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Post from yesterday when the site was borked (again…)

My stomach suddenly feels very nauseous… which probably means I have a migraine brewing in the background (GI often hits me first). Whenever the tum goes I always reach for either mint or ginger, and I have an unopened box of this… which was a handy replacement of a mint tea I really loved that I got from a friend that came from Trader Joe’s (which I don’t have in my area), that was called “Mint Melange.” I liked that one because it was a blend of peppermint and spearmint, with a subtle citrus touch from lemongrass. But they stopped carrying it. Now I’ve found that same blend under the Simple Truth Organic line in my local Fred Meyer (owned by Kroger). So simple, yet still my favorite of the “bagged mint” teas I’ve found because of the peppermint/spearmint/lemongrass combo. Soothing, and great warm or cold.

Monday off since I work this coming Saturday, and I felt in the mood to pull out the adorable tiny pumpkin and do gong fu. One Chinese black sampler from Dazzle Deer left, a sealed April 2017 harvest. Old, but it’ll do.

Dry leaf smells delightfully of orange rind and sweet potato. Filled my 180ml capacity pot just to 120ml to steep the 5g of leaf in the sampler.

120ml (of 180ml) mini pot | 5g | 205F | 3s/5s/10s/20s/30s/45s/60s

Wet leaf has an even stronger sweet potato/yam aroma, as well as something sharp and fruity… nectarine? First steep has a mellow smokiness, orange rind, a strong stonefruit presense at the back of my tongue, a bit of malt/molasses, and sweet potato. Much stronger smoky/malt/sweet potato notes on subsequent steeps, with the fruitiness becoming a little less pronounced, save an orange rind tang at the back of my throat in the aftertaste. In the fifth steep a lemon citrus flavor came forward in the sip. The citrus flavor became stronger in the final steeps, and the stonefruit notes that had emerged in that first steep never did reappear.

Overall, a very satisfying and enjoyable Chinese black, and a tea type I definitely will have to try out further in the future.

I wasn’t particularly looking forward to this one after I had such a bad experience with T2’s Matcha Berry Ripple, which was pretty much a week straight of Torture Smoothies to finish off. But, I loved the Mint Chip Matcha, so… maybe better luck here?

Whisked in vanilla oat milk, then sampled before adding to my breakfast smoothie. So… definitely better than the Berry Ripple. I think both the Mint Chip and this one have cocoa powder, maybe that’s the secret. This one isn’t as good as the Mint Chip, because the orange still has a bit of that artificial, chemical bite that the Berry Ripple had to its berry flavor, but mixed with the chocolate, its smoothed out enough to almost be inoffensive… it is, at least, drinkable. The Berry Ripple flavor was so bad that even tossed into a smoothie with ample real fruits, that chalky, artificial berry flavor overwhelmed everything, including the real fruits. I at least get the feeling that isn’t going to happen here… guess I should find out?!

Tossed the cup o’ matcha latte into the blender with a cup o’ frozen tangerine slices and a few spoonfuls of yogurt (my typical “Sara hates nanners and needs to smooth out the smoothie” option). Delightfully chocolate, the artificial orange flavor is still pulling through a bit, but is tamed a bit more against pulverized tangerine, which I didn’t get with the Berry Ripple. The chocolate definitely helps a lot.

Not the chocolate/orange experience I was hoping for, but not as bad as I was fearing after the Berry Ripple debacle. No Torture Smoothies here.

This was a sampler I received in an old 2017 What-cha order. Still sealed. I wanted it to go with my potstickers for dinner tonight, so I brewed it up as a pot, western style. Smells precisely as one would expect, with strong nuo mi xiang herb aroma, as well as some fainter aromas of butter and minerals. Perhaps something lightly vegetal, like cauliflower?

Flavor is nice; I’ve really enjoyed a sticky rice pu’erh I have, so I was expecting to enjoy this. Lovely umami nuo mi xiang herb flavor, rice, butter, vegetables, and a faint minerality toward the end of the sip. I think the only thing I could possibly complain about with a tea like this is that I have to deep clean my infuser every time I make it, because the aroma is so strong every cup of tea I make afterwards will taste of sticky rice if I don’t.

I normally don’t make caffeinated tea in the evening, but this just sounded so much like what I wanted (an apple-flavored genmaicha) that I gave in. My sampler is ridiculously old (seriously, what tea do I own that isn’t at this point?) but still sealed, so hoping it isn’t totally trash green tea at this point. If it is, there is always cold brew, I suppose…

The aroma mostly smells like the nutty, toasted rice aroma of the genmai, though I am picking up a wiff of cinnamon as well. The flavor… hmm. I can taste notes of apple, cinnamon, and possibly if I squint some clove, but the flavors are quite light/delicate. Mostly, the roasty genmai is taking such a strong center stage its drowning out those other flavors. Not sure if its just the age of the tea, the fact I tend to go pretty leaf-light on greens to avoid bitterness, or if the blend is always like this. The sampler is large so at least I can experiment with more leaf than I typically use for greens and see if that brings out the apple more… but honestly, I just imagine that then I would get more genmai into the scoop and probably end up with about the same sort of flavor.

This is a wonderful concept… the apple just needs to be much stronger. I can taste it, and I’m tasting it just enough to want so much more of it combining with the warm comfort of toasty genmaicha. It isn’t quite what I was hoping for, but still warm, soothing, and satisfying on an autumn evening as my pure black cat does her best corpse impression in front of the oil heater. I’d go check if she is actually still alive, except that I can hear her snoring across the room.

This was one of the freebies from the 2018 International San Francisco Tea Festival. A single teabag sachet that has sat in a bag of pure Indian teas now since October of 2018… sigh. How much time and effort would it have taken to just drink it, Sara? …How I feel most days…

Cup smells very malty. I’m getting a lot of cinnamon in the aroma, as well as something slightly jammy. Tastes more like a breakfast tea to me than a darj; I’m getting mainly notes of malt and cinnamon bread, though a subtle hint of apple and autumn leaf. A perfectly non-offensive afternoon cuppa.

Another night, another smoothie matcha! And the name for this one seemed so seasonly appropriate, heh.

I whisked this one in water instead of milk, and this is the first B&B matcha-matcha that I had texture problems with (now I wish I had used milk… maybe the separation/texture problems wouldn’t have been so bad? Usually I do make them as lattes, but I only have vanilla oat milk at the moment and just didn’t think that would suit a spearmint drink…). No matter how much I whisked, it just kept coming up with that grittiness I find most unpleasant. But the flavor was great! Very spearmint forward, with a vegetal note that edges a little more herbaceous than the “typical” matcha vegetal flavor. It’s very subtle though, because the mint is strong! I sampled the drink at least ten minutes ago and am still feeling that cooling menthol minty aftertaste on the back of my throat.

As per usual, after initial taste-testing the cup o’ matcha went into the blender for caffeinated morning smoothie goodness tomorrow morning. I decided to go with a “mojito” vibe so I added mango and lime juice. Initial sample before going in the fridge? Pleasantly tart citrus and the mint is still holding strong! Nailed it. I’ll definitely be looking forward to that one in the morning!

I was really interested in this one since I have recently discovered violet tea (I’m a fan!) and lavender-flavored matcha is one of my favorite things ever. So I was highly curious about a violet matcha… shame B&B has already discontinued this one, but they still had old stock on the VIP page so I grabbed a sample to try during their last big sale.

I whisked this using the last of my coconut milk (I like lavender and coconut as a flavor pairing, not sure how violet will pair but since I needed to finish off the carton, I was willing to take that chance!) I like the floral flavor I’m getting, but… it’s a bit bitter. Not that bitter taste matcha itself can have, so I don’t know if its the sort of bitterness I sometimes get from going too heavy or too long with lavender buds, or if it’s just the cardamom… and I’m tempted to say it’s the cardamom. I like cardamom, but I just don’t think I like it here, paired with this flavor, like it isn’t sitting on my tongue right and leaving a spicy bitterness when I am wanting/expecting a sweet, floral cup. I am curious what this would’ve tasted like if it didn’t have the cardamom included in the powder… I think I probably would’ve preferred it that way.

No texture issues this time, but this one had a matcha base (with the B&B non-matcha powders, I seem to be getting some weird texture issues). Put the rest of my latte into a berry smoothie for tomorrow’s breakfast. Gave it a quick taste-test, and the flavor of the matcha is holding quite strong; and I still really like the floral, and really don’t like the added spice with it.

It came close for me, but didn’t quite get there…

A new tea powder from Bird & Blend I haven’t tried yet! I whisked it in coconut milk as a) that seemed appropriate and b) I really need to finish off this carton before it goes off.

The drink is very sweet, and I’m not sure how much of that is from the tea powder (coconut nectar sugar) and how much is from my coconut milk. Obviously I taste coconut (I mean… the milk) but oddly enough, the main flavor I’m getting from the powder itself is a guava/pear sort of taste. I see it is made with “Baobab fruit pulp” and “lucuma”, two things my uncultured tongue has never had before. A little research tells me baobab can be “citrusy”, “tangy pear”, or “sour mango”… I’m not really tasting citrus (wonder if the sweetness is countering the tang?) but maybe that is the tropical pear note I’m getting? Lucuma is also apparently very sweet! But I was expecting pinapple, because… pina colada! And I’m not tasting pinapple. It does taste tropical, but I’m still a little disappointed. The texture is also a bit chalky/grainy, which I also experienced with B&B’s rooibos-base tea powder, so I’m wondering if this something I’m going to consistently experience with their “not-matcha” powders. I don’t recall having this issue with any of their matcha base powders…

After sampling, I put the latte into a mango smoothie and blended it up. That takes care of the texture issues, at least! Oddly enough, I am finding more citrus notes popping in the smoothie (a tangy lemon?), but I still taste that “tropical pear” flavor, and am not tasting pineapple, which is what I was really hoping for.

I met reps from this company (which I had never heard of before!) at the PDX Tea Fest 2019. When I saw this at their booth, I knew I had to pick it up, because the ingredients were very close to one of my favorite teas ever, Bird & Blend’s Lazy Boy, but I had finished off my packet of that quickly (because coconut) and being a UK company, my orders from Bird & Blend are often few and far between. I thought this could be a possible replacement!

Not long ago I was able to restock Lazy Boy during the B&B Christmas in July sale, then I remembered this tea, remembered COCONUT, and figured I’d better pull this packet out to sipdown now that I have more Lazy Boy. Thankfully, after cutting it open it still smells lovely.

This is actually a very close flavor match to Lazy Boy, so I wasn’t wrong in thinking I can stock up on this when I’m unable to make B&B orders! The base is slightly different, as Lazy Boy is straight rooibos and this is a rooibos/honeybush blend, and it is missing the cocoa shells that Lazy Boy has and instead has cinnamon. As far as a nice coconut/lavender flavor on a rooibos base, all the boxes are checked: The coconut is sweet and refreshing, the lavender is floral and just the tiniest hint minty, and the two flavors meld together wonderfully. I like strong lavender teas but this has a nice presence of the flavor without getting floral-bitter. I do taste the cinnamon, which adds a touch of warmth; it is nice and certainly doesn’t hurt the cup in any way, but I think I prefer the creaminess of the cocoa shells from Lazy Boy a bit more.

It’s good! I really liked Lazy Boy as coconut milk lattes, and still need to try this one that way, as well. I have no doubt it’ll hold up in that regard, as well.