kind of mellows the mint and adds to the pu-erh. The pu-erh is definitely the dominant flavor. It’s very strong and earthy. The aftertaste has a touch of cinnamon and it makes the entire tea! The flavors blend well together and I could see myself drinking this every morning.

Thank you Zen Tea for this sample! I followed the instructions on the description here to make this chai on the stove with milk and water. I did enjoy preparing this one. Sometimes it’s fun to do something a little different with tea. It smelt very good cooking. Definitely spicy like chai, but also chocolately. It reminded me of making hot chocolate on the stove. The color is even a nice chocolate brown. Watching all the different bits swiriling about in the simmering water is fun too. It’s like some chocolate chai tea soup!

I’m so anxious waiting for it to cool it looks so creamy and delicious!! When I was a big coffee drinker, I used to order chai lattes a lot, but this completely blows those out of the water just on appearance/smell alone.

It tastes good, but it’s not as strong as I’d hoped it would be. I like my chais to be very spicy and distinctive. This tastes more chocolatey than chai to me. I shouldn’t be too surprised because the description does say mellow, but since I used 2 TBSP per 2 cups of liquid (which boiled down to about 1 1/2 cups) the mellow flavor is a little disappointing. That’s not to say it’s bad, I just want a little more spice.

The chocolate is very plesant though and I do like that this chai has mate in it. Okay whoa, I added a little sugar halfway through the cup and it completely changed the flavor! I’m actually getting more of that spice I was looking for now. If you aren’t enjoying this cup as much as you’d hoped, I recommend adding a little sugar even if you’re like me and don’t usually take any in your tea. Mmmm…there’s that spice I was looking for =)

I’m getting more coconut and vanilla now too..this could be an interesting hot cocoa replacement in the winter. I have just enough to make this tea the usual way so we’ll see how the flavor changes then. For now, this is pretty good.

Spicy deliciousness! I wanted to try this one because it’s an interesting
trio: pu-erh, yerba mate, and chai! It sounded good! This is actually the week I tried my first and third pu-erh! You’d think that because this is also a pu-erh and a mate, the chai spices would be diminished and lost, but they aren’t! It is just as spicy as though there were only the spices here, and the mate and pu-erh weren’t taking any room in the infuser. Cinnamon! Ginger! Sadly, I can’t really tell there is coconut here. Pu-erh in general I find doesn’t have much flavor, so I’d probably prefer black teas in the future, since I love as much flavor as possible. I had this with some more of that pumpkin pie I had the other day. It’s feeling like fall! As I’m sipping, I feel energized already! Maybe I’m just partial to chai, since it was the first tea I had… This blend is really really good. Overall, I’m impressed this had so much spicy flavor while still including the pu-erh and the mate. It seems like there are bonus ingredients in this blend! It goes beyond a pu-erh, yerba mate, OR a chai. Also, eveything here is organic! You’d have to be a billionaire to order all the amazing teas out there, but this is one going on the shopping list. I can’t wait to try more from Zen Tea. The site is hard to find in a search, so here you go: zentealife.com thank you Zen Tea for supplying the samples!